A/N: Hello everyone! I'm back with another chapter. Things start to get interesting... .
Azrael plays a very important role in this chapter. I didn't know whether to use "it" or "he" when speaking about our favorite hawk. Anyway, considering how close Arslan and Azrael are and, I decided to refer to him as a person. I hope you won't find it odd.
Thanks to all who read/reviewed/favorited this story so far!
Chapter Four: Trust Me
Arslan was sitting alone on his throne holding his head with his left arm as if it had suddenly become too heavy. Heavy and oppressive like the thoughts that crowded his mind. He recalled in his memory every phase of the meeting of the Legislative Council, an inconclusive one, that had done nothing but worsen his worry.
Elam had been quick and efficient as usual and Arslan had been able to read to the counselors the information of the registers about the buying and selling. There were the names of many parsian noblemen and dignitaries, respectable and well known people, men who had given up politics to dedicate themselves to business and commerce. After the king had pronounced loud and clear the last name that appeared on the list, silence fell upon them.
The counselors kept their gazes low, focused on the kingdom's map and when the sovereign had asked them if they had some sort of explanation for what was happening, they didn't know what to answer.
Someone had started saying that probably many of the landowners had reached an age that did not allow them to keep up with the tiring field work, others that maybe part of the sellers had been hopelessly lured by the city life, enough to disdain the countryside and sell its plots. Adel knew all too well that all those so clumsy advanced justifications wouldn't have surely convinced the king, so he decided to keep quiet. Apparently Cyrus, whose name hadn't appeared on the list, shared the same view and had listened to his colleagues' speeches without talking.
Arslan had managed to stop the long sequence of theories proposed by the members of the Council only with an exasperated gesture of his hand.
When silence had fallen again Arslan hadn't hidden his disappointment and had made the participants clearly realize that the situation needed to be resolved straight away and without waste any more time.
The sovereign knew that the elements to understand what was happening were still too few, so he had dismissed the counselors. Not even Daryun or Elam had been admitted to his presence.
Arslan glanced at the sky outside the window. It was a wonderful summer morning, but the blazing sunlight wasn't enough to lighten the young king's gloomy thoughts.
The walls stood tall and mighty against the sky. Étoile raised her eyes protecting them from the sun with her hand to see the top, but the battlements faded into the sweltering summer air. She looked at the city walls from top to bottom up to the muddy water of the moat dug around the capital. A shiver ran down her spine: once her craving for freedom had been so strong it pushed her to jump into the void from those very walls; whether it had been courage or recklessness, she couldn't tell yet.
«They're terrific, aren't they?», Alfreed's voice hissed all of a sudden in the young lusitanian's thoughts. Étoile turned around and saw the girl coming closer to her holding her horse by the bridles.
«I had never stopped to look at them this carefully. There walls are huge», Étoile confessed, turning her gaze back to the enormous pinkish rock blocks.
«We are ready to leave again. Shall we go?», Alfreed told her straddling her horse. The young woman nodded and reached her own horse. She mounted it and followed her friend trotting.
Alfreed had received the order to inspect the outer circle of walls with her squad of knights and that morning she showed up at the doorstep of the apartment assigned to Étoile to ask her to accompany them. The girl accepted gladly and put on her civilian clothes quickly without forgetting to hang her sword to the large belt.
They rode for a couple of hours and covered just half of the walls' circumference; the team often stopped to control suspicious elements, weird swellings in the terrain or unexpected holes dug in the moat's banks. The knights gave themselves just a short break, then the inspection resumed.
«A lot of things changed, don't you think?», Alfreed asked all of a sudden.
«Yes. Without doubt», Étoile agreed riding at her side.
«I must confess that when I met you, five years ago, I couldn't really stand you», Alfreed admitted with a certain embarrassment.
«Well, I can tell you the feeling was mutual!», Étoile said chuckling. Then she smiled softly. «Indeed, I can't blame you», she resumed right after. «I was so blinded by zealotry that I couldn't distinguish right from wrong…»
Alfreed turned to look at her friend and noticed the expression of regret painted on her face.
«But now you do understand it. This is what matters», she tried to console her. The unexpected sweetness in Alfreed's voice raised Étoile's spirits.
«Yes, and I'm happy about this», the lusitanian said. «It's important not only for me, but also for my men».
«They seem interesting guys. How did you enlist them?», Alfreed asked curious. Étoile kept quiet for a few instants to gather her thoughts, the she talked.
«The first one was Thibaut. He had always loved being a soldier and he had applied to the establishment of the new regular army. He was animated by noble intentions, but he'd been rejected because he wasn't robust enough and the new commanders wanted to avoid succumbing to the misfits that returned from the war at all costs. Surely Thibaut hasn't received the gift of strength, but he has been given another one of crucial importance. He's fast, agile, he can penetrate the enemy lines without even being seen…», Étoile's description was so detailed that Alfreed thought to see the lusitanian knight paving his way in the throng in front of her.
«I had just received the order to go to Misr on a mission when I saw him training on his own in the middle of a field. I waited until he finished, then I got closer and made my proposal. Thibaut seemed more than happy and accepted to go back to have an active role in the Nation without blinking an eye».
«What a story!», Alfreed exclaimed. «Did it go like this for the others too?». Étoile's lips bent in a slight grimace.
«Not really. The second enlisted was Yanis», the young woman said sighing.
«Yanis? Yeah, I remember his face. He's the blonde one, isn't he?», Alfreed asked to be sure.
«Exactly. Regarding Yanis it was a little more… complicated», the commander began. «He became a knight when he was really young and at the cost of many sacrifices. He lived with his poor and ill mother, and his soldier pay was their only means of support. He left with the army for the campaign against Maryam, but he was soon repatriated. He had grown up in the streets and his free spirit wasn't really fit to live under the strict military discipline. Once he returned home, he saw with his own eyes the oppression of the battalions that had stayed in defense of the cities and wearing the knight uniform made him feel complicit in those abuses. Hs mother died shortly after and Yanis abandoned the military livery. He joined some group of independent warriors, which in the eyes of law were nothing but bandits, however in reality they fought to lend dignity to poor people and outcasts. When the war ended, he was arrested and spent more than a year in prison, charged with desertion. I learnt of his story from an old man who had known him and searching for information among the survived people I managed to track him down. A strong and resolute man, a tireless warrior the defended people's rights: he was exactly the soldier I wanted in my team. It wasn't easy to convince him to resume him role as a knight, but I succeeded eventually». Alfreed had listened to the whole story with bated breath. She had to admit she was fascinated by those events and the curiosity that those mysterious men, arrived in a summer afternoon, suddenly raised in her, grew even more.
«Kostàs was the third enlisted», Étoile resumed. «Once, his family was part of the highest nobility, but when the war ended they fell victims to some shady plots whose guilty parties are still unknown. Kostàs had been educated to join someday the army's élite squads, but, disgraced his peerage, he lost the right to enlist. One day I was walking through the streets of my city when he appeared in front of me out of nowhere. He told me he had heard me giving a speech somewhere and it had inspired him deeply. He knew I was looking for men for a diplomatic mission and he begged me to take him in. I had never met him before, I knew nothing about him, and yet, the ardor that those such dark eyes spread convinced me. He's only one year older than me. Later I found out he's also an excellent archer».
«Wow!», Alfreed exclaimed. «It seems one of those fictional tale I listened to when I was a child», she said nostalgically. «And how did it go with the last knight? I can't remember his name…»
«Malakai?», Étoile suggested her smiling.
«Yes!», the young parsian confirmed. «He seems… different».
«He's a veteran by now», Étoile began. «As Kostàs did, it was he who found me. We met one night. I remember it was raining and I was having dinner in an inn. Malakai entered and sat on my table without saying anything. He already knew my name and that I was about to leave on a mission. He said to me it had been Count Barcacion who told him about me years earlier and that he wants to put his long experience at the disposal of the mission».
«Count Barcacion? I remember this name…», Alfreed commented.
«He was the Lord of the Keep of Saint Emmanuel. He chose to die with his people in the battle against your army in June 321», Étoile told her bitterly. Alfreed nodded softly. They kept quiet for a few instants.
«How did it end with Malakai?», Alfreed asked suddenly.
«He told me about his military career, about how the Count saved his life and I decided to accept his proposal. And then a week later we left for Misr», Étoile concluded.
«It's incredible how such different stories and lives can intertwine so unexpectedly», Alfreed commented thoughtful.
«At first it wasn't easy to live side by side peacefully, but with time we learnt to understand each other and now we are really close», Étoile affirmed smiling. Alfreed looked at her for a few instants.
«You did something wonderful…». Étoile stared at her raising an eyebrow.
«What do you mean?»
«You gave those men a second chance. They had lost confidence in themselves and you offered them a reason to go back to action», Alfreed explained.
Étoile smiled thinking of those four knights that she had been dragging with her for months. Sometimes they exasperated her, but she would have never given up any of them.
«They deserve it. I was offered a second chance too and that's was saved me», Étoile admitted staring at the bridles she was holding in her hands.
«It was thanks to His Majesty, right?», Alfreed provoked her, but Étoile didn't react at the pinch of malice in the young woman's voice.
«Yes», she answered calmly. «But also thanks to all of you…», she admitted looking straight into her eyes. Alfreed smiled widely.
«Oh, you're welcome!», she retorted chuckling.
The inspection continued for a few hours and the afternoon passed calmly. Alfreed and her squad had a quick lunch and then they could rest. Étoile, instead, reached her men and took the opportunity to make them train. She feared that all that luxury was relaxing them a little too much and her suspicions were partly confirmed by the grimace that Yanis did as soon as the commander ordered them to pick up the swords. But what really annoyed him was the dinner they were served shortly after the sunset: quick and light, just as Étoile herself had asked the cooks. Indulging themselves with the pleasures of the cooking wasn't certainly acceptable for valiant knights of Lusitania.
The only one who followed Étoile's orders enthusiastically was Kostàs. After the fight he had with his comrades the night before, he had no intention of appearing ridiculous in front of his commander. He trained diligently and ate the legumes and vegetables' soup without blinking an eye, on the contrary, he showed he enjoyed a lot that forced comeback to simplicity.
However, his mere obedience didn't seem enough to prove to Étoile his complete support. The young knight decided to put into words his regret for what had happened, with the promise that it wouldn't have occurred ever again. He looked for the commander around the whole Palace's wing reserved to the guests, but he didn't find her. He knocked at the door of her apartment, thinking she had already retired for the night, and he received no response. In that moment, Thibaut was passing through the hallway, traipsing on his sore legs and swearing when from time to time a new pang of pain hit his back.
«Hey, Thibaut!», Kostàs exclaimed getting closer to him. «Do you by any chance know where the commander is?»
«Yes, and you won't like the answer…», Thibaut responded in a malicious tone. «King Arslan came to see us and then they left together». Kostàs bit his lip.
«Alright. It was nothing. Thank you», he said, then he headed for the corridor, leaving Thibaut alone with his aches and pains. He didn't want him to see the expression of peeve that bent his face.
The air was clear and thousands of stars stippled the blue sky. A light breeze blew over the capital, bringing coolness after another fiery day.
Arslan placed a strand of his hair that the soft wind had ruffled behind his ear. Étoile looked at him with a veil of sadness covering her eyes.
«I'm sorry the Council didn't go as you had hoped», she said after a few minutes of silence. The king had just told her about the meeting he had officiated that very morning and the young woman was desperately searching for something to say to lift his spirits. As she feared her words didn't produce the hoped effect and Arslan kept on staring at the sleeping city that expanded around the Palace. Many little reddish lights illuminated here and there the crossroads, the inns and the squares where the street artists were performing. Suddenly, a sweet melody carried by the breeze reached them on the Palace's roof with an intense scent of cinnamon. Étoile placed her hands on the parapet and leant out to locate where that music came from, but the capital was so vast that soon her eyes got lost in the maze of alleyways and squares.
Arslan turned to look at her. She was wearing her civilian clothes, however she carried her sword at her side and the soft wind made the blonde strands gotten out of her braid footing in the air.
«The problem is…», Arslan said all of a sudden, making her turn abruptly. «The sale and acquisition of land are absolutely legal activities. I can't charge a landowner for having sold his field, or another for having purchased one. And their concentration in a few hands is clearly a consequence…»
Étoile came off the parapet and moved a step towards the king. She thought for a few seconds, then her face lightened up.
«If you can't prevent it, set a limit at least», she told him. Arslan stared at her for a few instants.
«A limit?», he repeated interested in the purpose.
«Yes. You could limit the number of sales for each landowner or…»
«Or set a maximum limit for the land that each one can own. This way nobody will be able to collect lands and riches excessively», the sovereign concluded smiling. «How did I not figure this out before?»
Étoile burst out laughing at the expression of dismay that was painted on the king's face.
«If Narsus was here he would be really disappointed in me», Arslan continued placing a hand on his forehead.
Étoile's laughter faded gently. Arslan looked at her smiling.
«You know Étoile, I should appoint you as member of the Council. The credit for most of the best choices I made in my life is yours!», he told her sincerely. The smile on Étoile's face vanished at once leaving in its place a grimace.
«This is out of the question!»
A hiss tore the air and the young king lifted up his eyes to the sky. Another piercing yell and a bird of prey with bug grey wings appeared from behind the brick towers of the Royal Palace.
«Azrael!», Arslan called him raising his arm. The hawk glided extremely rapid and leaned on the sovereign's forearm, that was protected by a thick leather band.
«Has your day been good?», the king asked him stroking his head. The bird thrusted his wings open and flapped them as if he wanted to answer the young man's question. Arslan laughed as the feathers tickled his face. He put his hand in the small sack that hung from his belt and pulled out a shred of raw meat. Azrael happily flapped his wings again and accepted the bite Arslan lifted to his beak more than gladly. Étoile attended the scene without saying a word. She remembered well Azrael, the inseparable travelling companion of the sovereign of Pars. He really was one of the strangest and interesting animals she had ever met. She had even seen him throwing himself in the battle's throng to support his master.
«Do you want to try?», Arslan asked her suddenly giving the bird another shred of meat. A stronger gust of wind blew on the roof and Étoile crossed her arms to protect herself from the unexpected temperature drop.
«I don't think I should…», she answered shaking her head.
«Don't worry! He's harmless!», Arslan tried to reassure her getting closer. Étoile looked at the hawk's sharpened beak and the image of Azrael gliding towards a soldier who was about to hit Arslan and pulling out one of his eyes popped in her mind. She shook her head again to get rid of the macabre vision.
«Actually I don't…».
However, Arslan wasn't taking no for an answer. He put a shred of meat in her hand and moved the arm on which the bird was leaning closer to her.
«Come on!», the king incited her smiling. First Étoile looked at him, then at the hawk, and it seemed to her to glimpse a certain impatience in his small orange eyes. She thought that probably making him wait any longer wouldn't be a good idea, so she neared the mouthful of meat to him. Azrael grabbed it springing ahead and Étoile withdrew her hand immediately.
«See? It wasn't that difficult!», Arslan exclaimed amused as the young lusitanian checked that she still had all five her fingers. The young king lifted his arm and the hawk hovered in the air.
«You're really close…», Étoile commented noticing the proud gaze with which the sovereign followed the bird's movements.
«He's always been by my side, since the first day», Arslan answered her in a grateful tone. Then the king turned towards her again and smiled ambiguously. Étoile raised an eyebrow, confused.
«What's up with you?», she asked him.
«Now you try», he answered her unfastening the leather band and offering it to her. Étoile opened her eyes wide.
«That's not happening!», she exclaimed.
«There's nothing to be afraid of», the king said to calm her, but the young lusitanian just didn't want to agree.
«Maybe in your case!», she retorted irritated. «I'm a knight! I need my eyes!», she exclaimed as the image of the blinded soldier appeared in her mind again.
«Trust me», Arslan continued undismayed grabbing her arm to tie the leather band up. Étoile grinded her teeth annoyed.
«If something happens to me I swear I'll rip your head off!», she yelled to him. Arslan chuckled.
«As if I could ever do something that might hurt you…»
Étoile was left speechless after that confession and she let him tighten the band's laces in silence. Arslan smiled to her, but she responded with a snort.
«Good. Now keep your arm raised», the sovereign instructed her. Étoile did as she was told, but she couldn't stop trembling.
«Azrael!», Arslan called. The bird peeked out from behind a bastion and swooped down towards the king. The young man pointed him to Étoile's arm and the hawk headed incredibly fast towards the girl. Étoile closed her eyes and prayed to survive that experience still in one piece. That shaking arm, however, didn't look the safest of the supports to Azrael, in fact at the last moment he deflected the trajectory and flew beyond ruffling Étoile's hair with a flap of his wings.
Arslan burst out laughing, while the lusitanian released a couple of feathers from her blonde strands, visibly irritated.
«Not even your loyal hawk thought it was a good idea! We can get over that», the young woman stated trying to unfasten the band.
«Not at all!», Arslan exclaimed getting closer to her. «You just had to keep your arm higher. Here, I'll show you».
The king placed himself behind Étoile. He laid a hand on her waist and with the other he lifted her elbow to make her arm bend better.
«This way you won't have any problems», he reassured her, but Étoile was having same difficulty in concentrating. The closeness to Arslan was making her uncomfortable and the gentleness with which he was touching her made a shiver run down her spine. Furthermore, feeling his warm breath on her neck wasn't really helping.
«Y-Yeah. I got it», Étoile answered, hoping it would be enough to make Arslan go away, but the king maintained his grip and called Azrael.
The hawk made himself visible again and after a wide loop around the tower that stood out behind them, he leaned gracefully on Étoile's arm.
«I told you!», Arslan exclaimed and he instinctively tighten his grip on the girl's hip. For a moment even Étoile smiled with satisfaction, but when she sensed the young man's firm grasp she blushed and started so much even Azrael stumbled and preferred to flew off again. Arslan followed him with his eyes, but the young lusitanian couldn't divert her attention from that hand that pressed on her waist, or from the warm breath that brushed her neck, or even from Arslan's arm that guided hers so gently.
Étoile wiggled out of the grip and moved away from the king without looking at him: she didn't want him to see her with flushed cheeks and trembling breath. When she calmed down she turned towards him and gave him back the leather band.
«Alright. I admit it has not been that bad», she confessed raising her eyes to the sky. «Anyway, now I'd like to rest. Good night!», she exclaimed smiling, heading for the flight of stairs that led to the Palace's inside.
«Of course! Good night!», Arslan exclaimed smiling back.
Étoile went down the first steps almost running, then she calmed down and mentally cursed herself for having reacted like that to such innocent contact. When she reached the apartments' floor she was already completely calm and she recalled the evening she had just spent.
For some inexplicable reason, she couldn't help but smile.
A/N: I hope you enjoyed the chapter. I must confess I was forced to write it really quickly, so it possible this chapter contains more mistakes than usual. Please let me know what do you think of it.
Bye!:)
Kiara