Shadows: Book One of the Eligia Shala (61 page)

Blaise went chalk-white and Baran prudently moved his wife back from her brother; uncertain whether Blaise was angry enough to lash out, or just sick at the thought his sister had just put into words. He put his hand on Blaise’s shoulder, pushing him into a chair again. “You look like death,” he said quietly. “Have a drink.” Baran placed a cup into Blaise’s hand. “You know … Jenevra really needs you right now. What the hell are you doing here?” Baran’s voice was gentle, not accusing.

“She doesn’t want me,” Blaise said bitterly. “She doesn’t need anyone.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Odilia, King Caddoc’s gentle blonde wife, chipped in unexpectedly. “Everyone needs someone, and the princess is no different from the rest of us. Ever since she came back to court, her life’s been jumping from one crisis to the next.”

“What are you talking about?” Blaise drew a deep breath. Odilia’s matter-of-fact tone was getting his attention.

“Think about it, Blaise.” Odilia began counting off events on her fingers. “She grew up in a household that, to all intents and purposes, shut her out because she reminded them of a family tragedy. They sent her away to more people she didn’t know, who, five years later send her back to a life she barely knew to begin with. She comes back to Salanova to find her family all living their own lives. No-one’s got any part for her in it. She thinks Mikhail Dhorani—probably her only close friend—is back in her life and then his father marries him off to someone else. She goes “home” to the Island to find everyone she knew there has just been slaughtered. Mikhail betrays her, and everything she thought they stood for, and she ends up having to kill him. She disappears on her own, trying to protect the few people she thinks might still have a part in her life—and ends up alone again, hurt and probably frightened. Then, just when she hits her lowest point, you manage to catch up with her and bring her safely back. So when she starts feeling that maybe there’s some hope in life you leave her, taking her Flight with you … the one thing she had any control left over … and she’s alone again!” Odilia glared at him. “I’m surprised the poor girl isn’t suicidal!”

“Don’t forget,” Baran added. “She’s been trained by the Order.”

Blaise nodded, uncertain what that had to do with anything.

“You know how Kian keeps on at her about controlling her emotions. They’re big on that. You don’t let your fear show—or your pain. From what you’ve told us, she was way past that point when you found her, so in her eyes … the Order’s eyes, she’s failed.” Baran’s face was shadowed, but his tone was sympathetic. “And now … has she lost you too, on top of all that?”

It was a highly relieved Flight that left Liotchka the following day knowing they were headed back towards Salanova and their Captain. The grumbling had more or less stopped, although D’Agostino and Spider were still shooting dark looks at Tessier. Finn Corrigan rode in his habitual silence, slightly amused at the anger his friends were feeling towards the Captain riding with them. Finn was deeply concerned about the princess, but he thought he understood why Tessier was finding it hard to face up to what they’d seen. Even as he thought about Prince Cieren pawing at the princess his hands clenched. How much stronger must that feeling be for the Captain; wondering what they’d done to her: if she’d ever really be the same again.

On the fifth night of traveling, Clera asked Blaise if he had talked to the men who had found the princess with him. She suggested it might be a good idea for them all to talk; maybe they would find some answers to questions without having to ask Jenevra. Blaise wasn’t thrilled about the idea, but called Brogan, Bernardo, Farid, Finn, Spider and D’Agostino over to sit at their fire. They were all a little uncomfortable with Clera being there, but she refused to leave, saying they might need a woman’s point of view.

“No offense, Your Highness,” D’Agostino said. “But we don’t tend to think of the Captain as a woman.”

“Well, that’s probably half of your problem right there then, isn’t it?” Clera fired back. “You’re all sitting around worrying about her like she’s your baby sister, and then you announce you don’t think of her as a woman! How confused are you all?”

Spider grinned. “Pretty confused,” he admitted. “Mainly about why we left though. Why did you bring us down here, Captain Tessier? Surely the Captain needed you there?”

Blaise shook his head, his face tight. “Far from it,” he said, the haunted look coming back into his eyes. “I had to leave. She was terrified of me.” Blaise scrubbed his hands over his face. “The day before we left, I was with her; just the two of us, nice and quiet. I thought I’d finally cracked it with her, you know; that maybe she was going to accept that we could actually be together. All of a sudden she starts looking at me as if I’ve turned in to some sort of monster. I saw the look on her face. She was terrified—as frightened as I’ve ever seen anyone be of anything. I couldn’t stay there and be the cause of that?”

“What did you do?” Clera laid her hand on his arm. “There must have been something to trigger that sort of reaction. What were you doing? Did you say anything to her?”

“Clera,” Blaise glared at his sister. “Don’t you think I’ve gone over and over it in my mind? I don’t know what I did. I was just sitting next to her … maybe even stroking her hair, but that was it.”

They all looked at each other, helplessly.

After a long pause Farid asked, “Did you call her angel?”

Blaise stared at him, thinking fast. “Maybe … yes,” he said eventually. “At least, I think so. How the hell could you possibly know that?”

“The Saifullah called her Malak: it means angel.” Farid’s face was hidden in his dark hair as he stared towards the fire, lost in memory. “As he was cutting her he was stroking her hair and calling her angel. That’s what you made her remember. That’s why she was frightened. Not of you. In her mind she was back there, and it was the memory that terrified her.”

“Farid,” Baran looked at the Labrian Prince. “How do you know what the Saifullah was doing? You weren’t there.”

“I have seen his work before,” Farid answered shortly. “The same man. He uses gentle words and gestures; he talks to his victim constantly and always gives them a name.”

“What name did he give you?” Clera asked intuitively.

Farid’s black eyes looked across the fire into hers. “Fahd,” he said. “He called me Fahd. It means panther.”

“You’re not serious!” D’Agostino objected. “You have that thing on your back too?”

Resigned, Farid stood up, pulling his shirt off. Down the length of his back was an intricate tracing of a serpent’s markings, showing as white scarred lines against his tanned skin. “When I objected to my father’s use of this ritual, he decided I was a traitor and had the Saifullah work on me—after he had killed the woman I was to marry.” His voice was still and calm. “I survived and came to your Empire. I told you, my family is dead to me and I to them.”

“Until Faris came for you?” Brogan queried. “Your father is sick. Is he trying to apologize to you?”

Farid shook his head, slipping his shirt back on. “No, Faris wants me to go home so that I can be King when my father dies. I have no wish to be King. Faris has remained there among the people. He will do a far better job than I would. He will be King. I will stay here, with this Flight; with the princess.”

Blaise had listened to Farid’s tale in silence. Now he understood a little of what had happened, hope began to surge in him again. A desperate need began to rise now; a need to get back to Jenevra before any chance of her loving him disappeared. He was beginning to see how his sudden departure must be convincing her that he truly didn’t care. Rising to his feet he looked around the fire. “I take it no-one will mind too much if we pick up the pace to Salanova?”

“We were wondering what was holding you back,” Finn remarked blandly.

Laio, the Shadow Flight’s young groom, was the first to see Captain Tessier, with Baran and Clera Wargentin, and Shadow Flight when they arrived back at the Imperial Palace. He saluted Tessier with a sad smile as he held his horse.

“How is the princess?” Blaise looked at his dust caked boots. “Maybe I’d better get cleaned up before I find her? Is she alright, Laio?” Noticing the Flight springing to sudden attention, Tessier turned around to see his Emperor striding across the courtyard towards them.

Phillip’s expression was grim, but he remembered to greet the royal Lorthian couple, Baran and Clera warmly before rounding on Blaise. “I don’t care what excuses you think you’ve got,” the Emperor snarled, jabbing a finger at Blaise. “Stay away from her. You have no idea how bad it’s been here since you walked out. Jenn’s only just starting to get over it and I don’t want you setting her back again. Just leave her alone, d’you understand?”

“Yes … no … I can’t.” Blaise’s face was stricken as he tried to think of some way to appeal to Phillip; some way to make him see. “I have to talk to her.”

Phillip’s face darkened, his eyes flashing dangerously; forestalled only by Clera Wargentin’s timely intervention. “Your Majesty? How is she?” Concern was evident in her tone, as she laid a hand gently on Phillip’s arm. “Blaise told us what happened. We were all shocked. But you said she’s getting better?”

Turning away from Captain Tessier to Baran and Clera, Phillip sighed deeply, running a hand through his hair distractedly. Motioning them to follow him into the palace he aimed a last order at Tessier. “I meant it, Captain. Leave her alone.” He looked around at the others in the courtyard. “No one is to tell the princess that he’s here. That is an order.”

Gnawing on a thumbnail, Captain Tessier stared helplessly at the men of Shadow Flight, all of whom were looking uncomfortable at this latest development.

“Laio?” Bernardo broke the silence. “Is the princess walking again?”

Laio, who had looked almost as upset as Tessier at the Emperor’s pronouncement, looked puzzled at the question. “Yes, but not much. The healer won’t allow her outside yet.”

“But she is moving around inside the palace? She’s not in bed all the time anymore?” Bernardo seemed unusually insistent on detail, allowing himself a slight smile of relief as Laio nodded affirmation. “Don’t worry, Captain,” Bernardo said. “If the princess is even halfway back to form she’ll know you’re here whether anyone tells her or not. She never lets useful information slip past her. And now we’re back, she’ll be looking for us.”

As most of the Flight nodded and murmured in agreement, Tessier was slightly heartened by their support.

Clera and Baran were dismayed by Phillip’s reaction to Blaise’s return, but quickly realized it was solely due to a deep concern for his young cousin; his desire for her not to suffer any more than she already had done.