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[Rough Draft] Chapter 36: A Birthday of Ashes
The steady sound of rain drizzling upon the tent lulled Carina awake from beneath the embroidered quilt of her bed. The Duchess rubbed her swollen eyes and groaned as she stretched blindly and blinked until she finally managed to open them.
The charred scraps of her chemise and gown lay upon the burned-out fire at the center of the tent. Carina stared at it as she sat up, combed out her messy hair, and listened to the rain.
‘So I’m seventeen today. Only a month left until Maura’s death.’ The Duchess sighed as she flung aside her blankets and rose to get dressed. ‘Come to think of it, I haven’t seen Maura since I left the palace,’ Carina reflected as she opened the taller wardrobe that held her dressed. ‘I can’t say that I miss her popping in out of nowhere like she did when I lived in Rose Palace.’ Her fingers moved instinctively towards a crimson red gown, but Carina quickly shifted her attention to a blue dress embroidered with sapphires. With a satisfied nod, she pulled the gown out and laid upon the bed. ‘I should at least look the part since it is our special day.’
The rain had increased to a steady downpour by the time the Duchess finished. Carina adorned her dark ash-brown hair with a half circlet adorned with pearls and sapphires. After pulling on a darker blue cloak, the Duchess selected a white parasol from her chest and then opened it as she stepped out into the rain.
Captain Isaac, dressed in a poncho-like rain jacket, glanced up at her from where he stood beside Sergeant Quinn. Behind them, five knights, all wearing similar rain jackets, held onto their shovels awkwardly as they bowed their heads to the Duchess.
“Morning, your Grace!” Sergeant Quinn greeted quickly. “I hope you slept well.”
“Viscount Rykard has encouraged all participants to wait out the morning rain,” Isaac said as he motioned Quinn and his men away. “They expect it to pass over in a few hours.”
Carina nodded as she eyed the knights armed with shovels, now spread around her tent. “And they are—”
“Digging trenches to keep the water out, your Grace.”
“Ah—good.” Carina watched the knights start their task for a moment, then shook her head tiredly. “Make sure they do the same for Lady Hana and Lady Ivy’s tents.”
“Of course. Are you on your way to visit Lady Ivy?”
“Yes,” Carina confirmed and turned towards her destination. “Did any news come in from our scouts last night?”
The Bastiallano Knight Captain’s expression turned grim as he shook his head. “No, your Grace. And they should have arrived hours ago.”
‘Damn it.’ Carina adjusted her parasol and rubbed her tired eyes. “I’ll see what I can find.”
“The rain will make it harder to track them down,” Isaac pointed out worriedly as he shadowed her footsteps.
“My wolves will know where they are, Captain,” Carina replied confidently as she surveyed the other knights about camp, hurriedly digging uniform trenches around their grouped tents. The Duchess drew in a slow breath as guilt weighted down against her stomach. ‘I should have checked in on Lumi and the scouts last night, but I was so focused on Ivy—’
The knights guarding Hana and Ivy’s tent bowed their heads in greeting. The one on the left gesturing to Ivy’s tent to indicate where her friends could be found. Carina nodded her thanks and stepped inside, leaving Isaac out in the rain.
Ivy was awake and getting dressed with Hana’s help. The pale maid turned as Carina entered the tent and offered the Duchess a muted smile. “Happy Birthday, Kirsi.”
‘Of course, you’d still remember.’ Carina smiled back as she closed her parasol and stood awkwardly at the entrance for a moment before settling down on a chest they had finished using.
“It looks like we’re in for some heavy rain this morning,” Hana said conversationally as she finished buttoning up Ivy’s dress, then picked up the brush from her beside.
“Yes, so there’s no need to rush this morning,” Carina replied distractedly as she took in the cup that Ivy held onto tightly. “I doubt his Majesty is in a hurry to get drenched for the sake of a few deer.”
Hana had briefly described her course of treatment for Ivy’s curse. Although the Viscountess hadn’t gone into specifics as to why her blood could diminish the effects of the curse, Carina knew enough about Nesta’s family background to assume it had something to do with the Saint’s bloodline.
“Then we can relax and enjoy a proper breakfast this morning,” Hana said brightly as if they had just cleaned up the scene of murder seven hours ago.
“I do hope they have some fresh strawberries then for your birthday, Kirsi,” Ivy murmured tiredly and then drank deeply from her cup.
Carina studied the girl’s complexion and watched as the dark circles under Ivy’s jade-green eyes faded from view. ‘Blood that heals. Is that how Pope’s and Saints of the past were able to control and eradicate plagues? No wonder so many revered them as the divine heirs of Saints.’
Ivy exhaled and offered Hana a relieved smile as she handed over the empty cup. The Viscountess set it aside and busied herself with brushing out Ivy’s hair while occasionally glancing in the Duchess’s direction.
“Thank you,” Carina mouthed silently. She was relieved that Hana could at least provide Ivy with some form of respite from the curse’s suffering.
Her efforts to draw the source of the curse from Ivy last night had proven confusing and disturbing. According to Ivy, a witch disguised as a boy had lured her into an ally with an abandoned well near the slums. There another witch that very much resembled Jade had attacked her.
‘I don’t know how to wrap my head around the idea that Jade is a witch, but perhaps that would explain how she came to Lafeara in her old body.’ Carina dragged her fingers around her throat as her unfocused ice-blue eyes wandered about the simple tent. According to Hana, there were only two methods to remove the curse. The first method was fairly straightforward; find and destroy the witch who cast the spell. The second method required the healing touch of a Saint, or at the very least, the blessings of a Pope.
‘I’m not sure that Pope Jericho would listen if I made such a request, even as Duchess of Bastiallano. Especially after Kirsi killed one of his witch hunters. But if I can’t find Jade—’
The Duchess sighed, then turned away from the two young women as she concentrated on relaxing her shoulders and reaching out through her connection to Lumi to find the missing scouts.
A blurred kaleidoscope of rain smothered grass, swaying branches, and damp earth filled her vision as Lumi welcomed her with a soft whine. Carina jumped from one scene to the next in quick succession as she ignored the feeling of vertigo in her gut.
The first scene Lumi pulled her attention towards showed Borghese shouting at his Huntsman, who appeared reluctant to take the Marquess’s part out to hunt in a downpour that would severely limit their visibility. The young Huntsman finally caved beneath the threatening man’s bellows and climbed into the saddle with a resigned frown.
The next scene showed the open tent of Earl Hawthorne, who sat inside at a table with Marquess Serilda. A crow hopped around the plates and glasses with an annoyed caw as its black eyes seemed to focus on the invisible wolf.
The scriva’s vision pulled back beneath the dripping leaves of Gilwren forest that Carina could almost feel falling on the back of her neck. When Lumi’s vision settled on its next location, the Duchess nearly lost her focus as she took in the severely depleted number of her Bastiallano knights and scouts huddled beneath a fallen oak tree with their swords and bows drawn.
‘Were they attacked?’ Carina demanded as she took in the men’s haggard faces and scorched armor. ‘By who?’
The rain vanished as the forest darkened. A flash of the previous day’s setting sun appeared, followed by a brief scene of the scriva stalking the scouts on their way back through the forest. Then three figures dressed in black and gold robes appeared on the trail ahead of the scouts. Carina watched helplessly as the front line of her knights was engulfed in a blaze of witch fire, while the rest scattered to whatever protection they could find behind trees.
‘Who are they? Ventrayna witches?’
The scriva’s memory became chaotic as the wolf launched itself at the attackers. Carina could feel Lumi shifting her powers into the shard as the scriva ripped out the throat of her target before his comrades turned their burning flames upon her.
The searing heat rippled across Carina’s skin as the scriva retreated, then returned to attack once more the moment the witches went after the retreating scouts and knights. After Lumi tore up one of the witch’s arms, the assailants withdrew, while the scriva limped over to a tree and slumped down to rest.
‘Are you alright? Were you hurt?’ Carina asked worriedly as she took in the scorch marks along the wolf’s sparkling white fur.
‘Not permanently.’
Carina nodded, still enraged that her scriva had been hurt at all. Even more infuriating was the loss of her knights who had suffered such agonizing deaths. ‘Where are those witches now?’
Lumi’s vision shifted, and the Duchess clenched her jaw as she spotted the two surviving witches, one with his arm in a sling, traveling alongside Marquess Borghese’s assassins through Gilwren Forest.
‘It looks like the Marquess has decided to make his move.’ Carina blinked and returned to Ivy’s tent. ‘To think the Borghese family that publically abhors witches would secretly hire three of them to help assassinate the crown prince.’ The Duchess rolled her neck at tapped her shoulder as she accessed this unexpected change in plans. ‘It’s possible that the Marquess hopes to shift the blame to the witches of Ventrayna if his plans fall through.’ Carina folded her arms and focused on Lumi once more.
‘Lumi, I need to keep those remaining scouts and knights alive. Guide them to a safe location, then send one of your shards to the edge of the forest to meet a unit of knights I will send to escort them back.’
‘Not difficult. Knights to the East. Enemy staying West.’
‘Where are they headed?’
‘Into Master’s hunting grounds.’
Carina hid a grim smile behind her hand as she glanced over to where Hana had finished braiding Ivy’s hair.
“Your Grace,” Isaac called from outside the tent. “A gift has arrived for you from the palace.”
‘A gift from the Dowager?’
Carina stood promptly as Hana and Ivy turned towards her. “Take your time,” the Duchess said reassuringly as she moved towards the exit. “Whenever your ready, come meet me at my tent. I’ll have them prepare some breakfast for us.”
The Duchess opened her parasol as she stepped out into the rain and turned towards Isaac.
“I had the courier take it back to your tent so that it wouldn’t get drenched in all this rain,” Isaac explained as he offered his arm to escort her back through the thickening mud.
“I found our scouts,” Carina replied bluntly as she took the offered arm.
Isaac glanced towards her sharply and exhaled. “Alive?”
“Most of them.”
His brows furrowed, but Isaac remained calm as he guided her around a cluster of puddles. “Should I rescue the survivors?”
Carina glanced at him, surprised at his seeming indifference, though she attributed it to him masking his emotions. “Not you personally. Can you name someone else who can handle such a mission discreetly without asking questions?”
“Sergeant Horne will get the job done,” Isaac replied after a brief moment. “He was one of the men who helped me with last night’s problem.”
“Ah, no complications there, I trust?” Carina asked as Miranda’s bloody, towel-wrapped face flickered behind her eyes.
“If anything, the morning rain helped wash away any trace of our work,” Isaac replied with a grim smile. “I’ll have Sergeant Horne prepare a team of capable knights. We can pull them from the campground security.”
“Tell him one of my wolves will meet them in the forest and led them to the scouts.”
Isaac nodded as he focused on the Duchess’s tent and held back the damp fabric so Carina could enter. “I’ll let him know.”
“Give him this, as well.” Carina turned and held out a small frozen ice whistle. “If he blows it three times, I’ll know that he’s found the scouts and is on his way back. If he blows it only once—that will mean he has encountered danger and needs my help.”
Isaac’s smile tightened as he pressed a hand to Carina’s back and guided her gently inside the tent. “The men know the Duchess wolves are less than normal. But this—” he held up the whistle made of ice, “—not everyone can be trusted to know of this. It’s clearly made with magic.”
Carina offered the captain a cynical smile. “From what the Dowager told me, magic was not uncommon for the Duke’s and Duchess’s of Bastiallano.”
“Yes,” Isaac replied as he closed the tent behind them and turned to face her. “But that was only revealed to officers who could be trusted.”
“Can I trust Sergeant Horne?”
Isaac narrowed his eyes and sighed as he looked down at the whistle. He stepped forward, took Carina’s hand, and pressed the frozen instrument against her palm. “Not yet.”
“I can’t hide who I am forever,” Carina replied solemnly as she accepted the whistle. “I need to know the knights of Bastiallano are behind me.”
“They have no loyalty to the church or the royal family if that is your concern,” Isaac replied. “But a good many of them grew up on the church’s superstition. Accepting a witch as their Duchess—they need more time to with you as their Duchess before they can accept that.”
Carina sighed as she turned to face the vase of purple Lafearian roses that glistened upon the table in her tent. “I don’t have time to earn their trust, Captain. The Marquess’s men are moving towards our hunting grounds. Their target is likely either myself or the crown prince.”
“We are prepared for that—”
“They are accompanied by two fire witches, the same witches that attacked our scouts last night.”
The Duchess turned to face her knight captain and noted the look of understanding in Isaac’s ice-blue eyes.
‘I learned my lesson with Ambassador Haemish. The only way to fight a witch is with magic. If those witches come after us in the forest, Lumi and I will have to take them down.’
Isaac’s mouth twitched with what might have been an expression of approval as he studied Carina’s face. The knight captain straightened his posture, then bowed his head towards her formally. “Then rest assured, Duchess. No matter what we face in the forest, the knights of Bastiallano will protect their Duchess to the last man.”
“Thank you, Captain. For now, let’s focus on bringing back our scouts safely,” Carina replied with a quick smile and dismissive nod. After the knight captain left to give Sergeant Horne his orders, the Duchess turned to the bouquet of roses that waited for her. A white envelope was fastened to the vase with a purple ribbon. Carina pulled it free, then opened and read the letter inside.
‘To Duchess Kirsi Valda,
Wishing you a happy and glorious Birthday. I look forward to celebrating your victory upon your return.
From your eternally devoted servant,
Octavia Valda of Bastiallano.’
“Devoted servant?” Carina arched an eyebrow and then laughed. She leaned into the roses and inhaled their scent. Once more, the Dowager’s Garden and its secret flower bed flashed before her eyes. “Better roses than aconitum flowers, I suppose,” the Duchess mumbled as she drew a match from the metal cylinder beside the firepit and then burned the letter. “Happy Birthday, Maura. Let’s hope we make it through safely.”