The Eden Chronicles Boxset

by S. K Munt

  ‘And how would he get in?’ Karol insisted, zeroing in on my mother

  My mother stared back at Prince Karol. ‘If I had a blueprint, I’d hand you one, but all I know is what I am telling you! I have been seeing this man for years and I saw him on Saturday night! And I know that Abbey-Linn is only attracted to women because she confided it in me!’

  ‘And what were you doing out on Saturday night if you were not at the ball to delight in the sight of your daughter like the rest of Arcadia was?’ Karol snapped, and my cheeks flushed. ‘She was quite the vision indeed.’

  ‘We’re not going to ask about the gender-switching Nephilim?’ the duchess asked, her tone droll, ‘that’s a lot more interesting.’

  ‘Too interesting to be considered logical,’ Elijah dismissed her. ‘Don’t encourage such foolishness.’

  The duchess dropped her head like Kohl had, only this time; her eyes slid to her disgruntled son and smiled a confidential smile, and then sought out his fingers with hers.

  ‘Abbey is my neighbour,’ my mother said softly, not looking at me, and I feared that I would get whiplash from trying to follow all of the conversations. ‘I knew she was pregnant so when I saw her sneak out at such an hour, I followed her, wondering if she was running because she’d had the baby, or trying to get rid of it. I was appalled when I saw him and realised that he’d talked her into giving it to him, and though I can’t confirm that he is the child’s father, I can say with absolute certainty that she was trying to pass the baby over before the kingdom could take it from her, and not with the intention of dropping it and killing it.’ She glanced at me, swallowed, then back at the prince. ‘She was desperate and has been traumatised by her own fear, but she’s not a murderer.’ She lifted her chin and narrowed her eyes at Karol. ‘And I’m sorry but I don’t think watching every man in Arcadia have a turn at delighting in my baby girl at YOUR-’ she poked him hard in the chest, ‘collective whims is as precious a sight as you think it is, your highness!’

  An audible gasp went up in the room and with a flick of the King’s fingers; Coaxley was pulling my mother back from a red-faced prince. I met the guard’s eyes and saw tears in them and my heart went out to him. How he must feel watching me go through this while Lindy was in almost as precarious a situation! I wanted the earth to open up and swallow me but Kohén took it a bit further and turned me into his arms in a protective hug.

  ‘You’re pure,’ he whispered, and I gulped down tears. ‘Sweet. Chaste. Mine.’ My fingers tightened in his sides and I heard him suck in a breath. ‘My Lark…’

  ‘Spare me…’ Emmerly muttered, making her hearing-distance known and I gave her a shocked look. Did she begrudge me comfort at such a moment? I narrowed my eyes and hugged Kohén harder, and he sighed and dropped a kiss on my shoulder, making my skin tingle despite all of my hard feelings towards him. Emmerly scowled and looked away.

  Damn straight. You got the sea-captain hero for a father while I got the crackpot mother, now you get the guy’s erection but I get his affection!

  ‘Fine!’ King Elijah said. ‘Shepherd I am convinced that the accused is disturbed and has broken only two laws, and should not be charged for attempted murder.’

  ‘I concur,’ Shep said. ‘Intentionally or not, Abbey-Linn Culkin has broken her Joining Vows. I would allow her to stay for that alone in light of her distressed mental state, but she attempted to conceal a third-born from the crown in a rather dangerous fashion, which is inexcusable.’ He turned to her. ‘I do not know who this man is or if he even exists, but you will be branded accordingly for your crimes and removed from the kingdom, Mrs Culkin, and if we find him we will do worse.’ He turned to my mother and Tera. ‘Thank you for bearing witness today,’ he said softly. ‘You are excused.’

  Abbey-Linn began to wail anew, but she did not fight off the guards as they began to remove her from the room. Tera nodded and wiped tears from her cheeks, demonstrating a conflict of conscience, but my mother’s voice rang out in the cavernous hall.

  ‘And what about him?!’ my mother demanded. ‘You have a demented, dangerous Nephilim stalking your citizens, your highness!’ Her words were aimed at Karol, but her eyes latched onto mine. ‘Will you actually attempt to find him and hold him accountable, or is a woman allowing herself to get raped crime enough to equal his out?!’

  ‘There are no dangerous Nephilim in Arcadia!’ the king barked. ‘We would know it if there were!’

  ‘Would you?’ my mother spat on the floor. ‘Or would you conceal your kin so one more entitled asshole could rape my daughter and call it an act of God?’ She jeered. ‘Or is it divine intercourse?’

  ‘Mother!’ I gasped, seeing other mothers shoot her a horrified look before leading their own children out of the room. ‘Are you drunk?’ And then I caught myself, wondering what I was saying. Was I drunk? Didn’t I agree with her? Wasn’t being forced to consent the same thing as rape?

  Who am I?

  ‘Mrs Whittaker you are pushing the limits of my tolerance…!’ Elijah growled. ‘One more disrespectful word against the crown and I will-’

  ‘Have your son take it out on my daughter?’ My mother gave Kohén and me a derisive look. ‘I doubt that. She’s been sixteen for a whole day and I don’t see a skerrick of gold on her, despite the fact that she clings to his side like the vapid whore you’ve trained her to be!’

  I almost blacked out from the strength of the mortified looks that people shot me collectively then.

  ‘You forget yourself, madam!’ Kohén snapped, pushing me behind him as though he were about to fight her. ‘And you don’t know a single thing about your daughter but rest assured, she is not vapid, and she is as brilliant as she is kind and beautiful!’

  ‘Then what’s the problem?’ my mother demanded, and though I saw the Nephilim run over at a nod from the king to do something, the redheaded boy did not make it in time. ‘Is she shrill and irksome as her sister, or as lousy a kisser as her useless father is?’

  My soul collapsed and my knees went with it. Too heartbroken and shocked to respond, I began to wilt and then it all happened at once. The sparks erupted from Kohén’s hands around me, and as he wheeled on my mother, Karol shot forward and scooped me up out of his arms. But before Kohén could even take a step forwards, Kohl leapt to action from the floor, lifted his hand and slapped my mother so hard that a crack rang throughout the room, and then seemed to echo on and on.

  5.

  It took me a moment to realise that it wasn’t an echo though, but the sound of thunder. Had Kohl done that in his rage? I was breathless.

  ‘Kohl!’ Kohén yelled, running forward to grab his brother as I yelped in shock. My mother bent over and gasped and when she looked back up at us, her eyes were watering and blood was trickling from the corner of her mouth. My stomach, heart and mind turned over all at once. Not because what Kohl had done had been wrong, or caveman like- but because striking a woman was a crime and he could pay dearly for this.

  For me.

  ‘Nice to know that after six hundred years, a man is as quick now to raise his hand to a woman as he is to rape her still.’ My mother shook her head while Coaxley twisted her hands behind her back and forced her down to her knees. ‘What a perfect society you’ve created, God.’

  ‘God made us all equal, and you worthy of a good smack,’ Kohl snarled, and then stepped back. ‘And I’ll hit you again if you try to argue otherwise.’ He turned to look at Elijah. ‘Am I dismissed?’

  ‘Indeed.’ But Elijah’s smile was visible behind his beard, and when he patted his back as he walked past, I let go of a breath I hadn’t know I’d been holding. Kohl looked up at me with apology in his eyes before he retreated towards the south wing, but the look hit me somewhere much deeper than anger or fear. His eyes were neon blue, but fading fast. One slap was all it had taken to get the youngest prince’s ‘surge’ out of his system… so why did Kohén have to sleep with other girls to deal with his?

  What if he didn’t?
I wanted to follow him to the poolroom or wherever he was going to ask, but I didn’t dare.

  ‘I want her husband interviewed, and her son to see if they can back her claims….’ Elijah whispered to Karol as I was passed back to Kohén like a thing- but this time I was a protected thing. I looked over at my mother and saw that though she was red-faced and screaming, she was too out of her mind for a single word to be coherent. ‘And regardless of whether or not they can, I want the Whittaker family given twenty extra coins this month for bearing witness. And seeing as how she has retired now, I’d like her to serve a day of voluntary community assistance a week for twelve moons, as compensation for this contempt, all right? I’d make it an official ruling, but I don’t want to humiliate poor Larkin further by having her family name written up on the noticeboard.’

  ‘Do you think that’s fair, Larkin?’ Karol asked me, not turning to face me. I saw my mother try and throw an elbow at Coaxley’s head and I winced.

  ‘If you look into her claims, yes,’ I said. ‘If not, I will be the one with a year’s service added for demonstrating contempt.’

  ‘My pleasure,’ Karol said, and before I could work out what he meant by that, his mother shocked me by cuffing him over the back of the head so quickly that it could have been a hallucination on my part. Thankfully however, Karol’s ‘Ow,’ was not.

  ‘Do not flirt with your brother’s girls,’ she snapped. ‘It’s unbecoming.’

  I smiled, thinking that even if she hated me, the duchess had an uncanny habit of trying to get me out of situations that neither of us wanted me in. She wasn’t a mother to me, but in her own special way, she was my guardian angel.

  Karol smiled ruefully at his mother after she’d hit him and said: ‘You told me to look after myself after I leave here, but send me off with concussion?’

  ‘You’ll heal,’ she said, and then addressed her husband. ‘Speaking of him looking after himself, I want a Nephilim guard going with him.’

  ‘He already has two trained guards! And is trained himself!’

  ‘I’d like him to have another,’ the duchess, said, and then huffed when she was answered with a frown. ‘Very well, if it puts you out so darling, I will go make the arrangements.’

  ‘Constance…’ Elijah said, but she gave him a look while twirling the diamond ring on her right hand, and he sighed dejectedly. I stared down at the ring, wondering if I’d just witnessed a secret code being used, but then the duchess glanced at me with as much heat in her glacier-blue eyes, and I looked away quickly.

  ‘Speaking of guards and getting the hell out of here before you two start bickering about my safety… I have a carriage to load,’ Karol said, turning to wink at me. ‘A heavy one.’

  ‘And I have a soccer ball to chase down,’ Kohén said, smiling a trembling smile at me. ‘I think someone needs to sweat out some feelings…?’

  I’d been considering going to the gym to punch it out, but now that I knew Kohl had gone that way I could not follow, so I smiled and nodded. ‘I’ll meet you on the rear lawn in half an hour.’

  ‘Good.’

  ‘Larkin?’ Karol piped up. ‘Would you like to come outside for some fresh air? I’d be interested in knowing your thoughts after today’s proceedings.’

  I nodded and moved to follow Karol, eager for some sort of distraction, but Kohén caught my hand. ‘Alone? No.’

  Karol glared at him. ‘I’m not going to molest her, little prince.’

  ‘I’m not going to give you the chance to. The ball can wait,’ Kohén snapped, moving along beside us and holding my hand tightly.

  ‘Very well,’ Karol said, turning to me.

  What fun… my two least favourite people, escorting their escort!

  I felt incredibly awkward, but I slipped my hand out of Kohén’s and clasped them together in front of me as I walked, sandwiched between the two and enjoying Kohén’s joint less nose. ‘Are you eager to know all of my thoughts, your highness?’ I asked, not missing the frown that the duchess sent my way as I walked away flanked by two of her sons. ‘Or just the ones that make you feel justified for having dragged me into this today?’ We left the grand doors and passed through the courtyard and luckily, my mother had vanished from sight by then.

  ‘You may speak candidly with me,’ Karol said generously, sliding his hands into his embroidered pockets and nodding his proud nose to Resonah as she glided by us on the mossy trail. ‘But I do hope you understand that we aren’t allowed to warn anyone about the identities of the witnesses coming forward before a Shepherding, yes?’

  ‘He’s right,’ Kohén jumped in. ‘I hated keeping that from you, and Kohl was fit to be tied when he learned that you were being led in to see her unawares, but it’s for their protection.’

  I nodded, unhappy but understanding. The law was the law and Kohén was already trying to break enough for me... apparently. But it did explain why Kohl had been so stiff when he’d come in, and why he’d lost his temper the way he had- because he’d anticipated her acting as she had. It made me want to track him down and hug him more. He was kind to be protective of me- but I was glad that I’d seen her at last.

  ‘I know you would have been surprised to see her, and please know that none of us anticipated her lashing out the way she did…’ Karol glanced at me and smiled sadly. ‘But I didn’t think you’d want to miss the chance to see her again either, especially given the stance she was prepared to take.’

  ‘You wanted me to see that she would speak for a woman charged with killing third-borns, so I’d understand how lucky I am to live here?’ I asked.

  ‘No,’ Karol said, and his green eyes betrayed no treachery. ‘I wanted you to see that we have saved some lives with this system.’ His hand brushed mine as we walked and I felt the warmth of his need to please me and soothe me. ‘And I wanted you to see how it was the woman who screamed the word ‘whore’ who was judged today, not the girl it was screamed at.’

  I nodded, for I had seen that. When my mother had first attacked me, I’d searched other faces looking for expressions of contempt, but all of the angry eyes had been on her. ‘I did see that. And I hope that you saw how much more peaceful this kingdom would be, if the child laws were abolished all together.’

  ‘They’ll never be abolished all together,’ Karol said. ‘Even when the world was in its golden age last time, millions of people were starving. It is my family’s job to ascertain that everybody in the world- not just Arcadia- is cared for and that cannot happen if we lose track of everybody as we did before.’ He smiled at me. ‘But, hopefully once this locust plague is under control, and people everywhere start receiving greens and grains again, we might consider lifting the child law from two, to three. There would still be penalties for fourth-borns, of course- and we will never be able to support eight-person families…’

  ‘I know that but… but really?’ I asked, my hopes climbing.

  ‘When I am king, yes, I hope so. Obviously it won’t be my decision alone, but if I can claim another territory and it is one with arable land and a good water supply… I don’t see why not.’

  ‘It’s all about control,’ Kohén agreed, and he’d dropped the pitch of his voice to try and keep up or rather- down- with his older brother. ‘And balance.’

  ‘We need another territory and another caste, and I’d very much like to get into drilling oil in the north if suitable land can’t be found in Calliel so we have another resource too, but yes…if we have the space, the funds and the means to build larger homes to accommodate a population rise, I don’t see why not.’ Karol smiled at me. ‘This pleases you?’

  ‘It does,’ I said. ‘Very much.’

  ‘Good. I do so adore pleasing you.’

  ‘Get over yourself,’ Kohén sniped at him before turning to me. ‘And don’t you fall all over yourself. I have the exact same plans, but we’re both still being forced to wait out a panacea for this plague, and it could take years yet!’

  ‘Haven’t you ever heard of mi
racles?’ Karol asked his brother, his hand brushing mine again.

  ‘Yes, and they went out when the last of the guardian angels left earth,’ Kohén reminded him.

  ‘Maybe one stayed, and is going to help me out,’ Karol suggested. ‘To remind people that the Barachiel men belong on the throne. You never know…’ then he squeezed my hand briefly. ‘You look like a bit of an angel, Larkin. Care to inspire me?’

  I glanced at Karol, and understood from his smug smile what he was really saying- Martya’s cure, and my help, could help abolish the third-born caste. I’d given it to Karol, not Kohén, and he would be a God because of it, and I his angel. I smiled, knowing that I should feel guilty for going behind Kohén’s back yet but my knowledge didn’t change the fact that Karol was NEXT in line, and Kohén still only being considered for Pacifica, not Arcadia. I’d done the right thing, and he was going to do the right thing by me.

  ‘I told you not to flirt,’ Kohén grumbled as we walked out the front courtyard gates and onto the lawn.

  ‘I’m not flirting with her,’ Karol argued, before he motioned for us to walk over to where his carriage was waiting to be loaded. It was huge- the kind the royals used when they intended on touring for a while, and had two separate seating compartments. Six beautiful black horses were lashed to the front, and I ached to run my hand down one of their gleaming coats. ‘I am being charming. Prince Charming, you might say.’

  I gave him a dirty look, not appreciating the way he was baiting Kohén whose jealousy I did not care to aggravate. But we reached the horses and I stretched out my hand to gingerly stoke its soft nose. It snuffled and nuzzled my palm, and I smiled, wishing that I knew how to ride.

  ‘Ha! Do you still think you’ll be her Prince Charming once she learns that you’ve demanded that her two favourite staff members leave Arcadia with you today?’ Kohén taunted.