CHAPTER THREE
Jared Sharade was a reckless young man, not very reliable and not exactly famous for his good judgment. Each year, after a summer full of indiscretions that often involved some of the finest young ladies of the Black Woods court, Jacen would sent him away for a while to let things cool off. At the Annual Winter Banquet, Jared would reappear, fresh as a lettuce, ready for another season of young love.
This year Jared's reappearance would be somewhat overshadowed by the first official presentation of his brother's wife, Queen Darla. In truth neither Jared nor Darla cared that much about these affairs.
"Brother Dearest!" a male voice yelled, opening the doors of the royal bedchamber. "Your wonderful Baby Bro is here!"
"Are you looking for Jacen?" Darla asked, walking to him. She was wearing a pair of black trousers and a white shirt that were a few of sizes too big for her, because both belonged to Jacen. The whole high heels and big skirt look had never been her thing; she was tired of fighting with the fluffiness of the gowns that were proper for her position so Darla had took on borrowing Jacen's clothes, without really asking for them first to wear during the day.
"Yep." Jared said nodding and eying her quizzically.
"He is not here. Left early. Don't ask me where, he didn't say."
"He never says much, does he?" Jared asked smiling, "So, you're the Missus?"
"Also known as Darla."
"Great. I'm Jared."
"The Wonderful Baby Bro?"
"That's right." He said shaking her hand and deciding he liked her. "Want breakfast?"
Jacen had been looking for his brother since he found out Jared had arrived, but so far he hadn't seen him. He walked into the dining room, checking on the preparations for the Winter banquet. Then something caught his attention - it was a giggling girly voice. Seated on the floor, Darla and Jared were playing cards.
"C'mon!" Darla was saying. "Get serious, how do you expect to rule the world without a poker face?"
"One: we are playing Go Fish! Not poker" Jared said laughing "Two: Jace is the ruler not me, thank God. And three: I seriously doubt a poker face is required to rule the world."
"You're funny." Darla kept on laughing, and Jacen realized he had never actually heard her laugh.
"Yeah, I know. Imagine what a sad world this would be without my superior intellect and general state of wonderfulness."
"No matter how high you're seated, you're still seated on your ass, Mr. Wonderful." Darla said all serious, looking at the cards, Jared looked puzzled and Jacen chuckled, Darla was always dropping cryptic little comments like that. "And you just lost three games in a row."
"I know, I know. Haven't really played this game in a while. Jace used to play with me when we were kids but then…" Jared paused, when he spoke again his voice was deeper, more mature and Darla looked up. "Then our parents died, and he became the king, and suddenly cards games were a stupid way to pass the time."
"Being young and facing great responsibility does strange things to you - you'll act like a grown up, all confident, bossy even, trying to cover how really scared you are." Darla said, and her voice also sounded more mature. "Marcus says that I only yell when I know I'm not right -to cover fear, fear of doing things wrong, of a bad judgment call that might get someone else hurt. I don't think Jacen meant it, but some things change and you can't help it."
"I know" Jared said slowly. Darla looked at him; Jared looked a lot like Jacen: tall, dark and handsome, and you could tell right away they were family. He sighed. "Hey, do you play sabbac?" He asked, all trace of maturity lost in his voice.
"Of course," she said brightly handling him the stack of cards. "You deal."
Jacen walked away from them.
.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
There had been no doubt in Elena's Carbonell mind that she was going to be the Queen of the Black Woods. She thought, as everyone else, that Jacen would marry her. The news of his marriage to the Wolf Land's princess came as a shock that broke her heart. Elena had gone back to the palace to see who this girl was, this princess who took Jacen away from her. She wanted to see her rival, sure Elena wasn't giving up on Jacen that easily, whether he was married or not.
Elena wanted to be the most beautiful woman in the banquet, so she was heading back to her room to get ready. Darla was walking down the hallway to the royal bedchamber, engrossed in a book without paying much attention to anything else around her. Elena bumped into Darla, who just changed the page and kept reading.
"Idiot, watch where you're going." Elena said, annoyed. Darla turned around and closed her book, looking at Elena. Most of the women were intimidated by Elena, but Darla wasn't the type to be intimidated.
"Say again?" she asked politely.
"You heard me the first time: watch where you're going."
"I'll do it if you do it and only if you ask nicely," Darla said, turning again to leave
"You don't know who am I, do you?" Elena asked.
"A very rude person who bumps into people and then asks for apologies?"
"Who the hell do you think you are to talk to me like that?" Elena asked. She was used to everyone doing what she told them to. Before, Jacen had even given her permission to run the palace since he didn't had the time to take care of all the little details and functions. But that was before he married, and Elena still half expected everyone to bow to her and do as she said even when the palace had a rightful mistress now. "I'm going to tell the king about this."
"Go right ahead." Darla said in a bored voice. "He is right behind you."
"What is going on here?" Jacen asked looking alternately at Elena and Darla, the two women couldn't be more different
"This woman offended me," Elena whined, expecting Jacen to take her side.
"I assume this your jealous ex-girlfriend." Darla said calmly to Jacen, and then eyed Elena carefully. "For what I was told, I expected her to be prettier." Elena was pretty, with true blue eyes in a round face with delicate features and golden hair, but Darla was just being mean out of annoyance.
"Darla," Jacen said after a pause "Just go to our room. I'll deal with Elena."
"As you wish." She said and walked away.
"So you dumped me for her?" Elena said, venom in her voice. "For a silly girl that dresses like a man and is the daughter of your father's enemy?"
"Is not your business who I married or why. Darla is my wife and the queen of this kingdom, and whether you like it or not, you ought to show her more respect."
……-----,
Twenty minutes had passed since Jacen got into the chamber he shared with Darla before he told her "Elena isn't that bad."
"I don't trust her." Darla answered, looking out the window and playing with her necklace, the Sharade family crest. She was just realizing that she hadn't taken it off since her wedding, already a month ago.
"Why? You just met her, and I'm telling you she is not that bad."
"Never trust someone who wants what you've got," Darla said in her cryptic little way. "Friend or not, envy is an overwhelming emotion."
"I wish that for once you would stop talking as if everything were a lesson, and that you would say something without making it a pronouncement," Jacen murmured.
"I wish that for once you would stop muttering under your breath behind my back and tell me what you think, and that you would link more than ten words when you talk to me," Darla said out loud. "But it is not like we have a fairy godmother, right?"
Jacen and Darla didn't speak while they walked to the dining room. Jacen took his place at the head of the table, and Darla sat to his right. Jacen started to discuss politics with Sean and his father, Sir Eric. Jared and Darla exchanged stories about people they knew. Jared happened to intimately know most of the other female guests at the table since he was kind of a Casanova. And Darla found herself telling him stories about her friends in the Wolf Lands' Army.
"There is Hector, he is an idiot but a good hearted idiot, which are usually the worst kind," Darla was saying. "One time we had to go into an interview with Commander Wells so he would let us join his unit, and the first thing Hector did was get up in a chair and yell 'Lt. Bashful A. Stupidenssen presenting for duty, sir.' And all Wells said was 'I see you're a lunatic, you'll fit just fine here.' After that we called Hector 'Stupidenssen, Bashful A.' for a whole year."
"It sounds like fun. I always wanted to join the military, but Jacen never allowed it. He won't even let me get close to a battlefield." Jared said carelessly and Jacen fixed his gaze on Darla, wanting to hear what she would say next.
"It is not fun," Darla said, moving around the peas with her fork "Your brother did well in not letting you go. It's true that I had some good times with my friends but the battlefield is awful. It smells like blood and death, there is panic everywhere; you lose friends and family there. And the sound, the sound is something you never forget: a man yelling in pain, crying for help with what might very well be his last breath. Soon you understand that there is no help possible. Soon you realize that war is about and death: needless, stupid death."
End of Chapter Three.
Ok, I'll admit it, this was more of a filler. I wanted to show that Darla could be funny and not so serious; she is nice and open with Jared because he is nice and open with her. Jacen and Darla have communication issues as you can see, but they'll work it out. Jared actually started like a very obnoxious, annoying person, but he kind of grew on me and I wanted to show that Jacen also cared for his family even when he sometimes doesn't shows it, I think he hasn't show it yet but he will.
What else? What else? Oh yes:
Thanks to everyone who reviewed:
One Who Reviews, Eve, Eris wannabe: Thanks!
DH L'Orange: Thanks, and my Spanish isn't that better, trust me!
Karli: For the grammar improvement the credit is Ailleann, my patient beta; Jacen is a man of honor that's true. Nothing has happened between them yet, they have to fall for each other first, they are not the kind of people that take sex and love lightly.
E, Tracey, Shards of Dawn, Hailly and Adriane (who reviewed the first chapter): Thanks!
Oh, and I do know about Hawksong, there is a funny story behind how I crossed paths with the book and starts with a QuickKwiz called "Which Delicious Man of Fiction Would You Bed?" (I got Zane). Anyway, I bought the book but is not arriving here till June 26th so I haven't read it yet. Is it good?
http:www.kwiz.biz/showquiz.php?quizid23 that's the address of the quiz, if someone is interested!
Thanks for reading!