Arrival (15 page)

Accolon and Fern crossed the room and bowed in front of the emperor.

“We would be honoured to have you there to help guide our decisions. The gods know we have many to make,” Accolon said heavily.

He then turned to the rest of them and said, “The ceremony starts in a few hours. Elixia, you will need to get ready. I will say again, I hope you will all join me here in the morning for a council of war. Now if you will excuse me, I have a wedding for which to prepare.” He turned to leave, but just as he was about to walk from the room, he froze.

A tall, beautiful woman stood in the doorway. Her shoulders were tensed, and her arms hung limp at her sides. Locks of thick blonde hair fell down her back and framed a face that held bright blue eyes.

Accolon took three steps but stopped just short of her. “Satine ... I...”

“I am here to lend my help with the council. I had thought you might already be crowned. But as it isn’t until tonight, I will leave—”

“No! Don’t go. Please stay here for the night.” There was hopeless devotion in his eyes.

After scanning the room quickly, Satine said, “I cannot stay. I am not even supposed to be here.”

“Satine, this is ridiculous. I will be king in a few hours. There will be nobody to overrule me. The country owes you a debt. You must allow us to repay you.” He came a little bit closer to her, but she took a step back.

“They tried to burn me.” Her voice was not sure and steady as before.

“Gaddemar is dead,” Accolon said.

“I only came because I thought that you would already be king. I am not safe,” she said.

“Satine, nobody wishes you any harm. Stay,” Accolon said.

The sound of feet could be heard pounding along the hall and Harry careened around the corner and stopped.

“Satine, what’s wrong?” he asked breathlessly.

“I am fine,” she replied brusquely, then side-stepped Accolon and walked further into the room.

Harry spotted Jane and hurried over to embrace her. “Thank God you’re okay!” he whispered to her and they grinned at each other. The conversation continued around them.

“Who is it that you are to marry, my lord?” Satine asked.

Elixia walked gracefully to Accolon’s side.

“This is Princess Elixia from Cynis Witron, daughter of King Cornelius,” he said stiffly without taking his eyes off Satine.

Satine studied Elixia and then said to Accolon, “You are a lucky man, Accolon. She is beautiful.”

Satine was, perhaps, the loveliest woman Jane had ever seen, but standing next to this girl, this child with the huge eyes and the brown hair, she seemed older.

“I am honoured to meet the Princess of Lapis Matyr, and the famous spy. I hope I can count on you for guidance in days of hardship, my lady,” Elixia said.

Satine looked at her for a moment, and then she nodded. “Of course. And I, you.”

Accolon finally turned to the rest of the room. “For those of you that don’t yet know her, allow me to introduce Princess Satine of Lapis Matyr. She has been working for us as a spy against Leostrial for seven years. Thanks to her we have acquired much knowledge. In fact, she has given us the piece of information that has enabled us to prove what Leostrial is doing.”

“You have discovered what the scrolls represent?”

“Yes, but we can talk about this in the morning at the council. Fern, will you invite your father?” Accolon asked.

“I will. But you both really need to go and get ready.” Fern looked pointedly at the door, and Jane remembered that it was his sister who was being shunted to the side in all of this. He must be worried about her. Jane laid her hand on Fern’s arm, thinking to try and comfort him a little, but he quickly pulled away, not looking at her. Jane turned away from him, her cheeks burning with embarrassment.

Accolon looked towards Satine again. Their faces were expressionless, but their eyes seemed to communicate with each other.

“I need to speak with Satine first,” he said.

Satine gave a small, stiff nod, and they left through the door.

Elixia looked around, and then asked, “Where am I to ready myself?”

“In all the names of the gods,” Fern swore feelingly and shook his head—his sister, the woman who was to be crowned, was being ignored.

“I’ll help you,” Anna said quickly and the two girls left the room.

“Is everything all right?” Jane asked uncertainly, gesturing to the door where the girls had disappeared.

“I don’t know,” Luca said, “I think there are more things going on than we can understand. Best to leave it to them, I think.”

“She is the best spy in the world, and there is but a handful of people who know,” Fern said quietly, then shook his head. “To have spied on the most devious man in the world for seven years and not be compromised is no light thing. She has my admiration.”

“Mine too,” Harry put in. “She gave herself away just to get me out, and she almost got killed because of me. I owe her my life.”

“Why can’t Accolon change the rules so that they can marry?” Jane asked. “I mean, that’s what was going on, wasn’t it?”

“Accolon is marrying Elixia so there is a tighter alliance with Cynis Witron. It’s what we all need if we are to go to war. He cannot marry someone from a hostile country. Once he could have, perhaps, but things have changed because of Leostrial,” Fern said. “More importantly, he has made a promise to my sister, and must honour it.”

There was silence in the room for a moment, none of them wanting to get on the wrong side of the prince.

“Are we going to war then?” Ria asked eventually.

“I don’t know. Things will be clearer in the morning. There are dark times ahead.” Fern murmured.

“Ahead and behind,” Fey murmured.

Accolon led Satine into a small room off the main entrance hall and turned to face her.

Satine felt tired. Tired of life, tired of the mess she found herself in. “It is all right, Accolon. We could not have been together. You are doing the right thing.”

He closed his eyes and said, “I’m not doing the right thing by my heart.”

Satine sighed. He was not going to make this easy.

“We can’t always have everything we wish for. You must understand that.” She was thinking about when she had come to realise this herself—on the stake, about to die. “It is time for us to grow up.”

“No. Surely we are not just here to do what is expected of us, and live in pain?” His eyes burned with determination.

“That is true. But why are you telling me this? You are resigned to your fate. You are only making it worse for both of us,” she said in the same deflated voice.

“I need you to know how much I love you.”

“Why? So that you can have a clear conscience? So that when you think of me, you may have an easy heart, knowing that I understand?”

“It’s not like that. I’d be with you forever if I could.”

Satine frowned and shook her head.

This was not the boy she had fallen in love with. Once upon a time he had spoken of big, grand ideas, ideas for change, for living differently and outside the oppressing rules of the court. But now he was different. He followed those same rules he had once abhorred. He was not strong enough even to take what he wanted from life. He was about to be king, and he was letting fear rule him.

It was, in the end, a matter of change. She had grown up, as had Accolon, and she no longer knew him.

Satine closed her eyes, because by then, there was something else inside her too. A knowledge of what she had to do.

She gave Accolon a smile, which she hoped would not seem false, and she turned her face up slowly to kiss him gently on the lips. A goodbye.

“You must do this,” she whispered, knowing he needed to feel that he was doing the right thing.

“You must know this,” he replied. “Until time ends I will love you, and when this is all over, maybe we can finally be together. Surely nothing could keep us apart forever.”

A single tear slid down her face, and she hid it from him. She thought for a moment of their child, and was suddenly glad beyond telling that he’d never known.

Satine paused at the door to say one last thing. “We might have been kindred once, Accolon. But no more. We walk different paths. The sooner you realise that, the better it will be for all of us.”

She didn’t turn to look at his expression, nor wait for a reply. There was nothing he could say that she wanted to hear just then. She was walking away from a man she thought she’d known, and the disillusionment broke her heart. But she did it, and shut the door behind her. There was a new path reaching out before her now. And a broken heart was not new for her.

Fern was the last to leave the room to prepare for the coronation, and Jane hung back from her friends so that she might have a moment alone with him.

“I’m sorry I did that,” she said, remembering how quickly Fern had pulled his arm away from her touch. “I was just trying to give you a bit of support, I knew you must have been upset because Accolon was ignoring your sister. I won’t do it again.”

Fern’s face softened. “No, I’m sorry. I thought ... Oh, never mind.”

“What, what did you think?”

“Well, I thought the touch might have held more in it than concern,” he said and added with a grin, “which wouldn’t be so hard to believe.”

“That wasn’t it,” she assured him quickly, trying to hide her discomfort.

“I mean, I shouldn’t have thought that you were capable of hurting somebody in such a way,” he said.

“What do you mean? Hurt someone? Athena?”

“No, that would be my own fault. You would be hurting Luca.”

“What?”

“You are courting him?” he said, frowning.

Jane sighed and remembered how Luca had been holding her hand. “I’m not, Fern.”

He snorted with disbelief. “He certainly wanted me to get that impression.”

“Is that my fault?” she snapped. “He just missed me—we’re friends. Friends are allowed to be affectionate towards each other. And it’s not your business anyway, Fern. Stop trying to control me.”

He groaned and turned away, shaking his head. “I cannot believe you. I’ve been trying to help you! And if you weren’t so hopeless, maybe I wouldn’t have to try so hard!”

She couldn’t help but laugh. “Oh? Fern, just ... shut up,” she said and he turned back to her, a smile on his face.

“Shut up? Goodness, that was a cutting retort. How do I proceed?”

“You can start by getting over yourself.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, I thought this whole thing happened because you find me irresistible,” he grinned.

“That’s exactly my point. You think that.”

“But it isn’t true?”

“No.”

“Good. Because when you touched me, I had a horrible moment thinking my lunch was going to make its way back up.”

“Oh, Fern, you’re disgusting!” Jane laughed and pushed him into the wall. “And excruciatingly cruel.”

Fern simply flashed her a grin and winked.

After much bustling and preparation, the people were seated in readiness for the ceremony. The great hall was bedecked with summer flowers and beautiful white satin, and the dais where Accolon and Elixia stood was wreathed in wild purple heather and gold cloth.

Jane and Ria had been dressed by two of Columba’s ladies-in-waiting. Ria looked at Jane beside her and then smoothed the fabric of her own dress. Ria had never really been concerned with her looks. Why should now be any different?

She knew why. It was because there was a man sitting on her other side, who, for some strange reason, kept looking at her. Luca’s stare was unabashed and kept making her blush.

Elixia and Accolon were dressed in white with purple and gold trim. Under the guidance of the high priest, gold-laurel leaf crowns were placed on their brows.

Then they stood, hands clasped, in front of the gathering of noblemen and women, and recited the vows of loyalty to their country and to each other.

They looked beautiful, but as Ria looked more closely, she saw that Elixia seemed taut and drawn, and there was no warmth in Accolon’s eyes.

Once it was over, they were shepherded into the huge dining hall for the feast.

Ria sat between Jane and Luca, but since Jane was arguing with Fern across the table, Ria turned and spoke to Luca, who was looking at her intently from under his long dark lashes.

“Who are you?” he asked. Obviously he was not one for pointless chatter.

“What do you mean, who am I?”

“Tell me about yourself. I want to know who you really are.”

“My name is Ria—”

“I know your name. Tell me about you,” he said and rested his arm alongside hers. A shiver ran through her at the warmth of his skin, and she decided not to bother with the indignation she knew she should feel.

“I grew up in a small village called Torr,” she began, and ended up telling him her story. “I grew up as an only child, and left my village so that I could try and make some money for my family. Now my mother is dead, and my father can barely survive on his own.” She shrugged briefly. “Hard times have fallen on a lot of the villages in my country. There is a lot of sorrow and most struggle to leave it behind.”

“Do you?” he asked.

Ria looked down at the table and hesitated for a long time. “I don’t think I’ll ever leave it behind,” she said eventually. “What of you, Luca? Who are you?”

“Sometimes I don’t know who I am. I think I’ve changed a lot since coming here. Last year I wouldn’t have dreamed of asking that question of anyone. But I feel a little like I know you.” His colour deepened, and she wondered what he had been thinking. “This world has opened up a whole set of new emotions for me. You’ve no idea what it’s like. It sort of feels like everything on Earth was muted in comparison to this world. I mean, the worst thing I had to deal with there was detention.”

“What’s detention?”

Luca laughed. “Punishment for not doing my homework. Don’t worry—it isn’t as bad as it sounds. Here there isn’t even school, let alone homework.”

Ria listened, trying to understand what he was talking about.

“It seems so ridiculous that I would have worried about that stuff when there is so much bigger stuff going on. Also in my world we have pretty advanced technology. There’s this thing called electricity that makes everything a lot easier. But when you bring everything back to basics—like using fire for light, and horses for transport; it feels nice. It simplifies everything.” Luca paused and smiled ruefully. “I think Anna would disagree with me there. She hates not having her hair straightener, and I think Harry misses his fast food.” Ria stared at him blankly and he frowned. “Sorry. You have no idea what I’m talking about, do you?”

She shook her head apologetically. “Tell me though. You spoke of new emotions?” she asked, genuinely interested.

He hesitated and she saw his eyes flash behind her, and she remembered who was sitting on her other side. She should have known. How could anyone not be in love with Jane?

He turned back to her after a moment and said, “I feel as though my life back on Earth is just an unimportant, insignificant thing in the face of what I’ve seen here.”

“But I sort of feel the same, Luca. Court life is very different to life as a grape-grower’s daughter. Don’t think you are alone in that,” she reassured him.

He smiled and drank some of his wine. “I play music too,” he murmured.

“What instrument?” she asked.

“A guitar,” he said, and Ria frowned. “It’s a stringed instrument, but not like your harp. Here.” He stood up and walked over to the corner where he had placed his guitar. She wondered at his dedication, having managed to bring the instrument all the way with him.

He sat back down and plucked a few strings. She had never heard such music. But what caught her eye, and clutched at her heart, was the sudden realisation of the beauty of his hands. Large, and square, and perfect. A musician’s hands.

He smiled at the astonished look on her face, misreading her wonderment.

“It’s nice isn’t it?” he asked quietly, looking fondly at the instrument. “Would you like to try it?” He handed her the guitar, and she looked at it carefully before plucking the strings gently.

“Sometimes, when I play ... it feels as though I’m not really a part of the living world. Like everything else stops. Do you know what I mean?” he asked.

She did. And she had never met anyone who had ever understood.

“It’s an escape, I suppose,” she said thoughtfully and he nodded.

“Ria,” Accolon called from the end of the table, “would you sing for us? Your reputation precedes you.”

Ria handed the guitar back to Luca and picked up her own harp.

“It would be an honour, my lord. This is a song that I have always loved, so I shall sing it as best I can on your wedding day. Please don’t take offence at my poor attempt.”

She played the first few notes of the beautiful song that had been written many years ago by Accolon himself. Everyone had heard that song. It had been written so long ago, by a boy who happened to be royal, and it was so ridiculously simple, that no one gave it much thought anymore. But the simplicity was what made it beautiful.

She raised her voice high above everybody and felt herself float away.

She paused before the chorus briefly to note that Luca had joined in with his guitar, adding flawless harmony. He then lifted his voice with her to hum quietly, supporting her in every note, and she realised how good a musician he really was.

Together they soared through the song, a song of pure, innocent love. And when it ended, the audience cheered, for they had never heard a more beautiful rendition.

Looking at Luca, Ria was unable to keep the smile from her lips. But their moment was interrupted by a quiet voice.

“You have sung my song as it has never been sung before. You pay tribute to me, and make my poor attempt at writing into a thing of beauty. Thank you.” But for all his appreciative words, Accolon’s face was not pleased. It was tired. And that was when Ria realised. It was a song that had broken hearts, and would do so many times again. It had not, of course, been written for his new bride.

Looking at Satine, who was sitting a little way down the table, she saw that her face was empty of any emotion. Ria decided quickly to play another song with Luca.

Then she let him play one by himself, so that she might enjoy it. After the meal, there was a much larger company of musicians and dancers to perform for them, and the crowd of guests stood to dance and mingle and drink ice wine. The festivities went on for hours, well into the wee hours of the morning until everyone there had celebrated the new marriage in their kingdom and could no longer keep from their beds.