Hope you like.
Disclaimer: I do not own The Inheritance Cycle
She lay in the dark, whimpering silently. She pressed a hand to be belly and extended her consciousness and felt the small touch of one newly formed. Tears started to flow as she lay in the darkness. Her husband would not return for some months to years. That was how the king worked. Her husband was hunting someone and so the king had decided to visit her.
"Visit isn't the word." The thought savagely. "I will not let this child endure a worse life than my son." She fell asleep. The next morning, her ladies helped her dress and she bade the king farewell. She smiled at her. It made her sick. If she didn't love her husband and she had the power, she would kill the king now. She refrained from placing a hand on her belly. Her child was only a year old and already he was an elder brother. She would not let him know.
She prepared to take her leave that afternoon. Though she hated the king, she had to return to the palace. That was her husband's order. She knew what she had to do. That night, she kissed her son and departed the palace, heading west. She was determined to give this child a better life than she could ever give her. She tried not to dwell on the rape as she traveled. If Galbatorix had anything, it was the power over peoples' minds. Her husband had taught her to block her mind very well in the time she had known him. She was his weapon against the other Thirteen. She thought back to her husband and knew that he would be furious for not returning to the palace.
"How do I explain to him that his king raped me and made me with child?" She wondered aloud. She was concealed and no one she met on the road paid any great attention to her. "No, I won't tell him what has happened to me at the hands of the king. But what do I tell him to explain my absence? And where do I go that they will be safe from him?" She looked at her map that night, trying to figure out where she could hide until her child was born. It had to be somewhere she could hide the child after the birth. Her eyes crossed the map to the west and fell on Kuasta. She had a friend there she knew would help her. "I can stay there for the last three months and then leave her with him. Garrow is too far away for me to reach him in time."
The next morning, she rode quickly. The journey took her longer than she expected and she arrived in Kuasta a month before she was due. It was almost winter, though that was hard to tell near the coast. She led her horse through the streets and to the smithy. She knocked on the door of the house next to it and waited. No answer. She had expected this. It was, after all, the middle of the night. She knocked again, looking over her shoulder, hoping no one was behind her. She could not bear the thought of being raped again. She knocked a third time and saw a candle coming towards the door. She waited as the door opened.
"Selena?"
"Hello Caleb. Can I come in?"
"Of course. Come, come in from the cold. Sit here at the table and I will take your horse to the stable." Caleb ushered her inside and then took her horse. Selena sat at the table and waited in silence. She looked around in the dim light and smiled. This would be a good home for her child. Caleb entered through the back door and started the fire and put water to boil so they could have some tea.
"This is kind of you, Caleb."
"What are you doing here, Selena? Last I heard, you were in bed with the Red Dragon Rider, Morzan."
"You would do well not to speak ill of my husband." Selena said, though, there was not much conviction in her voice.
"You didn't answer me."
"I am pregnant."
"With his spawn?"
"No." She looked at him. "I wouldn't have dared this journey is I thought my child would be safe from him."
"Him?"
"The king."
"What has the king got to do with your child?"
"Morzan has been away, hunting he says. I was with my son at his castle. The king decided to pay his trusted servant a visit. He found me and my son. My son is only a year old, so what can he do. And the soldiers will not go against the king. I thought I was safe in my rooms with the wards that Morzan placed on the door. It was a foolish thought. The king broke them easily, and, and," Selena shook as she relived the memory. Caleb placed the cup in her hands.
"So this child, it is his?" She nodded. "And so that is you came?" Another nod. "How much longer?"
"A month. I was hoping to get here three months before the child was due. But I ran into some trouble on the road. Morzan is looking for me. I already know what I will tell him. He is not going to know about this child."
"Do you have anywhere to stay while you are here?"
"Only with you, if you will have me." She looked at him. There was a pleading look in her eyes that he could not refuse. He sighed.
"I will wake Emily. We have a spare room you can stay in until the baby is born." She nodded her thanks. When Caleb and Emily returned to the room, she was asleep, curled like a cat in the chair.
She sat in the garden and looked out to the ocean. She wondered if her husband would be able to know she was lying. She would have to make her story true and come back with some sort of credible information. She bit her lip as another thought came to mind. She could always check up on the lord of Dras Leona. She nodded and felt safer with this plan. Besides, no one in the castle had known she had been impregnated by the king during his visit.
She clutched at her stomach and breathed, calling Emily to help her into the house. Caleb was sent in search of the healer. Selena was guided upstairs and placed on her bed, her legs spread and Emily by her side. The healer arrived and sent Caleb for hot water. The contractions came frequently as the hours passed. She knew she had to make her decision about what to do with her child. "Do I dare name them? No, I will not. I will not let myself be attached to this child whom I give up for their own protection." She screamed as the contractions increased in pain. Emily held her hand. Just through that touch alone, Selena knew that this was the first birth the woman had experienced and her only. The look in the other woman's eyes told Selena that she partly envied her for being able to bear a child. She knew that she had made a good choice.
She whimpered slightly as the contractions wracked her body again. She groaned in agony and then she heard the crying. Emily helped her sit up and handed her the baby.
"Congratulations, who have born a daughter." Selena looked at her daughter. She had the dark eyes of her father and her mother's dark hair. Selena wished to be able to keep her and to name her. But she could not.
"Emily, bring Caleb for me." She said as the healer exited the room. Emily followed her. Selena got out of bed and placed the baby in her place. "I am sorry for having to do this, my child. But you will have a better life here than if your father discovered you." She kissed the child on the forehead and then snuck out of the room. She had spare clothes in her saddle bags. She had saddled the horse last night. She hid in the shadows as Caleb and Emily walked onto the landing and into the room she had just left. Selena shed a single tear and then was gone.
"Why would she have left?" She asked her husband, picking up the new born baby girl.
"I can only think of one reason." She looked at him. "This child is not her husband's. Selena was raped by him."
"But that is still no reason for her to leave her newborn daughter."
"No? Imagine the life this child would have if he knew about her. And if what we have heard is true, Morzan is becoming more volatile. No, it is best that she left the child. I know why she came to me. We are friends of old. What do you wish to name her, Emily?"
Emily looked at the sleeping child in her arms. "It does not matter how she was conceived or who her father is. She is my daughter." She looked at her husband. "Florina." She said. "Her name is Florina."
Eh, eh. What do you giys think? I decided to give you all a little bit of a teaser. I will not be updating this story until after I have finished my Lord of the Rings fic. Hope you liked it and please review.