'You're right,' she gasped. 'I'm a terrible person. I'm selfish, shallow and self-opinionated. And I'll never be a good queen, never!'
Sebastian stood there staring at her in astonishment, realizing that this was his doing. He felt terrible.
'Your highness,' he whispered. 'No. You mustn't say such things.' He hurried over to the bed and, without thinking, sat down beside her and threw an arm round her slender shoulders. She didn't push him away. Instead, she turned towards him and buried her face against his chest, until he could feel her hot tears seeping through the fabric of his singlet. Suddenly it was all coming out of her in a rush. She sounded not like a princess, but a little girl, lost and afraid.
'You have to understand, I've been spoiled all my life. Everything I wanted was there for me on a plate, I only had to snap my fingers! So little wonder that I grew up believing that I was something special. And then I lost my parents when I was still so young and I had to make myself hard and not show my feelings. The people at court were watching me, waiting for me to break down, but I would not give them that satisfaction. I had to hide my true self behind the image I show to the world . . .'
'Hush,' whispered Sebastian, lifting a hand to stroke her hair. 'It's all right, really.' But she didn't seem to hear him.
'I . . . I know I say things sometimes . . . stupid selfish things . . . but it's like there's a little voice inside me, buzzing inside my head, telling me that I can do what I want, I can say what I want, because one day soon I will be Queen! And I want to be Queen, but at the same time I don't, because that's such a terrible responsibility, and what happens if I make some stupid mistake and I'm too proud to say I was wrong?' Now her voice dissolved into a flurry of frantic sobs and it was no longer possible to understand what she was saying; so Sebastian just held her until her tears subsided and she was able to control her breathing enough to speak.
'You were right,' she whispered. 'I have much to learn.'
'Princess,' he said, 'you have no idea how much I wish I had held my tongue. I didn't mean to upset you. That was the last thing I wanted.'
She pulled back from him a little and gazed up at him, her lovely eyes catching the light of the oil lamp. He had a sudden irrational desire to kiss her, but managed to suppress it. That was a complication he really couldn't afford.
'You are worried about your future employment,' she said. 'You needn't be. I won't hold your words against you.'
'It's not that,' he assured her. 'That doesn't matter. Well, it does matter . . . but not as much as other things.' He looked at her for a moment. 'Princess Kerin, may I speak frankly?'
She smiled, dashing the tears from her eyes with the sleeve of her sumptuous gown. I fear you already have,' she said.
'Well, I intend to say more,' he said fearlessly. He took a deep breath. 'When I first met you, I confess that I didn't like you.'
'Oh.' She looked crestfallen. 'I hope this gets better,' she said.
'It does. You know, my mother always told me that beauty . . . true beauty, lies within a person. It's not what you see. It's what you sense about them. The elvish people have an ability to detect it. I may have inherited a little of that skill from my mother, but my powers are not as acute as hers. So it takes a while for me to get a clear picture. A while ago I told you that the outer princess was beautiful; and indeed she is, as any fool can see. But now I have realized that there is another person inside the one that I first met. And I can tell that this inner princess has everything that a queen needs. She has compassion enough for ten people. She is sensitive and intelligent and caring and she has a lot of love to give. She only needs to learn how to free her inner self and then everyone will know what I know now. That she is a very special person indeed.'
There was a long silence. Princess Kerin sat there looking at him, her expression doubtful. Then she smiled.
'It did get better,' she said. 'And I see that as well as a jester, you are something of a poet, Mr Darke.' She reached out and took his hands in hers. 'We will be friends, you and I. I have spoken to you of things I have never told anyone.'
'I'm glad,' he told her. 'I feel privileged to have heard them.'
She smiled bewitchingly. 'Now,' she told him, 'there is one more question that I must ask.'
'Ask it,' he told her.
'What's for supper? I'm absolutely starving!'
He laughed at that. 'Well, your highness, we can offer you roast fowl, which even now is sizzling over the fire. It won't be very grand, I'm afraid, but—'
'Lead me to it,' she said. 'My belly thinks my throat's been cut!' She got up off the couch and they moved to the curtained doorway.
As they stepped through it, they could smell the mouth?watering aroma of meat roasting over the fire. They descended the stairs and walked side by side towards the campfire, where Cornelius and Max were waiting for them. Sebastian almost laughed out loud at the look of relief on Cornelius's face as they approached.
'Everything is well?' he asked anxiously.
'Yes, indeed. The princess has agreed to join us for supper,' announced Sebastian and, for an instant, the little warrior's face split into a delighted grin; but then suddenly his expression changed. A hard look came into his eyes and his mouth compressed into a thin, tight line. He was staring towards Sebastian and Princess Kerin with a look of cold hatred.
Sebastian was perturbed enough to stop in his tracks. 'Cornelius?' he whispered. 'What's wrong?'
The little man made no reply. Instead, he came to his feet and, in one lithe movement, snatched the big-bladed knife from his belt. He grasped the tip of the blade between thumb and forefinger and flung it with all his strength, straight at Sebastian's head.
CHAPTER 10
THE VISITORS
Sebastian froze, stunned by the suddenness of the transformation. Why was Cornelius trying to kill him?
He had a brief glimpse of the deadly knife, spinning end over end as it flashed towards him. Then, in an instant, the glittering arc of steel whooshed past his left ear and buried itself with a thud in something that was approaching from behind. There was an eerie, high-pitched yelp and something crashed heavily to the ground at Sebastian's feet, nearly knocking him over. He looked down in dull surprise to see a huge, furry creature lying dead at his feet, the handle of the knife standing out from its chest. Its mouth was open and a huge purple tongue lolled out from between rows of yellow, razor-sharp teeth.
Sebastian glanced at Princess Kerin. She was staring down at the beast, wide-eyed and open-mouthed in terror. It wasn't necessary to say the word, but Sebastian said it anyway.
'Lupers!'
He heard the howls from behind him and, spinning round, he saw their lithe shapes flitting silently through the trees. He counted six or seven of them, sinewy grey creatures that ran upright on their powerful back legs, their heads improbably large on their long, lithe bodies. Their front legs were extended in front of them, displaying the huge, curved claws that could do so much damage to their prey: and their mouths were open, powerful jaws dripping saliva. The smell of the roasting fowl had drawn them to the clearing but now they were intent on bigger game.
'To the fire!' roared Cornelius, jolting Sebastian out of his daze. He willed his limbs to work, but his muscles were jittering and he was weak with terror. 'The knife!' he heard Cornelius yell. 'Get the knife!'
Sebastian dropped instinctively into a crouch and, grabbing the handle of the knife protruding from the luper's chest, gave it a powerful tug. As the blade slid free of its fleshy sheath, suddenly, shockingly, the creature moved, lashing out with its paws and snarling like something insane. Sebastian felt razor-sharp claws tear through the fabric of his sleeve, even as he scrambled away from what must have been the creature's death throes. He sprang upright and pulled Princess Kerin across the clearing towards the fire, aware as he did so that the nearest lupers were almost on his heels. As he came to the fire, Cornelius threw his sword to him. He caught it one-handed, flung the knife into the ground at Corneli
us's feet and, turning back, unsheathed his weapon.
A terrifying sight filled his vision. The nearest luper was springing straight at him, claws extended to rend and tear. Sebastian only just had time to get the point of the blade between himself and his assailant. He felt the powerful jolt in the muscles of his arm as the ravening beast connected with the tip of the blade; then a heavier impact as the beast's body slid down the sword and came crashing into him.
He was thrown backwards with the creature sprawled on top of him, and the thud of his shoulders against the ground drove the breath from his lungs. He found himself lying on his back, looking up into the luper's snapping jaws, which were inches from his face. He lay there, dimly aware of the creature's warm blood spurting over his hands, which still held the handle of the sword. The luper's jaws inched closer, closer, and saliva splashed onto Sebastian's face. Then its eyes bulged horribly and a shudder rippled through its body. The great jaws snapped shut as death came sweeping in on dark wings and, quite suddenly, the creature's muscles went slack. Sebastian was able to push it aside.
He kneeled to pull the sword out of the luper's chest, then got back to his feet, looking desperately around at a vision of
chaos lit by the flickering light of the campfire. Cornelius was fending off two of the beasts, sword in one hand, knife in the other. The creatures were trying to drive the manling away from the fire, which they obviously feared, but he made sure that he kept stepping back towards it, the twin blades slashing deadly arcs at his assailants.
A short distance from him, Princess Kerin was waving a burning branch she had snatched from the fire at another luper. It was doing its best to lash the weapon out of her hand.
And further away still, Sebastian caught a glimpse of Max, bucking and kicking frantically beneath the onslaught of two more lupers, which were attempting to drag him to the ground.
There was no time to think. Sebastian ran to Princess Kerin's side, telling himself that she was the most vulnerable one here. He stepped between her and the luper and brought the curved sword down in a tight arc, slicing one of the beast's front paws clean off. The creature threw back its head and howled in agony. A moment later the howl was cut short as Sebastian's blade slashed across its throat and it span aside, to fall writhing and shuddering on the ground.
Sebastian pushed Princess Kerin behind him. 'Stay with me,' he told her. He began to edge towards Cornelius and she moved with him; but in that same instant the manling despatched another of the creatures, a great brute of a beast. Mortally wounded, the luper pitched sideways and slammed into Sebastian, knocking him backwards into Princess Kerin. All three of them went down in a tangle of limbs and Sebastian found himself pinned beneath the weight of the dead luper, unable to move the arm that held his sword. He struggled to push the carcass off himself, then froze at a deep rumbling growl inches from his head.
He saw to his horror that another luper was crouched low to the ground, ready to lunge at him. Sebastian was afforded a grandstand view between the dripping fringes of the creature's jagged teeth and deep into the dark maw of its throat. It was not a pretty sight. He renewed his efforts to struggle free but could not release his arm, and the luper was tensing its muscles to spring—
And then Princess Kerin stepped in front of Sebastian and plunged the burning branch straight into the luper's open jaws. It jolted in its tracks and reared up on its hind legs, snapping the branch in two and flinging burning embers from its open mouth. It turned its attention to Princess Kerin, its eyes blazing with feral rage. She stood her ground, holding the broken branch in front of her as though it was still a useful weapon. Sebastian thought that he had never seen a braver act but was sure that she was about to die.
'Run!' he screamed, but she ignored him. She waited calmly for the attack that would claim her young life.
And then there was a sudden bellowing sound, so loud that everything seemed to stop for an instant. A thing came somersaulting through the air above the luper's head; something small that was spinning around in a blur of motion. And it was making this unearthly racket. The noise was so strange that the luper grunted and lifted its head to stare up at the strange thing wheeling in the air above it. A thing that held two points of razor-sharp steel in its fists.
One moment the luper's head was still attached to its body. The next, the head was falling through the air towards Princess Kerin, who made an expression of disgust and fended it away with the broken branch. The head went tumbling towards the campfire, where it came to rest, the blank eyes gazing sullenly into the flames. The spinning thing dropped to the ground and landed on its short legs. It was only then that Sebastian realized it was Cornelius.
'What on earth . . . ?' he gasped.
The manling bowed. 'Golmiran death leap,' he said. 'Only to be used in extreme circumstances.' He gestured at the severed head. T think that just about qualifies.' He moved across to Sebastian, and he and Princess Kerin helped lift the dead luper off him. Sebastian struggled free and got back to his feet. The three of them looked anxiously towards Max and saw to their relief that one of his attackers lay crushed and broken in the grass while the other was limping away though the trees, howling in pain.
'And don't come back!' shouted Max emphatically. 'Not until you've learned some manners.'
In the following silence, the crackling of the fire seemed unreal. The four survivors stood for a moment, looking anxiously around to ensure that there were no lupers left to attack them. Then they turned to face each other, grinning and nodding and generally celebrating the fact that they had survived.
'We made a pretty good team there,' said Cornelius at last. He sheathed his sword and moved back to the fire, where the carcasses of the birds were just on the point of burning. He sniffed at them appreciatively.
'Well, I don't know about you,' he said, 'but that little dust-up has given me quite an appetite.' He sat cross-legged beside the fire and started to manoeuvre the first bird off the spit.
Sebastian stared down at him for a moment and then gestured at the dead lupers strewn all around them. 'Cornelius!' he protested. 'You cannot seriously intend to go on with your supper in the midst of all this carnage?'
Cornelius glanced around, then shrugged. 'Why not?' he said. 'I've eaten in worse circumstances. Why, once, trying to evade capture at the battle of Gerinosis, I consumed a four-course meal while lying at the bottom of a heap of dead soldiers.' He extended one foot and kicked the head of a luper away from the fire. 'As long as they're not close enough to steal a bite, I'm happy enough.'
'That's positively barbaric,' said Max. T mean to say . . . we came close to dying just then.'
Cornelius grinned. 'All the more reason to celebrate the things that make life enjoyable,' he said. He tore off a large drumstick and took a big bite of the succulent meat. 'Umm. Absolutely delicious,' he said.
Sebastian and Princess Kerin exchanged enquiring looks.
'Well, it does smell good,' admitted Princess Kerin.
'Be a shame to waste it,' added Sebastian.
Then they too shrugged and went to join the little warrior, while Max looked on in absolute revulsion.
All three of them had to admit that it was the tastiest, most downright delicious meal they'd ever eaten.
CHAPTER 11
ALMOST THERE
The following morning was Princess Kerin's birthday. Cornelius provided her with a fine breakfast of roast fowl and promised her that they would be in Keladon in time for her celebrations. They were just finishing their meal when several mounted soldiers rode into camp. Sebastian recognized their bronzed breastplates and red cloaks as the same uniform that had been worn by Princess Kerin's guards. The troop was led by a tall, stern-faced officer, who wore a purple cloak, an obvious sign of his rank.
Sebastian reached instinctively for his sword at the first sign of the newcomers but Cornelius stayed his hand.
'Relax,' he said. 'I think they are King Septimus's men.'
Sebastian Darke: Prince of Fools Page 8
