Chapter 126
The Horned King stood thoughtfully in his chambers by the window, mulling over everything that had happened in the past weeks carefully, scrutinizing every detail.
He had, at Avalina's insistent urging, allowed her to start reacquainting himself and the horse again, albeit rather apprehensively. The process was slow, but not as slow as the lich had expected. Mitternacht surprised him by seemingly showing no ill will for what had happened before, and Avalina said the horse could sense the absence of Hate in the Horned King now and was willing to start over.
"You'll be able to ride him again really soon!" She had told him cheerfully as they brushed the animal together.
"He told me so."
The lich had not bothered to reply, keeping his brooding doubts to himself. Let her be happy while she could.
Over the weeks, the Horned King had taken up what he had started before the Pig-Keeper had made his untimely appearance...he still wanted to rip that miserable boy to pieces but shoved away that pleasing image with a snarl, returning to the thought at hand...
He had continued teaching Avalina.
Over many of their conversations, he had picked up points here and there and finally put the whole puzzle together.
Avalina did not have the best of educations. Given that she was a peasant he could excuse her this, but his calculating mind had protested at the thought of so much potential going to waste. As a warlord, (a several hundred year old warlord, to be precise) he was exceptionally educated, most of it self-taught, and he saw no reason that she could not at least start learning the basics. He had picked up on her strengths and weaknesses immediately.
She could read exceptionally well, better than many grown men he had observed. At first she had mispronounced some things and halted in odd places, but she had improved drastically since she came here, and he could tell the difference.
In that area she had basically taught herself.
She knew how to grow crops, tend the earth and care for livestock. Admittedly, here she had done more of the teaching than he. And all of it unintentional. After the first three minutes he had simply let her talk on and on from memory, silently admitting his defeat as he set the book down. . .He had never been placed in a situation where this knowledge would serve him any purpose, (At least, not that he could ever remember) but as Avalina had been raised in that setting all her life, it was natural she would know much about farming.
To his surprise, she actually knew the basics of trapping, skinning and hunting, something he never would have expected her to know. She was the last person on earth he could ever envision doing those things, and she had admitted to him that she had never done them either.
But everything else was nil. Her arithmetic was poor at best and her handwriting was barely decipherable. In her weak defense she had never needed those things, so therefore learning them had never been a necessity, but the idea of so much intelligence going to waste appalled the lich.
He did not believe in wasted potential.
She could not read maps. This had surprised the Horned King. (Who didn't know how to read maps?) She had never traveled anywhere outside her comfort zone, so she had never needed to read one. And Mitternacht had been her map. Still, the lich continued to show her how to read them, in the event she ever needed to and the horse was not around.
Privately he hoped that moment would never come.
Despite being terribly ignorant in so many areas, she was anything but slow. Although naive, she had a quick mind and eagerly absorbed all that he told her. She was learning so fast. . .
There were setbacks, yes, when she couldn't remember something he had repeated a dozen times in less than an hour, or when she got frustrated almost to the point of tears because she couldn't grasp something.
Luckily, when he bothered to use it, patience was one of the Horned King's strongest points, and he used this to his advantage teaching her. He saw that she was not rushed or hurried when trying to figure out something new, and he was quite pleased with himself and her results.
She was a bright child.
He spent more time with her now than before, considering they had a lot more to do together. Teaching her alleviated his boredom a great deal and he enjoyed spending time with her of any sort, even when she got frustrated.
The only thing he did not see much point in teaching her was how to wield a weapon. He himself was a master at any weapon he picked up, but Avalina was too delicate to handle much of anything. She disliked hate and killing, and he doubted she would ever intentionally hurt someone else, even if her own life was at stake. (The time she had thrown water at him didn't count. She hadn't known it would harm him, and he somewhat doubted that she would have used it at all if she had known the effect it would have.) She shivered at the mere thought of violence, and this faintly concerned him. Many people would not hesitate to take advantage of her because of this, and he knew he would have no peace with himself if he actually tried to teach her how to inflict harm on another being. It would taint that lovely aura that followed her everywhere and she would never be quite the same.
The prospect of teaching her how to kill someone did not sit well with the lich and he bared his fangs silently, chasing the unpleasant thought as far away from his consciousness as he could. The world would mar her soon enough if Fate permitted it. They didn't need his help.
What she needed was a guardian. Someone to protect her and keep her safe from the wickedness humanity was so well known for. (He should know) But as she had told him, her father was gone, and her brother did not seem like the guardian type, from what little she had told the lich.
She had no one.
The horse did an astounding job all by himself, but it wasn't the same and the Horned King knew it. He had silently sworn to himself that night as he held her by the fire that he would protect her, but he would not always be here. His time was steadily running out, and after he was gone, who would take his place?
No one. Avalina had no one.
Dare he say it, the lich had even fleetingly thought of the Pig-Keeper as a possible substitute (obviously he and Avalina knew each other) but he had banished the thought as quickly as it came. The boy had been so easily defeated in their last encounter it had been laughable. He had never stood a chance.
The Horned King was troubled by this predicament. He had a chance to teach her to defend herself now, while he lived, but if he withdrew from even thinking of it, how could he hope to teach her anything? And if he allowed her to stay as she was, without defensive training, if something were to happen later, what would her future hold?
The lich's line of thought only made his heart feel heavier than it was already, due to other problems.
Things were returning to his memory he had never imagined. Blurry images flickered past in a haze behind his eyes, fuzzy scenes played out that he could make no sense of and faint sounds were slowly drawn back into his memory he could dimly recall hearing, but it all was as vague and shapeless as a mirage.
Except. . .some things. He had not forgotten everything, and the few moments that had stayed with him through the centuries became more detailed and weighed against his mind. When he was with Avalina he could forget them, but when he was alone, as he was now, the memories reappeared and laughed in his face, knowing he could never truly banish them from existence no matter how much he desired it.
The only memories that truly seemed real, however, were the memories of the past few days after returning to Prydain that first time, that had resulted in all those problems with the Pig-keeper, his time in the Cauldron (he shuddered involuntarily) and. . .
Avalina.
Her name alone could ease some of the heaviness that blanketed him. The only thing he could remember that was not unpleasant.
The only creature that could elicit something other than a negative mental reaction from him. Already his heart felt lighter. Just thinking of her. . .he fancied he could hear her chiming laugh now, and it alleviated much of the weight from his chest.
Her laugh sounded again, right before he heard footsteps at his door and she burst inside, her aura flooding the place and washing over him in gentle waves. Any heaviness he might have held inside promptly dissipated as he turned to face her, her hair blowing everywhere, her face flushed and clothing stained with earth and grass.
"Sire!" She cried joyfully, her eyes dancing, "Spring is here!"
The air felt different today. Still chilly, but. . .not quite cold. The air seemed to tingle slightly with anticipation, though there wasn't the faintest breeze to be found. Or anything else, for that matter.
The only sound within hearing range was the snort of Mitternacht's breathing and the thrumming of his hooves against the hard earth as Avalina galloped him across the partially frozen ground.
They seemed to be the only creatures out today.
The only reasons Avalina had liked winter before was because of how pretty the snow made everything look and how good it made Mitternacht feel. She had never been fond of winter. The little farmhouse, try as they might, never stayed warm no matter how much they stoked the fire, and they all slept in a circle in front of the hearth every winter, their bedrooms abandoned until spring.
Avalina would invariably get sick at least once every winter with chills, fever, terrible head problems, the whole package, and stay that way for half the season, or until the weather began to warm. Either way she would be utterly miserable and her mother would worry over her when there were chores to do...this was the first year Avalina could remember where she had not gotten sick once.
This surprised her, especially considering she had had more reason to get sick this year than she ever had at the farmhouse, but she wasn't going to complain. Privately she thought the Invisibles had influenced this change but had no real way of knowing for certain.
The castle was not much warmer than the farmhouse, and three times as drafty, so the Invisibles was Avalina's only possible conclusion.
But this winter had been far more miserable than any other winter she could remember. Half starved, nearly froze, nearly drowned, nearly died. . .but yet. . .
Arran had stopped playing games with her a long time ago, with less than pleasant words directed at her own desire to play, and left her feeling low every single time. But this winter, for the first time in ages, she had a playmate to snowfight with.
Creeper.
He was cranky and grouchy and could be very off-putting, but the past few months or so he had come out of his shell a little and actually tried to carry a conversation with her, instead of just snipping out brittle answers to her questions. And he had played with her too, every day she asked. She had a feeling he enjoyed himself a lot during those times.
The Horned King played with her as well, outside when the weather permitted, indoors the rest of the time. He had never turned her down yet, and she could sense the enjoyment he got from each game.
He felt better these days. She could tell. He and Creeper both. That haze of loneliness and and depression that covered them had lifted greatly, and it made her so happy that they weren't feeling so dim.
This place was dreary enough on its own, especially when the weather was dull and gray.
Slowly cooling Mitternacht off after the workout, she jogged him a couple times roughly around the Horned King's border, making sure to stay well inside it so as not to tease the horse. Her chest ached faintly but she shoved it away. She was having a great day and the last thing she wanted to do was get depressed.
After walking him a lap, she dismounted to comb over her tiny little garden area, but there was nothing.
'It's too early for anything to grow yet,' she reprimanded herself firmly, all the same feeling slightly disappointed.
'You should know that.'
Kneeling on the cold earth, she thought she saw a tiny green something, and her heart jumping, gently brushed the clods away to reveal a tiny green sprout of something, struggling to push through the hard, unwelcome soil.
It was early for a sprout. Avalina couldn't see another around, but she stared at it, her heart filling with hope.
'You're early,' she thought, gently touching the tiny little stem, 'But you'll make it. If it doesn't frost.'
She was about to get up, when a faint trill of birdsong drifted against her ears. Turning her head slightly, her blood jumped when she saw a lovely robin not ten feet from her, light gracefully on the ground.
'A bird. . .here!' She thought, her heart suddenly pumping harder, 'In the Horned King's lands! I saw some last autumn, but now? In winter? There's nothing of interest here for them.'
Silently, not moving a muscle, she watched as the proud and daring robin, his red breast swelled to the maximum, bounce across the earth like he owned the place, eyeing her up and down with his sharp little eyes, tilting his head back and forth.
She hardly dared to breathe.
Closer the bird hopped, never taking his eyes from her, watching. . .he pecked the earth twice, still so hard to the touch, and Avalina's heart sank slightly.
The ground was still frozen in places, locking most of the bird's food supply away. He would not be able to find food here, not so soon. But for the most part, the earth was softening, despite the cool weather, and as Avalina watched in shock, the robin suddenly leapt forward, tugged an earthworm from the ground, and after one more glance at her, spread his wings and flew away to the forest.
Getting up, Avalina's heart beat so fast. . .she could not contain the joyous laughter that sprang forth as she hugged Mitternacht.
"Come on, boy!" She cried, leaping to the saddle, "Let's tell him!"
A whoop of happiness and a thunder of hoofbeats echoed off the stark country all around before the air fell silent once more.
Well, looks like Spring's here! Lol Avalina's sure happy, isn't she? And the Horned King's teaching her! How cool is that? XD
A hundred thanks to everyone who reads and reviews! =D Hope everyone's staying warm:)