Arranged (24 page)

He didn't like the thought of leaving her unprotected, though he knew his sister would guard her well. "Perhaps another time."

"Tomorrow?" Adalia pressed.

Shea stepped closer and Qwinn's urgency to leave intensified. "Very well."

Adalia smiled. "I will be home later," she said as she spun away.

Shea seemed to pout. "You have not been to visit in a long time. At least dance one dance with me," she said in Vidarian as she tugged at his hand.

He pulled away again and offered his hand once more to Alison, who quickly accepted it. He pulled her to a stand and quickly scooped her into his arms. Shea put her hands on her hips. "You have changed."

Qwinn ignored her as he headed for the tent flap. One of the dancers held the reins to his Ou'tani. They climbed on and he wasted no time in riding off. The more distance he put between them and Shea, the better he felt. She reminded him too much of the past.

Alison sighed and leaned back against him slightly. He blinked in surprise. He could tell from the way her shoulders sagged that she was tired; however, he wasn't sure if she realized just what she was doing

Qwinn laid Alison down. She pressed her face sleepily into the pillow. "Rest," he said. "I will return for you in a few hours."

She mumbled something that he couldn't understand, then began to breathe deeply as she slipped easily into sleep.

He slipped out of her room and headed to find his friend and advisor, Jabr. He could only imagine the uproar the council was in for him leaving when they had called a meeting.

He was right. After reassuring them that he had checked in at the wall and that he was introducing Alison to the people, many of the council members calmed.

Mar however, did not. "You cannot leave your kingly duties to second importance. You might as well leave the people without a King!"

Qwinn worked his jaw, trying to hold back an angry retort. Everyone's eyes were on him, waiting for him to explode. For the first time in more years than he could count, he held his tongue. In that moment, he mentally stepped back and evaluated the situation. What Mar said was true, but he hadn't been completely ignoring his duties. He was here wasn't he?

At the same time, he was surprised at everyone's reaction. Did he explode so often that it no longer shocked everyone? Shame filled him. What kind of King couldn't even control his own temper? Then surprise took its place. When had he changed? When did he start to care if he yelled at his people or not? Just because he was angry didn't mean he was a tyrant. In fact, he was very protective of his people. However, that quality alone did not necessarily make him a good leader.

The epiphany shocked him, and then he realized that everyone was still waiting on him to reply. He took a deep breath, the council member near him cringed his eyes, preparing. "You're right," he said simply.

The room was silent for a moment, taken off guard by his peculiar reaction; Mar most of all. "Excuse me?"

"You are right. I should not be putting Alison before the kingdom. But with only two weeks to introduce her to the people and our ways, I wanted to spend every spare moment with her…I realize…I was wrong to do it," The apology sounded almost alien to him. He was King; he never apologized to anyone.

Maybe Adalia was right when she said that Alison was calming him down.

Bartus stood. "Your bond is strong already. Do not fret over the girl, she will learn in time."

Qwinn swallowed hard. He knew that if Bartus could already sense their bond, it must be true. Mar took his seat in a daze. It seemed he had no more to say, for once. Qwinn quite enjoyed his reaction.

Bartus fought a smile as he turned his eyes to the rest of the council. "Now, to the matter at hand; The Yorath's have returned from their negotiations with the elves. They are willing to trade cloth for Lake Moss."

Qwinn's mind drifted from the monotony. The elves and Vidarian's traded tools, magic and remedies. However, since the elves were always on the move, they were hard to find. For a moment, he wished the Yorath's hadn't returned. Then he wouldn't have to face Shea, their youngest daughter. Of course, since the solar eclipse was approaching, all of his people would be returning from wherever their travels took them.

Vidarian's traveled outside the cavern for four reasons: to hunt, to guard, trade goods or take mates. None but royalty were allowed to take a human, therefore, others traveled to find elves, trolls, or fairies.

The Yorath's were always traveling, trying to better the kingdom. Sedarr Yorath was a man of great status, but Qwinn refused to allow him onto the elder's council. He did not trust the man, or any member of his family.

Bartus continued to fill everyone in on the trading that had taken place. When he was done, another council member stood and informed the King and members about the food supplies and harvest; another about the crime in the kingdom; another about the hunting and so on.

The meeting was tedious, but necessary. Qwinn had eyes and ears all through the kingdom. After the regular news had been taken care of, they discussed his wedding, again.

His heart leapt slightly at the reminder. He had always known this day would come, but he didn't think it would arrive so soon. He almost laughed at his thoughts. He had pushed this day off for decades longer than any other King had in his family.

As he suspected, they wanted the dancer's as entertainment. No doubt, Shea would be a part of the performers. He didn't want her anywhere near Alison if he could help it.

After the meeting, he took a walk to clear his mind. He knew that as his wedding drew closer, the women would need to measure Alison to make her a dress. How would he cover that up? With more lies? He knew he needed to tell her, she deserved to know what was in store for her, but any time he had a chance to talk to her, he held back. After his revealing of him being King, she had reacted angry to finding out he lied. He didn't blame her. He would have been furious.

Then an idea hit him. Perhaps if he strived harder to make her fall in love with him, then he could ask her to marry him and she would never have to know about the arranged marriage. A genuine smile crossed his face and the thought of her falling for him instead of just trusting him didn't sound so bad either.

Eventually he found himself standing before the training room. He let himself in. Only a few soldiers were training, but he wasn't looking for blissful silence in his mind today, he needed something to keep his hands busy while he waited for Alison to wake up.

Sometime before the morning, he needed to inform Naliya that she would be waiting on Alison again. He sat on a stool and grabbed a sword and a sharpening stone. His men looked at him oddly, then seeing that he was preoccupied with though, went back to their training. Two were set up for a sword fight with heave blunt swords to work on their coordination.

Qwinn tuned out the sounds of the wood smacking and went to work on sharpening a sword. Many thoughts plagued his mind. Memories warred with things he needed to do. He ground the stone against the sword, making a few passes.

ALISON RAN THROUGH THE DARK, BRANCHES smacking her face, neck, arms and legs. The dress she wore did little to protect her skin, however she didn't care. She looked behind her again, knowing what she would find; darkness, like a wide-open mouth, moving closer, following her. She ran on, her human eyes barely allowing her to see shapes or outlines in the near pitch black. Her breathing came in ragged gasps as she trekked on. Hot tears streamed down her cheeks. Why was she crying? She didn't know, but she knew she could never go back the way she'd come.

A branch reached out and tripped her, causing her to scrape her knee against a sharp stone, splitting her soft flesh and causing her to jerk straight up in bed, breathing heavily.

It had all been a dream.

Her heart continued to hammer in her chest as her eyes took in her surroundings. She ran her hand through her bed-tangled hair as she sucked in some deep breaths. She hadn't had a nightmare in the longest time. She almost laughed; she was living in a nightmare down here.

The dream had reminded her of what she'd known all along; she needed to get out of here. She swung her legs off the side of the bed, careful of her injured one and reached for her cane. She was glad someone had left a lamp burning in the corner. She was determined to practice walking with or without help. If she fell, she fell.

Alison stood carefully, gaining her balance and gripping the staff tightly as she took a step and hobbled slowly toward the door. She took another step, ignoring the pain from her leg. As soon as her weight was completely on her bad leg, she buckled.

She gripped the stick, but there was no stopping her fall. She hadn't realized how grateful she should have been for Qwinn or Adalia always catching her until she hit the unforgiving ground. Her injured leg buckled awkwardly beneath her, causing a lightning sharp pain to race up her leg.

She cried out as the rest of her came crashing down. Her cane skittered across the hard stone floor. She grabbed at her injured leg, crying at the pain. With gritted teeth, she rearranged herself so that her leg wasn't so twisted.

After catching her breath, she realized that the cane was too far out of reach and that she'd have to drag herself back to the bed. She was sure that she had succeeded in re-breaking what might have been healing in her leg. Every movement was agony. She moved the small fabric that they called a dress and studied the area the pain was originating from. Her leg was starting to swell.

She tried to fight tears, but there was no use. They flooded down her cheeks. She cried because she felt useless and vulnerable. She felt stupid and as if she wasn't brave enough to call herself her father's daughter. What would he think of the mess she'd gotten herself into?

She pressed her face into her hands and let the sobs come. Why was this happening to her? Was this payback for talking back to her uncle? For running away?

After the tidal wave of self-pity finally passed, she eyed the bed again. The floor was made out of stone, therefore cold and hard. Determination flooded her. She slowly dragged herself toward the bed, clenching her jaw against shouting out in pain. She reached the mattress, and using it to balance herself, she strained to pull herself up. She used her good leg for a boost, but the pain of her injury was too much. She fell back on her butt and yelped.

The next thing she knew, her door was being thrown open. "Alison!" Qwinn shouted. His eyes quickly swept the room, looking for an enemy. He was by her in an instant. "What happened?" he picked her up, causing her cries to bubble forth.

As soon as she was on the bed, she shoved his hands away. "Don't! You will just make it worse…" she trailed off as a sudden realization hit her. "Why haven't you healed my leg like you did my hand?"

She didn't think it possible, but Qwinn went pale. She watched as most of the blue tint of his dark skin disappeared. He not only withdrew from her emotionally, but also physically. He straightened and turned his back to her. She could tell how tense he was, but this was one question she wasn't going to let slip. "You have had that power this whole time and you sat back and allowed me to suffer?" her voice was rising, along with her anger.

"Why didn't you say anything? I thought we were done with the lies? Answer me!" she demanded.

Finally, he turned back to face her. His face looked as if it could have been etched in stone; cold eyes stared back at her. "I couldn't risk you running away again, so I left your leg injured."

Her eyes widened. Half of her hadn't expected him to answer her at all, the other half lit with a heated fury. "I thought you wanted to be my friend. Now I see you just wanted to keep me as some sort of pet!" she snarled.

"I do want to be your friend," he said, as much feeling in his voice as he showed on his face. "More than you could possibly know."

Alison shook her head in frustration. "I haven't had many friends, but I've had enough to know that friends don't do that to friends!"

"It was out of my hands."

She grit her teeth in anger. "Get out," she said dangerously.

Suddenly his features softened slightly. "Alison−"

"Get out! If you're not going to help me then leave me alone!" she yelled, angry tears filling her eyes.

He stayed where he was for a moment before turning, slamming the door behind him. She stared at the closed door long after he had gone. She couldn't believe him. He claimed to want to help her, but he kept his healing powers a secret. It would have helped her tremendously if she didn't have to limp everywhere or rely on him to carry her.

He was right about her running away. Could he blame her? Now what was she going to do? She didn't want him anywhere near her, let alone carrying her everywhere. With the new state that her leg was in, she knew she wouldn't be going anywhere for a long time. She shouldn't have yelled. Maybe she could have convinced him to heal her? If she had kept her temper in check, she could have negotiated or begged. The longer she stayed here, the less she wanted to control her temper.

There was a soft knock at the door and Alison's anger erupted again, as if it hadn't simmered at all. "Go away!" she yelled.

"It Naliya," came a muffled voice.

Shame instantly replaced anger. Naliya didn't deserve to be yelled at. "I'm sorry Naliya, but I want to be alone for a while."