Episode 79 A Welcome Distraction
A Welcome Distraction
It must be a full train. Arisanna pulls Cerian along behind her as she weaves between people, searching for the private car Father would have traveled on, but it’s not on the tracks.
Maybe he’s not here yet, unless he journeyed in a regular passenger car.
It’s hard to see around all the people. Feressa must be growing. It used to be a quiet town at the border, but now it’s bustling with new businesses. Perhaps as their alliance with Lostariel finds its feet, the growing city will become a hub connecting the two kingdoms.
People squeeze past them, only briefly glancing at her dress and Cerian’s ears before hurrying on their way. What a strange sensation it is to be lost in a crowd without guards to keep people at a distance.
No one guards Cerian most days, but several elven warriors are often at King Lorial’s and Queen Nestraya’s sides, and Cerian’s parents speak to them as equals.
Friends, even. Perhaps they’re part of King Lorial’s personal warrior band.
She read of such things during the Lostarien civics lessons her tutors assigned her.
Every Lostarien king has one. His elite warriors.
The ones he calls on to protect him as he marches into battle.
Hopefully, there will be no battles again any time soon.
It’s hard to see over all the people, and Arisanna glances up at Cerian. His height gives him a better vantage point than she has.
Stars above. He looks on the verge of panic. How did she not notice his heart racing? And what was she thinking, dragging him into the middle of a crowd of human strangers?
“Focus on me.” She turns to face him, and he looks at her with wide eyes, his lips pressed into a thin line.
Perhaps if she gives him a task, that will help him think about something other than his fears.
“Do you see my father anywhere?” she asks. “He’ll be surrounded by guards when he exits the train.”
Cerian’s jaw twitches. Is he going to look? Or is that asking too much?
To her relief, he turns his eyes toward the train, and then he tugs her along.
Words must be outside his capabilities at the moment.
He saw something, though. Someone, hopefully. She follows blindly at his side until they almost plow into one of Father’s guards.
“Stay back. The king is—” The guard does a double-take. “Forgive me, Your Highness.”
He quickly steps aside, letting them pass into the circle of guards protecting Father from the hordes, and Cerian’s heart slows as the guards keep the crowd at bay.
“Arisanna!” Before she has time to say anything, Father crushes her to his chest. “Rominy. Is he—”
“He’s sleeping. He’s stable, and so is Elowyn. Tharios is taking good care of them both.”
“Oh, thank the heavens. I’ve been sick with worry all day, but I got here as soon as I could.”
To her shock, he pulls Cerian into his embrace as well.
“I feel the need to hold all my loved ones near today,” Father says as Cerian stands stiffly beside Arisanna. The dismay in Cerian’s eyes is unmistakable, and she struggles not to laugh.
At least his panic has lessened.
“Your Majesty, we should get you inside,” a guard says, and Father nods as he lets them go.
“They’re in the hotel,” Arisanna says. “Mother is resting. She hasn’t seen Rominy yet. I thought it might be best to—”
“Wait for me to keep her calm?” Father smiles, and Arisanna looks sheepishly up at him.
“Something like that.”
“You’re probably right,” Father whispers to her before turning to his guard. “Take us to the hotel.”
“Of course, Your Majesty.”
The guards part the crowd so they can pass, and Cerian grips her hand. As they move beyond all the people onto the cobbled street, Grandmera stands patiently waiting and falls into step beside them.
Father looks her way and frowns. Does he know who she is?
“Father, this is Cerian’s grandmother. Queen—”
“Miravel,” he breathes. “Time is kind to elves. You look as young as you did the day I met you forty years ago. And look at me, hobbling along like an old man.” Father winks, and Grandmera laughs.
“You have not changed, Gerault. Your son carries the same twinkle in his eyes as you do. And the same heaviness.”
Father’s smile fades. “Arisanna tells me he is stable.”
“He is. My grandson will pull them both through this. I have no doubt.”
“Then I will take your word for it and attempt to set my worries aside. Are there more apples beneath the mound of candy in that bucket, Cerian? I don’t recall eating much today.”
Cerian looks at what’s left of the apple in his hand before holding the pail toward Father, and Arisanna smiles. He’s sharing his apples. Something about the gesture warms her.
“Thank you,” Father says. “You and I need to get to know each other better, Cerian. You’ve somehow managed to capture my daughter’s heart in a very short time, and I find myself intrigued by the elf behind that mask you wear.”
Cerian’s heart quickens, and his hand tightens around the bucket handle, but he nods.
Is her love for Cerian that obvious? She is clutching his arm. Father may be aging, but he’s not blind.
They pass through the hotel doors, and the man at the desk looks slightly cowed at the sight of Father and all his guards.
“This way,” Grandmera says, and they turn down the hallway leading to their rooms. Hopefully, there’s a vacant room for Mother and Father.
Cerian won’t appreciate sharing.
She’d prefer to have him to herself tonight, too. Here and in the heartlanding. Warmth fills her at the thought of being alone with him again. She glances up at his face, but he’s looking at the door to Elowyn’s room. If he feels her heart racing, he doesn’t let on.
Beside Elowyn’s door, Grandmera nods to Father. “I look forward to conversing with you again soon.”
“As do I.”
Grandmera slips into Elowyn’s room, and Arisanna leads the way to the chamber she and Cerian occupied last night.
“Mother might be sleeping,” she says softly to Father.
“I’ll check on her. We’ll go see Rominy when she’s ready. Thank you for meeting me at the station and putting my fears of the worst to rest.” Father folds her into his arms before kissing the top of her head and slipping through the door.
Now what? Do they wait here for Father to emerge? With his guard detail?
Cerian looks eager to be away from all the people. He’s endured a lot of socializing already today—he could probably use a few minutes away from everyone else.
“Come on,” she tugs him along, and he doesn’t resist. He seems beyond resisting. All these interactions with strangers must have exhausted him mentally.
He needs to eat more than a single apple, too.
Where can she take him for some solitude? Even a quiet alcove somewhere might give him a chance to recover.
At the end of the hallway, a curtain blocks a recess in the wall, and after a moment’s hesitation, she peeks behind it.
Cleaning supplies. It must be a hidden storage area.
That’s better than anywhere else she can think to take him.
With a glance down the corridor, she slips behind the curtain and pulls Cerian along with her.
“Why are we hiding?” he asks. A weariness coats his voice, and her heart twists at the sound.
“You need a break from the world. I can see it in your eyes. And I didn’t know where else to go.”
For a moment, he stares at her. Then he throws his arms around her, bucket of apples and all, and holds on as if he’s afraid to let go.
Clearly, she was reading him right.
“You were amazing,” he says against her hair.
“What?”
“With the chef and the man at the candy store.”
“I was just—”
He sets aside the bucket faster than she can see what’s happening and presses his lips to hers right there in the little storage alcove. It’s a hungry kiss that quickly deepens as he buries his fingers in her hair and her back hits the wall in the small space.
Stars above.
When he eventually pulls away, his hands slide to her hips, and he leans closer.
“I have longed to do that since we left the hotel kitchen,” he whispers near her ear, his ragged breath warm on her neck.
Both their hearts are racing now.
“H-have you?”
His lips graze her skin below her ear, and a shiver runs the length of her body as she gasps.
“My magic wants you,” he murmurs.
“D-does it?”
He pauses for a moment before his voice slips tentatively past his lips again. “I want you.”
His warmth seeps through his leathers as she clutches his shirt, and his hands are hot where he circles his thumbs over the soft flesh near her waist. What is he thinking of doing?
Is he even thinking at all?
“My plant magic is...difficult to hold back sometimes,” he whispers. “I-I feared my vines would search for you in the candy store.”
He was thinking of her like that even then?
“Don’t hold it back,” she breathes as her eyes slide shut and memories of their time in the dark of the heartlanding fill her.
“We don’t have to go out there again, do we?” he asks, a vulnerable note in his voice. “I like it here with you. It’s safe here with you.”
“S-someone might miss us,” she says through halting breaths as one of his vines wraps around her leg.
He sighs and presses his forehead to hers. “You are a welcome distraction from the fears filling me.”
“Am I?”
He doesn’t respond. He just finds her lips again in a gentle kiss as his vine wraps around her beneath her shimmeron gown.
Here in this tiny alcove, where he can be himself for just a little longer before they have to face the world once more.