To Make a King

by Kristi L Cramer

  He licked his own lips in anticipation, wishing he could discover some pretense to get her away to some private place.

  A servant appeared at his elbow to refill his wine cup, and Edward hit upon a plan.

  The actors on stage grappled with each other in a duel to the death for the hand of the lady, who stood off to one side, wringing her hands in despair.

  ⇜⊂⊃⊂⊃⊂⊃⇝

  Mari tore her attention away from the play, turning to face the page at her shoulder. “Yes?” she whispered.

  The page leaned in close to whisper in her ear. “Lady Mari, Princess Katrona is asking that you come see her at the convent.”

  “Now?” Mari asked, surprised.

  “Yes, milady.” The page bobbed his head and turned away, beckoning for her to follow.

  Despite the royal summons, her gaze was drawn back to the stage and she watched for a moment as the duelists drew knives. “This will not do,” she scolded herself. “The princess is waiting.”

  Standing up, she excused herself from the row, much to the annoyance of other viewers. She skirted the edge of the audience, following the page to an alley that appeared to head in the direction of the gate and convent. Mari had to pick up her skirts to keep up. The page was not waiting for her as he should.

  The boy turned a corner ahead of her and she hurried to follow, afraid she would get lost in the unfamiliar streets. As she rounded the corner, she ran straight into Prince Edward.

  “Oh!” she exclaimed, taken aback. “Your Highness. I’m terribly sorry. I was trying to keep up with the page taking me to see your sister at the convent.”

  Prince Edward smiled, and though she was steady on her feet, he did not release his hold on her shoulders. “It’s quite all right, Lady Mari,” he said in a pleased voice. “I’m happy to have a moment of your time.”

  Mari frowned, noticing the page was gone and they were alone in the alley. “Your Highness?”

  “I’ve wanted to have a word with you.”

  “About what, Highness?” There had been no summons from Princess Katrona, Mari realized. That had only been a ruse to get her alone. But why? She felt a chill crawl up her spine, raising the hairs on the back of her neck.

  He squeezed her shoulders. “I’ve been watching you.”

  She felt the chill deepen. Though she wasn’t sure why, she realized the feeling was fear.

  “Your, ah...feelings for my half-brother are quite apparent, Lady Mari, but I’m afraid he cannot and will not return them.” He did not wait for her comment. “I think I can make you a better offer.”

  Mari blinked in surprise and tried to take a step back, but unless she wrenched herself away, his grip on her shoulders was too firm. “I don’t understand.”

  He chuckled. “Surely you must. I find you most appealing. You have childish wonder, yet you know your responsibilities. You have a kind, good spirit, and your beauty is fascinating. My half-brother cannot appreciate all that you are in the way I do.”

  “We’ve never spoken before this moment,” Mari protested. “You cannot know these things about me.”

  “As I said, I have been watching you.”

  At the fair, she realized. Where else? She made another attempt to break free of his grip. “I think I had better go now,” she said, but he caught her wrist and brought her close against his chest.

  “You haven’t heard my offer,” he said softly. Mari could feel she was on dangerous ground—her heart beat wildly in her chest, but she resisted the urge to struggle. If she could get him to drop his guard....

  “I’m sorry,” she said, trying to sound casual. “This is just so sudden.”

  “I suppose it is. Unfortunately, there is very little time for me to approach you formally.”

  Mari hesitated, not sure she wanted to ask the next question, but the prince was beginning to relax his hold. All she needed was to get him a little more confident. “What is your offer, then?”

  Prince Edward smiled. “Come with me. I’ll give you the world. All the pretty curios you could possibly want. All the fine dresses, ribbons for your hair, and shoes.... All the luxuries you can imagine.”

  Dismayed, Mari had to stop his words; she reached up and put her fingers to his lips, cringing inwardly at the intimate gesture. “I believe your intentions,” she said. “Where will we go?”

  “We need not go far,” he said, but Mari had the lapse she needed. She twisted roughly away from his loosened grip.

  ⇜⊂⊃⊂⊃⊂⊃⇝

  Sebastian rounded the corner, wondering where Lady Mari had been so intent on going. He almost did not expect to catch up with her, so he was very surprised to see her and Edward, of all people, in a very intimate position. He stopped short, all reason leaving him as his anger began boiling over. Here he had been trying for a moment of her time so he could apologize, when all the while she had been cavorting with his half-brother.

  He didn’t think he had been seen yet, so, waving Artemis aside, he backed up, intending to retreat around the corner. Just before he turned, however, he saw Lady Mari wrench herself out of Edward’s arms. As she ran away from him, Sebastian ducked into a doorway to see what would happen next.

  The young lady didn’t have a prayer of escaping Edward, hampered as she was by her long skirts and delicate slippers, but she gave it a good run. Edward caught up with her a few feet away from Sebastian’s hiding place, grasping her arm and hauling her around to face him.

  “That wasn’t very nice,” Edward said, easily keeping hold of her despite her struggles. “You didn’t let me finish.”

  “Please,” she said, the fear in her voice hard to miss.

  “I’m not going to hurt you,” Edward insisted. “I just want you to hear me out.”

  “But you are hurting me,” she said fiercely, struggling even harder.

  “If you...would just...stop....” He had to work a little harder to keep her restrained. Managing with one arm to pin her arms down for a moment, he used his free hand to bring her head in close enough to kiss her.

  “No!” she said through clenched teeth.

  “Enough!” Sebastian said, stepping out of the doorway just as Artemis leapt out into the street. He had seen enough to confirm this was not some little acting display. Lady Mari was indeed in serious distress.

  Edward jerked his head away from the lady’s and turned his body sideways against Artemis’ attack. Braced, he only staggered a step, taking the lady with him as the canine crashed her full weight into him. Artemis was trained well enough not to actually bite the young prince—yet—and Edward was able to throw her off with one hand.

  “Call her off,” he said.

  Artemis obeyed Sebastian’s order, but she crouched in a ready position, eyes never leaving her target, ears pricked back to listen for the next command.

  Edward turned to look at Sebastian, but he did not release his hold. He glanced down at Artemis, whose hackles were up as she growled menacingly only a few steps away.

  “This is none of your affair, stable brat. Lady Mari and I are having a discussion.”

  “All appearances are to the contrary.” Sebastian matched his acid tone. “Unless it is common to call rape a discussion.”

  Edward let go of the lady abruptly—all but the wrist of her right hand, which he held tightly. “As rape was not my intention, I find your accusation baseless and quite shocking. I demand you retract it. At once.”

  Sebastian readied himself for a fight, though a fight was the last thing he wanted. “Rape may not have been your intention, sir, but I’d say your behavior qualifies. Release her. At once.”

  His eyes squinted up, and Edward raised his hand and Lady Mari’s. Her hand was white with lack of blood and she was doing her best not to cry out as she plucked vainly at his white knuckled fingers. Edward abruptly threw her away from him like a child discarding a rag doll. She stumbled forward into Sebastian, who had to pass her behind him to keep Edward in full view.

  She gasped once, but
Sebastian did not dare turn to look at her.

  Edward did not draw the knife at his waist, as Sebastian had expected him to, though his hands clenched and unclenched as if itching to do just that. Hatred burned bright in his half-brother’s eyes, and Sebastian wondered what was keeping him from attacking.

  ⇜⊂⊃⊂⊃⊂⊃⇝

  Part of Edward wanted badly to draw on his half-brother and finish the whole thing now without the need for an army, but the other part did not want this blood on his hands.

  “Do it!” the demon-witch hissed, seemingly in his ear, though he knew she was not visible. “No witnesses, no crime. Do it!”

  Maudette was wrong, though. The girl would be a witness, and since she would not yet come to his side, he would have to kill her, too. And that he would not do.

  Finally, he was able to open his mouth and grind out some almost unintelligible words. “My apologies to the lady,” he said. “My only intent was conversation. I’m sorry if I frightened you.”

  With that, he turned and walked away, down the alley and around a corner. As expected, the witch appeared, walking at his side. “You could have ended it there,” she said, a trace of anger in her voice. “You were moments away from reaching your goal.”

  “But I did not,” he said sharply, not looking at her. “I will not take my brother’s life in some alley, with him not even armed. There is no honor in that.”

  “Your brother?” Maudette said, pouncing on his omission of the obligatory “half.”

  “Half-brother,” he corrected, surprised he had neglected it.

  “You aren’t considering reneging on our deal, are you?” she asked, her voice suddenly soft as sea foam.

  “I still do not know the terms of ‘our deal’,” he said, still walking angrily toward the gate leading into the village. “Unless you’re ready to seal the bargain, I suggest you stop harping on it. Or are you still waiting on this partner of yours to grant you permission?”

  “You had better mind your mouth with me, boy. If I didn’t like you, I’d crush you like a spider beneath my heel.”

  Edward pulled to a stop and faced her. “Except I have something you want,” he said. “And though I can’t figure what it is, I can bet you’re just itching to get my word on it.”

  The demon-witch stared at him, eyes blazing like black fire. Edward stared back, intending to stare her down. Instead, he found himself swimming in the darkness of her eyes until he felt that same desire he had felt when they first met. And heaped on top of that sat all the frustration he felt from being thwarted in his attempt for Lady Mari.

  Enflamed, he reached out and grasped the witch by her raven black hair, pulling her head down to kiss her soundly on the mouth. Roughly, he pushed her up against the nearest wall.

  She pulled her mouth from his to speak. “Yes! Yes, my strong one. Say you will stay with me for eternity.”

  “Is that all?” he gasped, reeling from the shock of his desire for her and the passion of that kiss.

  “All I want is you, bound to me, for eternity.”

  “Bound to you...now?”

  Maudette laughed, stroking his hair. “No, my pretty, pretty boy. After you die. That is the beauty of our deal. You live as king of the Bonnie Isles, and when you die, you join me.”

  “The price is my soul,” he said, coming to the slow realization despite his nearly drugged state of mind.

  “A small thing, really. You won’t miss it.” She leaned down and kissed him again. He felt his resistance slipping away, all but a small seed of independence, which buried itself away from the witch’s influence. “Come,” she said. “It’s time to join your army.”

  Chapter Eleven

  “Are you all right?” Prince Sebastian asked after Prince Edward disappeared around a corner.

  “I think so, yes,” Mari said, brushing her dress self-consciously. “He just...frightened me.”

  “Would you like to sit a moment?” He gestured to the stoop of a doorway just a few feet away.

  “Maybe I should.” She didn’t feel all that steady on her feet now that the rush of fear had left her. She took a step toward the stoop, and Prince Sebastian put his hand on her elbow to steady her. “Do you really think he meant to....” She couldn’t bring herself to say the word.

  “I don’t know,” the Prince said, helping her sit down. “I doubt he set out intending to force you into anything, but he’s used to getting his way. That you would turn him down probably didn’t occur to him. I ought to send someone after him.” The prince waved someone forward and said, “Follow him. Just keep an eye on him and see that he doesn’t terrorize any other ladies.”

  Mari looked up to see Jared, the prince’s royal bodyguard, nod and trot briskly away in the direction Prince Edward had taken, accompanied by the prince’s great canine. She groaned inadvertently.

  “Are you hurt?” Prince Sebastian asked, concerned.

  “I’m afraid my wrist may bruise, but I was mostly thinking of my reputation. I didn’t realize Jared had witnessed this unfortunate scene.”

  “Rest easy, Lady. He only just arrived, and anyway, Jared is not one to spread rumors. Why did you turn Edward down?”

  The question surprised Mari, and she took a moment before answering. “A number of reasons, I suppose. I don’t know him at all, for one. The way he tricked me into coming here for another....”

  “Tricked you?”

  “Yes. He sent a page who told me Princess Katrona wanted to see me, and then led me here. Then Prince Edward wasn’t making any sense. He wanted me to go away with him, and he would give me ribbons for my hair. Or something like that. It was all very confusing, and I was quite frightened. He said....” She stopped herself before revealing Prince Edward’s summation of her feelings and Prince Sebastian’s lack of them. “He was very bold, but I don’t think he really intended any harm.”

  “It’s not like him,” Prince Sebastian agreed. “He may be self-centered and spoiled, but I’ve never known him to be vicious. Not physically, anyway.”

  Jared came back around the corner and jogged up to join them. “I lost him, Your Highness,” he said. “He must have gone back out onto Main Street. I couldn’t find any sign of him.”

  “That’s all right, Jared,” the prince said. “He’s probably off sulking somewhere. Maybe he’ll go see Katrona at the convent.”

  “Oh!” Mari exclaimed. “The convent. I’ve been meaning to tell someone. I saw this woman there, twice now.”

  “A woman? Many women go to the convent,” Jared said.

  “This one seemed, well...strange. She wore a hood that concealed her features. And the first time I saw her, I think she was trying to get inside the convent. The second time I saw her, she was standing in the alley beside the convent. I don’t know. It’s probably nothing, but it was strange. I just thought it would be a good thing to let someone know.”

  Prince Sebastian and Jared exchanged glances, and then the prince looked at her. “We’ll keep our eyes open. There’s been enough oddness around here, we had better not discount anything.”

  That was a cryptic remark, Mari thought.

  “In the meantime, I suggest we return to the keep. The play, if I’m not mistaken, was nearly over, and anyway, we must have missed the most exciting part.” Prince Sebastian extended his hand to her. “Will you come with me, Lady Mari? If we go to the rooftop, we should have an excellent view of the fireworks.”

  “I would like that,” Mari said, taking his hand and rising. To her surprise and pleasure, he tucked her arm under his and escorted her back, into the keep and up on the rooftop. The great dog trotted at their heels, and Jared followed.

  ⇜⊂⊃⊂⊃⊂⊃⇝

  Katrona shivered, struggling to hold onto the feeling of the stone floor against her forehead. She had lost the words of the prayer she had been reciting, unable to hold onto even the simplest plea for help. She was drowning in a sea of darkness, losing all sense of self to the whirling chaos slowly taking over.


  “Give up,” her mother’s voice whispered. “Or you will go down. Join me. Or die in misery. Hate with me. Or suffer for all eternity.”

  “No,” Katrona ground out. “I will do neither.”

  “Your God has forsaken you. He knows you belong with me.”

  “No! He loves me.” The thought gave her strength, and Katrona focused on it. “God loves me.” She could hear other voices affirming that fact, and she took heart.

  “Only with me will you prevail.”

  “God loves me,” Katrona whispered.

  ⇜⊂⊃⊂⊃⊂⊃⇝

  Sebastian walked to the edge of the parapet with Lady Mari’s arm still tucked snug against him. He motioned for Jared to join them as they looked out over the courtyard.

  Gathered below stood at least two hundred people, with more gathered in the street and alleys leading to the great courtyard before the keep. All of them soon to be his subjects; all gathered to see him crowned at sunset the next day.

  “There are so many of them,” he whispered.

  “I’m sorry,” Lady Mari said. “I didn’t hear you, Highness.”

  He cleared his throat. “I said they should like the fireworks. I’m supposed to give the cue for the show to start. I forgot about that before we came up here.”

  “It’s all right, Highness. I told Peter to watch for us. He’ll get everyone’s attention directed up here.”

  “Thank you, Jared. What would I do without you?”

  “You would just be late, at times,” the bodyguard said with a smile. “Look, you’re on.”

  Below them, all faces turned toward the dais where the royal family was supposed to be sitting as a fanfare announced a royal proclamation. They could see a figure rise from a seat, and Sebastian instantly recognized his twin.

  “Ladies and gentlemen,” Aslynn’s voice rang out. “If I could direct your attention to the rooftop of the keep.”

  As one, all faces below looked up and turned in his direction. Sebastian raised his arms above his head.