Chapter Five - Painful Goodbyes
Early the next morning, Aly sought Nawat out and found him practicing archery with some of the Queen's Riders. His eyes filled with pain, he agreed to come riding with her, and they set out into the countryside. They stopped after an hour or so and sat down on the hill overlooking the city.
"I am going back home," he stated gravely, staring out over the valley. "My place is with my brethren, not amongst people who put their women up for auction as if they were horses."
Aly started. He was leaving her? Now? Just when she needed him the most? "But Nawat, why?"
He shook his head. "I cannot watch them chain you to that horrid man, not when the whole thing is my fault. I will go back, and find another mate in the flock. Besides, now that the tide is turning against the luarin oppressors, the raka will need all the help they can get from the crows. I must do my duty to the god." He held up a hand to silence her. "I leave tomorrow on a boat bound for Rajmuat, and that's the end of it. I will give the duchess and the ladies your regards."
She blinked back tears and sat in silence for several minutes, digesting all that he had said. She finally succumbed to her emotions and cried, not really wanting to believe him.
He put his fingers under her chin and lifted it so that she met his gaze. He kissed her deeply, and she put her arms around his neck and clung to him, not wanting to let go. "No," she whispered when he pulled back. "No!"
Nawat stood up and brushed off his tunic, a very human-like gesture. He grasped her hands and pulled her up to her feet. "I cannot see you again, Aly. I am leaving tomorrow, but I'm sure our paths will cross. Remember, we are both tools of the trickster. He brought us together and he won't allow us to be permanently torn apart. Until then..."
He mounted his horse and rode back towards the palace, leaving her on the hillside alone with nothing but her tears for company.
True to his word, Nawat was gone the next morning when she awoke. The reality of her situation was sinking in faster and faster. The earl of Ormane was sickly, and wanted to be able to see his grandchildren before he died. She had to seek help from someone.
That someone was her old friend Cecila of Althol. She found her in the rose garden sitting on a bench, trying without much luck to comfort Princess Lianne. Aly immediately put her own troubles aside and asked Cecila what was the matter.
Her friend shrugged, gray eyes wide and worried. "She's been like this for a half hour," she whispered. "Positively inconsolable!"
The princess looked up and grabbed Aly's hand. "Oh, oh, it's dreadful!"
"What's dreadful?"
"You mean you haven't heard?" Lianne wailed miserably. "I would have thought it would be all over the palace by now!" She sniffled and breathed raggedly for a few moments before continuing. "Well, everyone knows that my parents haven't exactly been getting along lately."
"Now there's an understatement," Cecila muttered. Although the king and queen's first twenty years had been harmonious, their marriage was starting to fall apart, much to the salacious delight of the courtiers.
Aly elbowed Cecila sharply and looked back to the princess. "Of course we all know that. So?"
"So earlier this morning, my mother storms in while we're all eating breakfast and goes positively stark raving mad, yelling at the top of her lungs that my father is a lecherous, cheating bastard, and that he can go to hell for all she cares. Then she storms out and was last seen galloping at full speed away from the palace with only a small retinue of her ladies-in-waiting."
Aly and Cecila exchanged a look. Neither of them could hardly even begin to imagine Queen Thayet doing such a thing, and they both knew all too well Lianne's tendencies to be...overly dramatic. It was common knowledge that Jonathan's eye had started to wander, but then again, he was one of the only kings in the Eastern Lands without a full harem of mistresses at his disposal. His fellow monarchs had forever made jibes about who was really ruling the country: the king, or his infamously headstrong wife?
The princess stood and wiped her eyes on her sleeves, looking forlorn and a little lost. "If either of you needs me," she whispered, "I shall be in my chambers. Good day."
They waited until she had gotten out of earshot before dissolving into giggles. Aly took her vacated place on the bench and shook her head in disbelief. "I wonder how much of this is true. The gods know I love Lianne, but really. Sometimes she just makes such a big deal out of everything."
Cecila's face grew solemn. "She might have exaggerated Thayet's outburst, but by all accounts the queen did leave this morning, and no one seems to know where she's gone."
"I can't imagine she's so upset about this," Aly mused, leaning back and looking up at the clear blue cloudless sky. "Jonathan flirts as easily as he breathes, she should know that. And what king since the beginning of time hasn't taken a mistress at some point in his career?" She smiled wickedly. "King Roald doesn't count."
"He was hardly a king anyway. Everyone knows his brother-in-law made the decisions."
They sat in silence for several more moments, enjoying the beauty of the day and the ability to just be in the other's company.
"Aly?"
"Hmm?"
Cecila looked at her earnestly. "Why did you leave the ball so early last night, and in such a manner? Everyone was talking about it."
Aly sighed and crossed her arms. "It was nothing, only Kentar being his typically annoying self. Honestly, I don't think I can marry him. He'll drive me absolutely mad within a month!"
"Like the queen," her friend replied, giggling. "I like Kentar; he's always been perfectly nice to me."
"That's because your parents are normal."
"I like your parents!"
She gave an unladylike snort of laughter. "Ha! You're one of the only ones."
"Oh, Aly," Cecila sighed exasperatedly, "everyone likes them, they're just sort of...awed by their unconventiality. I think it's rather charming."
"Yes, well, I've been paying the price for that 'charming unconventiality' my entire life." She stood up and smoothed out her skirts. "It's gotten rather uncomfortably warm out here. I think I'll go cool off inside."
"Aly, wait!" Cecila called after her, but she didn't turn around or give any sign of acknowledging that she'd heard her friend. Instead, she marched purposefully towards the door leading back inside. So purposefully, in fact, that she failed to see where she was going and collided head-on with someone much taller and more built than she.
Aly stepped back, slightly dizzy, rubbing her head. "I'm so sorry," she murmured, dropping a curtsy. "How unbelievably clumsy of me."
"It's quite all right," a familiar male voice assured her. Shaking her head to clear the spinning, she looked up into the face of the king. "Y-your Majesty..." She stumbled slightly.
He caught her elbow and steered her towards the covered walkway connecting two wings of the palace. He smiled kindly at her as she dropped rather ungracefully onto a seat. "It's a wonder more ladies don't faint out of doors in this weather. I can scarcely see how you manage to breathe in that gown."
She fanned herself vigorously. "Oh, it doesn't take too long to get used to it, sire. Just a simple matter of being able to hold your breath for several hours on end."
Jonathan laughed at that. "My dear, your ability to find humor in any situation amuses me. You'll only make yourself hotter doing that, didn't you know?"
"Of course. That's why I'm doing it, you see. That way, when I really do faint, everyone will be terribly worried and they'll pay me a good deal of attention for a few days." She frowned seriously. "But then, it's back to being ignored until I find yet another way to place myself in danger. A vicious cycle, really."
He reached out and gently patted her shoulder. For a moment there, Aly thought she saw a strange, not-too-chaste look cloud his eyes, but it was gone the next instant. She shook her head again, convinced it was the heat.
"There you are!" Cecila exclaimed, rushing towards them. The king stepped back and straightened, inclining his head politely. Cecila's eyes widened and she sunk into a curtsy, lowering her gaze respectfully.
Jonathan gave a little bow. "Lady Alianne, Lady Cecila, good day to you both."
"Good day to you too, sire," Cecila called. Once he was out of earshot she turned to her friend and shook her head. "You'd better watch out. I saw the way he was looking at you."
Aly wrinkled her nose. "Eww!" she squealed girlishly. "That's absolutely ridiculous, Cecila! Not to mention disgusting! I mean, he's like my father."
Her friend patted her dark red hair to make sure it was still in place and shrugged. "Fine, deny it all you want, but I'm just telling you what I saw, and that was no fatherly expression on his face."
Aly rolled her eyes and stood up, only shaky for a moment on her feet. "Fine, go ahead and think that. Just don't divulge your speculations, because the gossips will have me in his bed by dinner tonight."
When she returned to her rooms that evening to change for dinner, her mother, newly returned from the war, was waiting. She had previously not spoken a word to her only daughter since her arrival, being extremely angry over the whole situation with Nawat. Apparently, her sentiments had changed little.
"What on earth did you think you were doing this afternoon?" Alanna cried as soon as her daughter had shut her bedroom door behind her. "Flirting and carrying on with the king? Honestly, Aly, that's disgraceful."
Aly froze in disbelief. She had been with Cecila since their conversation, so she couldn't have told anyone. Were their other witnesses who had made a big deal out of nothing? "I wasn't flirting with the king, Mother, I was being amusing. There is a great difference."
"I don't care what you were doing, since the entire court now seems to think you're his latest infatuation! You could be ruined by this!"
She glared at her mother, sick of being endlessly berated. "Jonathan flirts with every girl, so why am I any different? And since when do you have the right to lecture me on my reputation?"
"Oh, don't even go there." Alanna threw up her hands in frustration. "You've given your father and me more trouble than both of your brothers combined!"
Aly stepped back, shocked that her mother was willing to play as dirty as she was. "Oh yes, your little precious angels, so innocent, so perfect! Tumbling girls left and right, drinking themselves senseless, carousing with friends around the city until dawn. What fine, moral, upstanding behavior that is! And yet when someone sees me having a humorous conversation with the king and starts some vivious rumor, you act as if I've done you some kind of grievous wrong." She opened the door. "Now, if you please, there's a banquet tonight that I need to get ready for. See if the king looks twice at me! See if he asks me to dance even once!"
Her mother stormed out, still angry, and Aly slammed the door after her. This is just wonderful, she thought disgustedly as she rang for Mora. I don't think it could get any worse than this.
She was right about the banquet at least; Jonathan paid absolutely no attention to her whatsoever. Aly sat silently, listening to the other ladies at her table go on about the latest piece of gossip. Occasionally, one of them would sneak a glance at her, which she would return with a bland, innocent smile. Between courses, Kentar wandered over and tapped her lightly on the shoulder. Amicably, he asked, "Could I speak with you for a moment?"
Aly didn't hesitate, smiling sweetly. "Of course." She took his arm and they walked casually towards one of the exits, leaving a flurry of whispers and scandalized stares in their wake.
He led her towards a terrace looking out over the city. She leaned against the stone rail, enjoying the slight breeze and the warm summer's night. "If this is about that ridiculous rumor..."
"You know it is," he interrupted rather rudely. "I'm just warning you to be careful. The king changed greatly in your absence, so much so that there are some of us who don't even recognize him to be the same man he once was. He's aging, and when he looks at the queen he sees her growing older too. It's a disheartening thing for a man once thought of as the most handsome prince in the Eastern or Southern Lands.
"He wants to feel young again, don't you see? And then you return to court, so youthful and beautiful, and he sees in you something of his former self. You have the same lust for life, the same vigor. It's almost uncanny."
Aly raised her eyebrows skeptically. "And you know this how?"
"Trust me, my lady, I know." He looked at her earnestly. "I want you to promise me that you won't let him compromise you."
"So it's true then," she said quietly, leaning against the railing. She felt a strange rush of emotions, threatening to engulf her in their enormity. She waved him away. "Please, Kentar, go back. I just need to be by myself right now."
He bowed slightly and returned indoors, leaving her alone with her thoughts. She sank to her knees, tears pouring unchecked down her cheeks.
A/N: Before you accuse me of being sick-minded and twisted, remember that the basis for Trickster's Choice and Trickster's Queen is Tudor England, which conveniently happens to be my area of expertise. I'm just making this fic as Tudor-esque as I hope the real book will be! It's so Henry and Anne, only I definitely don't plan on him divorcing Thayet/Katherine for her, although you never know where the story might take me. It has a mind of its own, you see.