by Day Leitao
“We’re getting close now. Let’s walk in silence. And hide it.”
Her coat had pockets, where she put the disk. He obviously had teased some information just so she’d be curious and insist, or to make sure she’d contact him, so she remained silent.
As promised, he did take her to the castle, where she was received by other guards and told to wait in a room. Right. As if Karina had been planning on going anywhere, with the door locked. Well, now that she thought about it, she could leave if she wanted to. But then she’d end up again in the tower with the fence, back to square one. Not one, two, actually. One was in the Darloom castle, wrapped tightly in Sian’s arms. Had that been a lie? What had those hugs and kisses been for? Those relaxed, light chuckles? Was it all because he was happy he would be king? Because he needed her? Well, he needed her, he’d said so. So, so, stupid, Karina. And now by the looks of it he didn’t need her anymore. At least Karina knew the truth.
He told her he didn’t like to lie. Well, not lie with his words. He could lie very well with every gesture. Ugh. She had to stop thinking about him and focus on a way to stop him. He was the one who’d been stupid, thinking she’d just follow him blindly, that she wouldn’t step up against him. He would pay for underestimating her.
The door opened, and Cayla entered. She had dark circles under her eyes and wore dark green pants and a thick tunic. Her black hair still looked shiny and spectacular, though.
She sounded worried. “What happened? How come you’re here?”
“I returned home, then I came back.”
Cayla had a surprised expression. “You teleported back to Whyland on your own?”
“Yeah…”
Cayla squinted. “What happened?”
“A few things. I have something important to tell you. Where’s Lylah?”
Cayla shook her head. “I don’t know. She went to Arlenia, and she hasn’t come back. All our communications there have been blocked. I don’t want to think the worst…”
“I’m sorry.”
“They are threatening war, Arlenia, and the worst is that we have no news from the north. They could be marching right into Whyland at any minute.”
“Oh.” That was upsetting. Karina had to say her part, though. “They are not the only ones who are marching to the castle.”
“What do you mean?”
“Sian has an army of kyons, those horrible things that attacked us in that garden, but now they’re fully formed, and he’s going to attack you using them.”
Cayla shook her head. “No, no, you must be mistaken. They’re tied to the Lost Castle. He can’t bring them here. He might be fool enough to try it, but it won’t work. Don’t worry about it.”
“It’s different now.” Karina didn’t want to reveal all that she’d done, but she had to tell at least a little. “There was something in that castle, that changed them, increased their powers, and his powers.”
“Sian doesn’t have any magical power whatsoever. He can’t do anything. He can’t, Karina, don’t worry about it.”
“He was certain, though.”
Cayla waved her hand. “He’s stupid.” She then seemed concerned. “And you? What have you been doing all this time?”
Karina felt ashamed of her previous feelings for Sian and for all that she’d done. “I was with him.”
Cayla caught her breath. “He kept you prisoner?”
“No. He convinced me that my life was in danger and that I shouldn’t go home.” Well, that was true. “I believed him, and I stayed with him in the castle.”
“That horrible, creepy, dark castle? Weren’t you afraid?”
What an odd question. “It’s not that bad on the inside, it’s like here, but prettier, without the crazy confusing corridors and with more windows.”
Cayla looked skeptical. “I see. Once things are calmer, we can take you back using that old tower.”
“That tower has been destroyed.”
“What?”
“It… sort of exploded.” How to explain it? “Some magic, something. I’m not sure.”
“Magic doesn’t explode things, Karina. Maybe a lift shot it.”
Karina shrugged. “Maybe.”
Cayla sighed. “We’ll get you another tower. Let me just solve everything happening right now. I’m so scared, Karina, so scared.”
“Your mother is quite powerful, I’m sure she’ll—”
“I know. That’s what I tell myself. Even if she had to hide or something, she’ll survive. She’ll come back. What scares me is not her, it’s Darian.”
“What’s wrong?”
Cayla looked down, then back at her. “I’m interim queen, you know?”
Had the circumstances been different, Karina would have congratulated her.
Cayla shook her hands up and down. “But I guess nobody knows it because nobody listens to me. Do you know who they listen to? Darian. They listen to Darian, they call him king.”
That king thing was a little odd, for sure. “Hasn’t your mother been gone for a few days at most? I mean…”
“It was a precaution. The young king from Arlenia said he wanted to marry me or he’d attack us. That’s why my mother went there. So Darian and I announced publicly that we are going to get married. Someday. Nothing settled. But officially, we’re a couple. And everything changed because I was named interim queen for some reason. I don’t even know why, I mean, it was just a visit. Anyway, I’m queen, and he decided he’d be king. He’s giving all the orders. I’m being kept locked in my own castle. There are two guards following me everywhere I go, even now, right outside this door. Can you believe it?”
It didn’t sound right. Darian seemed to be a nice guy. “Have you talked to him about it?”
“He claims he’s afraid someone will kidnap me. Well, I’m afraid. I don’t recognize him anymore, Karina. Sometimes I wonder if it was all for power.”
Karina sighed. “You should be glad that you love someone who loves you back. It’s a privilege, you know?” These last words left a bitter taste in Karina’s mouth, as she realized what she didn’t have.
Cayla shook her head. “I don’t know. I don’t know anything anymore.”
“Talk to him.”
She was thoughtful, then she seemed determined. “I will. I will right now. Come.”
Karina wondered if Darian would take Sian’s threat more seriously than Cayla, but if she talked directly to him, Cayla would be pissed. She’d need to convince her friend carefully, or convince them both once they settled whatever differences they had.
A young man and a young woman in uniforms were indeed outside the door.
Cayla yelled at them, “Enjoy listening? Tell him, tell him all I said. But you won’t because I’ll tell him first.”
Maybe it was the stress because of the recent events, but now that Cayla had yelled at the guards, Karina realized that her friend seemed a little paranoid and was bursting with anger. Cayla’s pace was so fast that Karina had to almost run to keep up with her as she strode through the hallways. The guards also followed. Cayla stopped before a large door, where two male guards stood. Cayla was going to open it, but a guard stood in front of her.
“Your Highness. You’re not allowed here.”
Cayla turned to Karina. “See? See? See what I’m telling you?”
Okay, that was pretty bad.
Cayla turned to the guard. “On what grounds, tell me, on what grounds can you prevent your queen from entering anywhere? Do you think you can give me orders?”
The guard lowered his head. “Not my orders, Your Highness. There’s an important meeting, and it must not be interrupted.”
“Whose orders?” Cayla asked.
“The King.”
“King what? He’s nothing. Since when he orders more than I do?”
“If you ordered your guards to prevent him from entering a room, they’d have to obey too.”
“Right. Except I have no guards. I’ll clue you in on something: he’s
only king as long as I say so. And I might stop saying it in five minutes. If I were you, I’d obey me.”
“In five minutes, maybe.”
Cayla squinted. “Maybe?”
Karina was feeling worried. She whispered, “We can wait.”
“No, we can’t. You see? It’s everything that’s wrong. How can I be kept out of a meeting?”
“Wait until it’s finished and talk to him. Wait,” Karina pleaded.
“No.” Cayla turned to her own guards. “Come closer, please.”
They looked at each other, then did as she’d told them. Cayla grabbed them both and headbutted them on the two guards by the door. She elbowed the guards behind her and kicked away the guns from the guards in front of her. “Grab them!” She yelled.
Karina realized the yell was for her and grabbed the guns on the floor while the guards contorted with pain. She wasn’t sure she agreed with what her friend was doing, but the girl was in such a state of fury that she didn’t dare disobey. The guns were silver but looked similar to pistols, or at least what Karina thought they looked like, since she’d never held one. In a couple seconds Cayla took the guns from Karina, pointed one of them at the guards, and opened the door. Karina followed.
They entered a room where five people sat at a table, bent over something. They turned as the door opened.
Darian got up. “Cayla! What’s wrong?”
“Oh, how concerned you look. I’m touched,” she said.
A guard from the door came in. “We couldn’t stop her, she disarmed us, we—”
“Fine,” Darian told him. “Leave.” He turned to the people who’d been sitting with him. “Can you give us a moment?”
There were three men and two women, from old to young like Darian, and there was a big map on the table. They stared at each other, as if puzzled. One of them stood up as if to leave.
Darian shook his head. “No, stay. I’ll be back. You can continue the discussion without me.”
He walked to Cayla. “We’ll go outside. What’s wrong?”
His concerned voice sounded like his brother’s fake concerned sweet voice and it made Karina nauseated. But it seemed to have calmed Cayla.
She said, “Let’s go to the throne room. We need to talk in private.”
“Let’s go.” They walked outside and only then he noticed Karina. “Well, hello. Do you have any news from my brother?”
“Yeah…” Karina replied as they walked.
“How is he? Is he all right?”
“Well…” Karina thought it was better not to mention anything yet. “He’s his usual self.”
“Does he have a place to live? Enough to eat?”
Karina laughed. “Oh, he isn’t starving, don’t worry.”
Cayla cleared her throat. “How lovely it is to know you care more about your traitorous brother than me, Darian. Lovely.”
“I care about you more than anyone in the world, Cayla, but I don’t always get news from Sian.”
Cayla snorted. “Right.”
The two guards still followed them. They came to a huge golden door. Cayla turned to them. “Stay here.”
She entered, and Darian followed her. Karina remained outside, hoping the best for their conversation, but feeling concerned. Perhaps her advice hadn’t been so good after all. Cayla should have cooled her head first.
23
Out
Darian took a deep breath. So many things worrying him at the same time. They had to find a way to know what was happening up north, and what was happening in Arlenia. He had to find Lylah, or at least learn what was happening to her, and here, in front of him, Cayla, who seemed furious at him for some reason he had yet to understand.
She sat in the throne and stared at him with the murderous look she sometimes gave him, except that it was somehow scarier now. “Now I’m forbidden to go to your meetings. Do you think it’s right, Darian?”
That was what she was upset about? “You’re not forbidden, Cayla.”
“That’s not what the guards at your door said.”
“They made a mistake. And if you wanted to come to the meeting, you should have asked.”
“Asked? Asked permission, you mean?”
Darian didn’t want to get irritated at Cayla, but he was getting irritated. With so many important things happening, with the threat of a war against them, she was going to argue about semantics? “Ordered, whatever. You should have said something. It was an army meeting, Cayla. I’ve worked with these people for over two years, since the time your father sent me away and kept you locked in the castle.”
“And it was my fault, I guess. My fault I don’t know them like you do.” She was getting even angrier and he was at a loss at what to do.
“I’m not saying that.”
She paused and glared at him. “What are you saying then?”
“Cayla, there’s a nutcase out to get you. I’m terrified. Terrified. And yeah, I know how to lead an army, but leading a kingdom is a lot more than I can handle. I’m overwhelmed!”
“Cause you’re doing everything yourself!”
“I’m trying to hold it all together. Your mother disappeared. Of course you’re upset. I don’t expect you to be making decisions right now, and I’m trying to protect you.”
“By locking me in? Do you have that right?”
“I don’t. It’s your protection, Cayla. If you made the decisions you’d do the same thing, wouldn’t you? What do you want? Take a walk alone by the river? Is that what you want? Do you really think it’s a priority right now? Do you?”
Cayla snorted. “You said it all, Darian. If I made the decisions. The problem is that I don’t.”
That was unfair. “I’m doing this for you! For us!”
“You know who you remind me of? My father. What are you going to do? Lock me in? Declare yourself king and imprison me in a tower?”
Darian shook his hands in despair. “Cayla, I don’t have time for this. We have a serious situation now.”
“Right. You don’t have time for me. You’re terrified? So am I. How can I know you weren’t interested in power? Is there any way I can’t know that?”
This accusation was absurd. “I didn’t even know you were the princess when we met!”
“So you say. You enjoy this very much, Darian, and you keep me out of your decisions as much as you can. I have to stay in the castle. Fair enough. But maybe I could pick my own guards. Maybe they didn’t have to report to you.” She pointed a finger at him. “And maybe, just maybe, I could be at least consulted in the decisions concerning the kingdom I was supposed to take care of!”
Darian stepped back and took a deep breath. He had to remain calm. “Your guards report to me for your safety, that’s all. And if I don’t ask you for your opinion is because things are happening too fast. I need to make the decisions fast. I have to. You don’t know anything about army strategy, Cayla. I’m sorry.”
“Impressive. Impressive, Darian. I never thought you liked power so much.”
“You think I like this? I hate it. You think I like it that you’re the princess, and now interim queen? I hate it. I thought we’d be able to have a peaceful life. Me, you, our kids. Maybe go to a little house up north. Nope, will never happen. I’m taking more responsibility than I can. Do you think it’s fun? Do you think I get a rise out of power? I don’t, Cayla. You say I’m like your father? You are like your father. Paranoid that at any moment someone will take the power from you. Obsessed about keeping your position, your status, caring more about it than your own citizens. You are the one who could one day lock me up, threatened as you’re feeling that your non-existent power is being lost.”
“Shut up.”
“You shut up. You know why people listen to me, and not to you? Because I fought with them, I planned with them, I conspired with them, while you were here going to balls and being a little girl. I can’t change that.”
Cayla rolled her eyes. “You say it as if I was enjoying it.”
“It’s the way things are. I can’t change them.”
“Yes, you can,” she replied. “Stop giving all the orders.”
“Oh, I will. I’ll leave it all for you. You think it’s fun? It’s exciting, so much fun to lead a kingdom. I get a kick out of it, I do.”
“Well, quit, then. You hate it, you don’t care.” She shrugged. “Quit, then.”
Darian took a deep breath. He had to calm down. Maybe she had a point. Maybe having to lead the army and now the kingdom was tearing them apart. He knelt and took her hand. “Once it’s over. Let’s quit. We leave together, forget all this. We move far from here or to another country, get a little house. Just us.”
Cayla squinted and pulled her hand. “Darian, I wasn’t raised to be a peasant.”
Darian trembled in anger, feeling offended, rejected. He got up. “You are the power-hungry one. You know why you’re saying I want to keep the power from you? Because you’re measuring me with your own stick.”
“Yeah, yeah. As if you really wanted to be a peasant. You took this king thing all too well, if you ask me. Too well, Darian.”
“You have a problem with that? I can quit, then.”
“Finally you’re saying something sensible. Go.”
Go? Like that? After everything they’d been through? After everything he’d done for her? It was hard to swallow. He was at a loss for words, and just stared at her.
Cayla crossed her arms. “Well? I’m waiting.”
If that was what she wanted, that was what she’d get, and screw the consequences. He had no crown, or anything identifying his position so took off the army’s coat and shirt and threw them on the floor. “I don’t want any of these. I don’t want anything. I won’t even get my stuff in my bedroom. I’ll walk away the way I came. I’ll just keep my pants, unless you insist.”
Cayla rolled her eyes. “Not interested.” She untied her necklace and threw it to him. “Take this.”
He caught it. It was still shining. Odd. He threw it back to her and it landed on a corner on the floor. “Keep it. As a reminder of the love you’ve forsaken.”
Darian left the room. “I quit. I’m out,” he told the guards outside. They stared at him but didn’t say anything. His brother’s girl was sitting on the floor and also stared, but remained silent. He had to cool off, clear his mind.
