by Amber Jaeger
He did not need to see the shocked and fearful look on her face, he knew he was right. Though his temper roiled just beneath the surface, he made himself turn from her to the wardrobe and pulled on the handiest clothes.
“Tell me this true and perhaps we can call a truce,” he said as he pulled a rough shirt over his head. A glimpse out of the neck hole showed she was listening. “Are you a spy sent by Queen Sula?”
The girl gave an ugly laugh. “No, I can promise you I am in no league with that woman.”
“Interesting,” he clucked. “It sounds as though you dislike her.”
“I do not even know the woman,” Katiyana said automatically. Her toes hugged the edge of the railing and she thought of escape. But then she remembered there would be no escape for her. She had to convince the king she was not a threat before leaving.
“Truly?” he asked, pulling up a pair of leggings. He pushed back the balcony doors but did not make a move towards her. Instead he regarded her with fiery eyes and a calm manner. “You resemble her a great deal.”
“I do not!” Katiyana gasped, recoiling from the idea that she could be anything like the evil woman who had tried to kill her and forced her into exile. Her unsettled mind unbalanced her body and suddenly she teetered on the edge of the rail. Panic shot through her and she threw her arms out to steady herself.
The king snatched her from the railing and lifted her clear of it. He held her up for only a moment before setting her back on solid ground but it was enough to make her heart race uncomfortably in her chest. Frightened of herself, her reactions and of the king, she turned to run.
He swept an arm out in front of her and moved to block her escape. “Who are you?” he asked again.
“A dwarf,” she spit out, trying to duck under his arm.
He moved to impede her. “Who are you?” he demanded again.
“No one!” she shouted, kicking at his instep, praying it would buy her a second to escape. He slid in front of the balcony door.
“You are most certainly someone. You are someone very crafty and tricky. You are someone clever and secretive. And you are someone who seems to hate the queen nearly as much as I do. I ask again, who are you?”
Katiyana shrunk back against the stone of the balcony. She had hunted and trapped. She had run and escaped. She had met many dangers and faced many fears, yet this man was reducing her back to the girl she had once been. And she hated it.
“What does it matter who I am?”
He folded his arms over his chest and settled into a menacing stance. Katiyana stared back defiantly even though there was nothing she could do to escape at the moment. She watched as his brow relaxed and his deep blue eyes lightened. The faint crinkles from years of sun at the edges of his eyes faded as his face went from determined anger to wonder and then disbelief.
His arms fell to his side and he stepped closer to lean down to peer into her face. Katiyana shifted away and he slammed his hand against the wall holding her up, effectively pinning her. “Is it possible?” he quietly asked himself.
Katiyana’s heart sped up again and her mouth was sour and dry. Fear made her breathes come in little gasps but the king did not even notice.
“Are you her?” he finally asked. “I cannot remember what her name was.”
Katiyana said nothing, did not move in anyway.
Lian relaxed the tiniest bit and put a fist under his chin. “Sula said she ran away after the king died? Something about a dirty farm boy.”
Katiyana felt her cheeks flush and humiliation began to burn deeper than her fear. Is that what Sula had told everyone? “Did they ever find her?” she asked, her voice cracking.
“Supposedly she died in childbirth, unmarried. Sula would not bring her body back to be buried next to her father, she said she was a shame to the whole kingdom.” He watched her face carefully as he spoke, watching for any indication of anything. “That was her name,” he said snapping his fingers. “Katiyana.”
She forced her face to stay smooth. “And you think I am her, come back from the dead?”
His mouth lifted in a cruel grin. “I know you are her.”
“And how would you know that?”
He pointed at her face. “Because you are crying.”
She raised a hand to her cheek and felt her traitorous tears running down. “I did not shame my father and I did not run away before his funeral to be with some boy. I had to run before she could have me murdered. I almost did not make it.”
Lian lifted an eyebrow. “I see you have as much as I to hate her.”
“Why do you hate her?”
“She killed my father.”
Her heart clenched in her chest. Even so many years later, she perfectly remember the pain of losing her own father. “I am sorry. I had no idea how cruel she was until the day she tried to have me killed. I have not seen her since, I hear no news of her. I am not her spy.”
“Oh, I believe you,” he murmured, still looking over her face and hair and skin.
Every muscle in her body relaxed and she breathed a sigh of relief. “So I can go?” she asked, clasping her hands in front of her chest. “And you will not tell anyone about me?”
“Go?” he asked, genuinely confused. “Go where? Where have you been all these years?”
She shook her head fiercely.
“Another question you will not answer?” he asked.
His eyes had cooled to the color of the sky she had first seen over the open fields of his kingdom. She was glad to see his temper burned out quickly.
“Then let me ask another one. What will you do now?”
Katiyana opened her mouth to answer and found she had nothing to say. She shut it and thought for a moment. “I… I am not sure.”
“What do you want to do?”
She shook her head. There was no way she could return to the hut. He knew who she was and she could not risk his curiosity endangering the safety of her friends.
The king was looking her up and down. “Well then, I propose several things. First, you and I call a truce.”
Katiyana raised a brow. “How can I trust you on that?”
He knelt swiftly before her and bowed his head. For a fraction of a moment she considered kneeing him in the face and jumping the balcony but her curiosity to learn everything about the world she had been hiding from for the last several years stayed her. She would not be able to do that if she was on the run from him.
“I swear on my honor and the honor of my ancestors that you and I are at peace. You are safe in my home and under my protection.”
“And you will not tell anyone who I am,” she interrupted defiantly.
“And I will not reveal your identity to anyone,” he added.
He looked up to see if his offer was accepted and after a moment, she stuck her hand in his face to shake.
The king laughed and took it before standing up. “Well, I can see that where ever you have been hiding, dressing and acting like a lady have not been the highest priority.”
“Keeping my belly full and my bones warm and my heart still beating in my chest took priority over such things,” she said sharply.
“I beg pardon,” he said, his voice teasing. “Perhaps I should offer you breakfast before you feel the need to take my head off.”
Katiyana glared but swept her hand out to indicate she was following.
Tension rippled through his shoulders as he turned his back to lead her out of the room. He did not like not being able to see her. She had nearly bested him, and he had been working hard. If he was not twice her size she would have disappeared again before he found out who she was. A glow like joy lit his insides as he thought of that. After years of failed plans and empty threats, he finally had something that may actually give him what he needed to bring that evil woman to her knees.
Katiyana gulped as the king led her to the doorway of the plush and expansive set of rooms. She was trusting him not to trick and trap her and she really did not understand
why. Yes, he was royalty but his temper was appalling. She wondered how often it got the best of him and how angry that made him.
Finally he opened the large carved door and ushered her through. If the guards in the hall were surprised to see a woman leave with the king when none had entered the night before, they hid it well, save for the slight widening of their eyes.
Lian stopped before the two men. “She is to have free reign to come or go as she pleases. No area is off limits, she is not to be restricted or questioned.”
The men nodded and one cleared his throat. “Her name, my lord?”
“Her name—” Lian turned to Katiyana. “How shall they address you?”
The habits ingrained in years of hiding were not easy to overcome. “Kat,” she finally said, uneasy over how close it was to her true name. Anyone could recognize her, anyone could tell the queen she had survived and still lived. The air turned cooler and her forehead felt damp with sweat. If the men noticed, they said nothing and she silently followed the king down the grand staircase.
“I do not want them to know who I am,” she said quietly.
The girl she had seen serving him when she had been captured met them at the bottom of the stairs. Her dark blonde hair was bobbed, perfectly framing her curious, hazel eyes. “Good morning, my lord. That is not the outfit I laid out for you this morning.”
The king scoffed. “When do I ever wear the outfits you choose for me?”
“A girl can dream,” she said under her breath. Louder she added, “Will your guest be joining you for your meal?”
“She will. In the private dining room.”
If she was surprised she did not show it, merely nodded her head before leaving for the kitchen. Katiyana watched her go. “Who is she?”
“Her name is Alma, she is my personal servant.”
Surprised, Katiyana put a hand on his arm to stop him. “But she is a woman.”
“I noticed,” he replied dryly. He held open a door to a small, intimate dining room. There was only one table and one door. “So we can speak a little more freely,” he said, taking in the look on her face.
More than anything, Katiyana hated to feel trapped. Years of hiding in the wide open had intensified her natural dislike for closed in spaces.
A warm hand touched her arm and she jerked away on instinct. Lian held his hands up as if in surrender and stepped back. “I apologize. I was speaking to you and you seemed as if you were in another world.”
Her lips twisted into a mockery of smile. “I suppose I was.”
Alma entered with a large tray and they took their seats. “I was unsure of your preferences,” she said to Katiyana, “so I took the liberty of making several choices for you.”
She pulled the lid off a dish that held half a small muffin and thin slices of some sort of orange fruit. It did not look to be enough to feed one of her fat squirrels at home and the disappointment must have shown on her face. Alma smiled and cover the dish again. “The king’s breakfast it is.”
With an enviable amount of grace, she laid out a covered plate before each of them and set out a hot pot and some sort of juice. Katiyana watched her slim, long fingered hands lay each thing down with speed and precision, transforming the plain table into a feast. A glance down at her own hands made her flush and she clenched them into fists under her arms. They were rough and calloused, scarred in many places from all the tasks she’d had to learn in order to stay alive. The nails were even worse, worn down, uneven and dirt caked. She had not realized she would be dining with the king. She would have washed her hands first.
But even her own embarrassment could not distract her too long from the meal before her. Hot eggs with a creamy sauce, ham, fluffy biscuits and thick jam were laid before her. “Enjoy,” Alma murmured.
Katiyana dug in without waiting for the king. She had had enough to eat and had eaten fairly well out in the woods, but nothing could compare to the meal laid out before her.
“So I can deduce that where ever you have been, it was not been with a cook.”
Katiyana looked up to see him watching her stuff her face in amusement. She grimaced and wiped egg from her chin with a linen napkin finer than anything she had worn in the last several years. “I wish you would not do that.”
“Do what?”
“Ask or guess about where I was. I cannot tell you.”
His eyes darkened and she set her fork down, ready to pick up their earlier fight. “I owe you nothing and others, much. I do not even know what you want.”
The darkness did not abate but he did settle back in his chair. “What do I want? More than anything I want justice for my family.” He watched her carefully as he spoke and could see she was confused. “Do you know how I came to be such a young king?”
The rumors she had heard in the woods had only ever been shadows of the truth, if even that, and usually contradicted others. And while he did seem young for a king, he was certainly older than her, perhaps by ten years. Suddenly she realized he had asked a question and was waiting for an answer. “No, I do not.”
His eyes faded to a gentler color and despair was clear on his face but his voice was as hard as ever. Anger was just under the surface and Katiyana could feel it like a vibration in the air. “She murdered my mother. My mother was pregnant, carrying her second child. Sula had decided she wanted to join our kingdoms and the best way to do that would be to clear the way to my father’s marriage bed. We never did discover how she got the poison to my mother but she died in the same way your father did.”
All the good food she had just eaten began rolling uncomfortably in her stomach. “I am so sorry.”
“I was not finished,” he said sharply. Katiyana fell silent and watched the king warily.
“When my mother had been gone exactly one year, Sula made her proposition to my father. She wanted to unite the kingdoms and wage war on the other ones to take their resources and enslave their people. We had long suspected her of evil but then… then we knew. She was refused and again, she found a way to murder in spite. He was ambushed right at the edge of the forest. Men with poisoned arrows hid in the trees. No one in my father’s company that day survived.” His eyes narrowed to darkened slits under his furrowed brows. “She made the same offer to me after my father died. She had to know then it would never happen. I suspect she did it to anger me.”
“That does not seem too hard to do,” Katiyana said quietly.
“Are you not angry with her as well? She also took your family, and so much more.”
Her next words were hard and she had to force them out. “My mother died when I was just a child. And my father caught ill.”
Lian leaned over his nearly full plate. “Yes, of a bleeding disease, correct? He bled, from everywhere, until he died.”
The revolt in her stomach worsened and she swallowed hard, praying the food would stay where it was. “I believe it was. I was just a child, and they would not let me near after he became ill, they feared that I would catch it.” Her memories churned in her mind much the way the eggs and ham were in her stomach and it was a moment before she could say anything more. “But yes, there was blood, a lot of it. I overheard them talking, I was spying when they brought out the dirty linens.” Tears threatened and she pushed them back. “But it was an illness.”
Lian settled back in his chair. “That was what we thought when it happened to my mother. We had never heard of such a thing and had no reason to believe anyone would want to hurt her, even being a queen. It was not until rumors of it happening to other royal families, yours included, surfaced, that we suspected poison. And after she offered herself in marriage to my father, we knew it was her.” He glanced up to Katiyana and watched her struggle with her emotions. “Your father was murdered, I assure you.”
She wanted to push the truth away, to deny that he had not merely died but had been stolen from her, but she could not. “Sula hated my father,” she admitted quietly. “I think she hated me as well.” Her hands were t
rembling and she fisted them over her painfully cramping stomach. The sight of the food on her plate made her even sicker and she had to look back up at the king with tears in her eyes.
Lian brushed a hand over the light stubble on his jaw. “She must have, she planned your murder after all. I know you will not tell me where you have been all these years, but tell me, if you can, how you escaped?”
A water goblet, covered in condensation gave her a moment of receive as she took a long sip. Finally she looked back up to the king and searched his face. She supposed he was handsome after all, but it was hard to see behind his anger. There was sadness as well, most obvious in his eyes. But she deemed him honest and so chose her words carefully.
“She wanted me taken out to the woods and killed. A woman, Maribel, overheard her and took me out into the woods to escape. But it was dark and I was terrified.” Her voice dropped to a broken whisper. “I had just learned my father had died. I was lost and Harmen found me. The queen had sent him to kill me.”
“Did he hate you as well?” Lian asked gently.
“Harmen? No, not at all. He was loyal to my father and had always been kind to me. It was a terrible betrayal but in the end, he could not do it.” She nearly smiled thinking of her old friend.
“How did he act?” Lian asked, interrupting her memories.
Katiyana shifted in her seat, unsure of where the line questioning was going. It seemed Cidra had asked her the same thing so many years ago. “He was foggy and vague and became upset. He admitted everything to me and began to cry so hard he became sick.”
The king nodded and laid a finger alongside his nose. “Poisoned as well.”
“No, I meant he sicked up, he did not die.”
“That is not what that nasty little concoction is meant to do. It somehow makes the one poisoned beholden to the poisoner. It is quite strong but only lasts a short time. He must have been very attached to you and loyal to your father to have resisted long enough to eject it from his body.”
The sad girl gave a little smile at that. “Yes, he was.”