“Take me with you, Aldric,” Nomi begged. “Please. How can I continue without you?”
The princess sat on the raised divan with her palms facing up on her knees. Despite her tear-streaked face and eyes now as red as her dragon mama’s scales, Ricky still found her amazingly beautiful. Nomi had seriously changed over the past six moons when he’d first met her in the wilderness, dressed in bearskin and lounging so carefree against a dragon’s leg. Duke Thram had done wonders with the feral princess, turning her into an acceptable, if not refined, member of royalty. Except for when she was alone with him and he recognized that carefree dragon expression in her eyes longing to return. Except for now, when she allowed herself to cry in front of another person.
“Thram left three whole moons ago,” Nomi continued. “He thought putting a mountain range between his witch mother and him would be enough to hide him and Gwen as well as your mother and sister. I really like Mercy and miss her terribly. It was hard enough to see them leave down-valley mid-winter, but I was all right because you were here, Aldric. Why can’t I go with you?”
He felt like taking her hand and answering, “why not,” tossing her on Neighbor, jumping on Flame and riding off to any place where people didn’t know them or their situations. But he knew their situations. So did she. He fell to his knees on the stone floor in front of her and took her trembling hands in his. He raised them and kissed the back of each one. “My dear Nomi,” he said.
She let him go, rose, and straightened her deep red gown before taking in a long breath. “I know,” she said, wiggling her shoulders. She looked down at him, dragon resolution filling her swollen eyes. “You know I know.”
He nodded and stood. “I will return, Nomi. I promise. I don’t make promises often. There’s never a need. My yes is always yes. My no, always no. But now, with you—know that I’ll return. Along with the rest of my family.”
She turned to look out the window. Snow still covered the mountain tops, but the birds had returned and sang out their songs to one another. It was the sign Ricky had been waiting for, the sign Nomi told him meant it would be safe enough to travel through the mountain passes and rescue his king, his family, and the rest of Farhner.
Nomi sang out in a perfect cry to one of the birds. It responded to her in like.
I’ll miss you, too, Ricky wanted to say. It’s too dangerous where I’m going, he’d add. With so much uncertainty. Your people need you here.
But she already knew all that. He bit his lower lip and stared at his boots for a moment before turning and leaving the chambers. He nodded to Christie who was waiting in the hall, also with red eyes, and now free to go back into the chamber and comfort her princess.
* * *
Two days later, Ricky sat atop Flame with the riderless war unicorn, Neighbor, at his side. Six strangers sat on horseback behind him. King Perez had warned him it was too early in the season to depart. When he decided to take Nomi’s advice over the king’s, the king refused to see him off like nearly the entire town had. Ricky. He chose Nomi’s timing because she was raised in the wilderness and closer to the natural mountain world than the king and his soldiers who hunkered down their winters in City Brandt. Plus, he needed to rescue his family. Ricky raised his face to give Nomi, standing stoically on her terrace, a lingering look. It was she who paid for the horses and saddles, supplies and winter cloaks. Even so, not everything was covered. Hobbie, the youngest of his band, just a year or two older than Rick, kept the soles of his shoes from flapping with by wrapping them with string.
“I wish I could give you some wise advice,” his brother-in-law Drake said. “I wish I were going with you.” Although the men sitting with him all sported beards close and full, the Spikonians black beards and unibrows weren’t as out of place here in Brandt as they would be in Farhner where light hair and two brows were the norm.
“No, you don’t,” Sasha said, “For many reasons.”
“You can never return to Spikonia,” Ricky told him. “You’re a traitor there. But more than that, Sasha needs you here.” His older sister touched her belly just starting to show the pregnancy within. She pulled little Tola close to her. “Take care of your family,” Rick said. “Besides, who better to advise me than an ancient war unicorn?” Neighbor flicked her tail.
“You take care of your boy,” Drake told Neighbor before turning back to Ricky. “Just use your spooky-woo-woo whenever you can,” he told him. “And don’t leave your unicorn’s side.”
Neighbor nickered in agreement.
For three moons now, Neighbor and Aldric had discussed the rescue operation and variables, with Drake and Nomi throwing in their suggestions as well. Ricky had hoped King Perez would have at least offered him a company of soldiers as a reward for returning his daughter, but the king refused to antagonize such a powerful country as Spikonia with just a few mountains standing between them. There were also the few Spikonians who also now lived in Brandt. From them, the Spike king might learn of both the rescue attempt and Perez’s aid—or lack of it—and leave them alone.
Politics. War. Rescue.
He focused on saving his father and sister Lolly, and the other magicians and people of Farhner.
He nodded at last to Nomi, then faced forward and raised his arm to let his six mercenary companions know they were leaving. They were a scruffy bunch, and Ricky didn’t trust them as far as he could spit. But it was partly because of their rough ways and willingness to do anything for money that he hoped they would see the deed to completion, if just to get the other half of their pay. Even the worst of people could change. Or so he thought. Ricky did debate taking Synne as one of them, but the woman scared Ricky more than the five men and that could work for their advantage.
By the time they reached the top of the pasture and headed over the first of the mountain passes, Ricky’s muscles were stiff and tight. He ached to turn back, to see Nomi once more. She’d still be watching, watching until he was long out of sight. Instead he just moaned and stretched his back. Neighbor must have known what he was thinking.
“You should not have promised you would return, Aldric,” she told him.
Rick pulled up Flame. “Why ever not?”
“You may not.”
Ricky squeezed his thighs to get the stallion moving again. He thought about Neighbor’s comment for a while. It was more likely that his six companions would rob him and run off with Flame than seven people and one unicorn rescuing a couple hundred people from a well-guarded dungeon. But even six ruffians would have their hands full if they tried to deceive a war unicorn and a Farhnerian magician-soldier. Besides, his father and king and the others depended on him.
“Are you being prophetic now, Neighbor, or just a friend?”
The unicorn blew between her lips. “I cannot see your future in this adventure, boy.”
“Except that I’m to marry a princess,” Ricky added.
“Not on this journey. But I do see a mist with an uneasiness of what is on the other side.”
He shook his head. He’d had dreams like that before with the mist, but the marrying of a princess was one of the first things Neighbor said to him. That meeting felt like decades ago instead of just two years. Ricky patted Flame’s shoulder. He wanted to pat his friend, too, and wished he were riding her, but they’d decided she would remain free and riderless except under special circumstances. Neighbor had allowed Nomi ride her all winter, though, and the two had many conversations in languages Rick didn’t understand. Perhaps Neighbor missed Nomi as much as he did.
They rode past the trolls’ Wodu Pit and Mawin’s land where there was still no sign of the hut where he and Thram spent the night.
Last winter at the back of the palace built into the mountain, he and Nomi spent time reopening the old natural tunnels. She wandered fearlessly through them, calling out for trolls in their own language. He accompanied her with a lantern in one hand and drawn sword in the other. Their quest was to no avail. Yet. Maybe when he returned to Brandt he’d find she had been successful in finding her trolls. It could happen. There would be plenty besides troll-hunting to distract her, like learning to read, even if it was only one language; planning the summer tournaments and fair for the lowlands; homilies, politics, so much to distract and learn. He had no doubt she’d meet with success with it all. Ricky wondered if he would do the same come summer.