by Lorna George
'You like what you see?' She asked him, interrupting his thoughts.
His frown deepened at this; his mind still disjointed, befuddled by her voice. It was almost right, he was sure. It was so very close, but for some reason it sounded different than she had throughout the night before. She had spoken softly, but with a directness he’d silently approved of, and this new, false turn to her tone grated on his nerves.
His eyes once more ran the length of her body, even as she rolled onto her back to give him a better view. That movement on its own was enough make him seriously rethink his view of her last night. She had flinched when he touched her, as though nervous that he might inflict pain. This sudden confidence in her wasn’t unattractive, but it was unexpected. It was definitely uncharacteristic of her behaviour the night before.
Her white skin was flawless and smooth, which gave him more pause for thought. She had been scarred, he was sure of it. Nothing horrific, but enough for him to wonder how on Ilios she had managed such a scattering of them. He was also sure that she would be marked, even lightly, from his unexpected passion for her. She had responded to his touch as though it surprised her to find she liked it, and her soft whimpers and gasps had touched something in his soul. The way she had clung almost desperately to him, had breathed his name, the silent tears she had shed when he had taken her the first time. The way her own soul rushed up to greet his when he cast the Bond spell, firm and unafraid, had caused the link between them to be stronger than he had anticipated. They had wrapped around each other, tangled and fused, in such an intimate, beautiful way, it had given him true hope for their future together. It had made him want her, in every sense.
He reached out to their Bond now, seeking reassurance from the nagging doubt that seemed to be eating away at him, and while he found it still intact, it felt... wrong. The Bond was old magic, dragon magic, and it tied two spouses together with the joining of their bodies on their wedding night. It only worked if both participants had never lain with another before, hence the importance of a virgin bride, and only if both parties reached completion with the other.
It was as natural to him as breathing, and provided great insight between couples to their emotional state and well-being, among other benefits. Of course it was expected of him as King because it was traditional, but more than that, it would offer him a greater magical power than he had previously been able to summon.
He was well aware that while it was unheard of for any Korenian to be without magic, other countries were far less gifted. Only members of the royal house of Ffion were able to use magic, and in Tsumetai it was even rarer than that. Adrienne had no magic of her own; he had been informed of that in the early stages of their betrothal arrangements, but that hadn’t mattered. Even now he could feel the shifting heat of magic inside himself just from initiating the spell. What surprised him was that Adrienne, who he now shared the deep well of power with, seemed to have a gap. Searching their Bond, he found a large, hollow part inside her, as though magic had resided there at some time in the past. Now his own magic was pooling there, filling the space back up again, and she was drawing on it, using it for energy as though her own was so depleted she might have exhausted all her strength without it.
He watched the woman lying beside him. She looked well-rested and calm, nothing like the determined but damaged soul he could feel resting against his own. Her green eyes were satisfied, as opposed to the tangible nervous energy he could feel through their Bond, the ground-shaking determination. Surely no one could hide their emotions that well? And yet, she had been nothing but changeable since they had met. He had no idea what to make of it, yet somehow he felt disgusted by her very presence and the idea of touching her. The Bond spell was new to him, too, but this couldn’t be right.
Adrienne didn’t seem concerned by his silence, and suddenly her slender fingers were on his skin. He felt immediate revulsion, the Bond surging up sickly and causing him to instinctively reach out and snatch her wrist up, away from him. That was definitely not right. He glared down at her and a snarl tore from his mouth as he noticed the ring he had given her was on the wrong finger. He had not put it there, and looking at the way it sat snugly on her smallest digit, he knew it would not fit over the finger it should be placed upon. The enchantment on it caused it to change to the correct size of his Bond mate's finger as he cast the spell on them both. That it did not fit could mean only one thing.
She looked almost fearfully up at him, and they both knew her dishonesty had been discovered.
'How dare you?' Arun breathed, fury gripping him as he realized the implications. 'Do you have any idea what you have done? What you have cost me?'
'W-what do you mean?'
'Where is she?!' he bellowed, impatience boiling over at his unspeakable anger, throwing the deceitful woman away from himself and standing from the bed. As he reached into his magic to dress himself, ignoring the screech from Adrienne, the door to the wedding chamber flew open to reveal a distraught Lord Cygnus, Rayan close on his heels.
'They used a decoy,' Arun spat, throwing a contemptuous glare at Cygnus and Adrienne as he assisted her wrap a silk robe about her naked body. 'I cast the Bonding Spell on another woman.'
Without a word, Rayan turned to the door, closing and locking it to keep everyone else out. 'What are your orders?'
'Send a message to Esta to make sure we are packed up to as soon as possible.' Pulling on his boots while his cousin reached out through his own Bond to relay the message, Arun did the same in an attempt to locate the woman he had passed the night with. 'We need to find her. She's not far, but she’s moving. Getting further away.’
Adrienne snorted at this, silenced only by Lord Cygnus' hand quickly slapping across her mouth. She squealed her outrage, but the man made no move to let go. Arun regarded Lord Cygnus for a moment before making a decision and clicking his fingers, calling on his magic. His sword appeared in his hand, power rolling off of him.
Both the Princess and her Councillor looked terrified as he took the blade and walked towards them purposefully. 'Where is she, Adrienne?'
Lord Cygnus made as if to speak, but Arun’s hand shot out, savagely grasping a handful of his hair and throwing him to the floor. 'Don't you dare speak to me! Your Princess is clearly not the brains behind this little charade, and I won't hesitate to drive my blade through your black heart if you utter a single word in my presence!'
The older man looked fit to soil himself as he cowered on the floor at Arun’s feet. Hearing Rayan draw his sword, Arun was finally able to turn his full attention back to the woman that should, by now, have been his wife. He grabbed her by the front of her robe, resting the blade firmly against her jugular, shoving her back against the stone wall.
'Where. Is. She?' His voice was low and dangerous, and she stood stock-still as he pushed the blade further against her skin. 'If you do not tell me I will level this city, this whole country, until it is nothing but a crater in the face of the world. I will make you rue the day you were born, and I will find her anyway.'
'I am your wife!’ she gasped, eyes rolling back into her head in fear. ‘Your Queen! She is nothing! You wouldn't-'
'You are not my wife, you stupid, deceitful creature!' Arun bellowed, taking the sword from her throat and grabbing the ring from her finger. 'I am married, magically Bonded, to the woman I gave this ring to last night! The woman you put in here to take your place, and take your place she did!’
Ripping the ring away and throwing her to the floor, Arun spun away, finally giving up. It would be much faster to use his Bond magic with the woman to find her than to waste time here with these two. As he walked past Rayan and the still-prone form of Lord Cygnus, he heard Adrienne give a short, high pitched shout of laughter and paused in his steps.
'You will not find her!' she shrieked, madly. 'And you will have brought war between our nations for nothing!'
Turning to face her, his eyes cold, his voice hard, he told her the harsh truth of the mat
ter. 'We are already at war.'
*
Watching the furious King storm out of the wedding chamber, Cygnus smiled humourlessly as heated magic spasmed through the door, around the walls and windows, keeping them in and everyone else out. King Arun’s magic was strong, stronger than his own, and he knew without trying that they would be stuck here until there was too great a distance between them or the other man’s magic was too taxed elsewhere to keep it up. He guessed it would be about twelve hours or so.
‘Well, that didn’t quite go to plan,’ he spoke more to himself. ‘I didn’t expect him to figure it out so quickly.’
‘You imbecile!’ Adrienne shrieked, and Cygnus looked up from his musings in surprise. ‘You said it would work! You swore!’
It was an effort to keep his expression placid, let alone apologetic. Still, he had plenty of experience in placating fools, and this one in particular.
‘Forgive me, my Queen.’ He bowed low. ‘I did think that we could keep up the charade at least until his entourage had seen him happily married to you. That cousin of his, Lord Rayan, needed to be convinced.’
The plan had always been to kill King Arun as soon as possible. Cygnus knew of the Korenian Bonding spell, and that all the drugs on Ilios couldn’t disguise the substitution for long, but once it was confirmed they were married the King would have outlived his usefulness. There would have been an accident, one Cygnus himself had prearranged, and Adrienne would have been a widow. A widow Queen of two countries. With the wealth and power of Koren behind them and no one to contest her leadership on either side, it wouldn’t have taken long for war against Tsumetai, and she would have ruled all of Ilios. With Cygnus at her side, of course.
‘I don’t care about his stupid cousin!’ Adrienne howled, grabbing a beautifully painted pitcher from a table and hurling it across the room. It smashed violently, even as the magic surrounding the room pulsed. Cygnus knew well enough that as much as the spell was keeping them in, it was also masking all noise. No one would hear any of the commotion, and even when they were missed it would be impossible to communicate any kind of order to begin hunting down the Korenian King and his people. King Arun and all who travelled with him must die before they left Ffionite shores.
‘You have ruined me!’ she continued to scream, then launched across the room and grabbed the front of his robes desperately. ‘You have ruined everything! You said your plan would work! Why did you not attack them? Why did you simply allow them to leave? He threatened to kill me, and you just watched!’
Her fear was palpable as it overrode her anger. It had been his greatest ally in the years they had known one another, a chess piece he favoured in all his moves. He could manipulate her fear, and had done so many a time.
People underestimated him. They always had. His brother, Lord of Appleby by right of being first-born, had died underestimating him. People had begun to suspect Cygnus after that, but never enough to make an actual accusation. He was Lord of Appleby now, but it was a run-down fief in the North, the furthest away from the capital, and while it came with a few benefits, it wasn’t enough for him. With hard work, patience, and a great deal of watching from the shadows, he had managed to insinuate himself as Adrienne’s tutor.
A lonely, frightened girl who had no expectations but to make a political marriage and pump out a few brats. She had been raised to be an ornament, a jewel on her future husband’s arm, and she loathed it. Just like Cygnus himself, no one had paid her any mind. She wasn’t important enough. They underestimated her, and Cygnus had seen how afraid she was of life passing her by in such mediocrity. She had hidden it under a mask of grace and serenity, but he had seen it. He had used it.
Oh, how she had loved him! Someone who understood her, someone who listened. She confided every tiny detail of her life to him, and he had slowly fed her fear with hatred for those who stepped over her feelings. He spent years building her trust, listening to her mindless prattle. It had been painful and dull, but eventually they became lovers and began to plot. She was ignorant and alone, and her fear had been her downfall.
Cygnus presented himself as a suitor to her father, Lord Zachariah of Roseberry, King Maximilian's youngest brother, but he was refused and they were separated. Many scorned him after that, thinking him foolish for even requesting marriage into the royal family, but he had known what the outcome would be. He had planned it all so carefully, and Adrienne’s subsequent broken heart was fuel for yet more fear and anger with her position and her family. Dislike had turned to hatred, and hatred into loathing. They wrote secretly with the help of the network of spies and allies he had been working hard to collect during his time at court, and then the Pirate Wars began. The King’s army was scattered throughout the coastal towns, leaving Chloris Castle weak and defenceless. Cygnus had ridden out with his own force to the fief of Roseberry, murdered Lord Zachariah, and filled the role of dashing hero in Adrienne’s eyes as he liberated her.
Then, with her as lady of the fief, they had combined their forces and attacked Chloris. It had been far too easy to lay siege upon the Royal Castle of the Redwoods, to kill everyone who opposed them, and place Adrienne upon the throne as undisputed ruler. There had been no scaling of walls, no battering of gates; they had simply walked in and taken what they wanted. From there, their army of sell-swords, freed prisoners, and any who would swear allegiance to Cygnus went from fief to fief, murdering and burning, taking the country by force.
There were pockets of resistance--of course there were--and Adrienne foolishly wished to marry Cygnus and change the law to make herself Queen. He had eventually used her fear against her, to persuade her that a marriage to a King, thus making her legitimately Queen of Ffion, would stop any rebels who thought to overthrow her reign. Sick with greed and power, terrified to lose it all, she had agreed to his plan, on the promise they would wed once a decent amount of time had passed after King Arun was dead, and he would become her husband. This, of course, had fallen in with Cygnus’ plans beautifully.
Now, for the first time, his plans had been shaken. Adrienne, stupid female that she was, had blown their cover, and now King Arun was out there, ready to spill the secret and ruin all of his hard work. He must be stopped if there was to be any chance of salvaging his plan. For now, he had to reassure the fool grasping the front of his clothes of his devotion and superior intelligence. She must always believe she needed him.
‘My love, my Queen, forgive me,’ he looked down at her hysterical face, forcing his own into a mask of pain and regret. ‘I knew that he would not harm you, his foolish honour keeping him from such an act as the murder of a defenceless woman and Queen of a neighbouring country, but I was also paralysed by my fear of losing you. Had I attacked King Arun, Lord Rayan would have finished us both.’
He watched the realisation dawn in her pale eyes. A lie was so much easier to hide when offered with a grain of truth. Lord Rayan was indeed a worthy adversary, and Cygnus knew well enough that while his magic was strong, he would not have been able to finish them both. There was certainly no reason for him to risk his own life. He also knew that the act of violence against women was culturally abhorrent in Koren. No matter how angry the young King was, he would never have hurt her. Adrienne had been perfectly safe.
‘Oh, Cygnus!’ she cried, burying her face in his shoulder and embracing him. ‘Whatever will we do?’
He held her in return, rubbing comfortingly at the small of her back. ‘We shall continue as planned, my Queen. We shall tell the people that you were here with him last night, but that he was taken ill this morning and is being rushed back to Koren. It’s unfortunate that the fever will kill him before he reaches his ship, and all those who travel with him.’
‘But how? We are trapped here. There will be talk.’
‘You are inconsolable with worry for your new husband, my Queen,’ Cygnus smirked. ‘And once we are free, I will summon the harpies to hunt them down.’
The mad glee in her eyes as she looked up
at him then was reassurance enough that he had again won this round.
Chapter Six
Naomi moved silently between the trees, bow and arrow at the ready as she stalked her prey. She could hear the rustle of dewy grass against the big feet of the rabbits, and knew that without the aid of traps, her best hope was stealth. Quietly, she puffed her newly-cut hair out of her face, having shorn it to a much more manageable length with her dagger and leaving it to just brush past her shoulders. She had set up camp in the boughs of a large tree that she had decided to use as her resting place for the day, the night’s travel wearing down her strength far too quickly. Although she couldn't set a fire until later this evening, she had gathered some fruit to hold her over until dusk, when she would be able to more safely cook.
It hadn't been a difficult decision to travel all night and sleep through the day. It was by far the most sensible choice, despite how tired she now was. She had put a fair amount of distance between herself and the soldiers who had tried to chase her down yesterday morning. Sleeping up in a tree through the day meant anyone who might be looking for her would simply pass beneath. It hadn't taken much effort on her part to use her childhood knowledge to create a sleeping platform in the tree with branches and foliage to lay on. It had filled her with a sense of nostalgia and given her exhausted body a chance to rest.
Her horse was tethered a little distance away, but close enough that she could check on it from her small encampment. It was a shame she was unable to hide the creature as she once might have done when she had the use of her magic, but other people made do this way, and she would too. The horse was a godsend, in all honesty. It was unsurprising that her body had failed so quickly, given her living conditions the past few years. Without the horse to carry her, she would still be very close to Chloris.
