Chapter 36 Alexandria
ALEXANDRIA
Iwoke in a clearing in a forest and it was familiar, but no one was there to meet us. And no Max.
I was up first, having the gold thread on the back of my head, once again thinking I should have given it to Torin.
I watched him sleep and blearily looked around at the trees, but then a sound spooked me. I nudged him, “Torin?”
He moaned. “Aye?”
“Torin, I thought I heard something.”
He lumbered up with his dirk drawn. It looked difficult, but also way faster than I expected.
He crouched and looked in all directions, and tugged at his earlobe.
“I canna hear anything.” Finally he said, “Twas naething.” He sat down on his rear on a boulder and put his head in his hands.
“Och, twas a long jump, m’everything hurts. ” He looked around. “Where is Max?”
“I don’t know, I hope he’ll get here soon.” I looked at him holding his head. “I really wish you would take the gold thread.”
“What did ye say?”
“I wish you would have used the gold thread.”
“If ye think after almost gettin’ ye killed, I am goin’ tae take yer thread off yer back, och nae, ye are sorely mistaken.”
I frowned. “I thought you said you’d forgiven yourself, have you?”
“Nae, I canna, not till yer situation has changed, I said I had, but on reflection…”
I joked, “Och nae.”
He chuckled.
I said, “Well, I forgive you, that’s all that matters because I’m a princess, what I say goes, and you’re my warrior, about to fight a battle for me, for my throne, so you need to get your head in the game, Torin.
You don’t want to let your mood make you weak.
You need to be strong and ready to fight, got me? ”
“Aye, I got ye.”
“You’re smiling, you like that?”
“I do, surprisingly, if ye had asked me five years ago — someday, Torin, a beautiful princess is goin’ tae yell at ye—”
“I don’t yell!” I yelled, then I said quieter, “I just really needed you to hear me.”
“…going tae yell and boss ye, and demand tae go tae fight with ye, I would hae answered that that person has lost their senses, that I winna ever let a princess talk tae me that way, but aye, now I like it verra much. I like ye verra much. I mean, I daena want ye tae do it all the time, but in small amounts tis verra fine. I see the flash of yer royal bloodline, yer bearing, ye make me want tae get down on m’knees—”
“Really?”
“Aye, but I canna, today, I am too sore.” He pulled at his lobe again. “Ye will hae tae wait until I recover a bit.”
“Your ears are bothering you?”
He nodded, “It sounds as if I am surrounded by bees.”
“You don’t need to get down on your knees, Torin—”
“Ye daena like it?”
“I mean, kinda, I do, but you don’t have to…”
He stood and gathered the horse reins. “So ye like it when I get down on my knees, kinda, I like it when ye lord over me, sometimes — we will hae a long marriage.” He drew the horses out of the middle of the clearing to the woods. “Grab our bags.”
I said, “For when Max gets here?”
“Aye, we daena want him tae land on us.”
I lugged bags to the woods and piled them behind a tree and called Dude over to get out of the way. “So I shouldn’t be upset about the fight?”
“What?”
“I shouldn’t be upset about the fight?”
“Nae, we learned a great deal about one another. Tis important. But tis also a couple centuries in the past.”
“I was pretty passionately mad at you, and I passionately love you too, so I guess it’s good to see both sides.”
“True.” He stepped back intae the clearing and looked up at the sky. “And dost ye ken what ye need tae do now?”
“Kiss you?”
He chuckled. “I was goin’ tae say get behind the boulder because a storm is coming, but kiss me works, how about one then the other?”
I kissed him.
Then I looked up at the sky. “It doesn’t look like anything.”
“Nae, there is something, ye see the branches wavin’?”
“Oh, crap.”
“Aye.” He grabbed my hand and pulled me back behind a boulder and I huddled under him as we covered our heads. The clouds rose and the winds gusted and the trees whipped and then the storm came on like a blast. The noise was deafening and the wind was terrifying, until at long last, it was over.
Torin peeked over the boulder and said, “Max is here.” He rushed out to see him.
Max peeled his arm off his face and looked up at Torin. “Och nae, how are ye here?”
Torin tugged at his earlobe. “What?”
Max said, “How are ye here?”
“We just arrived. We got up verra fast, tis not lookin’ good on ye that ye are in the mud still.”
“I will lay here until I am ready. I am glad ye dinna land on me.”
“I did last time, ye ken, or the time before—”
“Last time or the time before?”
“Aye.”
“Och nae.”
Torin said, “I think ye ought tae rise, yer sister rose as soon as she landed, ye look weak lyin’ in the mud.”
Max exhaled, irritatedly. “I canna decide if I am happy tae see ye or nae.”
Torin grinned. “Och ye are happy tae see me, I am verra glad tae see ye and look how many horses I brought!”
Max groaned. “I told ye nae!”
“Ye told me many things and I tell ye, m’laird, I haena listened tae ye on any of it.”
Just then the uncles rode up in the ATV and Ryan, Aenghus, and Charlie walked over as if they were going to make introductions again.
Torin put out his hands and stopped them before they could start.
“Afore everyone pretends tae meet each other for the first time, I want ye tae ken, we hae already done this, more than once. We fought the battle, we lost, and now finally I hae grown wise tae it. I hae taken it upon m’self, with the aid of the princess, tae go around tae change the outcome. ”
Uncle Ryan’s eyes went wide. “Does it all go to hell?”
“Aye, I daena ken if twas the worst, but twas hellish, we need tae do it all again. Lives depend on it.”
The uncles all groaned.
Torin pulled the neck of his shirt away. “See m’bandages? I am bearin’ the scars of the day.”
“How did everyone else fare?”
Torin shook his head. “Tis best not tae say, I think.”
Aenghus and Ryan met eyes.
Charlie said, “You’re wearing a t-shirt that says, ‘I’ll be back’. Is that to be ironic?”
I said, “Yeah, that’s why I loaned it to him.”
Torin asked, “How many times would ye say ye hae set the day back in its course?”
Uncle Ryan said, “I don’t know, three times?”
“Och nae. Either ye are lying or ye canna remember. Both are troublin’.”
“I may have lost track.”
Max’s eyes went wide. “This is not the first time? I am the prince, I wasna told?”
Torin said, “Aenghus, tell the prince tis not the first time.”
Uncle Aenghus said, “Nephew, we dinna win the day so we began it anew.”
Torin said, “How many times dost ye think, Aenghus?”
“At least three times around the wheel.”
Torin nodded. “By my accounting, aye, at least three times, and not only the battle, ye hae written over many moments in the royal family’s pasts, tryin’ tae draw the hour back intae the glass. Ye tried tae bring the king and queen back from—”
Aenghus said, “We hae been doin’ what we thought best!”
“I ken, but ye are playin’ at gods, and still the grave keeps what it has been given.”
Aenghus shook his head sadly.
Max said, “We lost the battle three times?”
Torin clapped Max on the shoulder. “Tis alright, m’laird, I am fixin’ it.”
To Uncle Ryan he asked, “Is this the first time I hae arrived and told ye this?”
Ryan said, “Aye. This is the first time.”
Torin rubbed his hands together. “Good, then the plan is goin’ perfect so far!”
Ryan shook his head sadly. “We ought to go to the Barn, discuss it there. Want to ride in the ATV? I can send someone back for the horses?”
Torin said, “Alexandria and I will ride the horses back, want tae ride with us, Max?”
Max said, “Aye.”
Aenghus said, “We will meet ye kids there.”
They left us in the clearing. We gathered the horses together to ride and Torin said, “They call ye the ‘kids’.”
Max closed a pack. “They are auld, everyone is young tae them.” Then he grunted. “Ye are honest, Torin, we hae fought this battle before?”
“Aye. I never lie tae ye, m’laird.” Torin strapped a pack to one of the saddles and put Dude inside.
“I just daena understand how we can lose, it seems a certain—”
“Ye ken battles are never certain, m’laird, especially when ye are meetin’ an adversary for the first time, tis why I am furious with the uncles. Twas egregious tae not tell us.”
I said, “I’m sure they thought they were getting smarter.”
“Aye, but Max and I were left in the dark. We are the best warriors, we ought tae ken the stakes.”
Max looked thoughtful. “How many more times will we need to fight?”
“This will be it, we are done with the trials. I will win this time, I hae learned what I need.” Then Torin said, “Ready tae mount up, Alexandria?”
I took Ferrari’s reins. “You want me to mount up, my love? Watch this.” I put a foot in the stirrup. “Alright, Ferrari, I’m going to mount up.” The horse sidestepped a bit, but it didn’t matter, I pulled up, got my leg over, and settled in the saddle.
I grinned at Torin.
Torin said, “Och, I liked that verra much. I am verra proud.”
“I’ve been practicing, waiting for you to come back.”
He grinned. “Ye made m’dreams real.”
Max said, “Och, ye are verra sweet, I am verra pleased for ye both,” as he finished packing all the bags on all the horses.
Max climbed on Dà, Torin mounted Cathbarr, then he led all of us from the clearing toward the military camp.
Lambo walked beside me. Dude poked his head up out of Lambo’s pack. “It’s like we’re in the past right, Dude? Except we’re surrounded by a whole herd of horses now and Max is with us.”
Then I asked, “Torin, how did ye get so many horses? I know how you got Lambo and Ferrari, but what about the others?”
“Och, tis a long story, even without tryin’, I keep gatherin’ them up.”
I said, “We have about a twenty-minute ride, you might as well tell it.”
Torin began to do what he loved, what I had grown used to as we rode through Scotland, sitting half-turned on the horse, looking back, the reins casually held on his thigh, talking to me…
God, I loved him.