The Queen That Finds Ways Part 2
Chapter 2 : Nynette
It had taken Ivara some time to get used to living with the Wayfinders. It still made her smile when she thought back at how surprised Radek was when she entered the carriage he and Aleera already occupied. Once he was filled in with the king’s plan, he promised Aleera to keep an eye on Ivara. Like she would need that.
During the same ride the three of them also came to pick up Aleera’s idea again to train Ivara. The leaders weren’t thrilled about it but in the end, they bend to the decision since Aleera made it sound like it was a king’s order. Neither Radek nor Ivara ever told the truth about it.
The first weeks Radek taught her the basics and soon her roommate Nynette helped out as well. It was easy to like Nynette. She was shy in groups but bubbly when they were alone and reminded Ivara so much about Lukretia.
Once the other younger Wayfinder learned Ivara wasn’t the arrogant noble girl but actually put as much effort, pain, tears and sweat into everything as them, they became friendlier to her.
Now, eight months later, they formed a small group. Radek was still her master but with Nynette, Serilsa and Cadoc to train, laugh and just be stupid teenagers it was a whole different life than back at the castle. Even if Radek was only four years older than them and more like an older brother than an actual master.
Ivara looked at her hands, now carrying the signs of the sword drills and archery training and grinned like crazy.
“Oh no, it finally happened, our fair princess gone mad”, Cadoc teased as he nudged her with his shoulder.
“Yeah, look at that wild grin. Clearly a mad woman”, Serilsa added laughing.
A rustic mug got put in front of Ivara. The thud sounded off from the walls carved into the mountain.
“Idiots. All of you. Except, Nyn.”
“So, what are you starring at your hands like that?”
Serilsa sat down with her bow and casually checked if the tension was still alright.
“I just realized this feels better than the life back at the castle. Don’t get me wrong. It was nice to have all the good meals and comfortable beds but this… pushing my body, being outside all day, moving… I don’t feel anymore like I would crawl up the ceiling.”
Nynette threw a washcloth at her to clean her hands and face from the last agility parcourse failures.
“You make it sound so boring to life in the castle.”
“Depends on who you are”, Ivara admitted, “I wasn’t allowed to run or do more than embroidery or horse riding since I was ten. My mother was too worried something might happen to me. Partially I get it.”
She stopped to wash the dirt off her face, shaking her head after it.
“But?”, Cadoc inquired.
She rolled her eyes.
“See, me two older cousins died from poisoned blood. The first came back with a wound from a hunting trip that got infected and nothing helped. The second was a damn whore and slept around so much he ended up in the wrong bed, so the horned husband demanded a duel. Another wound that got infected and another prince six feet under. Besides this the strange cases of miscarriages the befell the queen, the bejeweled queen and my mother.”
With a wet splash the cloth landed back in the wash basin a few steps aside.
“Someone is trying to erase your lineage.”
Nynette hadn’t spoken loud but clearly. Serilsa and Cadoc nodded seriously.
“She is right, this too many coincidences”, he stated with a stern face.
“Tell me. I figured that out two years ago. I am sure the king also did and that’s why I was sent here. Something is going on and we can’t be sure it is one of the extended family trying to get the crown.”
With this Ivara fell back on the bed she sat on, glancing at the ceiling. Nynette’s face came into her view. Dark brown eyes glanced at her mischievously. The next moment she placed a kiss on Ivara’s nose.
Her whole mind came to a halt.
“Girl!”, Serilsa laughed.
“What? It was an impulse.”
Blushing, Nynette crawled back and sat on the floor.
“Aww look at that. Isn’t that a cute face”, Cadoc teased her even more.
“Cut it, Cadoc. You know her”, Ivara ordered still laying on the bed.
Instead of more teasing she heard a rustling sound. A part of her expected Serilsa to get up but it was Cadoc who hovered over her like the gentle giant he was. For his seventeen years he was built like a damn house and already as big as the seasoned warriors.
With one hand on the frame, he only leaned a bit over her to not impose on her. His head down on his chest and a big frown on his face.
“Iva?”
“What?”
“Your cheeks are red as some heaven’s damned summer apples.”
He tried to not laugh but the laughter was audible in his voice. Just like she felt the heat moving from her cheeks all over her face and down her body.
“You have five breaths to move or I kick.”
Grinning like the cat that stole the milk he moved backward.
“I have one question”, Serilsa stated out of the sudden.
“Shot it”, Ivara got into a sitting position again.
“What happens in the worst scenario that you have to be queen?”
All three looked worried at her and she sighed, sliding down on the ground to them.
“In this case I will have to leave, pick a Wayfinder as traditions ask of me and marry for political strength.”
Deep down, she knew it was only a matter of time when this will happen. This wasn’t an if question or preparations for the worst. The last letter her mother sent her held no good news.
“There is more”, Cadoc stated.
“Radek was my cousin’s first Wayfinder. She sent the third one back within a year. There is always something she has to claim where it doesn’t work.”
The exchanged glances were telling. The way Cadoc looked at her was a silent question of whether any of them had been intimate. Ivara shook her head to negate that. That was the actual issue all along.
Bernia refused to lay with anyone. She even refused to marry so far but she also refuses the alternatives. There had been kings and queens like her before and things got handled discreetly. Yet her self-denial was giving everyone a headache.
With a frustrated growl, Ivara stretched.
“I need to hit something. Who is with me?”
“If we hit Cadoc I am in”, Nynette joked.
“Private trainings dummy at your service.”
“Isn’t it lovely how he is so eager to get hit on by us girls?”, Serilsa joked
“Just the three of you. The others don’t play fair during training.”
A flash of pain moved over his face. Ivara didn’t want to know what the others did in the past, he refused to train with them. On the other hand, she had witnessed some of the other female Wayfinders getting real mean in fights that made even the older men scramble backwards in fear. At that moment she understood why they also trained women. They fought in ways men didn’t and sometimes it was visible when a male Wayfinder was taught by a female master because his way to fight and to assess the fight differed. It wasn’t much but after the time with them Ivara could already tell the difference.
As they walked up to one of the smaller areas, she just hoped her cousin would make it long enough for her to get good enough with fighting to be able to stand her ground alone if necessary. She was still far from this.
“Where are my ferocious four heading?”
Radek leaned against a tree on the side, peeling an apple like he had waited for them. Felba, who had started training Ivara in the more female ways of fighting recently, stood beside him with a mug and smirked.
“Told you they will get restless. You owe me twenty Tvar.”
She held out her free hand to get payed. Her scared face in a broad smirk and eyes sparkling in laughter.
“You bet on us again?”
Nynette was honestly surprised about this.
“All the time, sweets. Two are still running.”
That was all Felba told about that, even if the way she pointedly glanced at Ivara made her feel she was part of at least one of them.
“Sounds like you are also restless if you have to bet on your students.”
“Ha, she got you there”, Radek cheered, finished with the peeling and bit into the apple.
The whole group looked between both.
“Sometimes I wonder if you two aren’t related…”, Felba admitted defeat.
“The kingdom wouldn’t survive this. They are both too sarcastic and love too much to annoy people”, Serilsa stated with an eye roll.
Yet it got something moving inside Ivara’s mind. Many Wayfinders were orphans or bastards the poor mothers couldn’t raise. There was a chance Radek was the bastard of a sideline.
The way Radek glanced over the almost finished apple towards her told Ivara he had a similar train of thoughts.
“Who is your cousin’s mother?”
“The bejeweled queen.”
Again, the group’s eyes went from Radek to Ivara. He finished chewing the last bit as he held his index finger high.
“My mother gave me up when I was a few months old. Master Andrius knows my heritage.”
“And it had been done before when a bloodline became thin”, Ivara added.
Their eyes narrowed at each other. Without a word, as if an unspoken signal had been spoken, they began running to the Master’s building. The confused yells of her friends behind her Ivara’s head knew only one thought: Did they only sent Wayfinders who had hints of royal blood to the castle?”
Radek beat her to the building by a couple of steps and knocked on the thick wooden door when she arrived. Andrius arrived with an eyebrow raised.
“Radek, Ivara, what can I do for you? Are there any problems?”
“The Wayfinders sent to the heir Bernia, did you pick them because of their blood?”
Radek wasted no time. Still breathing hard, chest moving heavy he stood in front of the master of the Wayfinders.
Andrius’ face fell as he stepped aside.
“Come in. We need to talk.”
Tensed Ivara set down on the cushioned wooden bank as Andrius served tea.
“I am making this short and painless. Yes. Every Wayfinder we sent to the castle in the last years had royal blood in them. And yes, Ivara, even Aleera, Iona and Leandra. It was a measure planned with King Sorin before Elfred had to pick a Wayfinder. We know for a long-time war is coming and the royal blood needs to be strong for this.”
“Why this? What is so special about it? We are also just people like everyone else.”
Ivara put the cup down with force and spilled some tea.
“Yes and no.”
With this Andrius left and came back with a small box made of metal. When he opened it, a pearlescent light filled the room.
“This is one of two fractured pearls. Only certain people can use its powers and by pure accident the royal line is one of them. There are others. Simple common folk, some nobles in the past but their blood had been too thinned out. Only occasionally it happens a person with this ability is born again. In the past the Wayfinders picked the children by their ability to connect to it, so the king or queen had plenty of possible users at hand, but it died out. These days it is only the main line of the royal blood line and sometimes some people from the sideline.”
Fascinated Ivara only heard half of the explanation because the light somehow felt too warm, too familiar and somehow it called to her. Her hand moved on its own will to the pearl.
Pictures flashed in front of her eyes. Faces. The castle. Destruction. War. Herself on the throne. Radek. Nynette. Another person with a pearl.
Darkness.
“Ivara, heavens, are you insane?”
Radek’s worried voice was the first thing she could sense again. Someone holding her against their chest the next. Thundering headache followed.
“Ouch, damn heavens above. Something’s in the wine.”
Relieved laughter. A gentle tough to her forehead.
“Don’t scare us ever again like this, wild princess.”
It had been months since he called her that. Slowly she opened her eyes. Everything was too bright but with squinting it worked. Deep, deliberate breaths later Ivara could slowly sit up again.
“What happened?”
“The pearl reacted to you.”
The matter-of-fact way Andrius stated it was strange given how worried Radek sounded just seconds ago. Ivara rubbed her temples to ease the headache.
“Explains the headache.”
“Can you tell what happened?”
Andrius moved closer to her, almost a breath away from deciding to kneel in front of her on the ground. This felt wrong. Everything inside her shouted to lie.
“It was bright, blinding, many colors, and then everything went dark and I heard Radek. Shouldn’t you know what it does?”
“Every user shows other powers. Some gain the power to see. Other the power to control light or water. From what you told you might discover yours later. We wait.”
The master’s eagerness also put a frown on Radek’s face.
“For now, I think she should take a break from this thing and concentrate on her regular training.”
The eagerness vanished from Andrius face and back was the serious master they knew.
“Yes, sure, I am sorry I forgot about that. Also, I would like to apologize beforehand, Ivara. If ever comes the day you need to ascend the throne ….”
She cut him off with a harsh hand gesture, suddenly all royal again.
“I am aware. I will be presented with the same Wayfinders as my cousin to keep the royal blood strong. I want a list within the next days. Also, of those of my age.”
Andrius nodded seriously as he closed the lid of the box again and went to put it away again. The thoughtful glance on Radek’s face was something she understood too well.
“Who was my father?”, he asked Andrius the moment the master sat down on his seat again.
“It was a second cousin of the king. He died when you were young.”
Immediately Ivara went through her family tree and tried to remember any distant male family member that died within the last fifteen-ish years. There were only two she remembered.
“It was either Ansel or Brogan.”
Andrius’ face turned to her like a whip, eyes wide. An aloof smile on her face, Ivara stood up and breathed out audible in the most obvious annoyed way.
“Who of them.”
“Ansel.”
“Thank you. Thinking about this, maybe the list should also include the heritage since you apparently are aware of it.”
“Yes, my princess”, Andrius lowered his gaze.
Next to her she heard a surprised huff from Radek. Deep down she was also surprised to see the master of the Wayfinders submit to her like this but at least she didn’t need to beg and cry or do something worse.
Rubbing her temples again, she let out another sigh.
“I should see the healer for those damn headaches before I hurt someone.”
“I will bring you.”
The next second Radek was next to her. A gentle hovering hand on the small of her back he softly nudged her to leave.
“Have a good day, master”, she said and got a nod in return.
For half the way they walked in silence until she didn’t take the turn to the healers but to the more secluded training area. Radek didn’t question her but followed.
“We have things to talk about, don’t we?”
“Yes, plenty of them”, she confirmed.
A humming agreement later he walked a bit faster to get in front of her to clear the path. Using the place a bit above the main area, carved into stone almost like an alcove where the wind would make eavesdropping impossible, they hid in the small real alcove that was created for breaks.
“You saw something.”
It was a simple statement with no accusations in his voice.
“I did. From what he said I might have the powers of a seer.”
Ivara folded her hands in her lap, glance casted in the distances as if she could bring back the pictures she had seen with this.
“What was it?”
“War. Death. You. Nynette. The other person with the second pearl.”
Silence. The wind even seemed to hold its breath.
“What else?”
Her eyes moved to Radek. His tension was palpable, yet she needed to look. Worry, fear and sorrow danced in his mismatched eyes. While the steel blue one appeared to show his preparedness to fight for her till his last breath his soft brown one felt like overflowing with worry and brotherly love for her. It was strange how they became like siblings so fast. Perhaps it was this what Serilsa sensed as family bond.
“Me on the throne. It all starts with Bernia’s death.”
The moment she said it out loud the wind howled even louder. To her it sounded like the world already mourned the loss of the future queen. Radek pulled her in a hug.
“We can’t stop this, can we?”
“I don’t think so. Not as long as she keeps on sending the Wayfinder she picked back and refuses to marry.”
“The heavens have decided then”, Radek said grimly.
Slowly he let go of her, but held her by her shoulders much to Ivara’s surprise.
“I will stay with you no matter what happens.”
Laughter bubbled out of Ivara.
“Radek, I won’t pick you as my Wayfinder, that would feel so weird.”
“I won’t leave your side.”
Determination irradiated from him in a way she never saw before yet she had her own.
“You know this is impossible.”
“You forget the laws of war”, he smirked.
For a moment Ivara had to think hard. War laws never interested her much, never had to since she never thought she would even come close to ascending.
A bitter laugh escaped her as she remembered.
“In times of war a king or queen does not mandatory need to marry for political reasons and can choose as many Wayfinders for his or her protection as needed. Any child born under war law from the king’s female Wayfinders he considers his or from the queen’s lap is considered legitimate.”
Shaking her head, the wind still howling, Radek beamed at her.
“That is what I mean. Also…”, he carefully moved the jacket of hers away to grab with index and middle finger into the inside jacket the small paper flower she got from Nynette a month ago, “…I know who gave you this and I think you would want her around to.”
Ivara clumsily grabbed the paper flower from his hands and glared at him.
“How do you know?”
“Iva, I am the one who is around you the most. Do you really think I didn’t notice how you got all giggly and blush around her? The only question is: Did Nynette tell you what the flower means to us Wayfinders?”
Her eyes fell to the slightly crumbled paper flower in her hand as she nodded. It had took Nynette almost a whole evening to hand it to her and explain it meant a promise to stay together if accepted. The rest of said evening they spent on back and forths because Ivara knew the day will come she would be called back to the castle, either because Bernia died or to be married of for an alliance.
“Yes, she also doesn’t care it won’t mean forever. I don’t want to break her heart but it will happen and she knows it. How…?”
Helplessly she looked up to Radek who simply nodded with an assuring smile.
“How can she still choose this? Because she loves you. Because as a Wayfinder we grow up from childhood on with the knowledge everything is fleeting, to hold on to the small good things we have.”
A small nod was all she could muster that moment. Living with the Wayfinders allowed her to express herself, to be herself but on the other hand it pushed her emotional limits once in a while and today was such a day.
“Radek?”
“There is still something you want to talk about, my little stupid one?”, he teased, nudging her shoulder as waited for her to speak up again.
“Your father. How old are you?”
The confused blink made her snicker.
“I am turning twenty-two this summer. How is this important?”
“Andrius said your mother gave you up when you were already a few months old. Not right away like most. The reason is your father. Ansel was a good one as far as I know from the stories I heard but he died twenty-two years in winter this year. “
The way Radek sat completely silent for multiple breaths became confusing, until he draw one long breath and sighed.
“My mother gave me up because my father died and his support died down.”
“She made sure you will survive”, she put a hand on his arm, “There is something else.”
“More?”
“If we ever get a chance, I want you to touch this damn pearl, too. Ansel always had weird things happen around him regarding water and regarding the things Andrius told us your father might had strong blood when it came to that damn thing.”
Looking aside she spoke more to herself than him, musing about if all those freak accidents in her family only targeted those who showed signs of being able to have powers connected to that stupid pearl. A resolution formed inside her. Once the wheels of fate began to move and the unavoidable happened, she would do everything she could to uncover the truth behind all those deaths and most of all: Find a way to destroy both pearls.