Their Bonds of Love

She saws him running through the trees as he kept looking around the thick trunks and thick flakes that fell. After a wonderful morning and afternoon with Conri in the small empty tenant cottage, she suggested running through the woods as she had not shifted in many weeks. Conri appeared very enthusiastic about the idea, stating that he had longed to run in the snow with her.

Somewhere as he followed her, she lost him. She was very small for a wolf, but she was incredibly fast and agile. She slunk around trees closer than he was able. Though his legs were much longer somewhere between maneuvering around a thick bunch of trees, she was able to double back and get behind him. She stayed still watching as he finally stopped and smelled the air, keeping his ears alert.

He smelled the air, and she knew he would catch her scent. He stayed completely still, listening for any sounds of light footsteps in the snow as she carefully walked closer to him, her russet color tail moving side to side. By the time he finally heard her and turned, it was too late. She pounced upon him, knocking him over in surprise. She hovered over him with her small paw against his side, trying to look as smug as she could in wolf form.

He made a small noise like a grunt, and she jumped off of him. After shaking the snow off his fur, he looked over at a few young trees that grew closely together, giving some cover from the snow that fell. He motioned toward them with his head, and she followed him under the trees.

She transformed and took off the pack that was tired to him. He watched her with his head turned, appearing to admire her body as she worked to undo the bag to find her clothes. If it had been a smidge warmer, she wouldn’t have minded if he transformed immediately and took her there. It did not matter that they spent most of the late morning and afternoon in intimate ways; her need for him was not satisfied. As she pulled out her shift, he continued to stare at her, and she took longer than she normally would putting on her clothes.

He sifted and started to move towards her, so she threw a bundle of clothes at him. “Put those own before you catch your death.”

He caught them and stared at her as she shimmied her underclothes on. “I could think of something besides clothes to keep me warm.”

She smiled as she adjusted her shift. “As lovely as that sounds, I find I would much rather make it up to my warm bed for such activities.”

He huffed as he pulled on his pants. “But there are so many people in the manor right now. We will not make it to your room before being stopped at least a dozen times.”

She stepped into her dress and pulled it up. “I have lived in the house for almost my whole life. Don’t you think I know how to get into the manor without anyone noticing if I wish?”

“We could go back to the cottage. I do not wish to hold back, fearing someone would walk by and hear us.” He threw on his shirt before leaning down and pulling on his boots.

She laughed. “You must have something special planned if you think anything can get through the thick walls of Cadwin Manor. Trust me, my king, if no one heard us last night, no one will hear us at any point.”

He finished pulling on his boots before pulling her to him. “I might take that as a challenge, Eleri. You should be careful.”

She kissed him in such a way that he moaned when she pulled back. “I am not afraid of anything you might do to me, and even if someone did hear us, do you think they would dare say anything? You are their king, and I am to be their queen. Rumors may start, but I don’t think they are ones you would mind anyone hearing.”

“Then let us go see what gossip we can start in the land.” He took her arm and pulled her along.

“I think we ran deeper into the woods than I thought,” said Eleri. “I can feel the wards close by. Efa recently reinforced them.”

Before Conri could respond, they both heard shouting close by. They looked at each other, and Eleri was about to suggest they run to the house when she recognized at least one of the voices.

She took off towards it as Conri said her name in agitation. By the time he caught her hand, Caerwyn and Emilia looked back at them. Eleri stopped, afraid she had interrupted something when she realized they were outside the wards, and someone was with them.

“Caerwyn, what on earth are you doing?” she asked, moving forward. She stopped as she heard Conri growl next to her. “Lord Nevis!”

“Go back to the house, Eleri, and take the king with you,” said Caerwyn angrily. “Emilia, you accompany them. I will take care of this.”

“Wait, what are you doing so close to my father’s house,” said Eleri moving forward. “You were told never to come back here.”

“I needed to see if the rumors were true and that Prince Conri has been crowned the true king,” said Lord Nevis.

“You call me the true king after what you did?” asked Conri as he pulled Eleri behind him. “You brought the very man who killed my parents here to take Eleri, and now you will say you believe I should rule.”

“I always believed you should rule, your majesty. I just thought you would lose your connection to the Bright one due to my son’s bad choices. I had to get the obstacle between you away.”

Conri rushed forward and grabbed Lord Nevil by his cloak. “You dare call Eleri an obstacle? You thought to have Lord Fellen take her because you thought it was for the best? I should rip your throat out right here and now.”

Lord Nevil dropped his cane as he crouched down while Conri kept a hold of him. “I knew Lord Fellen wouldn’t kill her. He thought he needed her to be king. I didn’t want her to come to real harm.”

Caerwyn moved up to the prince’s side. “There are other ways to harm someone beyond death. She suffered plenty under Lord Fellen’s hand, and I am sure you know it. I dare say you witnessed some of it.”

“You saw me at that supper before I was rescued. You saw how poisoned I was and watched as Bren Farrow dragged me out of the room,” said Eleri quietly as Emilia took her hand and stood close to her. Eleri looked at Emilia. “You were willing to let Bren kill his stepmother. How could you possibly think what you did was right?”

“I didn’t know they had any plans to hurt anyone. I thought they would just sneak in and take you. By the time I realized what was happening, it was too late, but you can’t argue with the results.” He looked at Conri. “You are now king, and if the other rumors are true, then you are betrothed to Lady Eleri.”

“Nothing you did helped it along,” said Conri. “I already loved her when you took her away from me and was well on my way to helping her remember her love for me. All you did was cause her pain.”

“You put our king in danger by taking her away, me as well. Did you not think we would work to save her? “ Caerwyn looked on the verge of shifting. “Let me take care of this, your majesty. You do not need to sully yourself with his tainted blood.”

Eleri gasped as Emilia pulled her even closer. “Wait,” she said loudly. “Do not kill him, not here. There are other uses for him.”

Conri and Caerwyn both turned to look at her. She squeezed Emilia’s arm before letting her go. Eleri walked up to stand by Conri. “You wish to be helpful, my lord? You want to serve our king?”

He looked at Conri and then her before nodding.

“Then you will go back to Niamhan and confirm what happened here last night. You will tell Lord Fellen that King Conri now wears the Silver Crown and was blessed by the palace temple. Tell him I am not only betrothed to the king but have been marked by him. Whatever claim Lord Fellen thinks he has over me is no more. He will not get anything he wants, not Elathia, not the crown, not me.”

“Then what will I do?” he asked.

“You will swear your allegiance to Lord Fellen. You will tell him you can give him information on what is happening amongst us, but you will be spying for us in truth. You will send us regular messages with the workings in the palace. You will do whatever you can to find out things even if you have to risk your own life.”

“Eleri, I am not sure this is the best course of action,” said Conri as he kept a hold of Lord Nevis. “He has betrayed us before. What is stopping him now?”

“He is an evil man who has long tortured his son, and I agree he should pay for it, but first, he can be useful to us. As demented as he is, I believe he thinks he has done right all his life. He thinks he did what was necessary to prepare the Bright One to serve you, Conri. It was awful what he did, and he is twisted, but he only went so far because, in the end, he serves the Gildans.”

“I do,” said Lord Nevis. “It did not like causing you pain, Caerwyn. I only wanted to make you strong so that you could do your duty.”

“You will not make excuses for your cruel treatment of Caerwyn,” said Eleri fiercely. “That is not a part of our deal. Will you do as I have asked?”

“Yes, of course,” said Lord Nevis. “I have always been willing to give up everything for the land and the Gildans.”

“Eleri,” said Conri.

“Your majesty, am I your First Advisor?” she asked.

“You are and so much more,” said Conri.

“Then, as your First Advisor and your future queen, I am telling you the best thing to do is to let this miserable man go and be useful to us. If you kill him now, you will not only give him an easy way out of this life; you will give up a prime opportunity to gain access to knowledge in the palace.”

Conri looked at Caerwyn. “He is your father, Caerwyn. Do you agree?”

“I do not wish to claim this man as my father. I would rather he was gone from this land for good, but I see the wisdom in Lady Eleri’s plan. There is much gain to be had. What could he really do to us if he wishes to betray us? We will never trust him, and if he does one thing to show he is disloyal, we can kill him as quickly or as slowly as we like.”

Conri shook his head, but he let Lord Nevis go. The man stumbled backward as Conri stared at him. “Go straight back to Niamhan. Do what you can to help us gain information. I cannot say that it will help redeem you in my sight, but it might keep me from killing you.”

Lord Nevis picked up his cane and nodded. “I will go now, and I will write soon.”

“Never come within two villages of this place again,” said Eleri. “If you need to meet for whatever reason, you will send a message, and we will tell you where to go.”

“Yes, my lady,” he said.

“Go, now, before I change my mind,” said Conri.

Lord Nevis walked backward before hurrying into the trees. Conri turned and walked past Eleri with an angry huff. She caught up with him and tried to take his hand.

“Conri, please do not be angry with me. I am only trying to do what is best for the land.”

“That man caused you so much pain, Eleri. You could still be in the palace because of him. You could belong completely to Lord Fellen, or you could be dead.”

“But I’m not with Lord Fellen, and I am very much alive with you. Conri, stop,” she said as she grabbed his arm. He stopped with his back to her, so she moved around to face him. “He is an awful man who not only hurt me but has caused Caerwyn years of pain. Killing him would do no good, and even the pleasure of it would be gone in a second. If there is a chance he could help us, we have to take it. You know it was the right thing to do.”

He reached out and pulled her to him, holding her tightly. “I cannot bear to think of losing you.”

“You will never lose me,” she said against him. “We are doing all we can to take the land back so we can ensure not only are we safe, but our people are as well.”

He leaned down and kissed her before leaning his forehead against hers. “You are right, Eleri. I need you to help me through all of this. Promise me you will never leave my side.”

She smiled up at him. “You already have my promise, and you know how tightly I am bound to you. I don’t need some ceremony to say you are mine and I am yours, but we will wed as soon as we take back the palace.”

“Then we will do it quickly because I cannot wait to tell the whole land that you are officially mine.”