CHAPTER 2

Conal

Ignoring the usual after-meeting conversations, Conal focused on Gwen. Crossing over to stand before her, the difference in height became glaring. He towered over her by at least two hand spans, causing him to wonder how one set of parents could produce two children of such different sizes. Yet she was very pretty, her green eyes inquisitive as she returned his stare.

“So you’re my sister.”

“It would seem so.”

“Where’ve you been?”

“I grew up in Dawsbury, right under Torian’s nose. It’s on the edge of Isentol.”

“What did you do?”

“My father owned an inn.” She caught herself, remembering the man she had called her father. A lump formed in her throat, but she didn’t cry. The tears didn’t come as often as they did before. “I served tables for him.”

“An inn?” Conal chuckled, slowly nodding. “An interesting place to raise a king’s daughter.”

Gwen smiled in return. “What about you? Where did you grow up?”

“Urve, a coastal town in Tir Manach. My father was a jewelry merchant.”

“Was?”

Conal’s casual demeanor vanished. “He’s dead. My entire family is dead. Torian had them killed.”

“Torian’s men killed my father. And my friend. His name was Tobias,” she replied.

Eradore walked up, a man and a woman tagging along. “I know you two have a lot to talk about, but unfortunately, we’re running out of time. These are the mage twins I mentioned, Kalan and Korla.”

Conal suppressed a grin for the ‘twins’ couldn’t be more different. Kalan was a hand span taller with dirty blond hair and brown eyes. He wasn’t handsome as far as eye-catching, but he wasn’t unattractive either. Yet there was something about him that immediately put Conal off. The man exuded a not so subtle arrogance.

His ‘twin’ on the other hand was a very attractive buxom strawberry-blond with an hour-glass figure, a little taller than Gwen. In contrast to Kalan’s smugness, Korla looked like she felt out of place, her emerald green eyes darting around the room, taking everything in.

Conal silently prayed that Korla was his ‘twin.’

“One of them will –” Eradore began before Kalan cut him off.

“I’ll go with her.” He thrust a finger at Gwen then nudged Korla towards Conal. “You can have my sister.”

“That’s fine,” Conal replied a little too quickly, hoping Gwen and Eradore thought he was covering Kalan’s crass behavior.

“You’d better get moving then,” Eradore said, giving the oblivious Kalan a look of irritation.

Conal turned to Gwen. “See you in Havengarde. Take care of yourself.”

“You too.” Her eyes locked onto his and she smiled at him.

For an awkward moment, Conal felt he should do something demonstrable, like a hug or something, to show he recognized he had family again. But it would be like hugging a distant cousin he had met once growing up. He was about to give her the noncommittal hand wave when she closed the gap between them and hesitantly hugged him.

“Watch yourself,” she cautioned. “Our uncle knows we’re alive.”

She didn’t need to say anything else, for Conal understood. “Let me know where you’re in position.”

“I will,” she answered, releasing him. She felt like there was more to say, but whatever it was, the words eluded her. “See you soon.”

“You too,” Conal replied, ready to move on. All the questions he wanted to ask would have to wait. He turned to Korla. “You ready.”

“Yes,” she shyly replied.

He searched the room and found Torgreth and Galadyr in conversation with Voldar and Lorkan, the elf with a bemused smile as he listened to Voldar relate some tale. Conal caught Torgreth’s attention and soon the group was out in the streets and headed to the city gates.

“Where’s Drustan?” Conal asked, suddenly remembering the half-druid-dragon.

“Last I saw him,” Galadyr answered, “he was talking to Lyra.”

Lyra… Conal remembered Drustan’s words, Two of our females have reached that age. It won’t be long for the other four. He wondered if Lyra was one of the female dragons who could still bear young.

“Speaking of which,” Torgreth said, casting a sly look at Conal. “What’s this ‘we had two dragons, but one was killed’ stuff? I’ve been with you for who knows how long and I’ve never even seen one dragon, let alone two… if they even exist.”

“They exist, my friend,” Galadyr replied.

Torgreth frowned at the elf. “You’ve seen one?”

“Yes.”

“A dragon?” Voldar interrupted, cocking an eyebrow in disbelief. “You’ve actually seen a dragon? Simply saying ‘I’m a dragon’ doesn’t mean you are one.”

“If he says he has, then he has,” Torgreth retorted.

“OK,OK,” Voldar shot back. “What’s with you?”

“He’s an elf and elves don’t lie. And even if they did, I still trust him.”

“Thank you, Torgreth,” Galadyr said, dipping his in appreciation. “I pray that I always have your trust.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Voldar responded, with a little twinge of jealousy. “What about the dragons?”

“How about we have this conversation in private, once we’re outside the city,” Conal interjected.

“He’s right,” Korla said, her voice soft and delicate. “There are too many prying ears here.”

Conal noted that she walked behind them, doing her best to keep up. Slowing the pace, he motioned her to walk beside him.

“So, you and your brother can communicate even though separated by great distances.” It was a statement rather than a question.

“Yes.” She gazed up at him, smiling pleasantly. “It’s a trait we discovered when we were very young.”

Conal returned the gaze and smile as they walked. “And you’re really twins?”

She giggled with girlish charm. “Yes.”

“Who’s the oldest?”

“I am.”

“Were your parents surprised that they were having twins.”

“No. A mage midwife had predicted my mother would have twins a year before she was pregnant.”

“She predict anything else?” Conal pondered how he could spend more time with her without it looking too obvious.

“Just that we would be mages.”

“You’ll forgive me if I say that I have a hard time picturing your brother as a mage.” This caused her to giggle again and Conal was smitten.

“He never did want to be a mage. Wanted to be a warrior, a soldier. Pa wouldn’t hear it, especially after the midwife said he was going to be a mage.”

Conal thought about it a moment. “Is he a mage because that is what he’s really supposed to be or because your father made him become one and therefore the midwife’s prediction is true regardless of his desires.”

Korla stared at him as though he had plumped the depths of a divine mystery. “You are the first person ever to understand that. I’ve thought that all along, but never wanted to say anything because it would just make father angry. Besides, now it’s too late for him to be anything other than a mage.”

“I understand.”

“I think we’re far enough away from the city now,” Voldar said with a knowing grin at Conal who glanced around, realizing they had passed through the main gates and he hadn’t even noticed. “You can tell us about dragons now.”

“Hold that thought,” Lorkan announced, seeing a runner headed his way, a young man moving at a good clip.

“Commander,” the young man greeted him, catching his breath. “Sorcha’s intercepted a large force and is falling back towards us. She asks for immediate help.”

“I thought she was at least two days north of us,” Conal said. “We’ll never reach her in time.”

“We need to try, m’Lord. She’s a resourceful commander, but she can’t hold out against Torian and what remains of Caldyr’s army.”

Conal’s lips pursed. “This is not how we intended to begin. We need Torian’s attention in the east.” Narrowing his attention on the messenger, he asked, “How did you get this information.”

“Message hawk.”

“M’Lord,” Lorkan corrected.

The young man’s eyes popped wide. “M’Lord.”

“How long did it take for a hawk to get here?”

“A couple of hours… m’Lord.”

“A couple of hours?” He was about to say that was impossible when he recalculated that a hawk could average 30 miles an hour. That would put Sorcha around 60 miles away. With a forced march, they could be there in two days.

“Your orders, m’Lord?” Lorkan said.

Conal thought quickly. “This could still work. If Gwen can move her forces by the time we connect with Sorcha, it might still work.” Turning his head to look at Voldar, he said, “Why wasn’t the dwarf commander with us in the meeting?”

“He’s a prickly one. Gets his felling hurt at the drop of a hat. Near as I can see, he was waiting for a royal invitation from you.”

“We don’t have time for games,” Conal growled. “Lorkan, get ready to move. We go to help Sorcha. You two,” he said to the two dwarves, “let’s go have a heart-to-heart with Storri.” Not forgetting Galadyr, he said, “Would you mind finding out where our druid is?”

“As you wish,” Galadyr replied with a respectful nod.

“What about me?” Korla piped up.

“You go with – no, change that. You come with me.” Conal increased his pace, the dwarves and Korla quick marching to keep up.

As they made their way to the dwarven camp, Voldar leaned in to Korla. “The commander’s name is Storri Broken-nose. You’ll understand when you see him. One thing you gotta watch out though is not to slip up and call him ’Snorri.’ As you can imagine, he doesn’t like being reminded of his nose.”

“It can’t be that bad,” she replied.

It was that bad when they stepped into Storri’s tent and he looked up from behind the small field table he as using as a desk. Storri’s nose looked like it had been hit with a smithy’s hammer across the bridge for it was nearly flat, the nostrils like two eruptions on both sides.

“We missed you at the meeting, Commander,” Conal said, doing his best to stare into the dwarf’s eyes.

“I wasn’t invited,” he harrumphed.

“You don’t need an invitation,” Conal emphatically said. “You are an army commander. How am I supposed to plan and organize when the battle captain of half my force thinks he needs to be invited? When I asked King Rorkyn for support, he promised me he would send his best soldiers with his best commander. So you see, I need input from Rorkyn Orefell’s best commander.”

Assuaged, Storri cleared his throat. “Yes, well… all a misunderstanding, I’m sure.”

“Good. We need to move out immediately. Sorcha is under attack and needs our support. If you will ride with me, I’d like to go over what we discussed in the meeting and get you input.”

Flattered, Storri stood up and barked out orders to get ready to move then cast a look of authority at Torgreth and Voldar. “What are you two lollygagging around here for? Go find your regiment.”

The two exchanged a worried glance as neither knew to which regiment they belonged. Besides, they had no clue what it meant to be a dwarf soldier. They liked where they were, hanging out with Conal.

“With your permission, General,” Conal intervened. “I’d like to keep these two with me as liaison officers representing you. They know the operation and would be beneficial to me as the campaign proceeds, acting as messengers between you and me.”

Storri harrumphed again and furrowed a thick brow at them. “Alright, m’Lord. If you can put up with those two, that works for me. Saves me the trouble of finding suitable liaison folks.”

“Thank you. Well then, I’ll leave you to get your army ready. I’ll send one of the liaison officers to find you to let you know where I am.”

Once outside, Torgreth sidled up to Conal sighing a big, “Thank you.”

“That was very diplomatically played, m’Lord,” Korla commented, impressed.

“We don’t need personalities interfering with our battle plans. I meant what I said in there. I need him.”

As Conal led the way to where Lorkan’s army was lining up, he turned his head to look at Korla. “Can you contact your brother and tell him what’s happening?”

“What specifically, m’Lord?”

“That we’ve been forced into attacking earlier than we had planned. She needs to get her forces in place and engaged as quickly as possible.” He turned his head to see where he was going. “And my name is Conal.”

“I know, m’Lord,” she replied, her voice almost a coo, “and I am flattered with your familiarity, but you are still a king’s son, a prince, and I am just a mage.”

Conal slid his eyes to the right to catch a glimpse of the beautiful woman striding next to him. You are far more than just a mage. Are you playing hard to get? Is there a man in your life? He was about to ask when she bent her head, staring at the ground as they walked.

She abruptly stopped, causing the others to stop.

She frowned in puzzlement and tilted her head to look up at Conal. “I don’t understand. He’s not responding. The only reason for that is that his mind is focused, concentrating on something else so much that he’s not listening.”

Conal’s jaw tightened and he resumed walking, shaking his head. What’s the point of you being here other than as a distraction if you can’t communicate with that idiot brother of yours? “This is not good. If it doesn’t work now, what makes you think it will when I really need it.”

“I’m… I’m sorry, m’Lord,” Korla fretted, taking three steps to his two to keep up.

“Forget it,” Conal replied though his irritation was evident. “You can try again later.”