Chapter 88: Sword and Shield

Laurel and Adolph ate lunch and dinner with the priestess. She was a bit too tired to brave a tour of the temple, but Adolph escorted her to her quarters with a chaste kiss on her cheek and told her to sleep well. She didn’t remember falling asleep, but she awoke refreshed. She slept without dreaming and woke up calm. Maybe there was something to be said about the moon goddess’ presence in the temple. She had never felt so safe while being conscious before.
She rolled out of bed and wiggled her toes against the warm stone beneath her feet. It was a bit weird, walking around barefoot, but she left her room in the plain white robes she'd been given.
She walked down the corridor and found Adolph lounging beside one of the fountains reading a book. He looked up and smiled at her.
“Hello, Laurel,” he said and sat up. “Did you sleep well?”
She nodded. She almost didn’t want to get up. After several days of waking up screaming or not sleeping at all, she had begun to wonder if sleep would ever come again. The first time she died she hadn’t had nightmares like this, but maybe they had all just been suppressed by the joy in her new found freedom.
She sat beside him, clasping her hands together, “You?”
“Better than I have in ages…” He smirked. “I think some of my old injuries have healed too.”
She chuckled. She couldn’t be surprised. She wondered, for a moment, if being in the temple was also helping her body recover from whatever traces of the poison still lingered in her system.
“What are you reading?”
“Journals of priestesses,” Adolph said and slid closer, “This volume is from a priestess who was once known as Avina Raymond.”
She blinked, “You… have priestesses in your family?”
It was incredibly rare to have a priestess in someone’s family. Not as rare as a black or a white wolf, but pretty rare. Such a trait was said to linger in the entire bloodline.
“Several,” he said, rocking back. “Aria, whom you’ve met, one of my cousins would have been a priestess if she hadn’t found her mate. One of my aunts is a priestess on my mother’s side… My youngest sister--”
“You have other sisters?”
He chuckled, his eyes sparkling, “Raven and I are the eldest, and I am the only male heir.”
“Have I met these… other sisters?”
He gave her a knowing grin, “Yes.”
She frowned, thinking back to the priestess who had presided over their ceremony and helped nurse her back to health.
“... the priestess?”
“There’s one out of three.”
She shook her head, “Why… isn’t this well-known? That the Raymond family has such a close tie to the moon goddess?”
“What do you mean?” Adolph asked, “Where do you think the *Goddess-Blessed* epithet came from?”
She sighed, “I suppose I never thought of it that way…”
Adolph sighed, “When a priestess enters the temple, they give up their name and claim to formal ties to family and pack. Every priestess is considered an avatar of the moon goddess, meant to guide us while alive.”
Laurel smiled listening to Adolph speak about what the journal spoke about. She hadn’t thought much of the Goddess-Blessed epithet, just thinking that it referred to his victory streak and the fact that he seemed to escape every battle mostly unharmed.
The bells chimed and Adolph stood, “Let’s get to breakfast, hm?”
She nodded as her stomach rumbled a bit. Breakfast was quiet and simple and afterward, Adolph led her around the temple through the atrium in the center of the main building to the edge of the gardens where a babbling river flowed. It felt a bit surreal that they were wandering around without anything pressing to do.
“You seem antsy,” Adolph said, “Unaccustomed to a vacation?”
Her lips twitched, “You caught me.”
He twined his fingers with hers and squeezed as they walked on towards an orchard of fruit trees. He reached up and snagged an apple before offering it to her and snagging his own.
“Are we allowed to do that?”
Adolph chuckled, “Of course. Just because they serve all the meals doesn’t mean other meals are prohibited. It’s encouraged to enjoy the bounty of the moon goddess after all.”
Laurel nodded and bit into her apple before frowning. The color of the apple seemed familiar, but she couldn’t place where she’d seen such a uniquely golden apple.
“What… kind of apple is this?”
He grinned, “It’s a Sol apple. They only grow on temple land. There’s a small gathering of Sol trees behind the old temple site at the castle, but they haven’t bloomed since I went off to war.”
Her heart lurched as she gasped. The portrait had been painted of him in that orchard.
“My mother insisted on having a painting of each of us among those trees,” he chuckled and took another bite. “I have no idea where the portrait went, of course.”
Laurel took another bite, “It was… in the luna’s office.”
His eyes widened and he looked at her as they walked along the backside of the temple.
“You’ve seen it?”
“It was on the desk…” Her face burned. “It’s in the drawer now.”
He lifted an eyebrow at her, “Oh?”
She scowled at him, “Yes.”
“Interesting place for a portrait…”
“Your Majesty, please don’t tease me.”
“Very strange place to place your soon-to-be husband’s portrait…” Adolph grinned at her, “Was it distracting perhaps?”
She scowled at him, “Nothing of the sort!”
How did he know? She couldn’t keep the blush off her face.
He laughed, his eyes twinkling, “While I am not the young man I was then, I certainly hope you still find me as attractive.”
She grumbled, “You’ve only grown more attractive, you knave.”
She froze, realizing she’d said it out loud as he gave her a sly grin. She focused on eating her apple and ignored him as they continued to walk. Adolph didn’t tease her anymore and she took the time to enjoy being with him.
Sure, when they married it was doubtful they would have this kind of time together anymore. There was the matter of dissolving the ministers, new courtiers, and cleaning up the mess the ministers left behind to consider, not to mention the assassination plot. There was still the matter of Laura’s death as well. Was it possible they were all connected?
They came to a stop near a stained glass window and sat on an old stone bench, enjoying the clear air and the breeze. She frowned, looking at the window with interest. A white wolf and a black wolf were charging forward into battle against darkness. They ran side by side across the sprawling scene leaving behind a depiction of the castle.
The white wolf was always meant to stand in defense of the kingdom, but how was she meant to do that at Adolph’s side.
“What are you thinking about so deeply?” Adolph asked, his tone light.
“That stained glass mural…”
Adolph looked over at it and hummed, “It’s been there since the temple was built.”
“What do you think it means?”
“I was told that the black wolf is the sword and the white wolf is the shield of the kingdom,” Adolph said. “Though, I’m pretty sure that the window is a depiction of the first conflict werewolves ever had with vampires long ago.”
Laurel frowned. She’d never heard the story. Adolph slid closer, directing her gaze around the mural. In the beginning, the moon goddess and the sun god created everything. Werewolves and vampires were created as brother species and once loved equally.
“Once, vampires didn’t fear sunlight…” Adolph said, “But they grew greedy.”
Vampires didn’t transform into an animal form and they felt themselves better than werewolves. They wanted to control everything and challenged the sun god and the werewolves. He burned them for their insolence. The moon goddess bound them to the night, giving werewolves the upper hand.
The first two wolves who stood against the vampires were a mated pair, a white and a black wolf.
“I don’t know how much truth there is to the story, but that’s what I’ve been told about the mural.”
“You said that the vampire queen was behind the attack…. Does that mean the war isn’t over?”
Adolph chuckled, “I never believed that the war was over. We won a decisive battle, but no war has ever ended so easily. We’ve been fighting them off and on for centuries…”
Until the vampire queen was killed or completely subdued, the war would never truly be over.
Laurel could hear his concern as she focused on the white wolf. She had little power to fight a vampire, let alone another werewolf who may have sided with the vampires. How was she meant to defend the kingdom at his side? Her heart lurched. Shouldn’t she be more concerned about how she was going to keep herself alive? She couldn’t depend on him all the time.
She had to find and master whatever strength she had and use it to her advantage. Adolph was right. It was unlikely that they would poison anyone again. A physical attack was the most plausible. She had to be as ready as Adolph seemed to be.
She looked at Adolph searching his gaze before asking, “Would you teach me to defend myself?”