Chapter Twenty-six: Unanswered Questions
"Are you sure it's them?" Kel asked. She knew the answer already, only the Chosen Warriors sailed boats with red sails, and only their command colour was red. The lone man on deck, the Prince, wore the uniform of the Emperor's Chosen Warriors.
Neal cleared his throat. "It's definitely them," he replied. Riding on her right, he was more than happy to turn to face her rather than the ominous fleet that would the death of them all.
Kel swallowed. This was it. She was going to order her men into a battle that none of them would come out of. She glanced to the cove where she could see Sofia lying in the sand. Sofia glanced up, and seeing Kel's glance, she smiled encouragingly. It's easy enough for her to smile, Kel thought in an uncharacteristically angry thought. She'll live to see dawn tomorrow, we won't. Tomorrow, the dawn rays would be shining down upon the bodies of the first casualties of the war with the Yamani Islands and the Warriors who killed them would be advancing inland, reaping havoc and destruction as they went.
"Right, to your places men! Don't let them near the town!" she yelled, sounding a lot more confident than she felt. She crouched low of Hoshi's mane and rode hard for the hills with her men trailing behind her.
She saw Neal come up beside her. "Mithros be with you Kel," he said gently to her and at that moment he reminded Kel of his cousin. She swallowed and tried to ignore the sadness that welled up inside her as she remembered that she would never see Dom again.
"And with you Neal. Make sure you come out alive, or Yuki'll have my head," she joked, trying to lighten the mood.
"What about Dom having mine?" Neal retorted and Kel wished that he hadn't said that. She didn't need the distractions now. Although she would die, she wanted to die having killed as many of the enemy as possible, even if that did mean killing acquaintances.
There was something hauntingly familiar about the scenery that now faced him. Mist rolled towards hills that were scattered with odd pockets of trees. He could just see a village to his left, it was very rustic and would make an easy target. His men had orders to kill anyone and everything that moved. Spare no one, the Emperor had said in his commanding tones.
"Where have I seen this before?" Ednar asked himself out loud. There was no one on the deck to see him, the Crown Prince, talking to himself. Suddenly he was back in the cold, hard room of the Tribulation. He felt his targita slipping out of his hands, just as it had done in the Tribulation, the arrow thudded into his back and then he saw Kel's serene face, a face that he had seen her wearing many times when they fought side-by-side. He was aware of the blade slicing through the air towards his neck and his fought to keep his eyes open, he wouldn't want to be found with his eyes closed, only cowards closed their eyes to death.
Taking a deep breath, he shouted out a command in quick Yamani and soon all fourteen boats came to a halt about a hundred metres from the cove where they would land. Looking around him, he glanced the black head of a woman laying in the sand, no doubt an ambush.
He ran below deck and found the ship's captain.
"Where's your son?" he demanded of him.
The Captain looked proud that Ednar was asking where his son was, maybe the Crown Prince had a use for him. "In the kitchens, your Highness. No doubt he is pilfering food like always."
Ednar nodded. "Thank-you. I've got a scouting mission for your son." With that, he jogged towards the kitchens, slowing to a brisk walk whenever he saw anyone; it would not do to have them see the Crown Prince running.
The Captain's son was a young, wiry child, no doubt a thief, but he had the grace of a cat and it was evident in everything he did. Plenty of times the child had slipped into the room whilst Ednar was with friends and no one had noticed until they turned around to look where he happened to be standing, by chance.
"You, boy," Ednar yelled to him, and the child turned around, a fresh bun in his mouth and quickly fell to his knees as a commoner should. "Stand," Ednar ordered and the boy did just that. "You shall take a small boat out to the land and scout around in woods to tell me if there is anyone hiding in there. If there is, look to see who is in charge of the men there."
The child nodded and ran to do his Prince's bidding immediately. Unlike his father, he didn't feel proud to be working for the Prince, it was just something that he had to do. The Captain hadn't quite instilled patriotism into his young tearaway son, not quite yet, but the child was sure to get plenty of beatings when they got home to instil such patriotism.
Ednar watched as the child readied a boat with speed that suggested he didn't only sail with his father, as was the Yamani law. He, the Crown Prince, would have to suggest to the Emperor that they employed more young children, because as he watched the child landing and carefully working his way across the beach, he realised that young children would make the perfect spies in hostile countries. After all, who would suspect a child?
When the child came back, Ednar was playing cards with Mykkael and Tor'aro. Both were his age and spent their days guarding the Crown Prince. Tor'aro was a distant cousin of Ednar and Mykkael was a year mate, a man he had never got along with until he had no choice to. Mykkael didn't believe that women could fight, and Ednar's friendship with Kel had meant that barriers were placed between Ednar and Mykkael, but now, in light of Kel's treachery, they had become firm friends.
The child said nothing as he slipped into the room; it wasn't his place to talk to any of the three in the room. Unless one of them questioned him, he couldn't talk to them. Instead he sank to his knees with his head touching the floor.
"What did you find?" Mykkael growled to the child. His eyes were what set him apart from other Yamanis, and they had become the bane of his life. They showed his true heritage, for Mykkael wasn't pure Yamani, he was the result of his mother's indiscreet behaviour with a Scanran slave. Mykkael had blue eyes, very pale blue eyes.
"There are troops hidin' in the woods, I counted as many as I could, but I can't count past thirty. There's probably about twice that many. There seem t'be two leaders. A man who sparkled with green magic. He was tall with brown hair an' like the rest wore blue and silver. An' then there was a woman! She was that Lady Kel, the traitor," he reported, raising his head only slightly. When Mykkael dismissed him on behalf of the Crown Prince, he scuttled out of the room, glad to be away from the people who could have him killed for the slightest mistake.
Mykkael and Tor'aro fell silent as the Crown Prince did. If their master didn't want to speak, then they wouldn't.
Ednar sat blankly, wondering what to make of the new information. He knew that the Tribulation had shown him Kel fighting his country so he would do something about…
Mykkael was startled as Ednar suddenly jumped up. Tor'aro wasn't however, he had known the Prince since the day he was born and was the only person, apart from the Emperor, who Ednar would listen to.
"Get me a small boat," Ednar ordered of Mykkael. "It needs to be just big enough to fit the three of us in." When Mykkael left to find the boat, Ednar turned to Tor'aro. "Find me a white, surrender flag," he told him with his teeth gritted.
Tor'aro raised his eyebrows. "Are you sure that's wise, Ed?" he asked, using a childhood nickname. "We can easily beat them."
Ednar sighed and dropped his head into his hands. In a muffled voice he explained how he had interpreted his Tribulation wrongly, and how it had resulted in the death of some of the most famous people in the Isles.
Tor'aro studied Ednar carefully. In many ways, Ednar would make the perfect Emperor when the time came, but he had a lot to learn to get there. And one of those lessons he had to learn was to give up any emotions he might have for his subjects. Tor'aro knew more than Ednar thought he knew, and one of those things was the short relationship that Ednar had had with Kel about four years ago. "You shouldn't do this," Tor'aro told the Prince quietly. "She isn't the woman you knew, she's a traitor, she and her country deserve everything that's coming."
Ednar looked up and he wondered why he was surprised that Tor'aro had placed his finger exactly on what was troubling him. His cousin had an uncanny ability to do that. Slowly, Ednar shook his head. "No, I think she is the same woman I knew. And we're surrendering."
Tor'aro sighed, ruffled Ednar's black hair and walked out of the room to find the flag that the young Prince had asked for. He sighed, the Prince would learn. The three of them would be slaughtered as they walked to shore, after all, if the traitor could try to kill her old Warrior Lord, Tait, she could easily kill the Prince and all who were with him. The traitor was cold, she had no emotions. She didn't hide them, she just didn't have any.
Minutes later, Tor'aro was trying to explain to angry Warriors what was going on. They were in an uproar, all wanted to kill the Tortallan scum.
"Fight if you want," Ednar yelled to them from the small boat. "But it will be dishonourable!"
The Warriors fell quiet, none wanted to risk their honour and they slowly dispersed back to their cabins where they started to put their weapons away.
"A surrender flag!" one of Neal's men said slowly and quietly. "A surrender flag!"
Kel looked at the man. "A what?" she asked keeping her voice level. She so badly wanted to believe him, but what were the chances of it?
Edric tapped her on the shoulder. "He's right, you know." He handed her a spyglass and pointed in the general direction of the flag.
Kel inhaled quickly when she saw it. It was flying from a small boat with three people on. She saw Mykkael and gritted her teeth, she studied the stranger on the boat with interest and moved onto the last figure. He was sat with his back to her, lounging against the bow of the small rowing boat, but she would recognise that figure anywhere. He had black, curly hair that was gathered back into a short ponytail. He turned slightly and Kel focussed in on the face. Deeply tanned skin, a large nose and dark orbs for eyes. A lone strand of hair fell into one of his eyes and she remembered showing him how to keep it behind his ears, using clips. "Ednar," she murmured as she handed the spyglass back to Edric.
"Who?" an inquisitive voice asked quietly from her side.
Kel turned to see Neal, and realised that she'd be better keeping the relationship she had had with Ednar to herself. "The Crown Prince," she told him as she mounted Hoshi. "Stay here, I'm going to meet them," she ordered to her men. As she started forwards, Neal followed her. "Neal," Kel hissed. "I'm doing this on my own."
Neal shook his head. "No you're not. I promised both Yuki and Dom that I would keep you safe, although I think Dom knew the promise I gave him would be futile. However, I still did promise that, so that means I'm not letting you go and meet the Crown Prince and his thugs alone."
Kel sighed, she was happy that the three of them, Neal, Yuki and Dom, cared about her enough to look after her, but she didn't really want Neal with her when she confronted the Prince. "Neal, this is something I have to do, and on my own. Ed wouldn't hurt me."
"Ed?" Neal asked with raised eyebrows.
Kel glared at him and resisted the urge to throttle him. "What about him?" she asked sweetly.
Neal grinned, but didn't say what was on the tip of his tongue, that his best friend and the Crown Prince probably had something going a few years back. He was oddly reminded of his old knight-mistress and the current King. He shook his head in answer to Kel's question. "Doesn't matter. But I'm coming with you."
Kel sighed and realised she wouldn't change Neal's mind, so the two of them rode down to the cove to meet the boat.
"So how do you know the Prince?" Neal asked with interest.
"I'm sure you know the story of the time when my mother saved the Imperial Treasures and we became some of the most respected people in the Isles?" When Neal nodded, Kel cleared her throat and continued, "Well, I was introduced to Ednar around that time. He was my age and we got on wonderfully most of the time. When I returned to the Isles to train, he was my year-mate, and I was the only who had the guts to treat him how we had when we were children, in other words, not really paying much attention to his heritage. When other people saw how I treated him, they tried, but failed miserably to treat him like an ordinary person. I was hated a lot of the way through my training because I was the Prince's friend." She didn't add that most hated her when she was a calawabi because she was involved with the Prince. That wouldn't be a wise thing to say to Neal. Whilst he was protective of her, he was also oddly protective of his cousin and if by some miracle they survived this, he would no doubt tell Dom and if he was going to know, Kel wanted it to her that told him, not Neal.
Neal nodded slowly and jumped easily out of the saddle onto the wet sand, then offered a hand to Kel. She stared at him in amazement, then, just to contrary, jumped the opposite way out of the saddle.
"I am perfectly capable of getting out of the saddle myself," Kel informed him as she looked around for a rock to sit on.
They sat together and watched as the small boat was hauled up to the dryer sand by Mykkael and the stranger. Whilst the two of them strained to pull the boat through the wet sand, Ednar sat almost pompously in the boat and let them pull him.
Neal watched as Kel smiled slightly at the sight, it was obviously something she was used to. She stood and walked over to the boat. Neal watched with interest as she acknowledged the blue-eyed man with an icy nod and the tall, slightly older man with a half-bow. Then, from his seat on the rock, he watched as she turned to Ednar. He could easily see the indecision in her eyes and then she bowed low, Tortallan style. The Prince smiled, hopped easily out of the boat and spoke to her briefly in Yamani. Kel returned to a straight standing position and looked slightly surprised as she was pulled into a tight hug.
Together they walked to where Neal was sitting, the two men trailing behind them. Neal jumped up and bowed. "Your Highness," he said politely in common.
"This is Sir Nealan of Queenscove," Kel told Ednar in common.
"A friend?" Ednar asked in the same language, presumably for Neal's benefit.
Kel obviously caught hidden undertones that Neal hadn't found in the heavy Yamani accent. "Only. As I'm sure your spies have told you, I've got someone else, just like you have."
That confirmed it for Neal.
Ednar smiled ruefully and said something briefly in Yamani, causing Kel to laugh. Then he shook his head. "My manners are slipping, Sir Nealan, you must forgive me. I have not yet introduced my friends." He turned to the two men standing behind him. "This is Warrior Mykkael and Warrior Tor'aro, also a relative. Mykkael, Tor'aro, this is Sir Nealan of Queenscove and Lady Knight Keladry of Mindelan."
The two men glared at her, and Kel only smiled back. Neal could see partly why she had made so many enemies in the Isles, she was capably of being perfectly contrary if she felt like it.
"To be blunt, I am a little surprised at the amount of warmth in your greetings," Tor'aro scolded the Prince. "She is a traitor and he is no better than scum."
Ednar turned and glared at Tor'aro. "This is my business, cousin. Keep your nose out of it." His voice was angry and softened as soon as he turned back to Kel. "I'm am sorry for Tor'aro's words, I'm sure he didn't mean them."
"And I'm sure he did," Kel replied. "But that doesn't bother me." She sat down on the rocks and gestured for everyone else to do the same. Glancing up to the cliffs, she could see some of her men had disobeyed her orders. They were laying in the long grasses with crossbows trained on the Prince and his men. She gave the man in the middle a wry smile, she knew that it was Edric. Who else would have the gall to disobey her so he could ensure her safety? She swallowed and turned to the Prince. "I'm sure that you didn't come all the way here, barely armed to talk about trivial matters."
"You're like your father," Ednar said softly, and Kel stiffened. How dare he bring her father into this? Whilst she was glad to see him again, and glad that they may have the chance to sort out the war, she couldn't forget that it was he who had been responsible for her father's death.
"Leave him out of it!" she snapped, her hazel eyes blazing and Ednar was obviously slightly put out to see such emotion in her face and Kel realised this and with some difficulty returned her face to its normal, calm, serene features.
Ednar nodded. "Very well. I've no idea how to start, as I don't recall having ever done this before, but I'd like to apologise for having men board your boat and try to kill you and your family. I know that saying sorry is no good, but at least I can say I've tried. And I am very sorry, horribly sorry."
Kel stared at him, not really taken in by his words. When, in the past, they had fought, he had always begged and pleaded, using smooth language, like he was now, to get his own way and to get Kel to forgive him. Now though, she was beginning to wonder whether he really meant it.
"I – I would like to offer you the chance to complete your Tribulation, as I now realise what I did wrong." He went on to explain exactly what Myles had told her and how he had found out too late. "I really am sorry."
Kel swallowed. "I can't. I…" she trailed off and when Neal placed a hand on her shoulder, she smiled at him and continued, "I can't. There is no way I can fight for a country that wants me dead." She held up her hand to stop Ednar's protestations. "You may not want me dead, but the rest of your country probably does. The Yamani Isles had my father killed, my mother and Warrior Lord are still missing. If I killed your friends, you'd find it hard to forgive me too."
Ednar sighed. "I know, but…I don't really want there to be a war. I don't want to go around killing your friends, people you know! And I'm sure that you don't want to fight and kill people you knew. Can't we at least try to negotiate?"
Kel smiled. "Now there's something that we both understand. Negotiation. Mind you, that could be quite difficult."
Neal watched as Ednar smiled awkwardly. "Yes, it could. But, I'd like to give it a try. Please?"
Kel nodded. "So would I. Only, I have no negotiation powers. I can't promise or barter until I get word from my King, and besides, who even says my King would want to negotiate?"
"He would," Neal said, speaking up. "You know he didn't want a war, especially not when we had been so close to securing a peace treaty with the Isles."
Kel nodded. "You're right." She turned to Ednar. "I think you should go home, discuss this with your father and get word to us when he has decided what he wants to do. You at least need to explain to him what your Tribulation was really showing him."
Ednar paled visibly, and Kel realised he was scared of admitting he had made a mistake to his father. "I suppose I should," he said, his voice was level and he was controlling his emotions perfectly now. He bowed to Neal and smiled at Kel. It looked like he was going to hug her again, but he settled for shaking her hand. "I shall see you soon, whether it be in battle or negotiations."
Kel nodded and said something briefly in Yamani, causing Ednar to smile awkwardly and blush slightly.
As the three Yamanis made their way to the boat and pushed it into the water, Neal asked, "What did you say to him?"
Kel smiled. "I wished him better luck in his current relationship than he had in…previous ones."
Neal grinned. "You are see-through. You meant in yours."
Kel glared at him. "You tell Dom, and you'll find a glaive coming your way very soon!"
Neal regarded her with a slightly strange suspicion. "So you aren't going to tell him?"
Kel shrugged. "When I tell him, it needs to come from me, not you."
Neal sighed. "I just think that Dom should know, but…I'll leave it to you."
Kel smiled. "Thanks." Then she turned to watch Ednar and his bodyguards. They were clambering into the boat. Ednar turned to her and held a hand up in a wave. "Ed!" Kel yelled, her voice sounding suddenly urgent. "Ed!" He looked towards her curiously. "What happened to my mother and Jamil?"
The Crown Prince turned away, ignoring her question.
A/N: Now isn't Ednar mean? I think I might start 'We Hate Ednar' club, even though he's one of my favourite characters to write. Ah well. ONLY ONE MORE CHAPTER TO GO!!!
Actually, I've a favour to ask of all you lovely reviewers/ If you know of any slightly unusual PotS pairings (i.e. Kel/Roald, Kel/Seaver, Kel/Faleron), could you let me know? Also, if anyone knows of any Kel/Thom or Kel/Lerant fics, please let me know, at the moment, they're two of my favourite pairings.
Hannah