“Not guilty. But let me get this straight. You’re charging me with treason for not transferring the girl and with endangering the people for transferring the girl? Who dreamed up this nonsense?” Provoking Kai probably wasn’t the smartest thing he could do right now, but he’d had just about enough and couldn’t resist poking at him just a little more.
Kai launched himself out of the chair, grabbed his staff from behind him, and slammed it down across the table. The sound echoed through the stone chamber. “That will be all. You have disrespected this court for the last time. If your father refuses to discipline you, child, I will do it myself.”
Oops. Maybe he’d pushed a little too far.
King Maynard shot out of his seat. “That will be all, Kai. You are not a dictator of Cymmera, nor are you judge, jury, and executioner. You will maintain proper decorum for your position, or you will be removed from that position. Furthermore, you will treat the accused with the proper respect unless or until he is actually proven guilty of something.” King Maynard’s voice thundered through the chamber effectively ending any argument from Kai.
The king took a deep breath and swallowed hard. He placed both hands flat on the table and lowered his head, the muscles in his arms trembling under the strain. “I don’t know what your problem is, Kai, but I’ve agreed to hear all of your arguments in a formal setting.” He pinned Kai with a glare. “I’ve agreed to allow the Council of Elders to vote on a situation that is well within my rights as King and sole Ruler of this Kingdom to decide for myself, a situation that could very well leave my eldest son, and my choice for successor, dead or exiled. Now, you will conduct yourself in an appropriate manner, or I will bring formal charges against you and permanently remove you from any and all positions of authority within this Kingdom. Have I made myself clear?”
“Yes, sir.” Kai’s face turned an angry shade of purple, a vein throbbed frantically at his temple, and he set his mouth firmly in a tight line, but he bit back any further retort.
“Thank you.” The King pulled off the headdress and shoved his hand back through his hair. He placed the crown on the table in front of him and resumed his seat. “Now, please continue. Jackson, you have pled not guilty to all charges. Do you have evidence for this Council to hear?”
Jackson dropped the mocking attitude. Right now, he seemed to be on his father’s good side, he didn’t dare risk screwing that up. “I do, sir.”
“Then please proceed. I only want to hear comments relevant to the charges. Do you understand?” The King’s eyes held a very firm warning.
A warning Jackson didn’t dare ignore. “Yes, sir. Thank you, sir.” Jackson tried to corral the thoughts bouncing erratically through his mind. What did he actually have to defend? Not taking Ryleigh in the first place and returning to Cymmera with Ryleigh and Mia. Okay. He could do that.
“I was originally sent to retrieve a young girl whom Elijah saw in a vision. When I found her, some instinct I cannot explain, nor do I understand, stopped me from killing her. I appeared before the king and was banished for not following a direct order. I returned to the human realm and sought out the girl once again.” No need to mention he’d searched her out to protect her, not to complete his assignment.
His father knew the truth, though. Knowledge and disappointment filled his eyes.
Jackson ignored it and pushed on. “At that time, Daygan sent his savages after the girls, who I now know as Ryleigh Donnovan, and her sister, Mia. While running from the savages, Ryleigh was able to open a doorway to Cymmera.”
Several Council Members gasped and began to murmur amongst themselves.
“Silence, please.” King Maynard slumped in his chair.
“When we transferred through the doorway, I escorted the girls straight to the Throne Room to seek out the King and explain the situation, at which time Elijah entered and witnessed his vision become reality.” He took a deep breath. That was pretty much it, what else could he say?
“So, you’re saying the girl opened the doorway?” Darius Knight, head of the Security Council, stood, his hand propped low on his hip.
“Yes, sir, I am.”
“I find that hard to believe. Can you prove it?”
Jackson shrugged. “I don’t know. I guess.” He turned to Ryleigh.
She stared back at him, terror filling her eyes.
“If I might interrupt.” Elijah rose, lifted a large book in his hands. “I believe I have discovered information that might explain how the child could possibly have opened a doorway to our world, while at the same time absolving Jackson of most, if not all, of his crimes.” He shifted the book in his hands and stepped from his place at the Council table. “If you please, Your Majesty.” He bowed to the Council before approaching the podium and taking Jackson’s place. “Please, be seated, My Prince. I would ask the Council to allow the food to be served while I gather my thoughts and speak. There is no real need for such formal proceedings, and my explanation may take some time. I would feel more comfortable supplying more detailed information if the children were fed while I spoke.”
Gratitude washed over Jackson as he returned to his seat beside Ryleigh.
Elijah had diffused the worst of the tension, saved Ryleigh from having to testify under such hostile circumstances, and changed the atmosphere from that of a formal Tribunal to an informal Council Meeting, all with seemingly no effort. No wonder he headed the Peacekeeping Council.
“Thank you, Elijah.” The king waved a hand.
Servants appeared with large covered trays. They placed a tray before each Council Member, Jackson, Ryleigh, and Mia. They brought large pitchers of water and filled elaborately carved wooden cups then disappeared through the large double doors.
“Please, eat.” The king uncovered his tray, and the others followed suit.
Elijah’s tray sat untouched at his place as he opened the book, placed it on the podium, and began to flip carefully through pages that were yellowed and brittle with age.
Kai shoved his tray aside and continued to sulk.
The crisp sound of pages turning filled the silence of the chamber.
Tatiana broke the tension when she began a quiet conversation with Darius.
Jackson had no clue what they were discussing, but he was grateful for the hushed murmurs reverberating through the room. “Are you okay?” His voice would carry as well, so he kept it barely above a whisper.
Ryleigh nodded, her eyes wide with fear.
He forced one side of his mouth up in a crooked grin. “It’ll be fine, don’t worry.” He squeezed her hand once. “Eat something.” He leaned closer to her ear. “Elijah will stall as long as he can and give everyone time to calm down.”
“I don’t know about you two, but I’m starving.” Mia pulled the top off her tray and examined its contents before lifting a wooden spoon and taking a tentative sip of soup. “Mmm…this is delicious…and warm.” She took another spoonful.
Jackson eyed his food, but the scent made his stomach rebel. When nausea threatened, he pushed the tray to the side.
Conversation built around them, muffled laughter. He finally started to relax. With the immediate concern over their fate pushed to the background for the moment, curiosity began to creep in. By the time Elijah cleared his throat and started to speak, Jackson was just about bursting with it.
Though the others continued to eat, they all paid rapt attention to the seer.
“I find it easiest to start at the beginning and relay the story as it unfolded.” Elijah adjusted his stance, settling in for what he obviously expected to be a lengthy discussion. “Many, many thousands of years ago, the Maynards did not rule Cymmera.” The shocking news was met with only silence. The history of Cymmera was not of great concern to its citizens, most of whom had lived there for hundreds, if not thousands of years. As far as Jackson knew, his family had always been in charge.
“At that time, Cymmera was ruled by its founder, King Raya. It
was a beautiful place, full of life, prosperous, and King Raya and his Queen were happy with their son who would one day, in the very distant future, assume the throne. When their second son was born, their prophet, Aja, approached them. Now you have to remember, King Raya had founded Cymmera. It was uninhabited before his discovery so they never had to fight for control. These people knew nothing of violence, having only ever lived with peace and joy.” Elijah flipped back a few pages.
“So, when the seer approached them and told them of his vision of violence, the slaughter of the people of Cymmera, they didn’t necessarily believe him, or understand his fears, but they respected him enough to honor his wishes. They surrendered the infant to Aja, who transferred to the human realm and hid the child with a human family. He would be raised human, with all mortal limitations. If Aja’s vision came true and the King, his wife, and their future heir were slaughtered, this infant would be retrieved to assume the throne.”
“Soon after the infant was hidden, Daygan and his army invaded Cymmera. The attack was fast and brutal, the resulting slaughter horrendous. The men of Cymmera rushed to defend the castle, but they were too late. The entire royal family and Aja were killed in the battle. Daygan’s soldiers were eventually defeated by the improvised Cymmeran army, under the command of one man in particular, a man with an incredible gift for strategy. He became the first Maynard to rule Cymmera. He was killed many hundreds of years later, which you probably already know since your father then took his place.” He spoke the last directly to King Maynard.
“Anyway, furious over his defeat at the hands of an enemy he’d viewed as weak and easy to overcome, irate at having been unable to eliminate a potential heir to the throne, Daygan cursed the child. But, with no knowledge of where to find the young boy, he was somewhat limited as to what he could do to him. He was nowhere near as powerful at that time as he has since become.”
The warning sent a chill running up Jackson’s spine.
“He cast a spell, tried to make the young prince unable to father any children at all. Instead, he only managed a curse that would prevent him from fathering sons. At that time, the curse would still have prevented any of King Raya’s future heirs from taking his place, since no one would have tolerated a woman rising to the throne.”
Elijah paused, retrieved his cup from the table, and filled it with water. He took a long drink and returned the cup to its proper place before turning to Ryleigh. “Would you be willing to answer a few questions for me?” Although he’d phrased the question politely enough, the truth was Ryleigh didn’t have the option of saying no.
Jackson hoped she realized that.
“Of course.” Ryleigh stood.
“Please, sit. Be comfortable.” Elijah pulled a chair up to sit across the table from Ryleigh, making the interrogation seem more like a friendly chat. “Can you tell me what you know of your family history?”
Kai coughed and shifted in his seat.
Ryleigh spared him a nervous glance before returning her attention to Elijah. “I don’t know much. My parents were killed when I was young, and my grandmother raised us until she recently passed away.” Ryleigh pushed the food around her plate with her fork, making piles then flattening them out, only to reassemble them a minute later.
“What did she die from?”
“Cancer. She’d been sick for some time.”
Elijah frowned. “It’s unlikely the young prince’s descendants would have been susceptible to disease, only violence. This was your maternal grandmother?” Elijah pulled a small book from the pocket of his robe and began jotting notes.
“No. My father’s mother. My parents met when they were very young. My mother’s parents were killed when she was only sixteen, and she moved in with my father and his mother. Then, when my parents were killed, my grandmother moved in with us.”
“Okay. How was your mother killed?”
“In a terrorist attack.”
“Did she have any siblings?”
Ryleigh shook her head. “No.”
“What about her mother, how was she killed?” Elijah scribbled frantically, filling page after page with his neat script.
“Someone broke into the house and killed her and my grandfather while my mother was away on a school trip.”
“Did your grandmother have any brothers?”
She was already shaking her head no before he finished asking the question. “No siblings.”
Kai yawned. “Are you going somewhere with this, Seer?”
“Actually, I am. Since no one knows whatever became of the child prince, and it is reasonable to assume that he could have fathered daughters, Ryleigh and Mia could be direct descendants of those daughters.”
“Oh, please. Don’t you think that’s a little far-fetched?” Kai’s derisive look would have made most men cringe.
Elijah held his ground.
“No. I think it’s a perfectly reasonable explanation for everything that’s happened.”
King Maynard interrupted before the argument could escalate further. “What do you propose we do next, Elijah?”
“I have found most of this information in the first tome of the Books of Prophecy. The book was started by the prophet who replaced Aja. I would like some more time to research this line of thought, but would also like to spend some time in the human realm. I want to trace Ryleigh’s family tree and see if I can find a connection between the two families at any point, or at least some evidence that her maternal line all died in some sort of violent attack. Maybe I can prove there are no men on her mother’s side. I may not be able to prove for a fact that these girls are Cymmeran, but I might be able to say it with reasonable certainty.”
Elijah patted Ryleigh’s hand. “Thank you, my dear.” He stood and returned to the podium, placing the small book atop the larger one. “There is another matter I would like to discuss, though. Daygan has already made an attempt on the lives of two young girls I suspect may be Princesses of Cymmera. I would petition the Council at this time to offer them our protection.”
“You can’t be serious.”
“Oh I am quite serious, Kai. Even if it turns out they are not lost princesses, Daygan obviously thinks they hold some value or he wouldn’t be trying to eliminate them.”
“Daygan is a fool.”
“Daygan is an extremely powerful sorcerer, and his seer is strong, very strong. You would do well not to underestimate either of them.”
Kai snorted in disgust.
“All right. Enough.” King Maynard stood. “Have you all voted?”
The other Council members all nodded their assent.
“Very well, then. Ryleigh and Mia, have you eaten enough?”
Both girls nodded.
“Okay. At this time you will be removed from this chamber. Thank you for your testimony, Ryleigh.” He gestured toward the door.
A guard approached the two girls and waited for them to rise.
“Where are they taking us?” Ryleigh’s voice held a note of panic.
“Sir.” Jackson stood to face his father. He knew what was coming and was glad Ryleigh and Mia would be removed before anything was decided. “Would you please have the girls taken to my living quarters? They can stay there for now.”
“Very well.”
Ryleigh and Mia were escorted from the room.
“Prince Jackson Maynard, please stand to receive your verdict.” Tatiana didn’t look at him.
His heart fell.
Jackson rose and approached the podium. He clutched the sides tightly, his knuckles white with the effort, and clenched his teeth as Tatiana continued to read.
“On the charges of treason. We, the Council of Elders, find the defendant not guilty.”
Jackson’s breath rushed out.
“On the charges of endangering the people of the Kingdom of Cymmera. We, the Council of Elders, find the defendant not guilty.”
The sweat that had popped out on his for
ehead began to chill.
“On the final count of trespassing. We the Council of Elders find the defendant…” She swallowed hard.
Oh, no.
“Guilty.” Tatiana’s eyes held only apology.
Kai’s held righteousness.
“Do you understand and accept the verdict of this Council?” Tatiana’s voice cracked, the only outward sign of emotion she showed.
“I do.” He lowered his head. Disappointment filled him, but at least Ryleigh and Mia had been spared. They hadn’t been charged, so they were probably safe.
“Please return to your chambers while your punishment is discussed. We will send for you once we’ve reached a decision.”
“Yes, ma’am.” This time the comment held no humor. Jackson stared Kai down as he left the Council Chambers.
Chapter 7
“Do you think they’ll find him guilty?” Mia chewed on her thumbnail as she stared at Ryleigh, silently begging to be reassured.
Ryleigh shook her head. “I have no idea.” She glanced pointedly at the guard who accompanied them. Mia remained silent until they reached Jackson’s rooms.
The guard opened the door and entered before them.
Nika and Nahara sat with their heads cocked, expectation filling their eyes. Could they be waiting for news?
“Hi guys, nothing yet.” The guard reached up to rub Nika’s head. “But we should hear something soon.” He buried his face in Nahara’s neck.
She leaned down to rest her head on his shoulder. “Don’t worry, girl. It’ll be okay.”
“They look so sad.” Mia reached up to pet Nika.
“They’re just worried about Jackson.” The young man extended a hand to Mia. “I’m Dakota, by the way.”
“It’s nice to meet you.” She took his hand. “I’m Mia, and this is my sister, Ryleigh.” Mia gestured to Ryleigh.
Dakota shook her hand as well.
“Are you and Jackson friends?”
“Good friends.”
Their voices faded to the background as Ryleigh’s thoughts turned to Jackson. Would she see him again? She turned her back on Mia and Dakota and stood before the fireplace with her hands held out to the heat of the flames. It did little to dispel the chill that came from deep within her. Tears pricked at the backs of her eyes then spilled down her cheeks before she could stop them. She swiped the tears from her face, impatience making the gesture unnecessarily harsh.
Reluctant Prince Page 13
