Chapter 1: Flight of the fateful

By Silver Dolphin

It was, the guard at the castle gate decided, just another boring day standing sentry duty once again.

It wasn't really his fault he was young and untried, unseasoned for battle, was it? The least Laguna could do was take the knights-in-training to squire for the sworn knights riding off to battle. Sentry duty was so irksome. Was he never to savor the glory of victory, with the taste of blood in his mouth?

But wars were not for green boys, so the older knights had told him. When I am fifteen, then I may go off to war, and not a moment before. For now, he would have to man the gate, and interrogate any traveler who wished to enter the royal citadel.

As if on cue, his hawk's eyes spotted a lone rider approaching the gates. From what he could make out, this one was slightly built, cloaked and cowled. The courser was as slim as her rider, built for speed, dappled grey with a flowing silver mane. Not your average traveler, then – this one looked wealthy, and high bred.

The rider pulled up in front of the gates and pushed his cowl back. And the guard promptly got the shock of his life – the figure in breeches was a woman.

She was a stunning beauty at that, with noble features and finely spun raven hair. And when she spoke, her voice was a low, commanding contralto that carried to his ears with imperious ease.

"I am to see the queen."

He hesitated. "I'm afraid not, madam. The young prince has taken hurt and she refuses to see anyone else."

The woman's eyes flashed. "Would you offer resistance to her sister?"

The boy paled visibly. This woman was known to be a Seeress, the Lady of Truth and Vision. "I had not meant to offer impertinence, my lady – " hastily, he called an order for the gates to be opened. The lady rode through with out so much as a glance at him.

Shaken, the guard peered after her. The queen's sister, riding unattended? Scandalous! Women these days…

***

After handing her mount over to the stable grooms for care, Edea quickly made her way down the twisting castle corridors to where she knew the Prince was being tended. This knowledge had little to do with the fact she was a Seeress; it was more she had been called to deal with no less than five mishaps concerning the young boy – he seemed highly accident-prone, indeed.

As she threw open the door to the sickroom, Raine turned, her eyes flaming. "Who dares – oh, Edea! Hyne has answered my prayers at last!" Weeping, the queen rushed into the arms of her elder sister, who soothed her as she would a child.

"Squall – took injury – thrown from a horse and tore his face on a tree root. There was a vine stretched –"

"On purpose. I know." This much Edea had gathered from Raine's fleeting, incoherent thoughts. "Raine, the boy is not safe here. Too many dispute Laguna's claim to the throne, and he is already worn thin enough fighting the Galbadians as it is. He cannot afford to put any thought to defending his son against his allies! The boy must be sent for fosterage – give him to me, and I will take him to my House in Avalon to be raised."

Easing the queen into a chair by the window, Edea turned her attentions to Squall. Barely six, the boy had already met with all manner of apparent accidents – last winter he had partaken of poisoned soup, and the year before a fire had started in his chambers, where he lay napping.

"They follow Laguna because he has the gift of earning the love of his allies. But they will not follow a prince whose parentage is questionable." Raine's voice was weary. "I had one daughter before I married Laguna – they feared me pregnant ere I wed him, because Squall was born a month or so early."

"The boy will live," Edea said, some of the harshness draining out of her voice as she examined Squall. "He has suffered a concussion and torn his face. Yet your son has a remarkably tough head – apart from some serious bruising, there is no internal bleeding. He was lucky this time." She turned back to her sister. "Come, the women will tend him, his life is not in jeopardy. You need a hot bath and a good long sleep."

"As do you." Watching her sister out of shadowed eyes, Raine had nevertheless seen the effects of hard riding in Edea's face. Why, her sister looked as exhausted as she herself felt!

Edea nodded. "When we are both rested, I shall request an audience with Laguna. If all goes the way we plan, Squall will be far away when the month is out." She noticed the stricken look in her sister's eyes. "Would you rather be separate from your son for a few years, Raine, or forever? The boy is not immortal."

Raine nodded. "It shall be so." Her voice was barely a whisper.

***

He could not remember.

Try as he might, Squall could not call to mind anything of the Castle he had left behind, or of the tall, commanding woman with the jet-black hair who rode with him. He had been told he had fallen from a horse and hit his head hard, just before he had had to leave the Castle orphaned – his father had died in the last battle against the Galbadians.

And now this tall lady had claimed him for her own. He trusted her not, this lady with her black hair and black eyes. She had the look of a witch about her. And she spoke to him little, lost in her own thoughts, eyes on the road ahead.

She was wealthy, this woman, judging from her cloak of fine weave, and the expensive clasp pinning it to her shoulder. The horses they rode were highly bred as well, as far as he could tell. What did a noblewoman want with an orphan boy?

Suddenly, she spoke. "When we get to my house you will meet my sister, Quistis. She is of an age with you. A year or so older, perhaps. It is about time for her to start her lessons. Can you read and write yet?"

"No." He said it sullenly.

"No matter. I have another boy fostering there as well. The three of you can do lessons together, and you and Seifer – that's his name – will have training together with my father's master-at-arms."

***

It was nearly a week's ride before they reached Edea's house. It wasn't really a house, more of a stone villa, with lush greenery and flora in bloom in the courtyard. A tall, slender man with hair gone iron-grey and black eyes came out of the large front doors to greet them.

"Welcome back, my daughter." He kissed Edea on the cheek, and then glanced at Squall. "Is this the boy?"

"The very one. Nicholas's son. Perhaps you would see to his needs, Father? I am weary indeed."

"Seifer will show him around. He should be back from his sparring session soon." The Lord Rheon turned to go back into the house.

"Come sit down, Squall. It won't be long before Seifer returns." A sudden smile lit Edea's lovely features to radiance, and she enfolded him into a motherly embrace. "Welcome to Avalon."