Leslie Moore - Griffin's Daughter

“ Is that what you think I am, a lovesick puppy ?” Magnes could barely speak through teeth clenched as tight as the jaws of a wolf trap.

“ I think that you are the future Duke of Amsara, and it’s high time you started acting like it. Now, get out! When I summon you again, you’d better be ready to tell me everything you know about that tink castle and its defenses. And I suggest you spend some time meditating on the error of your ways!” The duke turned his back on his son and went to stand by the open window. Magnes opened his mouth to protest, but the futility of it froze his tongue. Instead, he retreated as ordered. He left his father’s study and fled to the heights of Amsara’s outer wall where he could calm his mind and think.

If only I’d had been able to make Father understand. Gods know I tried, but he wouldn’t listen.

Magnes began to regret coming back to Amsara.

Perhaps it would have been better if I’d never returned. I could have gone south to Darguinia or west to the seacoast and gotten passage on a freighter outbound to the Shilluk Islands, he thought. I still could. After enough time has passed, Father will be forced to declare Thessalina his Heir.

Magnes truly believed that his sister would make a far better ruler than he ever could be. It was she who had inherited the necessary qualities that made a good leader, not he.

Magnes also believed that, deep down, Duke Teodorus knew the truth of the matter but refused to acknowledge it. The duke was a man who defined his life by tradition, and he would stubbornly cling to it, no matter the consequences, and by tradition, the first-born inherited all titles, lands, responsibilities, and obligations.

All of which Magnes would gladly hand over to Thessalina, without a moment’s hesitation.

The sun stood directly overhead now, and the land below lay prostrate under shimmering waves of heat. Magnes wiped his profusely sweating brow on his arm and retreated back down off of the wall and into the relative cool of the partially shaded yard. As he splashed water from a horse trough onto the back of his neck, he spied Claudia crossing the yard, headed towards the kitchen.

“ Claudia, wait!” he called out.

The old nurse stopped in her tracks and whirled around at the sound of her name. Magnes watched her mouth form an O of surprise just before her hands flew up to cover it.

As he approached, smiling, she rocked back and forth on her heels. “Ye’ve come back to us, oh, gods be praised!” she cried, stretching out her hands and laying them on either side of his face when he drew close enough to touch. Of all the servants at Amsara, only she could take such liberties.

He folded her plump fingers into his and squeezed them affectionately. “Claudia, I have news,” he said, and her eyes, sparkling with tears, grew wide. “Jelena is safe. She lives now in a place called Kerala, in the service of an elf lord named Sakehera.”

“ She’s found them, then? Her father’s kin? Oh, Lord Magnes, this be good news, indeed!” Claudia clasped her hands together and looked heavenward, as if offering a prayer of thanksgiving to the gods.

“ No, she hasn’t found her father yet, but Lord Sakehera has pledged to help her in her search. In the meantime, he has allowed her to stay and earn her keep as his messenger.”

“ The elves were acceptin’ of her, then? I was so afraid they’d be as cruel to my little lamb as folk was here. It tore my heart thinkin’ on it, it did.”

“ They have accepted her, some more than others, but as a whole, she is treated well. And there’s more. When I left, our Jelena and the lord’s younger son were becoming close. I know for a fact that she’s very much in love with him, and I strongly suspect that he returns her feelings.”

“ My prayers have been answered! My baby has found a place amongst people who’ll love her an’ treat her well, even if she be not their kin an’ of mixed blood, besides. If the gods’re merciful, she’ll find her own family afore long.”

“ There is so much I want to tell you, Claudia, but for now, it must wait. I know you have work to do, and there is someone I must go and see. I just pray that I’m not too late.”

“ Gods bless ye, Lord Magnes. Ye’ve brought joy to this old woman. I thank ye!” Claudia took Magnes’s hand and fervently pressed her lips to it. She then turned and shuffled off toward the laundry, dabbing at her eyes with the hem of her apron. Magnes stood a moment, watching until the old nurse disappeared from view. A surge of affection for Claudia flooded his chest with warmth. He had very little memory of his own mother, who had died when he was just a baby. Claudia’s was the only face he could conjure up when he thought about the idea of a mother’s love.

Love of a different sort now occupied his mind as Magnes headed back toward the stables. Dari sat in a patch of shade by the barn door, cleaning tack. The instant he spotted Magnes, the boy put aside the bridle he’d been scrubbing and scrambled to his feet.

“ I need a horse, Dari,” Magnes called out.

“ Aye, sir, right away.” Dari turned, cupped his hands to his mouth, and shouted into the shadowy doorway. “Oi! Pip! C’mere, now!” He looked over his shoulder at Magnes and grinned. A few heartbeats later, a younger lad of no more than ten summers scrambled out of the barn, bright purple juice smearing his face and hands. Dari cuffed him across his tow head.

“ Ow! Wha’ was that for!” the child yelled in protest, his face a comic mask of indignation.

Dari looked smug as he shot a knowing glance at Magnes. “That was fer not botherin’ t’ clean up before you came out here.” He slapped the boy again, eliciting another yelp. “And that one’s fer sassin’ me in front of Lord Magnes. Go and get the chestnut mare out o’ the far paddock, and be quick about it.” The boy scampered off.

“ Since when do you get to boss the other lads around, Dari?” Magnes inquired.

“ Since Lian give me permission to, sir. I’m the oldest now. Of the lads, that is. Lian says I’m t’ be head groom one day, soon as he’s Master. I’ve got the touch, he says.” Dari’s voice swelled with pride.

“ Yes, you do have a definite way with horses, Dari, but take care that you treat the people under you with kindness. You’ll not get the loyalty and respect of the other lads by bullying them. If you show them that you care about them, they will want to give you their best. Believe me, it works.”

As Dari listened to Magnes’s words of advice, he slowly deflated like a punctured wineskin. Crestfallen, he nodded in understanding. Just then, the boy Pip returned with the mare.

Dari took the halter rope from the child’s hand and gave his little shoulder a pat. “Good boy, Pip. Now, go an’ get the brushes and picks an’ I’ll let you help with th’ groomin’.” The child’s face lit up like a candle, and he ran to obey.

Magnes waited in the shade while the two boys groomed and tacked up the mare. After they had finished, he thanked the boys and mounted, turning the horse’s head towards the main gate. The boys waved as he left the stable yard, and he raised his hand in acknowledgement.

The guardsmen turned at the sound of approaching hoof beats. Magnes hailed them, and they snapped off a crisp salute as he rode past and out onto the switchbacks leading down off Amsara’s rocky eyrie. At the base of the hill, he turned and rode along the outskirts of Amsara village until he came to the road that led south.

Amsara’s chief game warden lived with his family on a small homestead about half a mile outside of the village, within spitting distance of the verge of Duke Teodorus’s private woodland hunting grounds. When they were children, he and Livie would spend hours exploring every bower and thicket beneath the lush, green canopy. The woods became their own special, magical playground. Later, when they had grown from playmates into lovers, the woods served as their trysting place, enfolding their passion within its protective embrace.