Chapter 13 #5
Lee bows back, nodding to each of us before rejoining the party. Cedric props an arm upon the wooden fence, leaning against it.
“Enjoying yourself?” Cedric asks, sipping what smells like ale.
“Very much so,” I answer, smiling tightly as the musicians take up the music again. It takes a lot to stifle the well of emotions within.
“Would you like to dance again?” Cedric proposes, setting his cup down on the dirt. I laugh, shaking my head. I truly couldn’t manage another song.
“Oh?” he questions, raising his eyebrows comically. “What does Lady Liv wish to do, then?” Cedric puts his hands on hips like a schoolgirl.
I bark out a laugh. “How much of that have you had?” I ask, pointing at the cup.
“Not enough apparently because I know I’m going to remember the way you just denied me.” He puts a hand over his heart. “I’m wounded. Dance with me?”
I shake my head again. “Not likely, I’m all danced out.”
Cedric studies me and I find it hard to not want to join the crowd. Dancing should be fun.
“Do you leave the castle often?” I ask him, instead of the latter.
Leaning back against the fence, Cedric folds his arms. “I leave almost daily. But I imagine you’re wondering how often I interact with my citizens.”
He bends down and picks up his cup, sipping from it. I swipe it from him before he can drink himself too deeply to get us back to the castle.
“I was finishing that,” Cedric quips. I raise my eyebrows, eyeing him as I bring the cup to my lips. The mead is pungent. How could someone make mead sour?
Stifling my gag, I take a courageous swig.
“We could have gotten you your own,” Cedric says, reaching to steal the cup back. I move it out of his reach, though he could easily use his vampyr abilities to grab it.
“Finish what you were saying,” I urge, drinking some more. Already, my chest is beginning to warm.
“Right, as I was saying, I don’t get many chances to be in normal society. But sometimes, when no one notices, I step out of court and into the real world.”
“Do you wish you were more involved, then?” I ask. Obviously, this must be important to him in some facet.
Cedric nods slowly. “Of course I do. But being the ruler of the middle kingdom has not been so easy.”
“How do you mean?”
“Politics, borders, cleaning up an ancestry of contention.” He winks.
I finish the cup, now feeling looser than I anticipated. “Well, let’s go out again next week,” I mumble as I step away from the fence.
Cedric watches me with amusement in his eyes as I make my way over to the barrel of ale by the house. “You wish to know my people?”
I’m humming the unfamiliar tune the musicians are strumming as I fill the cup. “Why shouldn’t I? After all, I am one of them.”
“I will aim to make it happen,” Cedric replies.
A loud burst of laughter comes from the back door of the cottage as a group exits. Two of them are clothed in deep, ruby red. A glow follows them, as if their shadows are lighter by the moon. The doting men lean into each other before parting to welcome their guests.
The ground vibrates below us. Setting down my drink, I look around to find the source. Behind us, a trio of riders gallop up to the cottage.
“Your Highness,” one of them, a guard, says as he slides off his steed in front of Cedric. Bowing, the soldier reaches for a rolled parchment and hands it to Cedric. The king takes the missive and reads through it. My vision is blurred or else I would try to read it over his shoulder.
A few moments pass as Cedric reads it, his brows furrowing. “Liv, you are to ride back with my men,” Cedric says, handing the parchment back to the rider. “You three see to it that she travels safely back to the castle. Has Garreth been advised?”
Cedric grabs my hand and begins to lead me to the horse his rider came on. I pull back on it, stopping us.
“What’s going on?” I ask, not moving.
Cedric searches my face. “Take her back.”
“What? No, Cedric. Tell me what’s happening.”
A few heads from the party have turned towards us. As quickly as they realize who is in attendance, the crowd lowers into an unsteady bow. Cedric curses under his breath, pulling on me again. I follow, not wanting to become another spectacle.
“Duresden requests our audience,” Cedric breathes, stress coating his tongue.
“I won’t give them what they want. They want to guarantee you’re alive because you’ve been out of the public eye for too long.
Not to mention that you are a conflict of interest and I need to see that you are protected.
Someone leaked this information. Please, go with them. Please.”
A conflict of what?
Cedric grabs me by my waist and lifts me onto a horse despite my protests.
“Wait,” I hush, grabbing his hand. Cedric stops and looks up to me.
“Why can’t I come with?”
Cedric releases a breath, shaking his head. “I can’t risk that. Stay at the cottage, you’ll be safe there.” And with that, Cedric lets me go and the rider mounts behind me. We begin to turn back to the forest when Cedric gives a terse nod before blitzing into the trees.
The musicians quietly begin where they left off and idle chatter grows as we leave the revelry and head back to the castle.