“I dreamt of his death.” She wanted so much to lie down and close her eyes again. Would she ever be of use to him? So far, she had only made his journey more difficult. “I knew it was my task to prevent that.”
“How?” the cleric asked.
She shook her head then. She had no idea what she could do. She didn’t even understand what power she might have had. She was a useless maid who couldn’t even carry tea, and there she was thinking she could save the king.
“Ana,” the sword master said more gently, squatting down beside her again as she allowed the tears to run unchecked down her cheeks. “You knew this before you met him?”
“I thought so, but I don’t know anymore. Ende thought I was powerful, dangerous even, but I don’t have anything left. I don’t know how to help him.”
“It is the cold,” the cleric said.
“I’m not cold anymore,” Ana whispered.
“Then why do you continue to shiver?” the girl asked.
“It is better for him if I die,” Ana said. “Dray should have let me go on the Walk. It was wrong to call to him, to drag him from his post.”
“Did you call to him?”
“I didn’t know I did. Ende said I called him too. This all started with Dray. If he hadn’t looked so, with his face scarred as it was.”
“Scarred?” the sword master asked.
Ana lifted her fingers to her wet cheek. They were cold to the touch. She felt along where the scar had marked Dray’s face. “Here,” she murmured, “and then it was gone.”
“Had you seen something like that before?” the cleric asked.
She shook her head. “You knew my mother,” she said, energy surging through her as she moved towards him. “Did she see such things?”
He shook his head. “I don’t know. I don’t think so. She had feelings, and she may have seen things in her dreams, but she rarely saw what wasn’t there.”
“But it was there,” Ana asserted. Even though she knew it wasn’t, she knew it was. “It will be there.” Her fingers moved back to her cheek, wondering if it would be her fault that he would be scarred in such a way.
“What else did you see?”
“Blood on his hands. Fighting in Ende’s eyes. The crown in my hand.”
The cleric leaned back.
“What is it?” she asked. “Do you see the danger that Ende did?”
“Your mother,” he whispered. “She may not have seen much, but she saw herself at one point with the crown, a soldier and a king. Yet she knew it wasn’t her.”
Chapter 9
Ed wondered where Ende might have disappeared to and what his disappearance meant. He had said he would help. At least that was the idea Ed had gotten from the man. But so far, he didn’t feel like Ende had helped very much. And ever since Ana had appeared with Salima, he’d seemed somewhat distracted. Now they had no idea where he was at all.
He sat amongst a group of women he had thought he would never see again and waited. He expected frustration and hurt, even anger that he had left them. Although he wasn’t sure now why he had been so sure they would be safe. They looked much better for their time with the Near Folk. They were clean, freshly clothed and fed. Many of them laughed amongst themselves; some even smiled at Ed.
He wasn’t sure how to respond, and so he didn’t. Dray stood in the doorway, his back to the group. He would know how to talk to women, Ed thought. Belle sat amongst her friends, talking, checking whether they were truly well, but she wouldn’t raise her eyes to Ed.
“When?” he heard Belle ask, and he tried to focus more on the conversation around him.
“Soon. I’m not sure if we go on our own or if someone is coming. There was a man before who came to talk to the chief, but I think he was asked for something he didn’t want to give.”
“Like what?” Ed asked.
The girl—no, woman—turned a smiling face towards him, and he wondered if he deserved her attention.
“We aren’t enough,” she said, still smiling.
“Enough?” Belle asked.
“In number, for the tribute.”
Belle met Ed’s eyes then, and hers were wide. “Why would you agree to go as tribute?”
“We don’t have much to return to. It may be a better life, even exciting with all the buildings and markets and people. We would be married off to the best of men. If I returned home, it would be some farmer’s son I’d spend the rest of my days working for. In the capital I might have servants.”
Belle looked at her with disbelief. “You are all willing to go?”
“Of course,” she said. “We aren’t being dragged by rope this time. The chief has shown us what we might encounter.”
“It might be very different,” Ed murmured.
“It would be better than what I had. My family already thinks me dead. Or worse, if I return to my father for him to…” She trailed off, and Ed wondered what life these girls had come from.
“We want to go,” she said, turning to Belle and taking her hands. “You could join us. It will be exciting, and you might meet…” She turned back to take in Ed. They didn’t know who he was, but they had an idea he was more important than he looked. “Or you might have met him already.”
“You will not have a choice when you reach the capital. You will be selected by those the regent thinks deserve you, not the other way around.”
“I understand that,” she said. “They will all be men of power.” She held her chin high as Belle clearly struggled for words she couldn’t find. She stood quickly, stepped over the bench seat and pushed past Dray out into the sunshine.
The woman’s attention turned to her friend. She whispered something, and they giggled as they glanced at Ed. He stood and followed Belle’s path out of the building. She stood in the middle of the dusty path that led from the building. Her arms hung by her sides as she took a deep breath, her head tilted back looking up to the sky.
“Belle,” he said quietly, coming up behind her. She jumped, wiped at her face and turned with a pained smile. “I don’t think you can change their minds.”
“It appears so,” she said, bowing her head to him and then walking away. He grabbed her arm and halted her walk.
“I don’t think it will be as they think, but it might not be so bad.”
“You want to send them off,” she snapped, but she didn’t pull from his hold. “It isn’t right,” she added more quietly.
“I’m not in a position to change it.”
“Will you ever be?”
He dropped her arm then. She was right; he didn’t know what he was doing or how he was going to be King. Although Ana was so sure that he already was. He didn’t feel like it. Although they had gotten closer to the capital and to Ana, Ed felt further away from being what she was so sure he was.
This woman didn’t have any faith in him, not that he deserved it. He wondered, not for the first time, why she remained with him.
“Your Majesty,” Dray asked behind him. Ed sighed before he turned.
“I don’t know what I’m doing or where my focus should be. I don’t even know how to get Ana back. I had…” He looked over the man before him, his façade calm. But there was something in the way he leaned forward that made Ed think he might listen to him. Might hope for something from him.
“When I was inside,” he said, motioning back to the building he had just left, “I thought if they were so willing to go, we could go with them. But…” He turned to look after the path that Belle had taken. “I don’t think we could risk taking Belle in amongst the tribute; they may want to keep her.”
“You don’t think she wants to be kept?”
There was a small smirk when he took in the soldier, but Ed shook his head. “Not like that,” he said.
Dray nodded and stepped closer. “They will come for the tribute. The soldiers always collect.”
“We could follow, but what good would it do us?” Ed tried not to whine. He had no idea what they would achi
eve if they made it to the capital. And they could find it easily enough without having to follow soldiers.
Dray waited beside him, trying to offer comfort perhaps, but so far he hadn’t offered any options as to what they could do next. Ed had felt so sure in that moment when Ana had disappeared, dragged back to the capital by the mage and quite likely his uncle. He knew he had to reach her. And in the intervening days, she had reached him. But then there had been nothing, and he had no real idea if she had been turned to their cause or if she was lost.
“I trust that she is where she needs to be,” Dray said softly.
“But what of Ende and us? We are no closer to the crown. I have no idea how to reach it and remain alive, and Ana is an unknown.”
Dray shook his head. “She will never be an unknown.”
“She called to you,” Ed said.
“That does not mean I didn’t want to save her, that I wouldn’t follow her to the ends of the kingdom and beyond if that is what she needed from me.”
“A maid,” Ed said. It sounded as though she was not as important to him as she was to Dray, when he was sure she was more so. They were friends, and he needed her to regain the crown.
“Are you sure that is what you want?” a voice whispered from the trees.
“You have asked that before,” Ed said, looking back to the chief’s building. Dray looked confused.
“You are yet to answer.”
“I thought I had,” Ed murmured. But had he? Had he accepted the Near Folk’s help? And if he had, to do what?
“Bring her soldier with you.”
Ed opened his mouth to protest, but instead motioned Dray back towards the building. The women were gone, and he wondered how they had left without his noticing.
“What do you know of Ana?” he asked as he stood at the end of the table. The room was empty but for them. Then a breeze blew through the door around them, and the chief appeared in the large chair at the end of the table.
Ed only just managed to keep his composure; the soldier beside him barely moved.
“Do you think I can be King?” he asked.
“It is not for me to say. Nor your reason for it.”
“I was born heir of Ilia.”
“There is more to being King than birth,” Eilke said, appearing from the shadows beside the chair.
“I was not born to this,” the chief said. “I strove for it. Only the strongest may be chief. When I am no longer strong enough, another will take my place.”
“It doesn’t work like that with the throne,” Ed said, but he wondered how true his words were. His uncle had shown himself the stronger and thus ruled.
The chief looked at him as though he had read his mind.
“What do I need to do?” Ed asked.
“What do you want to do?” the chief asked in return. Ed tried not to let the frustration show on his face, although he was sure the chief knew just how he felt.
“I can’t just walk into the capital.”
“You walked out of it.”
“I need allies. I need someone to stand with me, or my uncle will have me killed before the people can see me.”
“How can he prevent the people from seeing you?”
Ed opened and closed his mouth. He wasn’t quite sure what he had meant by the words, but he wondered if he wanted the people of the capital to see him as he was now. Would they consider him King? Would they if he made a stand against his uncle? The regent might use the mage against them.
He shook his head, unsure at the tumble of thoughts and bad ideas flooding through him.
“What if we raised the people against the regent?” Dray asked.
“Would that not put them in greater danger? We can’t encourage the people to fight.”
“If they will not, who will?”
Ed shook his head again and looked at the chief. “Why have you allowed us here?”
The chief looked him over, but said nothing. He couldn’t very well march into the capital with the Near Folk behind him; he would put off more of the people than bring them on board.
“Why are you supporting the sending of tribute?” he asked.
The chief blinked for a moment, surprised by the question. “It is our duty as citizens of this kingdom to pay tribute that assures the crown we are loyal.”
“Giving young women.”
“There have been many different gifts provided to the crown over the history of this kingdom. Some are expected to ensure the kingdom remains strong; some are never asked for but gratefully accepted.”
Ed looked at him carefully. “Every seven years, wives are sent.”
The man nodded. “There are only six provinces.”
“There is the capital as well,” Dray answered, although he looked as though he was struggling to visualise something.
“They still take wives, only it is different when it is their turn. Lords and ladies and common folk will stand before the throne to offer their best. It is honour they seek as well as promising their loyalty.”
Dray nodded once, and Ed wondered what he had seen.
“What else do you give?” Ed asked. “What else is demanded?”
“Will this help you decide who you are?” the chief asked.
“It may help me decide what kind of king I could be.”
“You would not ask your kingdom to show its loyalty? You would not ask for proof that they will not remove you from the throne?”
“I’m not on the throne yet,” Ed murmured.
Chapter 10
“Has there been any word?” the regent asked, leaning over the balcony of his room and surveying the world beyond. When there was no answer, he turned back to the mage, who stood too close to the door.
The man shook his head and then closed his eyes. “They are not far enough from the castle yet,” he murmured.
Thom wondered what the mage saw on the other side of his closed lids at times, but then he didn’t want to know. Although he would have given anything for some knowledge as to where the boy was and with whom. Was he out there gathering troops? And if so, how had that happened?
The regent sighed and leaned into the railing, looking back at the view. This was his kingdom, and he wasn’t going to let the boy take it. Although he couldn’t for the life of him determine who might assist him. Sure, he was King, and he bore the title. But he didn’t hold any of the power, and the soldiers all followed Thom—not that he would ask them to take the boy into one of those oddly lit cells.
“How did she get out?” he asked, distracted for a moment, wondering about the woman he had once wanted so desperately. For the idea of her close again made him nervous.
“I cannot tell. There is no sign of her magic. The cold would have dragged her skill away, or at least made it hard for her to muster anything. She should have died in that cold.” The mage screwed up his face. “She could not survive.”
“She survived a fall from the Walk, and now the frozen cells. Perhaps she is as strong as you first feared and she…” Thom couldn’t finish the words. He wasn’t sure what he was about to say. That she would finish them all, destroy him as the mage had feared when he had first looked into her eyes. Help the boy regain his throne. The regent shuddered at the idea. Now they were both running free to do he didn’t know what.
“Find them,” he snapped. “I should have drowned the bastard at birth!”
“True heir, born in wedlock,” the mage muttered.
The regent growled. Then he refocused on the mage. “Barric’s friends weren’t as loving of his wife.”
The mage merely stared.
“When she died. So many of them left the capital, left his side, and in many ways it was how I managed to get close to him. The playful one, always causing trouble—Ende. He disappeared before she died. Maybe he didn’t think she was as fun. And Forest was allowed to retire at the time of her death.”
“I don’t think your brother was thinking clearly when she fell ill.”
The regen
t turned back to the view. Ter-essa had always been a fit woman, keeping pace with Barric easily enough, but her illness had surprised many, and her death from the unknown ailment even more. There had been something about it. Something unnatural.
“Your Highness?” the mage asked.
“When Barric needed his friends most, they left him. I doubt the boy could muster any further support.” Thom turned and took the mage in. One of those friends had been Ana’s mother, and still thoughts of her dark hair and green eyes made his heart skip.
He had been surprised when she had returned to her childhood home. He had doubted her sister would offer any safe place to hide. He had been further surprised when the same sister had contacted him in recent times to alert them to the child. Now a woman, he reminded himself, thinking of her in that dress. She might be half his age, but she was old enough. He cleared his throat and looked out over his view.
“I want this sorted. I want certainty that the king is dead and this girl stopped. Any means necessary.”
“Any, Your Highness?”
He turned back to the man. The mage stood frozen by the door, his head cocked to the side, his finger extended. It was only as he blinked slowly that the regent realised he hadn’t released some strange magic.
“What are you thinking?” Thom asked, taking a step closer.
“I may have a way.”
The regent waited. Was the man unsure of his own skill, or was it something that may be worse than their current situation? Although he struggled to wonder what that could be. “He could die from an accident,” he suggested. So far, the boy was proving far too elusive to allow them to get close enough to make it happen.
“We could seek assistance from the beyond.”
The regent felt himself suspended in time. The magic was a link between the two, he knew—or had been told. He couldn’t understand it himself, as he hadn’t been gifted the ability to feel it out. Mariela had once told him about it, in a moment he had thought would lead to something else. He shook the idea away.
“How?” he asked.
“I will ask.”
“You intend to bring something of magic here?” Thom didn’t know how he felt about such an idea.
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