Free The Realms of Ethair by Cecilia Beatriz Page B

tormenting him.”
     
     

 
     
Pellinor
     
     
    The Captain stared past Arturion. A dryad had come
to the defense of the Gate Keeper – a Halfling, half-Merleinan and half-human being.
The latter had also turned to the origin of the voice.
    They know each other, the Sentry thought.
    “ Pellinor, please,” she
implored.
    He had never spoken to a Gate Keeper
before. Sentries kept well away from this Order. They were too
serious unlike their counterparts, the Black Guards. The Merleinans
presumed that the Guards and the Sentries disliked each other. He
continued to encourage the belief to sustain the reputation built
around them. They weren’t supposed to work with other Orders in
Merleina, not if the Forest Folk were not directly
involved.
    Seeing a female shed tears was nothing new.
It was just human emotion. But every tree and spirit had felt her
and a cry of a Liyanna had never gone unheeded. Kelor-dan had
extricated himself from the duties of running a kingdom to aid
her.
    The route Pellinor’s Sentries had taken were
days away from the palace courtyard. He was slightly annoyed when
the forest shifted beneath them and discovered the reason behind
it. The arrow he loosed was a warning shot against the beast to
move back.
    The Captain and his fellow riders had been
away when Kelor-dan hosted a welcoming celebration for the young
woman. The whispers of trees about the existence of a Liyanna had
reached them in the western borders they safeguarded from unwanted
visitors. It had been centuries since he last heard of an outsider
be appointed that status.
    When he asked the mortal for her name, he
had assumed that it was an ordinary human name and apparently lost
her way in the forest. His offer to return her to the dwelling
place of the Merleinans was declined and her familiarity with the
prince irritated him. Then, she refused to play his
game.
    In one day, he had been denied twice of his
enjoyment. It was a record-breaking event in his life. This
realization amused him that Pellinor finally capitulated to the
tree-spirit’s plea.
    He shrugged nonchalantly.
    After relating the incident to the Halfling,
he mounted his horse preparing to leave.
    “Can I come with you?” Arturion asked. He had
not moved from where he stood.
    “To the borders?” Pellinor feigned
ignorance.
    The Gate Keeper’s expression was frozen in
place.
    “ That’s the problem with your Order. You
take yourselves too seriously,” he muttered under his breath.
Loudly, he said: “As much as I would like to, I could not take you
to her. It would fail the purpose of granting her refuge in our
land; that is, keeping your people away from her.”
    Gate Keeper or not, this one was
unnaturally still. One would have mistaken him for a stone statue,
Pellinor observed. He swallowed his exasperation with the
Halfling.
    “What’s your name, Keeper?”
    “Arturion.”
    “ Hear me, Arturion.” The mare fidgeted
under him,impatient to be off as he was. “Do not be deceived by the
delicate form of a flower. Liyannas are stronger than they
look.”
    Satisfied with the reaction it elicited
when he inadvertently let slip Karina’s position in their realm,
Pellinor nudged his horse toward Kelor-dan’s palace. He could still
feel Arturion’s eyes boring holes at his back until darkness
swallowed horse and rider.
    The current Liyanna was amusing with her
display of affection for the prince. Mortals tended to fawn over
Kelor-dan’s human form, but the woman remained blissfully unaware
of his charms. He admired her intelligence for staying her ground
before a chimera and for having the common sense to avoid uttering
the abused human phrase of expressing gratitude to one of the
Forest Folk. No doubt, she would overcome her depression in a span
of days.
    The Keeper, on the other hand, was
demonstrating a little more than his profession demanded. Most
likely, Arturion was still unaware of this fact. It wouldn’t be the
first time nor the last.
    The Liyanna and