An Affinity For Fire

8. Clover

Clover had spent almost the past hour staring blankly at the dried blood on her dress. She kept thinking she should get changed but couldn't quite muster the energy to do anything but sit. Every ten minutes or so, Peony would come in to check on her. "You're sure you don't need anything, love?" She would ask every time, to which her response was always the same: a shake of the head and a muttered 'thank you'.

 One of the assassins had made an attempt on the life of Prince Rye. Being the eight-year-old grandson of King Rowan, he had been much more closely watched by the guards than many of  the other guests. Even so, he had obtained a deep gash in his shoulder. Clover's father, a High Physician, had been asked personally to tend to the boy, and Clover couldn't face sitting alone in an empty house.

Tarry's house had been the obvious choice for a place to wait and Lady Peony Versenna, ever a generous woman, had invited her in without question.

She didn't really know what it was that she was waiting for, exactly. For Tarry to get home. For an explanation of some kind. For an announcement of exactly how many relatives she'd lost. Part of her was waiting to wake up in her bed and discover that none of it had actually happened, but she didn't hold out much hope of that happening.

When she heard the heavy, urgent knock on the front door, she flinched.

Peony attended to the visitors. When Clover heard the woman's relieved cry of 'Tarragon', her head whipped round to face the living room door.

"Wait, your Highness, what-" She heard Tarry's mother begin to ask, but she was cut off by a young man's voice.

"Forgive me, my Lady, but I'm afraid we're very short for time. Is there a 'Clover' in your household?"

"In my living room, but- now, hold on!"

Clover rose to her feet. Moments later, the door opened and a familiar, tall,  golden-haired boy marched in, with Tarry close at his heels.

"Leo," she said.

"No time to explain, are you a virgin?"

Clover's legs miraculously managed to carry her a step backwards instead of collapsing from under her in shock.

"For the last time, she doesn't need to be a virgin!" Tarry said, a response which didn't ease her confusion in the slightest.

"We don't know that," Leo argued.

"Hold on,  What?!" Clover spat.

Tarry gave her an awkward half-smile. "I'm really sorry, Clo, can you come with us, please?"

"Where?" she asked, suddenly aware of the fact that both boys were armed.

"Please?" he repeated. "We'll explain when we get there, I promise."

If it were anyone else, she would have told them to leave her alone and get the bloody Hells out of Lady Versenna's home. But this was Tarry. She trusted him with her life. Besides, she couldn't exactly throw him out of his own house.

Cautious and alert, she followed.

Her concern only increased when she realised they were leading her directly into the woods.

"You two are aware there's wolves out here, right?" She asked.

"There's something else out here that's worth the risk," Leo said.

"Right. And I'm assuming you're going to tell me what that is, eventually."

Through the darkness, she could just about make out the boy's embarrassed expression. "Eventually, yes. It's ... sort of difficult to explain."

She turned to Tarry, hoping for some clarity, but he just gave her another apologetic smile. She supressed a groan. Thanks, that's helpful.

When they arrived at the edge of the lake, the boys finally stopped and turned to face her.

"So..." Leo began, gesturing to Tarry. "Do you want to or should I?"

Tarry sighed. "Look," he said to her, "I'm about to ask you to do something very strange, but I need you to trust me when I say that it's important."

"Alright," she said. "What is it?"

He took a deep breath. "We need you to sing. Right now. To summon a unicorn."

She actually laughed. "Sorry, what kind of a joke is this?"

"He's telling the truth," Leo confirmed. "We need a hair from a unicorn's mane."

"Aaah," she said, oddly amused by the bizarre request. "Now the virgin question makes sence. Although, I have to say, you have not done your research. Anyone who knows anything about unicorns knows that the singing virgin trick doesn't work. Good thing, too, or I'd be useless to you."

Tarry's frowned sympathetically. "Come on, your voice isn't that bad. There's no-one else singing and no instruments in the background. The unicorn will have no way of knowing you can't stay in key."

She glared it him. "Yeah, that's not what I meant, but thanks for bringing that up."

She ignored his look of shock as he realised the implications of her words and turned to Leo. "Unicorns are creatures of divine magic. They're drawn to purity and innocence."

Leo threw his hands out indignantly. "See, Tarragon? I told you we should have given it a puppy!"

"No, that wouldn't work either," she said. "You can't just be pure, you have to display an act of purity. A puppy can't exactly do that."

"How do you know all this?" Tarry asked.

She rolled her eyes. "Because I actually paid attention in our tutoring sessions about Animal Studies. You were in my group, you should know all this, too."

Leo frowned. "So if you can't lure it out by singing, then what do we-"

He stopped, interrupted by the sharp crack of a nearby branch.

"Something's here," Tarry whispered, drawing his sword. Clover suddenly wished she had her bow.

Please, Fates, please not wolves.

She heard more twigs snapping and shrubs rustling.

Please not wolves, please not wolves.

It wasn't wolves. It was a bear.

Clover cursed, not that anyone would hear over the sound of Leo cursing louder. He fumbled with his crossbow, trying to load an arrow. The colossal animal lurched towards him.

Tarry swung his sword, striking the creature in the side. With a roar of pain and anger, it turned to face him. It raised a massive paw and swatted the sword from his hands.

Clover dropped to the ground and felt around for some form of makeshift weapon. Almost blind in the darkness, she clawed desperately at the dirt until her fingers landed on a rock. Relieved, she grabbed it and hurled it at the bear.

It growled again, turning round and lunging towards her.

She stared wide-eyed at the creature as it backed her up against the edge of the lake. For a moment, she considered trying to swim away, until she remembered that bears can swim.

Then something occured to her.

Out the corner of her eye, she noticed that Leo had finally loaded his crossbow.

"Don't shoot!" She shouted keeping her eyes on the bear's face. It took another step towards her, forcing her to step backwards into the water.

"What?!" Leo called out, crossbow still raised.

"Just trust me," she said, raising her hands in front of her.

The bear took another step, and so did she.

"We won't hurt you," she whispered, the animal's snarling face inches from her throat. "We won't hurt you. We won't hurt you."

She wasn't surprised when the animal ignored her. Time for a leap of faith, she thought bitterly. Heart pounding, she cast Tarry one final glance before taking a deep breath and closing her eyes.