The Battle of the Trees - Sword, Ring, and Crown Book Two

Chapter Twelve

Before we could leave, Tylas flew to me and planted a big kiss right on my lips. The kiss wiped my face of expression. Finally,  he pulled back from me and stood there hovering in the air.

"You rescued me!" He twirled up towards the ceiling then floated back down to beam at me. His yellowish-green eyes - eyes the color of a peat bog - glittered with delight, and I felt the floating balloons of it. It was such a change from the broken creature before that I couldn't stop staring.

"Tylas," I said, ignoring, for the moment, the big kiss I'd just received, "How are you feeling?"

"I've never been better. I can't wait to tell my father of my rescue - he resides in the Spring Lands." Tylas made a loop-de-loop then settled again in front of me.

"I thought I recognized you, but I wasn't sure, Pixie Princeling," Ciaran said.

The small man zipped over to Ciaran and touched his forehead with his two index fingers, and bowed his head. "Lord of Spring... I didn't remember my life until just a few minutes ago. My Lady saved me!"

"I didn't do it... it's probably an effect of the link..."

"Link or not, it happened because of you!"

Luke set up another talisman to hide our conversation.

"Hmmm... You are correct, Madeline. It is another effect of the link. Let us catalog for a moment." Luke ticked off several powers I had. "You can commune with both magical and spiritual ghosts. Your links can serve as a two-way path of spirit. Meaning, you can suck up a person's spirit into yourself, or you can share your spirit with them. Anyone with whom you have affection or promise can form a beneficial root that attaches to you. The parties that are rooted to you receive benefits from it in mental, spiritual, emotional, magical, or physical gifts. However, the downside is that any imbalanced links can cause upheaval in your spirit and theirs. With every link you make, you take a greater risk of injury."

There were a few other gifts that Luke didn't know about yet. I could take the energy I trapped from someone and form a child. I could mentally communicate with any link that gained the ability to do so with me.

I played with the necklace Luke gave me as I continued to catalog the growing list of my horrifying *abilities. I could also raise skeletons, and if my nightmare was a premonition,  perhaps more than skeletons...

"So... the links can help to stabilize emotions... but... I'm not stabilized because of the problems between me and some of my consorts." That was more comforting to consider than the oily smudge.

Luke nodded. "I believe that is why you've grown unpredictable with your emotions."

I fiddled with his necklace some more. "Do you think you could make another necklace with your calming power in it?"

"I can try," Luke said.

I rubbed my face to hide my worries. "Great."

"I'm staying," Dominic said and I faced him. Smiling, he added, "Tylas and I will stay here and see what needs to be done.  I want to make this a shelter for abused spouses, slaves, and concubines. I think a place where the abuse happened can be cleansed from it by making it serve the abused."

Tylas zipped over to Dominic and took his hand. "Yes! I would be happy to help! My Queen, please allow us!"

Ciaran chuckled. "From a princess to a queen. There is no escape for you, Madeline."

I shrugged in surrender as I watched Dominic squeeze Tylas's gently. It was just like Dominic to come up with auch a sweet idea. Then I realized that I had a cute rival for Dominic's affections. After the searing kiss he'd given me the night we'd made brownies together, I wasn't sure how I felt about that. For now, I stuffed it with other items I didn't know how to deal with.