Chapter 39
Capricorn felt immediately startled when he awoke from the potion. He knew it was morning as he heard and smelled the crisp scent of birds waking then leaves as they blew against the ground. He didn't see Gemini at first, not until his eyes began to focus, and then she was there. Standing above him, her eyes seeming to analyze him. He wasn't sure what she was looking for or if she found it as she turned leaving him to watch her walk away. Afterward, he couldn't stop thinking about it, and wondering how long she had been standing over him that way, just watching. She was standing over him, just watching, and then without a word, she left the tent. Capricorn didn't know quite what to make of it. He didn't think she'd do anything to hurt him, but he longed to know what his sister was thinking. To understand what was going on inside her mind as he exited the tent. Gemini hadn't wondered far. She stood standing outside his tent, as if she was waiting for him, and when he stood beside her there was not a word between them. Not for seconds minutes, what could have been hours until suddenly her head turned, and she was looking right at him. She had that same piercing gaze that reminded him of the look that was always in their mother's eyes. As he thought that he couldn't help getting an eerie feeling deep within his bones.
"How'd you sleep?" whispered Gemini, her eyes holding a knowing twinkle.
"Fine, visiting with my bride" said Capricorn beginning to walk with her.
Gemini didn't say anything as the sun rose little by little before them.
"Is there something you want to tell me, Gemini?" said Capricorn suddenly, breaking the silence around him, and making his sister turn, remaining silent as she did so, and then they only stood looking at each other silently in the forest. She faced him and looked at him, Capricorn could see she was choosing her words carefully.
"When you explained your reason for returning, I must admit, I was skeptical, but also impressed that you can conceived such a plan, brother. I have been eager to see how far we will get, but also, I'm beginning to see that we won't get it by doing what we have. Burning villages and murdering innocents is all fine, but we must come out of nowhere with our attack. So, in saying that, I am going to ask you something, and I demand a straight no nonsense answer. Are you really truly serious about tearing the Adderhead from his throne?" exclaimed Gemini, her eyes piercing his as her voice did the same. Those eyes were dark as he looked into them. Not in a sinister way, but in a way he couldn't quite describe. Capricorn recognized those eyes as his own, but also as his mothers. He wasn't sure how to feel about that as he answered immediately.
"Do you think I would have left the kingdom I've already built if I wasn't? I had no other reason to come back here, sister, and in doing so I intend to tear that Ogre from his throne. I intend to claim it for myself and prove everyone who ever looked down upon me wrong" whispered Capricorn seeing a type of glee enter those dark orbs that they shared immediately. As he answered, part of him wanted to be angry at her for even questioning him this way, but something seemed to stop him. To tell him to cool his anger and listen. Only listen to her because he could sense that there was more as her eyes peered into his in that ever-inquisitive way. It shook him almost because he didn't know what to expect from her.
She wouldn't have braced the question without a reason.
"Then the time to burn things to the ground has come to an end" exclaimed Gemini, her voice as strict as he had ever heard it.
"I've been considering it, brother, and we must consider that before you left Inkheart, you were the Adderheads henchman…I think it's time to use that to our advantage" exclaimed Gemini, at first Capricorn wanted to say no. He knew what she was asking of him, to bow to the Adderhead after he had vowed never to bow to anyone ever again. Every instinct inside himself told him to refuse. To tell her that he would never return to the creature he had been when he left the Inkworld, but something inside stopped him. That something was the trust he had always instilled in his sister. She had never led him in the wrong direction. She always led him in the direction she believed best and it hadn't been the wrong direction yet. That stopped him because now she was asking him to trust her like he always had. And Capricorn felt an almost instinctual longing to follow her like he had years before.
"What do you want me to do?" said Capricorn choosing his words carefully. As he said the words his eyes never left hers. He seemed to be hanging onto her for life. Capricorn knew he was asking her to lead him in battle, something he had never asked before, and with that hanging between them, Capricorn found his sister smiling in her way.
"I think the only way we're going to topple the Adderhead is from the inside. You gain his trust, just as you had it before, and once you have that, you use it to take his kingdom" whispered Gemini, seeing as he began to understand. He took her hand then as they started to walk back to camp.
"I'll get you your crown, brother, you just have to follow me, and instill your trust in me. I promise you, I will see you wear the old man's crown on your head" whispered Gemini as they walked the way they had come out of the trees making him stop her not giving her time to look at him before he daringly kissed her cheek.
"I trust you will, sister…and I meant what I said before. All this time I've been away…I truly did miss you" said Capricorn, his voice almost gentle. Gemini only smiled. She could see it now. The affect her brother's bride was having on him and she wasn't completely opposed to it as they proceeded out of the woods with him. She felt at ease now that he had returned more then she had in the years he had been gone.
As this was playing out, Meggie was waking up from the potion herself, and as she dressed, she felt different somehow. Meggie didn't know what it was as she exited her room walking to the throne room. As she came to the double doors, there was a guard waiting.
"The doctor had us transport Dustfinger to the dungeons, my lady. He said he'll live…afterward he requested to wait on you in the throne room" whispered the guard, just before Meggie moved passed him into the room. When the doctor turned to look at her, Meggie didn't like the way he was looking at her.
