Return To Sky Raven (Book 2) Read online

  “Wizard Nia,” he chuckled and performed a formal respectful nod, bringing his eyes to her level. “Of course, you are welcome to come with us. My wife, Renalla, adores pixies and she would love to meet you.”

  Somewhat mollified, Nia smiled brightly, but then a look of confusion crossed her small face. “Mr. King, sir, is Renalla a common name among your people?”

  Fern frowned slightly in thought. “Why no, Nia, I don’t believe I’ve ever heard of another Renalla anywhere. Why do you ask?”

  Nia stammered slightly before replying, “Um, no reason…it’s just such a pretty name and all.”

  “Well, let’s go find my wife before she finds us, then we’ll have to catch up on old times over a meal. I don’t know about you, but I’m starving!” I laughed to myself; he always seemed to get that line in somewhere every time he came to town to visit. Smiling and happy to be welcomed, I followed him through town with a strangely agitated pixie on my shoulder.

  When Fern had gotten a few steps ahead of us, Nia stood up and walked over my shoulder to whisper in my ear. “Mister Alex, do you remember what I told you the first time I met Maya? About what a great girl she was, but if you ever messed up, she was going to kill you, burnt to a crisp?”

  “Um, yeah,” I said, concerned.

  “Well, you’re a dead man all right,” she giggled softly.

  Just then, we rounded the corner of one of the larger buildings and I heard the trailing end of a conversation, “Mom, you haven’t listened to a thing I’ve said for the past hour and a half…the thing is…I met this boy…” said a voice I would know anywhere. Abruptly, we ran straight into Maya and…Mrs. Fern? Wait, what?

  “Maya!”

  “Alex?”

  “Maya!”

  “Father!”

  “Father?”

  “Alex!”

  “Ok, I’m confused now!” I admitted aloud, as Maya and I unconsciously moved next to each other, and the Ferns stood together talking frantically between themselves. I turned to Maya as she looked equally confused. “You know them?” she asked.

  I nodded. “Of course, Mr. and Mrs. Fern are old family friends; I’ve known them all my life.”

  She placed both hands on my shoulders and fixed me with an icy stare. “Alex, those are my parents!”

  Well, I didn’t see that coming, but Nia obviously did as she leaped off my shoulder and was doing hysterical figure eights in the air above us. Mr. Fern, or I guess I should say Faeron, scooped up his daughter, or at least tried to before resorting to just hugging her to death. I even saw tears running down his face, and Maya was just as ecstatically hugging him back. “I am so glad you are all right! We heard about the attack on Xarparion and feared the worst.”

  Maya wiped away tears of joy. “I know, Mother told me.” He let her go and held her at arm’s length as he looked her over. “You’ve grown in seven years. You’re no longer the little girl I remember and now are such a beautiful woman.”

  Maya blushed and turned away. “Please stop, you’re embarrassing me.”

  Renalla came over and gave me a hug as well. “It’s so good to see you again, Alex; you’re so big! I’m sorry we had to miss your last seven birthdays; I hope you can forgive us.”

  “Lady, believe me, we will be asking a lot from you here very shortly,” I thought. Now that I saw them together, the resemblance between mother and daughter was striking. I don’t understand how it never occurred to me before.

  “It’s fine, Mrs. Fern, I mean Renalla.”

  She chuckled and hugged me again. “You can call me whatever you like, my dear. Besides, coming from you, Renalla just sounds off. Now tell me, what are you doing here when we are under siege? This is not a safe place for you, young man.”

  Faeron and Maya joined us, Faeron still with his arm around his daughter. “Oh, I’d say based on the amount of armor the boy is wearing, I think he knew exactly where he was going,” Faeron grinned.

  “Actually, Mother, Alex was the one leading the group of reinforcements I mentioned.”

  She sighed, “So help really did come. Maybe we can hold out then.”

  Faeron snorted, “The battle’s over, dear. Alex and his two druid friends, two warhorses, a stone giant, and this pixie practically wiped them all out single-handedly!”

  “It’s over?” she questioned incredulously, “and what pixie?”

  Realizing Nia had finished her aerial acrobatics and snuck back into hiding, I was forced to grab her from her sanctuary in my armor to present to them. Although once dragged out in the open, she instantly did her best to look cute as she always does, and Renalla fell right into her trap. After a few minutes of adoring the pixie, she got a hold of herself. “You three simply must come over to the house! And I won’t take no for an answer, either.” The look on Maya’s face made me think she was actually contemplating something violent.

  Winya popped into my mind and she seemed very happy too. “Just so you know, she is going to kill you for this - just saying!”

  “Thanks for your moral support,” I sent back with no small amount of sarcasm.

  “No problem, happy to be of service!”

  The group of us walked with Maya’s parents and entourage through the city. Along the way, Renalla was trying to make conversation with me and a very uncomfortable-looking Maya in tow. “So, I would say it’s safe to assume from the similarities in armor that you two know each other? Did you both join the same knightly order or something?”

  “Mom, I told you, we’re not paladins! But, yes, we met and know each other from Xarparion,” Maya muttered through clenched teeth.

  “It’s no matter, dear; I’m sure we’ll hear all about it when you tell us your stories over dinner. Besides, we’re almost home and you two need to get cleaned up, that much armor has to be horribly uncomfortable.” I found that to be rather funny because neither of us particularly wanted to shed our protective shells at all.

  The house was built on a small knoll in the center of the city, with a shallow decorative moat running around most of it. The late afternoon shadows were starting to creep across the grounds but a number of glowing orbs kept it muted, but cheerful. I couldn’t help but notice there was a small contingent of guards patrolling in pairs around the outside. A wide stone footbridge arched over the moat to the front door, and a smaller one led from a path to what looked like stables in the back courtyard. Other than just being very well-made and nice, there really wasn’t much on the outside to distinguish it from the other nice homes in the immediate vicinity. It certainly didn’t fit my image of a King’s palace. Once we were inside, the place became much more impressive; rich wood finishes covered every square inch of flooring and sidewall. Huge, louvered panels brought the breeze into the structure, but there were few windows. Renalla stopped us in the main foyer and made Faeron remove his boots with a wag of her finger.

  “Ok, let’s get you out of that armor.” Renalla beckoned to Maya as she started looking her over. “If I can ever figure out how to get you out of it, that is. Who in the world made this? It almost looks like it was painted on you.”

  I couldn’t help but snicker as Maya fixed me with a murderous glare and then looked away from her mother, blushing. “I can take it off myself, Mother,” she grated and started to undo the latches that held everything in place.” Renalla gasped and swatted her fingers away from the process. “Don’t take it off here in front of the boys! We wouldn’t want them to see you naked!” She grabbed one of Maya’s arms and led her away to another room

  Winya snickered in my head, “Well, one of them does!”

  Faeron watched his wife’s mother-hen impression and beamed. “You have no idea what having Maya back means to my wife. Come on, let’s get you out of your armor as well. The sooner you’re both clean, the sooner we can all eat!”

  He led me into one of the back rooms that dropped down a few feet and had a dirt floor. The walls were lined with a modest number of weapon racks holding various weapons; sadly, n
one were even close to Darroth’s quality of work.

  “Small, I’m sure, compared to wherever you both obtained your impressive weapons, but this is all l need.”

  I nodded and looked around, spotting a war hammer on the wall similar to the one Maya and I had found in the training shack back at school. I picked it up and gave it a few swings, and I would say it’s almost exactly like the one from training.

  “So after all these years of me offering to train you to use a sword, you finally break down and learn a weapon. But is it a sword? No, it’s a bloody war hammer, a weapon more fit for dwarves; I feel mortally wounded!” Just like that, we were back to it being like old times. I knew he was just digging into me to be an ass, but I could also tell he was supremely happy as well.

  “Oh, you know, we humans just ‘don’t have the finesse’ to use a blade.” It was a running joke between our families whenever Fern would offer to take me away and teach me to be a proper dark elf and my blacksmith foster father would refuse.

  He laughed hard for a few seconds. “I did say that, didn’t I? Oh well, I’m just glad you can hold your own in a fight now. Although I’m going to guess you need all that armor to make up for your lack of speed?”

  I grinned. “Well, why don’t we have a race some time and find out?”

  “Sounds like a great time! I’m going to go get you something clean to wear, be right back.”

  As he left the room, I sighed in relief. I didn’t want to have to take this armor off with him in the room. I don’t think now is the right time to just stand up and say, “Hey, I can shape metal with my mind,” and not be labeled crazy.

  With him gone, Nia and I were able to quickly shed the armor in peace. Less than five minutes later, he returned with fresh clothing and a surprised look on his face. “Wow, they must train you very well, and you’re a lot bigger than I thought. You look like you’ve gained a hundred pounds of pure muscle since the last time a saw you.”

  “Yeah, well, I did have an spectacular trainer.”

  He sighed. “What I would give to be young again…can’t do anything about that, I guess. Come on, I’ve got a bath going in the spare washroom.”

  It felt great to take a hot bath and be clean, and Nia seemed as happy in her bucket as I was the tub. Once clean and dry, I attempted to get dressed but, as big as Faeron was, his clothes were elf clothes and not meant for someone with calves the size of mine. Nia saved me from a load of embarrassment by flitting out to the stables to find our packs. She streaked back in a couple minutes outfitted in one of Rosa’s best dress creations and carrying my wizard’s robes from Xarparion.

  “Nia, I don’t think that’s a good idea,” I faltered, thinking about what it might say before we were ready to say it.

  “Sorry, but you forgot to pack anything but battle gear and this for yourself. No choice!”

  Crap, I had forgotten that this was a diplomatic mission. Oh, well, at least the robes were the most comfortable clothes I owned, and I had a feeling I was going to be sweating before the end of the evening. I couldn’t be sure, but I thought I heard a malicious Winya giggle in the back of my mind.

  As ready as possible, Nia and I wandered out into the main area of the house, which had the same theme of hand-crafted beautiful woods everywhere. Some of the walls had paintings that I suppose you would call abstracts, as they didn’t look like anything recognizable to me, but they were still fascinating to look at. Dark elves, for the most part, didn’t clutter their homes with much more than that. While gorgeous, the place still had a practical utilitarian feel about it.

  Finally, we found Maya and her father sitting at a large table and Renalla close by in the adjacent kitchen. Maya was wearing a simple dress, probably borrowed from her mom. Faeron was holding on to her hand, and they were laughing about something from her childhood and just enjoying the simple act of being together. It was obvious to me that there was great affection in this family, and I felt a twinge of guilt that somehow I was responsible for them being apart these many years. After all, my parents did say that Maya essentially went to Xarparion to be close to me.

  As we approached, I saw Faeron raise an eyebrow at my robes, and I smiled sheepishly. “Sorry, the clothes you brought me were just a little tight.”

  “Aren’t those wizard robes?”

  “Well, yeah, we did come from Xarparion and we left in kind of a hurry.”

  Renalla walked up and inspected me with a warm look. “Oh, leave the poor boy alone, Faeron. At least, he had the good sense to grab a set of robes that hadn’t been dyed yet, that way he won’t offend any real wizards if they see him.”

  The smirks were just rolling off Maya and Nia, as they could see how uncomfortable this all made me. Finally, apparently thinking I was primed for the kill, Maya patted the chair next to her, indicating where I was supposed to sit and called out impishly, “Mother could you come here for a second, please?” She looked at her father. “Alex has something he would like to ask you.” She smiled evilly at me and I just knew what she was thinking - payback is a bitch!

  Oh well, I probably deserved this, and that was laughingly confirmed by Winya in the back of my mind. Screwing up whatever courage I had left, I turned to Faeron, “Mr. Talmin, I would like permission to marry your daughter.”

  He practically leapt from his chair from surprise and Renalla let out some form of excited shriek before she covered her mouth. “Really?” he said excitedly. “That’s…” Then I watched in horror as both their expressions changed to sadness and remorse. “That’s unfortunate.”

  Huh?

  Renalla put a hand on her husband’s shoulder and her voice was quiet. “Maya, we have wanted nothing more than for the two of you to wed. Hell, we’ve even been trying to introduce the two of you for ages. But a lot has changed since you left. Your father is now King and that changes things dramatically, and not always for the better.”

  “What do you mean?” asked Maya, her face completely emotionless.

  Faeron spoke again, a single tear starting to run down his cheek. “It means that the clans will demand that you marry for political advantage. In short, law demands that you must either marry the son of another chief or someone from another kingdom who holds the rank of duke or higher.” They both cringed, fearing what she would say, and to be honest, so was I.

  After a long, hard minute of thought, her face lit up brightly. “Is that all? Any other rules we need to worry about?”

  “Huh?!” they both said, completely baffled by her response.

  “I have to marry a duke or higher, right? Well, that’s not a problem at all because Alex is a prince!”

  The color completely drained from both their faces from shock and disbelief. “He’s a prince?”

  I nodded, somewhat alarmed at their reaction. “It’s true.”

  Faeron leaned way back in his chair with a dazed expression on his face, while Renalla started frantically pacing back and forth, holding her head in her hands. After a minute, she started asking questions, but didn’t stop pacing like a caged cat. “Ok, let me get this straight. Alex, you want to marry my daughter?”

  Maya, Nia, and I all nodded. “Yes, ma’am, with all my heart!” A gentle hand squeeze under the table from my nervous dark elf told me that was the right answer.

  Renalla continued, “And somehow you found out that you were adopted?” Her hand shot to her mouth. “Unless you haven’t! By the gods, I’m so sorry!”

  “Don’t worry,” I said, “they told me.”

  She nodded, relieved, and continued, “Ok, so you found out you’re adopted. Merilda told me the story about the two strangers who gave you to them, but I just thought it was a very strange thing and haven’t thought of it since. I just knew that you were a blessing to my friend and I was happy for her.” She paused, collecting her thoughts again. “Somehow, you have found your real parents?”

  I nodded again. “They actually revealed themselves to me on my twentieth birthday; Maya was there, too.”
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br />   “And these parents just so happen to be a King and Queen?”

  “King and Queen of what nation?” asked Faeron, finally breaking out of his astonishment and his practical side showing through.

  Nia popped up. “King and Queen of the nebulia, the Nova!”

  Renalla’s knees started wobbling and she grasped Faeron’s shoulder for support. “The Nova! But they’re just legends, and according to those legends, their realm is the stars!” Finally, she just gave up and slid onto her husband’s lap for support.

  Faeron encircled his wife gently in his arms but looked at all of us sharply. “You two are positive about this? Forgive me, but it all sounds kind of crazy.”

  “Crazy talk from your crazy daughter?” Maya said coolly, challenging them with her eyes. “Yes, we’re positive about this; we have all met them. A little odd, but then they aren’t even remotely human. But one thing we do know is that they have good hearts and love Alex deeply, and I think they are starting to feel the same about me. They have been watching over Alex and me our entire lives.”

  “You’ve met them, these rulers from the stars?” they both said in surprise.

  Maya smiled and I sensed a good deal of evil delight as she pressed her advantage over them. “Why yes, less than a week ago, in fact. They visited us at our fortress.”

  “You have a fort…fortress?” Renalla stammered.

  “Oh yes! Did I forget to mention that part? I’m sorry. You see Alex and I are already the rulers of Sky Raven Fortress; I’m sure you have heard of it?”

  “Sky Raven!” Faeron said hoarsely. “That place has been sealed up tight for over four hundred years. It’s impossible to even get past the walls. There was a time when the dark elf council sought to take it for ourselves, but every attempt failed, even without a defending garrison. Even the vampires can’t get inside without being burned by some sort of holy fire…” his voice trailed off in thought, and I could see him putting the evidence from the events of the day into perspective. Especially the warhorses that burned with a cold blue flame and incinerated the undead that got near them.