Dragons and Destiny

By Candy Rae

The Planet Wolf Series: Volume 4 - The northern humans and their telepathic, four-pawed friends are no strangers to war, but a new, far deadlier enemy is approaching. Can they find out how to defeat the aliens before time runs out? Are the legends based on truth? Are there hidden wings on the third continent? What secrets have the northern wolves been keeping from their human friends? 2013 Edition.

PLANET WOLF
(1) Wolves and War - (2) Conflict and Courage - (3) Homage and Honour - (4) Dragons and Destiny - (5) Valour and Victory - (6) Ambition and Alavidha - (7) Paws and Planets - (8) Tales and Tails

DRAGON WULF
(1) Journey and Jeopardy - (2) Gossamer and Grass - (3) Flames and Freedom

FLYING COLOURS
(1) Rascals and Renegades - (2) Outlaws and Overlords - (3) Sparkles and Sphinxes (forthcoming)

T’QUEL MAGIC
(1) Ephemeral Boundary - (2) Enduring Barrier - (3) Eternal Bulwark

MULTIVERSE MUDDLE (forthcoming)
(1) Vampyre Crypt - (2) Faie Castle - (3) Shadow Cave - (4) Demon Citadel

SAMMY THE CAT
(1) Cat in Charge - (2) Cat at Christmas - (3) Dog not in Charge

KILL BY CURE

• Language: English
• Publisher: Candy Rae
• Release date: Oct 23, 2010
• ISBN: 9781452388427

Candy Rae

Candy Rae has been an avid reader since childhood, with fantasy and science fiction appearing on her bookshelf in her first year of university when a friend introduced her to talking dragons. All her life, she has wanted to write, but it wasn’t until Christmas Day in 2003 that she sat down and started planning the book that, after many revisions, became the first book in the Planet Wolf series: Wolves and War.As a former accountant, Candy was notorious among her family for elongating her commute home by parking in a safe space and starting to write, having got into the habit of carrying a notebook with her wherever she went, a habit she continues to this day. When she’s not writing, her hobbies include knitting, tapestry, and trying to figure out ‘whodunnit’ in murder mysteries.Candy lives in Ayrshire, Scotland, with her large black cat, Sammy, and her Labrador-Corgi cross, Alex. She writes her books in British English with a Scottish flavour.

Book preview

DRAGONS AND DESTINY

Candy Rae

SMASHWORDS EDITION

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Dragons and Destiny

(2nd Edition)

Copyright © 2013 Candy Rae

All characters in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead; is purely coincidental.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the author.

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

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Dragons and Destiny is dedicated to my children, Robert and Hilary who have mixed patience with understanding over the years as their mother immerses herself in her writing and who, on occasion, tells them she loves them very much but to ‘please go away’ for a moment or two while she finishes a sentence.

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BOOKS BY CANDY RAE

T’Quel Magic

Ephemeral Boundary - Enduring Barrier - Eternal Bulwark

Planet Wolf

Wolves and War - Conflict and Courage - Homage and Honour - Dragons and Destiny - Valour and Victory - Paws and Planets - Tales and Tales - Ambition and Alavidha

Dragon Wulf

Journey and Jeopardy - Gossamer and Grass - Flames and Freedom

Kill by Cure

Insurgency (2017)

Rascals and Renegades - Outlaws and Overlords - Soldiers and Songsters

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Cover Artwork - Copyright © 2010 Jennifer Johnson

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter 1 - AL 347 to AL 605

Chapter 2 - AL 607 - First Month of Summer (Dunrhed)

Chapter 3 - AL 607 - Second Month of Summer (Vadrhed)

Chapter 4 - AL 607 - Third Month of Summer (Lokrhed)

Chapter 5 - AL 607 - Fourth Month of Summer (Sanrhed)

Chapter 6 - AL 607 - Fifth Month of Summer (Rakrhed)

Chapter 7 - AL 607 - First Month of Winter (Dunthed)

Chapter 8 - AL 607 - Second Month of Winter (Vadthed)

Chapter 9 - AL 607 - Third Month of Winter (Lokthed)

Chapter 10 - AL 607 - Fourth Month of Winter (Santhed)

Chapter 11 - AL 607 - Fifth Month of Winter (Rakthed)

Chapter 12 - AL 608 - First Month of Summer (Dunrhed)

Characters

Glossary and Appendices

* * * * *

AUTHOR’S NOTE

The Ancient Greeks of Planet Earth believed that there were three types of fate that governed the world. The first, Clotho, was the fate that span the thread of life. The second, Atropos, was the fate that cut the thread of life. The third, Lachesis, was the fate that assigned a person’s destiny.

Planet Wolf is a world where the grass is not green, where alien trees and spiky foliage move strangely in the breeze. It’s a world of gigantic mountains and deep valleys, of huge rivers and primaeval forests, of vast plains and arid deserts, of restless seas and great continents. On Planet Wolf, the native creatures act and sound like nothing mankind has seen before.

It is six-hundred and seven years since mankind arrived. Not much has changed since the second century. The country of Murdoch is a totalitarian and feudalistic Kingdom. Democratic Argyll has become very prosperous. Vadath is still the home of the Vada who patrol and protect the northern continent. The Lind continue to live their lives much as they always have done except for those who choose to live with humans. In the Great Eastern Sea many of the islands are now populated. There also the privateers and slavers still roam, searching for booty and slaves. The Larg remain in the far south. They have never ceased in their hatred of their eons old enemy, the Lind.

* * * * *

Chapter 1

AL347 TO AL605

Three of Five

It was number Three of Five. This second number was very important to its makers. It ghosted through space, pulling energy from the heat and light of the many suns it passed as it carried out its task.

It was not an animate object. Twenty first century man would have called it an ‘unmanned space probe’. That was its task, to probe, to investigate and to send back the results of its findings to its makers.

This solar system was not the first Number Three of Five had visited but it would be the last. Number Three was nearing the end of its useful life, its storage compartment held only one last beacon. The computer that ran Number Three bleeped as it took stock of what its long-range sensors were reporting. Another bleep and Number Three manoeuvred into a high planetary orbit around one of the planets.

The doors of the storage compartment opened and the computer sent out the pulse that would release the last beacon from its restrainer-clamps. The beacon dropped away from Three of Five. The doors closed and the computer whirred as it ran the ultimate program that signified that its task was complete. Number Three of Five blew up.

The gravitational pull of the planet drew the beacon down towards the surface and it gained speed as it plummeted; coming to a halt spiked deep inside what was dense forest. There it sat, the only evidence of its presence an occasional muted flash of blue light.

With each sun its power pack feasted with greed on the sun’s rays, replenishing itself and at pre-programmed times Number Three of Five sent a burst of information out into space. When the sun was not shining it lay dormant, waiting.

As the centuries passed the forest undergrowth grew thicker and deeper, hiding the beacon from the sun and these waiting periods grew longer.

Then came one hot summer and a great forest fire burned. The beacon awoke as the sun’s rays once again replenished its power pack. It sent out another burst of information. Then the undergrowth grew to cover it once more.

That was the day when the fate of many was decided, the day when, only one klick from its hiding place those fighting the fire decided that they could do no more and to permit nature to take its course. That was the day that signalled the end of the beginning

Events were set in motion that would change life on Planet Wolf for ever.

* * * * *

AL570 - Julia

Juliana Wallace, of the village of Saint Joan in the country of Argyll knew something momentous was happening the instant her father entered their cottage. There was an air of suppressed excitement about. Try as he might, her father couldn’t conceal it. After the family’s evening meal, as Julia busied herself readying her little brothers and sisters for bed he and her mother went to their bedroom and shut the door. Julia heard the murmur of their voices as she bathed the youngest prior to popping him into his rough nightshirt. She couldn’t make out what they were saying but they both sounded excited about something. She could hear her father trying to shush her mother’s exuberance.

Wonder what has happened? Something good by the sound of it. Julia carried young Joseph up the loft ladder to the area where the younger children slept. It was a large area, separated by a decorated screen between brothers and sisters. Holy Writ decreed that youngsters of the same sex should not sleep together. It was one of the many rules by which the Wallace family lived. It had only been since Julia’s fourteenth birthday that she had been permitted into the boy’s side of the loft, fourteen being the age when a girl was considered adult and old enough to attend to the more intimate aspects of rearing children.

With her birthday the previous month had come other changes. No more could Julia wear the shorter skirt of a girl-child. Showing off her ankles was now considered a sin. Her hair was covered with an embroidered scarf. She still fidgeted with the unaccustomed tightness. The scarf made her head itch but her mother told her she would get used to it.

She heard the older boys climbing the ladder, finished the story and made her way down to empty the bathtub, her task as soon as she had been strong enough to carry the heavy pails of water outside to the disposal ditch.

Her father was waiting at the bottom of the ladder.

Juliana, he began, leave the water until later. Come and sit down. I have something important to tell you.

Julia winced at the appellation. With the onset of her adult status, her parents had stopped calling her by the shortened version of her name. As a small child she had had difficulties saying Juliana and had called herself Julia, a name which had stuck although her parents, her father especially, had never liked it. He gestured to the chair beside her mother at the kitchen table. Julia sat in the indicated seat and waited for her father to speak. He cleared his throat, a habit of his when he was about to pronounce on something of importance. An apprehensive knot started to form in Julia’s stomach.

Um, I spoke to Thomal Allanson this morning, he began.

The knot in Julia’s stomach grew tighter.

Oh no, please God no.

Everybody in the village knew that Thomal Allanson was looking for a new wife, his first having died in childbed some months before. Please let it not be him.

He has seen you and informed me that he is greatly taken with you and has made an offer of honourable marriage.

Anselm Wallace looked at his daughter for a reaction and got none. He saw was a white and expressionless face. She had known that now she was fourteen, her father would be looking for her husband but she had not expected this, a marriage to a grey-haired, old man. There were plenty of young unattached lads in the vicinity. Why, David from the adjoining farm, she liked him, her father had known this and had encouraged their friendship. Why had he changed his mind?

Thomal Allanson? faltered Julia.

It is a good match and he expects no dochter by way of coin or land.

That was the rub a rueful Julia realised. Marriage to David would have necessitated the parting of the dowry and David’s father had long been after the low field beside the river at the edge of the Wallace farm. Here was a man prepared to take on Anselm’s eldest daughter with no dower. With another three daughters for which to make provision, it was no wonder that Anselm Wallace had leapt at the chance to see Julia wed so easily.

"Yes, a fine upstanding man. I admit that he is perhaps older than you would have expected but I know (it was amazing how much emphasis Anselm could put on that one warning word) that you will accept this match with pleasure and thankfulness. What have you to say?"

Julia said exactly nothing. She sat as if glued to her chair. Her father began to frown, the first well-known sign that his temper was rising. Julia’s mother came to her daughter’s rescue.

I think Husband, that Julia is too amazed at her good fortune to say anything.

Is this correct Juliana?

Yes Father, she managed to say with a grateful glance at her mother.

Good. Now, Thomal Allanson does not wish to wait overlong. The wedding will take place at the new moon.

This was the usual time to marry, the new moon symbolising the future of the marriage. As the moon grew in size in the sky so did the ties between man and wife, or so the priests said.

At least you will be going to an established farmstead, continued her father, no need to start new on virgin ground. Your future husband has a fine house and a prosperous farm. You should be grateful.

There was another note of warning in his tone, indicative that Anselm Wallace was becoming vexed. Her mother looked at her, meaning in her glance and Julia heeded the silent warning.

"I am grateful Father," she whispered but she was close to tears. Her mother sensed this.

I think that Julia could be excused prayers this evening do you not think Husband? This has come as a great surprise to her.

He nodded graciously. Yes, she may be excused.

Julia fled. Holding back the tears that threatened to overwhelm her, she made her way up the ladder to the slip of loft space that was hers. Without bothering to undress, she slid beneath the covers and only then did she let the tears flow. Below she could hear her parents discussing the more detailed wedding arrangements.

The next morning Julia accompanied her mother to market and endured the messages of congratulations. She now wore the decorated scarf of a betrothed female. When the marriage took place it would be exchanged for the black scarf of the married woman that would hide even the few wisps of hair she was allowed now. She stared at her mother’s black headscarf, realising that she had never seen her mother’s hair. For the first time in her life Julia began to question the Holy Writ that decreed a woman’s place in society.

Why do we need to cover our hair? Why must we hide ourselves away under these shapeless dresses? She accepted the good wishes of the women-folk. Why do I have to obey Father and accept this marriage to an old man who I’ve never spoken to and have only seen from a distance? Rebellion fermented in her mind, but she couldn’t think of any way out of the situation. Her father had decided on the match and in the society that held sway in this part of Argyll a daughter was expected to obey. She performed her daily chores in silence and after prayers that night went to bed still pondering her predicament.

She was not to know that in her agitation she had begun to telepathically broadcast her thoughts, past the boundaries of the village and towards a group of Lind on duty patrol some days away.

Unlike further south and along the coasts, the Lindars of Lind and the Ryzcks of Vadath were not enthusiastically welcomed in Julia’s insular society. The Lind did however perform their prescribed duties alongside the Vada protecting these unappreciative people from the dangers that existed here in the northern hills and mountains. Julia had never seen a Lind up close. The priests were not happy about the fact that another sentient lifeform co-existed on the continent. Any teachers who tried to teach their pupils about the Lind were removed from their posts. As Julia lay in her bed that night trying to get to sleep, her mind stubbornly awake, Alyei, a young turquoise striped Lind from rtath Gainsya began to sense her disquiet.

He rose up into a sitting position and shook himself. Alyei had sensed human emotions before but never as strong as this. He settled himself as he had been taught and began to push his mind out in the direction they were coming from, becoming more and more disturbed by the depressing and hopeless nature of the emotions he was sensing.

He let out an explosive grunt of satisfaction as contact was made. His teachers had been right when they had told him about the amount of effort and energy it took to locate and isolate thoughts and emotions over a long distance. He estimated that the source of these emotions was at least two days run away and towards the mountains, right at the edge of the area where the humans had made their farms and homes.

It was most definitely a girl he realised before exhaustion forced him to break contact and she was in much trouble. Not from pirates or the fearsome gtran or wral but from something else entirely, something more personal to the girl herself, he knew not what.

When he came to himself he was not surprised to see the entire complement of the Lindar patrol ranged in a circle around him, quizzical expressions on their furry faces.

Well? asked Sanei, Susa of the patrol.

It is not danger, said one of the other Lind.

No gtran this far away from the high lands, agreed another.

A dazed Alyei regarded them. I have sensed a human.

Where? asked Sanei.

I think my vadeln I have found. She is in trouble.

Danger trouble?

"No, her trouble. I must go to her. She needs me."

Sanei looked at the young Lind. Alyei had never sensed any emotive outgoings from a human before and Sanei would have been prepared to bet the most succulent haunch of his next meal that of all the Lind in the patrol Alyei would have been the last Lind he would have expected to bond with a human. Those Lind who were destined to become vadeln-paired usually showed signs during their early years; it became a want, a need; and Alyei was over twenty hot seasons old. He had never shown the slightest wish to make intimate contact with any member of humankind.

If you feel this, announced Sanei with resignation (he was about to lose his best scout) you must go. If you feel that she needs you this strong and from so far away then I think you are destined to be together. I will tell those who need to know where you have gone and be careful, our kind are not often welcomed in the human domtas in these mountains. They are a strange folk.

Alyei nodded. Here at the coast where they were patrolling along with the duty Ryzck, the villagers were friendly to their Lind protectors. The further north anylind went the less was the welcome.

One more piece of advice. When you reach this human do not commit as vadeln unless you are very sure. Now go.

Sanei watched as Alyei loped away and beckoned to another two Lind. Go follow him but do not let him see you. This is something he needs to do on his own.

Alyei, unaware of the two mentors travelling in his wake, made good time but try as he might, he could sense nothing of the human girl during the day although at intervals he stopped to listen. When night fell he stretched his mind northwards again and sensed her although it was not as strong as that first contact. By now he was now running in the ward inhabited by those the Lind called ‘unfriendly persons’ so he avoided their villages and settlements. When hunger beckoned he grabbed an injured wild kura who had fallen into a ravine and of which he made a fine meal.

* * * * *

Julia was existing in a despondent hell, complaisant on the outside but inside she was screaming. The betrothal binding was imminent. Julia had by now ‘met’ her intended although no words had been spoken. This was not unusual. The man was older than she had expected, indeed she now learnt that he capped her father’s age by some years. Stooped, grey-haired and wrinkled, he had looked at Julia with a certain look in his eyes that made her feel most uncomfortable.

The third night she went to bed feeling more miserable than ever. There was no escape; she would be married to that old man and when he died, then what? Probably she would stay on at her son-in-law’s house as unpaid housekeeper. Again her emotions began to seep out. Alyei, resting on the top of a small hill not far away, latched on to it and followed it to its source.

Julia, half-asleep, began to be aware of a ‘presence’. She thought she was dreaming. In her dream began to talk to this ‘presence’, to answer the questions and respond to the invitation. Still thinking she was living a dream (one from which she did not want to wake up) she pushed her mind out as the ‘presence’ was telling her to. There was an instantaneous moment of recognition from Alyei then before Julia had the chance to back away he threw welcoming and loving thoughts in her direction, of comradeship, of friendship and of the end of loneliness.

Although panicking more than a little with the force of emotions that were threatening to overwhelm her, Julia didn’t break the contact although Alyei half-suspected she might.

: Who are you? :

: I Alyei am. Alyei of rtath Gainsya. You are Julia :

There was a snap as the mind-link cemented between them.

: I can feel what you are feeling. How is this? :

: Because our minds are one :

Alyei mentally thanked the old Lind teacher of his youth who had insisted that he and his year mates learn the rudiments of the human tongue.

: You are unhappy. Come to me :

: How? :

: I am waiting on the long hill outside your domta. Come to me so we can be together :

Is this a dream? Julia pinched herself to make sure. It hurt. Okay then, not a dream.

Julia came to the decision that would change her life. Whatever all this meant, she was going to meet this Lind, this Alyei who was talking to her. She had never met a Lind and she was desperate to do so even for a few snatched moments in the middle of the night. If she had to marry Thomal Allanson she wanted the chance to meet one of these wonderful creatures before she did.

She sat up and felt for her dress with her left hand. Her feet found her shoes, there was no time to think about stockings. Julia stood up. She struggled into her dress and crept towards the loft ladder. She left the hated head-scarf behind.

No one stirred as she ghosted through the downstairs room and towards the door. She picked up the first coat she found on the pegs, not realising it was her father’s best leather jacket. The door-bolt was stiff but she managed it and slipped outside. With due care for the latch-noise she shut it and throwing all caution to the wind ran as fast as her cumbersome skirts would allow towards the long hill. As it was dark as pitch, she stumbled painfully and often on the uneven ground until she reached the farm boundary fence which she clambered over with some difficulty. Her skirt caught in the post and she tore it as she broke free.

Alyei was waiting just beyond arrow range of the farm. He saw her struggling up to him.

: I see you Julia. Come to me :

They ran towards each other.

: I am here :

Julia’s arms were round Alyei’s neck. She was sobbing with joy, filled with the sense of love and belonging that was Alyei and she knew now as she stood beside him that he shared these feelings in full.

: We must go :

: Go? Where? :

: To Vada. We are together, now and for always :

The two followers that Sanei had sent to keep an eye on Alyei looked at each other with happy faces and turned away, returning to their patrol area with satisfaction of a job well done. Alyei had found his life-partner.

Julia looked down at the buildings that had once been her home. Her disappearance would be noticed in the morning as soon as her mother realised the water hadn’t been brought in and the range lit.

"Let’s go now, she agreed with a thrill of nervous anticipation. My father has a fast horse. When he finds out I’m missing he’ll come after us."

He will not catch us, declared Alyei with a grin, his great white teeth showing bright even in the dark. Horse run fast but Lind run faster.

I still think we’d better go now.

When Anselm Wallace found out that his eldest daughter was nowhere to be found, the duo were long gone. She never knew of his anger, disappointment and loss of face amongst the villagers, nor of her formal out-casting by the resident priest.

* * * * *

AL580 - Niaill

Eight year old Niaill loved playing the game ‘Hide and Seek’. With a laugh he ran off to find a hiding place where his cousins, brothers and sisters wouldn’t be able to find him. Out he ran from the trees that surrounded the open space on top of the Mound where he and his extended family were having a picnic, intent on a quest for the perfect hidey-hole.

Where should he go? The seekers would first look for him up in the trees; Niaill was a consummate tree-climber and they would be sure to search there. If he wanted to stay hidden the longest (and that was the aim of the game) he would have to find somewhere better than that. He gazed around the clearing looking for inspiration and found it; a great chunk of moss covered stone at the edge of the shorter grass near the rocks. He didn’t have much time; he could hear his older brother Danal counting. He ran towards the stone and peeked behind. Could he possibly hide in there? Was there room enough? Yes, plenty room enough for his skinny body. No one, he was sure, would look for him there. For the young Niaill to think was to act. With scant regard to what it might do to his clothes (and what his mother would say about it later), he squeezed behind the stone.

He managed to get himself into a fairly comfortable position, a third crouching, a third sitting, a third standing and settled down to wait.

Danal and the others wouldn’t find him here. He pressed his body hard against the back-facing of the stone monument.

He heard Danal calling, his brother found Doug and Catlina who usually hid together, the twins then little Gemma. Now they would all be looking for him. He could hear their excited voices.

Absently, he rubbed a grubby finger against the moss and stickleweed, exposing a small section of the stone underneath.

He had previously noticed that the front facing of the stone had been smooth and now he found to his astonishment that the back of the stone was of the same smoothness. Strange that the ancestors had smoothed the back where no one would see it set against the rock face.

Keeping as quiet as a vuz, he probed his finger deeper and encountered the unexpected; there were letters carved into the stone, regular indentations, man-made.

Game forgotten, he began to scrape away more of the weed and moss and feel for the indentations. Why, there was the letter W and an H right next to it.

He could hear the others calling his name, searching for him, they were getting closer. If he didn’t want them to find his hiding place and the secret it contained he’d better get out fast.

He raised his head, there was no one in sight and he scrambled out, flinching as rough bits of the stone and stickleweed scraped at his arms and legs. He would come back later, on his own. Niaill didn’t want to share this discovery with anybody.

It took Niaill a whole two days free-time to clear away the stickleweed and moss from the letters and he gathered not a few scratches and bruises in the process. What he did to his clothes brought his mother’s anger down on him again, not that he cared. At last it was done and he was able to trace out the letters with his fingers. He couldn’t see them, there was barely room enough between the stone and the rock face and the light wasn’t too good.

With eager fingers he traced out each letter, spelling them out in his mind and committing them to memory.

‘If danger dire dost thrive.

And north and south fight to survive,

Look ye to the west,

Where at our behest,

As Mariya was solemnly bidden,

Gtrathlin evermore keep hidden,

Deep inside the ground,

Answers may be found."

"TS and K’

Greatly mystified, he pulled the stickleweed back over the letters. This was his secret. He hugged himself with glee.

Over the next few years Niaill thought over the riddle he had discovered and tried to make sense of it. Who was Mariya? Who were TS and K? He grew older and taller, too big to squeeze in behind the stone. At fifteen he life-bonded with his Lind, Taraya, and became a Vada Cadet. He thought back to the riddle on occasion and discussed it with her but these occasions became ever more infrequent as he grew into adulthood. By the time he was eighteen, he and Taraya had become a vadeln-pair within a fighting Ryzck and he began to look back at the great secret of his boyhood with nostalgic indulgence.

Months, years and decades passed.

He forgot about the riddle. Taraya did not.

* * * * *

AL582 - The Ammokko

It was dark; it was black, it was space. It was large; it was huge; it was gigantic. It carried with it an aura of threat and menace.

The colossal ship turned and began the slow, ponderous journey towards its destination.

* * * * *

AL590 - Elliot

Paul, Prince-Heir of the Kingdom of Murdoch ran on light feet towards the Conclave Chamber at the Royal Palace at Fort.

He had a son.

The Kingdom had an Heir of the Bloodline.

Not that the kingdom was in any crisis of inheritance. Only once before had the direct bloodline failed and that had been over four hundred years ago but there was safety in numbers and this baby was the eldest legitimate, royal great-grandson of the King, through his eldest son and his son after that.

The baby prince would put to an end any ambitious ideas about future kingship from the various ducal houses.

The Kingdom of Murdoch had always been fraught with strife and discord. In Queen Petra the First’s time her sons and relations had fought each other for the crown and that fratricide had lasted over sixty years until King Robert the First had ended it with his ascension in AL417, deposing and executing his great-nephew in the process. Before this there had been other civil wars, just as bloody.

The problem was the junior princes. What to do with royal younger sons was a perennial problem.

Paul’s brother Xavier was betrothed to the Daughter-Heir of the Duke of South Baker and on his marriage would become the Prince-Duke-Heir of that Duchy and Prince-Duke in his own right on the death of his father-in-law. With the marriage he would abdicate any succession rights as had all the Prince-Dukes before him.

The King’s second son was the present Prince-Duke of Brentwood with a seat on Conclave and was technically no longer a Prince of the Bloodline. He was a powerful man in his own right but that was not to say that he would stay loyal to the bloodline, especially if the King was a weak one, or if, horror of horrors, the heir was a female.

There had been four Queens Regnant in Murdoch and all had experienced difficult reigns. Three had married and their husbands had performed the real governance of the country. Only one had ruled in her own right and she had never married, in fact, tradition told that Queen Petra the Second was more man than woman which probably explained a lot.

Royal and noble marriages were what tied the Kingdom together, that and the threat of the Larg on their borders, but the Larg had not attacked for decades, since King Robert the Fourth had defeated them at the Battle of the Ford in AL503.

Prince-Heir Paul was not pondering these grave issues as he made his way down the corridor to inform his father, grandfather and the rest of the Conclave the wonderful news, he was a father. His heir was born and he was sure that he would father many more. He was young and his wife, Queen Susan, young and healthy.

He burst into the Chamber and proclaimed the news in a loud and exultant voice.

* * * * *

AL591 - Hilla, Rilla and Zilla

It was with a painful sense of accomplishment that an exhausted Zanda, wife of Innkeeper Talan of the Little Rover Inn at Dunetown pushed her fourth daughter into the world. As expected, twins again.

Small, but healthy, smiled the midwife as she cleaned up the second infant and placed her beside her sister in the big double cradle.

I hope Talan won’t be too disappointed.

Why should he be? asked the midwife with a fair touch of asperity, I suppose you’re going to tell me that he wanted another son.

Zanda nodded weakly and the midwife wondered again about the male desire for sons. She had never understood it. In Argyll, daughters could inherit as well as sons. She herself had produced no less than nine children, all girls and her husband had been delighted with each and every one. Don’t you worry about it my dear, she said as she bent over her patient. The afterbirth now and then we can get you tidied up. She wiped Zanda’s forehead with a blessedly cold cloth.

But the pains that began to rack Zanda’s exhausted body didn’t feel like the pains that heralded the afterbirth. Zanda cried out with their intensity.

Not afterbirth, she managed to gasp through clenched teeth and the midwife frowned as she bent closer. This was not Zanda’s first labour. Ten years ago the twins Zak and Zala had arrived and two years after that the singleton, Tala.

What the midwife saw made her call out in a voice tinged with excited disbelief for more cloths and towels. A third moist crown was emerging into the dim light of the chamber.

What is it? What is happening? demanded Zanda with a shrill scream of anguished protest as her lower abdomen exploded with another great rack of pain.

Push, ordered the midwife, "number three is on its way. I know you’re tired my dear but that’s the only way I know to end the pain."

Zanda, with supreme effort managed to obey and a third wailing infant skittered out on to the birthing cloths.

What is it?

Another little girl. Triplets my dear.

Zanda sighed. After all this, three little girls and it was unlikely that she would quicken again. Zanda’s fortieth birthday was looming on the horizon and the doctors had informed her that this pregnancy should be her last. The midwife however looked triumphant. She