by Jody Hedlund
What about the people of Bryttania? Could I really stand back and allow Magnus to take over where the king left off? Knowing Magnus’s temperament, he’d show even less compassion to the people.
A shudder worked its way up my spine and served only to solidify the resolve that had been growing since we’d climbed out of the dark depths of the labyrinth. The kingdom was in ruins. The city of Delsworth was under siege. The king was dying. And now Magnus would be the next ruler.
For the love of this kingdom and its people, I comprehended with sudden clarity what I needed to do. As Father Patrick had once admonished, I had to do what was right in the sight of God and man.
“The king is bandaged,” Emmeline said from behind me. “But I don’t think you should attempt to move him.”
At the realization of the hurt I would cause Emmeline, pain pierced my heart as deeply as if someone had plunged a dagger into it. In the short term, she might not understand and might hate me. But maybe eventually, she’d see the wisdom of my plan and realize I only wanted her safety, along with the security of her future.
“Perhaps we can offer the hand of peace to Adelaide,” she suggested. “And negotiate a truce with the promise of half the treasure?”
Her presence behind me was strong and beckoned me to spin and pull her into my arms. Instead, I took a deep breath and pushed past the pain in my throat. “The queen will have it all.”
“She will?”
“I am leaving the chest of gold here.”
“I see,” she said after a moment, her voice laced with disappointment. “Then you hope to defeat her soldiers by subjecting them unknowingly to the poison.”
“No.” I turned so I was facing her and forced the words I knew I must say. “You will stay behind and warn them of the poison.”
“I cannot—”
“You will be safer this way.”
Her luminous eyes searched my face, and she stepped closer as though sensing the chasm growing between us—a chasm of my own making. “I don’t need you to worry about my safety. I’m stronger than you know.”
“It is precisely because of your strength that I am leaving you behind.” Ultimately, she would overcome the hurt I caused her and go on to have a good life, one with her sisters and even her parents—if I could get to them in time.
“I don’t understand.” She lifted her hands to my face, but I stepped out of her reach. If I let her touch me, even slightly, I’d be lost. I wouldn’t be able to think clearly, and my desire for her would overshadow my resolution.
I climbed up into my saddle, putting myself even farther from her. “You will be better off with your sisters.”
“That’s my decision to make.”
“You belong with them.”
“I belong with you.”
I shook my head, my frustration mounting. “I took what was never mine to begin with.” Those were the king’s words, but I was beginning to believe them.
“But we’re married. It’s too late to have regrets.” Her voice hardened, and her chin jutted out with her telltale determination.
“It is never too late to make things right.”
“You vowed you would love and cherish me.”
Yes, I’d vowed I would love and cherish her until death. And in the deepest region of my heart, I would. Even so, I’d broken my vow by siding with the king instead of with her. My integrity, my word, my promises—they were already useless. What was one more offense?
“I have failed you one too many times.”
“What about what I want?” Suddenly, her tone was threaded with desperation.
I stared off into the distant craggy landscape, watching as the rising sun turned the rocks to crimson, and I steeled myself for severing our bond. It was the only way to save her, and I had to stay strong though everything within me demanded I dismount and draw her into my arms.
“You will build a new life for yourself,” I finally said. “And eventually, you will forget about me.”
“You’re despicable,” she said, the same words she’d uttered once before. Only this time I knew she was right. I was despicable, just like the king, which was all the more reason to let her go.
I shouted orders to my men, attempting to ignore Emmeline’s eyes upon me and the hurt within them. After a whispered conversation with my second-in-command, my men hoisted the king into the saddle in front of me. Only then did I chance a final glance at her.
She stood back, her arms crossed, her beautiful eyes blazing with fury.
I gave her a curt nod good-bye. Before she could react, I twisted away and kicked my horse into a gallop. I needed to put as much distance as possible between us so I wouldn’t give way to the longing to throw aside all caution, gather her into my arms, and beg her to stay with me forever.
I couldn’t do it. I had to leave. If I didn’t, I’d never be able to follow through on the difficult task set out before me.
Chapter
24
Emmeline
I stood staring at the trail where Rex had ridden away, unable to pull my eyes from it, praying I’d see his proud but strong frame as he rode back for me.
But with each passing minute, my chest throbbed more painfully with the realization he’d left me and had no intention of returning.
Inside the cave, one of Rex’s knights had remained to tend Alaric in his dying moments. He knelt beside his comrade and was doing his best to make him comfortable.
“You should leave now,” I called to the knight, “before the queen’s army arrives.”
He stood and exited the cave. “The prince has ordered me to stay, Your Highness.”
“They will take you as their prisoner.”
“Aye, they will.”
“And what if they put you to the sword?”
“So be it, Your Highness.”
“And if I command you to leave?”
“I will obey the prince and stay.”
“You don’t owe him such loyalty.” I couldn’t keep the anger from my tone. The prince didn’t deserve my loyalty either. Why, then, was I waiting for him?
“I don’t owe him, Your Highness.” The knight stared off in the direction Rex had gone, his eyes sad. “But I’d willingly do whatever he asks, even lay down my life for him.”
Something in the man’s expression sent a shiver of trepidation through me. I wasn’t surprised that the knights Rex had brought from Warwick were loyal to him. He was a hard master, but I’d learned he never asked them to do more than he was willing to do himself. He advanced on danger fearlessly, took the lead, protected his men as best he could, and showed them compassion when it most counted.
My eyes clouded with moisture, and I blinked rapidly to keep my tears from spilling.
Rex was a good and decent man. So why had he broken his vow to me? His promise from after the hasty wedding in the forest had stayed with me: I meant my vow to you. And I will choose to love and cherish you unto death.
The heat of my anger turned suddenly cold. I spun and looked at the trail with understanding. The only way he’d break his vow was if he suspected he would die in the fight to come.
I started toward one of the remaining horses. I needed to go after Rex and stop him. We could find a way to end the conflict without him having to give up his life.
Rex’s faithful knight abandoned his work and raced after me. “Your Highness, the prince asked me to give you something.”
He was trying to stall me so that then he could grab me and keep me from going after Rex.
I didn’t break my stride and was near my horse when he rounded me, putting himself between me and my means of getaway.
“He wanted you to have this.” The soldier held out a key. It was plain, similar to the one for the scriptorium.
I took it hesitantly.
“The prince said you’d know what to do with it.”
I turned it over and studied it. I’d seen the key recently, but where? My mind flashed with the image of Rex using it as w
e’d crawled through the tunnel underneath the moat leading out of Delsworth.
Why had Rex given this to me? Did he expect me to use it to gain entrance into the castle?
“The prince was wrong.” I held the key out to the knight. “I don’t know what to do with it.”
Without taking the key, he crossed his hands behind his back. “Your Highness, if the king dies . . .” The look in the soldier’s eyes told me he knew as well as I did that it wasn’t a matter of if the king would die, but when. “The prince may have to battle his brother for the throne.”
“You don’t think the king was serious about giving the throne to Magnus, do you? You all love Prince Ethelrex and would fight for his right to be the next king.”
“Aye, we’d fight for the prince. But the king’s loyal men would fight for Prince Magnus, and we’d soon find ourselves warring each other at the same time we’re battling an invading army.”
Rex, with his small band of knights, would be at a disadvantage against Magnus and the king’s much bigger army. Even if Rex had sufficient forces, I doubted he’d want to fight his brother for the throne and cause even more strife in his kingdom.
“Why did he want me to have the key?” I fingered the key again.
“He didn’t come right out and say, Your Highness. But my guess is that he doesn’t want his people to suffer any more than they already have.”
I tested the commander’s words and tried to make sense of them. Was Rex giving me a way to bring an end to the conflict not only with his brother but with Adelaide? Was he inviting me to betray him, capture his city, and ultimately doom his life and his claim to kingship?
If so, Adelaide would likely put both of King Ethelwulf’s sons to death and eliminate their threat to the throne. And if she spared their lives, they’d find themselves her prisoners, locked away in a tower, secluded from the outside world.
I shook my head. I couldn’t set into motion plans that would ultimately result in Rex’s downfall and possible death. I loved him too much to even consider it.
Several dozen men wearing the standard of Mercia surrounded our camp within the hour. I came out of the cave with my hands up in surrender. Rex’s faithful knight stood close by.
“I am Princess Emmeline,” I said loudly, hoping my voice carried. “Except for one soldier who remained behind for my protection, I’m alone. King Ethelwulf and his son are gone.”
Adelaide’s forces stayed hidden, and no one made a sound.
Did they suppose I was attempting to lure them out so the king’s men might attack?
“Emmeline,” came a woman’s voice. “It is I, Maribel, and my husband, Edmund, Lord Chambers.”
I searched the rocks for Maribel but didn’t see her.
“I give you my word,” I called. “I am alone. The king and his men abandoned me an hour ago.”
Several moments later, a knight stepped out from behind a tall crag. He walked cautiously, his weapons drawn as though expecting an attack. Of course, Adelaide’s men wouldn’t believe me. Why should they?
“I am Lord Chambers,” he said, halting and peering beyond me into the cave.
A harpy eagle swirled in lazy circles high above our camp, and I felt certain it was the same one we’d seen when we’d been riding away from Inglewood Forest.
“Your Highness,” Edmund said with a slight bow. “May I look around?”
“Certainly.” I stood aside and waved to the cave behind me.
He approached slowly, ducked inside, walked to the labyrinth entrance, and peered down before finally coming back out. “The princess is speaking the truth. She is alone except for a guard and a dying man,” he called. “The king and his men have indeed abandoned their efforts.”
As Edmund spoke, Maribel rushed forward, worry turning her eyes a wintery blue. “You’re injured!” She focused in on my neck where the king’s blade had left its mark.
“It’s nothing.” At least compared to everything else we’d experienced down in the labyrinth.
I insisted Maribel tend to Alaric first. Although she gave him a tonic to ease his pain, she shook her head sadly, confirming what we’d already known—that he would die.
Afterward, Maribel led me to a shaded spot outside, made me sit down, and set to work pulling out an assortment of supplies to doctor my wound. As she cleaned the cut and applied salve, I answered Edmund’s questions, relaying all that had happened since leaving Adelaide’s camp and arriving in the Highlands. By the time I finished, both were staring at me with wide eyes.
Edmund tilted his head toward the chest that sat just inside the mouth of the cave. “Then the treasure is useless? It will kill anyone who touches it?”
“It would appear so,” I said.
Maribel gently dabbed my wound. “I should like to concoct a cleanser, a bath of sorts where we could soak the gold to rid it of the poison.”
“Is such a thing possible?” I asked.
“We must try. Think of all the good we could do for the people with just this one chest of gold.”
“Would Adelaide use it for the people?” I doubted King Ethelwulf would have done so even if he’d had several chests of the gold. His greed had consumed him so that in the end his love of the treasure had superseded his love of his son.
“Adelaide seeks nothing for herself,” Maribel said. “You have heard the stories of her generosity, have you not?”
My father had brought back tales of Adelaide, stories of how she’d saved an entire village by drawing from her own purse of gold for them, of how she’d ruled her tenants with the same generosity, and how she’d continued to pay the ironworkers in her father’s smelter by selling off her family’s possessions.
“Her reputation precedes her,” I replied, “not only as a wise queen but a caring one.”
“Then you will allow us to take the chest of gold?” Edmund asked. “Even if Adelaide does not win the throne, she will want to aid the people in any way she can.”
Adelaide deserved to win the throne. The truth was too strong to deny any longer. Though Rex was a good man and might be able to help restore the land, his father’s evil legacy would always haunt him. And of course, if Magnus became king, the evil legacy would continue.
Though I’d been hoping my union with Rex would stave off conflict, I could see now that King Ethelwulf’s evil had to be uprooted. Even if I’d grown to care about Rex, I shouldn’t have abandoned my family’s cause.
If I was honest with myself, I’d abandoned the fight for the throne long ago, even before I’d met Rex. For too many years, I’d let fear control me so that all I’d wanted to do was hide in the woods and stay out of the conflict.
But I could do so no more. My father’s words from long ago surfaced to spur me on. God made you for more. This was the time for more.
Adelaide and Maribel had each used their gifts to bring about needed change, but they could go only so far. Now it was my turn to rise up and do my part in bringing about restoration and peace.
It was my turn. The words reverberated through me, bringing an ache to my chest that hurt beyond anything I’d known yet.
Maribel started to slather another ointment over my wound, but I stood quickly, the pain in my heart far worse than the cut in my neck.
She sat back on her heels, her brows rising.
I pressed a hand against my chest to ease the ache, though I suspected nothing ever would take it away.
Edmund waited quietly, patiently. The gentleness in his eyes told me he sensed my pain and just how much I was sacrificing for the cause.
My throat constricted, and I had to swallow hard to force the next words out. “I know how to defeat the king and his sons.”
To do so, I’d have to turn against the man I loved. And that would require the greatest courage of all.
Chapter
25
Rex
With bowed head, I kneeled beside the king’s bed. Next to me, Mother sobbed softly, and I laid a gentle hand upon her back, wish
ing I could comfort her but knowing no one could.
He has passed. The physician’s words clanged through my mind. Not unexpected, they still brought a swell of inner turmoil.
The king had survived until we’d reached the city of Middleton. There, skilled healers had administered tonics and tinctures to help prolong his life. While he’d lasted the boat ride back to Delsworth, he’d never regained consciousness and had only continued to degenerate over the past several hours since we’d managed to elude the rebel patrols and sneak into the castle through the secret tunnel under cover of darkness.
An hour ago, at dawn, he’d stopped breathing and hadn’t started again. With the head physician’s pronouncement of death, I’d finally given the order to ring the bells and spread the news throughout the city and kingdom regarding the king’s passing.
Now, in the distance, the church bell tolled slow and sad. It wouldn’t be long before everyone knew the king was dead, including the rebels.
How long before Queen Adelaide Constance acted and took advantage of the moment of weakness, this uncertain time where soldiers and townspeople alike would be distracted?
And how long before Magnus made his move?
He’d been with us during the king’s last hours. During that time, several of the king’s faithful bodyguards had pulled him aside and conferred with him. By now, he’d be well aware of our father’s rejection of me as the next king and would likely be planning my demise.
I inhaled a breath of the bitter odor of bloodwort rising from the incense pots around the king’s large, luxurious bed. Though the physicians’ medicinal supplies remained scattered over the bed, they’d stepped out, as had the servants, to allow us a private time of mourning. Magnus had stayed only for a short while before leaving, and now I feared what he was plotting.
A knock on the chamber door was followed by rapid footsteps. I glanced up to find both Father Patrick and Dante entering. “Long live King Ethelrex,” they said in unison, kneeling in the rushes and bowing their heads.