Chapter 5 #2
After a long silence filled only with the sounds coming from the fire in the hearth, Sonah hugged her arms close to her body and looked into Lerek’s eyes.
“So here we are,” Sonah said with a sigh.
“Aye,” Lerek replied, shoulders slumping.
She narrowed her eyes. “The fact remains, both Duke and Duchess Ovenno are here and Altos has agreed to let them take me with them.”
“That’s good!” Lerek said, pouncing forward with a vicious smile. “Find a way to tell your father about me and—”
“He’s not my father,” Sonah grumbled.
“What? What’s that mean?”
“He’s not my father, Lerek. He never was.
” She heaved a sigh. In a lower voice, Sonah said, “I couldn’t tell you before.
I couldn’t tell anyone. I’m an orphan. Duke and Duchess Ovenno found me at Lethe Monastery when I was an infant.
They used me. Presented me to Emperor Solon as their own.
I was to act as their daughter or the duke would have the abbot and monks at the monastery killed. ”
“Oh, Sonah,” Lerek sighed, raking his hand through his hair as he turned away. He muttered curses, pacing before the window.
With a frustrated sound, he flew toward the curtains and yanked them across the window. “Damned cold, even here in Sparta!”
Long minutes passed in silence, thickening the longer it stretched.
“I can’t go with them, Lerek,” Sonah whispered.
When he remained silent, she glanced up at him.
He watched her with big brown eyes and she shook her head, dropping her gaze.
“I can’t. I can… leave word with them about you if you’d like.
But I cannot go. I need to find Terena. And she’s with the northern king. ”
Lerek darted toward her, his mouth dropping open. “She is? Then I’m coming with you. We’ll go together. We’ll leave tonight!”
“Tonight?” she squeaked loudly. Clamping a hand over her mouth, she cast a look at the doorway again before moving closer to Lerek. “We cannot leave tonight! We need to prepare! We need food, supplies! Do you know how long the journey is?”
After a moment, Lerek nodded, stroking his chin as he paced away. “Aye, you’re right.”
“You’ve never been outside the empire,” she chided softly.
“When we were on the run, we spent most of our time in the woods, sleeping on the ground with nothing in our bellies sometimes. And we had warriors with us! And Terena! I love you, Lerek, you know I do, but you are no warrior. I don’t think I’ve ever even seen you wield a sword. You’d be even less useful than I am.”
“Fine,” Lerek said through gritted teeth as he glared at her. “What do you suggest, then?”
“I need to think,” she muttered. Sitting on her bed, she chewed on a fingernail.
“How long do we have?”
When Sonah cast him a sour look, Lerek gestured impatiently. “I mean, how long before you’re to leave with Ovenno?”
“Oh. Uh, Two days, I think.”
“We’ll need horses,” Lerek mumbled, pacing before her.
“Aye.”
“And food, of course.”
“Ugh! Stop! I said I’m thinking!”
Lerek’s eyes widened, and he stared at her as if she’d suddenly grown a second head. She spared him a glance.
“What?”
He shook his head slowly. “You’ve… you’re different. You’ve changed since…”
“Aye,” Sonah said.
They were silent once more while Sonah thought about how to gather the supplies they’d need for their journey. They’d need coin as well, which would be more difficult for her to figure out.
“Could we perhaps send word to Terena? We could have her meet us somewhere.”
Sonah was about to rebuke him for interrupting her thoughts when she caught his hopeful expression. An unwanted thought snuck its way into her head and she blanched.
While Sonah was certain Terena would be glad of Lerek’s… resurrection, she wasn’t sure how much to tell Lerek about what had happened since Isher’s death.
So she said nothing.
“We can send word to her when we get out of here,” she demurred, fidgeting.
“Fine,” Lerek said with a nod. “But if Ovenno is to leave in two days, we need to be gone by tomorrow. Do you think you can get what we’ll need?”
“Wait, you’re not going to help?”
“I can’t, Sonah! They barely let me out of my rooms except for meals and to walk around a private courtyard. I’m kept away from everyone. The only reason I found out you were even here is because one of the guards gossips. That’s how I knew you and Terena were here months ago.”
“Why are they still holding you? Have they said?”
“Not entirely, no. King Altos said it was for my protection, since there are traitors in the White Palace, obviously. Whoever it was meant to have both me and my brother killed. The king has tried more than once to convince me to agree publicly I am with Sparta. He thinks it will convince the rest of the provinces to secede from Heylisia if I challenge my father for his throne.”
“Why don’t you?”
Lerek gaped at her. “I may have disagreed with my father on many things, especially his strange obsession with conquering Sparta, but that doesn’t mean I would depose him!
He is the rightful sovereign of a mighty empire.
He is my father! I will not go against him, now more than ever.
He’s lost one son already. And there are traitors in his court. He needs me.”
Sonah sighed and closed her eyes. “Then why would you agree to go with me to Terena?”
“Because I love her,” he said vehemently, with a fire in his eyes she’d not seen before. “I love her and this time, nothing will stop me from being with her.”
I can think of one thing, Sonah thought with a sigh.