The Valkyrie's Princes Page 8

  I couldn’t tear my eyes from the princes as one after the other they turned to leave. The way their wings flashed and their gold tunics shined. I’m sure that’s what was causing the tears in my eyes. Of course, I wasn’t used to the bright colors. Blaine was the last to leave, his eyes locked on me as he strode backward to the door. He nodded to me slowly, and his eyes flashed to Elder Carrack. “You heard my father.” His husky, leather voice whipped across the room. “She is not to undergo any harm. Anything. If she does, you will answer to me.”

  Elder Carrack bowed deeply as Blaine hit the door. “Yes, Your Highness. I would never dream of crossing you or His Majesty.” His oily voice made goosebumps rise on my skin. I gave Blaine another smile as he disappeared, waiting until I knew he was gone to let it drop. Master Jaison stood inside the door still, continuing to watch us.

  “I’ll wait with you here until the Valkyries arrive. I’m sure they’ll be here shortly.” His voice was calm as he maintained eye contact with Cecilia. Her face tightened, but she forced it to relax as she offered him a sweet smile and a sultry sweep of her lashes. Geeze, he was old enough to be her grandfather!

  A knock sounded on the door behind Master Jaison, and he turned to open the large, engraved wooden doors. A Valkyrie stood there, clad elegantly in leather and iron armor. Her armband was engraved with her rank and held a citrine stone. Her wings were a warm, rich brown, the color of the earth after the rain. Her hair was nearly a white blonde and shorn so close to her head it was nearly invisible. My eyebrows rose as I cocked my head considering her.

  “Master Jaison,” she greeted the Healer with a small nod of her head. “Prince Blaine and the king of have sent me to ensure Emberly’s safe visit to Scottsdale.” She turned her head, searching the room. Her gray eyes narrowed as she inspected the Elders and Cecilia. Glancing at me, she gave a short bow. That was an enormous surprise, who would bow to me?

  “Miss Emberly,” she stated, looking up to meet my eyes. “Prince Blaine specifically requested myself and my unit be in attendance regarding your personal safety. I am Captain Tesha. I trained the princes since the time they were younglings. It is an honor to be chosen to look after a friend of theirs.” She strode toward me, her wings spread as she walked in fast, graceful steps.

  “As you do not have wings, it will easiest if you accept a sleeping-draught for the trip to Scottsdale. It prevents you from fighting me while in the air.” She held up a hand to forestall me as I opened my mouth. “I know you have flown before, miss, however, some fighting is instinctive when you do not have control, especially if the weather turns poor or I have to make sudden maneuvers. We give sleeping draughts to all the younglings we fly.”

  Master Healer Jaison stepped forward to place a hand on the Captain’s shoulder. “Emberly, I will prepare the draft for you myself. I assure you, it is perfectly safe. You will retain all your memories and return to consciousness right after you land.” His eyes were warm as he regarded me. He appeared to be bolstered by the idea that Captain Tesha would be my guard. Trust Blaine to think of something like this. He may not like the king’s decision, but unlike his brothers who had left to argue their case, he had striven to obtain some control over the situation.

  I bowed deeply to the Captain and Master Jaison. “Captain, his Highness has honored me greatly sending you to protect me. I greatly appreciate your service, as I am sure this is not part of your normal duties. Master Jaison, I trust you implicitly. If you say the healing draught is safe, and that it would be in my best interest, of course, I will take it.”

  Master Jaison shot me a smile, and with a flick of his purple wings, he strode out the door. Captain Tesha came to stand behind me, a solid wall of muscle. I didn’t know if the situation had been explained to her or not but considering it was Blaine who sent her, and the lethal glare she was giving Elder Carrack, I would assume she had at least some of the details. A few moments later Master Jaison came back in with a small bottle in his hand.

  “Here, Emberly. Just swallow it all quickly. Captain Tesha will assure you are safe. Hopefully, we will see you soon, and I will have more answers for you then.” The crystal bottle he handed me was small, a little shorter than my thumb. The liquid in it was clear and, as I tipped it into my mouth, had a slightly bitter flavor. I wrinkled my nose and returned the bottle to him.

  “Many thanks, Master Jaison. I greatly enjoyed meeting you.” I took a step closer to him and lowered my voice, hoping that the others would not be able to hear me. “Take care of them, please, my lord. Don’t let them do anything foolish.” With a small smile, I turned to nod at the Captain.

  “I am ready when you are, Captain. I hope this shall not be too burdensome of a journey.” I met her eyes squarely. There was no point in cowering. If this were to be the end of my life, I would face it with dignity.

  She smiled wryly. “You’re a little thing. If I can haul fallen Valkyries from the battlefield, your weight won’t be a bother. We’ll be there shortly. I promised Blaine I would watch you carefully. I mean to keep my word.” She whirled to face the Elders.

  “I assume you don’t need a guide home. I will settle Emberly when I arrive. The rest of my unit have left in advance to ensure that her quarters are prepared. Remember the orders of King Anyil. She will not be harassed or harmed. She will be treated like all other civilians but shall remain isolated from the general population. If any of you attempt to harm her, the results will likely be fatal – for you.” She looked each member of the group squarely in the eye. Cecilia bristled and opened her mouth as if to respond. Mistress Lynn gripped her arm, squeezing tightly to silence her.

  Captain Tesha turned to face me and scooped me into her arms. “Rest now, youngling. We will be in Scottsdale soon.” I could feel my eyes drifting shut as her wings began to lift us off the floor.

  “Gods bless, Emberly.” I hear Master Jaison whisper before the world went black.

  Chapter Seven

  Captain Tesha was standing beside me when I awoke. I dared a glance around the room, meeting her hard eyes with mine. “You are in an outpost used for visiting Valkyries,” she told me, noticing my confusion not finding myself in my own room. “I would not use the shed you lived in for livestock, let alone a youngling.”

  I smiled, sitting up in the bed. “It’s not bad, honestly. And please, you can call me Emberly. I’m twenty-four summers, not quite a youngling anymore.”

  Captain Tesha laughed, the sound rough but pretty. “Well, to me, you are still a youngling. I’ve seen sixty summers.”

  My mouth dropped open. She had to be joking. I wouldn’t have put her at more than thirty-five summers, forty if I was stretching it. It did make sense if she had been the one to train the princes, but no one who looked at her would be able to tell.

  She chuckled, the lines around her eyes crinkling. “I heard Flynn mention something about you looking like a fish when you’re surprised. It’s a fairly good analogy.” I flushed red, snapping my mouth shut at the criticism. I’m sure it hadn’t meant to be harmful, but it did not seem as harmless as when Flynn said it. “Don’t fret, now, Emberly. The king is very fair. He will give your case the proper attention it deserves. For now, I will watch out for you. You can call me Tesha.”

  I shook my head rapidly, trying hard to calm my heart rate. “Captain, that wouldn’t be appropriate. We are very strict about rank in Scottsdale. An unranked calling a Captain by their name rather than their title is enough for a severe whipping.”

  Her mouth firmed tightly, I could hear her teeth grind together as she looked at me. “Emberly, I outrank everyone in this barrack. My orders, and the king’s, supersede what you are accustomed to. Please, call me Tesha. I am hoping we will become friends.” In a lightning-fast change of mood, she sent me a wicked grin. “Besides, if we aren’t friends, how will you hear embarrassing stories about the princes?”

  I couldn’t stop the smile from breaking over my face. “Okay, Tesha. I’d like that.”

  Reaching o
ut a hand, she ruffled my hair. “Good. The princes are quite taken with you. It will do them good to have a friend. Now, it’s getting late. I know you slept on the way here due to the potion, but it was less than two hours. I would assume you need more sleep than that. So, I’ll go grab some food for us and, after we eat, you can get some more sleep.” As she reached the door, she flicked a glance over her shoulder.

  “My unit is surrounding this building. They all have armor similar to mine, all with citrine stones set in the band. If anyone outside of my unit enters this room, scream out as loudly as you can. There should be no way anyone gets past my guards, but I want you to be aware if it should happen.” With a nod, she stepped from the room, closing the door behind her.

  I got up to stretch as I strode around the room. It was small and simple, but fully furnished. The walls were covered with white paint, and the door contrasted brightly with a nearly luminescent red. I approached the window, seeing that I was facing the main barracks and could see some movement on the hill despite the dusk. I assumed Tesha would be bringing back food for herself as well, so I quickly straightened the covers on the bed. It would be best if we could eat at the table. Before she returned, I managed to light the lamps and wipe the table off with a cloth.

  “I assumed that you weren’t picky, but the choices were fairly slim as it is well after the dinner hour.” Quickly, she set out bread, cheese, and jug of cider onto the small table. She swiftly straddled her stool, stretching her arms behind her back. “How exactly did you fall in with my boys? Blaine only gave me a few details.” Her tone was light, but her eyes were steady on mine at the question.

  I couldn’t hold back a small smile at the memory. “I literally fell into them. Cecilia –“

  Tesha interrupted me as a grabbed a piece of cheese from the table and broke it apart, her wings folded tight against her back. “That would be the little snot who was eyeing me at the meeting?” Her voice was tight as she popped pieces of cheese into her mouth.

  I simply nodded, despite the accuracy of her statement. I didn’t know her well enough to malign another Valkyrie in her presence. “Cecilia and her friends were tossing me among themselves mid-air. Prince Suneel caught me right before I could hit the ground.”

  Tesha maintained eye contact. “They simply dropped you in mid-toss?”

  I squirmed in my seat, pulling my eyes back down to the table. I reached a finger out to trace the grain of the wood, stroking over the areas where it turned from light to dark. “Well, not really.”

  Tesha nodded, her face hard. “They intentionally took you up higher and dropped you.”

  I didn’t bother nodding to confirm her theory. I’m sure she was just confirming what Blaine had already told her. Although I knew it wouldn’t help anything, I couldn’t help acknowledging the accusations that had been made against me. “They’re right in a way, you know.” I looked up at Tesha, wanting her to see how serious I was in this moment. “I know the princes will have said that the Elders were liars, but they were right. In this town, I’m considered an abomination. I have stolen food. I have broken protocols for rank. I have been disrespectful to the Valkyries and the Elders.” I kept my gaze on hers, willing her to see that, though I admitted I had done it, I had a reason for each thing I had done.

  Tesha raised an eyebrow as she looked at me. “Do you expect me to judge you for that?”

  I paused, surprised. “Well, yes.”

  Tesha poured herself a cup of apple cider as she continued, her wings spread to stabilize her as she leaned back on the stool. “Many of us who are hungry have stolen food. Don’t bother telling me that they fed you enough, I can tell just by your size and coloring that they haven’t. You’d be a fool to claim otherwise. I’ve been hungry myself; I know the desperation.” Tesha took a deep gulp as she leaned in closer to me, her gaze tight and focused on mine. “All of us have broken protocols, ignored rank, and even disrespected those we were supposed to protect or honor. It’s nature. It does not matter if you have wings or not; it does not matter if you are a youngling or fully grown.” Her eyes were serious as she reached out to hold my chin. “Nothing, absolutely nothing, that you have done justifies the way they treated you. Nothing gives a person the right to abuse a youngling. Nothing gives a person the right to torture someone just for their own amusement.”

  Tesha sighed, leaning back to take another drink of cider. “I’m a warrior. Rank is important. So is honor. I am not saying I have not, and will not continue to, punish someone for breaking the rules. But there is a line between discipline and torture. In your world, there is no such line. That is something that the Elders of your town will need to answer for. I want you to understand, you need to draw that line in the future. Do not let anyone torture you. Even those that we punish, that we execute, are not tortured. It is part of what makes us so loyal to our king.”

  I picked at the bread in front of me. I could understand what she was saying, in a way. It just didn’t seem like I had the ability to draw those lines for myself. I’m sure that most people would go easy on themselves, draw the lines thickly so that they did not have to answer to anyone for their decisions or actions. Who was I to draw my own lines? I was no one of importance, of consequence, of learning.

  Tesha smiled at me, the lines around her eyes crinkling. “I can see your brain working overtime. I do know as well that you were accused of attempting to lash out at the Head Trainee, to even pluck her feathers.” Tesha sighed and tapped her fingers in a staccato rhythm against the tabletop. “As a warrior, I understand the need to punish someone for such an offense. As a person, I understand that there is only so much torture anyone – or anything – can take. You keep beating a dog, eventually it will either give in and allow itself to die, or it will turn on the one beating it. Again, it comes down to nature. I, for one, would rather see someone fight.”

  Tesha stood up and reached over to ruffle my hair. “I think I’ve given you enough to think on for the night. Remember, if anything happens, simply call out.”

  Before she left, I couldn’t help but call out after her, “Tesha?”

  She turned towards me, arching an eyebrow.

  “I didn’t try to pluck her feathers. I’ve done bad things, but I know what it’s like to be wingless. It’s not a fate I would wish on anyone.”

  She simply smiled at me and left, closing the door softly behind her.

  I blew out the lamps and went to lay down on the bed. My head was spinning, trying to process everything that Tesha had told me. She supported me. Even thinking it was possible I may have gone after Cecilia and issued an unwinnable challenge, she supported me. She thought that what the Elders had done to me was wrong. I couldn’t even begin to comprehend why she thought differently than the Valkyries in this barrack. I pulled the blankets over my chest, shaping the pillow beneath my head as I enjoyed the warmth and the thick mattress. For the first few years of my captivity, I had believed the same way she had. That no one had a right to hurt me. As time went on– and I saw the disgust every day in the eyes of the Valkyries around me, the fear of the children as they hid behind their mothers, the shamed eyes of the Elders – I had come to believe in what they had called me. A cursed child. An abomination. I didn’t know if I could change that thinking – even if I wanted to. Honestly, it was so much easier to accept the contempt and disgust if I acknowledged my deformity than it would be to try and bear up under that weight.

  I groaned and flipped onto my stomach. Running my fingers through my hair, I began the counting exercises I had always used to calm myself and fall asleep in the most painful and uncomfortable circumstances. As I counted down and waited for sleep to take me, I let the memories of pine, rain, vanilla, honey, and cinnamon wash me into a contented sleep.

  “Hey Sunbeam, you miss us?” Flynn’s teasing voice pulled me from a deep, exhausted sleep.

  “What?” The word came out slurred and bleary as I struggled to wake up.

  “You thought we’d leave you alone
here? Our Father may have sent you back, but we’ll help make sure you stay protected.” Blaine’s voice drew my eyes to where he leaned against the doorway.

  “You sent me Tesha.” I fought the urge to throw myself into their arms. Although they seemed to want to be my friends, I couldn’t help but feel it was inappropriate, even with Tesha’s encouragement.

  “I see you two are already becoming friends. Good. You could use someone like her in your life - everyone could. She’s been a big sister to us.” Flynn smirked, turning his head to study me. “I’ll have to warn her not to share any embarrassing stories though.” The words came out distractedly as if he didn’t really consider that necessary but was making a small note. I smiled in response, remembering our conversation from the night before.

  “I’m glad to see you.” I hoped it wasn’t too forward to state that to a prince, but I couldn’t resist the urge.

  “Come on, sleepyhead!” Hunter popped his head around the door frame. “We’ve got a surprise for you.” Ducking back out the door, I heard his feet clatter down the hall.

  Giggling, I pulled myself from the bed, brushing the wrinkles from my pants and top. “A surprise?” I didn’t understand these males. Weren’t they supposed to be entitled and stuck up? Why were they drawn to me? For that matter, why was I drawn to them? Being attracted to males wasn’t exactly high on my list, though it was true my experience with them had been very limited since I had become a teen.

  “You’re fine, let’s go!” Flynn tugged at me, his wings flicking in agitation and excitement.

  Their enthusiasm was contagious, and I found myself eager to find out what they had planned for me. I felt like a puppy, tagging along after Blaine and Flynn striding ahead of me. Unlike the palace, plenty of Valkyries were around to observe our interactions and most did not try to hide their interest; some even stopped to blatantly stare. A few of the looks were simply curious, even awestricken. Most faces, however, reflected a variety of emotions: fear, contempt, anger, and disgust being the most prevalent. I shrunk further behind the princes, using their bulk and the spread of their wings to help cover my position while partially listening to their chatter of palace affairs.