Romana's Freedom (Soul Merge Saga Book 1)

by M. P. A. Hanson

  Now she knew where she was.

  She ran along till she reached a large landscape painting of the city. Lifting it down took precious seconds, and she scrambled into the gap behind it. The little prince was learning, she thought with a smile. Now this was fun.

  She ran along the hidden passage, not bothering to replace the portrait. Ahead of her the passage split five ways, and after that it split again, no matter which way she went, they wouldn’t have the speed or numbers to corner her. Suddenly her ears picked up the lightest footsteps coming at her from all sides. Elves? Okay, now Prince Marten was going a little overkill.

  She stamped downwards with her elvenstrength, collapsing the marble beneath her foot and dropping her down into the room below her. She ran again, this time through the main corridor, whisking past human guards so fast that they wouldn’t see her. But with each group was an elven soldier, she realised as they all began chasing her, whatever strings Marten had pulled the only reason this many elves would be in one place would be if an elven royal was visiting.

  She jumped from a window and into the night, past trees until she found one with thick enough branches to hide in.

  When she was certain she was safe, she extended her elvenhearing enough to be able to hear Marten in the palace wherever he was.

  “Honestly, I don’t know how she got past all of us.” Endis was saying “It should have been impossible. She’s got to be very good.”

  “Impossible seems to be possible when it comes to her.” Marten replied, she listened harder, finding that they were in the basements, directly below her tree. Time to start digging, she thought sarcastically to herself, even as she ran back towards the palace, dodging the guards and search lights till she reached the hidden air vents to the basements.

  “Your highness. We checked at the Lady Romana’s mansion, her personal maids said she went for a run.” She broke the vent away from the metal pipeline and jumped down.

  “Oh, of all the times for her to go running in the woods!” Marten grumbled. “Dismissed.” His voice got louder as she dropped down and shimmied her way back in the direction she’d come.

  “You asked me here for some help. But I don’t think it was with catching Silver, was it?” They were seconds ahead now.

  “No.” Marten replied. “This is going to be awkward.”

  They were right beneath her, she realised, even as she punched a hole in the metal beneath her and dropped into the room.

  “Did you miss me?” She asked, pulling her hood back up from where it had fallen down on her journey through the vent.

  They were in a small meeting room, the large table where they sat was circular, and she got a glimpse of paperwork before two guards tried to catch her.

  She knocked the elves out with ease, and walked over to sit on the table.

  “Speak of the devil and the devil shall appear.” Marten said. “We definitely did not miss you.”

  “Did he tell you that he has the animal traits yet?” She asked Endis. “Bit Romana in a frenzy, you should see her neck.”

  “Marten is this true?”

  “I called you here to ask for your help in controlling it.”

  “You must have been doing pretty well before; I’ve never noticed it in you. Besides, is she saying you marked Romana?”

  “I couldn’t stop it.” He replied. “I had no way of preventing myself, all the barriers just dropped.”

  “Which of the traits do you have?” Endis asked.

  “I can go fully animal if that’s what you’re asking.” Marten replied. “Though I haven’t since I was a child; tonight was the closest to turning I’ve been in a long time.”

  “Now tell us the real reason you brought Romana.” Silver encouraged with a smirk.

  “Because my animal demanded it.” He replied with a grimace. “And I brought Katelyn because the beast demanded she was to be kept happy. When Romana was first here in the palace my animal was so content that I’ve never felt the like.”

  “You realise that this unheard of in halflings.” Endis inserted.

  “It isn’t completely unheard of. I’ve met three others, although theirs seemed to be less wild than mine, and a lot less demanding.”

  “This changes the grounds of a lot of our scientific knowledge.” Endis began, clearly meaning to outline the significance of this in terms of biology.

  “I just want to be able to control it.” Marten interrupted. “I thought if I appeased it long enough then it would just stay in the background. It clearly hasn’t.”

  “What set it off?” Endis asked.

  “Romana sent me away and allowed another man to care for her when she sliced her finger. Something that small and insignificant had me clawing the table leg. When she took me outside and refused my claim on her, that’s when I had to mark her, to prove to her that she was mine, not ice-boy’s.”

  “Ice-boy?” Endis asked.

  “The thief Romana invited to dinner that turned out to be half ice-fey. He was the one who stopped me from finishing the bite. He froze me in place and took care of her afterwards.”

  “You didn’t finish the bite?”

  “No, only about half the toxin was injected into her bloodstream.”

  “Then it will wear off fairly quickly. Her bite should be healed within the next few weeks.”

  “You have no idea how conflicted I am about that.” Marten replied “Part of me wants to go find her and take her to the ground and finish what I started. The other half of me never wants to put her through that pain again.”

  “Aww how sweet.” Silver injected before he could get any soppier. “And just what animal do you transform into?”

  “Black jaguar.” He muttered.

  She wolf-whistled, “So how come I had to save your cute butt all that time ago?”

  “He was asleep, lazy idiot.”

  “Let’s see then.” Silver suggested,

  “I don’t do requests, and he doesn’t like you.”

  “What, so me and king cobra over there can’t deal with a little kitty?”

  “How do you know my animal?” Endis asked. “I’ve never told anyone.”

  “You just lied.”

  “I’m serious.”

  “I’m serious.”

  “Just leave it Endis.” Marten replied “You’re not going to get it out of her.”

  “Marten the only person I ever told about my animal is my dead sister, she cannot know.”

  “Hello, I’m right here little princes.”

  “How do you know? Did Talia tell you before she died?”

  “Your sister wouldn’t have told a soul. I heard you telling her.”

  “Elvardis’ security is impenetrable.”

  “No it isn’t.” She replied “Tell me to fetch something of yours from the palace and I’ll be back in an hour.”

  “Fine, if you can get my toothbrush I’ll believe you.”

  “Which one? You have five.”

  “The red one.”

  “Okay.” She replied, leaping back to the vent.

  “You have five toothbrushes?” Marten asked incredulously as she shimmied back along the vent.

  Fifty nine minutes later, exhausted after so much running and creeping around, she returned to the dungeon room, with a red toothbrush in hand.

  “That’s impossible.” Endis told her as she stood in the doorway, and flicked it at him.

  “No. I’m just brilliant.” She replied. “Now have we approached the fact that Marten assaulted a member of your royal family?”

  “Didn’t think of that.” Endis replied, even as Marten shot her a death look. “This will have repercussions if Romana decides it should. Even if she decides to save your sorry butt from getting ribbed endlessly by our diplomats, my mother will not be so understanding.”

  “How much money do you want to keep this whole thing secret?” Marten asked. “I’m not doing the favour thing; I’ve given out too many to Silver as it is.”

  “And guess
what? After Endis is gone, I’m using one.” She paused. “How long till you get going then little prince?”

  “I’ve already taught Marten as much control as he can learn for tonight, so I’m fine to leave whenever.”

  “But why don’t you want him here?” Marten asked, appropriately suspicious.

  “Because I’m going to use your favour so that you don’t scream when I torture you for biting my girl like that.”

  “In that case I will be staying. Marten is not getting tortured on my watch.”

  “Or I could just knock you out.”

  “Try it.”

  “Alright.”

  She closed the door deceptively slowly, and then leapt for him with the force of a charging rhino.

  He clattered to the floor, where they wrestled for a bit, but before long she had him with his front pressed to the ground and his arms pinned behind his back.

  “I win.” She announced, licking the salt from his neck in a move that was all kinds of provocative.

  “Not just yet.” He informed her.

  Then he transformed in a flash, loosing all the muscle to become sleek cobra at a seconds notice, and then striking towards her with fangs edged in poison.

  She swiped her hand sideways, dislocating one of the bones in his spine. Paralysing him even as he shifted back and then knocking him unconscious with a blow to his now humanoid skull.

  “Now, where were we?” She asked Marten, who’d watched the whole thing, unable to help.

  “I was about to scalp you for doing that to my cousin.” He replied, even as she withdrew her knife and pinned him to the ground in a single fluid move.

  “Which cheek first?” She asked, moving his head from side to side. In the end she decided on the right cheek, putting her dagger to his flesh even as she said calmly “Now, I’m using one of my favours to prevent you from yelling for help or in pain.”

  The threat of retribution from the Ancients for breaking an agreed favour hanging over his head, she began etching her design into his cheek, neck and chest, making sure to cover everywhere Romana had been bitten to make a point. However she was forced to rush it, as Endis began to wake up. When she was done, he’d passed out from blood loss, and the pattern of daggers and twirling lines covered most of the right side of his body, including his back and the soles of his feet, and her name was etched over his heart.

  She jumped up into the vent in time to see Endis wake and discover Marten on the floor. From her viewpoint she saw his horror at the blood and his frantic check for a pulse and heard his yell for help permeate the castle like a flood.

  Soldiers rushed into the room at elvenspeed, noting the vent and unconscious guards, and quickly lifting Marten out of the room on a stretcher.

  “Don’t let the Lady Romana know.” Endis informed the soldiers. “I don’t want her to hear that this happened.”

  Too late, Silver thought later on as she detailed everything she’d done in a letter she left on the bed before she changed and shifted back into unconsciousness.

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  TRYING NOT TO GRIEVE

  When Romana read the letter Silver had written, her only thought was outrage, even as she ran at elvenspeed to the palace, where she was greeted by Prince Endis.

  “I know what happened.” She told him, cutting through his hello. “Actually I got a run down of exactly how it all went. I want to see him.”

  “How?” Endis asked, even as he led her to Marten’s rooms.

  “The Wytch left a letter on my bed. You can read it if you want.” She thrust the parchment at him “I definitely never want to see it again.”

  She’d woken up, her bandages stained red, and a letter in her hand.

  “The blood is showing through your jumper.” Endis told her. “How bad was it?”

  “He trashed the side of my neck.” She replied, pushing open Marten’s door to find him laying there, bandages and water on the bedside table. “Where are the healers?”

  “I heard you coming, figured you’d want to do it yourself.”

  He was right about that, she thought, even as she moved over to the bed; hand over her mouth at the horrific patterns over him. And directly over his heart, that name glaring out, just as Silver had written it. One trouser leg had been ripped away, and further cuts were displayed along his leg and even on his foot.

  She picked up a cloth and began to wipe away the blood, only to see more seeping out.

  “What did he say to her this time?”

  “What?”

  “He always says something to set her off, or refuses her in some way.”

  “It was his biting you. The Wytch called you her ‘girl’, do you know what she meant.”

  “No.” She replied, lying easily. “She’s insane.” She found a dressing for Martens cheek and gently stuck it down where she’d cleaned. Endis grimaced as she started on what had once been floorless muscle.

  “Could have been worse.” He said “I lost my hands when I tried to mark my sister.”

  “I’ve heard almost nothing about your sister. What is she like?”

  “Her name is Talia.” He replied. “She disappeared nineteen years ago, just before you were born. Some people say she’s dead. But she used to be one of the most beautiful and coveted women in the country. I lost count of the number of men my brothers and I arrested for trying to sneak into her rooms at night, I don’t even know if we caught all of them. It didn’t help matters that she had an independent streak that attracted men to her like moths to a lantern. She’d had thousands of marriage proposals by the time she was just a hundred, from men of all races. She turned them all down. Some men committed suicide when they realised they couldn’t have her.”

  His voice got all soft when he talked about his sister, and she realised two things in that instant: He loved his sister very much, and he would do anything to get her back.

  “You must miss her very much.” She said, bandaging Marten’s chest.

  “She’ll come home eventually.” He replied, clinging to that hope as only someone trying not to grieve could do. “Everyone says she’s dead, hell, even I’ve said it sometimes because it seems that way. My four brothers and I searched for her for a decade, but we couldn’t find her.”

  “Tell me about your brothers.” She commanded, needing the stories to keep her from focusing too much on the blood in front of her.

  “I’m the eldest, but I was always closest to our sister who was the youngest. The second eldest, Roan was the joker before Talia went missing, now he’s constantly sad, her loss destroyed him, he used to live to make her laugh. Lorcan is the genius among us and his twin Wynn is the most creative out of us all. My youngest brother, Felix is the only one of us to have married, and I suspect that his wife and he share that rare love that bonds couples for life. He’s one of the most content men I know, and we tease him about it mercilessly.”

  She finished cleaning around Marten’s leg and began to bandage the injuries there.

  “Keep talking, I don’t want to think about what I’m seeing too much.” She instructed.

  “What do you want me to talk about?”

  “Tell me about Elvardis, and the palace there.” She replied, and he seemed to collect his thoughts for a while before continuing.

  “Elvardis is our capital, and the home for most of our culture. There is a type of oak tree, which grows to the size of a house, and yet is several times as tall. It is lost to nearly all parts of our forests except the capital, and for millennia we have carved our homes into its living wood. The palace is in the largest of these trees, and rooms there are sometimes woven from the thinner branches, with one of the large thick branches as the floor. But what makes it truly special, so unique, is that the roots of the palace tree glow at night, and shine through the ground, connecting to every other tree for miles, lighting up the entire night, making it impossible to get lost. There are even places, where the roots pass through lakes, turning them all the luminous green that we
bs across the ground. You never get used to the beauty of it, not in ten million years.”

  “I’d like to go there some day.”

  “You were planning to leave for D’Arville, so come to Elvardis instead. My mother would welcome a chance to meet you.”

  “Only if I wouldn’t be causing any trouble.”

  “Romana, you’ll be giving me something to do. As your host you’d be my top priority and I wouldn’t be sent off on more dull diplomatic missions. ”

  “And I won’t have to see him.” She finished Marten’s leg and started cleaning away the blood over his heart, to stick a dressing down over the name.

  “Not if you don’t want to.”

  “Then I’ll be coming to visit you at your earliest convenience.”

  “How about now?” Endis asked.

  “Now is good.” She replied. “I should probably write him a note or something so he doesn’t worry.” She gestured to Marten.

  She put the bandages and bloody water on the side to be cleaned away before walking into Marten’s study where she wrote a neatly penned note explaining the change of the plans and wishing him a swift recovery. When she went back into the room Endis was still waiting for her, and watched silently as she pressed the note into Marten’s uninjured hand.

  “Shall we go then?” Endis asked, offering her his arm.

  She took it, and he led her into the basements and along one brightly lit corridor to the end, where a large room had been set up. On opposite walls, two portals had been set up, both identical, although Endis clearly knew which was which and guided her to the one on the left hand side. Now that she was about to be stepping through it she felt a lot more apprehensive about the trip than she had at first.

  “It’s completely safe.” Endis reassured her, leading her forwards. “I’ll go through first to prove it.”

  She nodded and watched him take a deep breath before walking through the mirror and into his city. He did it without breaking stride, she noticed, he was probably so used to this that it bored him.