The Path to Destiny: Tia's Folly (21 page)

           
“This is torture,” Tia told the Gods, “She is so lonely
here, even with Kender. Please stop making her pay for my mistake.”

           
“OW!” Tia saw Najia jumped up and rub her cheek.
“Kender!” She started hollering and then mysteriously stopped.

           
Watching her creep over to the side of the house, Tia
moved into another room and peered through the window to see what had caught
Najia’s attention. Standing back far enough that she couldn’t be seen, Tia
nearly danced a jig when she saw a little boy talking to Najia.

           
“Thank you!” she whispered to the Gods as she fought back
the tears.

           
She was so excited she wanted to hug that boy for
befriending her daughter. Tia knew the Falkeries would do their best to put an
end to it once they found out…

Grinning,
Tia watched Najia run off to play in the woods with her new friend and just
smiled impishly. As long as the Falkeries didn’t know, there really was no harm
in her daughter having a friend.

           
A chill of foreboding ran down her spine as she thought
about her daughter’s rocky future.
 
Najia
was going to need
a lot
of friends.
Listening to the subtle whispering of the Gods, Tia couldn’t help but smile as
she went about her daily chores.

           
Not only had the Gods sent him, they had
made
him for her. And if half of what
they said was true, she was going to need him.

Epilogue

Six years later

“By
the Goddess, give me strength!” Tia exclaimed. Having already tasted her
morning porridge, she knew that somehow Kender had replaced the sugar with salt
again. Just like he had put itch weed in the batch of new soap she had made
last week, and a garden snake in her bed the week before that. Sighing, she got
up and went over to the pot, scraping the ruined porridge out of her bowl.

Over
the last six years, she had grown fond of the little Pixie, but sometimes it
was hard to remember why she had been so excited by his birth. She must have
been momentarily touched in the head, she decided with a shake of her head.
With a grin, she remembered the many escapades Kender had gotten himself into
since their move to the Falkerie city.

           
Some of the pranks
had
been funny, she admitted to herself. One of the many times Najia had been
called before the council for being friends with Briam was probably her favorite.
One of the Elders had taken an immediate disliking of Najia, apparently this
very fact offended Kender. She smiled to remember the surprise of everyone in
the room as they had watched the wisps of hair rise one by one to form a large
horn, like a Unicorn’s, on the top of the Elder’s balding head. By the time
Kender was done every last hair stood straight in the air, twirled into the
horn.

           
Giggling, she recalled the mortification of the Elder
when some poor Falkerie had entered the room, and had exclaimed her shock over
his new hairdo. Placing a hand on his head, the Elder’s face had flamed in
embarrassment as he fought to undo the horn. Unable to budge the ridiculous
horn and unable to leave before the meeting was over; the Elder had glared at
Kender for the remainder of the meeting.

Tia
recalled the effort she had put into apologizing to the Elder, but privately,
she was glad Kender had stood up for Najia when she could not. It made having
him around a little bit easier when she was the butt of his pranks.

           
Kender’s best and worst prank had been at Armond’s
commencement ceremony. Right before Armond had knelt to accept his sword and
position into the rank of the Elders, his ceremonial garment fell from his
body, as all of the stitching magically disappeared. Armond had been naked
underneath the garment, and to be fair it was a very cold day. Needless to say,
the ladies had had a field day talking about how
little
they had seen.

In
fact, they still whispered about that day whenever Armond walked down the
street. That had been the final straw though, and in the end, Tia had been
advised
to leave Kender at home with
Najia whenever possible.

           
A loud sound broke Tia out of her reverie, a mother’s
fear for her child froze her in place; it was the trumpets! The agreed upon
signal that the Phoenix had arrived for Najia.

           
“Najia!” Tia yelled as she ran for the stairs. The
Phoenix were earlier than expected.

           
She watched as Najia ran down the stairs hand in hand
with Briam. The pair stopped at the bottom to embrace quickly.

           
“Go, Briam!” Najia urged him. “I am ready! It will be
okay!”

           
“I love you!” Briam declared as he quickly kissed her
again before leaving her standing there staring stupidly after him.

           
“No time Najia!” Tia shook Najia’s arm to get her attention
and looked her in the eye. “Are you ready?”

           
“I don’t know, I think so.” She bit her bottom lip. “What
if I am
not?
”

           
“We need to stick to the plan Najia!” Tia said quickly.
“We
can’t
back out now!”

           
Taking a deep breath, Najia smiled at her Mama and nodded
her head.

           
Tears welled in Tia’s eyes as she gazed at her beautiful
daughter. She was so proud of her; of how she had turned out. There was some
fear too, but she had to believe this was a part of the Gods’ plan. Smiling
into Najia’s bright blue eyes, Tia shook her head to realize her little girl
was now an adult. She was on her path to destiny; and Tia couldn’t protect her
from this.

           
“We don’t have much time; they came quicker than we
anticipated,” Tia glanced at the door. “Do you remember what I told you about
searing?”

           
Najia nodded.

           
“Good. Now, as long as Kender remains hidden, they will
have no clue how strong you are.” Tia smiled into her daughter’s eyes.

           
The front door flew open and the pair found themselves
staring at a huge Phoenix man carrying an enchanted crossbow.

           
“Outside now!” he ordered coldly.

           
Following as he backed out of the door, Najia knew this
was it; this was what she had been born for. Her heart hammered a tattoo in her
chest and she willed herself to stay calm. It was the only way she was going to
complete this task. Gasping suddenly and nearly falling down just outside of
her door, she knew her Seared was very close by. Wryly, she realized the
protection of the house had stopped her from feeling him approaching.

           
“That is far enough” the Phoenix man growled keeping his
crossbow trained on them.

Both
women stopped and exchanged glances. Tia saw Najia glance down nervously at her
hand and quickly flashed the pink jewel she held.

She
returned her attention to the scene playing out before her. Looking up, she saw
Pegasuses circling the area. There were a few Firebirds too, but most of the
beasts circling overhead were Pegasuses with riders.

After
only a few moments, Najia was spotted by one of the men overhead and a horn
signaled that she had been found. It didn’t take long for the Pegasuses to
begin to land in a large circle around her. One man jumped down to the ground
and immediately approached Tia, hostility written all over his face.

“So
it was a Druid!” He sneered in Tia’s face. “I hope you are prepared to die,
woman.”

“Leave
her alone!” Najia pushed Tia behind her and faced the man down. “Who are you to
judge her anyway?”

Red
faced, his hands curled into fists, the man growled to the others around him,
“Find Cahal.
Now!
We will finish
destroying this place after we kill the Druid.”

“No!”
Tia pushed Najia out of her way and fell to her knees before the Phoenix man.
“They are all innocent! It is only me who is at fault! Please let me explain!”

“If
that is how you chose to waste your final words.”

“Please
understand, the Falkeries are innocent!” Tia rushed as fast as she could. “I
told them that I had mated with a Falkerie man who had been wounded in an
accident near my village a few years before I stole Najia-!”

“Her
name is not Najia!” The man snapped at Tia. “Address her as Adara!”

“Adara!”
Tia replied immediately. “There was a Falkerie man who never healed enough to
make the journey back to their city around that time. I lied and told them
Adara was our love child. She looks enough like them that they believed me and
have kept us safe. They have protected her because they understood her to be
one of their own. We aren’t in the city because they assumed I was her mother
and they couldn’t separate a child from her mother, a Druid cannot live within
the cities walls!”

“Send
word to stop the fighting, and find out where the hell Cahal is!” The Phoenix
man looked perplexed by Tia’s words as he addressed the warrior standing
closest to him. “If you lie Druid-!” he broke off realizing there wasn’t a
threat he could use as she would be executed shortly.

Giving
Najia an odd look, he ordered Tia to stand and face Adara.

Tia
knew she didn’t want Najia to see but she also knew she needed to know what the
Phoenix people were capable of. Tears welled in her eyes and her heart thumped
painfully in her chest as she watched the man walk up to his Pegasus and pull
an evil looking scimitar from its sheath.

“We
all have our destinies,” Tia assured Najia softly as the man grabbed her hair
and pulled her head backwards.

Staring
into Najia’s eyes, Tia couldn’t stop herself from feeling absolutely terrified
as she felt the man draw the blade of his sword across her neck. Blood
spattered Najia’s clothing and Tia opened her mouth to assure her one last time.
Gagging on her own blood, Tia was unable to force the words out past her slit
windpipe. Her vision began to fade and her whole body slumped.
Not really believing what was
happening, Tia’s last thought was,
there’s
no going back now
.

Preview to Najia’s Sacrifice

               
Najia
jumped to her feet as the door flew open to admit Cahal.

               
“You
are a coward!” He yelled fiercely.

               
Stunned,
Najia stood there gaping at him openly. If his opening statement wasn’t enough
to leave her speechless, the fact that he was naked was definitely enough to
shock her silent. Staring at his naked body, she compared it to Briam’s. While
Briam was muscular he also carried himself with the gracefulness of a Falkerie
and was slender. Cahal was thick with bulging muscles everywhere. Every part of
his body appeared to have been chiseled from stone with no trace of fat
anywhere.

               
Allowing
her eyes to move down, she noted the golden hair was sprinkled liberally on his
chest and legs. With a deep breath, she looked directly at his limp cock and
noted that it too was surrounded by the same color hair. Gulping, Najia
realized he was a large man even when he was flaccid. She was a little scared
to find out how much it would grow when he was hard. It occurred to her that it
was very rude to stare at a man’s cock this way, but she just couldn’t take her
eyes off of it.

               
“Well?”
He yelled. “What do you have to say for yourself?”

               
“About
what?” She asked distractedly, still staring in fascination as his balls
tightened and released, and then repeated the movement.

               
“About
what?” Cahal asked incredulously before noting where she was looking. “What are
you looking at?” He growled.

               
“Your
balls,” she replied, not realizing that Cahal wasn’t used to her blunt speech.
“They look like they are flexing.”

               
Cahal
was dumbfounded; he had no idea how to reply to such a statement out of the
blue. Anger quickly dissipating, he tried to figure out what to say.

               
“What
do you mean, what are they doing?” He asked cautiously trying to control his
physical reaction to her gaze.

               
“Well,”
Najia tried to think of a way to describe it, “They keep tightening up and then
dropping down. Not just once or twice but over and over in an almost exaggerated
way. And they look swollen and uncomfortable.”

               
Turning,
Cahal shut the door.

               
“You
are free to come explore my body as much as you want.” He dared her with a grin.
“I am, after all, your Seared and your initiation is today.”