Druidess Found (Druidess Trilogy Book 1) by Machelle Hanleigh (interesting novels to read txt) 📕

"My Queen, I swear I did not take her to Crystal Lake." Moto said in as neutral a tone as he could manage. He learned long ago that conversations with the Queen went better if he didn't get emotional. Which he found difficult to achieve. He did achieve more as he grew older. Where the girl, where Kaily was concerned he began to understand he couldn't maintain emotional neutrality.

"Then how did she get there?" Queen Shakti demanded.

Moto shook his head. "I don't know."

She walked a small distance away and stood with her back to him.

As difficult as it was, Moto remained silent and waited. Too many questions left unanswered in his own mind. How could he provide answers to the Queen's demands when he didn't understand himself how she came to be at Crystal Lake?

"How did you two get wet?"

Moto startled by the sudden question. His thoughts focused inward. he didn't notice the Queen approach to stand before him. "She fell in and I went in to save her." He said.

The Queen glared, she closed her eyes and took a calming breath. "Here's the thing, Moto, the outsider should never have gotten close enough to fall in. Assuming you are telling the truth," she held up her hand to stay off his protest, "the moment you discovered her there you should have escorted her back to her hut. You should not have let her get close enough to Crystal Lake itself to fall in." She took another calming breath. "It is becoming apparent you lack the ability to do the right thing where the outsider is concerned."

Moto remained silent. He felt his own temper rising to the surface, and he struggled to maintain control.

"Who do you choose to be your bonded mate?"

The abruptness of the question caught him off guard and he stammered to give an answer. He didn't have one to give. He wanted Kaily, but he knew better than to give voice to that inner most desire.

"You're out of time, Moto." The Queen said when he failed to answer. "Choose or I will choose for you."

A myriad of emotions washed over Moto in that brief moment and his control slipped. "Why?" he demanded. It took all his willpower to remain seated. "Why?" He said. "Is it because of the girl that you are forcing me to choose?"

"Yes," Queen Shakti responded.

"Why? She isn't Kahoali. She isn't a threat to my future choice of a bonded mate! Why would you make me choose now when I am not ready to choose?" Moto stood. He felt too many emotions coursing through him to remain seated. He felt trapped in his own skin, and he struggled to escape the confines that bound him, not physically, but emotionally. The emotions and thoughts he kept bottled up flooded into his mind. He came to stand in front of the Queen, "or is she?" He added. He noticed the Queen flinched at his question. He didn't mean for the question to slip out. It was a question on his mind ever since the Queen ordered him to choose a bonded mate. It didn't make sense to him why she would force a choice on him he was not prepared to make. It was not the Kahoali way to force that choice, despite the fact that he was five years past the usual age by which one made the choice. "Is it possible the girl could bond with me?" He asked.

Queen Shakti sat on the bench and patted the spot next to her, "sit!"

Sitting was the last thing he wanted. He struggled against the command and expected obedience. He forced himself to sit on the bench next to the Queen in the spot she indicated. He stared into the forest as he collected his thoughts and tried to gain control over the myriad of emotions that he felt coursing through his entire being. "Is it possible?" Moto asked again once some of his control returned.

Queen Shakti sighed and looked him in the eye. "I don't know." She shook her head.

"But you believe it might be."

The Queen shrugged and shook her head again, "I don't know, Moto. Perhaps," she looked away and stared into the distance.

Moto felt some of her anger slip away. He suspected although her gaze fixated on the surrounding forest, she did not see the forest itself. He could feel she turned inward. All Kahoali were empathic. He was stronger than most, which he often felt as part of the issue with his own inability to maintain emotional neutrality when he needs to most. He remained silent and waited for her to continue, despite the difficulty.

"I was very young when I pulled my talisman from Crystal Lake." Queen Shakti said. "Younger than most," her voice seemed as far away as her gaze. "Six years old. I almost drowned in the doing of it." She glanced at Moto and then returned her gaze to the forest.

The Queen never seemed as aged to him as she did at that precise moment. He didn't notice the silver threads in her hair beginning to show until now. "What happened?" Moto asked.

"A man pulled me from Crystal Lake. I never saw him before or since that day." Queen Shakti smiled at the memory. It was a sad smile. She took a deep breath and turned her focus back to Moto. "He wore the cloak of the Druids, but his appearance was Kahoali, but not quite. He seemed to be both, Kahoali and Druid." She shook her head. "I don't. I was six years old and maybe I saw something that wasn't truth. But his image is embedded in my mind even to this day. I believe what I saw that day."

Moto frowned and shook his head. "Impossible."

"And yet his existence says otherwise." She said.

She was a very young child, maybe she imagined it, Moto thought, but he didn't voice it. Was it possible? If she didn't imagine it, could it be? He