Ed wanted to ask more, to ask if Ende knew his mother as more than the queen, but he held back as the old man gulped down what looked like regret.
‘Are there many dragons out there?’ he asked instead.
‘Out where?’
‘In the world,’ Ed said.
‘I don’t know.’ Ende whispered it so quietly, Ed leaned forward. ‘That isn’t the place to focus now.’
‘No,’ Ed agreed. ‘It isn’t. Can I do this without Ana?’
‘Are you not your mother’s son?’ Ende asked, his words sharp. They cut deeper than Ed had thought they could.
‘But I haven’t had their guidance. I can barely remember my mother, and despite my father’s words, since he died, I have been left alone with only the tutors and a view of the stables.’ He clenched his fists. He hadn’t wanted to sound like a whining child, and yet he did. ‘And do we just walk into the capital and say, “Here I am. Your king. Your reign is over, Uncle.”’
‘We might need to be little more subtle,’ Dray said. ‘But I think getting you back to the capital is the first step in getting you back to where you should be.’
‘Where is that?’
‘On the throne,’ Ende said.
He blew out a long breath and nodded. It would take them long enough to try to reach the capital. It had taken him weeks to get this far. Even if they managed to find horses, it would be a slow journey. He looked again at Ende, wondering just what magic he could manage.
‘You saw things,’ Ed said slowly.
‘I get a feeling sometimes.’
‘Ana,’ he said, reaching for the old man’s arm. ‘You saw Ana coming. You know what she is.’
‘She is a girl worth knowing. I only hope that she is what I hope, and not what I fear.’
‘Then we leave now.’
‘You have found your purpose then,’ Belle said, standing by the cottage. ‘The meal is ready.’
‘You must come with us,’ he blurted.
‘Must I?’ she asked to his utter disappointment.
He had thought she wanted to travel with him. That she liked him just a little, even if it was because he was King. ‘No. It is your choice,’ he said more calmly, trying to be the king he was supposed to be, the one his father would be proud of.
Chapter 28
Ana stood by the desk and tried not to speak. The mage sat hunched over a large book, writing slowly into its pages with a fine quill. He would pause occasionally to dip into the small inkwell at the edge of the desk and then continue. Ana stood and watched him for some time, unable to determine what he was writing as it wasn’t a language she knew. He would write until the ink ran dry, then dip and continue again.
She had spent days roaming the labyrinth of shelves. She could look at books, although very few of them made any sense. She had studied the bottles of creatures and specimens that lined the shelves, along with dried unknown contents. Some of them had labels, and some of those labels she could read, although it made little difference.
Despite all the hidden alcoves, piles of papers and labyrinths of shelves, she had yet to see anyone else but the mage.
‘What exactly do you need from me?’ she asked as he paused to dip the pen into the ink again.
‘So much,’ he murmured.
‘And how will I be able to give that to you?’
He looked up then and his brow creased. ‘Why have you not changed?’
‘Into what? A frog?’
‘The clothes that have been sent for you.’
She shook her head and looked back to the little cot across the room. There was no privacy, no space of her own. She had found a privy amongst the shelves and turns between cold stone walls, and she would take a heavy volume of something with her to ensure the door wasn’t opened when she was in there. Not that she lingered; it was putrid. But other than a thin blanket, she had been given nothing.
‘Did I not send for clothes? I think if you were better dressed, you might consider your position more seriously.’
‘I haven’t even bathed in weeks,’ she murmured.
He pointed to a wall. She turned and then looked back to him.
‘In there,’ he said, not looking up.
She moved to the wall he had indicated and looked over the shelves that lined it. ‘What is here that you need?’ she called back.
‘Here,’ he said, appearing beside her. As she jumped, he waved his hand in a circular motion over the shelf and it disappeared, revealing a door. He bowed his head and went back to his desk.
She slowly pressed the latch, and the door opened into a neat room, with a fire and two narrow beds on opposite walls. There was a table with a candle in the middle of it and two simple chairs pulled up to it. In the corner was a cupboard, and against another wall was an empty shelf.
Then she noticed the other door. She moved quickly over to it and opened it easily into a cool hallway. A guard, dressed as Dray would have been, turned to look at her. And although he reminded her of her friend, he didn’t look enough like him for her to think it might be him.
‘Do you need the maid?’ he asked.
She nodded.
He pulled the door shut, and she heard a key in the lock before his footsteps moved away. It might be a way out, but not yet. She moved back to the fire and held her hands out over the flames. The heat doing little to relieve the constant chill that seemed to follow her. She could have done with a window, but she knew that would be too much to ask for. She moved over and sat on one of the beds. It was soft, and she was tempted to lie down. But at a tap on the door, she was soon standing.
‘Enter,’ she called, wondering who might be on the other side.
The door creaked open to reveal a young woman.
She could have been Ana not very long ago. The dress was the same, and Ana found herself looking down on her shabbiness.
‘Would you like a bath, miss?’
Ana nodded, unsure what she could say that would help her feel any more comfortable in this situation. The girl moved directly to the cupboard and opened the door to reveal a number of dresses. ‘Do you have a preference?’
Ana shook her head, wondering where the garments had come from and just what the mage expected. They were all dark in colour. She stepped forward and ran her hand over the edge of one of them, taking in the soft, silky material.
‘That is a lovely one,’ the girl said, pulling it out and holding it up before her so that Ana could see it.
Did it matter as long as it was clean? The girl, although similar in size and age to Ana, was freckled with small brown eyes and mouse-brown hair. On the inside of the door was a mirror that Ana hadn’t noticed before, and she saw just how this girl must have seen her. Her dress in dusty tatters, her black hair mussed, her face smudged. Ana pushed the door closed.
The girl laid the dress over the bed and then left the room again. When the door creaked open a short time later, the girl looked apologetically to Ana, who was now seated on the bed. She stood.
‘I need to ask you to go back to the master,’ the young woman said.
Ana bowed her head as though she were the maid, then disappeared through the door back into the mage’s main workshop. She could hear noise behind the door and realised there must have been others who were needed, and she wasn’t to be seen. But so far, she had been seen by the guard and the maid.
She waited, listening to scraping boots, water sloshing and the hushed hurried tones of a conversation she couldn’t make out. Then there was a gentle knock on the door, and it opened to reveal a tub in the middle of the floor.
The tub filled the room with a sweet aroma, and Ana wondered what they had put in it. She had drawn baths for the lord at times in the castle, but it was usually someone else’s task.
The girl helped Ana from her dress and into the hot water. She stood for a moment before easing herself down, allowing the water to cover as much of her as it could with her knees bent.
She leaned back and let her hair flo
at around her, sighing at the joy of it and wondering if Ende would enjoy such luxuries. He would certainly enjoy the heat of the water, but then he might make it warmer.
Ana relaxed, allowing the warm water to soak the dirt from her skin as she moved slowly beneath the surface, closing her eyes and enjoying the luxury. The girl left her to it, sitting silently nearby in case she needed anything. She remembered such nights, sitting close in case the lord needed anything, but out of her field of vision.
‘I can wash your hair,’ the girl offered, and Ana blinked into the dim light of the room.
She sat forward, allowing the girl access as she ran water through her hair, then rubbed soap through it. She did this several times and then added something else to her hair that smelt of fresh apples.
Ana was distracted for a moment, then realised the woman was leaning over the tub and reaching for her arm. She held it out of the water and let the girl scrub her skin. It was awkward to allow someone into her personal space, but she didn’t expect such a luxury to be repeated.
Ana leaned back for a moment and then turned to the woman, who was holding out a large sheet. She sighed before lifting herself from the water, climbing carefully over the edge, shivering as the woman wrapped the sheet around her. Her wet hair ran in rivulets down her back as the woman wrapped it carefully in another sheet pulling the first one from around her body.
Ana almost squealed. The young woman rubbed vigorously over her body and then dropped the sheet on the floor before reaching for more clothing than Ana had seen before. It took almost as long to get her into the new clothes as she had taken in the tub. And when she finished, she opened the cupboard door again for Ana to look at the unknown woman in the looking glass.
No longer a maid, Ana looked like a lady of the court. Although her dress was black, it was flattering, and she looked far more like a woman than she had in the nice gowns she had been given in the mountains. Not that the man in the mountains was a lord, but he pretended.
Ana ran a hand over her hips, still unbelieving. Her face appeared pale, and her hair shone in the firelight although it hung in damp tendrils. She raised a hand to it, and the maid rushed to pull a chair from the table.
‘I shall brush it for you,’ she said, reaching for a brush on the mantle as Ana took a seat. If she had been able to live as the family of the lord rather than as a maid, she wondered if she might have looked like this before.
The maid pulled the brush through her hair, occasionally dabbing at it with the sheet. It was dry before long, and Ana ran her fingers through it. She liked wearing it out. It had always been tied behind her head in some way so that it didn’t get in the way of her tasks or fall into the food she carried. Since she had been in the mountains with Dray, she had allowed it out. But it had tangled.
‘Would you like me to braid it for you?’ the maid asked. And for a moment, Ana wondered how the women of the court wore their hair in the capital.
‘No, thank you,’ she said.
֍
The regent walked into the main reception hall and stopped. Usually there was more of a show of respect, but the murmuring and chattering continued. He sucked in a deep breath, tried not to show just how frustrated he was and continued towards the long table raised up on the platform at the end of the room.
He pulled the chair out in the middle, dragging it across the tiled floor. The squeal carried through the room as he dragged it slowly. Every face turned to him, the silence perfect, and then the chatter started again.
‘Is it true?’ a man asked, stepping forward as the chatter continued.
‘There is much news about the capital,’ the regent said carefully, sitting down and placing his hands on the table. A servant appeared quickly and poured his wine. ‘What in particular have you heard that has caused such a commotion?’
‘That the king is gone,’ the man said, and the murmuring continued.
The regent scowled and stood slowly. The room hushed. ‘How does such a rumour begin?’
‘We never see him,’ an unknown voice called across the room.
‘He is a boy, still dealing with the death of his parents.’
‘It has been long enough. Is he not strong enough to be King?’
Now there is an idea. ‘He has been laid low with illness. But,’ he added, raising his hands at the noise, ‘he is recovering well enough.’
‘Where is he?’
‘In his rooms. Do you wish to disturb the king to ensure I’m not lying?’
Murmuring continued, but it sounded more like agreement than disbelief.
‘I understand how gossip and rumour get out of hand.’ He sat back slowly and took his time sipping his wine. ‘When he is of age, you shall see him.’
‘We saw him when his father was alive.’
‘The world is a very different place,’ the regent snapped, and then cleared his throat. ‘There are those who would harm the boy. We must do what we can to ensure his place on the throne is safe.’
‘And why does he not sit on it now?’ someone else called from the crowd. ‘Our history is filled with boys who were made King before they were of age.’
The regent rolled his shoulders. ‘That may be, but he has asked for my assistance, and what can I do?’
A servant appeared and leaned over his shoulder. ‘She’s ready,’ he whispered.
He waved her forward, and the room hushed again.
‘We have a guest of His Majesty with us this evening. She will be staying with us now. I would hope that you make her welcome.’
Ana stepped out from the alcove, a very different girl from the one who had appeared at his feet. She was a woman, a very enticing woman, and he wondered just what power she had. The mage was sure she could be of use, and of use he would make her.
As she crossed the room, her black hair reflecting the light, her pale beautiful face highlighting her glorious green eyes, the crowd watched in awed silence. He couldn’t have planned it better if he had dressed her himself.
‘A witch,’ murmured through the crowd, and she stalled in her walk. He scowled at the room.
‘She is our guest. Ana,’ he said kindly, holding out his hand. She looked from it to the room and then back. She walked towards him. A servant pulled back her chair, and she was seated beside him.
Ana looked down at her hands. He cleared his throat, but she didn’t look up. The conversation was hushed around the room, but it continued. He waved forward the servant, who poured wine into the cup before her.
She nodded once, lifted it and took a large gulp. ‘I am not used to such attention,’ she whispered.
‘You will come to be more comfortable.’
‘Will I?’ she asked, looking at him with the brilliant green eyes he was sure sparkled with something. Perhaps her magic was brighter than the mage thought.
‘A guest of the king?’ someone asked too loudly, and she looked across the room. ‘Who knew King Edwin Ilren would be able to befriend such a woman when he never leaves his rooms.’
‘Edwin Ilren,’ she said slowly, as though hearing the name for the very first time.
‘Anaise,’ the regent said in return, and she looked back at him with bright eyes. ‘What is your family name?’
‘Excuse me?’
‘Who do you belong to? Which clan or group or family?’
‘Merrin,’ she said, still apparently confused as to what he wanted. ‘But you knew who I was.’
He nodded once in agreement, and he remembered the Lord of Sheer Rock had been deliberately vague with some aspects of her family. ‘Your parents?’
‘Dead.’ She looked at the plate placed before her, but made no move to eat from it. ‘Again, sir, you know more of my history than I know myself. I had no indication of these gifts or what I could do until your mage arrived to take me away. And then he didn’t want me.’
‘Might you use these gifts on me?’
‘I may have already,’ she said with a small smile. She looked at the food on her plat
e, although she still made no move to eat.
‘Would you like something else?’
‘You said he was ill,’ she said, picking up the fork, her focus on the plate.
‘Yes,’ he said slowly.
‘Do you often lie to the people?’
‘Only when it is for their own good.’
‘And the king being ill is good for the people?’
‘Do you know where he is?’ he asked in a hushed tone, glancing about the room rather than at her to ensure they weren’t overheard. When he looked back to her, she was staring at him with her bright green eyes and the smallest of smiles.
‘How long have you been looking?’ she asked. ‘Did you send your mage to search for me to find him for you?’
He shook his head. She reached for his hand and then stopped, curling her fingers in and pulling her hand back.
‘Do you think I’m lying?’ he asked.
‘I do wonder what you think, but I may not want to see what else you are.’ She pushed the chair back from the table and stood. The room silenced, and all eyes were on her. She bowed her head to the room and then walked away. Although the regent watched her, he knew that every other pair of eyes in the room was focused on her as well.
Chapter 29
Ana stood over the desk of the mage and watched him work. ‘Why am I here?’ she asked as she had done so many times since she had arrived.
‘I thought you would be useful.’
‘In finding the king?’
He looked up at her then, studying her carefully as though he didn’t quite recognise her. ‘Why would you need to find the king?’
‘Because you don’t know where he is.’ She looked around the room for a moment, a room she knew well. ‘When you came to get me, you changed your mind.’
He looked back at the page, as though she was no longer interesting. ‘What does it matter?’
‘It matters,’ she said, her voice too loud for their proximity. He looked up again, then laid down his pen with a sigh. ‘You wanted me, and then you didn’t, and then you did. I need to know what you saw.’
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