“Is that true?” Theus whispered. “Was it with me?”
“I don’t know if it was appalling; I think he’s laying it on heavily,” Holco replied. “And yes,” he added after a pause, “it was with you.”
“Then she came to my own home, and remained a guest in my own family’s estate, but treated me coldly, despite our engagement, and finally announced that she wished to injure my reputation by severing the engagement,” Klermie’s voice rose in indignation.
“And despite the gentle remonstrations my family and myself administered, she refused to follow social convention. I have therefore determined, your majesty, that under the circumstances, I should come to you,” Klermie continued in a more controlled voice.
“I therefore request that it should be by my request, and at your command, that my engagement to this trollop,” Klermie’s voice rose in volume once again, “be extinguished, and that she be publically flogged for her disgraceful behavior, unbefitting a member of the nobility!”
The crowd in the room was in an uproar, despite the niceties expected of those in attendance at a royal audience; the drama and juicy scandal were the best story yet told in the court all season long. The attendants for the king loudly thumped the ends of their spears on the floor of the stage in a bid to diminish the crowd noise. The talk only slowly subsided though, until the King’s steward roared loudly enough to finally tamp the audience conversations down to whispers.
“This isn’t right!” Holco said in agitation. “Theus, did you hear that?”
“I did,” the invisible marshal of Limber replied.
“Lord Klermie, in light of the case that you have presented, I wish to address your request. Attendant,” the king called to someone offstage, “have the accused brought forth to hear her judgement.”
The crowd broke into a second burst of noise, shocked to discover that Coriae was being held off-stage in the court at that moment.
Theus unconsciously leaned forward as the noise subsided quickly, and he saw a dark, lithe figure stride out onto the stage between two attendants. Her hands were bound in rope.
She was lovely, a woman with a face that displayed character and intelligence. He did not doubt that he had been attracted to her once upon a time. Any man would be, he told himself.
The room had grown silent, except for the sound of audience members shuffling closer to the stage, seeking to see and hear the unfolding scandal better.
“Coriae, of the House of Warrell, of Great Forks, you are accused of playing false with the affections of an upstanding member of the court. Furthermore, it is reputed that you have been seen in the frequent and friendly company of the magician whose murderous powers led to the deaths of our esteemed court advisor, Glock, and most tragically, to the death of our beloved heir, Prince Eudie,” the king enunciated with emotion.
“For this, you are sentenced to be punished. You shall be flogged at the crack of dawn tomorrow, in the palace plaza, as a public display of the punishment earned by those who are false. You shall be further flogged every morning for the next month, and held in the prison cells of this palace until your sentence is complete,” the king began to sob as he spoke. “And let us all remember my good son, who died because of the cruelty of the man who you played false with. I hope that you and he both suffer as much as you deserve, though it will not be as much as I suffer every day.”
“Take her away,” the king told the guards in a negligent fashion.
“Wait!” Coriae spoke for the first time, and the guards paused as they prepared to take her away.
“Klermie is not a bad man, and I regret any pain my actions have given him,” Coriae spoke. “Klermie, I tell you truly, I mean you no harm. It was a mistake for me to have leapt into the promise of marriage to you in the fashion that I did. The fault for that is mine.
“But I am doing you a favor by ending this marriage before it begins,” she told him, facing him on the stage, the entire audience hall silent, every ear straining to hear the drama unfolding before them all.
“You heard the king’s proclamation – I’m ending our engagement, not you,” Klermie shot back, speaking from his wounded ego.
“If you say so,” Coriae swept the matter aside.
“Your majesty, I believe Theus is the man you charge with other crimes, and I know little about them. I do know that he singlehandedly saved the city of Great Forks from calamity through his heroism. I know that his heart is good, his intentions are good, and his morals are strong. You may wish to punish me for having been his friend,” she paused and bit her lip for a moment. “But I only wish I had been a better friend to him,” her voice was tearful.
“I cannot believe that anything he has done deserves punishment. I have no more to say,” she finished.
After a moment of awkward silence, the guards escorted her from the audience hall stage, and they disappeared behind the curtains on the right.
“Theus! Did you hear that?” Holco spoke aloud. “What are you going to do?”
“I heard it,” Theus said. He paused. The girl was proud and courageous. And she was faithful to him, with words of admiration that touched his soul. He wished he knew her better, knew her as he had before. He wished he had time to know her once again.
“What should I do?” he asked Holco.
“Go set her free!” Holco spoke as though it were obvious. “Don’t let her die from daily floggings.”
Theus didn’t understand why he had even bothered to ask Holco. It was apparent that he had to go rescue the girl. Something in his mind had missed the obvious.
“I’ll go right now,” Theus told his friend. “When shall I see you again?”
“Where are you going to take her? Back to the Warrell townhouse? If so, I’ll meet you there after dinner,” Holco proposed.
“That will work,” Theus agreed. “Take care,” he called, then, still maintaining his invisibility by relying upon his own energy inside the palace, he scrambled through the audience hall, occasionally bumping into people that saw no one as they felt the mysterious contacts. At the front of the room he easily hopped up onto the stage, and the momentary thought occurred that he could eliminate the king with just a moment’s effort.
The split second of impulse was over quickly, for he knew it would do no good. He turned to find the guards who were escorting Coriae to her place of imprisonment. He caught sight of them in the open space behind the stage, where furnishings and crates of goods were scattered about. Theus ran quickly through the strewn obstacles, and caught up with the pair of men and the captive girl as they began to walk down a hallway that was designed to be used by servants and staff, out of sight of the nobles in the public areas.
“They’ll flog you tomorrow, and it won’t be too bad,” a guard was saying to Coriae, “but the second day, when they flog you again, that’s when the pieces of flesh will start to get bit off, and your back will open up.”
“And then on the third day,” the other guard sadistically joined the abuse, “the executioner will curl his whip a little, so that it strikes new spots, maybe coming over the top of your shoulder, or around under your arm to strike your chest.” The man started to reach out, intending to grope his proud captive, who held a look of sheer disdain on her face while she listened to their efforts to frighten her.
The guard’s hand didn’t quite touch Coriae before it suddenly flew downward as if forcefully struck. The guard cried out as he was jerked down to the floor by the unexpected force. The other guard had only a moment to look at his companion in wonder before a clout to the head knocked him unconscious.
Both guards were on the floor, and Coriae looked at them with incomprehension writ large on her face. At that moment, Theus released his use of white magic, and he suddenly materialized into view in front of Coriae, holding the staff he had used so effectively.
“Theus! Beloved Theus!” Coriae started to cry. “Always Theus, trustworthy, life-saving Theus!”
“We need to get you out of
here,” he said. He reached out and took her arm in his hand, then began pulling her along with him as he searched for the best avenue for escape.
“Theus, are you well? How did you come to be here? I’m so sorry Theus, sorry for everything. I want you to know that I love you,” she spoke in a torrent of words as he led her rapidly forward.
“Sshh, stay still,” he warned, as he came to a side door. He was looking for sunlight; he wanted to find the energy that would allow them both to turn invisible while they left the palace and walked back to the Warrell home. While he had energy left, he instinctively wanted to preserve it as much as possible.
He pushed the door open, and found kitchen servants using a parallel hall to transport food and kitchen supplies. The two fleeing nobles – one still bound by ropes tied around her hands – joined the flow of traffic and walked with hastened steps as Theus moved purposefully.
They entered the kitchen, and Theus saw the doorway that led outside.
“If we go the other way, we can go out the front of the palace,” Coriae tried to suggest as Theus tugged her along. He ignored her as he moved purposefully towards the door.
As soon as he opened the door and stepped outside, Theus gave a sigh of relief. He led Coriae away from the doorway, then stopped and pulled his sword out. “Hold your bindings out in front,” he instructed her.
She did as instructed, letting him slice the ropes free from her wrists.
As soon as they fell, she raised her arms and looped them around Theus’s neck pulling him into an embrace, and kissing him passionately. “I’ve dreamed of doing this since the day we parted,” she mumbled against his lips.
Theus pressed her gently back; the kiss was unexpected, a distraction he didn’t need at the moment. “Here, take my hand,” he told her. He focused momentarily on gathering in the sunlight and the energy that spread so liberally all about them, then he turned invisible, and so did she as their fingers intermeshed.
“I’ve heard a lot about you,” he said, looking at her, as a foolish grin creased her face.
“You’re too funny!” she laughed.
“We need to get going. I imagine someone found those guards by now, or they’ve regained their senses,” Theus urged. “What’s the fastest way to get out of here and to go back to your family home?”
“Through the main gate, down at the north end of the palace wall,” Coriae advised. “How do you propose we get out?”
“We’re invisible right now,” Theus explained. “As long as you hold my hand, my invisibility extends to you.”
“I’m invisible? To everyone but you? No one can see anything I do?” Coriae’s expression turned from incredulous to sly to joyful.
“In that case, I will do this,” she pressed herself against Theus once again, and began to kiss him passionately once again.
After a moment, Theus turned his face to the side.
“What is it, my love? Is it too much, too soon? I’m free now Theus, free of my stupid, stupid engagement to Klermie. I never should have done it, I know,” she told him. Her free hand rose to his cheek, and turned his head to face her once again.
“I love you Theus; I love you,” she enunciated the second repetition slowly.
“Coriae,” he spoke the word, the name of the woman who was pressed against him, a handsome, spirited woman. A woman who was essentially a stranger to him.
“I have been changed,” he told her.
“What do you mean, changed?” she sensed the seriousness of his tone.
“I had to be treated by Limber, the god Limber, in his temple in his city,” Theus explained. “I had been hurt by the magician Donal, and it left a poison in my body.”
“I know, I saw it; remember?” Coriae asked. Her finger tapped his shoulder. “Remember when we went to Limber’s temple near Falstaff’s shop, and you received that monstrous big ruby pendant?”
“I don’t,” Theus answered. “I don’t remember.
“When Limber purged the infection from me, the infection held on to a piece of,” Theus almost said ‘my heart’ but amended his intended statement. “A piece of my soul, and that was ripped away.
“My memories of you were in the part that was ripped away. I don’t remember anything about you from before seeing you up on the stage, facing the king today,” he told her.
“Nothing,” he told her again. “You’re a stranger to me. I don’t know you.”
Coriae stood silently, then her body slowed disengaged from its position against his, and her face became a mask of inexpressible emotion.
“You’re telling me that you don’t remember me? You don’t know me?” she asked.
Theus nodded his head.
“And you’re saying,” her voice was very low, “that you don’t love me anymore?”
“I don’t know you well enough to love you,” Theus told her, as they stood still in the center of the open space outside the palace kitchen.
“And you just came to the palace and happened to see me, so you rescued me? Just the way you’d rescue a stray kitten if it was in the middle of a busy street, about to be stepped on by a draft horse?” Coriae asked bitterly.
“Holco told me to rescue you,” Theus blurted out.
“Holco told you to? You weren’t going to save me on your own? You were just going to let my flesh be shredded from my bones?” the girl’s irritation was rising.
“I knew the rescue was the right thing to do,” he said defensively.
“Well, that’s reassuring,” Coriae snipped. She paused, then spoke in a different tone, putting her confusing emotions aside for the moment, seeking to move on. “So what happens now?”
“We’ll go back to your home and put you there. You’ll be safe there,” Theus said.
“Not for long,” Coriae pointed out.
Theus started to move forward, pulling the girl with him.
“That’s about the first place they’ll come looking for me,” she asserted.
“We just need to keep you there for a day. I want to stay here in Stoke to see what the king says to Holco in court tomorrow. Once that is settled, we can take you to Great Forks, where you’ll be safe,” Theus knew he hadn’t planned anything beyond setting the girl free.
“What is the king going to say to Holco? What’s that about?” Coriae asked as they walked, holding hands.
Theus looked at her. “You don’t know about Prince Eudie?” he asked.
“For the past month I’ve been fighting with Klermie in Thuros, or kept captive in transit from Thuros, or kept captive at the palace for the past day. I don’t know anything that’s happened in a while. It’s irritating,” she reflected. “Except for what the king said just now. It didn’t make sense.”
“When our force arrived at Greenfalls a few weeks ago,” Theus tried to summarize succinctly, “An army from Stoke was besieging the city. Eudie and Glock were in charge. They had imprisoned Holco for disagreeing with them, and they had my friend Eiren imprisoned as well, awaiting execution.
“I unleashed my magic, but it became black magic, because I had that infection from Donal,” he told her.
“I was there; I saw it,” Coriae reminded him.
“My magic killed several people. Eudie, Glock, much of the army,” Theus’s words faltered as he confessed his barbarity. “The king blames Holco for being with me when it happened.”
Coriae was silent as she digested the news.
“Poor Theus. You feel badly about that, don’t you?” she asked.
“They were bad men, doing bad things; maybe it was right to kill the two leaders,” Theus mused, “but there were a great many others who were just soldiers, following orders to march to Greenfalls, and scores of them died.”
“Scores?” Coriae gasped. She was silent, then squeezed Theus’s hand comfortingly.
“At any rate, I’ll take you back to Great Forks as soon as I can, and then I’ll be on my way,” Theus moved the discussion to a less painful topic, as the woman studied him intent
ly.
“You could stay in Great Forks,” Coriae tentatively suggested. “You’d be welcome there; my family would love to see you return and stay.
“We might get to know one another again,” it was a statement that was perhaps a question, or even a wishful request. Theus couldn’t decipher the tone of Coriae’s soft voice.
“And I could thrash you with the staff in the armory over and over again,” she grinned as she looked over at him.
“You can fight with a staff?” Theus found her assertion hard to believe. The girl looked to have an athletic build, he conceded, but he couldn’t imagine her putting up a credible match.
“I bruised you so badly the first time we sparred, I had to put your ointment on your bruises,” she said airily.
They were approaching people, and the gate to the palace was coming into view.
“We need to be silent now,” Theus whispered.
“Tell me something I don’t know,” Coriae replied, also in a whisper.
Theus looked at her with a double take, and saw the grin on her face. He was flummoxed by the girl, whose agile mind could so changeably move from anguish to lighthearted banter.
They cleared the gate, weaving through the traffic that flowed in both directions, then started walking towards the Warrell home.
“How long can you stay invisible, and who have you been spying on when you’re invisible?” Coriae asked conversationally.
“If I only used my own energy, I could stay invisible for an hour or two, perhaps, depending on whether I was doing other things as well,” Theus explained. “But in conditions like this, in the sunlight,” he raised his hands, and one of hers, into the air, “I can capture the energy from the sunlight, and say invisible all day long.
“But I haven’t gone spying on anyone. I only use the invisibility to get around,” he finished.
“You haven’t gone to any woman’s home to watch her undress?” Coriae asked skeptically. “You never used your power to watch me when I didn’t know you were there?”
Tangled Engagements (The Memory Stones Series Book 4) Page 15
