Chapter 62
She was sitting in her brother's chambers again.
Now there were bruises spreading across her face from the attack, and the brightness Meera had always been known for was gone from her stunning eyes.
"If Isolde and Lys weren't there this time, they would have killed him, brother," she said, staring down at her palms, damp with sweat.
Sanaedeo knew she was right. He sat beside her, leaning his strong shoulder against hers. As always, his fingers drifted toward the necklace of the woman he loved, the one that had faithfully rested against his neck for the last two years.
"They don't know who sent them—"
"Come on, brother. We know."
She snapped at him, then quickly returned to her original position.
"And just like Isolde figured out, they only attacked them. Not us."
"Faran wouldn't do it like that..."
"Please, brother. You know he would. Stop looking for kindness where there is none. He grabs servants beneath their skirts and goes after the youngest girls in the brothels. Everyone knows it. He has always hated Corian, and now that Lysande is here, especially with Isolde,
whom we know has a spirit of her own..."
The good prince sighed and lowered his head into his hands.
"Then what do you want to do? We can't simply kill him. Everyone would know, and they'd accuse us." Meera pressed her lips together and looked toward the place where her knight should have been standing.
Now, after nearly being killed while defending both himself and her, he lay barely conscious in a bed several rooms away.
"I can't do this anymore, brother. I can't keep listening to the insults and mockery Corian receives. I can't keep watching him try to hide the pain in his eyes after every word Faran throws at him."
She kept staring at the empty place where he should have been.
For a moment, she closed her eyes and remembered every moment she had spent with him, every kiss and every embrace, every time they had made love beneath a sky full of stars.
"Isolde has a better chance of fighting for what she wants if I'm out of the picture. She has more support and more courage. Her knight has made her a better person, but she's still a dangerous little snake when she wants to be."
She exhaled sadly. "I'm not. And I never will be. She'll wrap herself around Faran and strangle him, but I'll die if I try. I choose myself, brother. Myself and my knight."
She said it quietly.
Sanaedeo slowly turned toward her. He opened his palm over her knee, silently asking her to place her hand in his.
She did.
His fingers closed around hers, strong and protective.
"If you think the two of you would be happier somewhere else, let me help you. I am confined here now, but I'll write to Prince Caspian and ask for a secret place of refuge. As soon as Corian is back on his feet, I'll send you there."
She smiled faintly and tightened her hand inside his.
Then she leaned against his shoulder, lowering her head beneath his chin.
"And you, brother? When will you let yourself love freely?"
She knew he would understand what she meant.
He drew in a shaky breath.
"When I become King, I'll call the two of you back. I'll invoke the old traditions. I'll do the same for our little snake."
"I was asking about you."
She interrupted him, and his jaw tightened.
"She has no name, sister. No land and no family to stand by her side. And I love her more than anyone in this world. She saved my life and gave me this around my neck, but I have nothing I can give her."
His eyes filled with tears, and his hands slowly fell to his sides.
"I have all the money in the world, and still I can't give her anything."
His voice grew quieter.
"And what happens if Faran finds out about her? What if he comes after her? She isn't a knight. She doesn't have one of her own either. Who will protect her from his wrath?"
Meera pressed her lips together, knowing her brother was right.
She rose from the bed and stood before him. The princess took his face gently between her hands, and her eyes fell to the wooden-beaded necklace with the little black bird.
"You'll find a way. I know you will."
She pulled him into her arms when his tears finally spilled over, holding him tightly.
She let his hands clutch the fabric of her dress while the cloth absorbed every bit of sorrow that fell from his eyes.
"T-Tell Isolde you're leaving. She deserves to know," he murmured.
Meera stroked his dark hair.
"Our little snake is good now. We've brought her back to the right path."
Sanaedeo laughed softly through his tears.
"She isn't going to like what you call her."
They both chuckled at that, as though this were an ordinary moment between a brother and sister.
But both of them knew that, in this moment, they were laughing like this for the last time. Whatever the future brought, they would never again be exactly what they were now.
Just two people hopelessly in love with her Scarred Knight and his Forrest Fae.
Isolde, Sanaedeo, and Lys stood along the docks as their sister and princess, disguised beneath a plain cloak and hood, boarded the ship.
Corian leaned heavily against her, still in pain and bleeding from the days-old attack, yet he stubbornly carried the heavy trunk filled with her belongings. His scarred face tightened with every movement, but he still refused to let her touch the trunk, let alone carry it herself.
The harbor was still half wrapped in the pale colors of morning as ropes creaked against wooden posts, gulls cried above the water, and the smell of salt and damp timber hung heavily in the air.
Finally, several minutes later, every last belonging had been carried aboard, and the wooden gangplank was lifted from the dock, severing the final connection Isolde had to the sister she loved the most.
Her eyes filled with tears, but a happy smile settled across her face.
She knew Meera would be happier wherever she was going.
"They'll be alright," Sanaedeo said beneath his dark hood. "They have a trunk full of gold, and Caspian will take good care of them. They'll have a small castle and servants."
He spoke with the steady confidence of someone trying very hard to make a promise sound like certainty.
Isolde could only nod and lift one hand in farewell. Meera waved back and then wrapped one arm around the man she loved.
Isolde watched with shining eyes and warmth spreading through her chest as, for the first time, her sister openly kissed her love without fear that someone would take him away.
For one brief moment, the harbor seemed almost peaceful.
The ship rocked gently against the dark water, morning light catching on the sails, as Meera's face remained pressed close to Corian's.
For Isolde had no idea how short-lived and dangerous this fragile happiness would be. How fast it would shatter in the hours to come.
With those sellswords, death came to the castle, and it did not intend to leave until it took someone with it.
The sea knew that while Meera would be sailing toward a life of peace and safety, free from pain, hidden in Corian's arms, around Isolde's own knight's neck, a silken noose had already been placed.
And somewhere far behind, Faran was the one tightening it.