The Arranged Marriage (16 page)

She pulled herself around the sobbing
child as the man raised a small knife. She felt a burning on the
top of her arm before the man hastened to join the other men on the
moving carriage.

“Take that as a warning.” He shouted
at Rohesia, before motioning out of the castle gate, the guards
unable to catch them without the speed of a horse.

It took all the power she had not to
cry out loud with pain until the little boy had been taken from her
to safety. Only upon hearing the words of a terrified Kaya shouting
for someone to fetch Nani, and an order for her to be carried to
the healing bay, did she let herself start to slip.

“
Ison,” She heard herself
whisper as she was lifted from the ground. “I want my husband.” Her
eyes started to feel very heavy as the blood flowed from her
body.

Chapter Ten

“
We had better be getting
back soon Josa,” Ison said once they had visited the old mine in
the Quart. They had not been able to get too close without causing
suspicion due to the fencing around it, so they had settled for a
view of the hills, and a vague black shadow of what appeared to be
an opening once upon a time. “There is something about this place
that just feels too good to be true.”

“I know what you mean, have you seen
the women over here?”

Ison shook his head at Josa’s
light-hearted attitude. At times it kept Ison sane, yet at others,
like now, he felt like shaking him.

“I have the woman I want Josa.” He
stated, rubbing his hands together. “Let’s go.”

Ison noticed the riders approach them
as they neared the fields that housed the castle gates. They were
instantly on their guard until Ison noticed the riders wearing
Ecripian colours.

“Have they come for us?” Josa asked,
as he felt a strange sensation run through him. Ison knew then that
something was wrong.

“My lord,” One of the riders shouted
as they neared them. “You must hurry back to the castle, your wife
is asking for you. She is injured.”

A sudden feeling of loneliness gripped
Ison. It was violent how the thought of never having Rohesia in his
life hit him with full force.

“What happened?” He shouted as they
all started to ride back.

“There was an attack on the courtyard,
my lord,” The rider advised. “She was injured, that is all we know.
Her ladies maid sent for you.”

That was all the information Ison
needed. He ordered his steed to race as fast as it could back to
the castle, and didn’t even wait for the horse to stop before
dismounting and racing into the main hall. He ran into Argarth
outside the healing bay in Nani’s quarters.

“Ison, thank goodness you’re here.
She’s been asking for you.” Argarth advised him, his face drained
of colour.

“What happened? Is she well?” He found
he wasn’t ready to breathe until he had the answer. He needed to
know she was safe.

“Some men attacked the courtyard in a
carriage that was meant to be delivering for the ball. Witnesses
said Rohesia dived at one of them manhandling a young boy,” He
smiled sheepishly. “Apparently one of the servants said she gave
him one heck of a push before another turned on her with a
dagger.”

Ison’s legs nearly went from under
him. It was the sudden scream from their chamber that made him move
with an energy that seemed to appear from nowhere.

As he raced into the room, the relief
of seeing her sitting up on the bed made him want to shake her for
doing this to him. He stood where he was, just for a moment as he
composed himself, noticing Nani next to her trying to put stitches
into a wriggling arm.

“Nani, will you please pass me that
damn brandy.” She shouted as Ison quickly moved to grab the
decanter and pass it to her, his own heart heightened by the look
upon her face at the sight of him.

“Ison, oh I am so glad you’re here,
ow,” She screamed again before taking a large swig of brandy before
Nani could take it from her. Nani glared at Ison.

“I was trying to keep it away from her
my lord. She has already taken two tonics to numb the pain that are
full of alcohol. Adding brandy is not exactly a help.”

Rohesia laughed in spite of the pain
as Nani scolded her husband.

“You’ve been told my lord,” She
slurred as he realised why Nani was keeping the brandy at arm’s
length. Rohesia had managed to down nearly half the contents before
he grabbed it back from her.

“Oh Nani will you hurry up, hurry up
and,” She paused for a moment as if trying to think what she was
trying to say. “And stitch my arm up before I scream.”

Ison could finally smile a little with
the knowledge that she was going to be alright. His wife was
safe.

“Are you feeling well?” He asked her.
He felt her squeeze on to his outstretched hand every time Nani
pulled through a stitch.

“Oh I’m fine,” She slurred some more.
“A lunatic only tried t’cut my arm off and now she is content in
stabbin' me arm off. Great.” She released his hand and flung up her
good arm, something that she found hilarious. As she chucked
hysterically he felt his own mirth slip away. He had noticed the
sheets that were placed on the floor next to Nani, all soaked with
his wife’s blood, and it made him sick with rage. He had nearly
lost her, he had come so close to losing her, and he had to do
something, anything to stop himself from going out and taking a
knife to every man in Centurias. He moved to leave but Rohesia must
have sensed him going as she grabbed hard on his tunic and pulled
him to her.

“Don’t you dare leave me Ison d’ya
hear?” She started to sing as the effects of the brandy really
started to kick in. “I’m a married woooomaaan, oh yes I ammmmm, to
a wonderful maaaaan.” The last part came out as a screech as Ison
winced at her tones. He couldn’t help the laughter that bubbled up
inside of him at the sight of her completely intoxicated with a
freshly bandaged arm. Nani had thankfully finished tending to
her.

“Is it safe to give her more brandy?”
He advised in the hope that she would drink herself to sleep, the
noise of her singing increasing. Nani looked at him with a slight
smile on her lips.

“At this rate,” She advised cheekily.
“I think you had better before we all end up deafened.”

“Would that be by choice?” He jested
before quickly grabbing the brandy decanter. He started to hand it
to her but she reached her last high note before passing out upon
the pillows.

“She would not stop asking for you my
lord,” Nani whispered as they both took a moment to check her
breathing was in order. “Even bleeding on the courtyard it was you
she was asking for; she wanted no one but you.” She placed her arm
on Ison’s before leaving the room.

“And I want no one but her.” He
whispered, as another piece inside of him seemed to
ease.

Ison met with Argarth in the kitchens
after ensuring Rohesia would sleep well enough. He had spent some
time interviewing the staff and guards who had been on duty at the
time of the attack, and he felt like raising an army.

“There is some ale there ready for
you,” Argarth told him as he sat perched on a stool against a table
used for preparing dishes. Ison thought Rohesia was not so
different from her father for not following all of the royal
etiquette. He pulled up a stool and joined Argarth, his ale in
hand.

“I can’t believe I didn’t foresee this
happening the moment I stepped out of Ecripian,” Ison angrily said
out loud. “We were unguarded with most of my men down the tunnels.
We were vulnerable.”

Argarth knew that the hard tone he was
using was directed at Ison himself. He was obviously holding blame
for the attack.

“We had sufficient guards around the
castle Ison. It was quick, and lucky. It was just a
warning.”

“It was a serious attack seeing as my
wife got her arm sliced open,” He winced at the thought of the
blade slicing through her soft skin; knowing how scared she must
have felt at the time. He had failed to protect her. “I mean, why
did she have to jump in harm’s way like that?” He asked. “The
servants told me that she had ample time to get back into the
safety of the castle, instead of proving a tastier target for those
fools.”

Argarth nodded his head.

“My daughter could never stand by and
let violence or injustice happen without getting involved. The
amount of times I have to scold her for beating up the older boys
in the village and going against all etiquette, let alone the royal
etiquette.”

Ison laughed in spite of himself at
the thought of Rohesia’s spirit as a child. He truly wished he had
known her then.

“She would get into fights?” He asked,
wondering what made her do it.

“Well, we found it hard to shout at
her when we discovered the reasons,” He admitted. “But she still
needed to be told. It wasn’t right for a princess to be slamming a
lad’s face into the mud like that,” He looked at Ison and smiled.
“Apparently young Kien had been picking on one of the younger boys
in the village. He was in the middle of trying to force the boy to
drink horse urine when Rohesia stumbled across them. We allowed her
there with a chaperone from time to time, and as you can guess they
became less frequent after she seemed to get into some form of
trouble at every turn.”

“So Rohesia saw the lad in distress
and started to pummel the bigger lad?” He asked, obviously amused
at the story.

“Apparently not at first; she just
came to his aid with a lot of verbal abuse, then the silly lad made
the mistake of throwing mud on her new gown in response. That was
when she had started to wrestle him to the ground and make him
suffer for such an insult. She was the talk of the village for a
while after that I can tell you.”

Ison laughed and felt considerably
heart-warmed all of a sudden. He found himself getting used to that
feeling wherever she was concerned.

“From what Kaya and the people in the
courtyard told me, one of the men took it upon himself to start
teasing the young boy and lifted him into the air, purposely
scaring the wits out him,” He informed Argarth. “She then dived at
the man holding him which caused him to let go of the boy. Another
man, larger and what looked like the leader consciously put a knife
to her. It was not done in haste.”

“
That would match what
Rohesia told us before she started on the tonics,” Argarth
retorted. “She said that the man had told her to take it as a
warning.”

Ison held tight on to the tankard and
felt his grip harden at the thought of what was happening before
him, having no control over it. He suddenly remembered what Rohesia
had said to him the eve before regarding the old mine. She had been
right about not blocking up the tunnels until they were absolutely
certain where they all led. If they were going to block them up
then they needed to know where every entry began. He quickly
repeated parts of their conversation regarding the old mine to
Argarth.

“It does make sense in regards to no
knowledge of the tunnels ever being noted in Ecripian logs. I trust
your notions on investigating them.” He said before taking another
sup of ale.

“We will need to hire men from the
village to aid in mapping out the tunnels before blocking them in.”
Ison requested, knowing that the king had given him full reign on
the decisions; but on this matter he needed his full
backing.

“That would mean letting out the
secret of the tunnels?” He enquired, suddenly wary about the
decision.

“It will do us a favour to let it
known we have discovered them. It will make it more difficult for
the people involved to move about in secret if everyone is aware of
what is going on, to a degree of course. I can also see if Fabian
of the Mookai can lend a hand.”

“The Mookai?” Argarth asked confused.
“They would never agree.”

“They will if they think they are also
in danger. They may like to keep themselves to themselves but I
know the Mookai, and if there is risk linked to them then they will
stop at nothing to assist.”

“But how are they in danger?” He
pressed further. “I thought you said the tunnels stopped at the
Mount?”

“They most likely do,” Ison replied.
“But the Mookai don’t know that, do they?”

It wasn’t until the early hours of the
next morning when Rohesia woke with a groggy head and a sudden need
to bathe. She was aware of the stinging pain on her arm as the
memories of the day before came flooding back to her. She did well
to remember most of the details of the attack, and the immense
feeling of relief when the men had left the castle courtyard
without harming anyone else. There had also been brief moments of
seeing Ison at the end of her bed, and some embarrassing rendition
of what could only be called bad singing. She cringed before
lifting herself up on to her elbows and rubbing her head to ease
her headache. She felt truly awful.

Instead of ringing the bell to summon
the servants, Rohesia wanted to make her way downstairs to see if
she could find Ison and her father. She wanted to see if they had
found anything out about the surprise attack. Kaya would probably
coerce back into bed to rest if she called upon her to assist, and
that was the last thing Rohesia wanted. She settled on a brief
strip wash, and struggled into the one gown she didn’t need
assistance with. Unfortunately it was a ball gown so she had to
compensate the low front by covering it with one of her shawls. She
would bathe later, she told herself before making her way quietly
down the large staircase.