Secrets Revealed
Next chapter, and I forgot the disclaimer in the last. Sherwood who is the all-knowing lady of wisdom owns all this, not me. I'll let you know when I add in my own original characters if I do.
Erkith: I knew I'd cause some confusion there. Wait and see whom it is before wondering how one character will react.
ShannonLynn: Well, they have been getting to know each other for 9 months now. Mel is 6 months pregnant and I randomly chose about 3 months of matrimonial bliss for her and our dear Danric before they had children. It's short, but it works. Anyway, she and Tamara should have become very good friends by now if they've been seeing each other pretty much daily to talk in the afternoon for 9 months.
Wake-Robin: hmm, I am not going to tell you that yet. .
Anyway, on with the actual story so you don't have to listen to my jabbering. Thanks to my reviewers so far, perhaps the quicker I get new chapters out the quicker I will be forgiven for my months of laziness...
Russav started like a hare and turned to face the one who had startled him, truly startled himself. "What in the blazes are you doing here?" He demanded.
With a twinkle in her eyes the woman covered his mouth gently. "You don't want my queen or my cousin to know you were spying on them, now, do you?"
"Nee..." He glanced at the thin tapestry that separated the rooms and lowered his voice to an infuriated whisper. "These are Danric's private rooms."
"And he made it a free country when he assumed the throne." Russav took a step forward and she took one back, a bit afraid that he would actually try to strangle her this time. "He sent me to find you."
"How did he know...?"
Nee smiled gently and shook her head. "You two have been friends for as long as you have been alive. I'm surprised you can't read each other's thoughts completely."
He sighed wearily and bent towards the tapestry again, hoping to hear even the end of the conversation and find out who it was his beloved was taken with.
"And Dalon (Author's note: Dalon is my character, he's sort of just a random courtier.) is so tall he surely must have used magic to accomplish it." Tamara was saying, chuckling softly.
"He is rather handsome. He'll make a young lady proud one day."
"I do hope that day is soon. I am so tired of his holding back all the time."
"You just wish he would come out and say it, hmm?" Mel's tone was more tired than Russav had heard it be in a long time. But it was not that he was concentrating most on.
"Yes. Anything would be better than this constant waiting." Tamara sighed and he could hear the rustling of her gown as she stood. Russav hardly heard it. He was too busy trying to remember how to breathe. "Well, my queen, you must rest now. You can hardly keep your eyes open, and our good king will throttle me if I let you tire yourself any longer."
Another male voice spoke up then as Danric entered his wife's room. "Tamara, my dear, I would never throttle a woman."
"No, my husband, you merely fuss her to death. I thought you were looking up something in the archives."
"I was just coming to check on you before continuing."
"What is it you are researching so thoroughly, Danric?" Tamara asked.
"This and that. Nothing I will bother you with for now." Russav could not hear anything more, but he knew what happened as though he had seen it. Tamara curtsied gracefully, flipping her fan in what seemed a casual manner, then left the royal couple to themselves.
But what he could not accept was that she had unknowingly left him with a shattered heart.
Nee touched his shoulder gently and he cleared his throat. "I have heard that this Dalon is a fairly eligible bachelor. I hope the both of them are happy with the way matters turn out for them." He told her in a toneless voice.
"Are you just letting her go, then?"
"I cannot keep her against her will, Nee."
"But you never had her!" He winced at her words and turned away. "I'm sorry, Russav... that's not what I meant..."
"I appreciate your efforts, Nee, but I must leave you now. I have some business that needs attending to. Good afternoon."
He left Danric's rooms and his friends as quickly as he could, trying to ignore the fact that he was slowly bleeding to death inside.
Fool! Thrice a fool, to not have realized what an exquisite gift she was and won her while he had the chance. Now she was lost to him forever, in love and won by another man who most likely had no idea that she even existed. The injustice of it all cut him again. He had known her better than anyone else, and loved her more than anyone, he was sure of it. What right had this Dalon to take her from him?
"This is her choice." He reminded himself of this with words as well as thoughts in order to strengthen his conviction. "She never loved you and never will. You are a fool, Russav, a cursed fool."
He had not been paying attention to where he was going and found himself running into something that was warm and definitely solid. A soft scent of peach blossoms reached him and he closed his eyes, recognizing Tamara instantly without having to see her startled expression as she looked up to see who had bumped into her. But he did look, because he could not bear not to, and he was surprised to see that she had been so lost in thought that the bump had startled her more than she cared to admit.
"My apologies, my friend. I must have dozed off on my feet." Russav murmured.
"Perhaps you ought to get more sleep, Russav. After all, one has a difficult time functioning during the daylight hours when one spends all night awake."
"And what is it you imagine I do at night to keep me sleeping during the day?" He could imagine a few answers she could give him; most of them were highly inappropriate.
"Well... allow me to hazard a guess. Do you write? Or read histories snuck from the archives? Or perhaps you have been helping Danric run the country since Mel hasn't been allowed to deal with the stress of it since the good king learned of her pregnancy?"
Russav could not help but let a puzzled look slip past his mask of calm he had to keep in front of her. If he lost the mask there'd be nothing to keep him from scooping her up in his arms and kissing her until the world ceased to exist. "How did you know I did those things?"
"Mora has been checking up on you. She told me that you've been running yourself ragged."
It helps me forget you and these foolish thoughts, he thought. "Danric cannot be left to deal with the crown alone, and he refuses to allow Mel to help him anymore."
"She resents that most of all. She wants to be part of his life."
As I wish to be part of yours... "Sometimes we have to simply take what we have, Tamara. There is nothing else that we can do."
She gave him an odd look, considering and half alarmed. "Then you approve of her being practically caged in her room?"
"No. But she and Danric need work things out between themselves and any interference would only make things worse between them. I cannot solve Meliara's problems any more than you can, though if she and Danric were willing to reach an agreement then they would both be a good deal happier."
"I see... Russav, I do hope we may speak again soon. I must go and see Elenet to pick up some paintings she did for me."
She curtsied and he made the proper goodbyes and bowed before he walked off as quickly as he could, another word blooming in his mind to replace the heart wounds caused by the one he had repeated for as long as he could remember. But how could the word his heart beat out turn so quickly from Tamara to another? Russav shook his head and went for a ride, trying to escape the confusion that was overtaking him.
He did not see Danric and Nee standing just down the hall, smiling and beginning to work out a plan to subtly guide the two closer. And Russav had just provided them with just the information they needed to do this, if they could only get the two potential lovebirds to reach an agreement... and if only they truly did love each other, as Mel and Danric love. But only time would tell, and fortunately Nee and Danric had plenty of that.
Poor old lost Russav. Danric and Nee seem to have their work cut out for them keeping him from going insane. Anyway, please review, it makes me happy and keeps me updating faster.
