Chapter 9 #3
“At the moment, three at the mouth of the Tirlif,” replied the guard, referring to the river that flowed from the east to the Great Sea. “And another two in the colony just south of here.”
“That’s not accounting for the wild pairs,” said Mordric. “Of course, we estimate that there are less than a hundred of them.” He grinned. “All part of our conservation program, which is generally kept under wraps. Wyverns were once hunted to near extinction, you know.”
“Are they dangerous?” I whispered.
“Not to us,” he replied. “As long as they have access to their hunting grounds, that is. They do us a favor, really, as without them, the forest would become overridden with deer and elk.”
I raised my brows as the creatures devoured the last of the sheep carcass. I supposed fortune had favored the deer this evening. Their meal finished, the creatures crawled all over their patient mother as she tried to take a nap. She snapped playfully at her brood, trilling.
I glanced up at Mordric as he watched the wyvern hatchlings, pride written clearly across his features. “You’re glowing,” I observed.
“Wyverns used to be synonymous with the Hellebore line,” he said.
“My ancestor, the first king of Valen, always kept at least two by his side. It’s said that they helped him win the kingdom at the end of the Great Conflict.
I prefer to keep them wild though. When the hatchlings reach adulthood, they’ll leave the nest and seek out mates of their own, hopefully breeding with the offspring of one of the other clutches.
In a hundred years, we may not even need this program. ”
“I think it’s amazing,” I said.
I watched as the larger hatchling launched itself at its sibling, renewing their earlier battle. Their mother’s amber eyes tracked her offsprings’ every movement. “Do you get along with your brother?” I asked suddenly.
Mordric took a moment to think before answering. “Not always, but I think that’s the case for most siblings, don’t you?”
“I suppose.”
“It doesn’t help that our lives are very long,” he said pensively.
“It’s not unusual for vampires to go for years without speaking to another of our kind.
Even siblings. We tend to think that it matters little, but time apart can wreak havoc on any relationship, whether or not we’d like to admit it. ”
“How long has it been since he was last in Valnar?” I asked.
He sighed. “We haven’t seen each other for seven years, and I believe we hadn’t spoken for nearly ten. Apart from some written correspondence, of course.”
“But he still came to train me?” I asked.
He glanced down at me. “Enhart and I might not always get along, but he is my brother.”
“I understand,” I said. “My brother and I fought all the time when we were children, but we were always family.”
A beat passed between us. “I didn’t know you had a brother.”
I nodded. “Jem. At three years my elder, he always thought he knew best.”
“I’m inclined to agree with the eldest son,” he said, winking. “Where is he now?”
I took a deep breath. I had learned it was better to say it quickly.
“There was an outbreak of violet fever in my village over ten years ago. My brother was one of many who perished. My parents, too.” I still remembered the horror etched into Gran’s wrinkled face when we learned that none of them had survived.
“Violet fever?” he echoed. “It’s quite rare these days. ”
I nodded. Named for the purplish hue that spread beneath the skin of its victims, the disease had wiped out nearly a quarter of our village within a matter of weeks.
His gaze flicked down to meet mine. “I’ve never seen it myself, but I’ve read about it. You were spared?”
I nodded. “I was. My grandmother, too. Once the symptoms began to show, word spread across the Outlands. When the plague doctors arrived from Bard, they sent my family to die in a hovel with the rest of the infected while the rest of us were confined to our homes under threat of imprisonment.” I dug my nails into my palms. “My brother was the strongest of them,” I said quietly. “The last to die.”
The last to die alone.
“I’m sorry, Finn,” he said. “It’s always difficult to lose someone you love, but I imagine that to lose so many at once hurts that much more.”
I nodded. I knew that Mordric, too, was no stranger to loss. His family’s history was written in books, his parents’ faces immortalized in statues and portraits around the kingdom. It must have been painful to be reminded of them so vividly each day. My family existed only in my memories.
I had read that his mother perished in a riding accident en route to her ancestral home when Mordric was young.
King Norrix never remarried, and it was said that he and his entire court mourned the loss of their queen until he succumbed to old age nearly a century ago.
If only we could all be so lucky. To die peacefully at the end of our natural lives. To be beloved by so many.
My heart fluttered as Mordric’s fingers brushed mine.
We fell into a comfortable silence, our only company the beasts and the guards who protected them.
When I lifted my gaze, I saw something more than the beloved King of Valen, I realized.
I saw the eldest son who had been forced to shoulder responsibility for an entire kingdom after the loss of his parents.
I couldn’t imagine the weight of that duty. My heart ached for him.
When the sky grew light, we began the long walk home, strolling idly beneath the thick canopy while Mordric spoke warmly of the wyvern hatchlings. “Look,” he said, pausing upon a grassy outcrop. “This is my favorite view of the castle.”
The breeze tickled my cheek as I gazed out upon the sprawling grounds. The castle was bathed in the dusty light of dawn as snow began to fall. It was beautiful.
When I glanced up, Mordric’s face was serious.
Despite the chill that nipped at my nose, and snowflakes that landed in my hair, his skin was remarkably unweathered by the cold morning, reminding me of the vampire that he was.
It was so easy to forget. “Is something the matter?” I whispered, my heart beating against my ribcage.
Wordlessly, he grazed the line of my jaw with this thumb, tilting my chin up to his.
A shiver ran through me as our lips touched, the soft brush of his mouth against mine surprising me.
I had almost expected him to be as hard and unyielding as a marble statue.
He pressed firmly against the small of my back with one hand, the other running delicately from my face to my hair, pulling me close.
A gasp nearly escaped me as he ran his tongue lightly against mine.
I melted into him, arching my back to close the distance between us.
For this single, precious moment, I let the world around me melt into oblivion. There was nothing else. Only Mordric.