Author's notes:
This chapter is a revised edition of the previous one, mainly in the form of corrections. I'm sorry if I confused you in the last "draft," I hadn't checked it properly and only just realised how riddled with mistakes it was! Sorry if the weird little mistakes confused you! Thanks for reading this chapter and I would LOVE some more reviews!
Right From Under Your Nose
"What?" Leif could barely keep his mouth from falling open; Lord Gregory could not be serious. "They are far too young for us to be able to even consider such a thing!" Leif looked around at the richly dressed diplomats from Camiro. In vivid green, blue and purple robes with intricate gold and silver embroidery, they were much more pleasing to the eye than the members of the Deltoran Court, whose members were garbed in dyed linens with little decoration. The Camiran's looked deadly serious, "I beg your pardon Lord Gregory," Lord Gregory nodded, "and the rest of the diplomatic party of course but this is…this is ridiculous. I cannot agree to these terms, Jarred is only three, he is not going to marry Marissa, I apologise. We cannot assist you in this matter."
Anger flashed in Lord Gregory's eyes but he quickly hid it, answering Leif in his smooth manipulating voice, "Your Majesty, please, in our country a princess cannot claim the throne unless she is married, she is His Majesty, King Henry's, only child and it is his dearest wish that the throne remains in his immediate family. He is very ill and Marissa needs to be married soon, before his death, so that the throne can stay in the family. To enable Marissa to claim the throne we need a young prince and Jarred seems a very good suitor. This marriage would also secure our ties of friendship."
"Lord Gregory, please, you have our utmost sympathy for your King's illness and the friendship you offer is invaluable to this country," Doom stated clearly, he had arrived only hours before and seemed just as dumbfounded as the rest of the Deltoran Court, "but you cannot expect us to hand over a three-year old prince for marriage. Surely there must be some other way we can oblige you?"
"Yes," Jasmine cut in, "perhaps an arranged marriage at the moment and when they reach, say, eighteen years old the marriage ceremony could take place?" Even though she did not like the idea of Jarred being forced into marriage, she knew she had to be polite and diplomatic. The last time she had spoken her mind at one of these meetings; she had greatly offended someone and had received a stern, two-hour lecture from Sharn as a result.
"No," Lord Gregory stated bluntly, "that would not work."
The court erupted into a buzz of heated conversations and whispered disagreements. Using the confusion as a cover Jasmine turned to Leif and bent towards him, "Leif," she whispered into his ear, "We cannot let this happen, especially not to Jarred, he would never forgive us, is there anything we can do?"
"I am not sure, I have a very bad feeling that this man is not going to leave us be until he gets 0what he wants," he whispered back, there was too much discussion going on between the court and the ambassadors to notice the monarchs conversation. Leif, seeing that Jasmine was extremely concerned, gently took her hand in his, "Jarred is going to be fine, I promise, okay Jasmine, we are not going to let anything happen to him!"
"It seems the monarchs are very much against the marriage, Lord." Nikko said carefully, remembering what happened the last time he had spoken his thoughts aloud and subconsciously fingering his throat.
Lord Gregory, smiling cruelly at Nikko's obvious discomfort, agreed, "Indeed, Nikko, I see you are not as stupid as I thought." He paused and looked at each of his fellow ambassadors in turn. "It is true, the King and Queen will not agree to this marriage…what a pity."
Everyone in the room felt the hairs on the back of their necks stand n end. When Lord Gregory had said the words 'what a pity,' his eyes had begotten a hungry, almost manic gleam.
"What's a pity, Uncle?" Marissa was walking into the richly furnished sitting room rubbing her eyes with her fists; she walked over to her Uncle and climbed onto his knee.
Well, my little darling, it is a pity that Jarred's parents will not be able to join us for your wedding. I am sure they will be most upset."
"Why can't they?" Marissa was a very curious child.
"Because, darling," Lord Gregory explained in a sing song voice, tickling his niece so that she laughed loudly, "a King and Queen cannot leave their country and although we had planned to have the wedding ceremony here, the circumstances have changed and we need to change the venue."
Lord Gregory was smiling warmly at Marissa, "therefore we will be gong home tonight, so we can start the preparations for the wedding." He looked up at the rest if the ambassadors, "I have already notified some of our agents to fetch the groom and to arrange our safe departure."
Leif, Barda, Doom and Sharn were sitting in Leif's office. "The guards were drugged and the gates were forcefully opened, they obviously wanted to get away quickly without our knowledge, but that makes no sense," Barda told the assembled group.
"Nothing was taken?" Sharn prompted, "There was nothing missing?" Barda shook his head in reply. "Your right, it makes no sense for them to leave so suddenly with no reason." She shook her head and shifted on the plush couch and rearranged her skirts so she sat more comfortably. "They cannot have been that upset with the decision this morning." Leif shook his head and looked out the window, absolutely mystified at Lord Gregory's bizarre departure.
Suddenly Jasmine burst into the room clutching a seemingly sleeping Endon in her arms, she was distraught and looked around the room wildly until her eyes rested on Leif, "Endon has been drugged," she burst out, "and Jarred is not in his bed!"
Leif stood up and took his wife by the shoulders, "What?" he demanded, shaking her gently. "Are you sure he is not somewhere else in the palace?"
"Yes Leif, I am sure", there were tears running down her face as she relayed the rest of the information. "The bars on the boys window were cut out and Jarred's favourite stuffed animal was gone…they must…have taken it…with them," as she mentioned her son's name Jasmine could not help herself, she had started sobbing, she was terrified for her little boy, he had been kidnapped. What if they did not give him enough to eat; what if he was scared; was he hurt; oh, Gods, please do not let them hurt him! These thoughts ran through Jasmine's mind faster than lightning. Sharn walked over and gently took Endon out of her arms, Jasmine collapsed into a rich, mahogany armchair, putting her head between her knees and gripping her ebony hair with her hands.
Leif leaned onto the wall next to her and called himself several kinds of idiot. Of course, they did have a good reason to leave, they had taken his son, his youngest little boy. Leif hit his head against the wall in punishment for his extreme stupidity. How could he not have seen this, he had realised in that meeting that Lord Gregory was a ruthless man who would not stop until he got what he wanted and he had not even thought to give Jarred, his little boy, his baby son, any extra protection.
He hit himself again and bent down to comfort his wife, he gently helped her up, out of her seat and held her close, soothing her as she sobbed into his chest, Leif felt numb with shock until, his stomach knotting in agony, he remembered the last 'conversation' he had had with Jarred. Then the tears finally came, he buried his head in Jasmine's hair and sobbed.
The rest of the room was in shock, Sharn was cradling Endon with tears in her eyes, Doom was staring stone-faced out the window wondering how he had let that creature take his grandson away and Barda had never felt more ashamed of himself in his history as a palace guard. He was in charge of the Palace Guard and of Royal Protection and all his guards were drugged and Jarred was gone…kidnapped, right from under his nose.
Gone…
Author's Notes:
Hi everyone….Well….ah heh heh heh…its been a while then.
I can only say that while I was writing this chapter I had EXTREME writers block and for the first three drafts, it just didn't work!
Thanks for being so patient, and thanks to those who reviewed chapter two, you all ROCK!
Guardian of Atlantis: Thanks for the advice, it really helped, I tried to describe things a bit more here, but I don't think I can live up to your standard, I hope you like it anyway!
Warui-Usagi: Thank-you, your great! You know that don't you!
'.'.'.Jesslca'.'.'.: Thanks for being such a loyal reader, your reviews rock, I hope you like this chapter as much as the last two and I tried to make Leif less 'evil' in this one! ENJOY
Jasmine of the Forest: Thank-you for reviewing, I wasn't going to continue this story, but I got that one review and it helped me pull through! (God, that sounds REALLY soppy! lol!)