Prince Kelton had just finished getting dressed when Sir Droyn and Sir Hamnet returned with a greasy bowl of lamb stew and a couple rolls. He staggered over to the table and sat down hard. The sudden stop jarred his aching head and made his stomach roll. Pressing his lips together, Prince Kelton took and let out a couple breaths before he dared to open his mouth to begin eating. The greasy meat combined with the beans tasted better than any other time he’d had this meal. Usually the lamb was too gamey to be enjoyable.
As he ate, his gaze wandered over to the dress that still lay on the bed. The thought of his new wife naked somewhere did not sit well with him. He needed to find her quickly. He needed to protect her. Prince Kelton shifted his attention back to his food as he felt his loins twitch. He wanted to experience what he could not remember doing while Iredys was with him.
“We’re headed back to the castle after this, right?” Sir Droyn asked.
“No. We are headed for Abundare,” Prince Kelton replied.
“Why?” Sir Hamnet asked.
“Because that is where my wife is.”
“...The Dragonwoman?”
Sir Droyn shook his head. “The Dragonfolk live beyond Lakemeade Kingdom. It would be better for us to….”
“I don’t care where her people are,” Prince Kelton interrupted. “My wife is in Abundare. …And joining her is all that matters to me.”
Prince Kelton missed the looks on his knights’ faces as he mopped up the last of the grease in his bowl with the last few bites of bread he had. He was feeling better than he thought he would, given how drunk he got, not to mention however much energy he expended consummating his marriage with Iredys.
“See to it that the horses are ready,” Prince Kelton said, standing. “We ride out immediately.”
Sir Droyn and Sir Hamnet exchanged another glance.
“As you wish, Prince Kelton,” Sir Hamnet sighed.
Sir Droyn nodded then picked up the dishes to take them back downstairs.
Prince Kelton carefully folded the dress on the bed and tucked it into the small pack he saw on the floor by the balcony doors as he was making sure he had everything he’d brought with him. He made sure the Garnet ring that Iredys gave him covered the Diamond band engraved in his finger. He wanted to keep their union known to as few people as possible, until he could bring her home. Prince Kelton looked around the room once more before he headed downstairs. He paid the innkeeper a little more for the mess, then joined his knights outside.
The air was muggy as they traveled through the heat of the day. As much as Prince Kelton wanted to kick his horse into a gallop, he was already having a hard time remaining upright. He didn’t understand. He had been drinking more water than usual, which slowed their already slower pace. Was he not as recovered as he thought he was? Shaking his head, Prince Kelton had to grab the horn of his saddle and pull his horse to a stop so he didn’t fall off.
“Are you alright, Prince Kelton?” Sir Droyn asked as he and Sir Hamnet brought their horses abreast.
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“How much further to Salgon Town?” he asked, trying to push through his dizziness.
“Four, maybe five, hours at the pace we are setting,” Sir Hamnet replied.
Prince Kelton nodded then started to fall forward.
“Your Highness?... Sire!” he heard before darkness took him.
He recalled bouts of movement and voices amid all the darkness, but what they were saying, or where they were going, he couldn’t recall. Tears filled his eyes and he felt his heart break. His left ring finger stung, as if he had been cut or bitten by something, but he could not break out of the darkness to look at it. Cold filled his entire being, pushing him deeper into the darkness that surrounded him. Prince Kelton shivered and fought to break out of the darkness, but the cold only increased as something wet wrapped around his neck.
“How is he?” he heard Sir Hamnet’s garbled voice ask.
“...fever finally…. …woods…,” a woman’s voice replied.
The cold wet feeling came and went, causing Prince Kelton to shiver more. He tried to move, to cry out, to no avail. After several attempts, he stopped fighting and let the darkness consume his consciousness.
Warmth greeted him as he woke and a sigh reached his ear. Prince Kelton started to roll to his side to reach for the sound when he heard Sir Doryn ask.
“Have you finally rejoined the world of the living, Your Highness?”
“No,” Prince Kelton groaned in disappointment.
He covered his head to hide the flush that covered his face. He could have sworn that Iredys had returned to him, asked him to trust her, and consummated their vows. However, if that was the case, why were his knights in his room and she not? Had it all been a dream? Prince Kelton sniffed as tears started to burn his eyes. His tears stopped when the scent that reached his nose was not one he was used to smelling at the Crunching Otter Inn in Palion City.
Uncovering his head, he looked at Sir Hamnet and Sir Droyn. “Where are we?”
“The Dragon’s Hearth,” Sir Hamnet replied.
His brow furrowed.
“What is the last thing you remember, My Lord?” Sir Droyn asked.
“I could have sworn we reached Palion City,” he said, rubbing his forehead.
“We did,” Sir Hamnet replied. “And you drank too much.”
“...Did I sleep with anyone?”
His knights exchanged a glance he knew well.
“Spill!”
“We stopped a black Dragonwoman from kidnapping you,” Sir Hamnet said. “There was evidence that the two of you were…,” he cleared his throat, “prior to that….”
Prince Kelton groaned and buried his face in the pillow. So while there was truth to his dreams, did he only think the woman was Iredys? It would make sense since Dragonfolk could use magic—a practice that had been banned in Greywolf Kingdom. As he thought through his knight’s revelation again, he realized something.
Propping himself back up he said, “If I was with a Dragonwoman, why would we come to Salgon Town instead of heading to Lupine Hold?”
“You were quite adamant that your… wife… was in Abundare, My Lord,” Sir Droyn clarified.
“Wife?! I exchanged vows with this woman?”
Sir Hamnet glanced at Sir Droyn then said softly, “A Diamond band was found under your ring from the Lady Iredys.”
Prince Kelton sat up and pulled the Garnet ring from his left ring finger. There was indeed something etched in his finger, but it was hard to tell if it was Diamond or something else due to all the tiny black lines in it. He looked more closely at the ring. There were so many lines, it was hard to see if the ring was broken or not.
“I need to have Dilligens look at this,” he said before turning to his knights, “and next time I start to do something stupid like this, you’d best tie me up until it’s figured out.”
“Yes, Sire,” Sir Droyn and Sir Hamnet replied.
“And not a word about this to the queen,” Prince Kelton said. “The last thing I need is her forcing me into Princess Analisa’s bed.”
His two knights cringed.
“You have our word, Prince Kelton,” Sir Droyn said.