The Azure Rider Ch. 04

In the absence of Lyla and Sir Blaxton, who had been her constant riding companions, loneliness struck Agatha rather profoundly for the next few days. The infirmary guards who rode with her were no good when it came to conversation, and Agatha tried to strike up several, unsuccessful ones with them for an hour on the first day before giving it up as a bad job. She found that out of the six men who rode with her, two younger ones named Kane and Rowan were slightly more inclined to talk than the rest, but when Agatha asked them about their homes, they fell uncomfortably silent, as though she had asked a deeply personal question.

The Disputed Corridor was around three days' ride away from the Forgers' mountain, and during the evenings, Agatha entertained herself by sitting beside the campfire in front of her tent and staring into its depths, acutely missing her friend. During this time, she started taking a closer look at the men at the head of the Army. Orion rode at the lead, followed by Sir Alexander, who was subsequently followed by two Major Generals. Agatha had never talked to them, but she was fairly certain that the man with yellow thatched hair and a square face was called Godwin Ashdown and the younger, darker one was called Hervey Wood.

On the third evening of their journey Orion joined her beside the campfire. Agatha looked askance at him, then went back to her meditation, determined to ignore him as he had been ignoring her. They sat in a strangely companionable silence for a long time, then Agatha decided to break it.

"I visited Grandmeister Eustace before setting out. His retainer said you had sent for me."

"How did you see him?" Orion asked softly, throwing her a sideways glance.

"Not good," Agatha admitted. "He has an uncommon affliction, where his body's infection-fighting cells are attacking his internal organs. A purging spell did not work, naturally, so I healed the affected organs and left him to recuperate. But his affliction will come back again, and there will be a time when the vessel will be too weak to withstand a healing spell."

"How long does he have?" Orion asked without inflection.

"Six months at most," Agatha murmured morosely.

Orion nodded. "Thank you," he said quietly.

"I wonder how it feels," Agatha continued softly, watching Orion's face carefully.

"How what feels?" He asked absentmindedly.

"To have your son die before you."

Orion raised his eyes and glanced about them, checking for bystanders or potential eavesdroppers. There were none. It was late, and most men had retired to the comfort of their tents. Then he dropped his gaze towards Agatha and said coolly, "it is depraved to take advantage of a senile man."

"I didn't have to ask him," Agatha shrugged. "There were other... indicators."

When Orion did not answer, Agatha pressed on, "so how did this happen? Did he leave with you after Penelope's death and then when he was sufficiently trained to control his magic, returned to Rubenstraad under an assumed identity?"

Orion stared at her speculatively. "You should not meddle in affairs that are none of your concern."

Agatha fell silent. After a while, Orion rose abruptly and scooped her up in his arms. Agatha gasped at the sudden movement, then seized the front of his shirt to balance herself. Orion carried her into his tent and threw her onto his bed. Agatha scrambled to a sitting position and backed away into the farthest end of the bed, putting as much distance between them as possible under the circumstances. Orion closed the flap of the tent tightly and sat at the other end of the bed.

"What else do you know?" He asked, his voice even. Agatha fidgeted nervously, regretting her decision to speak earlier.

"Look, I didn't tell anyone about anything--" she began, but was cut off by Orion.

"What. Do. You. Know."

"I just know that Eustace is your second son, that is all," Agatha said, "I swear that is all I know because you just confirmed it. It was mere speculation before that."

"Agatha."

Agatha took a deep breath, willing herself to stop shivering. Orion stared at her with a predatory look in his pale blue eyes, his hair coming loose from the ponytail at the back of his neck, and he looked distinctly dangerous and ruthless, capable of every single atrocity she had imagined him to be.

"Eustace came back, but he sought vengeance on the men who were responsible for his mother's death. He lay on wait, not daring to do anything that would attract attention. When the consumption epidemic struck, he put a deadly, slow acting curse on the people responsible for his mother's death, one that mimics the effects of that affliction. Mages are neither aware of this curse nor can they perform it, only those who can possess magic can cast it.

"Consumption is an affliction of the poor and the malnourished, usually affecting the residents of crowded slums and underfed children. It is not likely for any of the nobles to have caught it, least of all King Norman, who was in robust health at the time. But such is the superstition and fear surrounding the disease that no one questioned it, and Eustace stayed unnoticed.

"But, many years later, Prince Elrond suspected of the part that Eustace played in his father's death. Perhaps he confided in you. You staged an assassination attack on Prince Elrond, because historically, you are a man who stays loyal to his family. To escape suspicion, you pretended to be hurt by the same assassination attempt. But Prince Elrond was murdered with a crossbow, and by your description, someone shot at you too. Surely an assassin from the Vandan kingdom would know enough about Dragon Riders to know that it is impossible to kill one with a mortal weapon like a crossbow?

"But again, no one questioned the sequence of events, because this assassination was well placed, at the wake of a victory by Lohenstraad over Vandan. Additionally, not many people in Lohenstraad are acquainted with the Dragon Rider's healing powers, owing to the fiercely private nature of the only Dragon Rider in the realm."

Orion's face grew stonier with every sentence she uttered. When she was finished, he said nothing for a while. Agatha glanced at the doorway again, considering running for her life. But she sat still, rendered motionless with fear.

"You'll never be able to prove any of your statements. And without that... they are mere speculations."

"I do not wish to hold this information over your head in exchange for a favor," Agatha said quickly. "I was just curious, so I asked people more about you, and things started to fall into place. That is all there is to it. I wouldn't even have told you all of this. Please, Orion let us just forget we ever had this conversation."

Orion considered her for a few seconds, then broke eye contact and stared despondently at the only lantern hanging near the doorway of the tent.

"I tried so hard to let you go," he said with a bitter half smile.

"Because I am a Hartelle?" The question fell out of Agatha's lips before she could reel it.

"What? No, you foolish girl," Orion said with tender incredulity as he stretched his hand out towards her. Agatha considered it for a few moments, then put her hand in his. Orion's reactions continued to surprise her, but not nearly as much as her own. Orion pulled her closer, his eyes dark in the soft light of the lantern. Agatha, deserting all modesty and good sense that she had inculcated in her from childhood, climbed on to Orion's lap and put her arms around his neck. Orion intertwined his fingers into her hair and pulled her closer for a searing, lingering kiss. His lips were hard and warm, pulling apart her remaining barriers and drawing her out for his perusal, reminding her inexorably of the pleasures that lay beyond the strictures of propriety.

Agatha broke the kiss and breathed, "then why?"

Orion pushed her back into the bed and hovered over her with one hand by her face. With the other, he proceeded to unbutton her shirt. He answered only after he had undone the last button.

"One day, you'll know," he responded quietly, moving her shirt to expose her torso. Agatha bit her lip and reached out tentatively, finally allowing herself to touch his face like she had always wanted to. She ran her fingers across his jaw, tracing the shape of his face. Orion stared at her with an unfathomable expression.

"So, did you decide to break off your engagement?" he asked lightly, reaching behind her to unclasp the hooks of her breastband. Agatha raised her torso from the bed to assist him and answered, "I think that ship has sailed a long time ago, Orion."

Orion tugged her breastband away and stared at the beautiful, creamy mounds of her breasts. They rose and fell in rhythm of Agatha's erratic breaths and his breeches started to feel uncomfortably tight. When he touched one dusky red areola with his thumb, she sighed, her full lips parting slightly. Orion smiled and rolled a hard, taut bud under his thumb, feeling a dark satisfaction as her breath hitched from his ministrations.

"When did you change your mind?" He asked idly, brushing his palm over her breasts and down along the hard, rigid planes of abdominal muscles, the likes of which he had never seen in a woman before. Admittedly, he had not been with many women in his lifetime, but he had always thought of them as fragile, breakable creatures. The girl lying under him was anything but, both in physique and temperament. And Orion wanted her like he had never wanted anyone.

"About five minutes ago," Agatha whispered desperately. Orion chuckled, and with it, he suddenly looked ten years younger. "You should laugh more," Agatha whispered, cradling his face in her hands again. Orion considered this suggestion with an unconscious smile as he pulled her breeches off from her. Her boots followed, and for a few moments, Orion knelt by the foot of the bed, admiring her exquisite body in the dim light. Despite the rippling muscles along her abdomen, her hips flared out femininely. A furrow ran along the outer side of her thigh and down along the side of her calves. Agatha swiveled her legs over to one side, feeling self-conscious from Orion's inspection.

"What?" she propped herself up on her elbows and frowned at him.

Orion shook his head and wrenched her legs open. He trailed his fingers down her inner thighs, watching her face carefully. Agatha bit her lip and fell back into the pillows, her eyes glazed with lust. His introspective fingers stopped right next to her mound, his thumb tracing careless circles at the junction of her inner thighs and lips.

"Should I be aware of any hidden mason jars?" He enquired, his eyes twinkling.

Agatha rose and started to run her fumbling fingers through the buttons of Orion's shirt. Orion pushed her back into the bed and continued to unbutton his shirts, his fingers moving through them faster than her uncoordinated ones. His breeches followed, and Agatha's eyes trailed down his torso and came to rest on his erection, a flicker of uncertainty in her expressive emerald eyes. Orion wanted to bury himself inside her in one swift stroke, but he restrained himself. She was not ready for that yet.

"No mason jars," Agatha promised.

"Daggers?"

"As if they'd do anything to you," she said with mock wistfulness.

"I assure you that both would hurt, the blade excruciatingly so. But yes, then I will heal."

Agatha bit her lips, considering this new information with an alacrity that Orion did not like at all.

"Planning on stabbing me anytime soon, Princess?" He asked, lowering his head down to her breasts and taking a nipple in his mouth. He sucked it gently, the unmistakable scent of her arousal filling him up like warm mead, and grasped the other breast in his hand, squeezing it. Agatha entwined her fingers in his hair and bit down on a whimper. He could feel her struggling to rein in her responses to him, still clinging on to some imagined notion of propriety and Orion decided he could not have that.

"Only if you get too overbearing," Agatha quipped, then squealed as Orion bit her nipple. Orion laughed and flipped her on her stomach, raising her hips with one hand under her pelvis. The other hand moved down to her vagina, inspecting the swollen, soaked folds. He started to move his thumb around her clitoris and this time, Agatha could not hold back a little moan.

"Do you like this, Princess?" he asked, sliding two fingers into her tight channel. Agatha did not respond. Orion stopped moving his fingers, eliciting a groan out of her.

"Not again, Orion!"

"When I ask you a question, you will answer," Orion said, resuming the slow massage over the tiny bundle of nerves.

"I like it." Her voice was nearly inaudible.

"Louder."

"I like it."

Orion decided to reward her. His thumb strummed her faster, and when her peak crashed over her, Agatha clapped her hand over her lips, trying to muffle out her cries. Orion lay down on her, held his shaft and rubbed it across her entrance, spreading out the moisture. Then he paused, holding his throbbing cock near her entrance.

Waiting for his woman to break.

Soon enough, she tried to push herself back onto him. Orion stopped her by grabbing her hips and tutted.

"What do you want, Princess?" he asked huskily.

"I want you to stop calling me Princess!" she growled. Orion grasped a handful of her wavy, silken hair and turned her face so that one of her ears lined up with his lips. This time, his voice was barely a whisper:

"What do you want, Agatha?"

Agatha's answer was halfway between a sob and a gasp.

"I want you."

Orion raised her up so that she could prop herself on her hands, then entered her slowly, allowing her to adjust. Then he pulled himself out and rammed into her, and Agatha gasped at the heady mixture of pleasure and pain. Orion felt his control slip away from him like water on cupped hands as he pounded her from behind. Agatha's head and shoulders collapsed on her folded hands with the force of his thrusts. Orion reached around her legs and touched her clitoris again, pressing it down with his index finger. She came almost immediately, her body going rigid, her face burrowed into the pillows to muffle her screams. The walls of her channel came convulsing around him and undid his control; with a few sharp thrusts he emptied himself into her.

Agatha collapsed into the bed, breathless and drenched with sweat, but oddly relaxed. Orion reached for a cloth and wiped the fluids from between her legs, his movements gentle.

"Are you hurt?" He asked tenderly.

Agatha shook her head, too exhausted for a verbal answer. Her eyelids started to droop as Orion pulled her backwards into his chest and covered both of them with blankets.

"Orion," Agatha murmured sleepily.

"What?"

"Was I right?"

Orion was silent for so long that Agatha opened her eyes. When she tried to turn towards him, he stopped her and started speaking.

"When Prince Elrond was two years old, he caught a deadly affliction. A growth had formed on his neck and the court physician, Meister Aelfdene declared that it was an incurable condition. Physicians were summoned from far and wide, from the remotest corners of Lohenstraad and Vandan, but every single one of them agreed upon the diagnosis, that the boy could not be saved. As the days wore on, his pain increased. There were days when no chambermaid would go near his wing because he screamed in excruciating pain all day, even at night.

"Penelope could not take it anymore. I asked her not to interfere, but she would not listen. She sneaked into his bedchamber one evening and healed him. I don't know why she did not use the Haze, perhaps she was secure in her assumption that there was no one present in the wing. Perhaps the piece of magic she was using already took up too much of her energy for her to cast a Haze. When she returned to me that night, she was pale, weak and shivering. I knew right away what she had done. I did not argue with her, just ensured that she ate and recuperated. But as luck would have it, a chambermaid was present in the next room. She saw Penelope working on a powerful healing spell, one that could not possibly be misinterpreted for the magic of an ordinary mage.

"You know better than anyone how rumours spread in this castle. At that time, King Norman considered me as a friend, and asked for my opinion on every action he took. It rubbed off the wrong way on a group of nobles, who felt that the King was becoming dangerously dependent on one individual. They started poisoning him against me, telling him that I sought the throne. While King Norman was an honorable man, over time he turned against me, and he was convinced by his new confidants that the only way to put me in my place was to punish my wife for being a witch.

"Prince Elrond had no recollection of Penelope's actions for a long time. But he, like you, pieced all the information together, and confronted me about it. While I never supported my son's quest for revenge, I could not lose him either. So, I did what had to be done.

"There is a band of assassins in the Vandan Kingdom called The Sacred Hand. They are fiercely loyal to the De Clare family, the royal line that ruled Vandan before King Andebert Olbrecht ascended the throne. Incidentally, King Olbrecht's army was responsible for the murders of King Arthur De Clare, his wife, the Queen Consort Estrilda and their daughter Esmeralda, who was but a babe at the time. The Sacred Hand had nursed a longtime grudge against Prince Elrond because at one point, he had handed over the last known living descendant of the De Clare family, Arthur's illegitimate son, Robert, over to Vandan, as a show of mutual trust and goodwill while signing a Treaty. Robert was swiftly executed after he was handed over, as he had a competing claim to the throne of the Vandan Kingdom.

"I sought out members of The Sacred Hand in disguise and offered to share the location of Prince Elrond on a certain day at a certain time. They were wary of me at first, but on the proposed day, I went riding with Elrond at a fairly secluded forest in the outskirts of Rubenstraad. The assassins from the Sacred Hand did their work. They did not know that I was their employer or the Azure Rider, so they shot at me too. It helped me escape suspicion in playing any part in Prince Elrond's death.

"Not a day goes by when I do not regret it, for Elrond was an honorable man, a skilled fighter, a benevolent General to his men, and lastly, a good friend. But I would do it again to anyone who jeopardizes my son's life."

Agatha was quiet for a while as she assimilated this information.

"Did Grandmeister Eustace make you the ward that you wear around your wrist?"

"Yes. It shields me from most magical curses out there, as you saw for yourself the first night we met."

Agatha was quiet for a while again.

"Thank you for your honesty," she finally whispered, and allowed sleep to take her away.

***

They arrived at the Disputed Corridor the day after. Tents were erected, trenches were dug, artilleries were transferred from carts to their designated positions, and traps were laid out. The camp was two miles south of the battle lines and Agatha spent the majority of her day staying out of everyone's way while setting up her workstation. Her work did not start until after the battle started. The infirmary tent was put up by the men assigned to her and cots were laid out, potions were set to brew and herbs and flowers were hung out to dry. She did not see Orion throughout the day, but as the sun started to dip in the sky the wounded started to trickle in. Agatha set about with her magic, confining herself to discreet healing spells and laying out the potions the patients would need to take by their bedside while two of the assigned infirmary soldiers moved obediently in her wake, ensuring that the wounded took the potions and that their gashes were bandaged. By the end of the day, most of the soldiers who had been carried into the infirmary plodded out of it. The ones who had to spend the night were in reasonably stable conditions.