Chapter 53 #2
Her anxiety faded when the king turned, a warm smile spreading across his face. He bowed his head graciously, the seriousness of his posture melting away. “Lovely to see you again, Ciana. I apologize if I interrupted your afternoon plans.”
Ciana returned his greeting with a small curtsy and a smile. “You’re not interrupting anything, Nik. It’s nice to see you, too.” He didn’t need to know that she’d spent all day hungover in bed. Best to keep that to herself.
Nik nodded to her escort. The guard bowed, turning on his heel and striding away, leaving them alone in the sunny hallway. Ciana shifted from foot to foot.
“Was there something you wanted to discuss?”
Nik blinked, then nodded. His smile turned a little wry. “I wanted to show you something.”
Ciana lifted a brow.
The king faced a pair of double doors. They blended seamlessly into the vine-covered walls, so much so that Ciana didn’t notice them until she was staring at them head-on.
“I spoke to my advisors this morning,” Nik said. “And my head archivist. I informed them of your interest in the archives.”
Ciana held her breath, not trusting herself to speak.
“Given your status in Queen Mariah’s court, and our desire to foster a positive and open relationship with the new Onitan Queen,” he continued, “we have decided that it is in Vatha’s best interests to grant you and your Armature escort access to our archives.”
Ciana whirled, staring up at Nik with wide eyes. “Are you…are you serious?” It wasn’t a polite question, nor was it a lady-like one, but she frankly didn’t care. Genuine shock coursed through her, disbelief that this was really happening.
She’d expected it to take so much longer to get to this point. Was it really going to be this easy?
Niktael met her stare with warmth and humor. “I’m very serious,” he said with a soft chuckle. “It would be our honor to share our knowledge with our neighbors to the north.”
Ciana couldn’t help it. Emotion swallowed her, filling her chest with warmth. Tears pricked behind her eyes.
She’d done it. She’d completed this task for her queen. They still had to do their research and, gods willing, find something useful, but this first piece was done.
“This is…” She swallowed. “I am truly honored. And I’m not entirely sure how to thank you.”
Nik’s smile bloomed fuller. “You could let me give you a tour of Vatha’s greatest treasure. That would be thanks enough for me.”
Ciana simply nodded, not trusting herself to keep the tears from falling down her cheeks if she spoke.
The king gripped the intricately carved wooden handles fitted to the hidden doors and pushed.
Ciana’s jaw dropped.
She’d thought Verith’s libraries were staggeringly beautiful, with their glass ceilings and cavernous tunneling halls. But they were nothing compared to the behemoth of a space that opened before her.
The Vathan Archives seemed to have been constructed out of the forest itself.
Impossibly tall redwoods, trunks several meters in diameter, stood guard just beyond the doors.
Their boughs wound together far overhead, brushing against the top of a crystalline dome.
Birds chirped and sang into the warm, comfortable air, dazzling sunlight speckling the ground.
Ciana stepped slowly into the archives. More gigantic trees were spread about the space, twisting stairs carved into their trunks. Rope bridges connected them, leading into lower boughs where lights twinkled amongst the leaves.
Rooms. Whether for storing knowledge or for absorbing it, there were rooms constructed into the very boughs of the trees themselves. She dropped her gaze, knowing her eyes were wide with awe, but not caring at all.
Hundreds—thousands—of rows spread out in the space around them. And all of them were lined with shelves that were in turn filled with books and scrolls.
Ciana had never particularly cared about things like learning, but she could feel the knowledge permeating the air. The entire history of this continent—of their world—was held here. She felt it in the very marrow of her bones.
“What do you think?”
She almost jumped at the question. In the awe of the room, she’d forgotten the king beside her.
“It’s…” Ciana swallowed. “I can’t find the words to describe this. It’s incredible.”
Nik chuckled. “I’m pleased you think so.” He swept his warm gaze over the archives, his people’s greatest treasure. “I sometimes forget. I’ve been coming here my whole life; it long ago lost its luster.”
“I find that very hard to believe.”
Nik turned his smile to her. “May I show you around?”
Ciana nodded, resting her palm on his offered arm.
The king gestured to the ground level, where the stacks of books stretched off to the edge of the crystalline dome. “This lower level holds our stories. Some fictional, some not, some a combination of truth and imagination. Anything written with the intention first to entertain is kept here.”
“Wow,” Ciana breathed out. “Is there anyone alive who has read them all?”
“Alive? No.” Nik snorted softly. “Though I am sure I have a cousin or two who have tried.
Ciana smiled at that.
Nik started forward, tugging her hand. “Let me show you the higher levels. That’s where even I can admit that this place is special.”
Ciana let him lead her down into the stacks, cutting around the edge of the rows and rows of stories and tales. They reached the base of one of the tall redwoods, a winding staircase crawling up its trunk.
Ciana tracked the steps and swallowed. She was many things, but a fan of stairs—or exercise of any kind, in general—she was not.
Niktael huffed another laugh at her expression.
“I won’t force you up the stairs, Ciana,” he said.
He gestured to the other side of the tree, where Ciana noticed a strange contraption for the first time.
It was in essence a simple wooden box with a plain door, and around it was a complex system of ropes and wires and levers.
Nik pulled open the door, gesturing her inside.
Ciana was…not convinced.
“If this is some elaborate attempt to get rid of me, Nik, then you have to know I’m not an idiot.”
Nik laughed again. “I have never once thought that about you. And I promise, this is more than safe. Don’t you trust me?”
No. “Yes.” She ignored the small voice whispering in the back of her head. Swallowing the clammy fear pooling in her stomach, Ciana stepped inside the small box, doing her best to keep her breathing even. Nik followed, closing the door behind him and pulling a small lever on the wall.
They were very close in this space—painfully close—and when the box lurched up, the ropes above them sliding over the pullies, Ciana couldn’t help but press her shoulder against the king.
It was safe. He was their king, for goddess’s sake. He wouldn’t do this unless he was sure he would survive it.
Nik chuckled again, and his warmth wrapped around her, but something about it felt wrong. Ciana couldn’t help but wish that instead of the king, she was trapped in this tiny death box with someone else. Someone who would actually make her feel safe and not simply wishing for this to be over.
She didn’t unclench her body until the box shuddered to a halt and Nik pushed open the door. She nearly jumped out, heaving her breaths on a landing constructed of simple wooden planks.
Nik touched the small of her back. She fought back the urge to flinch. He laughed again, the sound warm but doing little to settle her nerves.
“I take it you don’t have elevators in Onita?”
Ciana swallowed, shaking her head. “Is that what you call that death trap?”
“Not a death trap.” Nik smiled wider, obviously humored by her panic. “Perfectly safe. See? We made it all the way up here without an issue.”
Ciana gave a tight nod but otherwise didn’t answer.
She glanced around the space built into the branches.
Just like in her room, lights twinkled amongst the leaves.
Plush chairs and couches faced the central space, and hallways wound through the limbs of the tree, fully laden bookshelves lining the walls.
The air was crisp but warm, the space a comforting sort of quiet.
“It’s lovely,” Ciana finally murmured. The stress of the elevator ride wasn’t gone, but she had calmed her heartrate, pushing back her fear to the far reaches of her mind.
She was in, but she knew how easily her access to this place could be taken away. The role was simpler now but not done yet.
“It is.” Nik pushed her forward, a hand still on the small of her back, guiding her farther into the central room. He halted, standing close to her, and drew in a deep breath. His eyes fluttered closed, and the hint of a smile tugged at the corner of his mouth.
“I’m not like the others in my family who wish to spend every waking minute in the archives if they could,” he said. “But I do love it here. In these quiet rooms. Besides my study, this is where I come when I just want a moment of peace. A moment to be myself. A moment to do whatever I want.”
Ciana’s skin prickled, but she met the king’s waiting smile. “I can only imagine the demands of being a king. Thank you for sharing this with me.”
“Of course.” Something flashed across Nik’s earthen eyes, too fleeting for Ciana to read, before his stare dropped down.
To her mouth.
A warning panged through Ciana’s chest, but she forced herself to stay still.
The king tentatively lifted one of her golden curls. That warning grew louder, more urgent, as Nik brushed his fingers across her collarbones, skimming up her neck.
He swallowed, throat bobbing. “It’s also where I wanted to come to finally do this.”
Ciana wasn’t quite sure what happened next.
She was aware of him leaning forward. Of his grip tightening on the back of her neck.
Of his lips meeting hers.
She was aware of how she froze.
Memories—dark, twisted, terrible memories—flooded her mind.
She was swept far away from this warm room amongst the boughs of the archive trees.
In a flash, she was back in a regal manor in Kasia, eyes clenching shut as a boy who’d never been told no took things from her that could never be replaced.
It was all too raw. Fresh wounds were reopened in Kreah that might never truly heal.
The king’s warm, woody scent hit her, his tongue trying to push past the barricade of her lips, and all she could think was that this was wrong.
Wrong.
Wrong.
She wasn’t safe. Not with this man. There was only one who could make her settle, and this wasn’t him.
“No.” The word left Ciana in a gasp as her hands landed on the king’s chest, pushing him away. He released her, stumbling back, cheeks flushed and eyes wide.
“Ciana?”
“No,” she repeated, still barely above a whisper. A tear slipped down her cheek, landing on the wood beneath her feet. “No.”
She couldn’t do this. Even if it meant failing her queen.
She just…couldn’t.
She wasn’t strong enough.
There was one person she needed, and it wasn’t the king standing in front her, expression shifting from shock to embarrassment.
“Ciana, I’m so sorry, I thought—”
Ciana didn’t stay to hear what Nik thought.
Her feet carried to the top of the winding staircase, rushing her down their spiraling steps. They were so high, but she didn’t stop. Her calves and thighs were burning by the time she reached the bottom, but she didn’t stop.
Ciana sprinted from the archives, not even stopping to consider it might be the last time she’d be welcomed inside.
She was desperate. Not to make her queen happy.
But for the one person who could make the painful nightmares swarming her mind go away.