Chapter 26
Twenty-Six
Kamari
Naming Day was approaching swiftly and without any more word from Aesira since she and the crew departed the Outpost, Kamari had begun to prepare to face the ceremony alone.
Well, almost alone.
Unfortunately her parents were still there and Raffe and after two attempts to kidnap her, the rotation of knights outside her door was endless. She thought her lack of privacy was a problem before, but now it was nonexistent, giving her hardly any time to read the journals at all.
Hanna handed Kamari her tea then resumed braiding her hair. “I hate to say it, Your Majesty,” she said through a sigh, “but your mother has asked me to inform you that Lord Raffe will be joining us this morning.”
The tea lingering in Kamari’s mouth turned sour.
Of course he would be joining her for breakfast.
Raffe was everywhere. At most of her meals.
Sneaking up on her in the library. Waiting for her in the garden.
He showed great concern when that woman almost took her from the party and even though they’d made a pact to keep things cordial between them, he’d become too comfortable.
Moving about the Citadel like it was already his.
Conversing with her parents at such ease she wondered if he forgot they were royalty.
“How is Nev?” Kamari stood and slid into her gown; the violet gauze lightweight in the blooming heat.
“She’s…” Hanna’s fingers paused on the buttons at Kamari’s back. “She’s okay.”
Nev found Kamari, took that woman into custody, and then swiftly found her way to the temple where she exacted her punishment for failing her post. The thick bands of red across her knuckles proved how severe the Order took failure and whenever Kamari caught a glimpse of the knight, the words “I’m sorry” gathered on her tongue, but before she could say them Nev walked away or spoke first or Kamari had a meeting to run off to.
The timing was never right but she needed to say it, should say it, because it was her fault for leaving the party. For not telling Nev where she was.
“Is she on patrol at the wall?” Kamari plucked a pair of jade earrings from the bowl on her vanity and put them on.
“Yes.” Hanna busied herself about the room. Tidying and propping up pillows. “She’s finally stopped physically punishing herself but I think inside she can’t get over the fact that she failed you. Twice. She hasn’t laughed in days.”
“I can hardly recall her ever laughing at all,” Kamari said with a thin smile, hoping to break some of the tension rising in the room.
“She did.” Hanna’s eyes met hers through the mirror. Her normally joyous face was stern. Unrecognizable. “Only now she’s so guarded and I don’t know how to help her.” She frowned, her full lips hiding a quiver.
The words begged to spill out of Kamari again. This is my fault, she wanted to say. Not just because she hid from Nev at the party but because when the woman took her, she didn’t fight.
Not at first, anyway.
There was a fleeting moment when she was dragged down the hallway that maybe this was for the best. To be stolen away from her responsibilities. Forget Naming Day and the treaty and her missing husband. Let the sand drown out her demons.
“If I’m being honest everyone seems different now.” Hanna smiled tightly, her bright eyes anchoring on the floor.
“Fear always heightens close to Naming Day,” Kamari said. She squeezed Hanna’s arm, hoping to offer some comfort. “Once it’s over, I’m sure everyone and everything will be back to normal.” The lie stuck to the back of her throat as she made her way out of the room.
The dining hall was dripping in warmth from the massive windows that framed the room. The long table was already set and the king and queen of Novaria were in their places when Kamari arrived.
“Daughter.” Her mother’s smile warmed her otherwise stoic face and Kamari forced herself to smile back. The double doors to her right swung open and by the heavy footfalls she had come to recognize, she didn’t need to turn to know it was Raffe who joined them.
“You’re looking lovely, Your Majesty.” He reached for her hand but Kamari slid it into her lap and offered him a smile instead. Raffe smirked and helped himself to the various plates of fruit and pastries that sat on the table.
“If my math is correct,” Raffe whispered, piling his plate, “there are two weeks left of your little bargain with the council.” He took a bite out of a custard filled pastry, the powdery sugar getting caught in his mustache. Kamari’s stomach roiled. She hid her disgust behind her teacup.
“Have you considered my offer?” He gestured between them and the thought of even pretending to be Raffe’s wife no longer gave her comfort, but instead gave her a bout of nausea.
“Two weeks is a long time,” she whispered, shooting a glance at her parents who were blindly chatting amongst themselves at the opposite end of the table. “I have faith.”
Raffe’s smile widened but he raised his cup of tea in a sort of cheers before turning and discussing Naming Day with her father.
The conversation around Kamari pulsed in and out.
Naming Day.
Astra.
Desmond.
Her kidnappers.
All topics she wished not to discuss, especially with the people around her.
The food on her plate made her stomach clench.
When was the last time she’d eaten? She pushed it away and focused on her tea.
Closing her eyes, the warmth of the sun settled on her cheeks and the tension in her shoulders relaxed.
“Isn’t that right, Your Majesty?” Her eyes snapped open. Raffe’s hand was wrapped around her arm so she tugged it free.
“What?”
“That Commander Zeliath won’t be joining us for Naming Day.” Raffe shot her a pained look.
“Is that true, daughter?” Her father was far enough away his voice was small but she felt his question rake over her skin as if he’d taken claws to her bare arms.
“Kamari,” her mother warned. “Where is Aesira?”
Kamari glanced around the table, catching Hanna’s eye for a moment as she refilled water glasses. “She’s tending to the southern end of the wall–”
“Oh bullshit.” Her father slammed his glass down, making Kamari jump. “Is that really the best lie you could come up with?” He shook his reddened face. “Lord Raffe, where is my second daughter?”
Other than the soft pelt of sand against the glass windows, silence flooded the room. Kamari’s chest burned, her fingers clenching in her lap.
Don’t tell them, Raffe.
Don’t tell them.
“Commander Zeliath has left Vargah. She and a cadre of criminals headed west to look for King Desmond.”
Damn him.
She knew her lies to her parents would only stretch so far, but Raffe had crossed a line.
“West?” Her mother’s eyes blew wide, making her look like one of the porcelain dolls she and Aesira played with when they were younger. She wasn’t sure if she was scared for Aesira or generally frightened of what might lie in the west.
Likely the latter.
“How dare you send your sister away,” her father snapped. “Wait until the General finds out about this.”
“She won’t find out,” Kamari said, "she'll be back in just a few weeks." Her father raged on, ignoring her, chastising her, reprimanding her like she was a child.
They were still acting as though Kamari wasn't there when she stood and slammed her hands against the tabletop.
“Just because my voice is quiet,” she said, “does not mean what I have to say isn’t important.” She glared at her father from across the table. “Lord Raffe, your visit to Vargah has been a pleasant surprise, but you’ve overstayed your welcome.”
Raffe’s brows shot up, her father’s face burned in her periphery but she poured all of her focus, her unrelenting rage toward Raffe. “When my husband returns, I don’t believe he’ll be pleased to see his seat taken.” She nodded to the chair Raffe had claimed as his own the last few weeks.
“Now if you’ll excuse me,” she said, smoothing the loose hairs from her face.
“I have an address before Naming Day." She turned and spoke only to her parents, ignoring the burning stare from Raffe. “I’ll admit there’s much to tell you both," she said, “but now is not the time.
If you wish to leave, I will have your things packed at once. "
“We’re staying.” Her father rose from his seat and joined her on the other side of the room.
She couldn’t look at his face, didn’t care to see this broken version of herself reflected back at her through his eyes. She focused instead on a brooch of the Novarian crest, a waterfall to mimic Piscis Spring, pinned to his left lapel.
“Whatever is going on with your husband,” he whispered so only she could hear, “I will get to the bottom of it. This treaty will not dissolve simply because you are incapable of doing your job.”
Admittedly, confronting her parents and Raffe right before the public address was not Kamari’s finest idea.
Her nerves were rattled, leaving her open and exposed as she stepped onto the balcony that overlooked the square where hundreds of Vargahians waited for her. Some cheered as she waved, a soft smile fixed on her lips, most others booed or shouted profanities.
“Where is King Desmond?”
“Traitor queen!”
Being called an enemy queen was not uncommon in the year she’d been here, but traitor was new and for some reason the word pricked her skin and left her heart bleeding.
She inhaled a deep, dry, breath and braced her hands on the iron railing of the balcony.
“Naming Day is almost upon us.” Her knuckles ached around the hot metal.
“Let us pray together.” She lowered her head, beads of sweat dripping down her spine.
“Celestria, Goddess of All, we call upon you to hear our prayers–”
A loud crack against the railing startled her. She looked down to see a rock the size of her fist had flown from the crowd, rattling the iron bars. Kamari’s head whipped up and Nev was there, just in time, before another rock pelted through a window, shards of glass spewing onto the tile floor.