Chapter Seventeen

Briar

I dreamt that night in the carriage that never seemed to stop. I dreamt of a strange pair of eyes watching me in the woods. But it was never the same pair. Sometimes they were almost not there but they sparkled and other times they were shining gold and pressed up against the window.

They didn't startle me but they kept me company in the dark woods as I tossed and turned. There was one pair of eyes that never came close even though I knew they followed me, they glowed with flashes of green gold in the darkest parts of the forest. They watched over me as I finally fell into a deep sleep whilst the travelling party sped on through the night

Later that night

'Briar wake up honey!' Mistress Garnet called to me from what felt like far away but I felt her cool hands touch me and it offered some blessed relief to my overheated face.

'Here Briar, try to drink some of this,' Ruby asks me as I feel something hard press against my lips and then tipped up towards me and some very nasty tasting liquid enters into my mouth that I cough and splutter on. Ultimately I swallowed nothing of the foul concoction but I can't get rid of the taste lingering on my tongue.

'Briar! You need to drink this to get better!' Ruby pleaded and it sounded like she was now crying. I tried to open my eyes but I couldn't, they were just too heavy at the moment for me to do so.

'Here let me take over,' a quiet male voice said and I heard Ruby gasp at the intruder.

'You!' Ruby says with a note of venom in her voice. 'You're from the Winter court! You followed us for Briar didn't you!?' Ruby spat her accusation out. 'You can't have her anymore, she's beyond your people's control!' Ruby began to yell at the intruder.

'Miss,' the stranger tried to placate Ruby, 'myself and my Grandfather here, have never agreed with the actions and practices that the others committed under the orders of that court,' the quiet male voice said to Ruby who was acting incredulous at his explanation with her huffing.

'What I would like to know,' Mistress Garnet interrupts and emphasises, 'is why you're specifically here NOW young man?' Mistress Garnet asks calmly but somewhat coldly to him.

'Mistress,' called out a new but older male voice if I judged correctly by the rasp of it that fell within my hearing. I felt the carriage rock beneath me as another person steps inside our small bubble. 'I believe there are more important matters at the moment to solve and not to draw any more unwanted attention this way,' the older male cautioned Mistress Garnet.

'I see,' Mistress Garnet said after a small pause, 'how much do you know is going on?' She asks carefully.

'We know enough, my grandson and I,' he cryptically told her, 'that we hid all signs pointing towards a desired result for all those years by sabotaging everyone else's results,' the older man reveals and everyone is so quiet, that the atmosphere feels oppressive to me as I seek something to help me in my pain.

'I understand your meaning,' Mistress Garnet obliquely answers after another considerate pause and Ruby cries out in concern at this declaration, 'but why do that for all these years?' Mistress Garnet demands to know the answer to understand the behaviour of these two males better, 'How could it possibly serve you?' She asks in a deceptive tone. I'm pretty sure that depending on their answer, their lives could be in danger, whoever they may be.

There was an answering sigh of resignation and a rustling of fabric could be heard next, 'What! No! Grandson don't show them it! It'll put you both in danger! Please don't!' Begged the older man.

'It's ok Grandfather,' replies the younger soothing male voice, 'it's the only way to show that we, I, would never harm her,' he declares to his Grandfather and to Mistress Garnet as he shows her something that I couldn't see, 'this proves I hope for you that I would never do anything to Briar,' he challenges Mistress Garnet. The sound of shifting clothes and the creaking of the box bench was the only sound I heard as I guessed that Mistress Garnet was leaning closer to inspect whatever was being shown to her.

'What is that? It looks almost like...,' Ruby asks loudly in the suddenly quiet space, it was as if everyone had held their breaths until Ruby broke the spell of reverence that had descended on everyone.

I next heard the sound of clothes shifted back into place, 'I trust Mistress, you know the significance of it, even partially formed, I would never do anything to harm her,' the younger male voice announces sincerely to Mistress Garnet who exhales and shifts back into her former position on her seat.

'Do you know what's wrong with Briar?' She concedes partially to the younger man.

'Mama!' Ruby yells in shock at this foreign breach of protocol after always preaching to keep everything a secret about ourselves.

'Ruby, darling,' Mistress Garnet speaks softly and reassuringly to her daughter, 'I will explain everything to you afterwards,' she says and Ruby sniffles angrily but backs down.

'Yes, I think I know what's going on that is,' the young man's voice is hesitant for the first time now since hearing him first speak. 'It's because this is the first time Briar has entered a proper forest and is asleep in it with her natural defences lowered isn't it? She's connecting to every part of nature here and it's overwhelming her,' he explains his theory to Mistress Garnet and the air that was trapped in her worried lungs whooshes out at hearing this notion.

'It could be,' she quickly thinks the possibility over, 'can it be blocked?' Mistress Garnet asks the young man eagerly.

Ah, I think to myself so this is what this feeling is and I sink deeper into it. The velvet welcoming darkness, the green sparkling energy, the calming resonance of all the life here that calls to me to join them and just feel the world move around them, the heat of the sun, the cool of the night, the thirst quenching fall of the rain, the creatures that move, hunt, live and thrive here. It's the forest I can feel and I'm on the cusp of letting go, letting it all go here. I draw another shallow breath from my lungs but someone bodily picks me up and presses myself to them.

'Oh no you don't!' The young man's voice orders me, 'You will not let go and disappear!' Something soft and warm presses against my lips and forces their way into my mouth. A strong taste of astringent medicine is being pushed into my mouth and I'm made to swallow with whatever is battling inside my mouth as more is pushed in. It's either swallow or choke at this point.

'I need you to stay with me please!' He begs in a whisper and that soft sensation is repeated again, pushing in more medicine which I actually swallow and finally the procedure stops and I can breathe freely again without the feeling of being smothered. Soothing warm hands brush my hair tenderly off of my face and I feel myself being laid back down on the box bench beneath me.

'Was that method entirely necessary?' Ruby asks in an angry and judgemental tone, that springs from her fierce protective nature of me.

'I'm sure my lady that you have tried other methods but nothing was working to get anything down her,' the older voice slightly reprimands Ruby, 'but all things considered it is not a normal practice though,' the older man conceded with a little wince in his voice.

'Will that stuff work?' Mistress Garnet asks, it sounds like her composure is finally cracking now with how frantic she's been for me.

'Yes,' the younger man answers as he finally stops soothing me and goes to stand up, 'it will block her magic and her connection to the forest for now and will wear off incrementally as she regains her control upon waking up,' he explains to both women.

'She must take this medicine before going to sleep every night we remain in this forest or else this'll happen again and eventually draw unwanted attention upon her,' he warns Mistress Garnet and Ruby as he hands something over to someone.

'Thank you,' Mistress Garnet says a degree or two warmer towards him than from the start of them meeting. 'Does she know?' Mistress Garnet asks about something that I don't know about but I guess it involves me at least.

I can feel the young man hesitating before answering in one pain filled word, 'No,' then he was gone, off into the night somewhere.

'You're very lucky that no one in this group has discovered this situation by chance and her secret is still safe,' the older man who has remained behind warns Mistress Garnet and Ruby, 'Come seek us out in one of the travelling wagons if you need anymore help. We will work with you willingly. If it wasn't for my Grandson's connection to her, her secret would have been discovered,' the elder male voice chides Mistress Garnet and Ruby.

'Thank you for your help but I believe we can protect Briar quite well by ourselves,' Mistress Garnet amends to this older male's offer of help.

'And why is that? Why are you protecting her? What secrets do you hide yourselves?' The older man lashes out asking and a deathly quiet descends upon the carriage, no one is giving anything away.

The older man is the first to break the silence and he sighs. 'Forgive me, my ladies, I didn't mean to pry but you know our secret now which you will keep for her safety as well as ours... I need assurances,' he says rather heavily, his voice layered with exhaustion.

'It's ok,' Mistress Garnet says rather stiffly back to the gentleman, 'we'll also keep your secret as well as we have kept Briar's,' she says without revealing her hand to him.

The older gentleman must have relaxed a little at this promise because he speaks of something else now entirely. 'I must warn you ladies, that we are not the only ones travelling openly from the Winter court, but there are also others who are travelling in secret...,' he says but his voice drifts off in my ears as I fall into a black, dreamless sleep where not even the eyes that were watching over me in the forest could see me anymore.

Chapter Eighteen

Briar

I wake up inside the carriage and I'm curled up on the box seat with a rough brown homespun blanket laid on top of me and it takes me a moment to realise that one, the carriage has stopped moving and two, I am by myself as I look around. I must have slept through the night and the whole camp has been set up as well as I sluggishly sit up and see the small grey looking canvas tents dotted around the area of small camp fires about the place and the transports are also parked off the side of the trail.

I rub at my eyes and run my fingers through my hair and try to chase the tiredness away wanting nothing more than to be able to walk from my cot to the washing sinks in the servant quarters where I was only two days ago now and wash myself clean. I can't believe it's only been that long and I'm ready to go back there for the minimal comforts.

I grimace slightly as my mouth feels all cottony and my head is pounding as if I have imbibed on too many cups of wine with Ruby. I haven't done that in such a long time, I've learnt my lesson well that my tolerance isn't that high and my control over my powers is non existent in situations like that. I'm nothing but a danger to everyone and myself as we learnt that day after a thorough scolding by Mistress Garnet of course over our foolishness. But why do I feel like this? I groan slightly as I wince and close my eyes at a sudden and sharp pain tugging on my awareness.

I think over what I last remember and that was passing through the border gates and entering the dark forest and watching the face of the Fae guard with the green gold gaze who had warned me of a possible... attack! My eyes shot open as I realise I never told anyone about the warning and I stumble up onto my feet and lurch out of the carriage unsteadily.

I look around at the people going about their business this morning. Some are preparing and cooking breakfast over the smoky but hot campfires and others are packing away tents and such things before riding out again for another day's travel. I still keep scanning for any faces that I actually know, to approach them with the information though. No one would trust an absolute stranger's word in this situation.

My gaze latches onto one familiar tall man but it's not who I really want to talk to as I don't feel all that comfortable in his presence but I manage to walk over to him on my shaky legs and I patiently wait to talk to him as he finishes off talking to the other Fae man who is in a gray uniform of sorts with a pair of shiny black leather boots and dull bone buttons.

I sway where I stand but finally Lord Ashton and the gentleman finishes talking about their business and he gives a small salute to Lord Ashton and marches off, but not before he glances at me and gives me a small but funny indecipherable look. Ignoring the look, I reach a trembling hand out and latch onto Lord Ashton's puffy light blue silk sleeve to stop him from going anywhere and he looks back over his shoulder to see who it is that's stopping him and his eyes widen in surprise upon seeing my face.

'By the gods Briar!' He says in concern and spins round to face me, 'What's wrong? What's happened to you?' He asks as he places the back of his hand on my forehead to check my temperature. This unexpected act of concern leaves me stunned for a moment coming from a relative stranger and a Fae at that and it makes me involuntarily flinch from this kind of contact.

'Nothing,' I mumble and nearly fall over from taking an unseen step backwards. I find myself being steadied by my shoulders as Lord Ashton has grabbed a hold of them in my stumble.

'Don't give me that 'nothing' excuse,' Lord Ashton reprimands me, 'your face has no blood in it at all, you've gone completely pale and you're sweating like mad but you're also freezing, you need medical help,' he tells me and begins to drag me off somewhere with his hand on my elbow but I dig my heels into the soft dirt floor covered in dead dry leaves and tree needles to stop him taking me anywhere.

I shake my head at him, panicking a little, 'It's only a headache,' I mutter to him and shake off his hold on me gently, I look down then so I miss his hurt expression completely. 'I need to tell Ryo about something I was told yesterday, where is he? Do you know?' I ask and explain my presence to Lord Ashton and I finally gaze up at him and his face looks puzzled now.

'You can tell me and I can pass it on for you,' he offers, 'you need to rest and I'll get you some medicine for your headache as well,' Lord Ashton insists and leads me to an unoccupied campfire and makes me sit down on an unfolded blanket, a duplicate of the one I left behind in the carriage, laid out on the ground near the crackling fire.

'No,' I say after a pause and shake my head and try to get back up but my limbs are shaking so badly now with the effort that I more or less flop around on the blanket.

'What's wrong with her?!' Another man asks and runs that fast, that he skids to a stop in front of me to land on his knees in the dirt. Prince Raine's face is before me suddenly and his golden gaze is sweeping over my face and checking my body for any signs of obvious injuries.

'Briar says it's a headache?' Supplies Lord Ashton in a dubious tone of voice.

'Really?' Prince Raine asks looking at my face in doubt and I begin to nod yes but regret that action immediately and pull a pained face.

'I think so,' I hesitantly say to him, 'I haven't felt this bad before though,' I mumbled in a quieter voice and look away from his intense gaze but not before I see his eyes narrow in concern. 'Where is Ryo?' I ask Lord Ashton again, 'I have something to tell him,' I repeat.

'You can tell me if it's important and I can pass it on for you while you get some rest and some food into you,' Prince Raine offers, his voice is gentle and he reaches out to pat my head soothingly, my eyes widen at his overfamiliar touch. I don't think Prince Raine realises what he's doing and I try to evade his touch by shaking my head to say no again.

'I feel more comfortable talking to Ryo,' I insist to the both of them and try to shift away from the two Fae by crawling backwards, 'besides I feel that because Ryo is a soldier or something, he's probably more equipped to handle what I have to tell him,' I explain in a feeble attempt to the suddenly still and quiet Fae men.

'You feel more comfortable talking to Ryo rather than myself or Raine here?' Lord Ashton says in a shocked voice, his honey brown eyes widening in surprise at me and this apparently and obviously absurd notion I told him of being more comfortable talking to Ryo.

Prince Raine crouches back up onto his feet as he eyes me like I'm some kind of weird animal he doesn't want to bolt suddenly on him. 'Normally, it's the other way around,' Prince Raine says conversational like but not going into any detail, 'people prefer to go through us normally instead of talking to Ryo,' he explains carefully as he slowly reaches out a hand to me as if he expects me to reach out and except it. I still back crawl away from them both and I've just about reach the end of the blanket.

'Briar says she wants to speak with me and that she feels I'm more approachable than the both of you?' A voice suddenly and loudly drolls out from nowhere that I can see, 'I don't know why you both sound incredulous that Briar wants to speak to me but I think that's a good thing,' a slightly peeved but familiar male's voice speaks out again but is now coming from behind me, just as I collide into something solid that wasn't there a moment ago and I look up to see Ryo's face peering down at me with a grin but then his face changes in an instant as takes me in.

'What's happened to you?' Ryo asks me as he disentangles his legs from me falling into him. Ryo then crouches down to get closer to me and he looks me over carefully. His face echoes the same concern the other two, Lord Ashton and Prince Raine are also showing about me.

'Nothing, it feels like a headache,' I manage to say to him but a wave of nausea rolls through me and a cold sweat prickles at my skin. I must look even more worse as all these men start to crowd me to check my vitals again. I shake their unwanted attention off, I will go and rest soon but not before I say what I need to tell Ryo and they are making this process take longer than was necessary. I felt that what I needed to tell Ryo was more important than my sudden illness.

'Ryo?' I call out to him softly to get him to focus on my face instead of checking my heartbeat at my wrist. He looks quizzically at me and waits for me to continue to speak to him. 'A border guard warned me before we passed through the gate to this side that he thought we would get attacked,' I managed to pass the information on finally with some relief just before a roaring sound filled my ears entirely and the world around me grew impossibly bright and tinted green before it all faded away again to black.

Chapter Nineteen

Ryo

'Briar!' I snapped out as she keeled over and all three of us collided in trying to catch her swaying forwards towards the ground.

'What's wrong with her?' Raine demands to know but none of us here are physicians. I send my energy out to check her over for obvious injuries but I don't sense anything like that jumping out at me but now as I examined her real closely, I feel something new about Briar that I couldn't sense at all before.

I feel an actual presence, a very strong human presence whereas before my strong senses were all but blocked off somehow from sensing what she fully was. I couldn't feel her use magic when I actually saw her do it right in front of my eyes and I certainly wouldn't have been able to clearly identify what she was from before with her murky presence that just about announced her as a human to all those around her that thought to check. Even trained Fae investigators wouldn't have been able to pick her out on a testing day as a child in that kingdom she came from I believed.

'I'll take Briar to my personal mender to look her over and you two organise the camp being taken apart and warn our Captains of this possible attack heading our way. They will organise the rest as I trust they will. Also one of you find a private moment to talk to our guest of honour and warn him as well, he might prove himself useful in a fight,' I pass my orders onto my friends and Raine scoffs at me.

'Might prove useful indeed,' Raine says, 'I'll go pass the message onto our guest,' he says to Ashton who just nods to confirm the plan.

'I'll go find the Captains,' Ashton confirms to us, 'then we'll start at whatever end of the camp we're in and start helping the others to pack things away quicker,' Ashton tells us.

'Ok,' I agree and I hook my arms around Briar's back and under her knees to lift her up and cradle her body close to mine, the others look conflicted as they look down at her, she looks so small and frail to us all in this moment. We barely know her but I know it's already hard on us to see her in this state and a bond hasn't even been created yet.

'My mender will find out what's wrong,' I say reassuringly, 'but keep her travelling companions distracted,' I tell them as I hold Briar closer to me. 'I don't like how they left Briar alone or that they didn't even tell us she's unwell. Doesn't that seem like strange behaviour to the both of you as well?' I ask for their confirmation on this and they both nod yes as well.

'So you think this is something deliberate then?' Ashton says and brushes Briar's blue black hair out of her face and gives a little grin, 'Of course it is, they're protecting Briar after all and not telling us about her condition is keeping her safe from us looking too closely at her,' he tells us after thinking about something.

'But why? They obviously know something about her?' Raine is trying hard to understand the mother and daughter's team motives.

'It's because somehow and someway, those three women became tightly bound like family, just like how we three are,' Ashton replies and I nod in agreement to him, going over in my mind the small interactions I've had so far with those two formidable women.

'So everything's agreed then, pass the information on, tear down the camp and keep those two ladies distracted while I take Briar to Hunter to check her over,' I say and I watch Raine look down at Briar in my arms and his face looks torn in indecision.

'Don't worry you two, I've got our girl and I'll found out what's going on with her, Hunter's the best at what he does or else he wouldn't be here by my side as my personal mender,' I point out to them but more specifically Raine who looks lost, 'My adopted Uncle's wouldn't hear of anything less than the best to stand by my side,' I reassure them both and Raine looks slightly more convinced now at the thought of leaving Briar, Ashton glances at Raine and then looks at me to communicate non verbally his understanding with his eyes and he claps his hand on Raine's opposite shoulder to drag him away.

'Come on now Raine, the faster we get our work done, the faster we can come back and check up on Brier,' Ashton reasons to him and that seems to get a reaction out of Raine as he turns on his heel, ducks out of Ashton's hold and walks determinedly in the direction he needs to be in.

'He's still the same as he was back then as a child playing with us,' Ashton remarks with an indulgent look aimed towards Raine's retreating back. 'He cares the deepest about those he cares for to the point that he has no clue what to do about it,' he says to me and I roll my eyes a little at him.

'That's why we both keep prompting him to move forwards all the time or he'll be weighed down with indecision at moment's like this,' I remind Ashton who just tuts at me.

'You're so hard on everyone Ryo,' Ashton complains to me about me.

'You know, I gave you a job to do too right?' I prompt him and start to turn away from him and walk in the direction of where I saw Hunter's tent this morning.

'Yes Sir!' Ashton calls out in a sing song voice from behind me and then he starts singing a tavern song about something that was too soft and the other was too hard but the one in the middle fit just right for a maiden to have a good night...his voice fades away but I can hear the others in our travelling group quietly laughing at Ashton's antics. I shake my head and carry on walking and being careful to not jostle Briar's head too much as I do.

'I hope you're accepting of all our flaws little one,' I murmur to Briar and I lean down to place a small kiss on her forehead and straighten up quickly before anyone can catch what I just did. I could trust my own people here implicitly but the others that I didn't know anything about travelling with us as well could hold my actions as a bargaining chip in the future.

Raine and Ashton always presented themselves as themselves while out and about in the world. The fourth Prince of the Summer lands and a prominent Lord hailing from the same lands, could move about quite relatively easily. Myself though, I had to hide my identity as it would cause too much trouble otherwise when I travelled and someone in my group always acted as the one in charge on my behalf even though they secretly deferred to me instead.

That was something I was going to have to reveal to Briar eventually if she's really my mate. I look down at her sleeping features and sigh. I don't think she would like it one bit once she finds out who I really am, I think to myself and I find myself secretly worried over it for a moment until I spot Hunter sitting outside his tent polishing his boots.