When she walked down from her chamber accompanied by William, she heard some of the servants speak about seeing king Christopher outraged. He went inside his office and ordered for Henry Crawford, the human activist, who was known to be in constant opposition with the kingdom. Her plans altered at the last minute when she knew about the show being controlled by the West. She did not want the king to die anymore.
“Does your head hurt as much as mine?” Mathew groaned and took a seat next to her. “Please tell me there’s enough coffee for me.”
“Lyn prepared enough coffee for the entire kingdom if you want. It’s on the tray over there.” She pointed at the white sink in front of them. On it lay a silver tray with a diamond encrusted Chinoy coffee set.
Mathew strode towards the tray and looked at the black liquid inside. He groaned again.
“I hate bitter coffee.”
“Stop whining,” she chuckled. “There’s sugar in the upper cupboard and some milk right next to the coffee.”
Mathew tried to open it, but it would not budge. “How the hell do we open this thing?”
“Just press your fingerprint on the handle, and it will open by itself.”
“Why?” He did as Riley asked him and the cupboard clicked open. “Wow!”
“Do you remember the laser-ish device that scanned the car, as soon as we entered the castle?”
“Yes.” He poured some coffee inside the small cup and added one cube of brown sugar.
“That actually scanned us and our prints. We are now part of the kingdom and only those who live here are able to open few of the rooms and objects.”
He huffed and sat beside her.
“Stupid technology.” He sipped on his hot drink. “Where were you last night?”
Riley’s heart skipped a beat.
“In my room,” she lied.
“You know, Riles… this consultant, Jonathan, is getting on my nerves. He keeps coming to our practices and speaking to the staff working with us, even though we told everyone that the show should be a surprise to the royals.”
“Yeah,” she scoffed. “He’s an arse.”
“You seem happy this morning.” Mathew relaxed back. He took the newspaper from her hands and started reading.
“Yeah, I feel like good things ought to happen.” She laid her chin on her palm. Her influence must be working.
“I believe they will, eventually,” sighed Mathew and started reading in silence.
“I don’t believe myself to be an ass, Miss Red.” Jonathan’s voice cut through her and Mathew’s chitchat.
Mathew sprung up in his seat and slowly laid the coffee on the table.
“We did not—” He started to think of ways to defend Riley, but Jonathan did not give him the chance to speak.
“Mr. Covington, please give me a minute with Miss Red,” Jonathan ordered him and approached Riley.
“Of course.” Mathew nodded, clearly annoyed. “We will talk later, Rye.”
As Jonathan stood before her, Riley did not bother to straighten her posture. She was in her comfortable summer dress, in the kitchen, and she did not have to be courteous.
“Where did you disappear last night?” he calmly asked her and took a strawberry from the exotic fruit jar laid on the white table.
“I went to my chamber. Was I supposed to be somewhere else?” she retorted and played with the empty coffee cup. If she were at Charbel’s mother country, they would trace the marks left by dry coffee and try to speculate her future according to it. She wondered if there was a charming prince waiting to rescue her. Apparently, there was a charming man, but instead, he was blocking her way towards rescuing the country.
“Are you and Covington a thing now? You know, I sort of figured since you devote most of your time to him.” He occupied Mathew’s seat and slowly bit down the strawberry he was holding.
She contemplated his lips turning scarlet. There was a small red piece at the corner of his mouth. She desperately wanted to trace her tongue and get a taste of the str–his lips. No… she wanted to kiss him. Riley blinked twice. She immediately dragged herself out of his compulsion and focused back on the conversation.
“You barely talk to us. How would you know?”
“I know a lot of things.”
“Why are you insisting on intimidating me? Perhaps, if you don’t treat me the way you treat criminals, I should be glad to give you information about my past. Apparently, you hate being in the dark.”
“The dark is where I always am, but not the dark of the unknown.” He smirked and wiped the corner of his mouth.
Her disappointment for not being the one to do so was obvious by the way she glared at him and he let out a little chuckle of triumph. He knew she was hooked. He knew that whenever she saw him, she would be trying to find her way out of the nest.
“I prefer the light, Mr. Jonathan.” She smiled sweetly. That drove him to the edge because he wanted to make her angry. He wanted to watch her scream at him. And then, he wanted to—
“Prudence is a rich, ugly old maid courted by Incapacity,” he said as he stood up.
His mention of Heaven and Hell by the great mind of William Blake reminded her of their walk in the garden.
“He who desires but acts not, breeds pestilence.” She thanked the Lord she remembered the following line and the way it fit their banter. She cannot let him win.
As he stared into her eyes and did not divert his gaze anywhere near her body, she felt fire rising through her veins. It was eating on her and yearning for his coldness to kill it.
His cellulogram blasted the number 125. He groaned and rolled his eyes for he knew what was waiting for him—kingdom matters.
Riley looked away silently, back at her stained coffee cup.
“We will talk later,” he promised her and hid his device back in his pocket. She nodded and turned away without a word.
“The king is growing mad,” Charles Arnold spoke in a hushed voice. There was no ear, no breath, and no eye to spy on them, except the ghosts of historical figures hung about the Symposium in the shape of exquisite paintings.
“I want to be of help to you, but I can’t even tell what’s going on,” sighed Jonathan. He had no clue of what to do or how to fix the situation his father had put the Assembly in. If he were to agree with that alteration of wishes, he would be defeated along with him.
Arnold tapped his knuckles on the black table and brooded over solutions. No one would be able to influence the king’s mind except his consultant.
“You are following my chain of thoughts, correct?” He attempted to see any sort of betrayal in Jonathan’s eyes, but the latter had a sincere confused look on his face.
“Charles, I was the one to suggest hiring the circus here. Do you honestly think I would change my mind out of the blue?”
“I don’t know. I can’t tell who is right and who is wrong anymore.”
“Look, this is a minor step back. I will speak to Christopher and see what drove him into making such decisions.”
“Alright. Make sure he goes back on the right track. Oh, and he should cut off from using extra medicine.”
“Watch your mouth, Arnold,” he warned him. “I already am aware of the solemnity of the situation. I won’t hesitate to cut off your tongue if you utter another wicked thing about your king.”
“I am only stating the obvious, John,” he grumbled. “You do realize that North Caligo is suffering from poverty because it tried to rebel against the kingdom some years back.”
Jonathan nodded. North Caligo planned on releasing civilized protesters who objected to the laws placed upon the salaries of the factorists and formed a labour movement against the government. Since then, the West struck them and bombs sent their houses to flames.
“I’m going to speak to him, but don’t tell anyone about this or make any decision until I call for the Assembly meeting.”
“I never object to your demands.” An evocative smile was drawn on Charles Arnold’s l
ips that made Jonathan frown and leave the Symposium in flaming anger.
A blue neon light scanned over Jonathan’s palm and slid open the door of the king’s bedroom. His father was standing in his bathrobe in front of his bed and tying it close. It was yet to be the time of the day when the king bathed himself in the large tub with the proper salts to calm his nerves.
“You’re taking your bath early today,” Jonathan started and the door behind him shut automatically.
“Hello, Nathan,” Christopher greeted him with a gentle smile.
“It’s John,” he replied irritated.
Christopher’s smile only widened. “I have been waiting for hours for the water to heat up.”
They both left the side of the bed and headed for the adjacent room where the steam rose like ghosts from the heating tub. Jonathan walked closer to the faucet and pressed the golden button.
“That’s because you didn’t press the heat me button.” A hint of sympathy flashed through him as he watched his father looking confused.
Christopher frowned then shook his head. “I am an old chap now.”
“Listen, I wanted to speak to you regarding the meeting this morning with the Assembly.”
The king let out a knowing snigger.
“Did Arnold send you?”
“It’s not about Arnold. It’s about the irrational decision you have made.”
“You are being foolish.”
“Foolish?!” Jonathan’s voice began to rise. “You’re rooting for a death wish.”
“The only thing I’m rooting for is justice.”
“Since when?! The West will roast you!” Jonathan let out worriedly. He was done with his father’s attitude when the consequences were as clear as the sun in the South.
Christopher knew his son’s strategic mind. He knew he was thinking like a true Freedian king, that being the puppet of the West. He approached him carefully.
“You think I don’t know that the end of the chapter is coming? You think I don’t know that there are spies already lurking in the darkness awaiting to dispose of my body and leave a stupid painting in the Symposium as the only evidence of my existence?”
As if his father had restated the true history of Regitum, Jonathan’s eyes dropped to the floor. He could not understand when and why this enlightenment descended on him all of a sudden, putting his and his kingdom’s life in danger.
“Then why are you adamant on following this foul path?” he asked him honestly.
“If my time to perish is near, then let it count.”
He paused for a moment.
“Whom did you hang out with yesterday?”
“This is none of your business.” The king rolled his eyes and began to adjust the temperature of the water.
“It was with Riley, wasn’t it?” Jonathan’s blood was boiling. He felt betrayed and… No, he felt angry. He was ready to go mad if the answer was a confirmatory one.
“No.” Christopher smiled and met his boy’s eyes. “I see your interest in the girl. I don’t blame you. She is radiant.”
Jonathan did not take it upon himself to watch his father see through him.
“Where are you going with this?”
“A king needs a queen, Jonathan. Choose wisely.”
He watched his father speaking like the wise man he once was. He was not being smart, he was being wise. Jonathan did not like it. Smart people knew how to escape their doomed fate. Wise people ended up with a rope around their necks and a public display to the citizens of their own country.
“Who are you?”
“The same as I always have been.”
“No!” Jonathan gritted on his teeth. “A king needs a queen?!Where’s your queen now?! Huh?!”
“We’ve been over this, Nathan.”
Jonathan flinched again. It was like hell broke loose and he exploded.
“You let Dyane flee with my brother. And who knows?! They might have been obliterated for all I know. So don’t talk to me about a queen.”
“You’ve never liked her! She is not even your mother!” Christopher argued in his own defence. “Why do you care now?!”
“Because you’re following her steps. And I will not stand for this.”
The king laughed. It was a true hearty laugh that time.
“I hope she’ll enlighten you like she’s enlightened me.”
“When did she ever enlighten you? And besides, she won’t be able to now. Would she?”
“I am not talking about Dyane. I am talking about Riley.”
Jonathan’s breaths were calming down at the mention of the woman’s name.
“When did she get the chance to do that? You barely see her as far as I know.”
“Her presence is powerful.” The king paused for a second. Then, as though he had snapped out of a daze, he continued. “Out of the bathroom. I need to bathe alone.”
“By the way,” Jonathan started as his voice calmed down, “tomorrow is Independence Day. The circus will perform and after that, you are to agree for the show proposed to them. Otherwise, I feel it in my heart that things would spiral down from there.”
“I will do what I find suitable.”
Jonathan swallowed then nodded.
“Before you leave,” the king called after his son, “I need to give you something.”
The moment the door slid close behind Jonathan, he heard footsteps quickly stepping away even though there was no evidence of a human presence nearby.
Chapter 16
Awave of satin, silk, and velvet gently swayed with the breeze as Riley opened the doors of her closet. One dress after the other reflected against her emerald eyes as she hummed when she found something that interested her like a certain fabric, colour, or cut.
“You could go for the white one, milady,” Una suggested.
Riley pondered for a moment as she scanned the lace that covered the chest area of the mentioned dress. “No, it would look like I’m getting married.” She kept walking in the closet and decided on something purple.
“What do you think of this one?” She turned around and laid the purple dress on her body. “Does it seem proper for the party after the show?”
“Of course, it’s going to be your own choice, Milady—”
“Riley.”
“Riley.” Una turned red. “I apologize. I meant Riley. It is your choice and it’s a beautiful dress, but it is Independence Day. I would go for black or white… or both. You know with the Elegy Ode and the March, no one would be in a colourful outfit. It is either black or white.”
“Urgh,” Riley groaned and threw the dress on the chair next to her. “Stupid Independence Day. I think I’ll go for black with silver jewellery.”
Una nodded enthusiastically and rushed to neatly put the dress back on the hanger.
“Speaking of tomorrow, who will be attending the event?” asked Riley as she moved from one black dress to another.
“The entire kingdom: king, royals, ministers... What do you think of this one?” She pulled out a long black dress.
It was long-sleeved, tight from the top, and had a bare back. From the waist down, it fell in large waves with the shades of black but incrusted with long diamond strings that gave it a glow in the dark.
“Beautiful.” Riley’s smile widened and she looked at Una proudly. “I will definitely wear this one.”
Una’s eyes sparkled with joy for making Riley happy. Then she accompanied her to the dresser to pick the jewellery.
“So when you said that the king is attending, does that mean the Assembly is attending as well?”
Una nodded. Riley was getting a little impatient. “Hmm.”
“You know, you should not worry about Jonathan, Riley. He is a fine gentleman.”
“Who?” Riley bolted from her seat, even though she struggled to look natural.
“Jonathan, the consultant.” Una closed the drawer and turned back to Riley. “He is not a horrible person, just strict with newcomers. He doesn’t lik
e strangers in the castle, so he tends to be a little bit intimidating.”
“I don’t find him frightening at all. He just caught me off guard at the banquet.”
“He really is worthy of his position. It is just a matter of security.”
“How did he get to his position anyway?” Riley asked her. Una seemed like someone who would know what is happening around the castle.
“The king’s cousin came to visit and she brought her child with her,” Una told her but a change in her tonality made Riley know she was not being entirely truthful, “and the king took care of him. The king decided to take care of Jonathan and raise him to be an important part of the kingdom. Rules were rules. To raise real men in the kingdom, boys are usually sent to war at a young age. And so was Jonathan sent to war on the borderlines against the Amazon.”
“Amazon is still not considered as part of the West, right?”
“No, they are still resisting.”
The Amazon was free of any reign even before the World Wars. When the West and the East went into an endless brawl, they tried to turn it into an ally. It resisted and still resists until this very day. It preserved its name from the Old World, its culture, its laws and rights, and its people. The West kept trying to attack and forced the East to join the fight, even though everything was going in vain. Something protected that country, and it was the unity of its people.
“So, you were saying that Jonathan was sent to the Amazons to fight there. It isn’t even his fight.”
“It is no one’s fight but our leaders’. Yet Jonathan had a duty to this country and he did not defy the orders of the king. He accepted it willingly and went at the age of fifteen to war. There are stories told about him, how he mercilessly fought the enemy and did not even blink when one of his mates blew up to pieces.
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