Chapter 10
Cai
I woke up nauseous and with a fierce headache after I’d spent a mostly sleepless night rolling around in my bed. There was a council meeting this morning, which I cancelled because I truly didn’t have the mental or physical capacity. Not to mention the mountain of work that awaited me on my desk. I had so many things that were supposed to be occupying my mind, and yet I could only think of Lara.
A training session in the ring seemed like a good idea. The weather was cool, and the fresh air felt nice. The palace grounds were bustling with servants and courtiers, while soldiers filled the training yard. Thankfully everyone appeared to be minding their own business, though I had no doubt that I was still being observed in several peripheral visions.
“Permission to speak freely, Your Majesty?” Jack asked with a light tone. He flexed his wrist and prepared to strike with the blade in his hand.
“Yes, Jack?” I said, knowing that I most likely wasn’t going to like the words coming out of his mouth.
“Your mind is not currently on our practice. Is everything all right, Your Majesty?”
Jack struck my sword with his, almost knocking it out of my hand.
“You’re right, it’s not,” I confessed and dropped my hand. He stopped too, huffing out a breath. We’d been outside for over an hour, if I had to guess. Yet, it still didn’t feel as if I’d been able to release any of the tension inside my body.
“Is this about Queen Elara, Your Majesty?” he asked gently.
I sat down and took a sip from my flask of water. My shirt clung to the sweat on my skin, increasing my irritation. “You have a marvellous talent for pointing out the obvious, Jack.”
He sighed, and hesitated before deciding to speak up again. “I don’t mean to be intruding on your personal affairs, Your Majesty. But what happened?”
“She asked me to marry her,” I blurted out.
His expression filled with surprise, and I wondered for a moment how I had looked when Elara asked me. Probably much more shocked.
“And?” He drawled out the word.
“And I didn’t say yes.”
“Hmm.” He took a seat next to me. “May I ask why, Your Majesty?” Jack had seen the best and the worst of Elara and knew her almost as well as I did.
“I don’t know,” I confessed. Maybe part of the not knowing was the reason I was so angry with myself. I could practically run myself through a wall with frustration. I’d been a mess the day before. I hadn’t said a single thing right. Had I spent so much time trying to push Elara from my mind, these past months, that I didn’t take time to survey all the damage done between us? All the actions and secrets and lies we had webbed ourselves in that one could almost believe it was for the better. I’d kept too many things from her. We were different people now. We were as good as strangers.
“She’s different though, no?” Jack observed. “I mean—” he let out half a chuckle — “she’s still Elara but being on the throne has certainly changed her.”
“In some ways, yes.” But the fire behind her eyes had not yet burned out. Determination and steadfastness lingered there.
She was a force of nature before, unpredictable in her ways. There was no telling what exactly was going on inside her wild mind. We’d become foreign to each other in our time apart, and I was unsure what to feel, what to think, what to do.
“Too much has changed in too little time. There is a lot to take under consideration here and it couldn’t hurt for me and Elara to spend some time together until the agreement would be revised. See exactly what kind of king and queen we turned out to be.”
“I would imagine Her Majesty didn’t respond to your answer very well.”
“In a way,” I told him.
Jack seemed to hesitate again.
“Yes?” I encouraged him, being able to tell after all these years that he had plenty on his mind.
“Forgive me, Your Majesty, it’s just, before, when you were set to marry Eloisa, you seemed to have no quarrel about the fact that you two were strangers. You were happy to marry for duty. So why not now, when the matrimony would benefit Norrandale and Everness?”
I let out a breath, attempting to release the tension in my jaw. I’d come out here to practise duelling with Jack for the purpose of avoiding the subject of politics and Elara. But simply ignoring it wouldn’t make it go away.
“If I’d married Eloisa and things were different with my parents, she would have been princess in Norrandale for a long time. She would have had the ability to get to know the kingdom and the people, to be taught our ways. Elara would be thrown in the deep end, and with the Argonian spies...” I sighed. “I just have a bad feeling. I have to meet with the council. If Aries is planning on breaking the peace alliance, we need to reconsider what an alliance with Everness could mean. Besides, it’s not as if I’m being cruel. Elara isn’t in love with me or anything of the sort...” I trailed off.
“Don’t tell me, you’ve changed your mind and wish to marry for love now.”
I gave him a look. Jack and I didn’t really have secrets. I trusted the man with everything. But there was something about my relationship with Elara that I wanted to keep to myself. I didn’t have to share everything that was on my mind with everyone all the time.
“Afraid she’ll break your heart, Your Majesty?” he teased.
“Shall we get back to it?” I stood up and gripped my sword.
“I must say, Your Majesty, I often forget your pride since you hide it so well.” He laughed to himself but stood up nonetheless.
“I think you forget yourself.” The words sounded like a king’s warning, but Jack and I both respected each other too much to forsake honesty for the sake of propriety.
“Very well.” Jack came into position with a smirk. “On your guard, Your Majesty.”
* * *
I took comfort in Jack being head of my guard and part of the reason was his excellent swordsmanship. Which was why I knew he let me win the round. It was probably meant well, but it only made me feel worse.
“Is that how a king fights these days?”
We turned to see Lara approaching. She was in her riding attire, and I wondered if she’d gone horse riding in the morning. At the sight of her, appearing so calm and collected, my stomach tightened in a knot. Her expression suggested that our conversation yesterday had never happened.
“Not at all,” Jack countered. “Today was a good day. He’s usually much worse.” I sent half a glare his way as Lara grinned, walking into the sand ring.
“What do you say, Cai, want to give it another go?” Her head tilted to the side innocently.
“Mmm” was the only sound I managed to let out. “I’m not sure. If you can remember, last time didn’t end so well for you.” I used my shirt to wipe the sweat off my face and caught Lara’s eyes on my torso. “Your Majesty,” I added, trying not to smile at the memory of our duel in Camp Fairfrith. Right before Ray broke it up anyway. He wasn’t there on the day of the rebellion, and though I had no idea of his whereabouts, I wondered if he was back in Levernia. If perhaps he stayed at the palace with Lara. I felt an unwanted prick of jealousy at the thought.
Her eyebrows rose at my choice of words. “Well, if you’re so confident, then it shouldn’t be a problem for you.”
“Are you sure?” I teased. “We wouldn’t want to bruise your ego too many times.”
Lara’s eyes flared in challenge and she held out her hand to Jack, waiting for him to hand over his sword. I had meetings. I had duties, and yet we both knew I would not be able to drag myself away from a challenge such as this. I wouldn’t be able to drag myself away from her.
“This is ill-advised, Your Majesty,” Jack murmured under his breath, with a smile, but I chose to ignore him. He stepped out of the ring.
“You know what I think?” Lara purred. “I think you’re afraid of losing against me.”
Giving in, I held up my sword and she stood frozen in temporary surprise, as if she didn’t quite expect me to actually agree.
“Well, come on, then.” I cheekily beckoned her closer with my free hand.
With a devious smile across her lips, Lara clutched Jack’s sword and held it up. “Prepare to lose, King of Norrandale.”
“My dignity or my heart,” I boldly teased, not being able to help myself. We both knew that should Lara really have wanted to cut out my heart, I probably would have let her.
“Both.” She winked and came at me.
Her speedy attack caught me off guard for a moment before I regained focus.
Lara aimed high and I countered her strikes one after the other. After a few minutes, I expected her to get tired or perhaps even frustrated, but she seemed to be at ease. I struck left, and as she blocked the blow, I realised Lara wasn’t trying to beat me yet. Instead, she was toying with me. Playing with me like a cat played with its prey before it ripped it to shreds.
“You’ve been practising,” I commented.
“Mmmhhh,” she replied with nonchalance.
I decided to go on the offensive moving more swiftly. She narrowly dodged one of my hits and it threw her slightly off balance. Sparks practically flew as the metal of our swords clashed above our heads. Her arm was stretched above her, and I could tell it was taking most of her strength to keep it up so high.
Our eyes met. “What are you looking at?” she asked.
“Just waiting for you to surrender.” I tilted my head down so that our faces were slightly closer.
“That’s very bold of you to assume, considering you’re currently losing.” Her eyebrows slowly rose and her lips pressed into a line of satisfaction.
“Oh, am I?”
“Look down, Your Majesty.” And sure enough, while one of her hands held the sword above her head, the other pressed the tip of a dagger to my jacket.
“It doesn’t count if you cheat.”
“You didn’t say anything about not using daggers.” We hadn’t moved from our position yet, and I heard Jack mumble something about duties before walking off.
“You didn’t say we could use daggers.”
“If it were a real fight, I would be allowed to use a dagger.”
“If that’s the case...” I grabbed her wrist, holding the dagger, before she could react. I used her surprise to knock the sword out of her hand and twist her wrist so that her back was turned to my chest. Though there was resistance from her side, my physical strength easily overpowered hers. She looked down to where the sword was lying on the ground, and I thought I heard her mutter something like “bastard”.
Sword still clutched in my right hand, I brought it around to her front, keeping it a safe distance away from her neck.
“What were you saying about losing?” My mouth was next to her ear, and I imagined she shuddered.
“Well, this is obviously all still part of my plan to win, letting you think you have the upper hand and all.”
I couldn’t help but chuckle. “I’d really love to see you get yourself out of this.” She was so incredibly close and just the scent of her had me forgetting why I hadn’t accepted the proposal yesterday.
“That won’t be a problem.” She moved her shoulders but we both knew there was no way she could escape my grip.
“Surrender now and we can forget this ever happened. I’ll promise not to bring it up again.”
She huffed out a laugh. “How very chivalrous of you.”
“Well, I am nothing if not chivalrous.”
* * *
I tilted my head in an attempt to stretch out the discomfort in my neck.
“Your Majesty?”
“Mmmhhh?” I looked up towards one of my council members, Lord Burrow, and realised that I hadn’t been listening to a word he was saying. Most days, I didn’t mind the meetings too much. Half of the council members weren’t currently at court, but I felt it necessary to address the issues at hand as soon as possible.
A large table sat in the centre of the room and the drapes and windows were open, allowing a bit of the autumn air to filter in. The walls were lined with portraits of all the previous kings of Norrandale, their eyes overlooking my reign. Our family was proud of its long history of great kings. It was a lot to live up to. I looked at the faces of my forefathers as if their painted expressions held all the answers for me.
“I asked what you propose we do with the Argonian spies?”
Whatever was going on in my head, I needed to gain control of myself. Elara’s proposal wasn’t the only matter requiring my consideration and my council would soon lose respect for me, if only because of my lack of attention.
“We have not been successful in extracting any information from them,” Lord Burrow reminded me. He was many years my senior, a strong-willed man who’d been on the council since the beginning of my father’s reign.
“It leaves us with two options. We can keep them imprisoned here or we can send them back to Argon,” I answered.
“Is there any possibility that this could be their plan? That they wanted to be captured in order to gather information about the palace and the monarchy, just to take it back to King Aries once they’re released?”
“That is entirely possible.” I nodded and there were murmurs of agreement from the others. “So what do you propose? That we should keep the prisoners in Norrandale until further notice?” I needed to get out of this stuffy council room. I was drained, both mentally and physically, and I wouldn’t have been surprised if I started yawning.
“If I may interject,” one of my other council members said.
No one has ever managed to stop you from interjecting , I thought. Lord Stapleton was a rounded man with a weakness for gambling and cake, but he’d been very loyal to the Crown his whole life, thus earning him a spot on the council despite his vices. Most of the men in the room had been around during my father’s rule, and despite my personal feelings towards each of them, I knew I could trust my father’s judgement.
“Is it not also possible that the longer they remain here, the more information they are able to get?” Lord Stapleton asked, and I wondered if it was a speck of icing in the corner of his mouth.
“They are in prison,” Burrow retorted.
“Though we’d like to believe our guards to be loyal, we must also assume that anyone can be bought off,” Lord Stapleton suggested.
“What do you propose, Your Majesty?” All eyes turned to me.
“We know that the Argonian spies would more likely kill themselves before abandoning their king. And it’s like you say, Lord Stapleton, our men could be feeding them information. But we must also consider that if Aries does not get his spies back, he is likely to send more. Perhaps we may benefit from sending them back to Argon.”
“That can be arranged, Your Majesty,” Lord Stapleton commented.
“Yes, we must consider every possibility,” Lord Burrow agreed.
I stood up from the table. “Send them on the first ship back to Argon, and I want an increase in security at all the coastal borders. I would prefer not another one of them set foot in my kingdom.”
“There is another matter, Your Majesty.” Lord Burrow ignored my clear intention to escape the council room.
I refrained from letting out a sigh and slowly fell back into my seat. “Yes, Lord Burrow?”
“Well.” He folded his hands atop the table. “It has come to the council’s attention that you’ve recently had the company of the young Lady Meredette.”
I could already sense where this was going.
“Now we understand Your Majesty has only recently come to the throne and that the kingdom has many fine young ladies. But does this mean there could be the possibility of a new Norrandish queen somewhere in the near future?”
It was a very delicate way of asking me whether or not I was intentionally courting. Of course, many of the council members had their own daughters and nieces they’d be more than happy to send to court.
“Lady Meredette is a close friend of Lady Gwen, who you all know is as good as my sister,” I responded in a monotone. “We merely enjoyed an afternoon stroll together. At present, my only intention is Norrandale’s safety and prosperity.”
“As long as Your Majesty remembers the safety and prosperity of an heir,” the Duke of Mannik chirped, as if I was likely to forget such a thing.
“A wealthy and titled young woman from Norrandale,” Lord Stapleton said. “That’s what the people need. Norrandale needs to be a united kingdom, now more than ever.” I nodded but had stopped listening again, my thoughts with a woman who was both titled and wealthy but very far from Norrandish.