Chapter 11

"And that all happened just a little over ten seasons ago?" asked Nathan slowly.

The way this young man was acting he thought it was all recently at least in the last couple of seasons. Not something decades ago.

"I left the city and I've not returned. Not even to see my family," said Elliot nodding yes.

"But what happened to Kathryn after you left or the man she was with? Did you ever find out? Did you even want to know?" asked Nathan.

As he thought about it, he realized that he hadn't wanted to know anything about Andrea and Daven. Well not Andrea. But he did ask about Daven on his only trip back home.

"As to the man, I found out that he was one of the sons of the Grand Duke, and I heard that both of the sons of the Grand Duke eventually died in their sleep almost ten seasons ago. I even heard that the Grand Duke himself died the same way a few seasons back.

"The way I hear it now is there have been so many of the Nobles who have died over the last ten seasons people are now wondering who will be left to carry the crown," said Elliot

"That is a lot of deaths, even over that extended period of time," said Nathan as he thought about it.

"But as to Kathryn no, I've not seen her. I have no desire to. She ruined both our lives with her selfishness and I have no desire to revisit that," said Elliot bitterly.

"But if you don't think about it you won't ever be able to move on. Look at the young lady Christy here. Can you tell me one negative point about her? One thing that makes her the same as Kathryn?" asked Nathan.

"Well ... I..." started Elliot looking around the camp. He was trying to look everywhere but at Nathan.

"I thought not. I can't tell you what to do, but I can tell you what you need. If you don't look at Christy, or any other woman, as their own person and not as someone waiting to hurt you then you'll never be happy with anyone.

"From my story you know I was in a similar situation to what you had happen to you and Christy is doing to you what my wife did to me. She's taking the bull by the horns and trying to make you see her for who she is, not for who your past lover was.

"You should give her a chance at the very least for being so determined to get into your heart after it was broken ten seasons ago no matter what it takes to do it. And at this point in your life you have so very little to lose and a whole world to gain from it," said Nathan smiling at Elliot.

As Nathan got up he reached out and squeezed Elliot's shoulder as he left a sitting Elliot thinking at the edge of the camp.

The next morning as the caravan started moving again Elliot could be seen talking freely to Christy as she beamed and held his arm close to her chest in both of hers.

One could also see that she tried to hold his eyes with her throughout their conversation. The way she looked at him gave you the impression she thought he created the world.

Even Terrance could see the change and just ruefully smiled as he gave up the chase for her time.

At their break Ariel came over to Nathan smiling and said "I don't know what you two talked about last night but it seems to have worked. If Christy's smile got any brighter she would blind you from twenty paces."

"All we did was compare our past. I was able to show him that living with the hurt and not trying again wasn't ever going to make it better. That, and to see if Christy was the one to help heal him, and possibly see to it that she was given a chance to try," said Nathan smiling

As he finished speaking Ariel pulled him down into a deep kiss of her own and she leaned back to look at him.

"It's already been almost three days for us and if we don't so something tonight there may be a beast within the caravan shortly that can only be satisfied by stripping you naked and taking her pleasure in front of everyone including God and all his creations," said Ariel huskily. "Besides if we go over three days you won't be any good to anyone for hours afterwards."

"Tonight we'll find a far off area and I'll put up some small wards to misdirect everyone away to make sure that we're not disturbed," said Nathan with some huskiness of his own.

As they kissed again, they broke apart each one thinking of a promise that was to be fulfilled that night.

They eventually reached the city of Ravenswind.

The first thing they did as they entered the city was to head where they were supposed to deliver the items. Christy knew generally where they were going, but it was a cousin she hadn't seen for seasons and had never been to his place.

But once they got there they were surprised to learn that he had passed away a few weeks before. He had died in his sleep while his wife was out visiting friends.

As they all stood around the wife, Ariel nudged Nathan and he barely nodded back at her as they listen to the wife talk.

They both noticed that Christy's cousin's wife had fading bruises on both of her arms and she was recovering from what looked to be a vicious black eye.

She had a strained look that she gave them, and the way she seemed to cower from the men and only talked to Christy, gave them both the impression that she had possibly been beaten for a long time and had a fear of men.

For a brief moment they wondered if the wife killed her husband, but the way she talked about it and said that she had the watch come verify his death when she came home, made them believe that she wouldn't have involved anyone else if she had killed her own husband.

Christy's cousin's wife was willing to accept the items and she was planning on carrying on the business as now it was her only livelihood.

After unloading everything they decided to visit for a while in the city since they just arrived.

Terrance and Rory set off to see what was available in the city. They asked Ariel and Nathan to come with them, but they begged off saying that they would wander around and meet them later at the Inn the Prince's Lady.

Completely, unbelievably, and catching everyone off guard, Elliot asked Christy if she was interested in visiting his parents with him while they were here and the look she gave him was indescribable right before she clutched at him saying she would love to.

But strangely as they left, Elliot seemed to go wide around the outside of town, on his way to his former home.

Almost as if he was avoiding going a particular direction.

After talking to various people in town both Ariel and Nathan were struck by the fact that no one seemed to really know what the fake Battlemage looked like.

It appears that he dealt primarily with the Nobles in the castle. So if they wanted more information they would need to talk to someone at the castle.

And what seemed stranger to them was that when they asked a few people if they knew Christy's cousin it seemed that he wasn't really well liked.

He was a womanizer and it was said that he often hit his wife, but she denied it all the time if anyone asked about the bruises and he would never admit to it.

That seemed to match how his wife looked, but they thought it was strange that he passed away like that. That he didn't meet a violent death as one would expect, but one in bed?

But as they voiced their concerns to one person they questioned, the person said that it seemed that some of the men who died in their sleep over the seasons were often men who abused their wives or were accused of raping women.

They laughed as they said that they thought it was the universe punishing them for their vile deeds. But the only ones that also seemed weak of constitution were the Nobles. They had been dying in their sleep for seasons it seemed for no reason what so ever.

As they left that person, they both looked at each other weirdly as they thought how unlikely that was to be.

They approached the castle, and were surprised to find someone willing to talk to them so late in the afternoon. There should have been more people around, but it was like a weird skeleton crew that was struggling to keep up with all the grounds care.

They found a secretary who used to work for the former Duke who was willing to give them a description when asked. Once again they were surprised because there were a lot of empty offices and hardly anyone walking around.

There seemed to be even fewer officials and Nobles around. And after talking to the man what they found about the Battlemage surprised them.

They found that he was a blond man with close cropped hair, about six feet tall, but who wasn't really all that impressively built. More on the slender side. But he carried a bastard sword on his back. No one had seen him draw it, but he did use magic whenever requested all the time. But he was wearing a sword for sure.

Also the man's voice seemed really light. And they thought that was strange because it sounded almost like a young boy's before his voice broke.

The other thing was that the secretary said he had always heard that the Battlemage was rumored to be a handsome man, yet before the secretary's wife left for their summer villa several weeks back, she and the other court ladies called him plain looking.