(A/N.) This was originally going to be a one shot, but I've decided to split it into two chapters.

Disclaimer: I don't own Deltora Quest. Therefore, all the people, places etc. found in this story belong to Emily Rodda.

Chapter One:

The Letter Opener

Lief was sitting in the palace library, responding to various letters from the people that he had missed. He and Jasmine had only been married for three days, but it seemed that the people did not take holidays when it came to complaining. The topics covered in the letters ranged from how well various crop plantations were doing, to how bad it was that some farmers left their milk and eggs out while selling them at the market, allowing them to spoil in the hot sun. But the ones that Lief found most alarming were the ones urging him to produce an heir. There were some in Del who still felt uncomfortable with Marilen being the next in line to the throne.

But just now, Lief cared for none of these things. He wanted to be left alone, to enjoy the first days of his marriage, but that was not to be. As Jasmine had pointed out to him that morning, The people of Deltora would not stop working, just because their king had been married just days earlier. But as far as Lief knew, all of Deltora actually had stopped working on their wedding day, and come to celebrate. Now it seemed, the celebrations were over.

Lief thought of all that had just happened. He thought of the wedding, and how he and Jasmine had both felt like fools while dancing, but had none-the-less enjoyed themselves. He thought of how becoming Jasmine had looked in that green dress, which his own mother had made, to replicate the one worn by Jasmine's mother on her own wedding day. Then he thought of the bandage on Jasmine's left wrist, and the long, jagged cut it concealed.

If Jasmine was to be believed (and she usually was), the advice on which she had based her decision to cut herself had also come from his mother. The question of why his mother would give his bride such advice had been burning in Lief's mind since Jasmine had told him about it only two days earlier. He had not asked Jasmine about it again, for fear that he might upset her, and he had not yet found an opportunity to ask his mother.

As it happened, such an opportunity arose that afternoon, as Lief, Barda, Jasmine, Doom and Sharn were finishing their midday meal in the palace kitchens. Barda and Doom excused themselves, saying that they needed to discuss the security of the forge, since Lief and Jasmine had chosen to live there. A few moments later, Jasmine also excused herself, muttering something about how a new keeper for the messenger birds needed to be found and trained, and then, it was just Lief and Sharn at the table. Lief cleared his throat.

"Mother," he began tentatively. "Why did you tell Jasmine to cut her wrist?"

Sharn looked up at him, surprised. For a moment, she sat in her chair, not saying anything.

"How do you know about that?" She finally asked.

"I saw her do it," Lief explained. "She used her dagger, the one she inherited from Doom. I think she got it wrong, because I could not get the blood to stop, no matter how hard I tried. When I asked her why she would do such a stupid thing, she said you told her to do it."

"I did," Sharn agreed, raising her eyebrows. "But I thought you would help her."

Now, it was Lief's turn to be surprised. He looked at his Mother, not quite believing what she had just said.

"Wh-what?" He spluttered. "Why… Why would I help her?"

Sharn suddenly looked serious. "You do know why Jasmine needed to cut herself," She said. When Lief Nodded, she continued. "I would think that you might also want to preserve your honour, and make sure that you are seen to be doing your duty."

"My duty?" Lief repeated. "What duty?"

Sharn gave Lief a look that he had not seen in years, and he took a while to place it. Then, he remembered. It was the look she would often give him when he was failing to solve a complicated puzzle while doing his lessons in the afternoons. It was a look of exasperation mixed with frustration.

"Mother, I'm afraid I still do not understand what you…"

"Lief." Sharn interrupted him in a firm voice. "The people are expecting you and Jasmine to produce an heir as soon as you…"

"Yes, I know that," Lief interrupted this time. He was certain that he did not want to hear anymore, despite his earlier curiosity and concern. But Sharn was not finished.

"You do not want the people to think that you are lazy, or that you do not care for the kingdom's security. I have seen some of the letters you have received, and I know that the people would much rather have a child of yours as the next in line. I know that Marilen would prefer this also," she said, reading Lief's thoughts and preventing a possible interruption.

"I am sure Jasmine told you that she cut her wrist so the people would know that she had been a maiden, but it is much more than that. If you were anyone else, this would be the case. But you are the King and Queen now, and thus are expected to produce an heir within your first year of marriage. If there had been no blood on the sheets the morning after your wedding night, the people would not only think that Jasmine might not have been a maiden, but that you were not doing your duty to them. This could make them lose confidence in you both, and we do not want that."

Despite himself, Lief found that he agreed with his mother. Losing the people's confidence after all the years of darkness would be disastrous. Not only would it bring back the old hatred of the royal family that was still fresh in some people's minds, it would also make it easier for the Shadow Lord to invade again. If the people did not trust Lief, the Belt of Deltora could not be strong. Lief knew only too well what would happen if the magic of the belt was weakened in any way.

That brought another thought into his mind, one that had not occurred to him before. Lief looked at his mother again, and took his chances with asking another question. He only hoped that this time, his curiosity would not lead him to another awkward conversation.

"How do you know all this?" He finally asked her. "It is not like you and Father had the people's confidence in mind on your wedding night, why, you believed that they loved you until the Shadow Lord invaded."

Sharn looked at Lief for a long moment, seeming to ponder how best to answer his question. When she did, Lief found himself wishing heartily that he had kept his mouth shut.

"You are right," she said evenly. "We did not have the people's confidence in mind, but we were certainly thinking of Prandine on the night of our wedding."

"Prandine?" Lief asked, stunned. "What has he to do with any of this?"

"Quite a lot, actually," Sharn replied with a slight smile at her son. "You see, the whole purpose of my marriage to your father was to produce an heir. No one took into consideration how we might actually feel about this, it was what was expected. I think producing a child was the only royal duty Endon was ever expected to perform. Thank the heavens he got that right."

Sharn was truly smiling at him now, and Lief accepted the compliment with a smile of his own. But he still did not understand what his mother was trying to tell him. Thankfully, she continued.

"On our wedding night, Endon and I hardly knew one another. Prandine had it wrong when he assumed that a young man would ignore any kind of emotion as soon as the opportunity to have a pretty girl in his bed presented itself. Endon and I…"

"Mother!" Lief exclaimed, his face turning as red as the Ruby in the belt. "You cannot tell me that!"

"Why not?" Sharn asked, a teasing smile on her face. "I know the truth about you and Jasmine, why should you not know this about me?"

It took a few moments for Lief to fully process exactly what his mother had said to him. When it finally sunk in, he looked up at her, appalled.

"You know that we…" Lief could not bring himself to say any more. He was horrified at the idea that his own mother knew that he and Jasmine had lay together only a week ago, before they had been married. He only hoped that it was not Jasmine herself who had told her. The thought of his wife and his mother discussing their private business was just too much for him to bear.

"You know, Lief," Sharn said casually. "If you wanted to keep it a secret, you should have learned to wash your own sheets before it took place. Of course, I do not know all the details, but I guessed that it had not been a very long encounter when I removed your sheets to wash them the next day. When I asked Jasmine about it, she confirmed what I had suspected. She told me you were frightened by the blood, and that she…"

"Mother, stop!" Lief shouted. He was angry now. "Why would you ask Jasmine about something like that? That is our business only!"

All the while, the smile never left Sharn's face, which only fuelled Lief's anger.

"Jasmine came to me about it," Sharn continued, completely ignoring the look on her son's face. "She has no mother of her own, so I felt that it was right to answer her questions. She seemed to think that she had done something wrong, so I assured her that this was not the case. I told her that it was certainly not her fault that you did not know that there would be blood. Then she asked me if it was wrong that you had done that before you were married. I told her that it certainly was not, and then told her that she could cut her wrist if she was worried."

Sharn stopped there, as one of the cooks brought them a tea tray.

"Thank you, Brent," she said as the young male cook placed the tray on the table and bowed before leaving again. Lief felt ashamed that he did not even know the man's name, and here he was serving them tea. He made a mental note to learn, remember and use the names of all the palace servants in future. But for now, the discussion at hand was enough to keep him occupied.

"You still have not answered my question," Lief said as his Mother pored them tea. "Why do you think I would have helped Jasmine with something like that? I think it is a load of nonsense, not to mention really stupid! But then, when I asked you about it in the first place, you seemed shocked that I knew! It does not make sense!"

"Lief." Sharn said, sipping her tea and again giving him the look that reminded him once again of his lessons as a child. "In these situations, there are two kinds of men." Sharn was speaking slowly and patiently, and Lief was wondering if she was going to teach him a new sentence or rhyme to help him to remember just what kinds of men these were. He was relieved then, when she kept speaking and did no such thing.

"The first kind of man," she began. "Is the kind of man who knows nothing about any of this and does not get involved in what he would call "women's business". The second kind of man is equally concerned about preserving the honour of his new bride, and does everything he can to help her to do what must be done. Your father was such a man."

Sharn was smiling to herself now, seemingly lost in memories. Then she continued speaking again.

"On the night of our wedding, Endon and I still hardly knew each other. Prandine was certainly wrong about him, all Endon wanted to do with me that night was talk. He said he wanted to get to know me better, if we were to be bound together for the rest of our lives. I supposed that made sense, but I was worried about what Prandine might think if there was no blood on the sheets the next morning. When I told Endon of this, I thought he would be shocked. He just shook his head, told me not to worry, and then proceeded to ask me what my favourite colour was, as if it was nothing. But the next morning, I woke to hear him digging around in one of his drawers, and a few minutes later, he came over to where I was sitting, holding a letter opener. You might have seen it; it has a small Diamond set into it."

Lief felt his jaw drop. His mother was right, he had seen it. Only that morning, in fact. He had been using it to open the letters that seemed to be arriving at the palace every hour. It was a small blade, sharp enough to cause a cut that would bleed, but not sharp enough to be used as a weapon. But surely, the blade that his mother had described could not be the same one that Lief had left beside his papers in the library only an hour ago; it just could not be. But by the way Sharn was nodding at the shocked look on his face, he realised that it had to be.

"I found it when we reclaimed the palace," Sharn explained. "It was in the drawer, right where Endon had left it. I took it to the library and left it there. At that time, your father had just died, and it was just too painful to see it there, in my room."

For a long moment, Lief sat speechless. He could not believe that such a solid (but unknown) part of his parent's history could still be in the palace, after all the country had been through since. It almost made him want to weep. And now, despite himself, Lief found that he wanted to know more, as though his mother sharing this memory with him might bring a little of his father back.

"I-I was using it this morning," Lief finally stammered. "What did Father do with it?"

Sharn rolled up her right sleeve, revealing a small scar. Unlike the one that Lief was sure Jasmine would have, the scar was on the outside of Sharn's wrist, and only ran a short distance toward her elbow. Lief could also tell that the cut had been far less jagged than the one Jasmine had given herself.

Lief got up, and walked to where his Mother sat, still sipping her tea. He reached out a hand, and gently touched the scar with the tips of his fingers.

"Father did that," he breathed. Sharn nodded. Lief removed his hand, and went to sit down again.

"Did… Did it hurt?" he asked, after a long silence.

"A little," Lief's mother answered him. "But there was enough blood to make Prandeen think that we had lain together, and that was that. I thought that you would be like that also, but last week, I was forced to believe that I had been wrong. As soon as I learned that you were frightened by the blood, I realised that you were probably not going to be as involved as I had hoped, and so I thought that I should just say nothing to you and let Jasmine deal with the matter as she saw fit. I suppose Jasmine being Jasmine; she decided for you that you did not need to be involved."

Lief nodded, not knowing whether to feel proud of his wife's independence, or offended that she had made such a decision for him. He decided that that was not the immediate problem. It seemed that all that mattered to Jasmine, now that they were married, was producing an heir as soon as possible. Lief wondered if she had already forgotten that he had married her because he loved her, not because he wanted an heir. He already had one of those, and Marilen already had a child of her own.

Later, Lief sat in his old palace bedchamber, the discussion with his mother weighing heavily on his mind. He did not understand how Jasmine could think that she was simply a vessel to carry his children, when only a week ago she had believed that she was his lover. Had becoming queen really made that much difference to the way that Jasmine felt about herself? If so, then Lief knew that he needed to do something about it. But what?

Lief sat very still for a long time, letting his eyes wander around the room. He thought about that day the week before, when he had shown Jasmine the forest corner, and the vents that lead to them laying together a short while later. Then, Lief's wandering eyes fell on the pack he had used on the quest to destroy the four sisters, and an idea struck him.