by Neha Yazmin
Tied
to the
Crown
(Heir to the Throne #2)
© 2020 Neha Yazmin
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I don’t break hearts, only bones.
—Wyett Fresdan
PROLOGUE
Malin Vijkanti was next in line to the Throne of Adgar. She would take the Throne if her eldest sister, Leesha, the current Queen of the Island, died before giving birth to any Heirs. It wasn’t that Malin enjoyed thinking about Leesha dying, or the death of her other four sisters and two step-brothers, but that was how it worked in the Kingdoms that used The Contest to choose their next monarch:
The Prince or Princess that ranked directly below the winner of the competition—in this case, it was Malin—would be next in the line of succession until the newly Crowned King or Queen produced Heirs.
Once Leesha had children, Malin wouldn’t be considered as someone that was in line for anything—the Queen’s children would battle it out for the chance to become her Heir.
Despite being half a decade younger than Sarsha and Ashwa, Malin had been ranked above them when The Contest came to an abrupt end following Aaryana’s exile. Hardly anyone was surprised by Malin’s triumph over the twins. Both of them had stopped taking the competition seriously a long time ago—when it became obvious that Aaryana was going to win The Contest.
Aaryana hadn’t won, though. She was banished from Adgar for a crime she didn’t commit, and Leesha was Crowned in her stead, having always ranked second in The Contest. Malin still couldn’t believe it: The unofficial Heir had been judged a murderer, and the King’s firstborn had been placed on the Throne.
Leesha had been Queen for over a month now; Aaryana had been gone for two-and-a-half. Had she already ported in Roshdan? Probably. When her father had finally revealed to his children where Aaryana was spending her exile, he’d predicted that the journey would take that long, so her sister must have arrived by now.
Malin hoped Aaryana was alright. Well, of course, she’ll be alright. Aaryana could take care of herself, take care of an entire Island. The only thing in Roshdan that would bother her would be the cold and rain.
Rain. That’s what was falling outside her window. The rain battering the grass of the gardens surrounding the Palace wasn’t going to stop before dark. Malin sighed. It was raining so much more than it usually did in late summer. She would never voice it, but it seemed to have started with the rain that had poured down on the day of Leesha’s coronation. It had been wet all day, and the next. There were a couple of days of scorching sunshine before two more days of torrential rain.
And the cycle went on: Rain and sun, rain and sun.
Quickly, people started separating their weeks into ‘rainy days’ and ‘dry days’. No one could explain it, no one could shrug off the fear that the shifts in the weather were signalling that something awful was brewing. The firaki sold a lot of zabits, but they couldn’t stop the rainfall.
Growing up, Malin had never hated the rain, had welcomed it during Adgar’s sweltering summers. Until this summer, because it was the constant downpour of the rainy days that kept her from going about her business. Her secret mission.
This year wasn’t just the year that it had rained more than it had in the last ten years combined, this was also the year that had seen more people going missing than ever before.
Missing without a trace...
They must have left at least a whisper of a trace, Malin kept telling herself, and it was those whispers that she went in search of whenever it was dry enough to ride out to the Outskirts and investigate. That conversation with Parth and Farzah about the sea folk taking humans into their underwater caves and sending them back all wrong had stayed with her, and she’d vowed to uncover the mystery behind the Adgaris that had disappeared.
Leesha didn’t seem concerned about it, but when Malin had confided in her father, the Old King, about her plans to look into the missing people, he’d encouraged her to do her best.
“Consider it our little secret,” he’d said with a wink.
Malin thought that Aaryana would have kept her secret, too. Unlike Leesha, Aaryana would have helped her get to the bottom of this, not turned a blind eye to what was happening. In Malin’s opinion, her eldest sister was already a bad ruler because of this.
Her fourth sister would have been a much better Queen. Whatever Aaryana was doing in Roshdan, Malin hoped she was searching for a way to return to Adgar and claim what was rightfully hers. An errant thought entered her mind: Would it stop raining if Aaryana came back?
Chapter 1
Wyett Fresdan didn’t believe for one second that the Adgari was tired. She was saying it to get rid of him. He had returned to her rooms today only because his father had ordered him to. Seen as Seth had already shown the girl around the castle, there was nothing for him to do but go. Which he did, without a word, or a curtsy from her.
His guards shadowed him as he stalked towards his private quarters. Tired or not, she was definitely disturbed by the legend of Nidiya, the higher sea folk that had graced this Island hundreds of years ago. But he couldn’t fathom why a fierce warrior princess—as his father had called her—would be affected by events that had taken place centuries ago.
If it wasn’t for the ever-billowing smoke smothering the mountains in the north, it would be as though a woman—a being—named Nidiya had never been here or left descendants in her wake.
Nidiya. The name didn’t come easily to people when they first tried to say it, as though it wasn’t a sound that human tongues could make. Yet, the girl had pronounced it perfectly on her first attempt, the ‘dee’ sound as soft as it should be. Interestingly, she hadn’t sounded comfortable when she’d uttered the word Nidiyan. Her mouth seemed to put a lot of effort into carving it out.
She definitely saw some significance in Nidiya’s tale, though. Wyett wouldn’t have cared either way if she hadn’t tried so hard to hide her feelings about it. Well, he didn’t care that much, really—he’d left her room without querying it, had he not?—but it was… strange.
What she seemed most curious about was whether any of Nidiya’s descendants had sailed to distant lands during the Nidiyan Hunt. Did she suspect that there were Nidiyans in Adgar? Was that why the sea folk’s name rolled off her tongue so expertly, because she was actually very familiar with it?
Aaryana’s knees buckled as soon as the Crown Prince of Roshdan exited her chambers. She braced her hands on the windowsill. The wood vibrated under her palm. Or was it Aaryana that was shaking?
Yes, her heart was beating like a drum in her ribcage, each thump shuddering through her body. The conclusion she’d drawn from the short—and surprisingly polite—conversation with Wyett thundered in her brain.
Descendant of Nidiya. A higher sea folk. A Sea Princess to some, a legend in Roshdan. A magical, once-immortal creature of the ocean.
For a moment, her mind flashed back to her brief stint in the dungeons under her father’s castle. The Dungeons Keeper had appeared to be hiding a scaled, tailed animal under her black robes. Was that actually the Keeper’s tail?
There had always been talk about the higher sea folk being part human, part sea creature… that the ocean dwellers became more and more humanoid the higher up the hierarchy you went...
She shook her head. Those were children’s stories. No one had ever been able to prove that they’d seen a higher sea folk. In Roshdan, however, Nidiya’s story was woven into their history. And their present. The smoke rising to kiss the clouds that had swallowed the tallest peaks of the Nidiyan Mountains was proof of that.
When the Chief of Justice had decided to exile her to Roshdan, had he known where he was sending her? The homeland of her ancestor. Where the Nidiya family had come from. He must have known about Mother’s heritage. It would be too much of a coincidence that Aaryana would be sent to spend her sentence in an Island that just happened to be the place where her mother’s side of the family had originated from.
Thus, it begged the question of how he knew, and what his agenda was when he chose to send her here. Did he want her to learn about her mother’s true identity? Did he want Aaryana to understand herself better? Understand why the sea had always called to her, sung to her. Why the ocean had taken a hold of her so possessively and had been so unwilling to let her go that day she’d nearly drowned?
Why she didn’t remember holding her breath under water; she’d been so deep in the sea for so long that she should have died.
And what did the Chief of Justice want her to do with the knowledge she gained once she got here, knowledge that would be handed to her on a plate the moment she asked about the mountains dominating the northern part of the Island? Aaryana shook her head again. If he’d known what she was, what her mother was, and wanted her to learn everything, why hadn’t he just told her outright? He didn’t have to send me so far away...
For the rest of the day, Aaryana was in a haze. She barely heard Jeena’s mutterings as the girl brought her lunch and dinner to her rooms, barely responded to direct questions.
In the evening after supper, she found herself saying “No, thanks, Jeena” without knowing what she was refusing.
“You don’t want to see him, my Lady?” Jeena raised her brows. “Shall I tell him you’re indisposed?”
“That’s fine,” Aaryana said; she hadn’t heard the servant girl’s entire sentence.
“You do look a bit pale,” Jeena murmured. “You haven’t been quite yourself since the… incident with the Crown Prince this morning.”
Finally, the mention of Wyett jerked her to attention. “Was the Crown Prince here?”
Jeena bit her lip, concerned. “You haven’t heard a single thing I’ve said today, have you?”
Aaryana’s sheepish grin said it all.
“The Head of the Royal Guards has summoned you to his office, my Lady.”
Aaryana jumped to her feet.
Jeena giggled. “I am to escort you there. Now.”
The Head of the Royal Guards was too large for his tiny office. His bear-like body blocked out the light of the lanterns placed on the shelf behind him. Thank goodness for the chunky candle on his wooden desk; she could at least see his face in the light of the flame as she sat opposite him.
He was around thirty-years-old, thirty-five at most, she thought, and his fair hair was thinning out over his huge head. She suspected that he was an intimidating person to answer to. He was bent over some papers on his desk, clearly wanting to be done with those before he addressed her.
“You’ve been assigned to the Crown Prince’s private chambers,” the Head said eventually, without glancing at her.
Her eyes widened. Luckily, she composed her features before the man flicked his eyes up to her at last.
“Is that clear?”
She scrambled to say, “Yes, Head Guard.”
“Just Sir will do.” He set his documents to one side and folded his massive arms over the desk. “The King has sent a considerable number of his Court home this year and increased the number of guards around the people that remain in the Palace. Due to the threat on his life from the rebels.”
Aaryana nodded—that was why the place was so quiet and empty.
“After the attack on Friday, he has asked me to increase the security further,” the man continued. “Which means more guards per person. He has been advised by his Council to cancel any trips beyond the Palace grounds until further notice, and he has agreed. That means no more hunting trips for a while.”
“The King was out hunting on Friday?” Aaryana blurted out. “Why would he risk his life to go hunting when he knows the rebels are hunting him? I mean, I heard the Crown Prince mention there was another attack earlier in the year…”
“His Majesty doesn’t want to let the rebels control what he does and where he goes. But after all the men he lost in Sidkat, he has decided to stay within the castle’s protection for some time.” The Head seemed relieved about that. “He suspects there are traitors in the Palace, feeding the rebels information about his movements; in his eyes, both guards and Courtiers are equally likely to be guilty of this.”
She nodded her agreement. Anyone could turn traitor. You can’t trust your own shadow if you’re King.
“There are only a handful of guards that His Majesty trusts enough to closely protect him and his children. You have been named as one of them. Due to the skills you possess, he wants you watching Prince Wyett’s rooms, since the Council voted against you being anywhere near the King’s quarters.”
“How does the Prince feel about this, Sir?”
A quirk of his lips. “He doesn’t know yet. However, the King knows his son, knows that the Prince won’t want you following his every move. So, the next best thing is to have you standing guard outside his bedchamber during the night.”
Aaryana opened her mouth but the Head anticipated her question.
“We will now have guards inside the private quarters of the entire Royal Family, and also of the highest-ranking members of the Council. His Majesty doesn’t want to take any risks with the people that are important to him.”
“How do the—do the Princes and Princess approve of the… lack of privacy?” she dared ask.
To have guards outside your bathing chamber, your drawing room, your bedroom… Not to mention a whole host of them following you around all day. This place was a prison compared to the freedom she’d enjoyed in Adgar. Her family had never been under threat, though. Aaryana and her sisters didn’t need guards following them around the Palace or the grounds.
They rarely took more than two guards when they left the castle. She had taken for granted, the peace in her home Island.
The Head of the Royal Guards returned to his papers as he said, “The Princes and Princess understand why His Majesty is doing this.”
To spy on his Courtiers or to keep the traitors from easily conspiring against him, the King was having everyone surrounded by guards, guards who would report every detail to their Head. But he was probably insisting that it was for their security, and so, he had to subject his own children to the same level of ‘protection’.
Being privy to their father’s true intentions, Wyett, Seth, and Quin couldn’t refuse the extra men and women around them.
“I will show you around the castle tomorrow afternoon,” the Head said without looking up from his paperwork. “And the Prince’s quarters. Then, you will start your first shift. I suggest you get plenty of sleep tonight, as it’s the last night that you are permitted to spend in bed.”
It was rather astonishing, really, that the little boy was nowhere to be found. The child couldn’t have disappeared into thin air. Unless, the King’s men had found him and… What? Killed him? Rudro shook his head and mounted his horse. It was the end of yet another unsuccessful day of searching the Outskirts for the boy that had delivered that message to Aaryana on her last day in Adgar.
King Vijkant was not a tyrant that would give the order to dispose of an innocent child, regardless of what the boy had said. And what had he said, anyway? Nothing treasonous. Nothing to put a target on his head.
Where did the boy go, then? Yes, Rudro had waited until it was a couple of weeks after Aaryana’s departure to start looking for the child and the woman that resembled Queen Kanona, and yes, the rainy days had been a hindrance, but that couldn’t have made that big a difference. Clearly, the boy and the woman didn’t want to be found.
But if the King found them first… Rudro shook his head again, and urged his horse to go faster. He had to return to the Royal Academy before sundown;
he needed to prepare for a meeting the next morning to discuss the next round of enrolment. Even when there were no Contests for the Academy students to participate in, no potential Heirs for them to compete with, it was imperative that the training of the pupils continued.
Graduates could become Royal Guards or stay on and help train the next generations of warriors. It was the place where Rudro’s career had begun—he had every intention of maintaining the high quality of teaching until the next Contest was underway.
If he could only get to the bottom of the mystery surrounding that boy and the woman that had sent him to Aaryana, Rudro wouldn’t have to shirk his responsibilities at the Academy. Questions were already being asked as to why he was missing from his office so often, now that he had no Heirs to train. No Tasks to prepare for.
Now that Leesha was Queen.
The coronation ceremony had taken place over a month ago, and already, people could feel the change in the air. Rudro tried not to think about it too much. Or talk about it. He still found himself referring to the Queen as Princess Leesha, and the Old King as King Vijkant. He was pretty sure he’d say ‘Your Majesty’ to the Old King if he were to see him again.
Leesha’s ascension taking place so soon after Aaryana’s banishment had served Rudro well in one way, though: He didn’t have to deal with the Old King anymore. The man knew that Rudro had spoken to Aaryana the day she left, and he must have had a good reason for not demanding to know the topic of their conversation. Rudro didn’t want to learn of that reason.
Queen Leesha had no business with him these days, either. When she had children, she could keep Rudro on as the Combat Master if she wished, or she could appoint someone else. That was a long way away, however, and in the meantime, she didn’t need to interfere with how Rudro was running the Academy.
He had been surprised though, that she didn’t want to at least talk to him about the spectacle at the docks on Aaryana’s last day; he was certain that she knew about it. He supposed that Leesha wanted to put Aaryana behind her. If she kept talking about her sister, the people wouldn’t be able to forget her, and she really needed everyone to forget Aaryana.
