Of Royal Heritage
"...It's snowing."
"No, really?"
"Don't be stupid."
"I wasn't. I was being sarcastic."
"Shut up."
"Make me."
"I'm not falling for that again."
"Damn."
"You sound so disappointed."
"How do you know if I'm disappointed or not?"
"I know you."
"I know you too. What a coincidence."
"Shut up."
"Make me."
"Still not falling for it."
"Do I have to take initiative?"
"Maybe."
"Why do I always have to take initiative?"
"Because I can always say you bewitched me or forced yourself on me if I get caught."
"Some friend you make!"
"Oh hush."
Neal pounced on Kel, pinning her shoulders to his bed and straddling her waist. "You just like it when I pounce on you."
"Maybe," she answered coyly.
"You," he murmured, his lips brushing the skin where her neck and shoulder met, "like," he kissed her neck, "to," higher, "tease," he kissed the sensitive area under her earlobe, "me."
"Mm.." she moaned for a moment. She regained her senses though. "Wait! Neal, no."
"Why not?" he asked, pausing for a moment to look her in the eyes. He saw her stubborness begin to ebb away when his eyes met hers, and he waited until her expression softened before asking again. "Why not?"
"Because," she jerked her head towards the wall that divided Neal's room from Yuki's. "She might hear."
"Definitely problematic," he mumbled to himself. "But...how can I deny myself you, with the way I happened to land on you, and you so weak and helpless down there."
Kel's mouth set in a thin line. "You take that back, Neal."
"Fat chance," he scoffed. "You can call me 'your Grace' from now on, missy."
"'Missy?'" Kel repeated incredulously. "'Missy?'"
"Did I stutter?" he asked of her, smirking. He brushed her lips with his.
"No. And I refuse," she had pause because Neal suddenly took monopoly of her mouth, "to address you as 'your Grace', you pompously mordant fool."
"Oh, so now I'm a fool?"
"Yes, you haven't changed a bit."
"Huh. I guess you haven't lied to me."
"No, I never lie to you."
"Just like you think about me all the time?"
"I had wondered when you would bring that up again."
"You know what?"
"What?"
"I th--"
A knock at the door startled the rest of his sentence back into his mouth. He groaned inwardly and rolled off of Kel, falling to the floor. Kel winced at the thump he made and grimaced when Yuki called out to him.
"Neal? What happened?!"
Neal rubbed his head, cringing. Kel watched as Neal healed himself of the ache on the back of his head and remained silent as he answered Yuki, "Nothing. I...tried to take a nap and didn't realize how I close I had lied to the edge of the bed and rolled off."
"Oh," Yuki sounded relieved. "May I enter?"
Neal looked to Kel, his eyes suddenly wide. "You have to hide," he whispered fervently. "She'll think I lied to her!"
Kel looked around and hurried under the bed. Neal adjusted the covers until it hung over most of Kel and finally opened the door, allowing Yuki access to the room. His eyes kept darting under the bed though, something he couldn't help but worry about. He half-listened to Yuki as she started telling him something about Dom until...
"He intends to make Kel his betrothed," she finished.
Neal's eyes went as wide as Kel's under the bed. "He...what?"
"He wants to marry Kel," she reiterated. She smiled. "Don't you find that wonderful? She'll belong in our family, Neal!"
Neal choked on his words, wheezing, trying to speak but having it come out incoherently. "He...ne...ha...si...co...ma...lo...ju...!" he tried. He finally took a deep breath and said, rather forcefully, "He can't marry Kel!"
Yuki, startled, frowned. "Why not?"
"He...just...he just can't! Kel...she...Dom...Dom can't marry her because he's my cousin and it would just...no. Just...no," he huffed.
"I thought you would rejoice for Kel," Yuki said quietly behind her Yamani mask.
"No," he growled. "Dom can't marry Kel."
Kalasin peeked her head in the door. "Yuki, Shinko wants to see you."
Yuki nodded. "Thank you." She looked up at Neal, face and eyes unreadable, and left the room, pausing at the doorway. "We need to talk about when to have the wedding some time."
Waiting until Kalasin and Yuki had disappeared in Shinkokami's room, Neal walked over and shut the door. He helped slide Kel out from underneath the bed, kissing her possessively. "He can't marry you," he told her softly, his arms encircling her waist tightly. "He just can't. I won't let him."
"You can't stop him, but I can," Kel reminded him. "But why would I deny him the satisfaction of marrying me if you'll just marry Yuki?"
"No, no, no. You see, I've been trying to tell you that I..." Neal stopped, waiting for the interruption. "I wanted to tell you that I'm..." he took a deep breath, looking at her with loving eyes. He kissed her again. "I'm in l--"
"Yer Grace, Cook needs ye," said a servant through the door.
"Knew it," he mumbled. "Gods-cursed trial..."
After tending to Shinko, Yuki had gone down to the parlor to think. She watched servants busy themselves going one thing or another and thought about Neal. They had made him duke of Queenscove. When she married him, she would become the duchess of Queenscove. At least, if she married him. She knew Neal had done something and had hidden it from her, and she also had her suspicions about him and Kel.
"I thought he loved me," she murmured, walking over to one of the glass windows looking out over the rest of Queenscove. "He acted like he loved me. Did he ever really love me, though?" she tugged at one of the flaps of her kimono. "Did he ever really love me? That's a good question. One I cannot answer on my own. One only Neal can answer."
"Lady Yuki?" Dom asked from the foyer, not hearing most of her soft soliloquy.
"Yes?" Yuki turned to face him. "And I told you, you may call me just 'Yuki.'"
Dom nodded. "Right. Would you like to go for a walk with me? I can't find Kel and quite frankly you're the only other one I would want to do anything with."
Yuki smiled and said, "I would love to."
As Dom walked over to her and offered his arm, she thought about whether or not she should voice her fears to her betrothed's cousin. True, they had grown closer when Neal and Kel had forsaken them for each other, but had they grown close enough for her to suggest something as outrageous as Neal and Kel having an affair right under their noses?
Yuki didn't realize that they had gone outside to a garden on the opposite side of the yard from the one where the funeral had taken place until the bitter cold chilled her to the bones. She shivered and found Dom's coat over her shoulders. He gave her a small smile and continued to walk in a comfortable silence with her.
However, Yuki had other plans.
"Have you..." she started but thought the better of it. No, I shouldn't open my big mouth...
"Have I what?" Dom asked, interest piqued.
Well, now you've done it, Yuki scolded herself. "Have you noticed anything...strange about Kel or Neal lately?"
"Aside from all the secrecy and nervousness? No," Dom replied.
Sighing, Yuki drew Dom's coat closer around her. "I thought as much." They walked for a little longer in an awkward quiet. "Tell me I'm imaging things. Tell me I'm being silly, Dom."
"Do you want me to lie to you?" he asked seriously.
Pause. "No."
"I thought as much." He nodded, making a circle around the garden with her. "I wish I could tell you what you want to hear though, Yuki. I want to hear it myself."
"I wish..." she began quietly. She sighed and tried again. "I wish he had never gone off to look for Kel like that."
"She probably would have died if he hadn't," Dom answered.
"And it would have hurt him more than her disappearance," she murmured. "I just wish things were the way they used to be."
"Me too, Yuki. Me too."
Merric hung around in the kitchen, avoiding the servants and Cook by sitting on the large windowsill and watching them. Garvey sat near him, watching Cook and the servants as well. They just needed to wait for an opportunity to present itself. The Master, through Bardev, had given them a set of orders to execute. It involved the Lioness and the Bazhirs' Voice of the Tribes. It would rip the Royal Family apart; at least, the Master hoped it would. He had found this particular charm buried in the secrets of the Abscador Scroll, and knew it would bring him great joy to watch the Royal Family cast out the King. Then, they needed to take care of Roald, but that would come later. For now, they had to make sure that Jon and Alanna both drank a glass of wine with the powdery charm in it.
The Abscador Scroll was very valuable in many ways. The first and foremost being the fact that its magic always went undetectable. The Abscador Scroll was written by a god and evoked the magic of the gods, therefore masking itself to the gods.
"This sucks," Merric said to Garvey. "When the hell do they have supper?"
"You dolt," Garvey informed him. "They'll serve supper in about an hour. Then we can slip this," he pulled two vials of fine, purple powder from his belt pouch, "into the Lioness's and the King's drinks."
"Do you know what it does?" Merric asked, taking one of the vials from Garvey.
"Not a clue," Garvey sighed. "I asked Bardev a million different ways and all he would say was, 'wait and see, the Master knows all.'"
"He didn't know either," Merric translated. "Damn. The Master wanted this really hidden well."
"The Master always wants secrecy," Garvey told him whimsically.
"Has anyone ever seen the Master?" Merric wanted to know, examining the powder in his vial. He popped off the top and sniffed it lightly.
"Definitely. Before he became the Master," Garvey admitted.
This intrigued Merric. "So, the Master isn't a god."
"No way," Garvey shrugged. "They will make him a god after the Aescili though, or so the Abscador Scroll says."
"The 'Aescili'?" Merric repeated. "Bardev never told me of any 'Aescili.'"
"The Rite of Ascension," Garvey told him mysteriously.
"What does that entail?" he asked conversationally.
"A sacrifice," Garvey nodded. Merric had counted on Garvey's stupidity to surrender the answers he needed.
"Of what?" Merric pressed, hoping Garvey wouldn't suddenly realize that Merric had manipulated him.
"A virgin of royal heritage," he uttered in a far-off voice.
"Kalasin?" Merric whispered. Garvey nodded. "When does this need to happen?"
"'When the day and night become equal partners,'" he quoted.
"Will this happen in spring or autumn?" Merric persisted.
"Either one. The Master wants it done in the spring though, but we may not get to do so until the autumn," Garvey sounded disappointed. "We need the king and the Royal Family unsuspecting so we can just take Kalasin away quietly."
"To where?"
Garvey looked out the window at the descending twilight. He opened his mouth to answer and suddenly closed it, confusion clouding his eyes as he looked back at Merric. "They haven't told me."
The gears in the knight's head turned rapidly. Where could they hold a ceremony called the Aescili? He didn't even have any idea where the word "Aescili" came from, or why they would need a virgin princess to perform the Rite, or anything. Everything Bardev had told him thus far obviously rang of no truth and all lies, either that, or someone had tragically misinformed Garvey of Runnerspring.
Merric heard Cook ring the bell signalling everyone to sit down at the dining table and nudged Garvey. They nodded in unison and slipped into the Dining Hall, standing in a niche near the table. "I'll take Alanna, you take Jon."
Garvey nodded in agreement, a zealous look glazing over his eyes. That expression always frightened Merric just a little because he found Garvey's worship of the Master quite unnatural and very unnerving.
They watched the guests staying at Queenscove take their places at the table, along with the Duke and his mother. Servants brought glasses of brandy out to the guests, and Jon excused himself from the table for a moment. Garvey ran up and poured the vial into the glass, watching the fine purple substance dissolve into the brandy.
Merric, meanwhile, knocked over vase behind Alanna. When she jumped up to try and catch it before it smashed on the floor, he emptied his vial into Alanna's glass and darted back to his niche. Garvey took his time getting back to the niche, avoiding servants with a haughty smirk on his face. He joined Merric and leaned up against the wall, obviously satisfied with his handiwork. Merric, however, found his curiosity getting to him. What would happen when Alanna and Jonathan drank the powder? Would Alanna detect it? She had become famous for her detection of sorcery, but sorcery of the Abscador Scroll variety had yet to be discovered by the first lady knight of the realm in centuries. After all, Merric and Garvey had walked right past her and she hadn't sneezed and her Goddess token hadn't glowed.
"They didn't tell you what this does?" Merric asked, hardly containing the butterflies in his stomach. He worried for Alanna and Jon, but at the same time he found himself entirely too curious as to what sort of sorcery this would perform.
"No, I told you already. I asked Bardev a million different ways and all he would say was, 'wait and see, the Master knows all.' Which basically meant he knew about as much as we know," Garvey replied, his voice bubbling with excitement. "Oh, I can't wait!"
Merric felt a pit in his stomach. He waited anxiously while everyone ate, watching while Neal and Kel snuck discreetly loving glances at one another, resisting the urge to pace. Merric saw one of two things happening when Kel leaked that he had been made a tool of the Master: they would hail him as a courageous hero, or, they would hang him for high treason to the the king, the Royal Family, and the realm of Tortall. He could envision the latter more than the former, and that made the pit in his stomach grow bigger.
They wouldn't hang Kel if he betrayed her identity. She hadn't gone after him to try and save him, and she hadn't done a thing to suggest that she had tried to betray Tortall. The Abscador Scroll had, unfortunately, played right into the Master's hands, and she had not had to do anything to break the law.
"Do you know how long it will take for the powder to start working?" he asked edgily.
"An hour after they drink it," Garvey said with certainty. "That I remember."
"Great."
"Yes. Very much so!"
Garvey and Merric stuck to Alanna and Jon like glue. Alanna had started out talking with Neal, Neal's mother, and Kel at first, and had slowly made her way over to Jon. He, also, had started out talking with his wife and his two children, but had made his way slowly over to Alanna. They now talked and laughed and, shamelessly, flirting. No one paid any mind to them though, apparently this had grown into somewhat of a custom for them when they found themselves off palace grounds. Usually, they had a sort of teasing way of flirting. However, Merric and Garvey saw it for what it truly was--real flirting.
"Great Mithros," Merric suddenly said. "That powder..."
"It made them..." Garvey continued, realizing what it had done at the same time.
"...Want each other as more than friends," Merric finished. At least Garvey has some semblance of intelligence, unlike when he hung out with Joren.
They followed Alanna and Jon out to the guest dormitory. They laughed and flirted the whole way out.
"Jon! You know I hate the cold," Alanna said playfully, hugging her arms around her. "The snow makes me so cold."
"Well, come here, Lioness," Jon replied, just as playfully. He wrapped his strong arms around Alanna's small body and held her to him as they entered the dormitory.
Merric and Garvey ran to catch up, slipping just inside the door as it closed. They had already turned the corner to go up the stairs, though, so the duo serving the Master had to sprint to find them.
"Jon!" Alanna squealed.
He had pinned her against the wall and had started whispering something to her. Her cheeks turned as red as her hair and she hit his shoulder, but he caught her hand and captured her lips in the same movement.
Merric and Garvey retreated.
"Holy shit," Merric stated.
Garvey snorted. "I think 'holy fuck' suits this situation better."
"Holy fuck," Merric restated.
"Better." Garvey nodded. "...Merciful Mother, this will rip the Royal Family apart if they go past kissing."
"If? If?!" Merric repeated. "You fool, Alanna's infamous for her bed-hopping!"
Garvey laughed. "True. Wonder if they went to her room yet?"
Merric peeked around the corner. They, obviously, didn't have the danger of getting caught unless someone ran into them, but they didn't want to watch the Champion and the King make out in the hallway. They had better things to do with their time. "Well, they seem to want to get to her room but don't have the willpower."
Garvey froze.
"What? What is it, Garvey?" Merric shoved his arm.
"'And two chosen will bear a child, and in His name He will claim the child as His heir,'" Garvey quoted again.
"What the hell do you mean by that?" Merric grabbed the man from Runnerspring by the collar and shoved him against the wall.
"The Abscador Scroll had a prophecy in it. In fact, the Abscador Scroll itself is a prophecy. It includes spells to aide the prophecy. You and I, the Master chose us for his messengers. I thought that the 'two chosen' were him and Kel, but..." he stopped and looked around the corner, shuddering at what he saw. He led Merric to the door and opened it, letting it shut with a bang a couple moments later. "I think they'll have a child, and the Master will name it his heir."
Merric let this sink in. "Nine months from now is...July. I guess the Master has his sights set on the autumn equinox then, hm?"
"I guess so..."
"Did anyone see where Alanna went?" Neal asked after she had gone absent for an hour.
Thayet frowned. "I haven't seen Jon since he talked to her."
"Maybe Jon went to bed early?" Buri suggested. "Or Alanna did."
"I think I saw them leave together," Gary spoke.
"Oh." Everyone relaxed. Well, as long as Jonathan and Alanna had gone off somewhere together, they would fare all right. They just liked to talk, and maybe they had something important to discuss. Regardless, the answer satisifed everyone.
Neal's mother left abruptly, without saying goodnight to anyone. Neal frowned. He knew his mother didn't feel well and he had tried to sneak herbs or other medicine into her food but she always found it and ordered Cook to make her a new meal. She apparently had no desire to go on living, but Neal kept trying. The day before (the day after the funeral, October 15), he had sneaked into his mother's room and healed some of the black cloud of death sitting in her chest. He saw the improvement the following morning, October 16. She sat a little straighter at the dining table and spoke more often than she had the day before. Neal resolved to sneak into her room again that night and heal a little more of the cloud away. He would at least prolong the time she had left to live, if not completely cure her of the black cloud. Part of it was natural, that part he couldn't heal, but the rest of it was just the desire not to live any long and lack of proper nutrients on her part.
Neal watched as everyone started to trickle back to their rooms, soon leaving only himself and Kel in the parlor.
"Goddess," Kel said, sighing. He sat down on a chair and found Kel in his lap moments later. "This seems more tiring that knight training."
Neal chuckled, folding his arms around her waist as she curled up against him. "Quite true. And as duke of Queenscove, I'll need to put up with this a lot. I wonder how Father did it?"
"A steward," Kel mumbled against him.
"You sound sleepy," he murmured. He heard a small affirming noise from her and lifted her from his lap, an arm under her shoulders and an arm under her legs. He carried her upstairs and deposited her on her bed. "Goodnight, love," he said softly, kissing her gently and extinguishing all of the candles but one in her room. He then left, closing the door on his way out, and let himself into his own room after making sure everyone had safely gotten into bed.
Jon had magically shown up in his own bed after two and a half hours of absence. He nor Alanna would remember their brief tryst until Alanna's third trimester. By then it would be too late for them to do anything about the child. They would have it for two months, and then, on September 23 of the next year, the Master would claim the infant as his heir.
Neal and Kel had no knowledge of this passing. As far as Kel knew, the Master had decided to leave her alone, and she would revel in it for as long as she could.
The next morning, October the seventeenth, Alanna woke up and sneezed. She rolled out of bed and washed her face in the icy cold basin of water sitting by her window and sneezed again. Looking around the room warily, she murmured one word: "Sorcery." And sneezed again.
Fumbling for her ember stone, Alanna reached for her sword with the other hand. As soon as she gripped the stone, her urge to sneeze suddenly vanished. Frowning, Alanna sighed. She saw no magic and felt no sorcery. The moment she released the ember stone, though, she sneezed three times in a row.
Gary knocked on her door and asked her if she was all right.
"Yes. I think I've caught a cold, or something," Alanna answered, sneezing again.
"I see. Usually when you sneeze so much, you've found sorcery afoot," Gary said.
"True. But I don't see any," she told him. "Don't worry, go back about your business. Shouldn't you head back to Cythera soon?"
Gary chuckled. "Yes. Cythera and our little one. I'll leave tomorrow, I think."
"Take Raoul and Buri with you," she called after him. "And Myles!"
Gary paused on his way to his room and replied, "Anyone else?"
"No. You, Raoul, Buri, and Myles need to head on out. Now leave, Gary! I want to get dressed," Alanna ordered. She heard Gary retreat and hurriedly dressed, spelling her clothes for warmth.
She hurried out into the main hall of the dormitory, dashed out into the snow, and came, shivering, to the door to the main body of the castle. Once inside, she slipped into the only seat by the hearth left: the one by Jonathan. Of course, she knew nothing of what had transpired the evening prior, and would have no idea until much later. Regardless, when she sat down next to him, she sneezed three times in a row, and cursed like a foot soldier.
"Alanna?" Jonathan asked worriedly. He held a hand to her forehead. "You don't feel like you're running a fever or anything..."
She pulled away from him, drawing her coat further around herself. "I hate the snow. I hate the snow. Why didn't you remind me that Queenscove always snows so gods-damned early?"
Jonathan chuckled. "I think you should go visit the Bloody Hawk for awhile, Lioness. By the time we get back to Corus, we'll only have a few weeks before it starts snowing there."
"I hate the snow. I hate the snow. I hate the snow," she went back to chanting. He shook his head and added his own warmth spell to Alanna's clothes, making her sneeze again. "Don't do that!" she kicked him and proceeded to sink into her warm clothes.
"Ow!" Jon rubbed his shin. "That hurt."
"Gee, I'm sorry. My foot just wanted to meet your shin," Alanna told him scathingly.
"Grumpy," Jon muttered.
"Yes," Alanna agreed.
They fell silent. They didn't have to sit long in the quiet before Cook and the servants came to distribute the breakfasts among the guests. At the head of the table sat, as always, Neal's mother with Neal and Kel on either side of her, and the rest of the guests from there.
Merric and Garvey sat in their niche again. "So," Merric said. "Did you sleep well?"
"Like a baby," Garvey replied.
Merric had spent the better part of the previous night contemplating just how painfully they would kill him once they realized he had betrayed Tortall. He also thought about the prophecy that Garvey had shared with him, wondering just how long he had to decide whether the Master's death for him would suit him more honorably than a hanging for high treason.
"How long before she figures out she got pregnant?" Merric wondered aloud.
"I'd give it two weeks," Garvey estimated.
Merric nodded. "Yeah. Two weeks." Then, "We had better hope she sees George in the next two weeks."
Garvey laughed.
"Hey. Why haven't we had any orders concerning Kel lately?" Merric asked suddenly.
"I told you, the Master wants to make her his Queen. He won't hurt his Queen anymore than he has to," Garvey shrugged. "But if you want to mention the situation with her and Neal, well, I put his letter to his fiancee in the man who's courting Kel's bed."
Merric took a moment to process this. "You put Neal's letter to Yuki in Dom's bed? Why did you do that?"
"To cause trouble, of course," Garvey smirked. "About time to get that little bitch back for what she did to Joren."
"Don't call her a bitch," Merric glared at Garvey.
"I forgot you had befriended her," Garvey sighed. "You act a lot like one of us, so I just figured you had ditched the whole 'righteous hero' crap."
Merric rolled his eyes and fell silent.
Neal took Kel aside as she headed out to one of the rooms deep in the castle walls. She had taken to exploring the spacious structure, unlike the one at Mindelan, and found herself making a mental map. She flipped Neal over her shoulder when he grabbed her.
"Ow!"
"Oops," she said, aloof.
"You sound so sincere," he grumbled, rolling over and standing. "I have something I want to show you."
"What do you want to show me?" she asked as he took her hand and began to lead her through the Queenscove catacombs.
"It's a surprise."
She sighed and allowed him to lead her where he wanted. When they finally came to a halt, she found herself in complete darkness. "Neal? Where did you take me?"
"Hold on a second. You're less patient that Alanna," he told her. She saw several spots of green fire floating slowly away from Neal and when they halted, they illuminated the room with the wicks of the candles in which they lit.
Kel looked up, awed. She saw books shelves towering up against all the walls, a mural on the ceiling, and a lush carpet on the floor underneath her. It was a cozy little library. A case on the back on the wall presented swords from members of the Queenscove family long gone, along with various other trinkets: a set of gauntlets, a dagger in a golden sheath inscribed with the Queenscove coat-of-arms, and coins from other countries.
"This is beautiful," Kel breathed.
Neal looked at Kel, shut the door behind them, and hugged her from behind.
"Nowhere near as beautiful as you."
Kel blushed furiously and answered, "Flattery gets you nowhere."
He kissed her neck. "But it can get me you, can't it?"
"Neal!"
"Shut up and kiss me."
"Okay, fine. But I'm only doing it 'cause you want me too."
"Fine by me."
