Chapter 12
Chapter
Twelve
As it turned out, friend was a very loose term in this world.
In this case, Val’s friends were friends in the loosest sense of the word.
They didn’t seem to care about him, in the way that a normal friend would.
Instead, they cared about the status of being associated with the king of the Opal Clan.
The next morning Ashley managed to get up before the maids came in.
She moved to the window to see what the new day might bring and watched her brother, standing at the corner of the maze.
She noted that for all that he had yelled at her for being near the labyrinth the day before, he was now ushering people into the maze with him.
Obviously, while Ashley wasn’t allowed to walk around willy-nilly poking her head wherever she wanted, Val was allowed to show anyone anything, because he was the king.
But there was something about the conspiratorial way that the four men who followed her brother looked over their shoulders towards the castle.
Almost like they were trying to make sure that no one saw where they were going.
Val had very clearly stated that there were people who would love nothing more than to steal their stone.
That made Ashley feel like there was more to this than Val would ever tell her.
Like he was keeping the Opal stone from sight for a reason.
The only question was, what exactly was that reason?
With a heavy sigh, Ashley crossed the short distance from the window to her wardrobe and threw open the doors, mentally willing there to be some sort of pants within them.
But when you lived in a world that wanted women in dresses, probably because it added another layer of defenselessness to their lives, pants were too much to wish for.
What she had, instead, was skirts. Mountains and mountains of skirts, skirts that were made from miles and miles of fabric.
Ashley couldn’t help but wince the moment she saw them.
Skirts and dresses like that must cost a pretty penny, costing the kingdom far more than a pair of sensible jeans would.
Ashley wondered if that was a way to convince her brother to let women wear pants.
Telling him his coffers would remain fuller if women could wear pants and shorts would appeal to him, no doubt.
Faced with no other option, she picked one of the lighter skirts and willed it to be less of a hindrance than the others.
By the time she had on a plain blouse, and she’d managed to pull the skirt up she knew this wouldn’t do.
The skirt was so tight she felt smothered.
Obviously, the fabric was very expensive, and she should have taken care of it, but Ashley was fed up with the entire situation.
But…an idea blossomed in her head and she grinned with delight.
Ashley squatted and pushed her thighs apart.
The skirt ripped into two long pieces of fabric with a satisfying tearing sound.
She stood back and found it much better.
Threads hung from the new edges, and she used those to tie the fabric around her legs.
If her brother wasn’t going to give her pants, then Ashley was just going to go out of her way to make her own.
Ashley decided this was how she would approach everything from now on.
Whatever Val wouldn’t give her, she was going to take. Or make.
Later, she’d find a needle, thread, and some scissors to make a better job of her creations, but for now, she was satisfied with what she’d done. So long as the knots held up and she didn’t end up exposing her backside to everyone. Or her front, she thought with a furious blush.
Ashley crept towards the door, keeping her eyes peeled for any sign of Emma. Nobody knew yet that Ashley had promoted the woman to be her lady-in-waiting and Emma hadn’t shown up yet to tend to her lady. That meant Ned didn’t know she was awake yet, and might not be out there guarding her.
Ashley opened the door and saw the coast was clear. Sticking to the walls, head down, with shoulders hunched, she hoped nobody would notice her. She’d walked around Walland like this for years and people didn’t seem to see her. Maybe the tactic would work here too.
Just as she’d hoped, nobody bothered to look at the defeated looking creature that walked along the hallways, though a few male servants raised an eyebrow in her direction. They didn’t ask any questions, however.
Whether they’d report what they’d seen to her brother remained to be seen. Or maybe they hated her brother so much they wouldn’t report it at all. That would be great as far as she was concerned.
Everyone seemed busy cleaning out every nook and cranny for the Dragon Games her brother had announced the night before. Ashley was pretty sure that the number of servants had doubled overnight. She hoped that meant they were too new to know who she was.
Ashley wished she had a real friend to talk about all of this with, but she had no one.
Sure, Emma was a definite prospect, but Ashley knew enough about court life from movies and TV shows to know that Emma could be a spy, or worse, a woman bent on bettering her lot in life even if that meant betraying others.
It wouldn’t be a good idea to trust her too much, yet.
Ashley came upon a large door and pushed it open, her thoughts back on getting some fresh air.
The door led outside, and Ashley breathed out a sigh of relief.
She hadn’t seen this part of the castle grounds yet and she looked around quickly, wanting to make sure she wouldn’t be caught by someone who couldn’t mind their own business.
The backyard was large and luxurious. In many ways, it looked like it was straight out of Alice in Wonderland.
The Disney version, not the shitty made-for-TV version.
Her breath caught in the back of her throat as she took in all the rows and rows of dark tropical garden plants, the finely sculpted topiary, and the Dragons that decorated almost every corner of the garden she could see.
Even if she’d been able to pay to enter such a place in her own world, she was certain that this place would have still been kept for the private use of the owner.
It was breathtaking and filled with scents that drew her deeper into the garden.
She leaned down to sniff at a thick, fleshy-looking white flower that sported bright orange stamens, wondering if it was emitting the smell that she liked so much.
Just as she inhaled, she heard her brother’s voice.
She inhaled much deeper than she’d planned to and had to pinch her nose to hold back a sneeze.
“It’s safe, relax,” he said to someone she couldn’t see. Ashley walked to the edge of the hedge maze and carefully pulled the branches apart. She saw Val with four other men, all well-dressed but not as regal as her brother and definitely shorter than him.
No doubt that pleased Val immensely.
But one of the men was rail thin and towered over Val.
The man wasn’t attractive at all, with long, lank, dark hair and a large, crooked nose.
Bony was the only word that came to mind as she looked at him.
She cringed as she thought about anyone trying to kiss him.
They’d get stabbed by that nose. The paleness of his skin didn’t help as it combined with the rest of him to give him a harsh, cruel appearance.
One of the men was short, dumpy, and slightly handsome.
That edge of handsomeness was diminished by the fact that the way he slumped his shoulders and hips made him look lazy.
As if he couldn’t even bother to stand up straight without someone behind him holding him up.
He must belong to some respectable family, however, because the way he kept his thin nose in the air spoke of arrogance that he didn’t deserve.
“But then again, I thought I didn’t like people like Val either,” Ashley admitted to herself, knowing that at the end of the day, she wanted to like her brother, even if he made that hard to do.
This was what made the two other men, obviously twins who were very short, look so hard to her.
She could tell just from looking at them that they were the sort of men who would make fun of her when she was a teenager, asking her out just to make a joke of her.
The realization that her brother was spending time with someone like that annoyed her.
But she’d known all of this about her brother.
He wasn’t a good man, and he continually proved that to her.
She wanted to tell him off but knew she’d be caught and that would make her far more stupid than him.
“Are you sure that you’re up to the task?” Val asked with doubt in his voice. He looked between all four of them, his gaze as doubtful as his voice. Ashley wondered what he was talking about, what did he want them to do?
“She’s innocent for the most part, which makes things so hard. It’s very easy for other people to take advantage of someone like her, to lead her to the edge of this maze. Someone led her out here yesterday, but before I could get a good look at him, he vanished.”
“Just about everyone wants the Opal gemstone,” the tallest of the four men said.
Then he pursed his lips, making his face look crueler.
“There have been rumors about you two and about what’s going on in the Opal Kingdom, that you two are different from the other Dragons, that you’re not beholden to the gods—”
His voice trailed off, leaving Val a moment to answer the questions he hadn’t quite asked.
“People can believe whatever they like when it comes to my family. Whatever happens in the house, the Opal Clan is my business and my business alone. You need only worry about how I’m going to continue caring for the kingdom,” Val said with a tone of dismissal, shaking his head at the very idea of there being something notable, to begin with.
It was clear that he didn’t want to discuss the matter further, considering the way that his eyes were mere slits as he looked at the man, a sharp frown pulling at the corner of his lips.
“Worry only about paying your taxes on time this year and not spending your money on another frivolous expense like a new thoroughbred. With Ashley around, I can’t afford to be as generous as my father’s been with yours in the past.”
Val paused, looking at the men with a glare before turning to look out at the world beyond the castle. Ashley suspected he was looking towards the Diamond Kingdom but had no way of knowing for sure.
“This is the new generation, and we are the future of the Opal House. If we are to ensure that the Opal House continues and that it continues a legacy to be respected, then we need to start making some adjustments. At least while the public eye is turned to us. Things can go back to normal once the Dragon Games are over and once my sister is settled. Then I’ll have a firm grasp of the Diamond Kingdom, and we can go back to normal.
But not before that,” Val said, a certain sort of acidity to his tone that made Ashley’s skin tingle.
“We need to strengthen our foothold amongst the other dragon societies.”
“We do,” the largest one agreed with not an ounce of doubt in his tone.
The way his face morphed as he stood there revealed more than he thought.
She saw worry over if they failed. Then fear.
It was obvious he was thinking about the consequences of failure.
Ashley guessed that meant that her brother, and the things he’d done to take power over his Clan weren’t popular with the other Clans.
She’d heard whispers about it before, but watching this man brought it home to her.
“I just don’t know if he is the solution to it all,” the man muttered conspiratorially, his voice indicating that he was speaking about someone else, someone who wasn’t Ashley’s brother. And then, he clarified.
“Perhaps it would be better to have a strengthened connection with the Ruby household, which is already so strong. We could give Jack his kingdom back, return him to power and use him as a connection to your sister in order to reinforce that,” he said, and Ashley knew that he was the most conniving of them all.
The one who knew exactly what to say in any situation, and the one who had the most foresight.
She tried her best to memorize his face, but he turned away from her, and she was stuck amongst the leaves.
“One might argue that it’s better to have someone owe you, one who could not, under any circumstances, defy you.
He might risk his own life for you, as well. ”
What he said definitely made sense, or at least as much sense as Ashley could make.
She wasn’t big on courts and intrigues. She was more likely to stay up late at night watching True Blood reruns than Bridgerton.
But whatever he was saying at that moment, her brother must have agreed because he nodded and knitted his brows together.
“The only problem is, Jack doesn’t exactly want the crown,” Val said, sounding as if he could hardly fathom such a thing.
He had likely wanted the crown to his kingdom himself for most of his life and had never imagined a world in which he wouldn’t get it.
Staring at these men, plotting the future of others, was a good explanation of why Jack wouldn’t want to be a king, as far as Ashley was concerned.
Then, almost like he was summoned by his name alone, she heard a voice at her side.
“They’re discussing me again, huh?” A man murmured in Ashley’s ear, making her startle as she’d been completely unaware of his approach.
Jack Tracey.