Season’s Dragons: Winter, page 20
Her eyes radiated an excited warmth as she tackled me, giving me a long kiss that I was woefully unprepared for. Still, it made the reunion all that much more meaningful. I didn’t even care that we were kissing right there in the doorway, because her enthusiasm was infectious.
Finally, when we separated, I could see a hopeful smile on her beautiful face, staring up at me. Her eyes glittered in the soft firelight, sparkling like diamonds in the light.
“Charlotte, I have to make this quick, but I’m going to take back my throne!”
“Ya! That’s the spirit!” I cheered as I realized I might’ve woken up the entire house. Whoops.
“I need you to stay hidden a little longer, okay?”
I felt my smile fade away as she stared up at me, my frown transferring to her. Right…if she wanted the throne, then I couldn’t be with her, for my safety or some stupid reason.
“No no, weren’t we supposed to do this together?” I blurted, grasping her shoulders as she shook her head. She was a little disappointed, yes, but not overly so. She knew I would protest. I had to.
“Charlotte, you can’t slay a dragon. Nobody can except for another dragon.” I knew this. It hurt. Still, I wanted to be by her side.
“You’ve gotten me this far. You’ve been my closest friend, my dearest companion. My love. So let me do this. Let me win this one for the two for us.” She softly brushed aside my arms as she returned into the moonlit night with Sebastian. I could tell that she was crying. I shouted for her, but she continued walking away, her cloak fluttering in the night.
I could feel tears rolling down my eyes. I was crying. Damn it, I never cry. I wasn’t supposed to cry!
I couldn’t help it though, because she knew that I’d never let her do that, just walk out on her own and do everything herself. She knew that if she stayed around, I’d keep trying to come along.
So she came to give me one last kiss before our goodbye.
I sniffled as I closed the door. I knew it was temporary, but there was a difference between waiting and being left behind. I’d been waiting for her to return, but now, I had been left behind. I hated knowing that Aria was doing both of our work by herself. I hated knowing she was right.
My fists closed as I slammed the door, tears still flowing down my cheeks. It was good news, yet for the first time in months, I felt truly alone. She didn’t just fall in love with me. I also fell in love with her, and now I had to watch her go.
I didn’t want to sleep in our bed, because I’d spend the entire night crying. Instead, I grabbed a cloak and slept on the floor, trying to sleep off the pain in my heart.
Chapter 17: Hollow Duty
Twang!
I bit my lip as I let go of the shot, feeling it fly wide. Sure enough, it did, landing right on the mark between the two outer rings. Missing that much stung more than if I had never shot at all.
If I was going to shoot a bow again, then I was going to have to unlearn all those habits I had grown up with. The last three shots had all veered to the right, even though I was shooting the same way before Aria healed my arm. It was frustrating.
I walked forward, drawing my pistol. At least I could hit with this. I steadied it for a singular moment, then pressed the trigger. The roar of gunpowder rang across the snowy field and black smoke drifted towards our home. Not bullseye, but barely in the second circle.
I could hear shouts from inside the house as I shook my head. Guess that’s what happened when I practiced firearms but didn’t tell them about it.
My mind was still focused on no longer having a straight shot with a bow. Aria probably fixed up my arm wrong. Speaking of which, trying to stay cooped up while Aria was out there doing her thing didn’t sit well with me. I think deep inside I always knew that I couldn’t follow her all the way, but having it thrust at my face so plainly didn’t make it hurt any less.
“Charlotte! What in the blazes was that!” Kennith’s shout blared across the snow-covered field as I let out a nervous chuckle.
“Just practicing my shot! With guns! Nothing to worry about!”
I knew it worried them. After Aria left and we had settled down, they began noticing that I had brought home a sword, guns, among other equipment that I’d never had. Myrtle didn’t hesitate to interview me with starstruck eyes, even as I informed her that swords were generally useless, and that dragons were fabulously unrideable.
I decided not to tell her that Aria was built like a giant tank on legs, though the massive wingspan was something she adored. She also loved the imagery of Aria blotting out the moon as she rescued me from that shootout in Arlond. Kennith spent that entire story looking at me like I was giving him a heart attack. Considering the things Aria and I have gotten away with, I wouldn’t blame him.
Now though, boredom has sunken in. Myrtle’s holed up in her study as usual, writing the next big thing with those dragon facts I gave her. My brother was constantly out, talking with his guard mates.
He’s likely tipping them off that something big is happening to keep them safe, but honestly, I couldn’t care less. It’s not like if we banded together or something, we could fight a dragon.
Meanwhile I was stuck here cooling my heels. Every hour was a frustrating combination of boredom, worry, and loneliness. I’d also had enough of target practice. I didn’t have the heart to blame Aria for healing my arm wrong; the fact that she could pull something like that was a miracle in itself.
Instead, I loaded up both guns, took a deep breath, and took two loud shots back-to-back. Two thunderous clasps echoed through the field, as I waited for the black smoke clouds to dissipate. I was off by about three rings each when I fired them one after another. Considering I had been using a toss-and-go method so far, more accuracy was better. Reminded me of when I tried to fire my bow in that blizzard that one time.
I grabbed everything and headed back inside. My footprints have pretty much created its own path through the snow during the week spent doing nothing. With a kick, the door snapped open. I stepped inside before throwing my bags across the room, not having the energy to bother. I’d clean it up afterwards.
“I know this sounds weird, but it still freaks me out how loud guns are.” Kennith was back, at least for now. He still had his coat on, which meant he was just here to drop something off. I didn’t care anymore. After hearing Aria roar, everything else was soft in comparison.
“Kennith. I can’t keep sitting here and doing nothing,” I shouted abruptly as he raised his eyebrows. “Everyone’s doing something and I’m stuck here! Too precious to field and not magically gifted enough to contribute.” I crossed my arms before taking a seat, resisting the urge to kick the living room table.
“Well, why aren’t you? It’s not like I could ever stop you from doing anything,” Kennith said, already knowing what my answer was. Normally he’d chuckle at a statement like this, but he’s heard it too many times over the last week to find it amusing anymore.
“Because I care! And I know Aria’s trying to keep me safe but she’s doing stuff the two of us ought to be doing together!”
I suddenly shut my yap. There was a hidden line there that would have made my complaints perfectly valid. If I was a dragon. If I was a Pact Mage. I wasn’t any of those, so anything I said made it sound like I had a suicidal death wish. I slowly sagged into my seat, defeated, as Kennith joined me in the living room, cup of tea in hand.
“I’m not stopping you if you want to go.” He took a sip, as he waited for me to catch myself and go read the Book of the Trinity or something.
“You have to go, don’t you? You should just leave.” I avoided eye contact as he shook his head, cup still in hand.
“Of course not. I’ll leave when my younger sister’s feeling better. No ifs, ands, nor butts.” Even though I could outshoot and outclimb him, he was still insistent on treating me like his little sister. Stupid Kennith being too nice for his own good.
“Also, for perspective, you are currently complaining about how you’ve been told by your girlfriend, who is a royal dragon, to please stay away because she’s doing royal dragon stuff, and she’s trying to keep you safe.”
And there was the kicker.
“Kennith, I can’t beat that. It makes me sound like a petulant child whining that she isn’t getting a piece of the action. I’m not arguing that I should be out there. I mean, I am, but not because I think I should be.” I pointed at the door with surprising vigor.
“I’m saying it’s hopeless, because there’s nothing I can do to be out there. Before, I could have a better shot. I could learn how to read formally. I could adapt. Now? Nothing. Look at me Kennith, I’ve been reading this stupid book, taking notes, and getting nowhere!” I slammed the weighty church text onto the desk to make a point.
“I’ve never seen you try this hard to play catch-up, ever.” My brother took a sip, bemused. When I was younger, I did indeed have a bad case of trying to do things that I should’ve saved for when I grew up a bit more. Lots of scraped knees and a few broken bones.
“I can learn all the fancy words, or whatever that nobles need. But I can’t learn magic, and I can’t turn into a dragon. That hurts.” My brother’s quiet tea sipping hurt almost as much. That meant he didn’t have a thing to add.
“She’d tell me that I was fine just the way that I am.” I sighed as I leaned back into the backrest. “I’ve never been so severely upstaged, Kennith. I don’t know what to do,” I moaned, only for him to butt in. Why now. Let me mope, dammit.
“Does it matter to her?” I knew my brother wasn’t trying to poke holes, but I was getting more and more angry at the situation. I pointed at myself with a newfound rage, as my voice echoed throughout the house.
“It matters to me!”
There was a resounding silence as my brother walked away to wash his empty cup.
“Maybe it shouldn’t,” he began, but I tuned him out. I knew I shouldn’t panic, but knowing and feeling were two very different beasts, especially when my heart was involved!
“I’m not asking you to be happy,” my brother continued, “and I’m not asking you to stop being my gun-ho little sister, but this once it wouldn’t hurt if you were more okay with it. She is a royal dragon after all.” By the time he had finished, he was done putting on his boots and ready to head out. He waved a quick goodbye as he locked the door, leaving me to my thoughts.
There was still warm tea brewing, and a half-eaten hunk of split roasted lamb roasting away in the fireplace. Stewing on negative thoughts didn’t exactly leave me with a massive appetite. I got myself a cup of tea, then headed up the stairs to bug Mur-Mur. Anything but studying formal text again.
“Mur-Mur!” I knew her door was unlocked, so I gleefully kicked it down, much to her annoyance. “It’s been a week, and I’m bored! Entertain me!”
She looked like a wrecking ball smashed her roof into pieces.
“Look, I’ve been through this before, but I am not a good source of entertainment. All I can offer is what I’ve done, what my characters do, and what I think you should do. You have a completely unique case, as far as anyone is concerned.”
I took a seat on her bed as she turned around, still in her nightgown. “Okay, but what if I was a character in your book!” I grinned, hoping to hear her reply. She put down her pen by her deck and thought.
“Well, I admit your case is much closer to fiction than anything I have direct, or even indirect references to. I would set you in my usual time of the Trinities, with you recklessly running into combat against the ruling tyrant. On the verge of defeat, your dragon swoops in and saves you, teaching you a lesson about working together…But nothing is that simple is it?” She shrugged.
“Right, but what about this time?”
She tapped her chin again. “This timeline. Well, Charlotte, one of you are going to have to get a lot less experienced, or a lot more reckless. Aria appears to be making all the decisions of a capable ruler, despite her innocent demeanor. I may even consider what I presume was her decision to decimate the church leadership. Given what they threw at you two to stop you in your tracks, or at least demoralize Aria, it feels justified. In essence, while she’s not perfect, she makes enough capable decisions that I would say she carries the title of royal dragon well. She might be better than her brother in time, but she has lots of room to grow.”
I nodded along. It was nice to hear her complimenting my girlfriend in such a genuine way, even if it was a few dozen words too long.
“You, on the other hand. You may not agree, but you’re clever. Capable, independent, and a crack shot. I don’t say this lightly, but I think you would’ve been fine in one of my books without Aria’s help. Maybe you would’ve only done well, as opposed to your current exceptional status, but being able to hold your own in a world filled with dragons is high praise. Also, despite how you act, you know not to rush into battle and to take things meticulously when needed. I’ve heard how you fight from Kennith, so don’t worry. I’m not overestimating you.”
I gave a knowing shake of my head, along with a smile. I wasn’t that good, my brother’s was a mediocre fighter.
“You’re still here because you know that Aria has a good reason to keep you hidden, and that without an equally good reason to break her cautionary measure, you’d be better off hiding for both of your sake. Aria’s capable enough to put her plan into action, especially now it seems like she’s secured the mages of the Acadamae. In essence, the story is set up for an easy win, assuming you two are the heroes and not the villains usurping a rightful ruler from their throne.” She smiled, watching me piece together her words. I guess it was possible to see us as assholes coming in and disrupting a perfectly functional system.
“So, as you see, I’d have to write you as a lot younger, or I’d have to throw in some unknown circumstance that throws a wrench in our current plans,” she concluded. I still didn’t feel any better about it though.
“Sorry, if that’s not what you wanted to hear.”
I shook my head.
“No, that’s fine Mur-Mur. I get the feeling that you don’t think Aria’s young at all?”
She burst out laughing. “I believe that she is a mature teenager, but that shouldn’t discredit her competency. You told me that she never told you her age. Perhaps there is some wisdom in that. There is obviously the alternative that dragons develop at a slower pace than you or me, at which point she might be older than you. I suspect that might also be jarring information she’d rather keep to herself.” I nodded along. I never would have suspected that I was the younger one in the relationship.
“Back to this hypothetical novel. I would drop Aria’s age to around thirteen to fifteen and a lot less mature, in order to sell the story. That way you would have quite a bit to teach her while she grew into her dragon form and had her own arc of self-discovery. On the flip side, I could also have you follow her around when you were around thirteen to fifteen, to sell the idea that you were learning from this royal dragon and rising up to be the next dragon knight.” I frowned at that second idea as Myrtle suggested it. It felt wrong, especially since we were girlfriends.
I brought up my hands with some concern. “Okay, but two problems with that. I was a complete idiot when I was thirteen and I have no idea how I’m going to be a romantic partner at that age.”
“Oh, you’re absolutely right. I’m not stupid enough to attempt to recreate all aspects of your relationship. These are hypotheticals. However, they help display what I mean when I say you two are primed to win, even if in a slightly bittersweet manner. If I was the storyteller, I’d try and force you two to unite at the end and take out the evil king together. However, this is the real world. The king isn’t evil, and you don’t get to be the hero just because you would’ve deserved it in fiction.” I got the point. Reality doesn’t get to be as dramatic as fiction.
“Cold comfort.”
Myrtle sighed with me. That was rare, but was she disappointed?
“I know you want me to tell you that you should run out there. Follow your heart. Have an endearing one to one with Aria and give her lots of kisses, but I can’t do that in good conscience. Hopefully my words have helped a little bit, but I suspect they’ve done little other than confirm your fears.”
I got up from the bed with a stretch and a yawn. “Don’t sweat it. I know you may not always say it, but you want the best for us. Also, good mind food.”
My sister-in-law glared to the side. I wanted to say that she looked irritated, but it was always so hard to tell with her. “Of course I do. I may not be as capable physically, or a Pact Mage, but I intend to protect my family, however I can.” I watched Myrtle’s eyes perk up, before relaxing again.
“Perhaps we are not so different, she and I.” Her whisper was so faint that I think it was only intended for herself.
I waved goodbye as she went back to work. Time to get to reading again, or maybe I’ll try whipping something up in the kitchen.
* * * *
I didn’t like nightgowns much. Maybe it was because I camped outside a lot and changing into them would be a massive inconvenience. Maybe because I didn’t like how all the dresses in Myrtle’s house had frills.
As I opened the door to my room, ready to fall asleep from another day of boredom, I paused. Something trying to squeeze through the window. I grabbed my pistol from the holster and shuffled to my nightlight, as the figure continued to wiggle.
With a flick, the entire room was flooded with light. Sebastian’s assistant was doing a pretty good job at the whole break-in attempt. Minus me pointing a loaded gun at his face.
“Oh! Hey Charlotte! Did you know one of your windows are stuck?” He sheepishly grinned as I kept my gun on him, not saying a word. I watched his purple eyes flicker from a soft and mischievous to fear as I approached, gun in hand.
