Chapter 20
The morning after the coronation, Trista joined Illian in the breakfast room as she had been instructed. There were dark circles under his eyes, and she noticed that he had not yet touched the food. General Valen was also at the table, a fact which Trista thought was a little odd. Lenore, however, was not.
Valen said politely, “Thank you for joining us, Lady Trista.”
Trista curtseyed and allowed him to pull out her chair for her. She sat down and waited for Illian to start eating. He gestured to her plate. “Go ahead. I am not hungry,” he said calmly.
Trista shrugged. “Then I’ll abstain as well, your highness.” Her tone was even.
Illian rolled his eyes. “If you wish to go hungry, suit yourself. Lady-that is, Trista, I have a favor to request of you. I could require it as your king, but instead, I will simply ask as a friend.” She could almost hear the unspoken thought: ‘And we will see just how far your friendship really goes.’
Trista couldn’t imagine what he was going to ask of her, and she tensed herself, prepared to make a great deal of fuss if necessary. But nothing could have readied her for what he said next.
“I would like you to pretend to be my intended.”
The words dropped like a boulder. Or perhaps an avalanche. Trista’s eyes widened and she said blankly, “Your…intended.”
“Right. In other words, we would pretend to be courting.” Illian’s tone was matter-of-fact. He seemed singularly unbothered at making such a suggestion, while Trista’s shock was quickly giving way to anger.
“How dare you,” she seethed. “Why would I ever pretend such a thing? For one, I am not in a habit of lying! And I’m not-”
“Lady Trista, please don’t forget who you are talking to,” Valen interrupted warningly.
Trista held herself back with an effort, pushed back her plate, and stood up stiffly. “I shouldn’t have thought you capable of asking for something so absurd,” she said in a voice like ice.
“Sit down.” Illian’s tone brooked no argument.
Trista didn’t much like being ordered around. She spent a few seconds deciding how to respond. But something in his calm eyes made her pause, and at last she obeyed. Illian leaned forward. “Let me explain myself. I’m not asking you to do anything improper. For one thing, I consider you too young, even if a marriage among people our age would not be particularly uncommon. But I simply have no such interest in you.”
“Thanks for that,” she replied sarcastically, trying not to show how much the words hurt.
He spread his hands in a peacemaking gesture. “I don’t mean to offend you. It’s not that you’re unsuitable; I simply have no interest in marrying anyone at the moment. But in fact, I am asking you to do something quite dangerous. Should we pretend we are courting, it would be an opportunity to draw out anyone who wishes to do me harm. They would most likely go after you, seeing you as less guarded, more naive, and therefore a considerably easier target. That would afford my men the opportunity to get rid of them.”
“You really must hate me,” Trista blurted without meaning to. There was an uncomfortable ache in her throat, and she held back tears with an effort. It wasn’t as though she was deeply in love with Illian. But to hear him speak so calmly about deliberately putting her in danger to protect himself was unnerving, to say the least.
“Not at all. I promise you, I will ensure your safety. It is simply a ruse; a ploy. I will have individuals guarding you at all times, individuals who have been trained to remain unseen, but who are as capable of protecting you as a score of knights,” Illian said in a gentler tone. “I can understand that you might be frightened-”
“I’m not frightened!” Trista protested, though her pale face and slightly shaky voice contradicted her words. “I’m upset and confused. Normally, someone like you…at least when we were growing up together, you would put yourself between me and danger. But now you’re asking me to put myself between you and your enemies. As much as I would like to be, I am not strong. I’m not a warrior. I’ve never carried so much as a dagger, and I’m not a mage.”
“You don’t have to say yes,” Illian reminded her. “I’ll take this as your refusal, and we’ll speak no more on the matter.”
Trista was silent for a long moment. Thoughts whirled in her brain. It was an opportunity to gain Illian’s trust, but in spite of her words, she was very frightened indeed of the thought of becoming a target for some madman like the one who had tried to murder Illian in front of her. In addition, she remembered Illian pulling her behind him when one of the guards had warned someone was coming. He had instinctively moved to protect her, so what would possess him to put her in danger now? On the other hand, if his men were as capable as he claimed, perhaps the danger was not so great after all. She could at least believe he wouldn’t deliberately put her in harm’s way…couldn’t she?
More importantly, she could not turn down the opportunity to build a bridge between these siblings. Somehow, all three were her friends, and at the same time, the three of them virtually hated each other. There had to be some way to heal the rifts and bring them together. There had to be a future in which she could befriend one without betraying the others.
Trista took a deep breath to steady herself and then spoke calmly. “Very well, Illian. I’ll do as you ask. You’ll have to explain to me how to pretend we’re courting though.” She cocked her head pertly. “If you know, that is. I’m pretty sure you’ve never courted anyone, any more than I have.”
Illian laughed, and some of the tension went out of his stiff frame. “You’re right,” he admitted. “I haven’t. Nonetheless, I think it’s a simple matter that won’t require much more of you than you’re doing now: dining with me, walking with me in the evenings, and perhaps joining me at a social event now and then.”
“Just one thing. What about Lenore? I don’t want to lie to her.”
“Unfortunately, I don’t think you’re capable of fooling her for long,” Illian replied wryly. “So you may as well tell her. She’s clever enough to keep a secret.” He paused. “I must admit, Lady Trista, I do admire you. Coming here in the first place was brave enough, and this is more courageous still. You are a remarkable young lady.”
“Trista,” she reminded him. “Particularly if we’re going to pretend to be courting, you should call me by my first name.”
He smirked. “Very true. Now then, I think it would be reasonable for us to have a quick walk around the garden together after breakfast. What do you think?”
Trista’s face lit up in a genuine smile. “I would be happy to.”
Many miles away, Kathryn was much less cheerful than her young friend. Ren had noticed that the spring was gone from her step, and she seemed preoccupied and even a little distressed when she returned with Chance. But she had merely told him she was tired and refused to say anything more.
Now, Ren was determined to get his answers one way or another, so he cornered Chance outside the outhouse and told him, “Spill it.”
Chance spread his hands innocently. “Spill what?”
“Whatever you and Kat are hiding! What happened yesterday?” Ren demanded.
Chance sighed and shook his head reprovingly. “You really ought to be more considerate of your beloved, Ren. If she doesn’t want to tell you, why do you want to pry?”
“Don’t try to turn things around on me! Something hurt Kathryn. You’ll tell me what, or I’ll fold you in half. And if you think I can’t just because I’m a little injured, you’ve got another thing coming.”
“Relax!” Chance threw up his hands in defeat. “I give in. I told her about something that Illian did that troubled her, that’s all.”
“Huh? Something Illian did?” Ren frowned. His mind instantly went to Lenore, who he had left behind at Illian’s mercy. “What did he do?” His voice was a little unsteady.
Chance grinned. “Nothing so terrible as you seem to be thinking. It’s just a little matter of the treaty she’s so fond of.”
“You mean the Wasteland Crossing Treaty?” Ren was stunned. “Are you telling me he got rid of it?”
“That was his plan; I’d assume he went through with it,” Chance said calmly. “It would be a constant reminder to the people of your sister. What’s more, he wants to unite the kingdom under his rule by eradicating slavery from the civilized world. He planned to do it in partnership with Navinor.” Chance didn’t see any harm in telling Ren these things, since the news would be spread all over the country soon enough.
Ren grit his teeth and muttered, “He’s got a strong stomach if he can ally with those monsters. But I don’t get it. The Wasteland Crossing Treaty is all that’s keeping us going. We still need a long time to fully recover from the war.”
“He plans to increase trade with Navinor,” Chance explained. “And increase overseas trade. What’s more, if he found a reason to invade Tephraya – I’m not saying he has, but if he did – he would be able to take their riches anyway, without having to hand over any Iridalys goods in return.”
Ren waved away the words. “None of that matters. Why would she take it so hard? I mean, I know she set up the treaty, but she doesn’t like slavery any more than he does,” Ren pointed out.
“I’m guessing it has something to do with the fact she had planned to go there next and find allies. Oh, and also, she found out her father is dead.”
“What?” Ren blanched. “The king…is dead?”
“You really should talk to each other occasionally; it’s tiresome having to explain all this,” Chance said with a yawn.
Ren brushed past him and hurried to where Kathryn was sitting by the garden, staring aimlessly at the little shoots poking their heads out of the earth.
Ren sat next to her. He was tempted to demand why she had felt the need to tell Chance all her plans instead of him, but he held himself back with an effort and just sat in silence for several minutes.
At last Kathryn said, “He told you, didn’t he?”
“Seemed to me I had a right to know,” Ren muttered.
“There wasn’t much to know. It was just a vague idea I had…an idea that obviously won’t work.” Kathryn leaned her head on his shoulder with a sigh.
He was surprised by the gesture, but he put his arm around her, and they sat together.
She said, “I never even had a chance to say goodbye.”
Ren patted her hand. “He loved you, Kat. The last time I saw him, he was trying to find a way to save you.” Ren didn’t feel it was relevant that the king’s way to save his daughter had been to threaten her bodyguard into a false confession of murder.
“Did he really, Ren? Or was he just trying to keep me from ruining the family reputation?”
Kathryn’s eyes filled with tears, and a sob caught in her throat as she lowered her head to hide her face. “I know I was a disappointment to him. I know how angry he was when I called the Meeting of Generals and when I failed to secure a position in Navinor. I just wish…I wish I could have heard him say that he loved me.”
Ren had never heard those words from his own father, so he wasn’t sure how to respond. Kathryn allowed herself a few silent tears, then she wiped her eyes and simply sat with Ren for a while. At last he said, “How about you and I go into town together tomorrow, Kat? I’m sure I can get the little gremlin to let me go; he’s pretty sick of me already. And we can have some fun and meet people and forget about everything else for now.”
Kathryn didn’t respond for a minute, and he worried he had upset her, or that she would respond with her usual protests. But instead she said at last, “Yes, let’s do that.” She smiled up at him. “Thank you for standing by me, Ren. I don’t say it enough, and I’m sorry for that, but I really do appreciate it. I don’t know what I would do if I was alone in all this.”
Ren was speechless for a minute. “Er…I mean, you know it’s no bother for me, Kat. So you don’t have to thank me.”
“Of course I do. You have nothing to gain, and everything to lose by staying with me, yet you, like the grand, ridiculous, kind man you are, still choose to remain.” Kathryn’s voice dropped low as she finished, “I don’t deserve you.”
Absolutely bewildered now, Ren decided it was better not to say anything. A part of him knew she was simply highly emotional because of her father’s death, but for now, he wanted to enjoy the words he’d never heard before and would probably never hear again.
Eventually, Calix interrupted the moment by calling, “T-time to eat!” so Ren got up and held out his hand to Kathryn. She took it, and he pulled her up. To his total shock, she then put her arms around him and buried her face in his shirt.
“Thank you,” she said one more time before releasing him and going inside to eat. Ren stood there for a few seconds with a blank face before Chance exclaimed loudly, “Calix, we need your expertise out here! Ren is having a heart attack!”
Ren glared at him. “You always know just what to say,” he grumbled.
Chance responded, in a very self-satisfied tone, “It’s my special talent.”
The next day, Ren limped into town with Kathryn at his side. Calix’s protests and grumbling still rang in his ears, but he felt good. It was a lovely day; there was a breeze, and the townspeople seemed pretty cheerful as they bustled this way and that. Several people smiled at the sight of the young duo walking hand in hand, assuming they were a couple.
An elderly woman tottered and fell almost right in front of them, and Kathryn rushed to help her up before Ren even realized what was happening. The old woman said, “Thank you, dear; you go and enjoy that husband of yours. He’s a keeper; I can tell.” She winked at Ren, who couldn’t help but smile back.
For once, Kathryn didn’t seem uncomfortable at such a suggestion. She only smiled and nodded and went back to holding Ren’s hand.
A part of Kathryn felt strangely relieved. She even found herself asking, “Why have I been trying so hard?” Day after day, she’d heard her father’s words ringing in her ears: “One day, you may rule this country.” “This country is falling apart. You are the one who must bring it together once more.” “Don’t disappoint me this time, Princess Kathryn.”
Those words had haunted her; made her feel more and more like she was squirming under a heavy weight that didn’t belong to her. And today, at last, she was beginning to feel free.
But there was still a voice in the back of her mind that made her feel guilty. It whispered, “Who are you to abandon your responsibilities? To abandon Dena and Lenore and Trista? Who are you to turn your back on everything your father wanted for you?” Most of all, what would happen to Iridalys without the treaty? She remembered the emaciated, starving man she and Ren had encountered on their first journey to Navinor. What would happen to people like him who depended on the treaty for food?
Kathryn tried to brush away the thought. At least for today, she didn’t want to focus on any of those things. She’d rather spend time with Ren and stand by his side as he haggled over the price of a melon or bought some wildflowers from a poor child on the street corner. Was it so wrong to be happy?
The question was still ringing in her ears when she heard a passerby saying to her child, “This is the last festival for a while.”
“Why?” the young girl questioned.
“Because there are rumors that the new King is ending the treaty with Tephraya. We won’t see any more traders come through here for a long time.”
Kathryn flinched. She could already imagine that it would take mere months for the little border village to become a ghost town. With no trade and no travelers to support it, it would have to rely on the scant resources it could get from farming, which had been a dead industry since the loss of the verdant opals during the war. Perhaps Navinor would give some of those opals back, but they would never return all of them, and Kathryn’s trade agreements that had arranged the introduction of new crops and seeds in Iridalys that didn’t require the help of verdant opals had all been overturned. There was no telling how many citizens would go hungry over the next months or years. But what could she do? As much as she wracked her brain, there was no answer in sight. Illian held all the cards. He was a king, and she was nobody.
Then she turned and saw a man putting up a new poster on the town’s announcement board. Kathryn drew closer out of idle curiosity, and Ren followed, asking, “What is it? Are they having a dance or something? I’m taking you if they are.”
But the poster wasn’t announcing a dance. Kathryn’s eyes widened and she put her hand out to stop the man who had put up the poster. “Isn’t it too early?” she asked abruptly.
He looked confused, then realized what she was talking about. “Oh, they said they’re going to hold it in two months instead of at the end of the year…because of the slave uprising, you know,” he explained.
Ren squinted at the paper, but there were lots of small words, and he hated reading. “What’s it about?” he whispered to Kathryn.
She was staring at the paper in silence, with a face he couldn’t understand. The man answered for her. “It’s the Contest of Champions, held by Tephraya once a year to choose the finest warriors. The king always sponsors the winner and gives them, or the person they’re representing, a title and lands. I’m surprised you haven’t heard of it.”
Ren started. “Of course I’ve heard of it! Everyone has, but…” He glanced at Kathryn, and for some reason, his heart sank.
Kathryn had a million thoughts roaring in her brain, but one canceled out all others. She was standing there with one of the finest warriors in the world, looking at a little piece of paper that could mean freedom, authority, power to help her people, and everything she had always promised herself she would never give up. It was right within reach. All she would have to do would be to get to Tephraya with Ren, and they couldn’t lose. She would be a noblewoman once again. She could work her way up from there, establish herself as an invaluable member of the nobility, and work to erase slavery while ensuring favorable relations between Tephraya and Iridalys all at once.
And then she would have something to offer Ren as well. They wouldn’t be poor, wandering from place to place and constantly fleeing pursuers. She could have him by her side.
Kathryn looked at Ren with a pleading, earnest expression he could never resist. Ren flinched, but he took both her hands and asked gently, “Are you sure? We can take an easier road, you know…stay here where it’s peaceful, and…I’d take good care of you. You’d never have a thing to worry about again.”
“Please.” It was only one word, but it cut him deep to the heart. It hadn’t taken him long to build castles in the air based on her looks and her touch over these past few days, and now those castles were crumbling around his ears. Served him right for dreaming above his station, he thought bitterly.
He sighed and lowered his head. “Right, then. Tephraya it is, I guess.”
Kathryn took his head in her hands and made him look at her. “Ren. You don’t have to do this for me. But I am asking you to because I know you can. Because I know how amazing you are, and I want the whole world to see it. I don’t want us to stay here in some cabin hiding from the world. We’re both capable of more than that. But if it’s what you want…If it’s what you want…” She couldn’t bring herself to say, ‘Then we’ll do that.’ She couldn’t give up on her idea of Iridalys, on a country in which no children had to starve to death; not yet. So instead she said, “If that’s what you want, I won’t stop you.”
He was quiet for a minute, looking into her earnest brown eyes. At last he said, “You know my answer, Kat.”
The man watching them was thoroughly confused. Shrugging to himself, he muttered, “Crazy young folk,” and wandered off.
Ren managed to smile at Kathryn. “Let’s head back. If I’m going to go fight the world’s best warriors, I’d better get busy training,” he announced.
Kathryn nodded, and they started back together in silence. A strange heaviness had come over them both. Kathryn felt a terrible, overwhelming mixture of hope and fear and uncertainty and guilt. Ren’s feelings were a lot simpler. He felt overwhelmingly bitter and miserable. But he kept those feelings to himself. Whatever happened, he told himself, they were going to go through it together. No matter what.
The End of Book 1
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