Chapter Twenty-One
The countryside was beautiful. Painted in deep greens and emeralds, often flecked with a rainbow of colors that sprang from wildflowers, flashing past the carriage window, Ami admired the land that was Stiborn. She couldn't recall ever having seen so much green, so much untainted by technology and industrialization; it took her breath away. It was a different sort of beauty than that she saw from the balconies at the Sun Palace; a raw, natural beauty that was not lessened because it was not one of sand and gold and bronze. This place was more to her liking than the sun baked sands of Dia'sol, no matter how beautifully tiled the palace walls; and she figured it was best if she grew accustomed to it anyway - at least until she found Adam, Megabyte and Jade she would be stuck here - married to a man she had never met.
Thinking of the others created a sharp, aching pang in her chest. She wondered if -- no, she knew that Adam would have gotten worried by now. If he believed what she told him, that the dream was real, then he would have gone into his typical protective mode. He would have been expecting her to contact him again, and through no fault of her own, she was unable to.
All right, perhaps the fault was her own - she had made the mistake of doing too much and had gotten caught - but it was easier to be angry at Nynie. The woman refused to return the dreaming crystal; the one night that Ami almost managed to slip it free while Nynie snored into the darkness, she belatedly discovered that the older damiar had placed wards around the pouch. Only Nynie could open it now and retrieve the dreaming crystal - and Ami's attempt had led to another dressing down and another lecture about her lack of responsibility.
She had not tried to go near the crystal since.
"Close the shade already, Amideira. Do not encourage the natives to gape anymore than they already are." The words came from the Damia Reina, cold and detached as always. That detached aloofness made the pang of loneliness Ami felt even deeper, and she wished, for not the first time since loading up the carriages, that she could have ridden with Nynie and Sephrine.
"I am only admiring the landscape," Ami explained, lowering the lace blinds, but only a little. "It's beautiful."
"It's barbaric, just like these savages." The Damia Reina adjusted her veil, dark eyes resting on Ami for only a heartbeat before she looked elsewhere - anywhere but at the daughter that she seemed to care about so little. "Albarasque is beautiful. This is - savage."
"And you're handing me off with my head on a silver platter," Ami muttered.
"What was that?" The question was punctuated by a stinging slap to Ami's hand, forcing it away from the blinds and leaving it stinging and tingling.
"Nothing Mother," Ami replied, jerking her hand into her lap, but not daring to give way to the indignity of rubbing it. She tried and failed to avoid looking at Calend'et, who of course, smirked and settled back comfortably in his seat besides their mother.
"Not every eye perceives beauty in the same way. Those that can see beauty in every setting are rare indeed." If the Damia Reina's words had been harsh and upsetting, the words of her maternal grandmother, the Damiar Roleran, brought Ami great comfort and soothed her ruffled feathers. Where her mother showed nothing more than a great disdain for Amideira, her grandmother demonstrated that she loved the girl -- and understood her; sometimes Ami believed that Damiar Roleran understood Amideira better than the girl had understood herself.
Damiar Roleran took Ami's hand between her two old and wrinkled ones, seeming to stare distractedly out of the opposite window the entire time. "Wild flowers are beautiful things, not like our desert blooms, but they give life to this strange land, don't you think Shan'ari?"
The Damia Reina's eyes narrowed to slits as she regarded her mother. "There is nothing as beautiful as one our desert blooms. To see them standing tall and proud and strong with nothing but endless sand dunes between one and the next - there is nothing to compare to that."
"Then we can only hope that the Lion Throne appreciates the bloom we give them."
The elder woman's words made a flush creep into Ami's cheeks and she was grateful for the kitara on this occasion. Her grandmother might have looked feeble, but the woman was still quick in the mind and even sharper with the tongue. This was not the first time that Ami had witnessed Damiar Roleran tricking the Damia Reina into eating her own words, and Ami doubted it would be the last.
She was just sorry that she would not be around to see it.
From one strange world to another. When it seemed that was beginning to feel comfortable in the Sun Palace and the role she played as the Damiar Princess of Albarasque, she was being rudely taken from that situation and thrust into another. In this one, she would be the exotic, foreign bride to a man that she knew absolutely nothing about. A man, who if the words of Sephrine and Nynie were to be believed, was nothing more than a rough, backwoods barbarian who would see her as a trophy and the living seal on a treaty and nothing more.
Oh, and we couldn't forget the most important part of the marriage - the vessel that would give birth to his heir.
The simple thought alone of a strange man touching her, nonetheless a man who cared nothing for her, made Ami shudder.
But would he, could he, truly be as horrible as all that? Didn't ignorance and lack of contact with other cultures dictate some of those words and thoughts? Unconsciously, her hand rose to her throat, tightening around the silver pendant she wore there. Already, she clung to the odd gift from the man who was to be her husband, clung to it and the hope that its existence alone proved that he was more than a cold-hearted northern barbarian. A gift like this took care and thought, the craftsmanship of the finest silversmith, certainly he *wasn't* that terrible. Unless the gift was merely a token, an empty gesture that meant nothing.
Leaning her head against the carriage glass, Ami wished that she was not so very far from home. She could only take minimal comfort in the fact that somewhere out there Adam and the others were there; if, she could ever figure out how to go about finding them. If she could ever get the dreaming crystal back from Nynie.
If, if, if.
"Cheer up, child," her grandmother's hand tightened around hers, "This is a wedding. It is a time of mirth and celebration. As Damiaren wills it, all will be well and fortunate among us."
"I am certainly looking forward to the wedding feast," Calend'et smirked from his seat across from them, a malicious glean shining in his dark eyes as he stared at Ami, although his words sounded like nothing more than friendly teasing on the surface. "I should think that my dear sister would enjoy this opportunity to be the center of attention, the jewel in the crown."
"I will do my duty," Ami said the words quietly, not wanting to allow herself to be coaxed into a battle of wits with Calend'et. She still did not understand why they had brought him along, why he had to be present for this 'joining of kingdoms,' as the Damia Reina referred to it.
"Because you want to, Amideira, or because you have to?"
"Hush boy!" Her grandmother's voice rang out loudly in the carriage, no longer the voice of a doting old woman, the voice of a powerful and respected mage. "Leave off your childish teasing, you are too old for it and we do not have time for such things. Mind your tongue and your manners, less our hosts think that *we* are the barbarians."
The boy prince flinched, sinking back into his seat with a final glare in Ami's direction. As though it were her fault that he had spoken, her fault that their grandmother had finally grown tired of hearing his taunts.
Ami, unable to suppress a smirk, was again grateful for the kitara.
Those in the carriage lapsed into silence, and Ami returned her attention to studying the countryside of Stiborn. This time, when she pulled back the shade, the Damia Reina said nothing, and Ami was allowed to watch the hills and plains roll by in relative peace and quiet introspection.
She felt her heart give a little leap as the road they traversed turned away, leading upwards, away from the valley and onto higher land. From where she sat she could see the gray shadow of the keep in the distance, standing tall and proud on the hillside. This would be where she and her party would stay until the wedding, Elspera Keep, and despite her fear at meeting the stranger that would be her husband, she could not repress a tiny chill of excitement.
This was someplace new, someplace different. She could make this an adventure of sorts, an opportunity to explore and learn. After weeks in Albarasque, fate was presenting her with some distraction, new places and new faces. She could make the most of this, exploring this Keep and learning the habits of its people just as she had done in the Sun Palace. Perhaps they even had a library here, where she could learn more about this world that she found herself in.
Perhaps, she might just forget she was being married off for the sake of a treaty and an alliance.
Probably wishful thinking, but she could only hope that this place would provide something of a distraction.
The carriage wound higher on the dirt and stone road, and a tiny ball began to form in her stomach. This was it, this was really it. Unless somehow, someway, she found a way home tomorrow, her entire life would be changing in a few very short weeks. And, Ami knew that there was no way that she could, or would, go home now. Not when she knew that the others were here somewhere, not when she had to find them.
"Amideira, is your veil in place?"
Despite the icy chill and condescending tone in the Damia Reina's voice, for once Ami was not upset by it. The tiny ball was growing bigger, turning into the fluttering of small butterflies.
"Yes, Mother," Ami answered, never turning away from the window.
Although she knew that she shouldn't, knew that if Adam ever caught wind of it, there would be no end to the chastisement, Ami opened her mind and reached out. Slowly at first, just in case somewhere among the populace of Elspera Province there happened to be someone with telepathic abilities. Careful, oh so careful, probing and touching, brushing her mind lightly against the minds of those gathered at the top of the hill, testing the waters and the mood.
Ami drew a sharp breath, dropping the shade and slinking back against the seat as *someone* pushed right back. Her shields came down in the blinking of an eye, her heart nearly skipping a beat.
What . . . or who . . . was that?
"Amideira?" Her grandmother gave her arm a squeeze.
"I --" Heat rushed into her face and Ami felt momentarily foolish. How could she explain her odd reaction? "I saw something out of the corner of my eye. It startled me a bit."
"Better that you not stare out of the window any longer, my dear," Damiar Roleran patted her arm, her voice full of warmth, "Better that our soon to be allies do not think their soon to be princess is too full of naivete and wide-eyed wonder."
"But, this is all so new to me," Ami placed her hand atop of the older woman's, "I am full of naivete and wide-eyed wonder."
"And we shall keep that secret between ourselves."
With a smile, Ami settled back against the carriage seat. Her grandmother always made everything feel so right and everything couldn't be so horrible as what she imagined if her grandmother was by her side.
She fervently hoped.
***
