"It doesn't have to be a rumor."
She looked at me again in shock, her hand covering her mouth to hide her surprise.
"You are crazy!" she whispered to me. "My father would kill me, and he would set all of his soldiers on you!" she suddenly giggled and stuck her tongue out at me. "I bet you would like having all the soldiers chasing after you. I think you would still beat them." She smiled at me.
"Yes. That would be fun. There aren't any guards around are there?" I took another slow bite of the vegetables.
"No. How did you guess? I wanted some time with you, alone. Greykin has warmed up to you but he would never let us be like this." She smiled again. Her heart had slowed down after I had embarrassed her in front of her servants.
"Like what?"
"Sitting here, eating together, and talking." She brushed the hair back from her ear and looked back at her handmaidens.
"I have good hearing," I said with a smile. "Their favorite topic of conversation seems to involve you and me."
"Really?" she looked back at them quickly.
“Perhaps," I said to her with a wink. She frowned at me again. It was a playful frown.
She waved over the servants to clear the plate.
"Don't say anything naughty while they are within earshot,” she warned as they got closer. Within seconds the plates had been cleared and they disappeared.
“Why is this such a concern, what you do, even what people think you have done?”
She looked at me and cocked her head to the side. “You really don’t understand?”
I shook my head.
Jessmei absently played with the rim of her wine glass, rubbing the tip of her finger around the edge where her lips had been. “You know our kingdom is ruled by a monarchy?” I nodded. “The king rules until he dies, then his son takes over, and so on. It is the same in all of our neighboring kingdoms. The princes must continue to produce offspring--male offspring--in order to keep their family in power. Does that make sense?”
“And they can only produce offspring with other royalty?”
“Exactly. If I am . . .” she blushed and looked away, “doing something that would possibly create a child with someone else, my value as a future queen would be diminished. Diminished is putting it lightly.” She smirked. “By joining me with the prince of another kingdom, my father would create a strong alliance and a familial bond between our countries. If it is suspected that I have,” she paused, searching for the right word, “been intimate with another man prior to this joining, my husband, the future king, would have no assurance that our offspring was truly his child, and the proper heir to the throne. This could cause great political unrest, possibly even a war. Therefore, he cares very deeply about what I do, even just what people think I have done, as you said. Do you understand?”
“He cares because you are his daughter and he loves you. I am sure he wishes for your happiness.”
She looked away and smiled brightly, her eyes were tight. “Of course he loves me. It’s just the way things work.”
The servants came and delivered the next course as she finished talking. It was thinly packed patties of roasted meat that sat upon small platforms of wild black rice and peppers. I couldn't identify the meat, but it smelled amazing. After the servants left we began on the new course and it tasted better than I could have imagined. The meat was soft and melted into my tongue with a savory warmth that paired perfectly with the nutty flavor of the black rice and the spicy peppers. I tried to enjoy the taste slowly, but I was so hungry I quickly finished the first portion and was relieved to see they had given me three times the amount they had served Jessmei.
I heard several pairs of metal rimmed boots descend the stone pathway behind our garden clearing and the castle. Jessmei looked over my shoulder and her brows knit into pretty ruffles. I figured it was Runir, it sounded like his footfalls and he had probably had enough time to wake up, gather some guards, and find me. I didn't bother to turn around and face him.
"Dear Sister, I had hoped I would find you here. It seems that your guards have misplaced you." I looked over my shoulder at Jessmei's brother, Nanos. He wore a dark gray tunic that was tinged with blue. It was tucked into chocolate-colored leather pants that were wrapped in strategically placed light plates of armor and chain. He had a slightly curved long sword hanging from his left side and a shorter sword slung horizontally across the curve of his lower back. He was older than Jessmei, probably a year younger than Nadea. His skin looked tan and he had a body that was lean and wiry. He was escorted by three guards: a woman and two men that looked at me with expressions that matched a stone wall. They were all wearing light chain armor and had swords similar to what the prince was wearing.
"Ahh. I can see why the guards misplaced you. You wanted our powerful guest all to yourself," the prince said as he turned to look at me. "I'm Prince Nanos," he said as he extended a leather clad hand.
"Kaiyer," I said as I grasped his hand from my seat.
"Most people rise in front of royalty." He remarked coldly to me when our hands shook. I almost sighed out loud.
"I heard that most people don't kill four Ancients," I said as my grip tightened. His eyes opened wide as pain shot through his arm.
"Fair enough!" he said and tried to smile. I released his hand.
"Are you going to join us for lunch?" I asked Nanos as I turned back to my food and took another careful bite. Jessmei bit her lower lip. I recognized the fear in her eyes.
"I was considering it." He paused. I took a few more bites of food. "You know, most don't turn their backs on royalty either." I set down my fork and looked at Jessmei. Her face looked abashed. I didn't want to harm the relationship with her brother but it seemed that Nanos and Runir attended the same school of fatuousness. I was sick of these fools telling me that I couldn’t kill Elvens and that I had to obey their other arbitrary rules.
"You are interrupting our meal. I consider it, and your sister's hospitality to be more important than your frivolous need for affection. Either pull up a chair and join us or go find a small dog to play with." I picked up my fork again and continued to eat. Jessmei looked at her brother in shock. I could hear the prince's heart begin to beat faster as he registered the insult. He probably wouldn't be having lunch with us.
"How dare you say that to me?" the prince said as he moved around from behind me to the side of the table so he could try and make eye contact with me. I wiped my mouth with the cloth napkin and then took a sip of the wine. Jessmei's heart was galloping quickly in panic. I also heard the hearts of the guards pick up speed. I had probably made a mistake again. Maybe the prince was so hotheaded that he would do something idiotic.
"My apologies. I am unfamiliar with your rules of royalty," I said as I swallowed and looked into his enraged face. He didn't seem to take my apology seriously, and he shouldn't have, since I didn't really mean it sincerely. I didn't want him to do something to upset Jessmei. I knew that she had planned this lunch with me and would be saddened if I caused her brother to ruin it.
"You need to be taught how to properly respect someone of my bearing," he spat down at me.
"Are you capable of that? Or are you going to turn the task over to your three wet nurses?" I nodded my head back to his armed escorts. I just didn't seem to know how to play nice with these people today.
His face turned red with outrage. It looked like he was being strangled. His hand reached for his sword, but before his fist closed around the grip my hand had wrapped around its guard and the sheath. He tugged at it but my grip prevented it from coming out.
"That's a bad idea," I said to him with a smile. He tried a few more times before he tried to pull away from me. He may as well have been pulling on a chain anchored into the castle wall.
I looked over at his guards but they had their arms crossed, watching me carefully. Their hearts were beating fast so I wondered if they would draw their weapons if the prince commanded it. I saw fear in one of the men's eyes and
guessed that they didn't want to fight me.
I stood up from my chair and lifted the prince easily above my head with the arm that was grabbing onto his sword and sheath. He gasped in terror as he felt his body leave the ground and spin sideways. Jessmei and her handmaidens let out a scream of surprise and he started to yell and shout.
"What are you doing? No! Let me down! I command you!" He struggled and tried to kick his feet so that I would drop him. I looked over at the guards, their stone faces were now painted with shock. They still didn't draw their weapons, but they opened their arms and moved closer to me as if I would toss him to them.
It was a few steps to the edge of the creek. I let go of the prince over a deeper part of it and jumped back so his noisy splash wouldn't get onto my new outfit. Jessmei and her handmaidens let out another yell of surprise when the water almost hit them.
Nanos sputtered and cursed as he struggled to right himself in his wet clothes. The water was only three feet deep, so he wasn't in any danger of drowning.
"Your sister and I will continue our meal now. Come back when you are in a better mood," I said as I walked back to my chair and sat.
The prince waddled half a dozen steps to get on to the dry land, raining down water as he stepped out of the murky pond. He had some lily pads hanging over his shoulder and his perfectly styled hair was in disarray. He took a step toward me as I sat at the table and put his hand on his sword again.
"Not one of your best ideas," I said as my eyebrow rose. He looked over to his guards. They hadn't moved at all to aid him. I pointed back in the direction he came from. "Go." He looked back at the women knitting and they all had their hands over their mouths, I couldn’t tell if they were about to cry or laugh at him. He glared at me, then at Jessmei, and walked quickly toward the castle with his guards. His boots made wet, sloppy noises on the grass and gravel.
I continued to eat for a few minutes, until the sound of their boots and Nanos's curses faded into the castle and moved down the hallways.
"I can't believe that you did that!" Jessmei said. Her face was so animated that I couldn't discern whether she was mad or pleased.
"He was being unpleasant." I had finished my plate and leaned back. I hoped there were other courses.
"He's the Crown Prince!" she stated as if I should have understood.
"He didn't seem to like me too much."
"He will be king after my father dies!" she exclaimed again.
"Your father seems young enough to rule for a long time. Your brother will be old and gray himself by the time he gets to rule. For the sake of your people, I hope he will have matured some in that time." Paug had explained their odd system of rulership through lineage.
"He will definitely tell my father I was here with you." She frowned a bit.
"You knew he was going to find out eventually. Your handmaidens or one of the servants would have told him. You must have thought this through before you invited me here." I smiled at her. She looked angry at me and then she smiled and another ray of sunlight entered the clearing.
"You're right." She brushed her hair back from her ear again. "I'm going to get into even more trouble than I already am." She looked toward the servants and waved them over to clear our plates. They did so with neat and efficient movements.
"You are turning the whole castle on its head," she said after the servants had refilled our water and wine. "No one has ever spoken that way to my brother. He deserved it. He's had his way around here for so long. Father and Mother coddle him and his sense of entitlement is so large you would think he is ruler over every country within three thousand miles." She looked back over to the creek where I had thrown him and giggled. "He is going to be fuming mad for weeks. I wish I could hear him tell Father and Mother about how you have wronged our family's honor by treating him like the child he is."
I nodded to myself. I seemed to recall Paug telling me that the prince and princess didn't get along, and her brief expression of terror earlier made me think his story was true.
"Didn't he see what you did to the Ancients? You tore them apart like they were nothing. I remember what you did to the Vanlourn soldiers. My brother should be bowing before you and thanking you for helping to save his future kingdom. At the very least he should fear your strength. He is such an ass."
As she finished, the servants brought the next course: a leafy salad with shaved nuts on top. We ate this in silence until Cerra began to play softly. The handmaidens were discussing how strong I must be to be able to lift the prince off of the ground with one hand and throw him into the creek.
"At least the servants will probably speak more about your confrontation with my brother than they will about what you said over the table," Jessmei said as she smirked at me.
"You worry about too many things. What is the worst thing that can happen? I'm sure your father loves you and won't torture you to death."
I suddenly was in a different place.
Their screams filled the air from the valley deep below our position. There were hundreds of them, pushed into pens, their dirty, twisted bodies were thin from lack of nourishment.
"We hit their supply lines so hard they have started to eat their humans," Malek said from my side. His eyes glowed in the twilight as we studied the crudely constructed holding pens. There were only a handful of Elven guards.
"We will attack tomorrow night," I said under my breath as I began to crawl backward through the mud and branches in which we had concealed ourselves.
"They will eat at least ten of them tomorrow. We must attack tonight!" Malek whispered. He would have screamed at me if he could.
"No. It's a deception. All we have been doing is attacking their supply lines for the past three months while we dodge their scouts and main force." His eyes widened and he nodded.
"How can we be sure?" Alexia said as she landed on the ground next to me. She made no sound save a slight swish as her body cut through the air. "I didn't see any of them within a few miles.”
"It will be more of a burden on us to save them." I raised my hand up in the near darkness as we came to a clearing in the thick forest. “Tell the generals to meet me in my tent within fifteen minutes," I said to an almost invisible runner. She nodded and disappeared into the dark depths. There were almost two thousand of us concealed in these trees, but most Elvens could walk through and never hear or see our presence.
"Meet me in my tent," I said to the man and woman to my sides. They nodded and disappeared, attending to their own troops hidden in the forest.
We had been on the run for almost two years.
"Was it something I said?" Jessmei said as her fingertips brushed against the top of my hand. I blinked and looked back at her. My hand opened and I wrapped my fingers around hers. Her heart rate doubled. I thought she was going to yank back her hand but she entwined her fingers with mine and left it sitting on the table. Her skin was soft, and so were her hands, the muscles unaccustomed to work, her bones fine and delicate, fragile as a bird.
"Sorry. Just thinking about things. What did you say?" I smiled to her. My thumb traced a light line across the top of her hand.
"I said that I was more worried about what he was going to do to you. But then I realized that I shouldn't. He wants you to help us. Greykin filled me in a bit on what you have been talking about with Nadea and her father. Do you remember anything else that might help?" her pointer finger drew small circles on the palm of my hand. I looked into her eyes and they darted between mine and our entwined fingers.
"Nothing I haven't already told them." The lie came easy to my lips. I had never given them any details, except for the outburst in which I had told Paug about my brother and father.
"I'm sure you will remember soon." She smiled. "Nadea, Greykin, Maerc and our fathers were worried that you would be some sort of inhuman monster when they awoke you. The legends made it seem like you had almost destroyed our world when you fought with the Ancients." She smiled softly and her hand squeezed mine a
little more. "But I don't believe those stories." I smiled back at her with my mouth alone, I could not otherwise fake warmth at the moment.
My memories were troubling. It was unclear, but I was starting to think perhaps I was the monster they had feared. Jessmei looked at me with innocent adoration and I hoped that I could be the man she believed I was. Whatever I had been in my past, here and now I did want to help her and Nadea. I could not bear the thought of them, or any of the humans I had met, being enslaved by the Elvens, enduring what the people of my time had. If I had been a violent man in my past it was not without cause or provocation. Did seeking vengeance and freedom make me a monster?
"Oh! The final course. You are going to love this. I had it prepared especially for us." She waved to the servants with the hand that had been entwined with my fingers and they cleared the table again. Within a few seconds they placed small, covered bowls before us. Then they both bowed and departed.
I touched the top of the mirrored silver cover and found it very cold. I looked at Jessmei with an eyebrow raised as I pulled the top off the bowl. Inside were three scoops of what looked like yellow bean curd. Chilled air rolled off of the metal like steam.
"Take a bite. It is amazing!" she said as she giggled and clapped her hands together. I picked up a spoon and took a cold bite. It tasted like bittersweet lemons mixed with milk and snow.
"Wow. That is really good." I took another bite quickly to confirm.
"I knew you would love it!" She scooped out a tiny bite of her serving.
I heard more footsteps behind me and guessed that our lunch was about to be cut short. I took a few large bites and smiled at Jessmei around a huge mouthful of the freezing lemon dessert. She giggled when I gobbled up another cold bite.
"You really do like it!"
"This has been very fun," I said as I hastily swallowed. "Thank you for inviting me. It helped me feel better about my day and what has been going on here. I enjoy your company."
"Of course! Thank you for coming. I am so happy to see you again." Her face was as radiant as the sun. I heard the booted feet growing closer to the edge of the tree line. I debated staying for whatever confrontation they had planned.
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