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Chapter 16
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Ralion watched while Dynan worked through about the seventy-fifth sit up. He was hanging upside down from a grav bar, locked in by the ankles, which made it more of a challenge. Geneal had removed his bandage earlier and nothing more than a red line marked where he’d been stabbed.
Ralion rolled his eyes, still angry that Dynan had gotten himself into that kind of danger. Carryn would yell at them all for that one. He wanted to leave that part out of the report. He wanted to leave a lot out of the report. Still, it was a different person Ralion saw today. While Dynan still wasn’t talking about what had happened, it seemed a shadow was lifted. The haunted look was gone. Ralion glanced over at Sheed, who raised an eyebrow over it.
Sheed was stretched out on the ground, leaned up on an elbow, occasionally pulling weeds out of the garden. Mostly he was watching Dynan strain to get to ninety. They were supposed to have him doing double that by the time they got back to Trea.
“All right. I’m sorry,” Dynan said at about sixty-nine. “I’ll never do it again.”
“Uh-huh,” Sheed said. “Keep going.”
“I didn’t know the ship was going to be attacked.”
“Add ten more.”
Dynan swore under his breath and stopped talking. He also stopped doing the sit-ups when he saw Loren walking over from her yard. She was dressed for work, looked a little sleepy, and she stared at the silver bar Dynan was hanging from.
Sheed reached over and nudged him. “No stopping,” he said and stood up. “Good morning, my Lady.”
Ralion got to his feet too, greeting her the same way. She stopped at that, wondering about their manners maybe, but she smiled, and Ralion admitted easily enough that she was a beautiful woman. Dynan suddenly had less trouble with the sit-ups too. Loren turned to look at the grav bar again, then at Dynan as he came up.
“I guess this means you’re all right,” she said. “Or is this just their way of getting back at you for sneaking off?”
“Something like that,” Dynan said, grunting as he hit eighty-five.
“Actually, my Lady,” Ralion said and came down the porch steps, “this is part of his normal training program. He just hasn’t been doing it lately, which is why he’s having trouble even hitting a hundred. Come on, Dynan.”
“Shut up, Ralion.”
Loren laughed at that, then went back to looking at the bar floating above her head. “How does this work?”
“It’s an anti-gravity bar,” Sheed said, like that explained everything. Loren made a face at him, stating clearly enough that it didn’t. He nudged Dynan again. “You keep stopping.”
“I did get stabbed in the shoulder yesterday. Doesn’t that count for anything?”
“Stupidity?” Ralion supplied. Sheed laughed, but Loren bristled suddenly and turned on them.
“He saved a lot of lives yesterday,” she said. She had to crane her neck to look up at them, but didn’t seem at all intimidated. “If he hadn’t been there, a lot more people would have died. I realize you’re angry that he went off the way he did. Instead of being miffed that you didn’t get to go along too, you ought to be proud of the fact that he was able to help so many people.”
Ralion met her frowning glare with a smirk. “Maybe we should give him a medal.”
Her eyes widened, but before she could say anything, Dynan told her to ignore them. He reached up, released the locking mechanism on the cuffs and swung down to the ground. He took her by the hand and pulled her toward the docks.
“I told you we were in trouble,” Sheed said, watching them. She was inspecting Dynan’s injury, quite closely, which he didn’t seem to mind, while he assured her that he was all right. They were constantly touching each other. He had his arms around her while she ran a hand through his hair, then down his arm.
Ralion shook his head and turned from them. “She’s something all right.”
“She’s perfect,” Sheed said and started pulling himself up on the grav bar. “Think he’ll be able to do it?”
“He’s moving fast enough to manage it. It’s after we’re home where the real problems will start.” Ralion shook his head again, doubting that Dynan would be able to keep her with him. “I don’t know. I hope he can, despite all the trouble it’s going to cause. He deserves it.”
“Ready to forgive him?”
“No,” Ralion said, and laughed. “This is the most cooperation we’ve gotten out of him in weeks. I think we’ll use that to our advantage the rest of the day.”
“She sure has changed his attitude about life in a hurry.”
Ralion had to agree. It had been a long time since they’d seen him smile about anything. Geneal came out then, looking for Dynan, and when she saw him with Loren, got that dreamy look in her eye. She was in love with this idea completely. “I see he’s feeling all right.”
“Yes,” Ralion said. “And he doesn’t need any encouragement from you.”
“I’ll encourage him all I want, thank you,” she said. “He seems to know what he’s doing anyway. Are you going into town today?”
“I imagine so,” Ralion said, thinking that Dynan wouldn’t want Loren there by herself. The Prince was worried about Marc Talryn too. There was a man with more than his fair share of trouble to deal with.
“When do you suppose he’s going to tell us?” Geneal asked.
Ralion shrugged, watching while Dynan helped Loren into her boat after kissing her a couple of times and then again before he let her go. He stayed there on the dock until she turned the point and was out of sight. He took his time getting back to the yard and the morning workout. Ralion half expected he’d quit, but he didn’t. Sheed got out of his way, raising an eyebrow over it.
“Hundred and twenty,” Ralion said as he started pulling himself up to the bar.
“No way.”
“Yes way. How’s the shoulder feel?”
“Hurts.”
“How much does it hurt?” Geneal asked.
“Enough.”
She hummed at that. “Quit when it hurts too much. I don’t want you pulling that cut open.”
Dynan smiled at that. “Thanks Geneal.”
“There are other exercises you can do,” she said and went back in the house.
“Thank you, Geneal,” Ralion said and laughed at the sneer he got for that.
“Sheed,” Dynan said. “Go get ready to head to town. I’m coming with you.” Sheed nodded to that, but he was trying not to smile. Dynan noticed anyway and started to slow down a little. He stopped a minute later, looking at them. “You already know, don’t you?”
The two guards shared a look. Sheed went ahead inside, leaving Ralion to this conversation. He sat down on the steps. Dynan started hauling himself up to the bar again.
“We ran into a few people who mentioned your intentions to us yesterday, so yes, we know.”
“A few?”
“The whole town is talking about it, Dynan. Did you think they wouldn’t?” Ralion smiled at the mumbled response he got to that. “It doesn’t seem to matter that these people don’t know who you are or where you’re from. You managed to create a big stir anyway.” Dynan didn’t respond to that either, except to himself. He was waiting for Ralion’s reaction to it all, maybe afraid of what that would be. “If it makes you happy, I’m all for it,” Ralion said and really surprised him. “I don’t know how you’re going to keep her, but you know I’ll do anything I can to help you. Sheed and Geneal too.”
Dynan didn’t know what to say for a moment, having expected an entirely different response. He didn’t look like he believed it either and kept glancing over at him as if waiting for the rest. “You’re ... you’re not going to argue with me about it,” he said finally.
“No. You’ve already made up your mind. You’ve already started the entire process, a lot faster than I imagined you could, so why should I argue? Won’t do any good. Won’t change your mind, will it?”
“No.”
Ralion shrugged. “Besides, you’ve waited long enough and she’s a nice girl.”
He stopped with the pull-ups, dropping back to the ground, deactivating the grav-bar at the same time and set it against the porch. “There’s more to this than her being a nice girl,” he said and sat down on the stairs, looking like he didn’t want to explain, or didn’t know how. He hesitated again and then pulled in a breath. “Do you remember when I had those dreams?”
Ralion nodded. “Carryn told us we shouldn’t talk about them to you at all. You’re not having them again, are you?”
“Not exactly,” Dynan said. “Maybe she didn’t count on me meeting the people I dreamed about.” He glanced up at that, to see what Ralion’s reaction would be.
It was hard to avoid giving anything away. Ralion wasn’t sure how to react, except he didn’t want to tell Dynan about Dain’s drawings. If something went wrong and telling him somehow triggered the dreams coming back, Ralion knew there wouldn’t be anything they could do that would stop them.
“Carryn said the dreams weren’t real and you were having them because of the telepathy,” he said. Dynan didn’t seem to notice his hesitation.
He dug into a pocket for something then. Ralion recognized the ring from the drawing. “Loren is the girl I dreamed about. Marc’s brother is the man who died, who I tried to save and couldn’t. Carryn was wrong.”
“Won’t she be surprised,” Ralion muttered.
He held out the ring so Ralion could see. “Marc has a sword with the same design.”
“That looks like the Telaerin crest, only—”
“Only mine has a diamond at its center. I saw this ring in that dream. I watched Matt Talryn put it on Loren’s finger. It was a betrothal ceremony. They were going to be married, but Matt died before they were. I watched him fall through the ice and I tried to save him. I had hold of him and I remember thinking how real it all seemed. When I met Marc it all came back and through him, I saw what happened. I was really here. Marc saw his brother reach for something, like he was holding onto someone. That someone was me.”
There was little doubt that he believed it completely and after having seen the drawings, Ralion didn’t doubt it either. He was afraid to keep talking about it, but couldn’t see a way to stop the conversation without making matters worse.
“Ralion,” Dynan said after a lengthy silence. “I’m all right. I guess it must be difficult for you to believe that.”
“It’s all happening too fast,” he said, deciding to say what he felt rather than protect Dynan from it. “Yesterday, losing Dain’s letter, we all thought—”
Dynan got up, rushing inside without a word. Ralion stood and heard him going back to his room. Sheed appeared in the doorway, wondering what was going on when Dynan came back holding the familiar parchment out to show them both.
“She found it,” he said, coming out the door while Sheed stared and Ralion started shaking his head as he looked over the words, none the worse for wear after the exposure.
“How?”
“You think I know?” Dynan said. “It was floating out on the river as she came in, but ask Sheed how that could be possible and he won’t be able to answer you.” He glanced back to the door, and Sheed came out, taking Dain’s letter, looking at it as if it wasn’t real. “It was gone. We both saw it, but Loren found it. I don’t know how.”
Sheed sat down with them on the top step, frowning over the reality of that piece of paper.
“Here in the light of day,” Dynan said, “I ask myself how any of this is possible. How could I meet a girl I’ve never talked to before, ask her to marry me and have her say yes, all in the space of a day, and have it not seem like the craziest thing I’ve ever done? But then I look at that paper and believe anything is possible.”
“You’ve been waiting for her your whole life,” Sheed said and handed the letter back. “Do you doubt it?”
“No.”
“Does it matter so much how then?”
Dynan paused before answering and then shook his head. “No.”
“It’s a gift,” Sheed said, watching while Dynan folded the paper up along the usual creases. “If it makes it easier to accept that it comes from some higher power, you can’t really go wrong there. Whatever you want to call it, it’s real enough.”
“Do you suppose it’s really that simple?” Dynan asked.
“Oh hell no,” Sheed said. “With you? Not even a chance. But I’ll take the Gods interference with you over other things any day.”
“Gives me a little hope for our chances,” Ralion said and clapped Dynan on the back. “It’s kind of a nice feeling knowing that the Gods are looking out for you. We’re going to need all the help we can get there.” He looked around Dynan to Sheed, and then asked the question he was most afraid to get the answer to. “How long are we staying?”
“A few weeks, maybe. As soon as I can...” He was going to say as soon as he could manage to marry Loren, but Ralion knew he didn’t have everything he needed to make that happen just yet. “We leave after Loren and I are married. I’m not sure how long. I figured we’d go to Orgrel first.”
“Bador will love that.”
“He may not let us stay. Not with the Destroyer out there.”
“He’ll let us stay. You’re his only way off that rock and he knows it. He won’t be especially happy about it.” Ralion pulled in a breath. “Neither will Carryn.”
“I can’t stay here. Maralt knows these dreams. If we stay and he comes here, he’ll know her instantly, and he’ll—”
“I know we can’t stay, but the chances of our making it back to Trea aren’t all that great. You should know that too. Maralt will. The minute we leave this place, he’ll find us. Orgrel won’t be safe.”
“Then we won’t stay there long. We’ll leave a message for Carryn with Bador and we’ll move.”
“And keep moving.” Ralion nodded. “We’ll work up the locations.”
Dynan glanced at him, then back at the ring. “I really thought...”
“We know what you thought, and we did think it – yesterday. That was only our annoyance with you getting in the way. First, for running off like that, twice in a row, which you better not ever do again, and second for getting wounded. After thinking about it all night long and learning a little bit more about Loren, today, it seems right. If leaving will keep her safe, then that’s what we have to do. She’s going to be our Queen. That means we have to look after her the same way we look after you.”
“And you might want to be a little more careful what you say to her,” Dynan said with a laugh as he stood.
“Guess she didn’t appreciate the medal comment.”
“No. Neither did I.” He laughed again and started to head inside.
“While you’re in town, you might want to pay a visit to the clothier,” Ralion said as he and Sheed followed. “If you’re going to meet her parents in a few days, it might not be a bad idea to have something appropriate to wear.”
While Geneal stayed at home to take care of some other chores, the three of them rode into town. They dropped the horses off at the livery and then Dynan went to the clothier’s. He walked through the door looking back at the inn and nearly ran over a lady coming out. She was about to have a few words with him over it, but she stopped and looked at him.
“Aren’t you the boy Loren is going to marry?” she asked, pulling a pair of glasses down to the end of her nose and peered at him.
“Yes,” Sheed answered for him and steered Dynan around her. “He’s a little preoccupied right now. Sorry.”
“Well, that’s understandable,” she said in a kindly voice. “Congratulations, young man. I can see why she likes you.”
Ralion quickly thanked her for the sentiment and ushered her out of the shop. Dynan turned around and his mouth fell open. A bridal gown stood on display, wired up to the ceiling. It was a beautiful dress, cream colored and covered with lace and pearls. Ralion recognized it and so did Dynan.
“That’s the dress,” he whispered and took a step toward it. “In the dream. That’s the—”
A short, rail of a man walked in from a back room asking if he could help them, but before he’d finished the question he stopped. “You must be Drin Talbor,” he said, smiling pleasantly.
Ralion almost groaned. “Yes, he is.”
“Of course. I was expecting you’d come by. Your lady was here this morning and—”
“She was?” Dynan asked, looking out the window to the inn.
“Yes and—”
“That’s the dress,” Dynan said again.
The clothier turned to admire the gown. “Well, yes, it is a beautiful gown, if I may say, but unfortunately it is rather expensive. While Lady Loren did admire it, she wasn’t able to afford—”
Dynan turned to Ralion instantly and he held up a hand to stop everyone from talking. “I think if that’s the gown she wants, then that’s the gown she’ll have, sir,” Ralion told them. Dynan breathed again while the clothier stammered that it was unusual for the groom to pick out the bride’s gown. “These are unusual circumstances. I doubt she’ll mind.”
“Oh no, I ... of course she won’t. She really did want this one. And well, I’ll see to it. Thank you, My Lord. It would be my pleasure.”
Ralion imagined it was, considering the number of gold coins he had to hand over. Dynan only smiled and kept staring at the gown as though he could see Loren in it already. He probably could.
The clothier didn’t let him look for long, hustling him into a back room for a fitting, while admonishing that he shouldn’t look at the gown, and now, the clothier would have to do something to it to make it different so as to avoid any bad luck.
The man rattled on fairly non-stop while he worked. Dynan wasn’t used to such intimate contact with a complete stranger. For the last six years, Lycon Tylam had taken care of getting him his clothes, and before that the Palace Clothier came to his room, but he managed well enough. Ralion noticed how quickly Drin Talbor changed into His Royal Highness, who knew more about appearance than this man could hope to. The clothier was thrilled to have someone so knowledgeable about design in his shop and the two of them sat down over fabric swatches and design books. Dynan had a way with people too, that instantly put them at ease, even when he wasn’t. Occasionally, his hand stole to his temple, a sure sign that he was getting tired.
“Drin, we need to get going,” Ralion said.
“Yes, well, yes,” the clothier said and started straightening up his table. “These are excellent choices and the ceremony promises to be lovely. Congratulations, young man. I’ll have your order ready for you before you leave for Crey.”
“Thank you,” Dynan said, but he wasn’t paying attention to the clothier anymore. He turned, looking toward the back of the shop for no apparent reason.
Sheed straightened at the same time. Ralion distracted the clothier, meaning to get him out of the room because something was wrong. Ralion didn’t know what, except he was instantly terrified it was Maralt. Dynan jerked suddenly, cringing as if he was in pain. Ralion took the clothier by the arm and without much in the way of explanation, all but shoved him into the other room and closed the door.
“What is it?” Sheed asked, but had to grab Dynan when he suddenly swayed. He brought his hand to his head. Ralion checked the XR-30 sensors through the control pad, but they didn’t indicate that a ship had landed, or that one was orbiting Cadal. If Maralt was causing this, one of those two things would have been indicated by the ship.
“Go deal with the clothier,” Ralion told Sheed and took his place. “Dynan?”
Dynan shook his head, then groaned because the movement sent another wave of pain through him. Ralion was about to get the biomonitor out, thinking that they had to stop going anywhere without Geneal, when Sheed came back in.
“We have to move,” he said. “The Inquisitor’s sentry has the inn surrounded and there are a couple of them headed this way. There’s a door out the back. The clothier said he’d lie for us. Doesn’t seem that too many people like these boys. Dynan, can you walk?”
“Loren,” he said in a whisper, while Ralion all but carried him to the back door.
“We’ll get her. We have to get you out of here first.”
Sheed led the way out, searching the alleyway the door opened onto before stepping outside. The backside of a line of shops ran to either side of the clothiers and on the other side of the narrow road, the backyards of homes that faced a parallel street. A small carriage house stood a few doors down. Sheed nodded them that way and a moment later, they were safely inside.
Sheed moved to watch at the door. “Is it Maralt?” he asked, peering through the cracks.
“For him to be acting this way, it has to be,” Ralion said. “I’m going to put the ship on standby.”
“It isn’t Maralt,” Dynan said, trying to straighten. “It’s Marc.”
“Marc?” Ralion asked.
“He’s a telepath. It’s him.”
“Marc is a telepath?” Ralion repeated, unsure how he felt about someone he didn’t know with the ability to reach Dynan at will. “You can talk to him the way you talked to Dain?”
“Yes.”
Sheed closed his hand into a fist for silence and they all heard the approach of booted feet down the alley, two of them by the sound, coming from opposite directions toward them.
“Did you see him?” a man asked in a low voice.
“No, he’s not here.”
“He couldn’t have been gone that long,” the other insisted.
“He’ll turn up, what with his lady over at the inn. He’ll try to go see her, and then we’ll have him.”
Dynan looked up at that, expression darkening. Ralion had seen that look before, really reminding him of Dain. “I wish she wasn’t mixed up in all this,” one of the men said.
“Well she is and that’s that. She won’t come to any harm. Sadek doesn’t want her.”
“Sadek wants her just like every other man in this town. He loves power more.” A space of breaths followed that statement. “No, don’t say it,” he continued. “I already know what you think, Zeke, so don’t say it.”
“He’s gone too far this time,” Zeke said anyway in a low voice they could barely hear. “He’s got the Chancellor’s Secretary and I think he means to kill him. This all started as a way to get Meril Talryn off the Council. It’s bigger than that now. We signed on as manor guards, not murderers.”
“It’s too late for either of us to get out of this without ending up dead. He’s got men everywhere. We do what we’re told, or it’ll be us going in the chamber.”
“You think we won’t end up just as dead when the Chancellor sends his army over here. After Quilar goes, he’ll have to. We’ll be in the middle of a bloody war.”
“We’re in the middle of a war right now. We need to go back. We’ve been here too long.”
Dynan turned to Ralion. “Go get them.”
Ralion was inclined to agree. These two had information and judging by their conversation, might be willing to talk. If they weren’t willing, Ralion figured they’d be made to get that way quickly enough. He went to the door, while Sheed quietly opened a set of side shutters and slipped out.
Ralion waited until he heard Sheed at the side of the building whispering that he was ready, then opened the door and went over to the two men who were debating where they should look next. They weren’t expecting to be set on at all. They weren’t given time to react before Ralion and Sheed had them back in the carriage house.
Dynan gave them a moment to realize that he was the one they’d been looking for and another to understand that he’d overheard everything they’d just discussed. “You’re going to tell me what you know,” he said and took a step toward them, which was enough to make them shrink away from him. “And you better hope nothing happens to Loren, or Marc Talryn, or you two will be the first to die.”
