He took a long bow, grasping her fingers and kissing up her arm as he rose with loud wet smacks of his lips.
Ember giggled loudly, almost squeaking as he tickled her ear.
“I have found the perfect item for our Dragon Daughter!” The woman exclaimed as she pushed through the tent flap with an air of importance. No doubt her shop would see an uptick in sales after today.
“What do you think, Noorworth Knight?” She asked conspiratorially, tilting the box so that only he and the gathering crowd could see. Ember heard a few surprised exclamations.
Noor’s eyes widened. “Why Luciana Jeweler, you've outdone yourself. May I?” He asked, putting out his hand for the box.
“But of course, it is my purpose.”
Noor took the box and pointed its open end to Ember. “My Queen, what do you think?”
In the box was a small golden ring. It swirled intriguingly upward like a spiraling fire to host a rainbow pearl. This was indeed special. This piece was passed on to the shop for repurposing when the previous owner joined Aaleia in the after.
“To commemorate our meeting,” he said. He hugged Ember to him and slipped the ring on her finger. The crowd applauded, and their guards encourage them to push back.
“We should be on our way, Dragon Daughter, Knight,” Amir called, more people joining the crowd to see them. The opening of the shop overflowed with the spectacle. The shopkeeper stood waiting, her apprentices behind her.
“I agree.” Noor followed, thanking Luciana for her hospitality after paying for the ring.
The crowd parted to let them pass. Several hands reached out to try and touch her as she moved. “The Dragon…” they whispered, and it made Ember uncomfortable. She felt the world turning around her, felt the stars move in the sky, and a rumbling in her chest.
That night, Ember turned over in her bed and reached out her ringed hand to Noor’s side. She found only cold sheets.
Fifteen
More Lies
Ember had awoken in the middle of the night to a cold bed four days out of the past seven.
“I’m adjusting to new duties, like this one,” Noor would say, kissing her on the lips and distracting her thoughts. Even as she let him kiss her, she knew it was a lie. He was not out exercising with Wally or training with Amir at sunrise. He was not wandering the grounds because he couldn’t sleep. Every excuse came out of his mouth easily, but if those things were true she wouldn’t need to ask for answers. If it were true, he wouldn’t be distracting her a moment later.
Ember stared at the closed door that she knew Noor had exited. Amir’s voice whispered behind it. Their shadows passed under the door and Ember watched them leave. Should she be doing this? Following him wasn’t something that pointed to a trusting relationship. But if he didn’t answer her questions truthfully, how else was she going to find out what was going on?
Ember didn't know how to feel. Shouldn't your fated pair tell you everything? Why would he and Amir have anything to hide from her?
She followed behind them, timing her steps and turning corners while she was far enough away to be unnoticeable, but still close enough that she could see their path. It lead her to duck behind statues and hide in alcoves, but soon they stopped and a third man joined them. She recognized Wally as he left Jedoriah and the Queen’s tower. Zhieve’s bed must be as cold as her own. Together, the three of them walked to the gardens and entered one of its many doors.
Ember trailed behind them, pulling her robe tighter around her body in the chill air. She walked along the edge of the garden, eyes widening as she tried to take in more light. The bushes that lined the walls glimmered with small firebugs and torches, creating a low glow. If she weren't attempted to be sneaky, this would have been a nice stroll.
There it was, a whisper of voices ahead of her. She slowed down until she turned around a bend to find three figures crowded together in the dark. Crouching low behind a tree, Ember stared at the three men that have become pivotal figures in her short life at the palace.
Amir, Noor, and Wally were all out of uniform in outfits of brown and black, softly arguing about something Ember could not hear. They looked like civilians. Wally continued to speak as he bent down, lifting something from the ground. A groan was heard and the bush lined wall behind them opened up. She crept a little closer, her dark robe helping to hide her figure in the trees.
Ember’s heart skipped a beat. What could her pair and two main protectors be doing in the middle of the night that would involve a secret entrance?
She rushed forward just as Noor closed the door behind him. Ember put her hand into the foliage, scratching her arm as she looked for any sort of knob or latch. She felt nothing but the sting of thorns.
Thinking for a moment, she looked down. In the darkness, she couldn’t make out much. She bent to the ground, trying to feel around where Wally had stood.
That’s it! A small stone was latched to the ground, but when lifted a certain way…
The hidden door pushed inward with a small creak. Slightly open, their voices filtered in a few feet from the door. If she wanted to turn back, now would be the time. If she wanted to go in and look into the door when she knew they had already moved on - she could do that without them knowing. But then she’d have no way of figuring out where they went next. What if she got lost in her own explorations? Ember knew that if she wanted to get to the truth, she’d have to go now while the courage was with her. She pushed at the crack that formed within the foliage and her eyes were hit with the lights from within. Steeling her breath, she walked through the door.
“Ember… what are you doing here?” Noor asked, his eyes as wide as Ember’s as she took in the passageway before her. Noor, Wally, and Amir stood ten feet from the door, half turned towards their direction. Every few feet there was a blazing torch, and she could see the outline of what must be other hidden doors. It was a narrow space, but long. Ember turned around and saw that it continued in both directions. The room smelled of stale air. Few people must know of this hidden hall between the castle and the gardens.
“Dragon Daughter, is everything alright? Why are you here?” Amir asked her, as if she were interrupting them in her bedroom hallway rather than a secret passageway she needed a lift a fake rock to enter. His hand reached for her shoulder. Ember stepped back. Wally didn’t say a word, the least calm of the three of them as he wrung his hands.
“I think,” Ember began, “I could ask the same of you all. If you could explain to me why my guards, including my Knight, left their post and are now in a secret passageway?”
Ember pushed her short strands of hair behind her ears and crossed her arms in an attempt to fight the urge to scratch her scales. She hated the way she felt in that moment, the nerves pulling her back into her past life.
The three of them looked to each other, unsure what to say. Noor stepped forward first.
“We should go back to your room and talk.”
“I’d like to know where you’ve been sneaking away to first,” Ember said.
“That’s a long story,” he hedged, putting his hands in the pockets of his linen pants.
“No, it’s quite simple. Where does this hallway lead too?”
Ember’s chest flared, and her heart filled with heat. She needed to know. She had to know now. She looked at Amir and Wally.
“Well?”
“We were going into the city to meet with friends,” Wally volunteered. Amir glared daggers at him. So it led to the city. Ember stored that information away.
“In a secret tunnel?” Ember threw up her arms and turned to where the door had been.
“Can we speak privately?” Noor asked her, asking for her attention. She felt her personal bubble of safety pop around her. The fragile acceptance of her new life was thrown out of balance.
“How do I get out?” she asked, pushing the center of where the door had been. The outline was visible on the beige walls, but there was no doorknob. She frantically pushed it again,
kicking out her foot as her mind whirled and emotions flared in her chest. The air was too thin. Her thoughts began to spiral around her like they did the morning she met her mother and began to learn the truth.
“Ember, stop! Let me help you,” Noor exclaimed, pulling her back from the door. She growled at his touch, feeling anger build in her with each second. She had never felt this much anger before. Never pulled into such emotion. They were lying. They were keeping things from her, and she wanted to get away from them as soon as possible. She did not want to talk to Noor in private. She did not want to talk to Noor at all.
Noor pushed the top right corner of the outline and the door sprung open again. Ember ran through it, scratching her arms on the bush as she passed through the door. Was the gardener in on this secret? How did the bush not grow into its neighbors? Was this door opened frequently enough that the plant couldn’t expand to join the other foliage on the wall?
There were liars everywhere, and Ember felt unreasonably upset that the gardener was likely in on it too.
“Ember, wait!” Noor called, following after her. Amir and Wally stayed back.
“Why should I?” Ember replied, walking faster.
“I will tell you everything. Let’s get to the room first, okay?” Noor pleaded. From the side of her eye Ember glared at him, not saying a word. She had wanted to be wrong. She did not want to find out they were actually doing something behind her back. Part of her wanted to take it all back and live in the ignorance that Noor had tried to wrap her in.
What were they doing in the city that she couldn’t know about? Did he drink too often? Was he in a fight ring? She’d heard rumors of that, but no that didn’t fit. She never smelled alcohol or spotted bruises on him. Her legs pumped faster, and Noor worked to match Ember’s pace as she sped through the castle. She became more harried by the second.
Outside the stairs that lead to her tower was a guard. She vaguely remembered his name was Coralie. Ember glared at him as they passed, letting her anger bleed into her other actions. Why wasn’t he there earlier? Was he in on the secret too?
Noor closed the door behind them after they ascended the stairs single-file. Ember stood in the middle of the room, waiting expectedly. Her face was set into a hard line as she waited for him to talk.
“My parents joined the resistance when I was only two years old,” Noor began.
The floor fell from beneath her. Her moms… were Noor’s parents involved in the attack that killed them? Ember's body tensed in defense.
“After the wall had gone up, they lost their purpose. It wasn’t easy for traders and fishermen to adjust to life after that. How can you take away the sea from someone? They lost faith in the kingdom and joined with a group of people they heard were trying to fight back.” He stopped, gathering additional memory strands from his mind.
“They weren’t even considered a resistance yet. It was a group of people that wanted to have their voices heard. When the Fateless became more widespread that changed. They wanted to take action, not petition."
Ember knew that he must be thinking of his sister. How old was he when she began to lose her mind?
“When it was a more formed rebellion and you were older, did you join them?” Ember asked, trying not to jump to conclusions.
“I have joined them," he said. Noor walked to the couch, sitting down and putting his head in his hands.
All steam left Ember’s body, and she plopped into a chair. Aaleia had fated her to a rebel. A rebel and a future queen. Why would she do this to her? How did this go with Ahnika’s lessons, that all pairs were meant to help each other reach their potential? A thought came to her. The way he phrased his confession...
“When exactly did you join?” she held her breath.
“When I met you,” he whispered.
Ember pulled her cloak tighter and exhaled a quaking breath. She wanted to hide. She didn’t want to talk about this at all. Why did she have to follow him? Her position had given her new confidence. She had been more assertive in this month than she had her whole life. On some days, she thrived on it. Tonight, she wished she had never gotten up from that bed.
Ember stayed silent, waiting to see what he would volunteer. She could barely think, let alone speak.
His head still in his hands, curls spilling over the side of his face, Noor spoke.
“I never wanted to join them. I even became a guard more to piss my parents off, rather than for any passion for it. I didn’t know what I wanted to do, and there were always positions available for guard training. After Naomi, my sister, became unrecognizable... I figured, two wraiths with one stone. I would get away and upset the parents that cared more about the mission than their family.”
He pulled his body back, leaning against the couch as he turned to look at her.
“Then I was actually good at it. I was recruited not for province work, but asked to join the extended Cruelindime guards that would be going to assist the debut ball.”
Noor laughed a little at the upward trajectory his purpose path became.
“I didn’t expect to meet you. I figured I’d be in the perimeter duty. I was so confident that I’d go back to my normal life after the ball, that I didn’t even tell my parents I was coming here.”
Ember’s eyes widened. “And then you were announced as the Knight.”
He nodded. She could only imagine what kind of letter he received from them.
“Did they pressure you to join?” She hoped his answer was yes, that he didn’t join that group that probably hated her for existing. She tried to remember if any letters arrived for him from his parents, but she couldn’t recall. Ember realized suddenly she hadn’t heard from Hasley since her short note about the ball either.
“No.” His voice cracked and Ember didn’t know what to do.
“Why?” Ember whispered, thinking of the day she found her moms were killed. They had gone ahead to scout for their next home. They were due to be home in a week. Ember stayed behind as she always did. One week became two then a third. Ember packed up her stuff and went to the next province over to look for them. Out of her comfort zone, she asked people if they had seen them. She found out about the attack within moments. The guards had already burned the bodies, not able to locate a next of kin. That made sense to Ember now, but it didn’t then. There was likely no record of her even existing.
“Because I realized my parents were right. When you told me about the Queen, I knew that the royal family knew more about the fateless than they let on. The people need to know this information.”
At the mention of her blessed mother, Ember felt a renewed terror that clenched her heart. The anarchy that would reign if the whole of Ashkadance found out was unimaginable.
“Did you tell the rebels about my mother?” she asked slowly.
“No. I wanted to do some exploring, see what I could learn, then share it with you. I haven’t said anything…”
The unspoken yet lingered in Ember’s mind.
“I have no idea what to think right now,” Ember replied honestly. Where did the line draw? Where were his loyalties?
He stood up from the couch and walked towards her, his eyes asked for permission and she nodded yes. He bent his knees to the floor and hugged her. Her head leaned on his chest, level with him from her position in her chair and his height. A tear fell from her eyes, splashing on his wrinkled shirt.
“What do they know about me?” she whispered.
“Nothing. Nothing at all. I gave them a fake name. I’m a nobody guard in the palace.”
The squeeze on her heart lessened a little.
“What are they like?” she asked next. Ember lifted her head from his chest, and he pushed away a tear from her eyes. He looked into them and spoke with deep sincerity.
“They are not what you’ve been told. They want to help the kingdom. They just don’t agree with the way it is right now. They care. They are a lot like you.”
She ignored the comparison.
> “And my moms? What about what happened to them?” Her voice quavered. The bite and pain of their death leaked into her words. And was the violence they committed a lie? She couldn’t see how.
“I haven’t been able to ask them. I can’t tell them who your parents were without revealing I know you. No one else has that information. I promise we can find out. We can find out together.”
“I need some time to think about this,” Ember whispered, unsure how else to close the conversation and be with her thoughts.
“I understand,” Noor said with a sad shake of his head. “Can… can we lie down?” he hedged.
She nodded her assent and followed him to the bedroom. Dawn would soon approach, and they needed rest. She felt hurt that he had jumped into this, became part of an unspoken conflict that she had seen to be violent. But it was his family. He had been part of this for years, even before he officially joined through the connections of his parents. She told herself that it made sense he would have considered being part of them. She told herself that his family had been dealt a rough card, purposes taken from them and then their daughter succumbing to the Fateless.
But that didn’t mean he had to stay. She’d work with him and get to know this group. She would find out what happened to her moms and what was done to them. Then she would decide what to do. As heir, she’d have to decide whether or not to reveal the secrets she learned from them. If they proved to be violent like she had been led to believe, then no motivation made them justified.
She laid on top of the soul thread, her coat discarded at the foot of the bed. Noor’s arm draped around her, his head rested in the crook of her neck. Within moments, he was asleep like he always was. Her mind whirled, tears fell, and eventually, Ember felt her thoughts fade away into the sky.
Part Three
Emairy Waiting
Sixteen
Kariana's Tears
Royalty Fantasy Boxset: Ember Dragon Daughter & Hasley Fateless (Fated Tales Series 1 & 1.5) (The Fated Tales Series: YA Royalty Fantasy) Page 13
