Fan Fiction ❯ Spirit of the Dragon (part II) ❯ Reunion ( Chapter 1 )

Part II: Seeking a Wraith

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Chapter One

Crowe had watched the battle ensue without so much as a word. A hundred armored cavalrymen plowed towards the gates, defying the red bursts of light that the silths cast in defense. Some of the horses froze in their tracks, forcing their riders to go afoot. Others were hit directly by the sorcery and thrown from their saddles. Still though, the others charged foreword. Drunesmerrian knights were brave; Crowe would certainly give them that.

She stayed behind them all, atop a little slope so that she might observe the events before her without jeopardizing her wellbeing. Her icy eyes almost glowed in the dawn's escalating light. Where is he? She was half-concentrating on the battle while half-scanning Betony's mountainside for Acanthus. All she could make out were scattered clots of enemies in black, and a pool of weary villagers collecting in a circle at the city's base. They were no longer being guarded, although escape was unattainable with two clashing forces barricading their gates. The Gardrothians had sent all of their fighters out to face the Drunesmerrian onslaught.

Crowe began to lose heart. Her knowledge as a duxess forced her to come to terms with the situation: the Rose Cavalry was going to lose. More of Ronori's army had survived Veridea's fire fiasco than anyone anticipated. It seemed he had managed to pull twenty men out of the flames, and those warriors combined with a hoard of red mages dashed any chances of survival. And Acanthus…what had become of him? She tried to tell herself the pain she experienced in his absence was nothing more than distress over the possibility of losing a dear friend, but it was more. And she began to wonder if he was even alive, and she began to regret things that had never happened between them, for he had come to her and had been turned down. Her excuse? That she needed closure with Ronori. She wasn't even sure he had bought it.

And now it was too late, because the cavalry was succumbing to defeat. Two-thirds were down already. The rest of them looked frail, as if they were dried fallen leaves, about to be crunched by approaching hooves.

Then she saw the flame. It started as nothing but a flicker on Betony's road but it became brighter and brighter as it shot down to meet the Gardrothians. Her heart welled up with bursts of joy, for there were two tiny figures standing at its source, and she knew who they had to be.

There was an explosion; it was more intense than anything she had ever seen before. Fountains of white, amber, and blue propelled into the air like a geyser, and they flared out in all directions. Everyone became motionless, as if they were under a spell, and for a moment all Crowe could see was a dome of livid light. She had to look away. Then there was a tremor along the ground that made Nightingale dance nervously. The reigns cut into her hands where she held on too tightly.

All that was left of the discharge now were sputtering yellow flames along the gate. The few survivors risked a meeting with the hot tendrils, and dazed Drunesmerrian knights thought to gather where survivors emerged from the city entrance. The Rose Cavalry formed walls around the remaining black-clad fighters. A roar of cheers came from the civilians.

Something told Crowe to move, and she did. No one questioned her as she made her way up to the Gardrothians. Some even cleared a path for her.

She stopped abruptly, and there he was.

He stood weakly, heaving as he looked up around him. Black hair fell into those magnificent dark eyes.

Ronori was surrounded by a debilitated entourage. There was a lovely blond sorceress with no color in her left pupil, several silths in disarray, and a few of soldiers covered in ashes. Her throat caught as she regarded one of them. Verrick…in the name of Xethia…

He ran to her. She had barely clambered out of the saddle before he ambushed her in a vicious hug.

"They told me you were dead…" He whimpered miserably. "But I kept on hoping…"

"Calm down, Verrick, you're going to make me cry…" But it was too late. Tears were already leaking from the corners of her eyes. She reached out to him weakly. Something in the back of her mind warned her the Drunesmerrians were watching. She probably shouldn't appear sympathetic to her old kingdom. But at that moment she didn't much care. "The others?" She said softly.

"Dakarai and Caleb never had a chance." He said, clinging to her all the more tightly for it. "It was horrible, Crowe. I could hear them…" The two of them were a pathetic blend of broken cries.

"Come on now, let us leave them for a moment…" Oxalis' voice. "The Gardrothians are no harm to us anymore." The Drunesmerrians cleared out, and any of the knights that could not do so on their own were lifted by their comrades. A few of the cavalry went into the gates to check on the villagers and rescue the Crown Prince. She thought of going with them, but her old friend would not release her.

"Verrick, I can't breathe…" Crowe told him at last, and he smiled and loosened his grip.

"I'm sorry, it's just…you're back from the dead."

Those words made her shudder, and she turned back to Ronori. He was watching her steadily from his position in the dirt.

"I see you've adjusted to Drunesmerre." He told her. It wasn't exactly cold, but it made her uneasy.

"They're good to me." She whispered. Verrick's arms slid from her waist as the former-lovers exchanged their words.

"What will become of us?" Ronori asked her.

"You can run away." Crowe said icily. "You're good at that."

He raised an eyebrow in light of her newfound confidence. Verrick just looked uncomfortable.

"Oh hell Crowe…I don't want to fight with you." Ronori approached her awkwardly. "I'm just happy to know you're alive. I know we didn't end on the best of terms, but I never stopped caring about you."

"I know." Her voice wavered without her permission, and she stood there stupidly as he cupped her face in his hands to look at her.

"You've grown." He said in that voice that usually made her melt. It still did, but she knew now how to hide it with a grin. "You look different."

"You look the same." She cocked her head at him. "Although the last time I saw you, you weren't covered in ash." She watched her own thumb come out to touch his cheek, smudging away a spot of dust.

His hands slid behind her to pull her against him, although his embrace was a lot gentler than Verrick's.

"I've missed you." He said it into her ear. "Winter nights are cold without my nightingale."

His words sent wonderful shivers down her spine, and all at once she forgot how she ever could have hated him.

"Come back with me." He pleaded. "Please, Crowe. Come back."

"They're good to me." She said again, but with less conviction than the first time.

"Are you telling us you're going to stay?" Verrick came up to them now that his friends were no longer quarreling.

How could she explain to them how this green land had grown on her? How its kind people had somehow won their ways into her heart? And Prince Acanthus…she looked wistfully up the mountain. He would be crushed if she abandoned him now.

And then she remembered something else: "I can't go right now. Ronori, I have something to tell you. And I don't know how you'll feel about it."

He sensed something severe, so he waited patiently.

"I can't go right now because…Ronori, when you and I…the last time we…" She sighed helplessly. How could she tell him without frightening him?

He moved one of his hands from her back to her chin, making her look up at him. "Go on…"

She came out and said it: "I have a son."

He blinked at her, and she said this time: "We have a son."

Verrick drew a breath of surprise, "Are you serious, Crowe?"

She squirmed out of Ronori's grasp, for he had grown still as stone, and she turned away from him.

"His name is Kale." She went on, "He's back at the castle right now. One of my…friends is taking care of him. He's beautiful, Ronori…"

Still he said nothing.

"So you see why I can't go back? I have to return to him. I have to ride back to Azalea with the Rose Cavalry. I have to return with the people that have so adopted me as their own. Gardroth isn't my home anymore." Crowe looked up as some of the knights began to descend. "Please say something, Ronori."

"I had always wanted a son."

She smiled back at him, but the smile faded as the knights came closer. "Ronori…do you know what happened to the Prince?" From what she could see of her friend, he did not look well. One of the knights was holding up in the saddle.

"Nos shoni abiego." The blond sorceress spoke. She was telling Ronori that they should go.

"Turchek." He said over his shoulder, and then faced Crowe again. "When will I see him?"

"I don't know." The knights were completely visible now. Acanthus looked as though he had been beaten. "Ronori, what did you do?" She demanded it harshly. "Ronori?"

"This is not goodbye." Ronori motioned to the nine people left in his crew, and they ran for the ships.

Verrick looked back, lingering for a moment. "Goodbye Crowe." He said it regrettably.

"Goodbye…" She called to him, raising her three fingers parallel to the ground in a Gardrothian farewell.

He did the same, and took off after his comrades.

Crowe watched the ten figures flee for the shore. The morning sky was blue now; sunlight poured from its surface and sent refracted rays gleaming up at them from the stirring waves. She felt, as she stood there, resting a hand on Nightingale's sturdy flank, that she was finally saying goodbye to a part of her past. Sure, it would still be there, for her to remember and look back on, but it was no longer who she was. This realization was both painful and reassuring, for a great burden had been lifted from her shoulders. But she did not like good-byes.

Now that Ronori and Verrick were gone, she shifted her attention back to Prince Acanthus. He was worse off than she had originally thought; he looked very much dead as a grim knight rode passed her.