Chapter 46

As expected, Harod and Abara are not happy about having their lands invaded and their own people carted away, even if they were being taken to Swelter as slaves, and probably worse in the end.

Harod, Abara and Swelter start forming a united army. Any hopes of the internal struggles that were starting to help their own girls will now be shut down forth wit. You must take the bad with the good. Most likely war is now unstoppable and inevitable.

As Dakota and Sorbo watch the rescued girls explode with beauty and ability they know they did the right thing. Not even just because of the different ways of life, but because these girls were going to be slaves for the rest of their lives until their untimely deaths.

As time is known to do it bends to the will of creation and all things move forward. Sorbo turns fifty-two, though because of Dakota’s love and magic he looks to be in his thirties. Eventually Gift Day comes around and the whole kingdom celebrates it in grand fashion. The ranks of the Knights of Odin are exploding and at last count they number close to ten thousand, when you count the several thousand squires.

Finally Sorbo’s favorite day comes around. Dakota’s birthday is Sorbo’s favorite day because it means she was born into this world for which he is eternally grateful. It is kind of hard to hide a kingdom wide celebration that he has planned for her so he doesn’t even try. What he does keep to himself is the very day of her birthday, after the party, Sorbo is going to have Lender fly them to the cottage and they are going to spend a week there in each other’s arms, to just get away from the every day hustle and bustle that is growing at an exponential rate for them. If not for their shared times in their bedroom after the long days are complete, both of them would have gone mad long ago. Their love is their bond and their bond is the world’s best hope.

Always the dutiful girl, Dakota has been studying the Book of Odin and in the evenings as they cuddle together they discuss what she has found.

“The number four keeps showing up again and again, but it never says what they are talking about. Although actually on the last page of the chapter called Creation, it does say that it specifically doesn’t say what it is because it is from within the search that the Full Circle will be aligned again and from that does the White Sorceress come into existence.”

“It’s actually mentioning the White Sorceress now?”

“Yep!”

“Well, that is kind of interesting, don’t you think?”

“I think it is just saying that all things are connected and when those things are harmoniously connected then the White Sorceress reaches her destiny.”

“Huh?”

“I don’t know. It seems to go around in circles and gives you more questions than answers.”

“Does it at least give us a place to start looking for our growing list of questions?”

“No, not yet. I think we need to go to Bengal and talk with a shaman or a seer.”

“Should we take the book with us and should we travel by dragon or horse?”

“How many times now have we been told or discovered that the lesson is found in the journey not the destination. I guess we need to ride horses and take the book with us. So many things are pointing to the knowledge that there is no reward without risk, which I think means if we have a belief in what we are doing it will come to us easier.”

“I believe in you and now that we have pissed off Swelter, Harod and Abara, I think we should travel with an army.”

“But that is exactly my point. If the White Sorceress and her Great Protector takes another journey of exploration by themselves that will send positive vibrations through the Web of Existence, which will reverberate back ten times over.”

Dakota is leaving him behind in leaps and bounds about the understanding of the universe. Sorbo understood his place in life at an early age and knew he was supposed to be a warrior. He was so sure he was put on this world for battle until he met Dakota and saw that he was also put on this world to love her. A fact that she never lets him forget and a fact that always makes him smile.

“I was talking with Lender earlier because dragons are the oldest living beings on this world and he said that he is not sure that shamans use crystal balls or do stuff like that. I guess the only way to know for sure is to go there and ask.” informs Sorbo

“I agree. Tomorrow I will send Lender to the king and queen of Darian and ask them if it is all right if we come by to visit on our way to Bengal. Then Lender will go to the gathering city of Kakara and find the head chieftain of the wandering tribes and ask him to meet us in Kakara whenever we think we are going to be there.”

“That is giving much of our movements away. We will not go unnoticed much of the time.”

“Again, exactly my point. We must have faith.”

Sorbo sighs. “I have faith in you and that is enough for me. When should we leave?”

“How about after the week we are going to spend at the cottage for my birthday.”

“Hey!” Dakota just giggles.

Soon after they returned from Harod with the slaves they started their artisans on building a forty-ship fleet. Not long after that their spies tell them Swelter has also begun a fifty-ship fleet in response to their actions, but once Canton and the minotaurs chase them out of their forests that idea is squashed. It is kind of hard to build a fleet without wood.

Dakota’s birthday is celebrated in grand fashion and all the leaders from all the nations, including Abara, Harod and Swelter are invited. Of course they rudely decline, but Nalla, Canton, Finton, Laraland, Darian and even Bengal sends their representatives. The kings and queens from all the nations come on dragon back and are shown the greatest of honors. Bengal sends a shaman for there is no true leader for all the tribes. Each tribe has its own leader. They thought it would be asking too much to send thirty-something leaders. They left it up to a great shaman named Ten Bears to represent them all. Of course Ten Bears is a very large warrior. He is from the tribe of the Comanche, and Dakota and Sorbo are glad to have him there to prepare for their coming journey to his lands.

The king and queen of Darian, Alexander and Chloe, will wait in Glimmer for Sorbo and Dakota to get away for their week, believe me when I say they understand, and then they will ride with them. Dakota and Sorbo are honored and gladdened.

The celebration rivals any the continent of the Isle of Lakes or the world of Kara has ever seen. It unites old bonds of the human tribes, but also minotaurs, centaurs, fairies and even the Shimmerings come and embrace the beauty that is the White Sorceress, the one person who can save them all.

The celebration goes on for three days, which cuts into Dakota and Sorbo’s alone time, but it is worth it when they see the joy and hope on the faces of their friends, brothers and sisters.

In the end after Dakota and Sorbo get to spend four days alone they have decided on taking twenty Knights of Odin with them, led by Ledger. Also Bolo, Braylard, Katarina, Sarah, Olob, Surrong, the wizard twins Steve and Mike, along with the squire Harold is coming along. They will be traveling with the king and queen of Darian, Alexander and Chloe, and it would do no good for the relationship of these two kingdoms if something happened to their king and queen while under the banner of Pralene and the Knights of Odin. As it turns out many Knights of Andromeda answered the invitation and showed up, so a dozen of them will be riding back with them to Darian as well.

To the surprise of many, Odin, Aden and Loki accepted their invitations. Loki behaved himself and never mentioned the freeing of the slaves that were bound to his children in Swelter. Unfortunately Andromeda did not come, but it did not surprise either Dakota or Sorbo. Like all good fathers, Odin was a little disappointed in his daughter.

Dakota is at the front of the line with Chloe, the queen of Darian, and Sorbo is at her side and Alexander is at his wife’s side. Lender of course takes to the skies and leads the column.

They once again stop in the Darian Mountains on the Pralene side and visit Sorbo’s family for a day. The kings and queens are honored, as only mountain folk can do. The time is spent with grace, truth and bad taste in jokes that keeps all laughing late into the night.

As they come down out of the Darian Mountains and into the Dakota Woodlands of Darian they stick to the coastline that will lead them to Kaza, the capitol city of Darian. The king and queen put everybody up for the night, but the day that the Shaman set aside for Sorbo and Dakota to meet some of the leaders in Kakara is fast approaching.

“Thank you and we will stop by on our way back through, if that would please you.”

“It most definitely would, Dakota.” Dakota and Chloe hug as they have become very fond of each other. The king and queen of Darian may be in their fifties and there brown hair speckled with gray, but they are young at heart and very sprite in their movements so they get along marvelously with Sorbo and Dakota.

They stick to the coast until they hit the Bengal Grasslands and then they turn southwest, which will take them to Kakara. The grasslands are beautiful and green dominates the countryside as March comes to an end, but the world still showers them with its gifts. Again on a continent called the Isle of Lakes you would expect it to rain a lot.