Jewel in the Crown

Disclaimer: All the characters in the story are the property of Stephanie Meyer. I have borrowed them for my entertainment and (hopefully) your reading pleasure. I make no profit from their use.

Chapter 29: Escape to Denali

"Emmett, Rosalie, what are you doing here?" asks Tanya as she opens the door. "Where is the rest of your family?"

"It's a long story," I say. "And it's been a long journey here. Is okay if we stay with you for a while?"

"Of course, no problem, Rosalie," she replies. "It's just that after you left, I wasn't expecting to see any of you so soon. What happened with Edward and Bella?"

Emmett and I exchange a glance.

"Maybe you should call the others together so that we only have to tell the story once," says Emmett. "I don't know if I can take telling it more than once."

"Yes, certainly," she says and goes off to find the others.

I look at Emmett and he puts his arms around me. One of the hardest things about being a vampire is that you can't cry. And right now, that's all that I feel like doing. Bella and Edward are trapped in Volterra. Carlisle and Esme went to help them. The last thing we knew was that Edward asked Bella to marry him and she said no.

And now Alice and Jasper are on the run in case Aro decides to send Demetri after them. The hardest part of all of this, despite all of the danger, is that it looks like our coven, our family, is being broken up. For a minute I am angry. Why did my stupid brother have to start all of this trouble by going off to the Volturi to ask them to kill him? I would happily have done it for him.

As Tanya reenters the room with Kate, Irina, Carmen, and Eleazer, they all look very serious.

"Why don't we sit down?" says Eleazer, taking control of the situation.

Tanya might be the coven leader, but it is Eleazer who spent a couple of centuries with the Volturi before meeting his mate Carmen. In a case like this, Tanya would put Eleazer in charge. The one and only contact that she and her sisters had with the Volturi hundreds of years ago was not a happy one. They have done their best to avoid them ever since.

"Tell me what has happened since we last saw you," he says kindly, when we are all seated. "You are both obviously upset. Now where are the others?"

I look at Emmett helplessly. For once, I don't have the words to tell it. If I had a heart it would be in my mouth right now.

"Bella and Edward are still in Volterra," he says "Carlisle and Esme went to help them. We don't know where Alice and Jasper are. We separated a day ago. I don't expect that we will be hearing from them any time soon."

"So why are you two here?" asks Eleazer.

"Jasper told us to come here," says Emmett.

"Jasper?" he says. "You really need to tell us the story from the beginning."

Emmett looks at me. He knows that I will do a better job telling than he will.

"We waited to see if we would hear anything from Volterra," I say. "But of course we heard nothing. Then Alice had a vision of Carlisle and Esme standing before the three brothers. She knew that if they didn't go, Aro would send Demetri after them. When they left, Carlisle put Jasper in charge. He didn't tell him what to do"

"Did he give the four of you any instructions?" asks Eleazer.

"He told us to stay together and stay in New York," I reply. "But then he told Jasper that the most important thing was our safety and to use his best judgment if something changed."

"Carlisle is quite cagey, isn't he?" muses Eleazer. "When Aro touches his hand, he won't be able to discover anything useful about finding any of you."

"We left a note in New York saying that we went to Denali," adds Emmett. "But we didn't say who went there. Jasper wouldn't tell us where they were going but he said that Rose, Carlisle, Esme, and I would be safe here because Aro didn't want us."

"Okay," says Eleazer. "You just lost me. How did we get to the point that Aro wanted someone other than Edward?"

"Alice put the pieces together when she figured out that Aro didn't want to kill Bella. Instead, he wanted her turned into a vampire," I explain. "We think that he has been after Alice since he first learned about her from Edward's thoughts. When she realized what Aro was after, she remembered that she once had a vision of herself with Bella standing arm and arm. They were both vampires. Edward had seen the vision in Alice's mind."

"So Aro saw it in Edward's mind," he says. "How fascinating. He must want Bella as a vampire in order to make the vision come true in Volterra. It now makes sense why he didn't kill her in the first place. He would have recognized her right away as the girl in the vision with an exceptionally gifted vampire that he hoped to acquire. What a tremendous piece of luck for him! Edward delivered her directly to him in the tower."

"Eleazer, what do you think that all of this means?" Kate asks.

"I think that it means that Aro has found a couple of talented vampires that he wishes to add to the guard," he says. "Because he is fond of Carlisle, he did not destroy Edward in the first place. But Edward's mind also held a wealth of information about the Cullen coven. If you realize that the Volturi coven is really only five vampires plus the guard, you know that the Cullens are actually a larger group, and more powerful."

"No one is more powerful than the Volturi!" says Irina.

"No one is more powerful than the guard," corrects Eleazer. "Aro's assets are not the same as his family members. The guards must refer to him and his brothers as 'Master' and they are bound very firmly to the coven."

"By Chelsea?" I ask.

"Yes, Chelsea," he says. "She is the keystone in his triumphal arch, so to speak. If you want to survive in Volterra, Chelsea is the best friend that you can have. She maintains the bonds between the guards and Aro. If she starts to work on Edward then she will be able to bind him to Aro."

"But she won't have any effect on Bella," I say.

"Very true, if Bella is a shield, she won't be able to do anything," he says. "Well, from what I have heard so far, it seems that as long as he has Edward, he has Bella. She won't leave him."

"She might not leave him, but she won't marry him either," says Emmett.

"What?" Tanya asks.

"Right before we left New York," I explain, trying not to laugh. "Alice saw Edward decide to turn Bella into a vampire, but only if she married him first. She said no to marrying him."

Emmett and I look at each other and laugh while the Denalis look utterly confused.

"Maybe I'm missing something," says Kate. "But what is so funny about that?"

"Bella has been begging Edward to change her for a year," I explain. "But he has been refusing. Now he's willing to change her, but she has to marry him first. But she doesn't want to marry him. That's why, right before she left, Alice sent the his mother's engagement ring to him by overnight express service."

"Alice saw Edward giving her the ring?" asked Eleazer.

"Yeah," says Emmett. "She said that if he had the ring then Bella would agree to marry him."

"Did she see her accept it?" asks Kate with a straight face. "Sorry, that was too easy."

We all start laughing. In the midst of the tension, it feels good to have a laugh at Edward's expense. But Eleazer sobers us up quickly.

"If this is Aro's game, he won't play forever," he says. "And I am sure that Caius will run out of patience long before that. Hopefully Carlisle and Esme can talk some sense into those two fools before they get themselves in really big trouble."

"What do you call this?" asks Irina.

"This is big trouble," replies Eleazer. "Trust me, it can get worse."

"Alice said that she saw Aro giving them permission to marry," I reply seriously. "And she said that someone else is involved, a woman, but she couldn't tell which one was guiding the decisions of the other. They were both in agreement about the course of action."

"That would be Aro's wife Sulpicia," says Eleazer. "If she's caught up in this, then it explains why Aro is being so patient."

"Isn't Sulpicia the wife who can't read?" asks Carmen. "I always thought that she was nothing more than a feather head."

"Feather head or not," replies Eleazer. "She is just as manipulative as Aro in her own way. People often underestimate her intelligence, but she is actually quite knowledgeable on a wide range of topics. She spends all of her time with Corin and Athenadora. Corin is there to keep the wives happy despite the fact that they are virtually prisoners in the tower.

"Unfortunately, she is not able to make them like each other. It is entirely possible that Supicia has befriended Bella as a diversion from her boredom and a way of escaping Athenadora. I would not put it past Aro to use this as another means of getting what he wants. I feel very sorry for Carlisle. I believe that he is about to lose his first son and first creation to Aro."

"Like Amun lost Demetri?" asks Emmett.

"Carlisle told you about that, didn't he?" replies Eleazer. "Yes, exactly like that. Carlisle confided in me once that he wanted to keep Edward and Alice from Aro's knowledge specifically for that reason. He thought that being in America meant that they would be concealed fairly easily. But Edward walked right into the situation that Carlisle wished to avoid."

"Are these Volturi really that evil?" asks Emmett.

"You have misinterpreted the situation completely," replies Eleazer. "The Volturi are not evil. They uphold the law in our world. The only people who really have anything to fear from them are criminals. We don't particularly care for them because we adhere to the vegetarian diet. And they don't care for us because of it. But there is no real enmity between us. As long as we live quietly, they have no reason to bother us."

"So why was Carlisle afraid of them?" I ask.

"Let me break it down for you," says Eleazer with a sigh. "Carlisle feels very strongly about his coven. We all feel that way. Losing any member is a great tragedy for any of us. But Aro is greedy. He seeks to assimilate all of the most gifted vampires that he can find into his guard. And Edward and Alice possess exceptional talents. I have never seen or heard of anyone like Alice before."

"Isn't he going to be mad if he can't find Alice?" I ask.

"That is not something that he can blame on Carlisle," he says. "Jasper acted against his direct orders. Had he followed them to the letter, you all would still be in New York where Demetri would easily find you."

"Not really," says Emmett. "Alice would see them coming and we would move."

"Then why aren't you with them now?" asks Tanya.

"Jasper wanted to be less conspicuous and be free to move quickly," I say.

"And he wouldn't have wanted Carlisle's whole coven to disappear," adds Eleazer. "Carlisle is your creator. And on the issue of safety, you are definitely safer with us than with Jasper and Alice."

"Are you sure that we aren't putting you in danger?" I ask.

"No," says Eleazer. "Aro will leave us in peace. You have nothing to give him. Did Alice see Carlisle and Esme leaving Voterra?"

"Yes," replies Emmett.

"Then I expect that Carlisle will eventually be able to sort Edward and Bella out," says Eleazer. "If he does and convinces Edward to accept his position in the guard with good grace then perhaps Aro will not ask Chelsea to break the bonds between Edward and Carlisle. If he leaves their relationship intact, it would be good publicity for further recruitment of talent."

"And Carlisle doesn't completely lose Edward," says Tanya. "Maybe Edward can visit when he is out with the guard on disciplining missions."

"Oh, I doubt very much that Edward will ever leave the tower unless Aro does," says Eleazer. "Caius runs the punitive missions. Aro prefers to scheme behind the scenes."

"Why wouldn't Edward go out with Caius then?" asks Tanya.

"I can't be sure about this," he says. "But I think that he may be viewing Edward's role as monitoring the minds of his coven and guard. Aro is in no danger from the outside. But there is endless intrigue and plotting in the tower. Edward's advantage for himself as well as Aro is that he will know what everyone else is thinking.

"Edward's mind reading ability is a hedge against Chelsea's power to bind the guards to Aro. Aro only knows what she is thinking when he touches her hand. Edward has constant access to her mind. The same is true of any of the guard."

"Yeah," says Emmett. "But who monitors Edward?"

"Aro will do that himself," says Eleazer. "Just as he does with Marcus and Caius. He will keep Edward close except when he is with his mate. Aro is very careful to make sure that his guard members with mates have plenty of time for lovemaking. It keeps them happy. Life in the tower is not as bad as you might think."

"So then Edward is going spend the rest of eternity reading minds and having sex with Bella," says Emmett. "That's not so bad. At least he won't have to go to high school again."

"The most painful thing for Edward will be losing his coven," Eleazer says as he shakes his head at Emmett's nonsense. "There will no doubt also be conflict about the diet of animal blood. The hunting in Italy is nowhere near as good as in the States. And then there will be the newborn Bella to deal with."

"And they will no doubt constantly be tempting her with human blood," says Tanya. "As a newborn she will never be able to say no."

"Well, we've all screwed up," says Emmett. "Once she's passed the first year, she can switch."

"Do you think that Aro is going to let them out together to go hunt animals?" asks Eleazer. "It doesn't work that way. Your father was permitted to come and go as he pleased because he was a guest. The guards don't have that freedom. The only reason that Aro will let Edward out hunting to stick to the vegetarian diet is because he holds Bella as a hostage. And he may do it just to keep him happy.

"As guards go, Edward is in a very good position to negotiate some very comfortable terms for himself and Bella. But there will always be limits. Aro is not going to let him forget who his master is."

"That's going to be interesting," says Emmett.

"Why?"

"Has there ever been an American in the guard before?" he asks.

"No, I don't think so, why do you ask?" Eleazer responds curiously.

"Well, Americans just don't going around calling each other Master, you know," he says. "Slavery ended 150 years ago. And Bella is one of the most stubborn women that I have ever met. I doubt that there are too many feminists in the guard."

"Never make the mistake of underestimating the female Volturi," says Eleazer shaking his head. "Chelsea and Corin have subtle but exceptionally effective powers. As a shield, Renata is unparalleled, although after Bella is turned I suspect that she will be stronger.

"Aside from the fact that Jane is what you might call the 'alpha' twin, her power is lethal and she has no conscience when using it. I have never known anyone to enjoy inflicting pain so much except for Caius."

"Now the issue of Edward as an American is one that I have never considered. He will definitely be the youngest of the guard, in vampire terms anyway. And you are correct, as an American, he is more likely to resist Aro's efforts to control him. Fortunately, Edward will be able to read Aro's mind and know when he is pushing him too far."

"That's assuming that he has the sense to know the limits," I say. "Edward can be pretty stubborn too."

"I am sure that Carlisle will explain everything to him before he leaves," replies Eleazer.

"You are assuming he will listen to him," says Emmett.

"Well if he doesn't, he and Bella will both be sorry," he answers. "Edward's American attitudes will no doubt amuse Aro in the beginning. He will be likely to make a study of his behavior before he reins him in. Sooner or later, Edward will have to tow the mark. I hope that he can do that."

I hope so too, I think to myself. Despite the fact that Edward has always been the most irritating of all my siblings, I still think of him as my little brother. And even though I have never liked Bella, I feel sorry for her. I guess that it's a good example of how you have to be careful what you wish for in life. You can be very sorry when you get it.

Author's note: Some of the details that I have included about the Volturi and other vampires mentioned come from The Twilight Saga: The Official Illustrated Guide.