It might be dangerous, but living in a brothel would certainly be worse. And not everyone could get accustomed to such a life, either; some drank themselves to death, some started sniffing foreign drugs, some slit their wrists...
Therefore, I felt no pangs of conscience tormenting me. My conscience was well-trained, after all.
***
The ceremony was majestic.
Fancy clothing, flowers, trumpets blaring, fanfare, a parade through the city streets, loud announcements at each corner...
Ridiculous.
The only thing that could betray our plan was that we didn’t put the heir onto the throne. Still, there were no doubts, as the king himself was the one to introduce his heir to the people, but in any other situation, they would probably arise.
The last step was presenting the child to the courtiers in the throne room.
After that, I gave the boy to the “wet-nurse,” and Tommy led her to my chambers. I was to open the ball.
I needed to pick a lady, invite her to the first dance... All the court bitches had already livened up, ready for a hunt, exchanging glances and whispering. I scoured the room for Innis.
My girl was standing in a far corner. True, who would have let her come closer to the throne when so many local dames were on the prowl?
I slowly descended and walked through the hall.
The ladies spread their ranks before me and only one lingered.
Oh, was it that Dariola’s handmaiden, who had tried to... Well, well. Her eyes were full of hope and audacity. What if he picks me? Why not me? I’m worthy!
I wasn’t about to explain to her that trying to seduce the king didn’t make her worthy; she didn’t deserve it.
I steered clear of her and finally approached Innis. I offered her my hand.
“My fair lady...”
Her slender fingers fell into my palm.
“Your Majesty.”
And we were swept away in a graceful dance, not giving a care in the world about the hateful looks.
I was the king. I had made my choice and they could either accept it...or die. I wouldn’t mind either way.
***
“In three days, I’ll declare you the king’s bride.”
“To strengthen the ties between our nations, right?”
My head was lying on Innis’ knees as she ran her fingers over my hair.
“Yes. We’ll be strengthening them very diligently; we don’t want to miss any of the ties, do we?”
Innis blushed slightly.
“As you wish.”
“I’m so happy that today is already over.”
“Really? What if it has just started?”
And really, the day was already breaking. The ball had just ended, and I wanted to spend time with Innis.
“Maybe. I’ve never understood how Rudolph managed to go from a ball, to a joust, and then again to a ball...and found the time to handle the kingdom.”
Innis snorted, amused by my joke, but then grew serious.
“Alex, there’s one more question left to discuss.”
“Which one?”
“The children.”
“You don’t have any yet.”
“You already have Rick. Do you really think that it’s right to raise him away from his father? What about our children? Will you send them away as well? Or will I have to go with them?”
I sighed.
“Innis, I don’t know, I really don’t. We’ll either constantly travel to Torrin and back or think of something else, but they can’t live here. You must realize that!”
“Their looks...”
“Yes. part-demons are a peculiar bunch, I know it from my own example. A locked door won’t hold them and amulets don’t work for too long...mine ran out of power each time I used them, I remember. And that’s despite me wearing three or four at a time! If someone sees them like they are...”
“A rebellion?”
“Yes, sweetie. For some unfathomable reason, people don’t like us.”
“And you’re all so nice...”
“Are we bad?”
“I don’t know all of you.”
“That’s for the best. We’ll figure it out later, Innis. And I’m sure that our children won’t grow up in peace; it’s possible there’ll be plots, assassination attempts...”
Innis gripped her fists.
“But we’ll overcome them?”
“Yes. But it will be easier for me if our children are safe. And I’ll ask Martha to take care of them...”
“The crown...
“Yes, darling. The crown, Bright Saint damn it.”
“You don’t really think that, do you?”
“Maybe I would have been happier in Andago, with you and the children...”
“You’d be bored there. You’d strain at the leash, and I...I wouldn’t be able to let you go. I love you too much for that.”
I caught her small hand and touched her skin with my lips.
“I love you, too.”
***
“Your Majesty...”
Puzzled, I looked at the girl.
“What do you want?”
She had lain in wait for me. Why? I hoped she wouldn’t say she was pregnant with my child; no children could be born from what had happened between us, I knew that for a fact.
“Your Majesty, I love you!”
The girl fell to her knees and raised her tear-stricken face to throw me a begging look. I felt like an idiot.
Wait, wrong.
She considered me an idiot.
How could she love a man who had used her and discarded her? That wasn’t even funny!
Still, streams of tears flowed down the cheeks of Tessa? Lessa? What was her name? Something with fricatives. She wrung her hands, trying to embrace my legs.
“Your Majesty, please don’t send me away!”
“Was I going to?”
“They said that all unmarried girls would be married off to Riolon! Your Majesty, I’ll die there, away from you! I’ll simply stop breathing...”
I took a step back.
Die? That was unlikely. If people died like that each time, the world would have been empty already. But what did she want from me?
“What do you want?”
“Your Majesty, please let me stay at court! I’ll even be a scullery maid, as long as I could see you, at least sometimes! Even breathing the same air would do! Being without you is worse than death...”
What a nuisance.
I narrowed my eyes.
“Dear, are you in your right mind?”
The girl smeared tears across her face. A follow-up, then...
“I’ve never promised you anything. You’re just a small episode in my life and I certainly have no desire to see you at court. You have three days to make a decision. After that, I’ll announce my wedding...”
“You’re getting married?”
Her shriek hurt my ears.
“Not to you, I assure you.”
“No! Your Majesty, I beg you!”
“If in three days, you don’t tell me who you want to marry, I’ll find you a fiancé myself. From Riolon.”
“You’re sentencing me to death...”
I snorted irreverently. Thank the Bright Saint for Mistress Eliza, who had told me about such tricks. What is the easiest way to catch a man? Flattery. Tell him he’s the best, and he’ll start eating out of your hand.
“Well, you don’t have to marry if you die.”
I turned around and left, feeling her hateful stare with my back.
She had thought she could take the place of a mistress, or, Tempter will it, the queen, and got such an insult in response? Of course, she was furious.
No matter; she would soon dry her tears and start looking for a husband.
I heard steps behind me. Great; somebody is about to take care of her. At least one problem I wouldn’t have to deal with...but she definitely had to be married off and sent away.
I really wou
ldn’t want to tell Innis about that episode of my biography; I didn’t expect her to understand, even if that girl meant less than nothing to me.
***
Innis was walking through the garden.
“Countess Andago?”
She turned her head only to discover a red-headed woman, a gorgeous one at that: graceful, elegantly dressed, with a magnificent smile.
“Yes. And you are...”
“Viscountess Latour.”
“My pleasure.”
“Could you give me a moment of your time, Countess?”
“All right.”
The viscountess looked at her, all serious, sighed with sympathy, and started talking, as if about something she had long wanted to say.
“I feel for you, Countess. It’s hard to love someone who has no heart.”
If Innis were a cat, her tail would be in the air.
“Please explain yourself, Viscountess.”
A bitter smile appeared on the lips of the red-haired woman.
“I’m talking about our king, His Majesty Alexander Leonard...”
Apparently, she had expected Innis to react, but to no avail. She kept her silence, a mocking smile on her face, and the viscountess had to continue.
“You and I are alike. Both of us love him...”
“And whom does he love?”
The sarcasm in Innis’ voice was clear. Carlie—it was her, of course—sneered.
“And what do you think, Countess?”
“I think that a man would do everything to remove a traitor from his heart.”
That seemed to hit a chord.
“He could have sent me to the countryside, he could have done a lot more, yet I’m still at court. It’s not a man’s words that matter, but his actions.”
Innis felt the sting of a cold needle in her heart. What if the woman is right?
But another feeling rose up against it; something bitter and proud. She was an Andago. Later, she could contemplate, she could pine, but now, she had to strike, and her strike was cruel and ruthless.
“If a man doesn’t do anything, maybe he simply doesn’t care about you? Like a cow cake lying on the road—it won’t stink until you touch it!”
“You don’t think he loves you, do you? He doesn’t know how to love!”
Carlie was almost hissing with anger. Innis casually picked a rose from a nearby bush and turned back.
“Viscountess, if you dare to approach me again, I will let Alex know about our conversation. Even indifference has its limits.”
She didn’t hear Carlie’s screams. She simply forced herself not to hear and not to listen, loudly repeating some poem in her head. Later, she would have a good cry inside her chambers. Later. But now, her back was straight, her shoulders were square, and her pace was not too brisk.
Countess Andago never fled from the battlefield. She simply...didn’t care enough to do that. Will I tell Alex? Of course, not. There were far too many jealous idiots and Innis knew that he had never lied to her, not even for a minute. Such sincerity could not be fake.
But he hadn’t told her back then that he was the king... What if he didn’t tell me something else? No!
Such thoughts were wrong.
Love always meant trust. If you didn’t trust a person, you didn’t really love him, and so, Innis met her beloved with a warm smile, forgetting about the jealous viscountess.
Unfortunately, she also forgot that such women could be very dangerous.
In the coming days, Innis had a few charm potions poured into her drinks. She never noticed them, however. Those truly in love were protected from magic-induced love, as it had no place in their hearts or their souls. And she loved truly.
***
Time flew like it was mad.
Innis and I visited Little Rick. Ak-kvir got us into Torrin, grumbling that he was starting to feel more like a mount than a demon.
Innis took a liking to my quarterling, by the way, and it was mutual. At least, he didn’t scratch her with his claws.
“I might have been jealous if he looked like Dariola, but he’s exactly like you,” Innis confessed.
Henry and Rene like her as well. She was already chatting up Cassie about something.
That lovely cheerful girl holding my child in her hands...she was mine.
I would never let her go, I knew that.
Shimaris agreed to marry us, but declined an offer to stay at court. He had no choice, however—who else would tolerate my nasty temper? Definitely not the servitors.
And finally, the day came.
That morning, my chambers were filled with coiffeurs, tailors, shoemakers, and other rabble that was considered an intrinsic element of a wedding.
I would have married Innis even without pants, well, ceremonial pants, but I had to grin and bear it: the stupid white color that made me look like a ghost, golden embroidery, lots of diamonds...
It was even worse for Innis. My intelligence, represented by Martha, reported that she had been attacked by thrice as many sycophants.
They still remembered Abigail well and were hoping that Innis would turn out to be another lover of dresses and balls. They were wrong, of course, but we didn’t have to disappoint them straight away.
The main temple appeared in front of me, all gilded and candle-lit, with mirrors and stained-glass windows.
Shimaris was wearing a new white robe. He was smiling and content.
“She’s a good girl, Your Majesty. You’ll be happy.”
The divine power emanating from him was so strong that I felt physically uncomfortable. After all, the nature of our gifts was quite different, as were we. It was easier for me outside temples, but at that moment, Light was particularly strong.
“I hope so, too.”
I was ready to bear my burden. I hadn’t dumped it on anyone else; I would withstand anything. But maybe I could allow myself some human happiness for once?
When I saw Innis, I almost forgot to breathe, that’s how gorgeous she was. Countess Andago drifted toward me in a cloud of icy blue silk, sapphires shining in her black hair, but her eyes shined even brighter.
I had never seen such a feeling on anyone’s face before.
She truly loved me, just as I was, a half-demon with a tail, with fangs, with all my troubles and issues, and would never trade me for anyone, wouldn’t betray me, wouldn’t stab me in the back...
Slowly, I got down on one knee and offered her my hand.
Her slender fingers fell into my palm. She was shivering slightly; she was afraid...but we were together, and together, we would handle anything.
I got up and kissed her hand lightly.
Ready to serve you, my queen.
Shimaris looked over the audience, triumphant. Silence fell over the temple, and he started the ceremony.
“Beloved by the Bright Saint, His holy children, we are gathered here today...”
Somebody’s eyes were drilling a hole in my back, but I couldn’t really turn around. Martha was sobbing; I remembered that she hadn’t shed a tear during my wedding to Dariola. Still, I shouldn’t be thinking about that now. The snow had melted and the rivers would carry the dirt away into the Great Ocean.
Innis and I exchanged bracelets, and at last, Shimaris declared us husband and wife, even graciously allowing us to kiss—and we obeyed.
Then we left the temple and walked outside, into the sound. We were surrounded by noise. People were screaming, throwing flowers...
An ordinary human would have never heard it or sensed it. I wasn’t ordinary, though. I was a necromancer and a half-demon, and I felt a wave of furious hate push me in my chest.
“Die, pig...”
The words were quiet, almost indiscernible. Even those standing around him couldn’t hear them. But I could.
And I could also see a masked figure raising a hand with an amulet that was about to explode, releasing a powerful and wicked spell...and where it was aimed.
Right at Innis’ chest.
I knew that spell. Innis would never survive getting hit with that; no human could. And I... I would be left alone.
Power? Money? Why would I need any of that without her? What would I be without her?
NO!
That was the only word in my mind as I stepped forward, shielding my wife with my body, as the spell hit me in the back.
I thought that I felt pain. I thought that I had automatically assumed my demonic form.
Ah, what did it matter?
The last thing I saw was Innis’s eyes. She was alive.
Everything is fine, my love...
***
Innis had never felt so confused.
She felt so happy as she exited the temple, but in one moment, everything changed.
Alex stepped forward...and then collapsed after transforming into a demon. Scales appeared on his body, his blue eyes rolled back, becoming red, and his claws slid down her body, shredding her wedding dress.
She didn’t even get enough time to catch him; all she could do was kneel beside him, covering him with her body.
The chancellor was on his guard, however.
“Guards! Take him!”
The assassin wasn’t even trying to get away. He kept standing, his arms crossed. Fortunately for him, the guards were the first to get to him. They grabbed him and dragged him to prison, kicking him as they went.
“My boy!”
Martha dropped to her knees next to Innis. She touched the king’s neck and breathed out in relief.
“He’s still alive!”
The chancellor knelt beside them.
“By the Bright Saint! What’s happened to him?”
How did Innis manage to move her tongue? How did she think of something like that?
Even twenty years later, she couldn’t have answered that.
“I’m an air mage. I know that spell. It’s a curse that makes a human look like a demonic creature.”
Half-Demon's Fortune Page 36
