Bricrui (The Forgotten: Book 2) Read online

  “Morning, beautiful,” he mumbled sleepily, without opening his eyes.

  “How can you call me beautiful without even seeing me?” she asked jokingly, “I just woke up, I’m probably a mess.”

  “You’re always beautiful,” he replied, burrowing his face into the crook of her neck. He kissed her neck up to her lips and reminded her with his mouth how much she loved him.

  Eventually, they had to leave their blissful sanctuary, though Layna felt that she would like to snuggle back up in the covers and never come out. She pulled on her clothing for the day and met Gryffon in the outer portion of their living quarters where the servants already had breakfast laid out for them.

  She picked up a pastry from the tray and thought back to her days as a maid. Not so long ago, it would have been her waking early to make sure that food was put out at the exact right time, drooling over delicacies she never dreamed of having herself.

  Gryffon sat down next to her after pouring himself a mug of coffee, and he inhaled its fragment scent. “All that’s missing is Phoenix and this would be perfect,” he drawled.

  A knock sounded at the door.

  Layna laughed lightly. “And the moment is over.”

  “Let the chaos begin,” Gryffon quipped.

  A servant entered, bearing many papers. One of the many downsides of having the Council completely unable to perform their everyday tasks was the paperwork. Layna had never before realized quite how much there was. They were able to delegate some of it to others, but the bulk of the documents required a decision to be made that only she or Gryffon were authorized for without the Council in action.

  She indicated to the man that he could set his load on the desk and thanked him. Once he was out of the room, Layna allowed her head to drop to her chest. “Ugh,” she complained, “will it ever end?” She raised her head and brushed her hair out of her eyes, suddenly narrowing them at Gryffon. “Didn’t you have some bad news to tell me last night?”

  He sighed, lowering the coffee from his mouth. “You really know how to bring a man down, you know,” he teased, but his voice grew serious. “Lady Aria had a new request for us to consider in our merger agreements. Apparently, it had been brought up on their end some time ago, but they were saving it until we were a bit farther along in our talks to put it on the table.”

  “Well, what is it?”

  “They want us to agree to reinstate the temples and promote worship to the Three once more.”

  “But they know that the dragons don’t want that,” Layna protested.

  “Not everyone knows you like I do, my love, and not everyone is so willing to give up their faith on your word. You have to remember that you and I are the only living people who actually spoke with the dragons, so we are asking the people to take our word for it. The Ieldran feel that the people need something to believe in, and they think it should continue to be the Three. They are god-like in comparison to us,” he added persuasively.

  “Are you already on their side on this?” Layna asked, discouraged. She had hoped that spreading the word about what had happened with Nuko and the Three would have enlightened people to the truth. They were in charge of their destinies, not any gods, and not even the dragons. Especially now that the Three had retreated from their world. There wouldn’t even be the Word passed down from the Kiani Stones anymore, like there once had been.

  “There are no sides to be taken,” Gryffon said calmly, obviously spending much too much time as a diplomat with Aria. His cool tone annoyed her.

  “How can you say that when we’ve tried so hard to get people to understand the truth?” Gryffon laid a hand on hers and she felt her annoyance dissipating. “Sorry.”

  “We need to look at the bigger picture,” he coaxed, “I know it’s not ideal, but it might be necessary. And having the people continue to believe in the Three is not such a bad thing.”

  “But they believe a lie,” Layna said with conviction, knowing too well how uncomfortable the status to which humans had elevated the dragons had made them when they found out.

  “They need something to believe in,” Gryffon shrugged.

  “I had hoped they would believe in me,” she confessed.

  Gryffon gave her a tight smile. “Believing in a god and believing in your leader are two separate things. When the two become entangled, it becomes dangerous. Just look at Nathair: As Nuko, he paraded around as a dragon-god…the people don’t have especially fond memories of that particular time.”

  “I suppose having your King going around eating his subjects in the guise of being a god does put a certain spin on people’s view on those in power,” she snorted ruefully, then jabbed him in the ribs. “But that’s not what I meant and you know it. I don’t want anyone worshipping me, I had just hoped I could gain their trust and respect.”

  “I know,” Gryffon said, kissing the top of her head. He held out a hand to help her stand, leading her over to the desk of paperwork. “Come on, the sooner we get started the sooner we will finish. We can discuss the merger later.”

  It turned out that regardless of how early they had started, it still took them all day to get caught up with everything that needed doing. Many things had gone by the wayside in the wake of all the events that had transpired, and it was high time that they were being resolved. They finally wrapped up the last of it just as the sun was beginning to set.

  A messenger came as Layna and Gryffon sat for dinner and they abandoned their untouched food. He had word from Natalya and the Knights. He relayed his portion of the information swiftly; that they had searched Castle Storm and found that it had indeed been a stronghold for some sort of experimentation. They had come across four other monsters like Telvani and disposed of them, but not before one of the Knights had been cut down and brutally eaten. He also delivered several magicked documents that they had found.

  Layna sighed. Four more monsters? This did not bode well. She and Gryffon had been debating the pros and cons of uniting with Treymayne all day, in between other issues, and the addition of intentionally created monsters to their problems made the prospect that much more appealing. She was worried about how the people of Gelendan would take the merger, but it was looking to be more and more in their best interest to do so.

  “Have someone sent to notify the fallen Knight’s family,” she commanded, “and please be sure to express my heartfelt condolences. His service to his country will not be forgotten.” The man nodded and bowed, leaving them with the package.

  The documents he delivered looked as though it would require a fair amount of work to dispel their masks, so Layna was glad they had been able to finish all the more mundane work today already. As soon as they had wolfed down their now-cold dinner, they made a bee-line for the room used for magical practice and spells.

  She and Gryffon held their hands over the papers and closed their eyes, intertwining their energies. The immediate calm that always came with being so intimately connected with him overcame her. They wove their magic across the surface, undoing spell after spell that had been placed upon them. Some of them she recognized as Lord Farthen’s work, but others had the distinctive ‘taste’ of Lord Telvani. Confirmation that this was indeed one of his projects. Not that there had been much doubt. He certainly seemed to be involved in everything going wrong.

  Except perhaps whatever the tribe was up to. She had been extremely agitated since discovering the scrying, and worried that there were more she hadn’t yet discovered. It also dashed any hopes she may have had that their initial failure would have caused them to give up. They were obviously still up to something. At least she had detected it, and been able to add additional wards to Phoenix. She had also stationed four mages to be with her at all times, something she had been hesitant to do. The poor child already had more nurses and attendants than she could count, but she was not about to put her in any danger, even if it meant packing the room full of every single person who might be able to protect her.

  As they absorbed
the power from the breaking spells, Layna opened her eyes and watched as the writing on the pages shimmered and re-formed themselves into completely different shapes. She and Gryffon unlinked and she reached down to pick up one of the documents. It appeared to be a journal of some sort. She flipped it open.

  Reading aloud, she recited, “One of the Bricrui escaped today and made it into town.” She paused, and then added her own thought, “The Bricrui must be what he called the monsters, also called the Death-bringers by the townspeople.” Gryffon nodded, and she continued reading, “Luckily, we were able to subdue it with no problems.” She paused and rose an eyebrow, letting out a short unbelieving breath, unable to resist making a comment. “No problems other than it killed six townspeople.”

  Gryffon just shook his head, and Layna looked back down at the page.

  “I told the townsfolk that it was a demonstration of what would happen if they revealed anything that was going on in the castle to anyone. It seems to have been rather effective; a pleasant side-effect of the unfortunate event. So far our cures have not been successful, though we have been able to slow the progress with the use of chokeroot.”

  “What is chokeroot?” Gryffon interrupted to ask. She shrugged; it was no plant she had ever heard of.

  She continued her narration, skipping down the page as she came across mention of a young woman, “Lord Morven visited and demanded that I turn over the young lady he delivered to the program back to his care. Seeing as how Lord Telvani is no longer in a position to keep us safe and we will most likely be fleeing shortly, it did not matter to me to release the girl into his possession. I refrained from mentioning the likely outcome of her involvement in the experiments, but did recommend that he give her the ‘medicine’ if he wanted to keep her in good health. Whether or not he listens to me will determine the length of time it will take for him to be taught a lesson. I do not have any love for the vile man, despite several of our shared interests, though I will miss the girl.”

  “That must be Alina,” Gryffon said.

  “The messenger said that Natalya and the rest of the Knights were in pursuit; I hope that they catch up with him quickly.”

  Gryffon simply nodded.

  Layna continued reading. “It appears that somehow the lock on the doors to the infecteds’ cages are coming undone. How this is happening is a mystery, but already several servants have been killed in the aftermath. It also appears that, seeing as how these were all high talents, certain aspects of their magic seems to prevail even after the complete transformation. Possibly as a result of the latest treatments, they seem to be able to somewhat still control the power. Though their minds certainly are not capable of the thought processes to develop them, they are somehow creating shields and healing themselves. This will require some looking into, and may result in the rest of us having to relocate. I have not heard from Telvani in some time and do not know if he was able to halt the disease. If he was successful, it will be his own fault if he cannot find us afterwards. I do not have a death wish, and if the Bricrui have found a way to escape and can use magic, I will not be here waiting for them.” She turned the page and stopped reading. “That’s the last of it. I guess he decided it was time to go after all.”

  “Yes, but where?”

  “Where indeed,” Layna echoed, “It appears we are right back where we started in finding his lair.”

  “But Alina has been found,” Gryffon interjected, and then amended his statement at Layna’s pessimistic stare, “even though she isn’t found-found, we know who has her and generally where she is going. And furthermore, that she is alive and not yet one of the Bricrui.”

  “So it seems that the Bricrui was an unintended side-effect of whatever other experimentation was taking place,” Layna pondered this revelation, “but I’m not sure if that makes me feel better, or even more worried.”

  “I think it’s a pretty safe bet at this point to assume that the actual experiment was something to do with the Council. Given the state they are all in and the logical reasoning behind Telvani wanting to be able to control them. We still may not know exactly what it entailed, but we can be fairly certain that it involved using this blood-magic experiment to somehow exert this control. The Bricrui were just mistakes. We shouldn’t have to worry about him having an army of them somewhere at his command.”

  Layna looked back down at the journal, her thoughts turning dark. “Mistakes that were once people,” she whispered, “Including Natalya’s sister. She obviously was involved in whatever the experiment was, and Lord Farthen expected her to turn into one of those things.”

  “But he did mention something about a ‘medicine’ being given to her,” Gryffon reminded her.

  Layna nodded, brightening, “That’s true. How long will this chokeroot stave off the transformation, I wonder? Will it be enough time to find a way to save Alina? I do not want to have to watch Natalya lose her sister, too.”

  “We have many other things to deal with at the moment,” Gryffon said softly, “and there is no guarantee that we’ll be able to commit enough resources to that problem to find a cure in time. Now that we know it is not a threat, we cannot give it priority.”

  “How can we not?” Layna asked, her voice breaking. “After everything the girl has lost already.”

  Gryffon gave her a sad stare. “We may not be able to stop a lot of bad things from happening. We have no Council, there is the constant threat of the tribe’s next attempt, and there are still remaining snakes in our midst from Telvani’s betrayal. Not to mention a back-log of regular problems to deal with.”

  Layna sighed, falling back into her chair heavily. “Can we afford not to enlist Treymayne’s help?” she asked, falling back into their previous debate.

  “Ever since we took down the barrier, people on both sides are beginning to realize that those who were previously cut off are actual people. They are remembering the histories of being one big country and how powerful we were. With strong management, I think the people are ready to believe that we could be that way again. Gelendan may be comforted by the people of Treymayne diluting your power,” he quickly added as her brows rose, “not because they do not believe in you, but because of what has been done in the past when power was too tightly consolidated between too few people. And Treymayne will no doubt feel stronger being united with our much larger country, especially as the threat of our invading them will become a moot point.” Though Gryffon now spoke of Gelendan as his home, being from Treymayne, Layna knew that his assessment of the people’s thoughts were likely to be extremely accurate.

  “I hope you are right,” she said, “that all the people will embrace this. We can only hope that they will concentrate on the positives, and not on the faults of one side or the other.”

  “Now that the barrier has been removed between our two countries, neither side can hide behind that curtain of protection and simply allow the faceless country on the other side to deal with their own problems anymore. These are now the entire world’s problems and we must unite to deal with them.”

  “So many decisions,” Layna lamented, “Why didn’t you warn me being a Queen would be so much work?”

  CHAPTER 7

  Lorcan hopped down from his usual hiding spot, and immediately felt a hand clamp around his arm. He swung around in alarm and came face to face with Slade.

  “What do you think you’re doing?” his brother demanded.

  Lorcan hesitated for a moment, then stuck out his chin stubbornly. “I think that what the Elders are doing is wrong.”

  “Excuse me?” Slade asked in disbelief. “Why do you even know what they’re doing at all? It’s none of your business.”

  “How can you say that?” Lorcan asked in dismay, “It’s all of our business! They kidnapped a baby for the purpose of putting a curse on it and now they are sending Katya to the Dena’ina tribe to steal something from them! To steal from another tribe!”

  “You’d better not go around spreading lies like th
at if you know what’s good for you,” Slade warned. “The Elders cured the baby from a grave illness. And the Dena’ina are nothing like us,” he growled, surprising Lorcan with the fierceness of his tone.

  “What do you mean? Are you talking about the incident?” Lorcan tried to wrack his brain for what he knew about the incident, but it wasn’t much; he had only just been made aware of its existence a short time ago. “What exactly happened?”

  Slade clamped his mouth shut, but Lorcan didn’t relent. If his brother was going to make some sort of comment like that, he better well explain himself.

  “What happened, Slade?” he persisted.

  Slade took a deep breath and exhaled it quickly. “The Dena’ina are no longer considered part of the tribes by most of the Elders, because they did something against us all. That is why I did not trust Katya from the beginning.”

  “What do you mean, you didn’t trust her from the beginning? You practically threw yourself at her.”

  Slade clenched his teeth. “At the Elders’ request. They asked me to get close to her to watch her. Anyone even loosely connected with the Dena’ina can’t be trusted.”

  Lorcan was appalled. The Elders had used his brother to gather information from Katya. “How could you do that to her?”

  Slade gave him a pointed look. “Are you even listening to yourself? She lied about who she was! She stole the Bloodstone! And the Dena’ina deserve anything bad that happens to them.” The venomous way he spat out the Dena’ina’s name further sparked Lorcan’s curiosity.

  “What exactly was the incident?”

  Slade’s anger loosened his tongue. “The Dena’ina tribe’s defenses killed a group of one of our parties that was sent to keep relations between the tribes alive. The Elders gave them the benefit of the doubt and sent another party, but these were brutally killed as well.” He paused and gave Lorcan an appraising stare. “Our parents were part of the second party.”

  “What?” Lorcan exclaimed in horrified surprise. “Why?”