The crowd erupted in applause. It was a moment that Aiden should be proud of. If Dominic had kept his place in the hierarchy he would have respectfully named his son William, but William Carlye should always be a Duke of Denoi.
The moment was lasting; it was the perfect tribute to their father. He watched as Aiden was congratulated and curtsied to.
“Dominic, how is your evening?” Aiden asked as he came and embraced Dominic.
“Bittersweet, but to be around family is the most rewarding.”
Aiden was cheerful. He knew that it had been a long trial for him and tonight was the night that he became the true Duke.
Dominic hoped that Aiden had made it past the fact that he hated Dominic, for leaving, for believing that father loved himself more than Aiden. Maybe he is calm now, he thought.
But Aiden was right about certain things, Dominic had just left. He had regretting leaving several times but he knew that this was not his place, not anymore, and no one knew the real truth and why he left.
“Your Grace,” Dominic asked, “You're speaking of your child. Who is the lucky woman?”
“Ah, maybe, brother you could find me a fair Duchess from your city?” Aiden said smiling.
“I know of one, she is of House Sandrin,” Dominic said as they began to walk. “She will reach her seventeenth year by the end of the summer.”
Aiden laughed. “I guess I will be visiting within the year,” he said. “Please enjoy the night; I must take care of some business.” He squeezed his brother’s shoulder.
He was gone fast. Before too long he had disappeared into the crowd of people still mingling. Aiden had slipped his mind now. Dominic was looking for one person in particular: Mariella.
X
Aiden walked into his chamber. Inside Jacob Southerlin was waiting for him with Mariella. He was growing tired. The night would end soon, and he was ready to retire. He was glad to see everyone this night but he had more business to attend to.
“Your Grace,” Jacob said with a bow when Aiden entered.
“Commander Southerlin, my Lady,” Aiden said as he acknowledged the two.
“I am far from a lady, Your Grace,” Mariella replied.
“But you should be, and that is why I'm here,” he said.
“Your Grace, if I may, is this ruse necessary? Dominic is your brother and our ally,” Jacob said with a look of concern across his face.
Maybe not, but I must know his true intentions, Aiden thought. He had been lost when Dominic left, just a boy who looked up to his big brother. He’d thought Dominic was the man that would lead his people, not the man who would run off and abandon them.
He was torn with emotion inside and couldn't find a way to control it. He was breaking down from the inside. He reached and grabbed an ornate oak box from his desk and pulled it toward him. Opening it he saw his father's prized dueling pistols. They were of Cerabethian design, long, lightweight, perfectly balanced with rifled barrels for top accuracy. They had beautiful polished walnut handles with gold leaf inlay through the stocks and the barrels. Beautiful works of art meant to take a life, he thought as he looked at one of the last things his father had left him.
He’d never learned how to forgive Dominic, but some way it had to come. His heart wanted to, but his instinct told him otherwise.
“No, it is not,” he said. I have to lose these feelings, he thought. “Mariella, please leave us, Dominic is in the Hall,” he said. The mention of Dominic's name brought life to her face, life that Aiden had not seen in years.
She quickly left the room. “She doesn't approve?” Aiden asked.
“She doesn't know.” Sir Jacob said. “She has missed him and hated him for so long, and now he is here. I have agreed for the marriage to take place, if they will have each other. But to do what you speak, she will never approve if she truly loves him.”
“Will she do it for her Duke?” Aiden asked.
“The moment she leaves this city, if she leaves, she will no longer be under the Banners House Carlye but under The House Tiernan.” Jacob said.
And so she will, Aiden thought. “Speak freely Commander, do you approve of this plan?” Aiden asked.
“No Your Grace, I do not!” Jacob was firm with his remark, but Aiden had told him to speak freely. “If my daughter will have Dominic as her husband, then I will allow it. He is a good man. But she will not be part of any blood feud you might think you have with him. Your Grace, Dominic renounced his seat a long time ago and gave it to you. Only the King himself can reinstate the seat to him and if he does it could be taken as an act of war.” Jacob was firm in his speech.
This was out of hand. Aiden knew that Mariella would take Dominic as her husband and that his hopes to keep an eye on his brother would fail. As Jacob said she would never approve of his actions, and within days she would be in the south and away from his direct control.
“Thank you, Commander. My mind is at more ease now,” he lied. He was still weary of his brother's actions, even though they all seemed sincere. “Send word to Lord Wakefield, Earl of the Northern Gates District in Derancross,” Aiden said. “Tell him that our plans have changed now and to continue to be aware. I cannot lose an ally inside the Royal Court. If father's fears were true it will be only a matter of time before the Crown brings an iron fist upon us all.
“If the words of my father are true, King Liam was losing his mind, and the construction of a new estate has now left the crown almost bankrupt. If he starts feeling the pressure, the tax increase that came across us last year will be nothing compared to what he might do. We must stay strong and remember The Treaty of the Six shaped the land we live in now. We must never let the crown bankrupt us and take away our way of life.”
Commander Southerlin understood. The treaty of the six kings brought an end to the Anzothi invasion and it was then that Agantia became the only country on Berasaid to be ruled not only by the King, but by the Dukes who controlled the King's Lands.
The land was divided into eight regions, and each Duke was given his lands to control in the name of the King. The King's power was only as strong as his Duke’s, but the same was true for the Dukes. Without the support of the crown, an entire family could fall within days and the crown could install a new, more loyal house to control that region.
His father had always been loyal to King Liam, even though House Carlye had no representative on the council. Lord William Carlye always did as he was asked and paid every tax. Until the last tax increase, Aiden had never seen his father question a tax. “Two and a half golden crowns for every five? That's half of our money! How does Liam expect us to live?” his father had asked in anger.
“Your Grace, if I may? The King's illness is only a rumor. Did His Grace William say anything of that?” Jacob asked.
Should he know? Aiden wondered. “Father told me that a man named Jarrell told him that the King's illness was true,” he said.
“Did this wanderer say where he knew this from, Your Grace?”
“No, but he did tell my father, days before his death, ‘Liam's mind has been poisoned. Hold your sons close and don't let them stray. The Shadows are coming.”
He saw Jacob look at him curiously. “The Shadows? That’s ancient history Your Grace. That war ended eight hundred years ago; they are gone.”
Aiden knew the stories. It was taught in lessons to children; The Shadow War was the final encounter between the Watchers and the Shadow Beings, the two races of shadows. In the end a group of seers known as the Guiden who fought with Watchers in the war used their power to lock the Shadow Beings in an eternal prison, never to roam again.
“Maybe or maybe not,” Aiden said; Shadows? He thought.”
XI
The food was great. It was much better than the cook's food in the North Castle of Derancross's Military District. “Hello,” he heard from behind him. Dominic’s heart thumped and skipped a beat. His food stuck in his throat.
It had been seven years, seven long years. He t
urned and saw her.
“Lieutenant,” she said as she curtsied. Her brown hair was pulled back into a tight braid and then braided again on top of her head. Her brown eyes sparkled from the torch flames throughout the great hall.
“My Lady,” he said as he bowed slightly.
“I am not a Lady,” she responded.
“As a soldier, I must respect all ladies,” he said. The moment was tense as they stood there looking at each other.
He had waited for this moment for so long, and now he was stuck and didn't know what to do, or what to say.
“I have horses outside. I need to speak to you in private,” she said
His heart stopped again. It seemed that everything was moving entirely too fast.
“My father has given me something to speak with you about,” she said, taking his hand. “Let's go before we are seen.”
~~~~~
Aiden watched from his balcony as the two horses rode off through the castle’s main gate. His emotions were flipping in him; he wanted to believe everything was okay, but his father's paranoia was boiling in him.
Brother, I can't lose you, he thought as he watched Dominic's crimson cloak flap in the wind of the riding horse. I need you more than you know, but I don't know if I can trust you. You are too close to those who could be our enemies. If I could trust you enough to instill you with the knowledge of our father, you would understand. Please, brother, do not be my enemy. His fear was turning into a hot boiling anger now. He rammed the short ram rod of his pistol hard into the bore.
~~~~~
Dominic couldn't believe it. Had she really just told him that Jacob Southerlin had offered her hand to him in marriage? If this would have been the case then, I would be in Aiden's place now, he thought as he watched her look at the stars.
They had made their way outside of the city to the stream where he first saw her almost three days before. He thought of what it would have been like if he had stayed then and not gone to Derancross. Images of him and Mariella sitting upon the High Seat ran through his head. She deserves to be here, not the wife of soldier but the wife of a true lord. “
“I have loved you since you left,” she said to him. “I have wanted you to come home since that day.”
“I would have stayed, but...”
“But what? Why didn't you say goodbye? Why did you leave?”
“So I wouldn't have to see your heart break.” It was true. He didn't want to see his true love's heart breaking at the words that he would be leaving and never to return.
“I guess that is a good reason for not saying goodbye, but why did you leave?” She asked.
“Because I wanted adventure, meaning in my life.”
“That’s not the reason,” she said.
He knew she was right, she had always been right. No one had truly known why he had left; he had used the same excuse with his father, his father who was now dead.
“I was scared,” he said lowering his head in shame.
“What were you scared of?”
“I was scared of Power; having too much power and holding the way of life of hundreds of people in my hands. Mariella, you don’t know what it’s like to know that the decisions you make could affect the lives of so many people.”
“So you become a soldier, it’s the same thing!” She said interrupting him angrily.
“Mari...”
“Dominic, whether you’re a Duke or a battlefield commander, you hold the lives of hundreds of people in your hands. Yes, you lead soldiers and you know that some of them may die doing what they are sworn to do, but think of the families that are affected by the death of those soldiers.” She said.
“A duke is the same; he has to make decisions that could cause the suffering, poverty and even sometimes death of people. So were you scared of hurting people or just scared to follow in your father’s shoes?” She asked.
She was right. He had never thought about it like that before, but she was right. He knew he couldn’t take his father’s place, he never could. “Maybe I was scared. I could never be the man my father was,” he said looking back into her eyes.
All these years he had never realized, until now, why he had run away to join the Crimson Guard. But being with her now made him realize that he wished he would have stayed, but his duty was now with and to the King.
He was truly in love with her, and he wanted to take her back with him. “Will you be my wife? We can marry in the Great Hall of Derancross. I can't give you the life you deserve, but I will give you all that I can,” he said.
It was true; a soldier’s life wasn't that much. He would have to find a house somewhere in the city. Maybe in the Old City, it was better than the Commons and many soldiers of the Crimson Guard with families lived there.
“How could I? I have wanted you back so much that I hate you, my heart still hurts from the day you left,” she said.
“Mariella please.” he begged.
“Put yourself in my shoes Dominic, how you would you feel if the love of your life, ME, walked out and left without a goodbye?”
“I…
They both heard it. Twigs cracking, leaves rustling, the sounds that came from the heaviness of footsteps. “Down,” he told her as he stood and drew his rapier.
“Wait!” A whispering voice said through the darkness. It was Allan, and he was in his armor.
“Allan, what is this?” Dominic asked putting his rapier away.
Allan seemed to be out of breath. “You need to return to the castle now, be prepared for a fight.”
~~~~~
Along with Mariella and Allan he rode through the gates of the Palace. He could see Aiden standing to the side of the Palace's main entrance at a smaller doorway, his face hard and stern.
Around Aiden, Dominic could see that the Carlye men were armed. Five sword and pike men surrounded him, and high above them sharpshooters readied their muskets.
This is not good.
The three of them dismounted from their horses and slowly walked up the short staircase leading to Aiden's position.
“Allan and Mariella, leave us,” Aiden ordered. “Brother, join me, please.”
He followed Aiden and two men at arms into a side entrance of the Palace. It was a side passage used for servants and guards to move around without being seen by the public or any guests who might be in the hall.
They were using this passage, Dominic knew, because some of the guests might still be in the great hall, and Aiden didn't want attention to be brought to them as they made their way into the Palace. They walked without saying a word to each other until they reached Aiden's private chambers on the second floor.
Aiden opened the door and Dominic followed him. Inside, the room was dimly lit and cool. Only a few candles illuminated the room, and the drapes had been pulled, blocking any light from outside coming in. “What are you doing Dominic?” Aiden asked him, turning and looking at him in the eyes.
Dominic was confused. He had no idea what Aiden was talking about. “What do you mean, what am I doing?” Aiden looked at him sourly. “Don't act like a fool. You know that that the King has built a new estate in Derancross. You know that over the past year taxes to the provinces have been raised almost to half of the overall income. Dominic, look with your eyes not with your loyalty. The crown is bankrupt due to this new estate being built. They will tax us until we fall, just to pay for it.”
Dominic knew that the taxes had been raised but he didn't know to what extent. “Aiden, listen-”
“No you listen. The crown is bent on the destruction of the families that rule this country. They mean to take and take until we don't have the means to support ourselves any more. And when that day comes, and we have to go crawling on our knees to the King and ask for money to survive - that will be the day we are cut. We will be cut because we can't pay our dues. We will lose our place and become those who live their lives on copper. Not silver, not gold.”’
Dominic knew that his brother was seeing so
mething that could happen, but he also knew that King Liam would never let the day come when the great houses would fall. “Aiden, King Liam may be over-taxing, but you know as well as I that Father made good with the King and that day will never come.”
“No you don't understand brother.” Aiden scowled. “The House Carlye will be done, and if you don't see that, then get out. If you choose to remain loyal to your oath as a Crimson Guard, then get out. Get out, and never wear the colors of this house again!”
Dominic felt emotions raging in him now. “Aiden?”
“No. it's done. Make your choice Dominic.”
“I made an oath. What did our father say about an oath? You break it only under good…”
“Then you have made your decision.” Aiden cut him off. “You choose the King who will destroy your family that is your blood. Go now before I lose my temper,” Aiden told him, pointing at the door.
Dominic obeyed. Even though he was the older brother, Aiden was his superior. Dominic didn't know what to say to him. He knew that Aiden had always spoken what he felt, and that he would hold it with him for a long time. He didn't want to lose his brother or his family, his blood family.
“Aiden, please listen.” Dominic said.
“No. I can't. Take Mariella and leave.”
XII
The Coming Of Shadows (The Shadow Tide Book 1) Page 5