War of Wizards (31 page)

She laughed. “My mother? You thought she would change my mind?”

“It worried me, yes.”

“Darik, I fought a dragon. Do you think I’d let my
mother
scare me off?”

When she blinked, the piercing gaze vanished, but then her eyes opened again. Already, it was less challenging to meet her gaze. He would grow used to it, of course he would.

Daria kissed him shyly on the lips. “I still want to be your mate. Do you feel the same way?”

“Yes. More than ever.”

She kissed him again. His heart pounded, and when he took her in his arms, the press of her breasts and hips against him was almost more than he could bear. He wanted her so badly.

Daria pulled away. “But not here. There are too many people, and I’m nervous. Can you wait until the mountains?”

“I’ll wait as long as I need to. But yes, um, sooner would be better.” Darik glanced toward the shadows, where the griffin was prancing nervously. “Will he carry me without trouble?”

“Maybe a little trouble. He’s still got some wildness in him. But don’t worry, I’ll hold you tight.”

Daria clicked her tongue on her teeth, and the golden griffin stepped out of the shadows. He was enormous, and when he cocked his head and fixed his eye on Darik, it was hard for Darik to remember that he’d flown griffins before. He felt rather like his meal, instead.

But Daria settled Talon long enough to get them both onto his back, and moments later, they were shooting into the sky. Darik wrapped his arms around Daria’s waist, and suddenly he was back to that first flight, when she’d rescued him from Montcrag castle. The exhilaration, the feel of his hands on her body. Her hair blowing in his face. Her clean smell. By the Brothers, he would happily drown in the smell of her.

#

They made it halfway across the Desolation of Toth that night, and Daria brought them down at dawn to rest Talon for a few hours before they continued. The landscape was changed. It hadn’t suddenly blossomed, but the gray mists were gone, the sense of dread. Instead, he could see a broken land of ruins, with pale, sickly weeds here and there. The ground was damp from rainfall, and Darik wondered if spring would bring fresh growth across this once dead land. He hoped so.

Daria took them to the mountains and then veered north, in the direction where her mother had led the flock. Palina, Daria explained, was leading a scouting party into the Wylde, the great forests of the northern mountains. They would cross the land of golden griffins and stone giants and pass into the country of mammoths. Daria kept them flying for most of the day, stopping only to kill a young deer, which she tied to the griffin’s haunches.

It was too dark for Darik to see by the time Daria brought Talon circling down to a stone tower hidden in the mountains. They landed in the aerie, and Darik went downstairs to start a fire in the hearth. There was a cold stream outside, and he filled the pot and set it boiling over the fire. He found wild carrots and some sort of tuberous root in a bucket, which he chopped and added to the water.

Daria finished feeding and brushing Talon, but then she spent at least an hour dressing the deer, and finally, they had to cook and eat the stew. By then, Darik was exhausted.

He stretched, yawning, in front of the fire, wrapped in a sheepskin blanket he’d found in a bin on the far side of the room. All day long, he’d dreamed of making love to Daria, but that would have to wait for another day. He couldn’t keep his eyes open. Or so he told himself.

Daria lay down next to him and slipped her cool, dry hand beneath his tunic to rest on his belly, and suddenly he was wide awake.

“Are you ready to be married?” she asked.

“We make love, and that’s it? We’ll be married?”

“Yes!” She laughed, a bright, cheerful sound that warmed his heart. “Once we’ve mated, what else is there to do?”

“It doesn’t work that way in the flatlands. Someone has to say something, and someone else has to announce the matter to the world. Then there are gifts to exchange, a celebration of the families, and other things along those lines.”

“What is the point of all of that?” Daria asked.

“You know, that is a very good question.”

Darik kissed her, and she eagerly returned the kiss. Her fingers tugged at his tunic, and his fingers unlaced her leather vest. They undressed and tentatively explored each other’s bodies. Daria was so beautiful, every inch of her skin wonderful to his touch. He wanted to stay wrapped in the sheepskin, while she wanted to lie naked atop it and shift away from the fire, which was too hot for her, but as they came together, they were both shivering with excitement and anticipation.

They made love for some time, and when they were finished, Daria pulled away, saying she needed to cool down. After a few minutes, she rolled next to him again and rested her hand against his chest. She wrapped her lean, muscular leg around him.

“I was wondering,” she began. “Will we have a child together?”

“I hope so.”

“Me, too. But it is not easy with my people. There have always been few of us. We are not so fertile as the flatlanders, and it sometimes takes lots of mating to make it happen.”

“I’m willing to mate as often as necessary,” Darik said.

“Me, too!” she said, so earnestly that he had to laugh. “No, really. I liked it a lot!” She propped herself on one elbow, and the firelight glinted off her breasts. “What is so funny?”

“Nothing at all.” He kissed her. “I liked it, too.”

“You know, many pairs don’t live together. If you want your own aerie in the north country, I can still visit you often. Every week, if you’d like.”

“I don’t want my own aerie, I want to live with you.”

“I’m glad, because that’s what I want, too.” Daria was silent for a few minutes before she spoke again, and Darik was on the verge of drifting off to sleep. “I imagine a daughter first, if that’s all right with you. What do you think she be would like? Our child, I mean.”

“Hopefully, like her mother. I can’t imagine anything more wonderful than a daughter who looks like you.”

“Maybe with my hair. I always thought it was pretty. But she could have your dark skin. That would be nice.”

“Is my skin dark?” He’d never really thought it to be so.

“Not dark like in Marrabat, but like chestnut wood, maybe. Darker than mine. It’s really pale. I like yours better.”

“Well, I don’t. I think your skin is perfect.”

“Thank you.”

After that, she fell silent, though he could tell that she wasn’t sleeping. How much time had she spent alone with her thoughts? Darik enjoyed some solitude, but he had a feeling that over time he might come to need her company more than she needed his. It wouldn’t be easy, this coming together of two different people, two different cultures. But more than ever, he was convinced he had done the right thing. The feeling of peace and happiness he felt at that moment was something that could not be denied.

#

He rose the next morning to find Daria bathing in the stream. She was so beautiful that he stood watching her, but he wasn’t quite tempted to join her in the icy water. Instead, he went back inside, stoked the coals so he could heat some water, and washed up. Then he made an attempt to get Talon ready to fly without waiting for Daria’s help, figuring he’d have to learn how to do it sooner or later. That . . . didn’t go so well. At least he didn’t lose an arm.

They flew north along the mountain spine, so high that Darik could hardly catch his breath. His hands grew numb, and Daria passed him her gloves. They spotted the encampment of griffins at around supper time. It was a tumultuous, chaotic group of men and women, some twenty of them in all with their griffins and a few fledglings, an advance group scouting for homes in the mountains while the others finished gathering belongings to make the larger migration.

People hailed Daria, and greeted Darik warily but without hostility. Even Palina was civil, if a bit curt. She asked bluntly if they had mated, and when Daria said yes, Palina turned to Darik and said, “Well, then. Nothing to be done for it now, I suppose. I brought an extra mount just in case, an older griffin that will carry an inexperienced rider. Try not to fall and kill yourself.”

“Mother, Darik has flown before. He’s not going to fall.”

“He might this time. Look at him—he’s got mating on his mind. Just make sure he tethers himself, all right?”

They continued north over the next few days, chased off twice by packs of angry wild griffins, passing over thick conifer forests and high, snow-capped peaks, until at last Daria found a sheltered valley that seemed to suit her. Snow already covered the ground this far north, but she seemed to think there were meadows beneath it, and they spotted deer and moose to hunt. Someone found an ancient watchtower that would serve as shelter during the worst winter storms; in spring, they could build more homes in the surrounding peaks.

When they’d settled, Darik joined Daria on top of the tower. One wall was crumbling, and they took care to stay back from the edge. Heavy snowflakes drifted from the sky, and Darik pulled his cloak tight against the chill. Cliffs towered above them both behind and on either side. Below and in front, forest and meadow stretched for miles over mountains and foothills.

“What a fertile, beautiful land,” Daria said.

“It is beautiful,” he agreed, not so sure about the other part. “And it’s sheltered and safe.”

“More than enough for our needs.” She glanced at him with that strange, piercing gaze. It no longer left him unsettled, but partly because she was learning to turn away without staring too long. “We might need more than one child,” she added. “More than
two
, maybe. If we’re ever to rebuild our numbers, to settle this land, some people will need to have three children, I would think. As flockheart, that would be one of my duties, if we can manage it.”

“More mating.”

“Yes, lots more,” she agreed, nodding. She kissed his cheek. “I like being married to you.”

“Me, too.”

He took her hand, and together they looked over the sweep of mountain and forest. Unbroken wilderness for mile after mile. Eventually, Darik knew, Markal would appear, and maybe Narud, too, the wizards flying in as crows or owls. Then, there would be other matters to consider.

But for now, this unbroken wilderness was enough for him. This brave, beautiful woman next to him, all he needed. His wife and his queen. More than enough, she was his heart’s desire.

-end-

Thank you for reading
The Dark Citadel
series. See my afterword below if you want some background on the books and where I might go next. Meanwhile, here are a couple of things you might like. My sci-fi adventure,
Starship Blackbeard
, is in full swing. If you liked
The Dark Citadel
, I bet you’ll like it, too. It’s got space ships! And pirates! Think Firefly or Star Wars.
Buy it right here!
 

There’s a short excerpt of
Starship Blackbeard
below, so you can check it out first, if you want. 

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Afterword

The Dark Citadel
was a long time coming. I wrote the first two volumes as a single, massive book about fifteen years ago, then failed to sell it to a traditional publisher. I always loved the story, though, and kept thinking about it, even though I might have started off too ambitiously. At one point, I had the idea that it would be six or seven monster volumes.

After I signed a contract for
The Righteous
series and had some success with my indie novels, a friend who had read
The Dark Citadel
urged me to give it a try. I put it up, broken into two volumes (with #2 being
The Free Kingdoms
), not thinking it would really sell. I didn’t put much effort into marketing it. But over time, people started finding the books and reviewing them, and after about a year, I had too many reader emails to ignore. I was now thinking about the books and wondering how things would work out for Kallia, Darik, Markal, Whelan, and the rest. It was exciting to go back to the book that had been my first successful story.

I had originally thought that I would have Darik choose in the end between the path of the wizard and the path of the warrior. Daria was just some hot chick on a fast motorbike/griffin that he pined for while he matured. But then I got into the culture of the griffin people and started to imagine how generations of living high in the mountains in a small, isolated population would change them, and I fell in love with Daria a little bit, in the way writers do with their favorite characters. Once I was in love with her, then of course, Darik would be, too. And that was that.

As I got back into the story, I realized I wouldn’t be able to resolve every single thing I’d introduced. You’ll remember the business with the cloud kingdoms, the Oracular Tomes, and other hints of strange and magical things. I decided that I could either focus on the main issue—the battle with the dark wizard—or I could abandon the whole project as impossible. This was one of those cases where the standard advice applies: don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.

The good news about this scheme is that I have a lot of material to work with going forward. I’ve got the potential for a trilogy involving Markal (and maybe Chantmer, that big jerk) and the cloud kingdoms with their strange, ancient tomes. There’s another good story line involving Darik and Daria in the wild north country and what they find as they try to rebuild the decimated griffin riders and encounter whoever/whatever might be living up there. Does Markal show up to train Darik again? Do they get sucked back into wars in the south?

And what about Sofiana, a wild child and daughter of a king? When I began the first book, I thought it would be interesting to have a coming of age story for a young girl to match Darik’s own journey. I still do, but unfortunately, there wasn’t the time or space in this series to do the story justice. So Sofiana ends the book not so different from how she began, feisty, but untempered.