Chapter Three: A Daunting Task
Not wanting to know anything else for the time being, I stumble away from the small group of people and grab a window seat in the back of the airship and stare at everything around us. We pass by planets and moons of various colors and bright stars that I'm surprised don't blind whoever is piloting this thing. I bite my lip, hiding my damaged necklace in the leather pouch at my waist and hoping they have some kind of jeweler here to take a look at it.
We go towards a massive purple sphere with massive black stripes and soon proceed into its atmosphere. I watch as clouds on its surface hover briefly in our line of sight for a moment before we continue our descent towards ground. Edward comes to sit beside me as we get our first look at the Kingdom of Raymore, but I know it is because he wants to spot our view and not because he is prepared to discuss our differences of opinion.
"A castle?" I hear Emmett say from the front of the airship.
"Yes, that's our main dwelling, Berwick Castle," Tia says informatively. "It is to our summer house, Lydbury Terrace, that we'll move to in the coming weeks for the beginning-of-summer festival."
It is a great gray stoned dwelling with at least five or six floors to the place. A flag flies from the roof, indicating that Tia's parents are at home that day. There is a drawbridge above a deep gray moat, and the bridge is down and seemingly able to welcome visitors.
The airship lands and Tia goes to the back of the ship to summon Edward and me to walk with her. She takes us to a back entrance and instructs some servants to get me, Edward, and Emmett bathed and clothed in appropriate attire before being presented to her parents. Emmett looked excited at the prospect of attention from ladies, Rosalie forgotten, but disappointment clouds his face when Tia summons a butler for them each to escort the both of them to the male washroom, located to the south.
"Rayely, please escort Lady Bella to the female washroom," Tia instructs before another thought comes to her. "Have her put into customary noble garb and have her brought to my rooms as soon as she's finished."
I want to protest but Rayely soon walks away with a humble curtsy to Tia, so I can only dart after her. Rayely and I go down a few corridors before going into what looks like a spa, where Rayely instructs me to get into what looks like a futuristic shower. I try my best not to slip on the stone floor as I strip before I scrub my hair and body. I am thankful that Rayely turns away while I am nude.
She hands me a bathrobe and escorts me to a table—which looks quite like some sort of dressing table—and instructs me to blow dry my hair. I do so before she gets me to step into a pair of slippers and a silken robe before she walks out of the room. I quickly follow, and am taken up three flights of stairs and into a chamber which easily resembles what a duchess' room would look like. The furniture is a cream-white color, along with gold finishings, and everything looks very expensive and beautiful.
Rayely pulls out what appears to be a standard-looking dress which resembles some kind of tunic and has laces which go down my arms and up from my waist all the way to my cleavage, which is tied down. I am pulled out of the silk robe and ceremoniously put into matching flats and soon find that I want desperately to swish these deep green skirts around, but make no move to do so, fearing Rayely's reaction to what I assume would be inappropriate behavior. I watch then as she painstakingly curls my hair before putting a simple pearl tiara that looks as if it is made of vines, with the jewels performing a balancing act upon them. There is one pearl is suspended from the center of the piece and dangles on my forehead.
She nods in approval at my appearance and clasps a lovely pearl necklace around my neck and puts several rings onto each of my fingers before leading me from the chamber and down the corridor. We get to another door and Rayely knocks three times before entering and I see Tia standing there waiting for me.
"That will be all for now, Rayely," she says politely before the quiet servant bows to Tia and withdraws from us. Tia is dressed in a blue tunic gown and wears sapphires on her tiara, around her neck, and in her ears. On her hands they sparkle as well, and she shoots me a smile before stepping forward and taking my hand. "Come. I've told my mother and father that we have guests."
"What are they called?" I ask. "Your mother and father?"
"My father is King Amun and my mother is Queen Kebi," Tia replies in a patient manner before escorting me out of her rooms. We meet up with Edward and Emmett on the way, who are garbed as noble dukes and look quite proud of themselves. Emmett takes Tia's arm and Edward grudgingly takes mine as we descend the three flights of stairs and go into what appears to be the great hall.
The three of us take turns in looking around and notice that the place is decked out in what looks to be a great celebration. There are golden plates and golden goblets—which are studded with rubies and emeralds and sapphires on the long tables—waiting for a grand banquet which I assumed would be that evening. Up on the dais sits King Amun and Queen Kebi, who look curiously at the three of us.
There is a small throne to King Amun's right and two small thrones to Queen Kebi's left, and I suppose that these belong to all their children. I wonder if Tia had a sister at one point, but quickly force myself to banish the thought from my mind. I don't want to come across as impertinent.
"Mother, Father, these are the esteemed guests that I spoke of that found in West Moreland this afternoon," Tia tells her parents.
"Tia, your mother and I have informed you of the dangers of that planet," says King Amun is a no-nonsense kind of voice.
"But, Father, you don't understand," Tia protests.
"Tia, listen to your father," Queen Kebi admonishes.
"It spoke to me," Tia says in a hiss. She draws back her hair and reveals the orb-like sapphire about her throat, which is glowing ever so slightly. "It does not glow unless one of our own are endangered, and these guests are one of our own, Mother and Father."
King Amun's eyes drift to me first. "What are you called?"
"Bella Swan," I reply. "This is my brother, Emmett."
King Amun descends from the dais and peers at the both of us. "You were born from the same womb at the same time," he says softly.
"Twins," whispers Queen Kebi.
"We are," Emmett replies quietly.
King Amun looks briefly at Edward for a moment before turning back to look rather hesitantly at his daughter. "Who's this one?" he asks, jabbing his abnormally large thumb in Edward's direction, almost as if he doesn't wish to associate with him directly just yet.
"Edward Cullen," Edward says quickly to him, and the king's eyes dart to Edward's. "My name is Edward Cullen, Your Majesty."
"They are our ancestors, Father," Tia says persuasively, and the king's eyes snap back to his daughter's, although I see a sense of reluctance behind them that I find I am unable to place in a complete manner. "I had them looked over by trusted servants, never fear. I remember some of the rules."
"Looked over?!" I demand, looking from one face to the next.
King Amun turns his dark brown eyes back to me, regarding me for a moment. "You will expose your shoulder, Lady Bella," he says firmly.
"Excuse me? My shoulder?" I ask, not following.
"You will do as I order," King Amun says.
I shake my head. "I don't have to show you anything."
"I am the king. You will do as you are bid."
Edward steps forward. "She doesn't have to."
"She does," King Amun says, proceeding to stamp his feet like a child.
Tia steps forward and gently pulls my tunic aside to expose my shoulder, all the while I am red from anger and embarrassment that she would dare to do such a thing. The king looks at my shoulder and gasps, taking in my difficult-to-hide birthmark. "You bear the mark of the House of Swan," he whispers, awed.
I look at my shoulder, beet red, and see the three-point freckle that had been there for as long as I can remember. "I suppose I do," I say, yanking my dress away from Tia so as I can make an effort to cover myself.
"Does he have it?" the king asks, nodding towards Emmett.
Emmett shows little to no resistance as Tia pulls a bit at his tunic and exposes the same mark that I have. "There you have it," he says grudgingly.
"Do I need to show you a mark?" Edward demands in an annoyed voice.
The king thinks for a moment at Edward's slight impertinence at his otherwise abnormal request of new palace guests, mulling it over in his mind. "Actually, yes," he says. "Tia, go look on the back of his neck."
Tia crosses the room and pulls down the back of Edward's collar, revealing the stork bite blemish there. I feel my cheeks heat as I remember tracing it over and over again with my fingers in the darkness as he and I lay in bed in the hotel room, and I wonder if he is thinking about that now, now that he's come by the information. Tia turns Edward so as King Amun can see him, and the king nods in approval.
"Very well," the king says, almost as if he is disappointed. "You three are true lords and a lady of Cullen and Swan respectively." He nods. "Come. Brantom, bring out the extra throne that was used for my younger brother. We will need it for the festivities tonight. Our honored guests will sit with us, as befits their station."
. . .
Tia tells me that the grand entertainment for the evening is to be a masked ball, and that she will send up a proper gown, mask, and jewelry for me before the festivities begin. She gives me a quick tour of the castle and I find that I am drawn to one window in particular, due to the fact that it goes from the ceiling to the floor and I get a fantastic view of the moon.
"The moon speaks to you?" Tia asks me.
I shrug. "I don't know. I've always found comfort in it."
She nods. "Perhaps you bear a relation to the Moon Spirit."
"Do you have a jeweler here?" I ask, wanting to change the subject.
Tia smiles. "Of course we do. He is formally a tradesman and merchant—he's actually my mother's brother," she tells me proudly. "Come, I shall take you to see him." Tia takes me by the hand and leads me to the bottom floor of the castle and into what appears to be some kind of luxury study. The door creaks as we open it and step inside the room, and I find myself hesitating for a moment when Tia calls, "Uncle Alistair?"
A young man—no more than five years older than we are—steps out from behind a large bookshelf. His shoulder-length, brown hair is secured by a ribbon slightly above his neck, and he wears spectacles, which I notice he quickly removes as a sign of respect, and bows to the two of us. "Princess Tia, my dear niece," he says, peering around her, and something behind his eyes shifts then, "and you must be Lady Bella. It is an honor to have the both of you here in my humble abode."
"Uncle Alistair, we need your help." Tia nods to me and I step forward slowly, and produce my broken necklace, putting it down carefully on his desk.
Alistair steps forward, balancing his spectacles on his nose as he takes a good look at it. "A family heirloom, I presume, from your homeland?"
"Yes," I reply. "Quite old, too."
"She is a Traveler, Uncle Alistair," Tia says happily.
He smiles down at me then—he is around Edward's height, and his eyes sparkle with intelligence. "Ah, yes, I thought so." He picks up my broken necklace and looks it over. "I would judge this to be over two thousand years old. Is that correct?"
"Yes, about two thousand and twenty years, give or take," I say.
Alistair turns it over and over in his hands before nodding. "I have some material like this that could work. Give me a day or two and we'll see if I can't fix this." He smiles at me, and I find that I am smiling back at him.
"Will you be at the masque this evening?" I ask, before I can stop myself.
"He's the Earl of Edington," Tia explains.
Alistair smiles indulgently at his niece before turning to look at me. "As I am a member of the nobility and the royal family, my presence is obligated and nonnegotiable."
"I see," I reply before Tia pulls me away with a brief goodbye to her uncle and takes me back up the stone staircase. "Where have you been hiding him?" I ask.
Tia blinks and shakes her head at my words. "Are you not on special understandings and terms with Edward?" she asks.
My eyebrows knit together. "Understandings and terms?"
She giggles. "Forgive me. I believe you call it 'dating' or 'courting'…"
"Courting?!" I demand, laughing aloud at the archaic nature of the term. "We called it courting a good fifty years or so before Edward and I made it official…"
"So, 'dating' would have been the appropriate term?"
I shrug. "Yeah, I guess so…"
Tia hesitates for a moment then. "But...you are dating Edward, are you not?"
I sigh. "We were," I reply, hunching my shoulders ever so slightly. "Edward and I, we… The two of us formally ended our relationship before coming here. Well, informally, technically, but he's made it perfectly clear that he doesn't want to be with me."
Tia blinks, her eyes taking on a new light as she touches her own amulet about her neck, and she appears fearful. "Bella…you must not say such a thing…"
I shake my head at her, confused. "What are you talking about?" I ask.
Tia takes me by the hand and leads me to a library, where she looks over a couple of bookshelves and suddenly finds what she is looking for. She takes a great book from the selected shelf and slams it down, hard, onto the table. Flipping through it, she goes back, generation upon generation, when abruptly she stops turning pages and jabs her finger at a heading upon the page before us. "Read that."
I peer down at the ancient-looking book and gasp. It appears to be a black and white photograph of me and Edward, except we look older and…happy. There are three children surrounding us, two beautiful girls and one handsome boy, who look up at me with Edward's eyes, and smile at the camera with my smile. The boy is the spitting image of Edward, while the older girl looks like me and the younger one is a mix, and I find that my hands are shaking as I grip the books' edges, staring at these beautiful children, feeling an overwhelming love that I never thought could be possible for me. Tears cloud my vision as I take this all in.
"So, you're saying that if Edward and I don't get married or have kids that…"
"This empire will cease to exist as we know it."
I find I am shaking, and that I cannot handle this sudden piece of information. I find that I suddenly need to breathe, and the library rapidly begins to feel stuffy. I dash out the double doors and run down the hallway, and I am relieved that Tia makes no move to follow me. I know that I can't tell anyone what I just saw and, feeling utterly alone, I almost allow myself to trip and fall, and I begin to sob.
I feel strong hands on me a moment later and, no longer caring, get to my feet and collapse into them, without even realizing what I'm doing. The smell is unfamiliar, and, looking up, I see that it is Alistair, and I immediately pull away. "Sorry, sorry," I say, making an effort to compose myself. "I thought…"
He smiles down upon me. "It is all right, Lady Bella. I was on my way to my rooms when I came upon you like this. I find it is best to figure out what ails a lady rather than walking by."
I smile at him through my tears, spotting a platinum band on his finger. "Your wife must be very happy to call you her husband, Lord Alistair," I say softly to him. "How long have you been married?"
He looks sad then as he stares off out the window behind me. "Yvette and I were married six years before the Frozen Epilepsy took her," comes his soft reply. "Yvette and our little son, Henri, were taken within two days of one another."
"Frozen Epilepsy?" I ask. "I don't understand."
Alistair smiles a sad smile. "Of course, I'm sorry," he replies, his tone patient at my naïveté when it comes to futuristic diseases. "Frozen Epilepsy gives its victims the illusion that they are caught in a never ending blizzard, and they become paralyzed with fear at the notion that they will not escape. The epilepsy takes over and causes them to have violent shakes, so despite their minds telling them not to move, their bodies do just the opposite. The poor people's' brains then explode due to all the tension. It lasts three days and is highly contagious, unless you get the antidote or are injected with the virus as a baby and survive."
"And you got the antidote?" I asked.
He shook his head. "No. My elder brother, Vasilii, was supposed to inherit the earldom but he suffered a grave accident when I was just a little boy. Before that, my parents, then paupers, did not want another mouth to feed. My sister was betrothed to the future king, in a love match, so she was safe, and my brother was the heir. My mother and father agreed to inject into me the liquid poison for purposes that were entirely experimental, in return for a profit. Unfortunately for them, I survived, but Vasilii caught the disease himself shortly thereafter."
"So you've lost your brother, wife, and child to this?" I whisper.
He nods. "Yes."
"You poor, poor man," I whisper.
"I've never spoken to anyone outside the family of this loss before." He smiles a little once again. "It is a great comfort."
I reach out and take his hand. "I'm glad I can be of a comfort to you."
"I am glad, too."
I don't know what possesses me as I step closer to him, and gasp a little when he doesn't pull away from me. I reach up and touch his face then, pushing his brown hair from his eyes and watch as his shuts his eyes briefly to my touch. I put my arms around his neck and kiss him then, and am surprised when he throws his arms around me and pulls me hard against him, and a little squeal of delight escapes my throat then as I proceed to passionately knot my fingers through his hair. My eyes open in surprise at the delicious taste of him, when suddenly, dread fills every inch of me.
Edward! I shout to myself and immediately push Alistair away. "Edward," I say, straightening my gown, my face flushed red. "What a surprise…"
Alistair bows slightly. "Lord Cullen."
"My lord of Edington," Edward replies in a clipped tone before almost forcing himself to turn back to look at me, and I wondered how he could have known Alistair's title. "I was summoned by Princess Tia to fetch you because she informed me you'd upset yourself," he says, his tone bordering on anger. He raises his bended arm. "I am bidden to bring you to your chambers to ready you for the masked ball."
"Of course," I say hastily, turning to Alistair. "My lord of Edington."
"Lady Swan," he says as I slip past him.
I take Edward's arm then and don't look at Alistair as we walk in the opposite direction towards my rooms and Tia's, where I proceed to feel guilty. "I'm so sorry you had to see that," I whisper to him, knowing that it couldn't have been easy, as one could not merely turn off their feelings so quickly, and yet I know he will have words with me. Once we round a bend, I know I am in trouble when he does not respond. "Edward…" I begin.
"Took you less than a day, didn't it?" he demanded of me in a hiss. "Or, is it more like two thousand years? We just break up, and already you're on to someone new. And this time, it's an earl, and brother to a queen—excellent job, Bella, truly, I commend you for it. Got ourselves a little upgrade didn't we?"
"Edward, please," I say, my tone desperate. "Please, don't... You've got to listen to me—it's not like that."
He drops my hand and turns to look at me, shocked. "Then please permit yourself to explain something to me, Bella. Please explain to me just what exactly I walked in on. What I walked in on was you kissing another man—another man, I might add, that is well into his twenties and highly inappropriate for someone of your…caliber..." He stares at me then, and I find that his hand, formerly upon my arm, has drifted to my waist, and he pulls me against him, his lips inches from mine. "I don't like other men looking, or touching, what's mine..."
"What's yours?" I whisper, smiling a little at him, my heart beating in my ears at what he is implying then. "Jealous?" I ask.
He seizes me by the shoulders, the loving caress on my waist suddenly gone like a bitterly forgotten dream. "Never say that again. Never say such a thing again, Bella. I am no longer beholden to you, remember that."
"So, you're not jealous?" I ask, peeking up at him.
"No."
"You're hurting me," I say softly.
"Good. Perhaps now you will know my pain."
I gasp a little at that, trying and failing to get out of his grasp. Tears are flooding my eyes again, and I can't understand what is happening. Edward seemed to make it perfectly clear that he was finished with me—and who could blame him? I'd screwed up, big time. By not keeping him in the loop about every little thing that had happened in 1982, he's successfully become lost to me forever. There was no way that he would take me back, and I didn't deserve to be taken back by him. I was a liar, a known liar, and I didn't deserve anything from him. And yet I wanted it all—everything, and anything, he was willing to give me. I wanted all the harsh words, because I felt as if I deserved them, and I found it was far better to hear his cruelty than to be given steely looks and to be utterly ignored by the man I loved. I wanted him, not Alistair, and yet I was pleased that he had seen us together, for then perhaps he would know that I was not going to wait around for him forever.
"I'm sorry," I said softly. "For all of it, I'm sorry. God, I was a complete idiot and I know that you have no reason to forgive me. I don't want you to forgive me; I did something wrong. But what you don't understand is the fact that I did all of this for you, Edward."
"Don't give me that crap," he replies heatedly. "What you did was selfish and self-serving, plain and simple."
"If one chose to look at it that way," I tell him quietly. "If one chose to look at this situation as selfish and self-serving, that is exactly what it would appear to be to another person, Edward, and you know that. But you know me; you know me—for most of my life, you've known what kind of person I am. You know how much I love you; I made sure that you saw all that, too. The reason why I did this was because I knew that I didn't deserve you, and I still don't. You're perfect, Edward Cullen, and you're all I ever wanted in any man. I wanted you to know that you were able to have a choice in loving me."
"I never had a choice," he says softly. "Ever since that day in the closet what seems like millions of miles away in time and in space from us right here, right now. I knew it then like I know it now. I'm doomed to love you until the day I die, Bella Swan, just doomed. You're like an addictive drug, and I'll never be able to get you completely out of my system."
"God, Edward, I hope you do, for your sake," I reply, feeling tears flooding down my face fully now. "I do hope you forget me, Edward. I don't want to be the cause of your pain forever. I didn't wish for any of this—not knowingly, anyway. I just wanted you to be happy, and whether or not that was with me, it wouldn't matter. What does matter is getting through this alive." I put my arms around him for a moment, and ignore his stiffening. "I only kissed Alistair because his earldom was forced upon him after his older brother died when he was just a little boy. He then lost his wife and son because of some disease, all in the course of a few days. Alistair has a way to fix my necklace, and I'm going to use it as a bargaining chip for the three of us to get back home where we belong. We agreed to help Tia and her parents find the missing prince, and then we can go home, and get away from all this..."
"So that's all you're doing?"
I shut my eyes, more tears falling. "That's all I'm doing," I reply, my eyes snapping open again as I spread my hands. "As soon as we're out of this, I'm going to see if I can put off University of Washington and see if I can go to another university. I'm going to quit the band and live in anonymity, so that you never have to see me again, publicly or privately."
"Bella—"
"No, don't you see?" I ask, pulling back from my one-way embrace and gazing at him through my veil of tears. "I'm doing this for you all over again. It's only ever been for you, Edward." I shrug and smile at him. "As soon as we've rescued the prince, we can go home and forget this…forget us…"
"But I don't want to forget," Edward says, trying to reach out for me. "I don't want to forget any of it, Bella."
I take his hands for a moment before letting go. "Try," I whisper. I step back towards him and, my hands on his cheeks, lean in and kiss him briefly on the lips, mutual sighs of longing escaping from both our parted lips, as Edward leans his forehead into mine, his hands clawing slightly at my back, in order to keep me with him.
"Bella…" He whispers.
I wanted to tell him then, to tell him so much, to make him understand my logic, but I could not bring myself to do so. My lower lip quivering, I drew my hands back from their hold upon his face, and managed to force myself away from him. "I promise you'll never have to be alone with me again. Goodbye," I whisper, walking away from him.