Chapter 26 #2
He bowed to her command and escorted her to her parents’ room. The palace was ringing with alarms, and the few nobles in residence wandered out into the halls in their nightclothes, muttering to one another about the commotion. The palace guards urged them back to bed as Aristea strode past them.
Mother met her in the drawing room in her nightgown, her evening coat wrapped around her. Father followed, looking rumpled and half asleep as he rubbed his eyes.
“Aristea, tell me it’s not true. Mathias threatened you?”
She swallowed down the partial lie. “Yes. I’m afraid our worst fears have been confirmed. He confessed to me that he is working with Duke Wagner to usurp me.”
“Perhaps it was a misunderstanding,” Mother said.
“I can’t believe Mathias would do this,” Father murmured, rubbing circles on Mother’s back.
She hated them both suddenly. Even when she told him her life was in danger, they sided with their son.
In addition to that, they had something so rare among royal arranged marriages.
They’d fallen in love and genuinely cared for one another.
Aristea had hoped for the same, once. With Heinrich.
And a small part of her had hoped she’d have a second chance with Jonathan, but even he had betrayed her.
She was deluding herself, holding onto the dream of love.
“Would you rather he be the heir? Tell me now so I can stop struggling.”
Mother turned, her eyes wide. “That’s not what we meant at all.”
“Then trust me when I tell you that civil war is coming unless we take a strong approach. We need to make a public example of his enemies and cut his power off at the knees,” Aristea said.
There was that look again; Mother and Father shared something without words.
Mother took a step toward her. “Believe me, I have lived through unrest before, and I do not wish to return to it. We’ve built peace over these long years, and I won’t see the kingdom thrown into chaos over my children’s squabble.”
“Then you’d hand the kingdom over to the elves? He sided with them. He came to me asking me to intercede with you on their behalf. Your father, my grandfather, drove the last of them beyond the borders. Would you undo his work? Your own work?”
Aristea’s head suddenly throbbed. She felt Heinrich whispering in her ear.
You were always the consolation prize. Mathias is a man, one with ambition, power, and the respect of the people.
What do you have? Your parents will ship you off to Duke Mattison and put your brother on the throne. They’re all against you.
“Perhaps I should call the Vice Premier,” Mother said. “You’ve had a traumatic evening. Rest will help you.” She moved to grab the bell rope to summon a servant. But Aristea couldn’t stand the idea of someone laying their hands on her. They were treating her as they had when she was a child.
Aristea stood. “Don’t bother. You’re right. I should get some rest.”
Before her parents could protest, she headed for the door.
As she was on her way out of the room, her thoughts were an angry swirl.
Had they forgotten the bloody display from the play a few months ago?
The havoc the elves would wreak if they were left unchecked?
Did her parents expect her to stand by and let the elves destroy this kingdom? For what? To give their son a chance?
You’re right, you’d be better suited to rule, a voice whispered in her head.
It was the voice of the veiled woman from her dreams. Aristea froze and scanned the halls around her.
“Whose there?” she asked
“Your highness?” a guard asked.
Her face flamed; the guards hadn’t heard it. She must look insane to them.
“I’m a friend,” it whispered.
The hair on the back of her neck stood up.
There was a doorway to one of the underground tunnels to her right.
It led to their emergency shelter and also to the labyrinth of tunnels beneath the palace.
Among them were the catacombs and abandoned passageways left by ancient peoples who’d died hundreds of years ago.
Liane liked exploring them, but Aristea had never dared.
She only ever went underground in absolute emergencies.
But the voice drew her to those tunnels in a way she couldn’t fully comprehend.
“They think you’re weak, but I see the potential in you. I know how strong you are. You deserve to be empress above all others. You have earned it. Haven’t you sacrificed enough?”
“Your highness?” The guard approached her, but they might as well have been a million miles away.
“Come down to me. Free me, and I will give you the power that you crave. One without the puppet strings of men to tie you down. We will remake this empire in the way it was supposed to be. As your mother should have. Join me.”
Aristea reached out her hand, about to grasp the tapestry that covered the opening to the underground passageway, but before she could, her guard tapped her on the shoulder, and she spun around to face him.
He looked at her, bewildered, and she felt as if her surroundings came back to her with ringing in her ears. She’d been about to follow a strange voice into the dark. Had she gone mad?
She shook herself.
“I thought I heard something behind the curtain. Check it. Mathias might be lurking about.”
“Your highness.” Her guard leapt to do her bidding, running down the stairs.
The voice didn’t speak again, but she remained in place, arms wrapped around her torso, as if it could keep out the horrors she sensed beyond that door.
He returned a few minutes later with a shake of his head.
There was nothing there, and no sign of Mathias.
It had all been in her head. Or so she should have believed, but she couldn’t shake the feeling of wrongness.
She’d heard the voice in the tower, too.
Something was trying to reach out to her.
And it terrified her because it tempted her more than she would like to admit.
She shoved the thoughts away. Now wasn’t the time to worry about mysterious voices.
She had work to do. If Mother wouldn’t help her, then she prayed Captain Rosen would.
She’d been the first to tell her about Mathias’ betrayal.
She at least believed Aristea. If no one else would, perhaps she’d help Aristea in the fight to come.
The guards greeted her politely, as if they’d been expecting her in the middle of the night. She went straight to Captain Rosen’s office. She was seated at her desk, dressed and waiting. She’d known to expect Aristea. She hoped it was a good omen.
“Your highness, I’ve just heard the news.”
Aristea inhaled sharply. “You were right. He is working with the elves. I think my mother’s judgment is clouded, but I fear we must prepare ourselves to protect the empire from invasion.”
Captain Rosen nodded. “I feared much the same. But going against your mother...”
“Do what you must. I’ll take any measure to protect the empire and anyone who defends it.”
“Understood.”