Chapter 8

For her part, Micky was sitting on a branch about 10m up in the tree.

Micky was sucking on a beernut as she watched the others search for her. The small pack she had hidden in her trunk of court gowns was sitting beside her on the broad branch. She chuckled as she remembered Kerr’s reaction when she refused to leave home without the trunk.

She had to patiently explain that the dresses where covered in precious jewels and if left behind, they would go missing. Kerr had looked at the top two dresses and agreed with her. He had never realised that the Jewellery on the dresses the Fayle women wore at court was real and not just cosmetic.

When she had insisted that the trunk was to be put in her tent each night or in her room if they stopped at an inn, he hadn’t argued with her. He would have been agitated if he realised that she was happily unpicking the jewels from the dresses each night while he was screwing Jen.

The pack now contained some basic travel type clothing, her cookware and the magical box she had taken from her mother’s hiding place. In the box was all of her mother’s good jewellery, the gems from the dresses and a rather large stash of gold coins.

Micky knew that she wasn’t in a particularly good situation here. The snowstorm had temporarily halted her plan for escape. She had hoped to find other travellers and to elicit their help. She knew the rest of the party would join them under the shield in the morning and her chances to leave would deteriorate even further.

She shuddered at the thought of Kerr touching her. “I’ll kill that son of a bitch if he touches me,” she mumbled as she watched the others search, knowing that she would be impossible to see from the ground.

“Oh, I don’t know. Kerr was a fair fuck the last time I screwed him,” Ricky said as he sat down beside Micky. He was impressed that she didn’t even flinch at his appearance.

“I was wondering when you would join me, Mage Tricky Ricky,” Micky tossed at him as she flicked her eyes over him. He didn’t look a day older than the last time they had met. She grinned at his raised eyebrows.

“Mage Tricky Ricky, I’m deeply offended that you have forgotten me so easily,” she pouted at him, but she had no real annoyance in her voice. She knew he could read her body language and the nuances of her voice better than probably anyone on this planet. For all she knew, he could probably even read her thoughts.

“Princess Picky Micky, where is your delightful mother?” he asked. He didn’t bother looking below because he knew she wasn’t here with Micky. In fact, he was somewhat disturbed to find his little friend here with Kerr.

Micky gave him a sad little half-smile, and Ricky noticed the shine of unshed tears and the pain of heartfelt loss in her eyes. “She is gone, as is my father. Kerr sent my father nearly broke and then had them killed because they got in his way. He wanted to marry me, and they had told him no.”

Ricky nodded, “Ah, I see. I did worry that his mental state and intentions were not always controlled by his better side. He is a man of quick temper, and he rarely let’s go of a slight. He is capable of waiting years to get his revenge or to appease his sense of justice.”

Micky sighed deeply and then asked sadly, “Ricky, why is it that I must pay for what he can’t accept? I can no more help what I am any more than you or he can.”

Ricky frowned at her for a moment and then he understood. “It is the curse of the unattainably beautiful, my little Fayle flower. You stole my breath and heart five years ago,” he smiled at her indulgently.

“Somehow, you have only gotten more beautiful since then. For a man like Kerr, you and the position you held in society would have represented everything he didn’t have and definitely wanted.”

Ricky then did something he had never done before. He placed his hand on hers, and he offered, “Duchess Michelina Dee, do you wish me to offer you sanctuary in my province?”

Micky felt a sudden burst of warmth on her left hand and even where the pendant lay on her chest. “Can you teach me magic?” she counted as she realised the significance of the effect Ricky had on her.

Ricky looked at her harder and comprehended the glow and what he had suddenly felt when he touched her hand. He realised that she was a newly awakened mage and she had a lot of untapped potential.

He reached out and touched the ring on her other hand. He gasped at the joy that was radiated at him from the ring. The entity that was linked to his own magical items reflected the joy, and he got the impression that the two entities were delighted to find each other again.

“Damn you, Micky,” he scowled and shook his head.

Ricky knew he was in a lot of trouble in more ways than one.

From his studies, he knew that some of the entities that inhabited magical items were emotionally linked, and they felt compelled to find each other if the items they were tied to were ever separated. The entities couldn’t force the wearers to be together.

However, Ricky knew that Micky’s entity would keep wishing for her to be near him, and his spirit friend would pine if they were separated for extended periods. He had not known that the entity of the items he wore was so linked to another because the ring Micky wore had not had an owner since he acquired his ring nearly a hundred years before.