Page 165 of Destiny of a King

“Adira will teach you,” Kaelan said as if it were a given.

Dravic’s expression changed at the sound of her name.

Kaelan seemed not to notice. “She instinctively knows the forest. She understands things you have forgotten. And with Morvane magic in her blood…” He shrugged. “Perhaps she understands things neither of us ever will.”

“She has much to explain when I find her,” Dravic said with the command of a king.

Kaelan laughed. “I don’t think that will be the first thing on your mind when you find her.”

He was right but Dravic would not admit it.

Kaelan scratched his chin. “I just thought of a way you might be able to find her.”

Dravic sprang forward in his chair. “Tell me.”

Chapter Thirty-Eight

Found at Last

A Love Reclaimed

Spring had finally arrived in Driochmor.

Dravic had expected the melting snow and warmer air. What he had not expected was the change it brought to the land itself.

Strange flowers grew in clusters along the forest floor, some with petals so pale they appeared almost white until the sunlight touched them and revealed streaks of violet and blue. Others curled around the trunks of trees, their vines thick with tiny blossoms unlike anything he had seen in Caerith.

Plants he could not name crowded the banks of streams swollen with melted snow, and everywhere new growth pushed through the dark earth.

He found himself studying it all as his stallion carried him along the narrow trail.

His mother would have known the names of many of them.

The thought came unexpectedly.

Once he would have dismissed most of what grew around him as little more than forest growth. Now he found himself wondering what purpose each plant served, which ones healed, which ones harmed, and he looked forward to Adira teaching him about them.

His stallion suddenly stopped and Dravic immediately looked down.

The small dog-like creature that had been trotting ahead of him had halted beside a patch of thick undergrowth. Its nose worked furiously against the ground.

Dravic leaned forward in the saddle. “What is it, Tibby? Have you found her?”

Tibby lifted his head and sniffed the air, turned in a circle—and sat down.

Dravic swore.

Tibby looked up at him.

“Do not look at me like that. We have been searching for five days.”

Tibby scratched behind one ear.

Dravic’s eyes narrowed.

Five days. Five damned days of following the little creature through Driochmor while it sniffed trees, rocks, paths, and anything else that caught its interest.

When Kaelan had first told him about the strange dog-like creature he and Bria had encountered during their journey through Driochmor, Dravic had thought the answer to finding Adira had finally been handed to him.