“This will not be difficult. My bride wishes to show me her capital,” Mars returned.
That gave me relief.
All right.
Onward.
“Alfie thinks Carrington is in cahoots with the Go’Doan,” I informed them.
This was met with total silence.
Until Cassius asked bewilderingly, “What word is there from Chu?”
“Chu?” Elena inquired.
“He has made the Thicket,” Mars answered Cassius. “And as he will be engaged in his duties, I will not be able to contact him for fear of such communication being noted which might mean he’s discovered. But he will be in regular contact with me if he discovers anything.”
“Chu?” Silence asked after Elena’s query.
“I shall tell you later, piccolina,” Mars murmured.
“For the rest of you,” I butted in, “I need to request you cut your forays short and head to Notting Thicket with all due haste. From what I’m hearing, True will need allies, the more, the faster, the better.”
“We’re already on our way,” Ha-Lah said, and when she continued, the smile on her face came through in her words. “And we bring dragons.”
“Dragons?” Silence breathed.
“Men,” Aramus boomed. “Frey Drakkar has heard word about the Beast and has come to our aid. We sail with him right now toward Notting Thicket. And he says the Dax of Korwahk and the king of Hawkvale are in route.”
“You’re joking,” Cassius said.
“This is a boon,” Mars added.
“Have you noticed it is we who have the link and it is the males who are doing most of the talking?” Elena asked tetchily.
“It is the way,” Ha-Lah murmured.
“It is so lovely to see you, Ha-Lah,” Silence said. “You have been missed.”
“That is kind, Silence,” Ha-Lah replied. “You have been missed too. Are you well?”
“Very!” Silence chirped, which made me, as well as Elena and Ha-Lah, smile.
“Farah?” Ha-Lah asked, her smile less bright when it came to me, and her voice was heavier.
“True and his men have been taking care of me,” I told her quietly.
“For this, I am glad,” she said softly.
“I am glad for this too,” Mars put in, not softly.
“You seem happy,” Elena noted to Ha-Lah.
Ha-Lah smiled a certain kind of smile.
Aramus could be heard grunting.
Enough said on that.
I started grinning again.
“There are things to do, are we done chatting?” Cassius asked.
“No one asked you to be in this conversation, Cass,” Elena pointed out.
“Wodell is raising an army to thwart an alliance and wage war on one of my allies. Their king’s counsellor is possibly colluding with the Go’Doan who were behind an attack on a palace you and I as well as all our friends had to take up swords to rout. And considering all of this, we have to make the decisions about whether or not to take our daughters into an uncertain situation, and my vote would be hell no. This means I’ll have to argue with you about that and then tell the girls they aren’t coming and deal with their tantrums. We don’t have time to chat,” Cassius returned.
“You finished that by assuming you’d get your way about the girls,” Elena retorted.
“I will, for there’s no way in hell I’m allowing our girls to go into an uncertain situation,” Cassius shot back.
“They’ll be devasted and we’ve already been separated from them for too long. Especially you and Aelia,” Elena argued.
“Perhaps we can discuss this without an audience,” Cassius suggested.
“Perhaps we can discuss this instead of using Melisse’s treehome for alone time,” Elena replied.
Well, it seemed things had advanced between those two, even if they’d stayed the same.
Something about that made me feel most pleased.
“I have a donation to make,” Mars announced, then demanded, “Release my queen and myself from this summons.”
“But I wish to chat, my husband,” Silence said.
“As you wish,” Mars murmured.
And that made me feel most pleased.
But I had to share, “I can’t chat. They’re packing the horses now and we must be away. I’m so sorry.”
“It was lovely to see you and ascertain you are well, even if for a short time,” Ha-Lah said.
“You as well,” I replied.
“You all as well,” Silence put in. “And when we meet again, I have so much to share. And I look forward to hearing about all of your adventures.”
“I cannot wait,” Elena said.
“Me either,” Ha-Lah agreed.
“Until we meet again,” I bid as farewell.
Silence waved.
Ha-Lah blew a kiss.
And Elena swept her arm in front of herself.
Then they were all gone.
My work was done.
Now it was time to head to the Thicket.
71
The Decision
Prince Cassius
The Queen’s Palace
THE ENCHANTMENTS
Some hours after that odd conversation with the destined others, and a long argument with his woman about the girls, Cassius was summoned.
Now he stood on the scrollwork rugs amongst the woven furniture of Ophelia’s receiving room, staring unseeing at the carved panels that adorned her walls.
There was an embargo on any Nadirii goods in Airen. In fact, it was illegal even to own them and the penalties were severe if caught trying to smuggle them in from Wodell, Firenze or Go’Doan.
However, he had seen their artwork in his travels, and found it distinctive and attractive, but being amongst it these past days, he was glad that embargo would soon come to an end and that Nadirii beauty would be easily had throughout his land.
“Cassius,” Ophelia said.
He turned, watched her walk down the stairs and did it keeping in check the impulse to move to assist her.
He dipped his head. “Your Grace.”
She came to a stop at the foot of the stairs, most likely to rest, but appearing to do so in order to emphasize what she said next.
“You sleep by my daughter’s side. You and your daughter break bread with she and hers. It is most unexpected, but it is also indisputable. You are my son. I believe it is time to call me Ophelia.”
He dipped his head again.
She motioned to a davenport with a woven dome above it.
He moved there, even if he did not wish to sit in that contraption, as she walked to a hanging chair of the same shape.
She climbed into it.
He waited until she was settled before he sat at the edge of the cushion.
When she did not say anything, he did.
“You asked to speak with me without your daughter present, and I am here, but I must share, I’m not comfortable with her not.”
Something moved over her face, a face that seemed to have aged years in the days they’d been there.
It was not hard to read it was relief.
What was hard was to realize she had shown that emotion so openly.
Ophelia was not one to share her thoughts in any way, unless it was intended.
“Also unexpected,” she said quietly, “is how well you two suit.”
Cassius did not respond.
She squared her shoulders and lifted her chin before she hit him with a verbal brick.
“I am dying, my son.”
He had the unusual instinct to burst from his seat.
He did not.
“Ophelia—”
She waved her hand and spoke over him.
“There is nothing to do but plan for that eventuality.”
“I think you should speak to your daughter. She was approached by a Go’Doan priest at Catrame Palace. She has—”
Ophelia nodded. “Elena discussed this medicine with one of our
healers. And that healer, Joan, discussed it with me. I cannot say in this moment my trust in the Go’Doan is at its highest. But if Joan feels it is safe, I will take it. She’s studying it now. But even if it is safe, it will not but perhaps prolong the inevitable.”
“I find I have nothing to say,” he replied. “Except this saddens me, for my princess, for your Sisterhood, for my daughter, who I would wish to know you better, and for myself, for you have my respect.”
“Thank you, Cassius,” she murmured. “And I did not ask you here to make you speak. I asked you here to request you listen. For I have made a decision and it’s important that the Prince Regent of Airen, as well as the future husband of my daughter, is understanding of it, and supportive.”
Cassius nodded.
“I will be naming Elena my successor.”
Every inch of Cassius’s body froze.
“It will be up to you,” she went on, “and she, how you will rule different lands side by side.”
“What you suggest is an impossibility,” he said in a tone heavy with incredulity.
“What I have decided is an imperative.”
“She will rule by my side,” Cassius shared. “I will need her engaged. I will need her counsel. What we wish to achieve in Airen I cannot possibly foster without Elena’s aid.”
“You are a good man,” she said softly, studying him contemplatively. “It is most odd, do you not think, how a strong and stalwart tree can grow from the seed of a gnarled and diseased one.”
Cassius had no reply, but even if he had nothing to say, that didn’t mean he had no feeling at hearing her words.
He did.
And it was a rare sense of pride, that this great queen would think this of him.
“What you do not understand is that she is quite like you in many ways,” Ophelia carried on. “Especially her skill in selecting those she trusts. You need her to rule by your side, and she will be able to do that. She will not need you to rule by hers, but she’ll need assistance. And she will find that in Hera and Jasmine, specifically Hera. As well as my lieutenants, primarily Melisse. The balance will be hard fought, but from what I know of my daughter, and what I see of you, in the end, it will be won.”
“I see I will not be able to change your mind,” Cass admitted. “And I mean no offense, but as difficult as this will be for my princess and I, I also see no alternative.”
Ophelia gave a single nod, but said, “Serena will need a role, and as to that, I have not decided. Her last communication to me shared she allies with a Firenz Trusted to spy for that country, which caused such deep surprise in me, I cannot express it. So all I can do is hope that such change in all the realms has brought change in my eldest daughter and that I have time to read what that is and make the right decision for her future.”
He could not imagine any change in Serena, but if Chu was affecting that, he was more of a miracle worker than Cassius thought.
“I urge you to take pains to stay well for as long as you can, Ophelia. As you know, we have no idea what we will face. War. The Beast. Go’Doan treachery. Which will come first, and what will come of it.”
She gave a slight shrug. “I have the time I’ll have.”
“Your daughter needs you.”
“I’ll have the time I’ll have, my son,” she said quietly. “No more, no less. When the goddesses call to me, I cannot evade their summons. Now I need to know I have your support. But more, I need to know she will have it.”
“For what it will be worth, you have it,” he promised. “As will Elena.”
Her head tipped to the side.
“These words,” she whispered. “They surprise me. For a man of such skill and intellect, you do not know your own worth. I hope my daughter can help you find your way to understanding the magnitude of that.”
Again, Cassius made no reply, but that feeling of pride came back.
“I have one other thing to discuss with you,” she said.
“Please go on,” Cassius bid.
“You must take Aelia and Theodora with you to Notting Thicket.”
His princess being his princess and the future queen of another nation, he had no say. Only Elena could abdicate, if that was her wish, and he could not imagine, how she was in her realm, how clear her devotion was to it, that she would.
His daughter, and Theodora, he, and Elena, had the only say.
Therefore, he shook his head. “Elena and I have discussed this, and we’re told there’s much unrest—”
“They must not be in The Enchantments.”
The way she spoke those words made Cassius’s mouth snap shut.
“I do not know, I cannot say, but I do not like what I feel in the veil,” she told him. “And I know one thing as a mother. No daughter is safer anywhere than with her parents.”
“If you feel The Enchantments are in danger, we will not leave,” he declared.
She shook her head.
“Wodell is on the precipice of greatness. The like Ares cultivated in Firenze, and Mars has continued to nurture. This must not be imperiled, for it is also on the precipice of ruin. It must be given every opportunity to fall the right way. And it goes without saying the plans for Airen must move forward. The Enchantments might be shaken, but we will survive.”
“You understand if they don’t, if you don’t, I will have a woman and a daughter on my hands who will be inconsolable.”
“Ah,” she murmured.
“Ah?” he asked.
She smiled a small smile. “And there you will find your worth, Cassius, for this is wholly untrue. They will be, for they will be consoled by you.”
Cassius felt these words like a punch in the chest, so much, they left him winded.
“I will be gone, Cassius, it may be weeks, it may be months, but it will happen. And now…now…” She drew in a delicate breath and released it. “Now I can go in peace, knowing I have left my Elena to you.”
“Ophelia—”
“I am tired,” she muttered, maneuvering out of her hanging chair.
She couldn’t expect to leave it at that.
He stood. “Ophelia—”
She was moving slowly across the room, but she stopped and looked at him.
“When my babies were young, I taught them to read the cards,” she whispered.
Her words, the look on her face, Cassius braced.
“Every morning as wee girls, they turned a card,” she shared. “And I told them the meanings, day after day, until they could read them themselves and understand the omens.”
“Elena does this still,” he told her quietly.
Her face softened, her eyes grew sad, and she smiled.
“I turned the Dragon this morning,” she told him.
He had no idea what that meant, but from her demeanor, she thought it was not good.
But he knew it was.
“And Frey Drakkar comes with dragons,” he informed her.
“No.” She shook her head. “The Dragon means fire, power…” She paused. “Endings.”
Yes, she thought it was not good.
“And The Drakkar comes with dragons,” he said through his teeth. “Bringing fire and power.”
“So I turned another card,” she went on as if he did not speak.
Cassius was silent.
“It was the Pegasus card. Astral travel. Flight.” She held his gaze and finished, “Freedom.”
“You’re giving up,” he accused.
“I’m giving over,” she returned.
“Which is the same as giving up,” he clipped.
“You know loss, my son, help her through it.”
“Ophelia—”
He stopped speaking when suddenly, a tear raced down her cheek and the word she spoke was as weak as her visage.
“Please.”
Cassius swallowed.
Then he declared, his voice gruff, “A great woman begot a woman who will be great.”
“I find myself annoyed with you,” she rep
lied, “for I was ready, with no regrets, and now I am not quite ready, for I know regret, and this is that I will not know my son.”
Another punch in the chest.
“Your granddaughters will know you as if you supped with us nightly,” he swore.
“And that regret strengthens.”
Cassius fell quiet.
“You will live with love and you will die with love, that is my gift to you, my son,” she whispered.
“It will be cherished, and it will be protected, that is my promise to you, my mother,” he vowed.
She stared right in his eyes, the weakness in hers gone, all he saw was strength.
And then she said, “I’m counting on that.”
72
The Duo
Princess Serena
In an Alley, Outside the Go’Doan Temple, Notting Thicket
WODELL
Serena watched Chu run down the narrow alleyway, leap toward the wall, land halfway up it, press off it with his foot, and fly across to the wall opposite, reaching out to catch a beam under a roof.
She did this thinking she must ask him to teach her that leaping thing.
She then watched him swing from the beam until he’d rotated over it, his body disappearing under the eaves.
For her part, she was crouching under a moldy, holey blanket, the edge pulled well over her forehead. However, her visage could remain hidden and she could still see beyond it with her head dipped, looking out from under her brows.
They both stayed in place as the minutes dragged on, and not many people moved by at this time in the eve.
She was patient.
Not because it would please her Master (all right, partly because of that).
Not because it would please Chu (though it was partly because of that too).
But because this spy business was everything.
“Zsst, zsst,” she heard Chu’s low signal.
She adjusted her place, her gaze, and saw them coming down the alley in the white robes and golden belts of the Go’Doan.
She positioned, kept the blanket about her, and shuffled out when they got close.
“A piece for a pauper,” she muttered, affecting the Dellish accent to hide her Nadirii birth, and keeping her head ducked under the blanket.
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