Romana's Freedom (Soul Merge Saga Book 1)

by M. P. A. Hanson

  Worst of all it was second-day and everyone was at market, so the verbal abuse grew in volume the closer they got to the palace.

  She remained silent, ignoring them. They were beneath her notice, suspicious humans who had never learned respect. They were midges, who had no comprehension of the circumstances that had led her life. The prince gave her waist a squeeze and apologised.

  “Don’t bother.” She replied “Their ignorance is understandable; they are only humans after all.”

  “Only humans?” He asked “I’m offended.”

  “You shouldn’t be; you’re not human.” She replied

  “Will you reconsider your rewards rule?” He asked

  “No.” She replied. “You can dismount here.” She pulled Jayde to a stop just out of range of the archers on the castle wall.

  “Don’t you trust me?” He asked, noting the distance.

  “If I trusted people, I wouldn’t still be alive today.” She’d suffered betrayal, but without trust, at least it didn’t come as a surprise.

  “I’m sorry you’ve had to live that way.” He replied, swinging down. “I’ll see you in two night’s time.”

  “Don’t forget.” She replied, turning Jayde sharply and cantering back the way they’d come, not changing course for the caves until she was well out of sight of everyone, and then she rode too fast for the spies the prince had dispatched after her to catch up.

  When she reached the caves, she walked Jayde into the stables, only to run into an unimpressed Lena.

  “You’re late.” The brownie informed her. “They’ll come looking for her in a minute; you know she’s the only elf in that castle and the only one who knew the exact time the human prince was leaving. I’ve only got a few hours at best to convince her not to freak out and tell the wrong people everything.” She chided.

  Lena was one of the few people in the world she would allow to scold her like that. She wasn’t soft, but the brownies had chosen to serve her, and had been loyal to her since they’d met. Leigh had been loyal since birth, idolising her from a young age after Silver had saved her mother from a fire started by raiders.

  “It will be difficult for me to relinquish control; I despise what I am going back to.” Silver informed the brownie.

  “Would it be easier the first time if I got Kate to help?” Lena asked.

  “No!” Silver almost roared. “It’s her fault I’m like this. If she’d told me what would happen things would be different, I would have chosen another child.”

  Lena nodded in acquiescence, and took Jayde from her. “I lit the incense burners and stoked the fire with willow logs in the room off your study.”

  “You understand more magic than you let on.” Silver informed her, “I will require solitude. It shouldn’t take more than fifteen minutes, you may enter then. The girl won’t be able to find the way out on her own so we need not fear she will run.”

  “I think you’d find Romana stronger than you think.” She replied.

  “Oh, and while I’m gone, we need to make up a room for a young centaur.”

  “You had a premonition?” Lena guessed.

  Silver nodded and left, striding through her rooms to her study, and putting her hand to the hidden door there. It opened for her, and she moved into the room.

  The room was as small as she remembered: Four large votive candles sat on ledges in each corner, while opposite her was the only fireplace in the caves not connected to the secret passageways. In front of it sat a single woven mat, while around her incense burned in glass dishes, making the air thick and heavy.

  She crossed to the mat, and sat in a lotus position. She definitely didn’t want to have to do this, but there was no other choice. So many regrets, she thought, but there was nothing she could risk doing to change her situation. But now she had to let go.

  She calmed her mind using simple meditation techniques she’d learned in ages past, and then willed herself back into the blackness.

  Chapter Fourteen

  POSTPONE THE INEVITABLE

  When Romana woke she was sitting cross-legged on the floor of a dark little room. Incense cloyed the air, making it so thick that it was hard to breathe. How had she got here? How long had she been out? She stood and searched the room by the light of the dying fire and the burned down candles. There seemed to be no door, until one opened and light spilled through.

  “Miss?” Lena called. “Are you alright?”

  Memories of yesterday flashed into her mind at that instant, a cascade of scenes and conversations that she’d had no choice in. She scurried into a corner, what the hell was happening? Was she going mad? It couldn’t be real, there was no way that she could ever fight that well. A memory of Leigh telling her not to fight ‘it’ flashed over her eyes.

  Betrayal coursed through her.

  “Miss, please come out, there’s nothing to be scared of, really.” Lena reassured her as the memories took form in her mind. “I made you some soup, you must be hungry by now.”

  “What happened?” She asked, her voice hoarse and demanding. No warmth in it towards someone who might be in on her betrayal.

  “We’ll discuss it over soup.” Lena insisted.

  She stepped towards the light, and then hesitated. Would Lena hurt her? She focused on the memories of the other woman. The one who’d forced her into unconsciousness earlier. They wanted her to allow the other woman out, and to lie for her. Well, at least she had some leverage.

  She edged out of the door, to find herself in her study. The door closed behind her, as she walked up the stairs to her bedroom. Lena was there, tray of soup in hand, with a worried look on her face.

  Romana took the soup and sat down on the bed, patting the spot beside her in a gesture for the brownie to sit.

  “What happened?” She demanded, dipping a slice of buttered bread into the bowl.

  “Romana, to understand this fully, you need to know the full story, which would take hours to explain to you. I promise I will tell you everything, but right now, you need to know two things. Number one: The woman who is sharing your body with you will not hurt you or anyone you love, she’s mainly considered to be one of the people walking in the light, although I must admit she walks a very thin line. And number two: If anyone were to find out that she resides within you, the consequences would be terrible for everyone involved, although perhaps worse for you. I can guarantee torture, interrogation and eventually death.”

  “What did she do?” Romana asked.

  “She killed so many important people, not least of which several kings. She was also the greatest sorceress of her time, and the powerful often have too many enemies to be able to evade all of them.”

  “Why did she kill them?” She asked

  “At first it was loyalty to her people, to protect. Eventually she became an icon of justice, killing those who had done wrong in her view. You could say that she tried to play god. Her arrogance made her reckless, and that led to a mistake that she might not have made had she had the ability to listen to others’ advice.” Lena informed her sadly.

  “That mistake was me, wasn’t it?” Romana asked, wiping up the last dredges of soup from the bottom of the bowl with the bread.

  Lena hesitated, probably trying to find the words to make it sound kinder. “Yes,” she ended up saying. “But, if it wasn’t for her mistake, you would have been killed just hours after your birth.” She collected the soup tray. “You know what we want you to do, we need you to lie for us, preserve her secret. Technically, it’s your secret now too. But you really can’t tell anyone, because when it comes to her secret then you don’t know who will want to kill her or keep her. You also know that if you don’t get back to your rooms at the palace in the next few minutes there will be some serious questions, and we wouldn’t want to leave Katelyn without a guardian.”

  With that the brownie disappeared out of the room, and Romana was left alone. Playing the Katelyn card was not fair, she thought, the brownies knew she’d do
anything to protect the little girl. She changed quickly out of the suit and replaced all her weapons even as she argued against it in her head. But in the end what choice did she have? Death or secrecy seemed to be her only options in this.

  When she was ready, she ran down the passageways at elvenspeed, sensing that there were guards stationed in them tonight. She was betting that after the captain had seen Silver fight, he had persuaded the prince to allow guards to be kept in the passageways. Worst of all, they were covering the entrance to her rooms.

  She walked to an apparently uninhabited area of the palace where there were no guards and exited from the fireplace there, before rushing to pick Katelyn up from school. They’d just be coming out now, and she wanted to check the little girl was alright.

  When she reached the schoolrooms, Katelyn rushed up to her and gave her a huge hug in front of everyone, which caused her cheeks to burn with embarrassment.

  “I got a reward!” She told her loudly. “For being really good.”

  “That’s great sweetie.” She replied, lifting her up, and thanking the maid teaching.

  The niceties observed she gently picked up Katelyn and sped them both back to their rooms at elvenspeed, resulting in a squeal of excitement from Katelyn as they went.

  When they reached the door, Romana had to put Katelyn down, and bent to unlock the door. Then she heard the unmistakeable heavy footsteps that were heading her way.

  “How was your ride?” Katelyn asked, as she skipped inside.

  “It was nice.” She replied, keeping to vague description. “I think I might have exhausted Jayde.” She left the door open and headed for the kitchen to begin pulling out ingredients for dinner. “Go get changed, we’re about to have company.”

  “Who?” Katelyn asked, walking into her bedroom.

  “The prince of the human realms.”

  “I want to be able hear like you.” Katelyn told her.

  “It does make it incredibly hard to be snuck up on,” she scowled at the fireplace. “Although you also learn how rude some people can be.” She heard one of them curse, “and how bad some people’s language is.” Another curse, she raised an eyebrow at the fireplace.

  “But you can always know when people are talking about you.”

  “Not really.” She replied. “I can’t hear further than the city boundaries.” She set a pan up on the stove and added “Good evening.” To the prince who had just arrived at the door. “Please could you shut the door after you?” He obeyed and moved to sit at the table. “What did I do to warrant your guards in my chimney?” She asked in hushed tones. “If I remember rightly I was ordered to ‘relax’ on my day off.”

  “They’re here for your protection.”

  “From what?” She asked

  “When did you get back? The whole town is buzzing with the news.” He kept his voice quiet so Katelyn wouldn’t hear.

  “A few minutes ago.” She replied in a hushed whisper. “What have I missed?”

  “It would appear that you’ve attracted the interest of the woman who saved my life two weeks ago.”

  “And you know this how?” She asked.

  “She saved my life again last night, and we talked.”

  “You also promised you’d be fine. You’re cut everywhere.” She looked pointedly at the half healed cuts on his arms and face.

  “They’ll finish healing in a day.” He replied.

  “No human could possibly…” She trailed off, looking over him once and then twice. “Halfling?” She guessed.

  “Half-elf.” He replied

  At that moment Katelyn skipped back into the room, and she sent him a silencing look. The little girl faltered slightly at the sight of the prince, but curtseyed and sat down next to him all the same.

  “Hello.” She said. “Are you eating Romana’s food too?”

  “Who else eats Romana’s food?” He asked.

  “Hana, and Tommy.” She replied “Tommy eats her breakfasts and Hana eats her lunches, are you going to start eating her dinners?”

  “Maybe, but the palace cook would get annoyed with me if I did. Is her food nice then?”

  “It’s the best.” Katelyn replied with the certainty and pride that Romana seemed to inspire in her. “Did you eat dinner with the wytch?”

  “What wytch?” Romana asked, forcing herself to sound worried.

  “The wytch that everyone is talking about; the wytch that saved his life, apparently he owes her lots.”

  “Katelyn, do you mind if I borrow Romana for a minute?”

  “Only if you promise not to take her to the dungeons,” Katelyn replied solemnly. “People say bad things happen there and I don’t want my Romana hurt.”

  He laughed at that, and then turned his face serious “I promise I will never take your Romana to the dungeons unless I really have to.”

  “Okay then.” She replied.

  “Put yourself to bed if I’m not back by the time you’ve finished, okay kiddo?” Romana instructed.

  “Yes Romana,” the little girl replied absently, already lost to the food that Romana put in front of her and her daydreams.

  Romana took out a jacket from the closet in her room, locked their quarters, and left the palace through the servants’ door, followed by the prince.

  “Explain.” She ordered, as she reached a fountain in the gardens, and sat down on a delicate wrought iron bench.

  “Shouldn’t I be the one giving the orders?” He joked.

  “Not when you’ve put guards in my rooms to spy on me, and don’t you dare deny it, I’ve heard them discussing it.”

  He cursed. “Look, you have to know how suspicious it looks to everyone right now; a woman who has the same strange eye colour and tall height as you, turns up at around the same time you do, and kills people to defend me.”

  “I already told you, I didn’t do it.” She retorted, angrily. “I don’t know how to fight that well, you’re keeping me to basics and I didn’t know anything about secret passageways until I heard your captain talking to you about them. That was after the first time you saw her if I remember. So all the evidence you have is that I’m the same race as her.” She paused there. “What happened this time anyway?”

  “We were cornered by at least four times as many bandits as there were guards. She pre-warned us, and saved my life, killing the vast majority of them, and then protecting us as we rode back. We missed the ball, although that does seem rather insignificant in the grand scheme of things. My stepmother will kill me.”

  “What did she demand in return? If she’s elven she wouldn’t have done this without balancing the scales.”

  “She demanded a favour, and when I lost a fight against her she made me promise to give her a centaur orphan, and it had to be under one year old.”

  “Why would she want a child?”

  “I have no idea. I got permission to check up on it every new moon, but I don’t think she means to do it harm. I also got her to tell me a name to call her, she calls herself the Silver Eyed Wytch, but I called her Silver and she seemed alright with it.”

  “Seems to me like you want to get to know her better.” She replied.

  “Not really, I think it would be easier if we could get her to leave us alone.”

  “Do you really want that though? Sounds like you’re only saying that because it’s what you should do.”

  “I really couldn’t deal with the trouble. My stepmother, quick as she is to accuse, just sent me a letter. I have three weeks to arrange a ball with all the nobles invited. She had to have sent it the moment she realised I wasn’t going to make it to the ball in Carin. Read.”

  He handed her a sheet of heavy expensive paper, from in his pocket. She unfolded it and read the fancy curling words.

  HRH Prince of the Human Realms,

  Dearest son, as you missed our earlier ball in Carin, we have decided to visit your city for a week in three weeks from this second-day, where we would be interested to hear what occurred that pre
vented you from attending the ball in Carin. We realise that these dates coincide with the annual conference of the aristocracy in Grenov, and have therefore decided to re-arrange the conference to occur in Morendor, with you as the host.

  We are also met daily by concerns for the future of the realm, seeing that our heir has no heir of his own, although we have assured the nobility that you have already begun courting a lady of your own choice. However, were they to find this was not the case, we fear that it may be more diplomatic to decide upon an arranged marriage with one of the purer bloodlines.

  With the greatest love and affection,

  Queen Claire of the Human realms and the Royal Isles of Grenov

  “I don’t see the problem.” She replied. “You can call off an arranged marriage easily, and it sounds like a conference is normal for the upper class.”

  “The Annual Conference of the Aristocracy is the biggest social event of the year.” He replied “It involves months of planning, and two balls and a banquet on consecutive days. Then afterwards, there are four days of solid debate over how the country is run. It involves hosting every single lord and lady in the human realms, at least five ambassadors from every other species and their servants. The costs of hiring out places for their guards to stay and food for all of them puts a significant dent in the royal treasury.” He tugged at his hair.

  “Okay, so it’s a big thing, just do it, and find some woman to sit on your arm for a week to postpone the inevitable. Ancients know, there are enough women out there who’d kill for the chance to go to a royal ball, add you to that mix and they’d probably kill themselves for the chance.”

  “You wouldn’t?” He asked.

  “I know you.” She replied, joking. Then joining in when he laughed. “Seriously though, I’m not sure if I would be a good choice, being the only elf here, I’d be more noticeable, and the ambassadors would never have seen me before, so they would know I wasn’t of the right background to be of interest to you.”