Celenore

Claire woke to muted voices. She rubbed her eyes and turned over, then turned again, certain that a rock was jabbing her in the back. She groaned. Her body hurt, sore from riding, exhausted from magic. She wanted nothing more than to curl in a ball and go back to sleep. But everything began to return, coming back like a bad dream. The moment she thought of Hiondel and Lilly, she knew sleep would never come.

Some of the Drengr and Riders were still up, huddled around the fire. How long had she been asleep? Fighting the urge to hunker beneath her blanket and hide from them forever, she peeled it back, immediately struck by the cold. It didn't matter that she was dressed warmly, it crept through her clothing and cloak, forcing her to gravitate towards the large fire still burning in the center of camp.

"Lady Claire! Join us." Faedrol's hushed beckoning was impossible to ignore. She'd have to face the rest of them sooner or later. She couldn't hide forever.

She took a seat beside him, close enough that the heat from the flames was addictive. She almost scooted closer. "What time is it?" she croaked. The others sitting with Faedrol greeted her with nods and murmurs of her title.

Faedrol looked up at the sky. "Just about midnight from the looks of it. Did you get some sleep?"

"A bit," she said, hesitant as she waited for the inevitable. Waited for them to say something about the attack, about the green flames that had enveloped the Vodar, or about what she'd done to help Koldis heal the injured.

Jovari and Koldis chose that moment to appear, taking seats beside her, greeting the others. A wave of relief washed over her. Perhaps there'd be no awkward conversation after all.

Faedrol perked up. "You know, I haven't forgotten that I owe you a story, Lady Claire."

She could have hugged him. Instead, she grinned. "About Koldis, right? Something funny I hope?"

"Oh great." Koldis offered Faedrol his best glare.

"Is this the one about the bandits?" Jovari asked.

"The very same." Faedrol chuckled.

"Now you've got me interested," she said.

It was Hannah who spoke. "I think I'll do a better job of it than you, my love." Faedrol shrugged.

Hannah shifted closer, tucking her feet beneath her. "It was nearly fifty years ago, now," she said. "Rumors of bandits reached the capital. We generally don't concern ourselves with bandits. They're mostly harmless in the grand scheme of things, and most local villages have soldiers on hand to address things of this nature. This particular bunch of brigands began patrolling the roads in Galadhal. The Royal Road."

"The Royal Road?" She looked at Koldis.

He shrugged. "The one that leads from the Gable Forest directly to the capital. The main thoroughfare." She nodded.

Hannah continued. "The bandits were brutal. They believed it was their right to exact an impossible tax on those who wished to travel. A tax few could pay. They didn't simply rob their victims, they found places to string them up, hang them from trees, and where there weren't trees, they simply mounted their heads on spikes. It got so bad that travelers refused to use the road. There weren't exactly a lot of alternatives. Traveling over open country doesn't offer much cover."

"So...what did you guys do?" She shifted her position to get a better look at Hannah. Hannah was lanky for a Rider, and quite pretty, with chestnut skin and a feline face. Her dark eyes danced in the firelight.

"Well," she said, "Koldis can correct me if I've remembered it wrong, but as I understand it, the king sent him to gather a team—Faedrol and myself included—to put a stop to the problem. Matters as great as this, matters of the law, are taken directly to the king. Usually. But these men were fairly far from justice. As such, King Talon would have been plenty fine with us ending their pathetic lives." She paused, arching an eyebrow at Koldis.

He snorted. "Death is too easy for people like that. Debts should be paid where warranted."

"So, you made them suffer?" She turned to him, more curious than ever.

A wicked smile twisted the corners of his mouth. "Something like that." He nodded at Hannah to continue.

"Koldis took advantage of the king's vague order. He followed what he felt was the best course of action." Hannah's words made several in their little group chuckle. An inside joke, of sorts. "When we found them, which wasn't too difficult—"

"Not when you leave a trail of stinking piles of trash and bodies," Koldis said, his face riddled with mischief.

Hannah cleared her throat. "Koldis decided to take a more frightening approach. And what could be more frightening than facing King Talon? Everyone fears him. These bandits needed to be reminded of their king's ferocity. So he decided to transport them directly."

"You didn't!" She turned to Koldis, trying to guess the rest of the story from his expression alone.

"We couldn't exactly chain them up and walk them to the capital," Hannah explained. "Besides, Koldis wanted to have some fun. He gets bored so easily, Koldis does." A snort fell from Claire's lips; she covered her mouth with her hand to stifle her giggles. "He appeared in his Drengr form and gave them quite a fright."

"Oh no..." She turned to Koldis. "What did you do?"

He shrugged a shoulder. " Nothing much. Chased them about for a bit, roaring and spewing flame."

"He frightened the living daylights out of them, that's for sure. The rest of us had a right time of rounding them up," Hannah said. "Once that was done, we took the nets they used to haul their goods. Faedrol managed to tie them together to make a basket."

"Tell me you didn't!"

"We tossed the lot of them into the net," Hannah said. "Faedrol and Koldis carried them all the way back to the capital to receive the king's justice in person."

She laughed. "They must have been terrified."

"You have no idea," Koldis said, smirking. "A few of them may have shit their pants, but it was nothing they didn't deserve. We never got the exact count, but the death toll landed somewhere around two hundred."

"Two hundred?! And how many bandits were there?" she asked.

"Only twelve."

"Gods! Well, I find myself impressed. That's a unique way to take care of business, especially when the king gave you leave to kill them."

Koldis shrugged. "I admit I had other motives."

"Oh?" She arched an eyebrow at him.

"Let's just say I was a little annoyed with King Talon for treating me like a local militia to exact justice. The last thing I wanted was to leave the capital like an errand boy. There was a bit of spite involved, for my part. I figured if I brought the bandits to him, it might annoy him a little, if not surprise him."

"And did it?"

"Oh, he was annoyed all right. But amused more than anything."

"Sounds like you don't always follow orders as a good little Shield ought to?"

He laughed. "Not always. But when it matters, yes. Emotions can, at times, get the better of me."

"I get that," she said. Their quiet mirth died down. "Thank you for the story," she said to Hannah and Faedrol. "I needed a good laugh." They nodded.

Adventures did have their moments. Hers had turned out quite differently. There would be nothing to laugh about when this one ended.

"You should try to get more sleep," Jovari said, standing. He held out his hand. "We depart in the morning to beat King Talon back to the capital."

She stiffened at the reminder. With everything that had happened, she hadn't given Talon much thought. Now all she could think of was having to tell him she wasn't fast enough—that one of his Drengr had died because she'd allowed a few surprising projections to overwhelm her, to distract her from what needed to be done. No matter what the others said, no matter their reassurances, she wasn't sure she could let her failure go.

As she slept, she fell back into the same pattern of dreams that had plagued her before. She dreamt of wild dragons flying into battle. Of Kane. Of death. She woke several times in the dark with a restless stomach. When she was sure dawn was only an hour or two away, she abandoned sleep and went to go stand watch with whoever was on duty.

It was a relief to find Koldis, turned eastward, as if waiting for the sun to rise. She came up beside him, her cloak pulled tightly around her. They stood silently.

"How are you holding up?" he asked at last.

She sighed. "Hiondel's death aside, I thought once we destroyed the Vodar I would feel better. Instead, I feel...I feel more terrible today than I did yesterday."

He turned to her, frowning. "Something does not sit well with you?"

"I..." She opened and closed her mouth several times. How much did Koldis know? How much had Reyr told him, told the rest of them? "I've been having these dreams..."

"Dreams about Kane?"

"You know about those?"

"Just a bit." He spared her a quick glance. "Reyr mentioned it to King Talon the night before he left—that you'd been having dreams about Kane." He cleared his throat. "It's concerning, to say the least."

She chewed at the chapped skin of her bottom lip, hardly aware of it until she tasted blood and forced herself to stop. "These are different than the ones before," she admitted. "They almost seem like...like a vision. So real."

"What have you seen?"

"Dragons," she whispered. "Lots of dragons." She recounted as many details as she could, how she had been Kane, riding on the back of a red dragon, flying over the ocean towards...something. She shook her head. "All I could feel was fear, as if I could smell it soaking through the very air I breathed. I—he, I mean—liked it. There was a city in the distance, I think. He was preparing for battle."

Koldis faced her, frowning. "What did the city look like?"

"I..." She closed her eyes, trying to picture it. "Costal. There was a shoreline. It was sitting on the tip of a peninsula, I think? It's hard to tell. I saw docks. And flags flying everywhere. A big castle? I'm not..."

"This does not sit well with me," he said, mirroring her concern."How far can you reach?"

"Um. I...pretty far, I think. I don't know."

"Can you reach Reyr? Listen in on what's happening there?"

"Reyr...?" Her eyes widened. "You don't think that's where...Oh gods!" Her hand flew to her mouth.

"Your descriptions sound a lot like Squall's End, Claire. But I don't think they have been attacked. Not yet, anyway. We would know. At a distance this short, we would feel it." He turned to face the north, in the direction of Squall's end. "We would know," he repeated, perhaps reassuring himself that that was the case.

"So, you think it wasn't me seeing Kane in the present? I've always assumed it was the present. When I've seen him before, hiding the Dragon Stones, it felt like the present." She frowned, trying to piece things together.

"I can't say whether you were seeing him in the past, present, or future. I only know that you have seen Kane flying towards Squall's End with battle written on his heart. The rest is guesswork."

She nodded. "I've got an uneasy feeling, like I'm going to be sick. Ever since..."

"Since you woke up this morning," he finished for her. "That's why you came here to me." His gaze darted over her face, searching. As if he'd find all the answers he needed written in her expression.

"I feel it here." She put her hand over her gut. "Like something ominous. Something's going to happen, Koldis. Something bad."

"We need to contact Reyr." She looked at the horizon, still dark. A breeze picked up, rustling her hair, giving her goosebumps.

"In my dreams," she whispered, "it happened just after dawn."

"Give me a minute. I'll get Jovari. The three of us can join our minds and reach out to him. It should be enough."

She tried to nod, but her head was spinning, the ground was spinning.

"You don't look so well." He hesitated, reaching out a hand to steady her.

"Something's wrong," she whispered, not quite hearing her own voice. Her legs trembled. Her consciousness slipped. And then her knees gave way. The last thing she saw was the ground rushing up to meet her as hands gently caught and lowered her.

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