Crown of Beauty and Vengeance

Chapter 26

Chapter 26

Lyv and Thia were making the most of their time with just the two of them, Posy, and their dragons. It was a rarity that it was only the two females at the Branvon estate, but it was definitely easier to focus, especially with what they were doing.

Destan and Gideon had left for the harbor early that morning, along with Jai, Camilla, and Soren. Destan and Gideon were only going to be at the docks until noon, but Jai, Camilla, and Soren were going...well, they were going. Gideon had told her what happened when he had been called for a meeting with king.

"Jai, Camilla, and Soren are going to Blackloch," he said, not looking her in the eyes when he did. "The king gave Jai a choice in going, considering what happened the last time, and Destan and I would have gone in his place. He is going, though, especially when he has a sort of relationship with Kalla. He's better suited."

"Relationship?" Lyv asked, raising a brow.

"Not in that sense," he scoffed. "It's just a friendship of sorts. They met over in Palrion a hundred or so years ago, around the time of the Arcane Blood Plague. Back when she was just a human and not the pirate queen of Blackloch we all love to hate today."

"Excuse me...just a human. What is she now? And how do you change from a human to...?"

"She was just a human when Jai first met her, but after the plague she disappeared and he thought her dead. That is, until she showed up about twenty years later without aging a day and declared herself to Dalcaine. No one knows what happened to her and she never talks about it. All we know was that the next time we saw her, she had a spelled tattoo along her left cheekbone in some ancient Fae language that's not even written about in the oldest texts in the university library. She's not Fae or sorceress and doesn't even have magic, just...immortal. And she's been terrorizing Dalcaine ever since."

Just hearing what Gideon had to say about Kalla and what she knew from everything else she'd heard, Lyv was intrigued.

"So, Jai will be gone for a week."

"Yes."

"And he's going to be out of my hair."

"Out of all of our hair."

And Lyv felt like he wasn't telling her something about his decision to leave.

She let it go, though. She didn't even say anything when Destan knocked on the door the next morning just as Gideon had finished lacing up his boots. The prince smiled at her and kissed her cheek in greeting, then told her he and Vandor would be gone for most of the morning to the docks with Jai and then in a meeting with her father.

So, after completing all her daily duties around the infirmary and checking on her few patients, Lyv headed to the Branvon estate, where she found Thia strapping on Roshan's saddle to his back. Her dragon wanted his usual greeting kiss on the brow before she was able to move to his side by her friend.

"It's just you and me today," Lyv grinned at Thia. "Vandor and Destan are seeing Jai, Camilla, and Soren off at the harbor this morning and then will be in a meeting with the king for the majority of the afternoon. And I asked if Laurel wanted to come, but she was too busy planning the menu my unnecessary birthday dinner with the queen and shooed me off before I could see anything."

"Then this is the perfect day to train," Thia asked. "But why are Jai, Camilla, and Soren leaving? Are they going to be gone for long?"

"A week at most. And to Blackloch to talk with Kalla."