Border Crossing

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"You're late." Baralai Fairchild despised the rain, almost as much as he despised mages. He was waiting at one of the bridges that crossed the river that in turn divided the two largest kingdoms in their land. It was the same bridge where he had waited countless times. Templar or no, gold was gold, and this gold also got rid of troublesome mages.
"You want the gold or not?" A black clad man snarled as he jumped down gracefully from his equally black steed.
Baralai muttered something rather unbecoming of a Templar, then held a gloved hand out. "Gold first, then the cargo. Try anything..." He words were cut off as the mage he was transporting broke free of his restraints. It all happened so quickly that he didn't see the flash of lightning and the proud Templar was crashing into the raging river below.
Six months. It had been six months and the fallen Templar still woke in a cold sweat after dreaming of that night. The mage had rendered him immobile, though wide awake when he had plunged into the river, his heavy armour weighing him down until a pig farmer had dragged him from the river several miles away. It had taken months to get back to health and pay back the farmer for his kindness. In that time word had gotten out that Fairchild the Templar was a deserter.

Alice Gormanghast was scowling into the mirror. She hated this world she had been born into, even now as her maid pulled tightly on the laces of her dress she thought of nothing but a way to escape. Her brother's were all war heroes, famous to everyone in the kingdom for their brave deeds and triumph in defeating several of the dragons. But Alice... All she was known for was to be the prize her father handed over to the man he deemed brave enough to end the war altogether. She was the proverbial Princess in the tower, useful only for luring in prospective suitors. The young brunette didn't even realise her rose coloured lips were quirked into a slight smile 'if only they knew'. Indeed, her father would have a literal heart attack if he knew his prized daughter had secretly been learning how to shoot a bow and handle a sword. She lost herself for hours at an end in books that told of the thieves guild, and their mysterious leader who was sometimes known to have a higher moral code than the knights of their kingdom.

"Maybe he was afraid before." Evan suggested softly, pausing when he heard one of the other mages stir in their sleep. "Mages aren't exactly well liked, perhaps it felt wrong to have those feelings for you? Then after... If he didn't know who he was, he wouldn't know it was taboo?"

"You seemed happy enough." Alice whispered, though the waver to her voice betrayed the tears that clung to her lashes right then. "You need to go back to your ball, to your... Reglan."

"He was desperate to sell me before the slavers hurt him. That was my fault too and he knew it..." Yena confessed. "I nearly got him killed. He scares me but I loved him from the moment I saw him. And yet here I am. Still facing death." 

"Reglan is my best friend. She and I grew up together. She knew your grandmother. Why does that bother you? You are leaving me as soon as you can. Isn't that what you said?"

"Did you tell him you loved him?" Evan asked curiously. "Or did you give back as good as you got?" He added with the ghost of a smile. "I know what that's like, trust me."

"You didn't need to marry me to have me help you." Alice breathed. "I would have helped you anyway, and then you could have married Reglan and made your people happy."

"I...he was my first but...I felt like I gave as well as I got..." yena said with a deep blush. "Although...he probably wouldn't say the same. He'd probably laugh me into oblivion."

"Reglan is like a sister to me. She is no interest to me." Anaris sighed. "You on the other hand...it's the only way I could pin you down and get you away from your father."

Evan smiled again too. "First love, or... first first?" He asked, though he was simply teasing Yena now. "I loved a Princess once." He confessed. "She never knew it, of course. But that's what got me here... I had already been sold to the king, but he discovered my feelings and rather than have me executed, had me sold here as a dancing monkey."

There was a brief pause before Alice swung down from the tree in a most unlady like fashion, let alone that a Princess should not have been acting this way. Her feet were still hooked over one of the branches so she could look into Anaris's face whilst remaining upside down. "You needn't have gone to so much trouble if pinning me was what you wanted." She remarked as her long hair swayed about.

"How strange...he is a terrible man. Even Baralai seemed to grumble about him. The dread wolf take him." Tena said sotly.

Anaris actually smiled, his fingers threading through the silken locks. "That's not what I meant and you know it." He breathed.

"He's scared." Evan replied, making it sound almost like he was defending the king. "He thinks a dragon is his biggest problem."

"Do I?" Alice breathed, reaching a finger out to lightly trace along the edge of one of the king's pointed ears.

"It's not?" Yena asked innocently. She would not have the chance to hear why. One of the slavers came and yanked her from her cage, purposefully slamming her head into the bars. She didn't even get to say goodbye.

"Do you...what?" Anaris forgot what he had been talking about. Her eyes...the feel of her skin on his...it was too much. He wanted her. Badly.

"I don't care how much you paid for her, I want the elf!" Baralai could be heard bellowing and generally causing a stink. It was hard to miss his large frame at the best of times.

Alice smiled a little and kissed Anaris ever so lightly. "Should a king not know what he wants at all times?"

"You're not getting the elf." A heavy set man snarled. "I have plenty of other perfectly functional mages. But she is not for sale."

"Oh I know what I want." Anaris breathed. "I am wise enough, however, not to simply take it. What I want isn't so sweet if it isn't freely given."

"What makes that one so special?" Baralai snarled, clearly out of patience. "I only want what some old fool stole from me! She was not his to sell to you!"

Alice swung down to the ground now, the blood rushing to her head a little too much. "I tried to give it to you when I was sixteen, if you recall." The princess told her king with a wry grin.

"That's not my concern." The heavy man shouted. "What's done is done! She is mine and you are heading home. I gAve that old man enough to make his family royalty. I owe you nothing!"

Anaris gave a soft laugh. "You were too young to know what you wanted. I had no right taking it from you."

"She is stolen property, and I am not leaving without her!" Baralai warned, a stolen sword now drawn and he faced off the slaver.

"I was old enough to know I wanted you to have it before my brother stole it." Alice whispered, proving the incident in the barn before they had left her father's castle hadn't been the first such assault.

The slave snapped his fingers and Baralai was no longer alone. He was surrounded by slave guards, their sword out. 
"Bear, you idiot!  Go home!" Yena shouted. 

"Did he...did he hurt you?" Anaris asked her, wincing at her confession.

"You know I have no home, woman!" Baralai roared, prepared to take all of these men on. 

Alice shook her head, though her gaze wasn't meeting Anaris's any longer. "And we gave a good show, didn't we? I should think he doesn't really want me any longer."

"You had one with those..." she would have said more had one of the guards not hit her in the nose. Blood sprayed every where. 
"She is mine, Templar." The slaver hissed when he saw the look on the powerful man's face. "She is learning that and you will too."

"I will kill him." Amari vowed. "Why didn't you ever tell me? I'm going back there..." forget the war. He was going to kill her half brother...

Baralai didn't say any more. His golden eyes were rather dark before he trust his sword into the chest of the nearest man, watching the slaver all the while.

"Anaris... It wasn't your fight." Alice breathed. "You left the castle for many years, why would I think you even cared?"

"Bear..." in a few moments there was little more than her and the former Templar left. Even the fat slaver lay in his own remains. "What are you doing?" Yena breathed.

"You asked me to go. You told me you no longer needed me. Remember?" Even now the words were hard for the elven king. "I could never deny you anything." He was staring out at the night sky, watching one of the mages performing magic that acted like fireworks.

In all truth, the templar had no idea. "The old man... He told me you cared for me, and he repaid you by selling you to the slavers. I can't face the maker with such a debt on my shoulders." It was only a half truth, but it would have to do, for now.

"That's a lie." Alice told her husband bluntly. "I told you I loved you, and you called me a silly child living in a dream world."

"It was my fault you were hurt." Yena said, wiping her nose. "You owe me nothing. Your people were coming. How could you walk away from that?"

"You were scaring me, child. You were so young. There was no way you could have understood your feelings." Anaris told her. "You were in love with sunshine. You didn't know what you felt."

"How could I ask you to die for me?" Baralai countered. "Because that is essentially what was happening!"

Anaris simply seemed to be digging himself into a deeper hole with each word. "I see. So now you think you know my feelings better than I do?" Alice asked icily. "You still call me child, you think I am incapable of anything!"

"I am not dead yet, templar." Yena said firmly, shaking her head at him. "I'm not going to let these shemlen kill me." The intensity of his gaze made her stomach turn. She remembered it before. The heat like warm honey....

"If I thought you were incapable, I would never have asked you to help free your people and fight a dragon." The king snorted. "You think so little of me."

"Why did you let them take you in the first place?" Baralai asked gruffly. "Clearly you're more powerful than you let me believe!"

"Hurts, doesn't it?" Alice snorted, finally turning away from Anaris. "I'll help you, but I'm not living here while I do it. Your people will be happier with me gone anyway."

"Because...i..." Yena could no longer meet his eyes, shame filling her belly to replace the heat. "Does it matree now, Baralai?" She whispered, unknowingly using the same gentle tone she had when he was not himself.

"As you wish." Anaris' tone was curt and thin. He was already turning away from her, heading back to the party. "I shall see you on the field at dawn. Do not be late...child." he finished sharply, disappearing into the trees.

"Matters to me, Yena." The Templar replied, in a rare instance of using her name. "You could have been far away from here, looking for the Dire wolf if the fancy took you!"

Alice climbed back into her tree, her sanctuary as it had been when she was small. The young woman closed her eyes, trying to will her thoughts not to turn to Reglan and the other elves. If she was lucky, perhaps the dragon would eat her tomorrow.

Yena closed her eyes. The way he said her name made her chest tight. She'd craved that feeling when he was with her. "You should go. Before people begin to come looking for the slaver." She whispered, longing to touch his face. 

Anaris returned to the party but barely noticed anything was happening around him. It wasn't happening like he'd hoped. In fact, things with Alice were falling apart.

"And what slave wouldn't have run the second the slaver was dead?" Baralai asked as he grabbed Yena's hand. The second he did that the well built Templar felt it. It was like a sudden tingle that turned into a nagging at the base of his skull; was there something he was supposed to remember?

Alice wouldn't be there waiting for Anaris in the morning. She had changed out of her dress and gone looking for the dragon that very night.
"Sire, wont you please dance a little more?" A female elf pleaded when she caught her king looking so very miserable.

Yena recognized it and pushed a darkness into his mind, a fog that would keep it all away from him. "I trust you, Bear. You weren't here to hurt me. Only get the money they cheated you out of." She said softly. "And talk to your ex wife. She sent them here. They told me..."

"There is nothing to dance for anymore." Anaris said quietly. He was heading toward the gates. He'd made up his mind. He would start this war alone. No one should die for him.

"Ex wife?" Baralai echoed, his head beginning to throb as he tried to recall what he had been thinking about moments earlier. "No... I haven't seen Selene in a long time, why would she care?"

Alice had several hours head start on Anaris, though she was without a horse. The young princess had wandered into the dragon's territory without even realising it.

"Selene has been looking for you since you dropped off the face of Frelden. I saw it in a ripple of water. I sent her a message. Same as the Templars. She was coming here." Yena whispered.

Alice would find herself in the middle of a host of dead slavers and guards. There were caged slaves and mage every where and a lone blonde woman with fire in her eyes.