10) Waking

Five armed men entered the clearing, weapons drawn. One man, the oldest looking of the five with graying hair and beard, relaxed and took another step forward.

 

“Look what we caught, lads,” he said to the younger men. “A crowling! What luck!”

 

He took a step back and his wings twitched as if he was about to fly away. He couldn't force himself to turn and flee. He was so close! He knew his caller was close, close enough to touch. He couldn't leave yet.

 

The solders saw his reluctance to escape and moved forward with sly grins on their faces. The younger solders held back a bit, letting their leader get closest to him.

 

“What a pleasure it will be to kill a filthy royal bird,” he snarled as he pulled his sword back to thrust it forward.

 

Out of the corner of the crow-boy's eye he saw someone run at them from the right. He saw a flash of red hair before his view was blocked by a slim woman in a long, dark brown coat.

 

The old solder fell to the side, his head gone. The woman swung the fearsome scythe in her hand again and a blade of fire consumed the younger solders when they started forward to attack.

 

The woman was a little taller than him. Her hair a deep, rich red that was waist length and done in a tight braid. She looked over her shoulder and her dark green eyes smiled at him from her snow pale face. She fell to her knees and her scythe slipped from her hands.

 

It was then that the young crow saw the sword buried deep in the woman's stomach.

 

* * *

 

Grayson jerked awake. For a few seconds he is confused by the pale blue ceiling. His ceiling was painted midnight blue, like the sky at night. This room's ceiling was painted like a daytime sky. He also vaguely wondered why he was laying on his back, something he almost never did. His mind was slowly, unusually slowly, coming awake. The first things his mind registered were a sweet lavender scent and a warm, soft body pressed against his. He looked down and saw waves of thick red hair that spread over himself and the woman sleeping peacefully against him.

 

His mind clicked awake and the past few weeks jumped to the front of his mind. He remembered pacing his balcony at all hours of the day and night. The uncontrollable restlessness that kept him awake. The hours of thinking, puzzling, and pondering the red haired knight that dominated his thoughts.

 

The woman curled against his chest murmured softly and shifted a small bit. She buried her face in the curve of his neck and quieted again.

 

Grayson carefully sat up, holding her against him as he fumbled a pillow out from under him. He laid her back down, careful of her hurt back. She struggled with the pillow and he covered her with a felt blanket. He managed to slip back into his room without anyone seeing him.

 

He didn't remember falling asleep. He remembered being and angry and afraid when Carmon told him what Grendel had done. He remembered seeing her, sleeping in the large nest with her red hair spread around her. He remembered the peaceful feeling the came over him when he touched her cheek and the restlessness vanished.

 

He tried to think about how she felt against him. He had wanted to bury his face in her hair, to roll over so that she was beneath him in her pale green, loose nightgown. He managed to focus on dressing for the day. He had slept far later than he ever had.

 

Later that afternoon he would talk to Mirina.

 

* * *

 

I lay in bed for what feels like hours. I'm awake, but I don't want to move. I don't think, just float in the scent of my feather. I snuggle closer to the source of the sweet scent and into small pain in my back but I ignore it.

 

Two quite voices interrupt my drifting.

 

“You see,” says Carmon's voice softly, “she's fast asleep. We shouldn't disturb her. Gray won't want her disturbed.”

 

"Grayson would also like to see her healed as much as we can manage,” says a light female voice that reminds me of a quiet brook. “I'm sure she wouldn't mind having those holes in her neck patched up.”

 

“But, Seb,” Carmon whispers, “she hasn't been sleeping well. We should let her get as much as she can.”

 

I sense someone studying me intently. A soft, silky something lightly brushes my cheek. I open my eyes and see a pair of rainbow eyes watching me. One pair belongs to a slim, small woman with black, red-streaked hair, the other to a tall man with golden-bronze hair. The woman was rosy pale and the man lightly tanned. Both had long, tassel-ended antenna that matches their hair.

 

“She's already awake, Carmon,” the man studying me says. He sits careful on the side of my bed and extends a hand to me. “I am Edward, a Dersonus of the Sunrise clan. This is my niece, Clairkitdra, matron of the Blackfin clan.”

 

I sit up and find I am a little stronger than I was the day before. I place my hand in his like I would if I had met him in my father's court. I quickly adjust my grip to one not so formally. Years of edict training is hard to ignore sometimes.

 

After shaking hands with the two Dersoni. The other two people I do not know step forward.

 

“I am Sebastia,” the pale woman says. Her eyes are the same deep blue as the sea between the islands. Her dark blue hair is long enough to drag on the floor and is loose and free with braids and beads in it. The light blue, one-shoulder robe drags the ground as well and is the favorite outfit of the Amilas fish tribes wear when clothes are forced on them. “I am the Lady of Fish.”

 

Clairkitdra offers a hand to the other man in the room. He is tall and well-muscled. His black shirt, pants, boots, and hair make his pale skin shine. His eyes are a deep, midnight blue. He looks familiar, as if I have met him before.

 

“This is my mate,” Clairkitdra says with a soft and sweet voice. “Darkin of the-”

 

“Vamisa, the largest vampire clan in Venderas, in Talloren,” I say quickly. The group looks at me with startled and surprised expressions. I quickly explain, “I know your blood-daughter, Cynthia Moonwatcher, and her mate, Diac. They are very close to my mother's only cousins.”

 

Dark arches one of his black eyebrows. “What cousins would you be speaking of?”

 

I think carefully, not really wanting to give some of my family ties away. Things are simpler when you are not royalty. I sigh after finding no way to avoid the realization. Me and my big mouth. “Mimerain and Markus and their children Cleomara and Jonathan.”

 

The gathering is completely silent as they stare at me. I feel my face warm and start to fiddle with the pillow next to me.

 

“So,” Edward says at last, breaking the heavy silence, “you are related to the Balance of Powers, Queen of Kincur. You are just full of surprise, aren't you?”

Author's Note

Woo! Mir has got great connections!