#lyel

Spring Princess

Anna - Lyel (IG)

Rydia, by justinevedovato

Spirited away, by justinevedovato

Part 10

As it was, Lyel was drooping over his map, jumping each time his head fell far enough to hit the table. The logical part of his brain said he should sleep: a horse can carry a man with ease, but the man must still be in control and no one could control a horse in their sleep. Except, perhaps, his sister, Lyrela. He hated not bringing her with him, but she would be safer behind enemy lines and he couldn’t send her into battle at the same time as himself – not until he had an heir.

Lyel wasn’t sure how long he slept before she entered his tent, water pouring down her face, as though a bucket had been thrown over her, not raindrops, but his head was resting on the Tesh River, and he’d knocked over a wooden piece, with a scythe and a bird etched on the top – a piece for the Banished Men – into the middle of a field the opposite side of the map from their actual camp.

Part 9

The flaps of Lyel’s tent smacked in the wind, as though they were trying to distract him. The soft auburn carpet was pegged down, so it wouldn’t move, and all of the dark furniture set up as though it had always been in a field of Ocaenygis, instead of unscrewed and lain flat in on of the old wooden war chests that Lyel’s warriors had been lugging around since the start of the civil war. The tent rose up to a slight point in the centre of the roof and Lyel could hear the rain beating against the waxed canvas and running down it, like the water actually had feet to run all over the tent roof with, and had chosen to stop as hard as each droplet could. It was so loud that Lyel half expected the roof to fall in and soak him.

He stared at the map in front of him with blank eyes that only seemed to be able to see the intricate rivers and roads along the Ocaenynis-Home of the Banished border and entirely unable to pick out the wooden pieces he had left in place to mark the position of his men and the Banished Men’s strongholds. He snorted at the thought of the Banished Men patrolling their settlements in this weather. At least his warriors had the good sense to let their dogs do the work for them.