A/N: Written for tamingthemuse on LiveJournal. Prompt #490: Bane.
Before he started work each morning, Jarred looked up at the tree rising against the misty cloud on the hill. He would look carefully, searching for a glint of the king's golden arrow at the top. The signal that Endon needed him.
But the signal never came.
Years passed and life went on. Jarred and Anna married. Then old Crian died and Jarred took over as blacksmith.
Sometimes Jarred almost forgot that he had ever had another life. It was as if his time at the palace had been a dream. Only once, more than seven years after Jarred's flight from the palace, did any word reach him from within. A rumour spread through the city of a baby boy, born to Endon and his queen.
Hope spread, too; a pale, listless sort of hope, still weaker than that which Endon had inspired. Even in the face of such constant, baneful neglect, the people wanted to believe that this child would be the one who would right the wrongs of the past. Jarred was contemptuous. Much as he loved Endon, he was fully aware of the timidity which had characterised him, and any wife chosen for him by Prandine was unlikely to add anything of independence, rebellion, or indeed basic common sense to the royal line.
It was the hopes of the people, what little trust in Adin's line remained, that gave the Belt its power to protect the land of Deltora from the Shadow Lord's clutches. So for Anna's sake, and that of the child she carried, he held his tongue, and tried to convince himself that the new prince would be their salvation.
Just over a month later, Anna gave birth to their own first child, a beautiful baby girl that they named Jasmine. Fatherhood was not something that he had ever really thought about, except in a very general way. He had known that he liked the idea of children, but he could not have even begun to comprehend the levels of chaos, fear and joy that something so small could create.
Jasmine became the centre of both their worlds. Seeing her happy and safe became the most important thing. More than anything, Jarred wished that the world he had brought her into was a better one. If only Endon would signal, they could fix this. And even though he knew Endon to be ignorant of the state of his kingdom, he began to resent him for it.
More years passed, and with them came another little girl, Miranne, a devastating miscarriage which almost cost Anna her life, and then—against his better judgement—a boy, Derrel. More and more, Jarred found that checking for Endon's signal was becoming a ritual, and one which was easily overlooked.
That was when he passed the task on to Jasmine. She was still young enough to enjoy the intrigue of it, but old enough to take it seriously as well. If the signal ever came, whether from Endon, or from Prince Lief, there had to be someone ready to answer it.
Perhaps one day he would explain his life in the palace to her.
He suspected that she already knew a lot more that she was letting on. She was worryingly observant at times, although she rarely shared those observations. Young as she was, she still made an excellent ally.