Page 88 of Golden Queen
So Marolis was a dragon, I thought, and Nefr must be another dragon rider.
When we started down the hill, I quickly realized how wrong my assumption was. Marolis was not a dragon. She was a huge, fuzzy white bat whose black face poked up above the godsgrass stalks to watch us as we strode down the hill.
A long, coal-black snout that resembled a fox and comically oversized, nearly translucent ears protruded from a head of fluffy white fur that looked as soft as a cloud. Long, crooked legs held thin membranous wings folded against her skin. They rose alongside her head as she crawled awkwardly toward us. Her gangling progress up the hill was comical and somehow endearing.
I laughed, delighted as we met her in the grass. I had always wanted to see one of the legendary Wyllan bats. Like so many things I had so far only read about, I could hardly believe I was experiencing it.
"Hello, Marolis," Io said familiarly, reaching up to scratch under her chin.
I followed his lead without question, and as I reached up to touch her, Marolis turned her head to me fully. I stared into her huge glossy eyes. They were a rich brownish-red color, so reflective that I could see myself in their depths in perfect miniature.
Marolis stuck her long tongue out and licked my face.
Io barked a laugh as I backed up out of her reach. I wiped my face on my sleeve as the most whimsically enchanting creature I could have imagined, stepped from behind the bat.
Nefr wore a pale, silvery gray cloak with an oversized hood pushed down to hang around thin shoulders.
Now that I knew they were Wyllan, the question of gender faded from my mind. Wyllans were neither gender and both, a perfect harmonious balance of male and female.
Their androgynous features were set in a milky complexion under a head of thin, wispy yellow-blond hair. They were absolutely lovely with wide, solid black eyes, no white to be seen, under a forehead devoid of eyebrows, and a small, gently curving mouth with rosy-hued lips.
I started to speak, but then birds, a dozen or more, fluttered out of Nefr's hood, sleeves, the neckline of their robes. They took flight all around us, chirping and chittering in a mad frenzy of feathers.
"My Lord," Nefr said, in a sweet, gentle voice. They had a strong, unfamiliar accent that turned ‘lord’into three syllables.
As they bowed their head reverently, all that wispy blonde hair fell forward around their shoulders like water streaming over a cliff's edge, and then back into place as they straightened.
I was utterly enchanted.
"Nefr, this is Queen Aelia of Windemere. Aelia, this is Nefr, of the Raintree Wyllans and honorable Knight of Darkwatch."
I bowed to the Wyllan. "I am honored to meet you," I said sincerely.
I was rewarded with a small, lovely smile. "I am likewise honored to meet the Golden Queen," Nefr said.
The name surprised me. Adrio, the horse lord, had called me the same. I wondered if it was a common term for Windemerian rulers in other parts of Alterra. We were the Golden Kingdom, after all.
The reminder of Adrio made me think of the little caged elderwood seed that still sat in my bedside drawer. Sudden shame overtook me for forgetting all about it.
"How can I be of assistance, My Lord?" Nefr asked.
I noted how they all called himlordhere instead ofprince. I thought perhaps it was because his Darkwatch title was more important to them, as his subjects, than his role as his brother's Nightfall heir.
"I need you to get a message to your kin in Orin. My brother needs to send his armies to Windemere. Tell him that Penjan is poised to take the kingdom. We need to stand with the southern continent, with Aelia of Windemere, against this common foe. Tell him...tell him I am not asking as Lord of Darkwatch, but as his brother, to send me his forces."
The words were a plea. After hearing them in full, I could not help but put my precarious position in better perspective. If Nightfall would not help, the largest kingdom in the human realm would fall.
As we left Nefr to climb the hill, I reminded Io that he still had not answered my question about how Nefr can send a message faster than a carrier bird can fly.
"Nefr can speak with the birds and the beasts—of both the land and the sea. They, in turn, speak to each other through some magic I think even the Wyllans do not understand. The message will be relayed and received in Orin by tomorrow."
I could hardly believe something like that was possible as we reached the camp again. Io ducked through the tent flap, leaving me outside.
I looked around as I waited for him, noting with some curiosity that most of the dragon riders had not approached us. They stood on the periphery, staring interestedly, but without acknowledging me in any way. I wondered if it was my presence, or the presence of their lord, that made them seem so ill at ease.
Angry voices inside the tent drew my attention. Britaxia was speaking in a language I didn’t understand.
It was old Withian, I realized. I began trying to pick apart the words, but I knew very little of the ancient language outside of songs. It surprised me that the dragon mage was using it.
