AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Garrin sipped his wine slowly. “Thank you, my friend,” he said to his sword brother. “I tell you the other realm is not a welcoming place.”
“You weren’t gone long,” Bakuln said, eyeing the rucksacks. “Did you get what you went to retrieve?”
“Even if we didn’t, this was my last trip through time,” Dianora said. “I got the holo—the picture of my parents, which is what I wanted most.” Glancing at Garrin, she winked, “And a few other things my husband will no doubt enjoy.” She stared at the three bags. “It’ll be an adventure going through those to see what we did manage to salvage from my old room.” Struck by an aspect of their return to Argorn she’d overlooked, she looked at Garrin. “I told the ring to bring us home. I didn’t even specify it had to be here because I was too upset and unnerved. I simply said ‘home’ and it brought us.”
“The ring knows where you belong,” he said, setting the wine down and gathering her close. “And so do I.”
“I’m never leaving,” she said, resting her head against his chest and allowing his steady heartbeat to soothe her. “I’ve done all the time traveling I ever intend to do. When you know where you’re supposed to be, nothing else matters.”
“And who you’re supposed to be with,” Garrin added, lowering his head for a kiss.
“My cue to leave,” Bakuln said with a hearty laugh. “You can tell me more about the future realm tomorrow.”
Dimly Dianora heard the door close as their friend left but she was deep in her private homecoming celebration, locked in her beloved’s arms, no doubts left in her heart or mind about her destiny as the future wife and queen to the legendary king.
And they would live happily, if not ever after, for the rest of their lives, together.
EPILOGUE
Two years later…
Dianora loved this garden, so peaceful and pretty. Her bench under the trees was stacked with comfortable pillows and refreshments were close at hand. A child’s piercing laughter sounded and she smiled. Maybe not so peaceful, come to think of it. Her toddler son had been sailing toy boats on the pond and otherwise amusing himself under the close supervision of his nanny and his guards. Garrin took no chances with his wife or his child. But Garrard had been pretty well behaved for the last two hours, while she’d been conducting her seminar and he was entitled to let loose now as the participants left.
“It went well?” the king asked, having arrived as the session ended.
“I think this group is the best yet,” she said with enthusiasm. “So eager to learn and very collaborative.”
It hadn‘t taken her long to realize one woman, no matter how determined or how knowledgeable, couldn’t singlehandedly change the course of an entire civilization immured in its Middle Ages. After a lot of introspection and conversation with Garrin she’d put together a program called the Queen’s Innovators. Each guild and craft hall was required on a rotating basis to select one of their best and brightest journeymen or journeywomen and send the person to the capital of Argorn to attend a one month session. Each person was to come with a problem or challenge they most wanted to solve, which they presented at the start of the program to each other, to her and Garrin. Then Dianora would spend hours researching whatever she could find on her handheld to help address the issues. At the second session the group was broken into teams and each team was assigned to work on one problem, bringing all their disparate skills and knowledge together. The team voted to select their project.
The teams met with Dianora on a weekly basis and she facilitated their discussions, provided the research she’d done, without telling them what to do. She wanted them to think outside their narrow world of guild or craft and to learn to work together across disciplines as teams. She wanted them to forge a network of others like themselves which would endure after the program ended. To that end she also conducted a number of team building exercises and there were social events to allow them to bond with each other and to meet key individuals at court. At the end of the month, each team presented their results, which often included prototypes and she and Garrin provided ongoing funding for the efforts. Every participant was sent home with a framed certificate bearing both her signature and Garrin’s and an enameled pin identifying them as a QI.
The designation was now much sought after and prized and she was seeing a few ripples of positive change, or so she believed.
It was a huge amount of work, especially when she was pregnant and then when Garrard was a baby but Dianora loved the whole project and thrived on the challenges. It reminded her of the senior seminars she’d taught when she was a graduate student and the energy thrown off by these young people was fantastic. She was on her fourth rotation of the program now and highly encouraged at how things were going.
“I have a surprise to show you,” Garrin said to her as their son ran up to him to display a pretty, if muddy, rock he’d found. The king scooped up his boy and tossed him into the air, which elicited full body chortles and demands for more from the child.
Dianora marveled yet again what an excellent father Garrin was. Which was a good thing, since she’d found out she was pregnant again this very morning. She’d share the news later, in private, probably when they were alone in their suite in the evening. She had no doubt he’d be delighted. This pregnancy would be easier too, she was sure. She’d made it through the first one doing a lot of frantic research on her handheld, scaring herself, until she asked for Alsaccia to be brought from the mountain fortress to be her personal physician. Alsaccia was so matter of fact and calm about everything, which helped Dianora manage her anxiety at being pregnant in the Middle Ages without modern medicine at hand. The medkit had useful information and injects for pain when labor hit but couldn’t exactly deliver a baby. Alsaccia brought two experienced midwives with her and the delivery had proceeded normally, with no complications.
Aside from her worrying during pregnancy, she’d had no regrets being in the past. She was happy and fulfilled, with a man who loved her more than life itself and who she adored. Giving up the future with all its high tech and comforts paled in significance compared to the joy in her daily life.
Now she rose from the bench, took Garrin’s hand and walked with him into the palace, the nurse and bodyguards trailing behind. They made their way into a grand hallway on the second floor, where tapestries, art and sculptures were displayed. She had a suspicion what he was planning to show her and couldn’t wait.
“Did you talk to Bakuln today? How’s he doing?” she asked as they strolled.
About six months after Garrin had retaken his throne and the kingdom was stabilized, Bakuln had taken a detachment and sailed off to the Craadil’s continent far across the sea of storms in a flotilla of three ships. He’d been gone nearly a year and of course there was no communication possible. Dianora wished she’d grabbed a set of long distance coms when she’d had the chance in the future but eventually their friend had arrived home with his fleet intact, to report the continent had been a land of the dead. An unknown pestilence had evidently wiped out the entire Craadil race, leaving only their decaying buildings as evidence of their previous existence. It was shocking to hear but also meant the Argorn could stop worrying about an invasion.
Dianora was glad to have Bakuln back, not only because he was a good friend to both of them, but also because Garrin depended on him so heavily.
“He seems all right,” Garrin said now. “The ordeal of his excursion to the other side of the ocean and what he found there has changed him to some extent but being home again is slowly bringing him back to his old self. Thank the gods.”
Midway down the long corridor, standing in a pool of sunlight from a specially designed aperture, were the newest statues, covered with a cloth. The nervous sculptor and his assistants stood waiting and bowed as Dianora and Garrin approached.
“Of course the formal unveiling will be a few weeks from now,” her husband said, “But I know you were impatient to see the end results.” He motioned to the sculptor, who pulled on a golden tassel, removing the sheets in a flurry of white cloth.
Dianora stared at the statue of her husband, the same one her archaeological team was going to find thousands of years from now. She’d insisted he be depicted holding out the puzzle box and looking at the art today she was satisfied all the details had been properly captured. She had no idea how the statue was going to end up where Dr. Soren would unearth it and she didn’t much care. It would exist and help send her on her way to this happy life. “I approve,” she said, smiling at the sculptor and then at her husband. “So handsome.”
Moving over a few feet, she studied the matching statue, of the woman to whom Garrin was offering the puzzle box. It was her of course and while objectively she decided the sculptor had taken a few liberties to enhance her appearance, she wasn’t displeased. Far from it! What woman would be? “I think you have me confused with a goddess,” she said over her shoulder, “But I’ll take it.”
