Reign (Land of the Elementals Book 4), page 12
He didn’t even know what to think, though he kept his mouth shut and tightly closed off his emotions. He was here for Kya right now. She had specifically asked him to stay because she’d already known. She just hadn’t known the exact gruesome details.
Kya was clutching his hand tightly in both of her own, tears streaming from her eyes. However, she wasn’t as hysterical as Arbor might have expected. He saw more anger than sorrow there. She was angry about the betrayal of her brother, at the horrors he’d committed. The only thing Arbor could liken it to was if Karria had turned on and murdered his parents. Something like that should be impossible, and yet, here was someone telling them the truth, and, unlike most, Kya couldn’t simply deny what had happened.
Her Connection magic assured she knew the truth and what Palmine had to say was nothing but.
“I actually had another reason for coming here,” she said, addressing these words to Arbor. “My people are suffering under Zir’s rule. He’s a tyrant, plain and simple, one who made a deal with a Demon. He’s prepared to sacrifice the entire elven race if it means remaining in power. Even now, he’s preparing for an assault on the Jagged Peaks in a bid to subjugate the dwarves. I know it’s a lot to ask and that you owe us nothing, but will you please help us?”
“He’s already agreed to that,” Kya said, her voice strong, despite her tears.
“You have?” Palmine asked, displaying surprise for the first time since arriving.
“Yes,” Arbor said. “At first, I was going to go after them due to the constant attempts on my life, but our timetable has moved up. I’ve recently found out that Zir is attempting to open a portal that will allow Demons free reign on Laedrin. According to my sources, we have half a year at best. We’re already preparing our forces, but it’s going to take a couple of months to get everything ready.”
“Wait, you didn’t tell me this,” Kya said. “You’re really going to free my homeland so soon?”
Arbor gave her a small smile, squeezing her hand.
“Frunk tells me we should be fully prepared in nine weeks. I can’t promise we’ll win, but we’re going to do our best to take Zir down and free your homeland.”
Kya’s grip on his hand tightened, and she gave him a watery smile, the first one she’d shown since finding out about her parents’ brutal executions.
A knock came at the door then, and a moment later, it opened to reveal a sleepy and disheveled Ramona.
“Care to tell me what’s going on?” she asked, looking between Kya, Palmine, and Arbor.
“Straight to the point I see,” Arbor said. “Good. Kya here is going to the Jagged Peaks, along with several others, to save my sister from some self-inflicted hostile magic. She has no way in, so I want to ask you to help her. Your magic can get them in without being detected. It won’t be an easy mission. Even with fast horses, it will probably take nearly three weeks just to get there. I know you’re under no obligation to help, but still, I’m asking.”
“She’ll help,” Kya said before Ramona could so much as open her mouth. “She promised to help you save her when you joined the Defiants and wants to keep that promise.”
“How did you…?” Ramona asked, then sighed. “A mind reader, are you?”
“Sort of,” Kya said. “We’re also going to go to war against my Uncle Zir soon. So, the faster we save my best friend, the faster we’ll be able to join up with Arbor’s forces.”
“When do we leave?” Ramona asked.
“The day after next,” Arbor said, quickly cutting in. “Akkard, the dwarven king, needs a little time to recover, especially after the ordeal he’s been through, as do the gremlins who will be accompanying you. And I will hear no arguments,” Arbor said before Kya could say anything.
“I know you didn’t ask, but I’m looking out for you. I’ve already lost too many people who are important to me. I won’t risk sending you into danger without some extra protection.”
Kya bit her bottom lip but nodded.
“All of you should go get some rest. Tomorrow will be a busy day of preparations and planning, so you’re going to need it.”
Palmine rose, taking ahold of a walking stick, and slowly made her way out of the room.
“If you need to speak with me, dear, you know where to find me.”
Kya nodded, remaining silent as Ramona and Palmine left. Arbor was halfway out of his chair when she tightened her grip on his hand.
“I don’t much feel like going back to sleep. Will you stay with me? Please?”
When he’d been awoken in the middle of the night, Arbor had already expected he wouldn’t be going back to sleep. He wasn’t too upset or bothered to sit back down next to the girl. She’d just found out about the deaths of both her adoptive parents, the people who’d raised her as their own after the deaths of her real parents.
Arbor had lost his parents, had seen them murdered before his very eyes. He well understood her pain, so he sat with her and allowed her to lean on his shoulder and cry her eyes out. They didn’t talk, just sat there as the clock ticked. When he finally rose, leaving the exhausted elf asleep in her chair, he felt that they’d grown a bit closer.
He’d had the feeling that Kya wasn’t always completely comfortable around him, but tonight had broken down whatever barriers had been between them. She would no longer hesitate when asking for help, which was a good thing. Having lost her last remaining family, he was all she had. Well, at least until she got Karria thinking straight once more.
“Where to now, my lord?” Prudence asked.
“The training grounds,” Arbor said, stretching his arms over his head. “I could really use some stress-relief, and I think that’s just the thing that’ll do it.”
“I will meet you there,” she said, then jogged off to go change.
Arbor arrived at the open training grounds ten minutes later. It was just past six in the morning and the air was still quite chilly, despite the warming weather. The spring moon was still in the sky, but Arbor suspected that the orange summer moon would soon be rising in its place.
Prudence had yet to arrive, so Arbor kicked off his slippers and dropped his robe, leaving him bare-chested and dressed in just a pair of night pants. They were light and would definitely not hold up to any training, but he really couldn’t care less right now.
Although he’d managed to remain composed in front of the others, the very thought of Karria doing all of those terrible things made him feel sick down to his stomach. Thoughts, previously suppressed for Kya’s sake, whirled through his mind as he worried that Karria would never return to normal.
In his mind, she was still the innocent girl who loved sweets, liked to tease him mercilessly about his time spent admiring himself in the mirror, and loved spending time with him. Karria was the little girl who was growing up before his eyes, becoming brighter and livelier with each passing day. She was the one person he would gladly trade his life for without a second thought.
“I see that you’ve started without me.”
Arbor, who’d been in the process of stretching his legs, looked up to see Prudence approaching. She was dressed in her usual training garb, with the strange chest wrappings that left her midriff, shoulders, and arms exposed, showing off her impressive musculature.
In one hand, she clutched a bundle of clothes, likely meant for him, and a pair of metal canteens. In the other, she carried training staffs and pads.
“I need to get my mind off my sister,” Arbor said, extending his other leg. “I can’t stop worrying, and I feel like it will drive me mad if I’m not occupying my mind.”
“Not to worry, my lord,” Prudence said, setting down her bundle. “I can make today’s training session extra difficult. If you will change your pants…?”
“No,” Arbor said. “I don’t care if I ruin them. I need to start now.”
“Very well,” Prudence said, raising two of the pads. “Let’s begin with striking.”
Arbor nodded, getting into his stance, and struck. His hands began flashing out in a rapid series of blows as Prudence called the time. No magic was allowed in these sessions, as Arbor used this time to hone his fighting skills.
“Five,” Prudence called, and Arbor performed the series of strikes the number represented.
His hands, held in loose fists, flashed out in quick succession. They struck the pads with dull thumps as Prudence quickly moved them to block the areas he was targeting. Combination five aimed at disabling an opponent without actually striking at the face.
It began with a soft blow to the opponent’s solar plexus. Nothing hard, just a light rap to open their guard. Strikes two and three were aimed at the liver and kidney, while strike four aimed for the solar plexus again.
Prudence leaned forward, doubling over, to mimic how an opponent might react, and the fifth strike came down. Arbor’s hand, extended into a blade, slammed down at the base of Prudence’s neck – blocked by a pad she’d raised.
This last blow could either be a knockout or killing blow, depending on how hard he hit. With Arbor’s magic, he could shear a head clean off.
“Ten,” Prudence said, resetting her stance.
Arbor’s hands flashed out once more. Nose, ear, jaw, throat, collar, liver, kidney, chin. The blows landed swiftly, smacking into the targets once after the next.
“Seven.”
Arbor struck again.
They trained like this for nearly two hours, at which point they changed from practice to actual sparring, where Prudence would hit back. Although they wrapped their knuckles and wore light pads on their shins and chests, this training almost always left bruises, and even with Arbor’s vast improvements, Prudence was still the better pure fighter by far.
However, by the time he left the training ground at half-past ten in the morning, bruised and battered, Arbor felt better than he had in days. He’d managed to get a few good shots in as well, so he wasn’t the only one sporting bruises. His proudest shot showed itself as a splotchy red welt on Prudence’s ribs, right below her chest from a perfect center-mass strike that had broken her stance and nearly knocked her from her feet.
Of course, her retaliatory blow had left an equally nasty bruise on his left shoulder and knocked him to the ground, as Prudence had thrown one of her legs in the way as she punched.
“Will I ever be as good as you?” Arbor asked as she wiped the sand and grit off his back in one of the small gazebos surrounding the training grounds.
“My level of skill was acquired over the course of a lifetime,” Prudence said. “I started training in the martial arts when I was just a child, no older than five. One day, you may surpass me in skill, though I’m sure you can take comfort in knowing that in pure strength, you have me outmatched many times over.”
“So that’s a no then,” Arbor said, wincing as the damp cloth swiped over a nasty scrape.
“Let us just say that mastering a martial art takes years of dedicated study and training, and seeing as you’re constantly busy with more important things, you do not have the time. Additionally, things learned in childhood tend to vastly improve performance, as your muscles and reflexes grow and develop in a different way. So, in short, you may very well surpass me one day, though it is highly unlikely that you will manage to do so within the next decade.”
“Guess I can’t be the best at everything,” Arbor said, wincing again as she scrubbed over a patch of scraped skin.
“None of us can,” Prudence replied. “Just give it your best, and before long, you’ll be as proficient in the martial arts as you are with your weapon.”
17
“Grak?” Arbor asked, seeing the gremlin woman standing there as he exited the gazebo. “What are you doing here?”
“My job,” Grak replied, raising a clipboard and looking down at the parchment there. “Since I was gone, your butler was forced to take on the responsibility of your aide. Now that I’m back, I can take at least one thing off her plate.”
“Shouldn’t you be resting?” he asked, looking her over critically.
While she did look a bit better with her dark blue hair neat and combed and her skin scrubbed clean of all the dirt and grime of the road and her imprisonment, she still looked woefully undernourished. It was like she would fall over with just the slightest push.
“I got a good night of sleep and have a full breakfast in me,” Grak said. “Hord is already working on repairing your damaged armor and is practically drooling over all the Mythicallium we collected from the Magma-Tiger. I refuse to laze around just because you’ll let me.”
She received an approving nod from Prudence, though Arbor himself wasn’t so sure. He reached out, placing a hand on her cheek and really looked at her. She didn’t resist as he pushed his Perception magic into her body, but what he found was quite shocking. There was absolutely nothing wrong with her.
There wasn’t so much as a single strained muscle or even any inflammation around her feet from all the walking she’d done.
“How?” Arbor asked, retracing his magic.
“I told you last night,” Grak said with a half-smile. “Palmine is the best healer I’ve ever met.”
“I just thought you were exaggerating to be nice,” Arbor said, rubbing his chin.
If Palmine really was that good, then perhaps he would go have another talk with her to see what she could do.
“If you’re sure you’re okay to get back to work, I won’t complain. I’ve missed having you around,” he said, cracking a smile.
“More like your lazy ass couldn’t get anything done without me here to kick it,” Grak said, returning the grin.
Arbor’s smile only widened at that. He’d been worried that the trauma from the time she’d spent locked up would have changed her. But she was the same Grak he remembered, snarky, honest, and lighthearted to a fault.
“I’m glad you’re back,” he said. “I really missed you.”
“Stop,” Grak said, swatting his arm. “You’re making me blush, and that’s not at all professional.”
“You, professional?” Arbor asked, raising an eyebrow.
“I can be professional,” Grak shot back. “Watch.”
She cleared her throat, straightened her back and stared ahead.
“I have your schedule for the day, my Viscount-guy. Today, you will be nobleing all over the place. You’re also going to meet some people about stuff. Then you’re going to eat supper and go to your noble bed.
“There, how was that?”
Arbor snorted out a laugh, earning him a glare from Grak.
“What?” she asked, sounding indignant.
“Just keep doing what you did before,” Arbor said. “I don’t think you’re very good at being proper.”
“Yeah, I think you’re right,” Grak said, allowing the fake glower to melt from her face. “Guess I’m just not as noble as you are.”
“Alright, just give me my schedule,” Arbor said, rolling his eyes.
“Well, firstly, and probably most importantly,” Grak said as they started heading for the manor entrance, “we finally heard back from the Duke’s messenger.”
“That was faster than expected,” Arbor said. “I was sure we’d be waiting six weeks before we heard anything.”
“Guess you’re just lucky,” Grak replied. “Anyway, the Duke’s daughter is already on her way. She should be here within the week.”
“So soon?” Arbor asked, feeling his heart skip a beat.
He wasn’t ready for this. It was one thing to talk about meeting someone he didn’t know with the understanding that they were going to be married. It was quite another to hear that he would be meeting them sooner than expected.
“Yes,” Grak said. “Apparently, she’s quite eager to meet you. Her father wanted to wait a few more weeks, but she wanted to come right away. Hammond says you should feel honored.”
“Honored, my ass,” Arbor muttered.
“Please, my lord,” Prudence said, cutting in. “That sort of language is hardly befitting one of your station, especially in public.”
Grak rolled her eyes and Arbor suppressed a smile, but she went on.
“We’ll have to start preparing for her arrival, but Sebastian will take care of all of that. She’ll be staying for an indeterminate amount of time, and due to her status, one of the royal suites is being prepared on the fourth floor for her.”
That one piece of the manor, the second half of the fourth floor, was reserved for the royal family and nobility who commanded equal respect. As the daughter of a Duke, putting her up in anything less would be an insult. Still, Arbor found it odd how he had to dedicate half a floor to people who may never visit. Though, now that someone of that rank was visiting, he realized that it would be far easier for his household staff to prepare.
“Great. So, all we know so far is that she’s coming sometime this week – which could literally mean today – and we also don’t know how long she’s staying. Is there anything we do know?”
Grak rifled through the sheaf of papers on her clipboard. “She likes pie.”
Arbor sighed.
“What’s on the agenda today?”
“A meeting with Kya, Akkard, Ramona, Frunk, and Shukle to plan out their infiltration of the Jagged Peaks.”
“What time?” Arbor asked, walking through a door Prudence held for him and entering into the first floor’s main living room.
They headed to a small dining nook where he liked to eat breakfast when he couldn’t be in his own private living suite.
“Afternoon,” Grak said, checking the schedule. “Apparently, they want to gather supplies for the trip before the meeting, so we’re looking at a time between three and four.”
“Anything else?” he asked, sitting down.
A plate of steaming pastries was immediately set before him, and Grak plucked the top one – a flaky, golden brown confection dusted with sugar and practically oozing with cream – and took a very loud bite.
“Nothing else,” she said, spraying crumbs all over the table.
