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Chapter 15: A Promise Broken

The winter passed without word and in the spring when the mountains were able to be passed the messengers came. At least as far as May knew. She never saw the messages, but as the seasons came by, she saw the lines in her father's face get deeper. He and Max were both busy with the war and by the time the second winter passed, May was slowly realizing people were suffering under the miss of their husbands and sons.

She went to visit Anna and convinced her to take her around the smaller villages in spring. "I am not going to become your lady in waiting!" she exclaimed when May asked. It seemed that once she got over her initial baffled endeavour around royalty, she was rather outspoken.

May had looked at her shrewdly, "Are you sure you don't want to?" she asked almost teasingly.

Anna had stuck out her tongue, "No way, that posh stuff is your thing. I like my hands dirty with land thank you," she had said. They had a good laugh about it, but even if Anna claimed it like that, she humoured May enough to take some time for her, and together Misty they set out to see the state of the people.

May had been rather shocked when confronted with a small gang of boys begging, barely 5 years old each. "Why do they do that? The lands aren't in bad condition," she asked.

Anna shrugged, "With the males gone, we just don't have enough hands to bring in the harvest in the summer. People in the cities are rather dependent on us country-folk," she explained. "Normally, there's enough to keep people fed, but only us women and children can't do it."

May found this disturbing and went to her father with this. She didn't get to see him often, as often as he was in debate with his lords and messengers. Even so, for her he was able to find a little space in time, and they both sat in the room where May didn't know her fiancé had been handed her hand a bit over a year ago.

"Drew said something about that when we first met," Norman said upon her inquiry. Fathers sometimes have the uncanny ability to see what's occupying the mind, and Norman was no exception; he had learned his lesson. "He's doing well dear. He's talking about skirmishes but they're toughing it out. He didn't think they'd be coming home soon, however, but he's alright," Norman said kindly. Then he frowned thoughtfully, "He also mentioned something about sand in better not mentioned places."

At this May burst out laughing; it did sound typically Drew. The king looked at his daughter who was still snickering merrily and for a moment he felt regretful about pushing the two young lovers together. Against all protocols, although Norman had the feeling Drew didn't go by protocols much anyway, Drew had inquired after May, and while Norman wouldn't mention that to May (he was rather fearful of her brash nature and she'd surely go off to find him) he told Drew his daughter still thought of the general more than not.

He shook his head; that was not what his daughter had come to him for, and he was glad for that. "He told me almost two years ago that there are lots of women and children who are forced to poverty and crime because they have no options open for them. Perhaps you'd want to work with that then?" he said.

May stared up. "Me?" she asked. "I don't have any authority at all! Are you forgetting who I am? What I am?"

Norman smirked at her, "Really now? Are you forgetting yourself? Do you think all those women will listen to the same man who commands their husbands? You still have royal blood. Besides, I am way too busy for a project that big." And with that he dismissed May.

The one is question pondered about what she was supposed to do now. She mulled over her father's words and deduced that for once, she had actually been given the power, a wild card, to act. And with that certainty she started up her project.

By the time autumn came round, she had riled up enough women from the cities to help on the fields. Their hands, although not as rough as the country-women were not unknown with hard work she found out. Together with Anna and surprisingly Yule she was able to convince the families on the country to take in a family that the previous year had been forced to dishonourable jobs like prostitution and theft.

In trade for their work on the fields and farms, the women and kids from the cities were given food and a place to sleep. It had been hard for people were naturally distrustful of the other culture. The city-people thought of the country as uncivilized and barbarian, and at the same time, the country-folk thought of the city-inhabitants as snobs and lazy. The biggest obstacle had been to overcome that.

King Norman was proud when he heard that once the new winter had passed, the second spring since the war, death-count had dropped significantly.

Another year easily passed while May kept up her project, incidentally enjoying talking with Yule, they had quite some things in common, not in the least the love for the green-haired man that was away, and May felt comfortable with the woman, like she hadn't had with any woman since her mother.

In turn, Yule often told about when Drew was little, showing that she was a dedicated mother indeed, no matter what her past was. May found herself laughing unstoppable when Yule told her how Drew had once climbed a tree and found himself in the predicament of not knowing how to come down.

"He told all the neighbours he meant to sit in the tree, and nobody actually figured it was because he couldn't get out," Yule told an enrapt May. "When I found him, he told me as well; 'From this point I can see everyone perfectly'. At that point he had already been in the tree for half a day so he wasn't that sure of himself anymore."

May grinned; she could perfectly well imagine a little Drew being too proud to admit he didn't know how to get down. "What did you do?" she asked curiously, and with not a little shrewdness. As much as she loved Drew, he did know how to get under her skin, so she did love to hear he hadn't been always a perfect prat.

Yule raised a brow in amusement, "What do you think I did? I left him in that tree of course. Around midnight he was so miserable he screamed for help. I got the smithy to get him down."

May roared with laughter, while Yule grinned easily.

Another winter passed and before May knew it, she had seen 20 summers. While the country wasn't as miserable as expected during a war, she found it nevertheless emptier. Smiles became rare as time passed, to everyone around her. The creases in her father's face got deeper and deeper as the reports came less, Misty was often found in the stables, despite the obvious miss of the care-taker.

On her still-continuing trips, the princess saw mothers bending under the weight of the miss of their husbands and she herself desperately ignored the hole that hadn't even been filled properly, but was kept open by a lingering promise.

Then suddenly a man came galloping across the courtyard, hurrying towards the Hall of Kings, her father's throne room. Norman, who had apparently heard the sound of the hooves, intercepted him at the door. He had been agitated waiting for news. May was all seeing this from a distance, from a room that faced the very same doors. They spoke in hushed voices, Norman waving everyone off that came close and not entering the building despite the arriving cold.

May wasn't able to see their faces, not from her distance. Then the stream of hushed voices disappeared from the silent courtyard and Norman supported himself against the doorframe, fists balled. The other hand rose to his face, making way to his eyes.

The man said something and Norman nodded slowly. Norman pulled the door close behind him and May saw her father leave the castle-grounds. She turned to Misty who was with her in the room. "What do you think has happened?" she asked.

Misty shrugged, "I don't know." She smiled weakly, "Do you want me to find out?"

May hesitated, not sure if she wanted to be left alone. But her curiosity won out, and she nodded shortly. Misty rose from her chair. "Don't worry, I won't take long," she said as she closed the door behind her. May knew that she was right, but it was easier said than done. It had been quite a while since May had seen her father acting that rigid. There could only be a few things that would make him distressed like this.

She sighed; she almost couldn't believe it had been about three years since she had met Anna, trying to prove the newly appointed general, who she was. Absence made the heart grow fonder and May couldn't agree more. She jumped at any chance to hear from Drew and she desperately didn't try to think that it had been already a long time she or her father had heard from him. Even if only military-notes.

A knock on the door broke her painful recalling and May turned to face her brother in the doorway. The young man said nothing for a second and May silently stared at him. She hadn't, like her father, seen him only irregularly and May suddenly realized he too was growing up. He was now at the same age she had been when marriage had been mentioned first to her. But, his normally clever eyes were troubled and Max looked older than the springs he should've counted.

"May," he spoke. "They're back."

May felt a smile bloom on her face. They were home. The army, the men her people had missed. But the smile froze when she saw no elation on her brother's face. "What's wrong?" she asked, worried.

"I-I…" Max started, voice breaking. "I think….you should come with me," he said. His sister nodded and the brother reached for her hand; something he hadn't done since they were little. May allowed her brother to guide her down to the King's hall.

Exhausted, haggard and spooked looking soldiers roomed the hallways. They didn't look up to face her.

The doors to the hall opened and May immediately searched for the green that would take the heavy weight of loneliness off her shoulders. She never saw it. Misty had her arms around Ash, silent tears over her face. The ever positive guy was for once not smiling, a tortured look on his face holding Misty in silence.

There was no one who was speaking, but eyes were turned to a single man in the middle of the room. May recognized him as the man who had met up with her father. He stood but was facing the ground, shoulders slumped defeated. May felt as if someone was squeezing air out of her, "Wh-where's Drew?" she barely asked since no one was speaking or about to do so. By all means, Drew should have been here.

The man in the middle of the room slowly looked up. "My…my lady," he stammered. He bit his lip, for a moment fists flexing. "My name's Arden. I am – was General Hayden's right hand…friend maybe," he said softly. May heard the switch of tense and her hand tightened around that of her brother's. She was trying to strengthen her resolve.

"Then, soldier Arden," King Norman spoke quietly, sensing his daughter's mounting distress. "Could you tell us why you're standing here instead of Commander Hayden? You only have told me so far that he didn't come home," he said.

May barely gasped for breath, the tense had suspected something like this already, but not home! He hadn't come home? The army was back but the man with the promise didn't! And he had promised he would.

Not home.

Arden seemed to search for words, "He…asked me to," he said. "Because he wouldn't be able to come home," he said.

Norman's eyes flashed warningly, "Then, must I assume he died?" he asked lowly.

Arden's head snapped up, he had already been talking to his knees again. "No!" he called out, then quieted down again, "I mean…no, it's not like he's dead….I think," he said.

This time May bit back the feeling of loss that bound her tongue, "You think?" she asked, in a way that didn't make anyone doubt that she was a daughter of her father. "What do you mean with that?" she said.

Arden sighed. "I should explain the whole of the story then," he said. He frowned, his eyebrows knitting together. "You see, the last few months have been hard…very hard." He pressed his lips together in a grim line, "The desert is unforgiving, and being stuck between the mountain and the desert on one side and Kamesh' army on the other really thinned out our resources. Food was scarce, water little and attacks unrelenting."

"And Drew, sorry, general Hayden," he corrected and chuckled sadly, "I haven't used formalities over the biggest part of two years." He shook his head, "General Hayden saw the army suffer, as he did himself. He spared anything he could for the wounded really. Then one day he told me he was going to talk with them. Them being Kamesh' army; saying this war was futile without anything to fight for, but battered pride on their side,"

Arden shook his head, pressing hands to his temples, "I should've stopped him! It was not his offer to make at all! Nobody should've had to do what he did!" he exclaimed.

"Calm down, Arden," Norman said with a deep rumble, "The most important thing for you to do now is tell the story."

Arden calmed a bit, "He didn't hear me when I told him he was a man who just as much deserved to go home as any other. He only told me that if his sacrifice would make Kamesh see that both his and our men were dying futile, then he should very much go." Arden shook like a lead. "And he did so that night…." He wrung his hands, "We had our orders and the next time I saw him, it was on the frontlines."

Norman sat up straight, clenching his hands around his armrests, "A soldier, commander, fighting for the enemy?" he exclaimed incredulously. May wanted to call her father back on that, for she couldn't believe that for one moment. It was the tone in her father's voice that held her back,

However, Arden shook his head, "A soldier? I wished it for my friend, for it would mean he would be a free man. Instead he stood, stripped off any armour or weaponry, clad in only the simplest of rags with a metal chocker around his neck and feet, chained and held onto," he said.

A pressing silence fell over the hall, "So what you're saying…" May said with a small tone. She wished it wasn't so, anything but so.

Arden clenched his hand again, "I am sorry, princess. I am so sorry. Drew Hayden, general of this army, my friend, gave his freedom, voluntarily, gave his freedom as a slave to Kamesh to let us, his men, go home. That was the condition Kamesh made when I drove up to him. We could go home but the general wasn't"

The world fell away from May. Drew wasn't coming home, not back to her. She felt her hand slip from Max but only realized she was the one who moved when she was up close to Arden.

"Why didn't you stop him!" she said. Arden opened his mouth but didn't get a chance to say anything. May hit her hands on the man's chest, tears over her face. "You are his friend, right! Why didn't you stop him! Held him down!" she cried almost hysterically. "Why didn't you bring him back to me?"

Two pairs on hands pulled her away from her abuse of the man, but May barely noticed it as she struggled, "Why? Why?" she cried.

Arden hesitated for a bit and then dropped to his knees, almost hitting his head in lowering it to the ground. "Your highness!" he whispered hoarsely. "I'm so sorry! If I could, would, definitely would turn back time and take his pl….do everything to get him back. : Arden didn't look up once while saying it, his head pushing unforgivingly against the cold floor.

May quieted down a bit, as she understood Arden was only the messenger. And then she sank to her knees, resting her hand on Arden's quavering shoulder. "Raise your head, Arden, it's not becoming of you," she said softly.

Arden rose a little bit, but he kept down, even his head stayed downcast. "Your highness," he said with a choked up voice. "He did…give me one last order. Or rather…request, next to bringing everyone home. He told me, while he would be gone, to make sure you are safe and well. At least, until he gets back that is."

Despite the situation, which was anything but funny, May giggled and Arden raised his eyes to stare at her curiously. May shook her head, "I suspect he didn't quite phrase it like that," she murmured.

At Arden's grateful look, May felt the last of anger seep away. Truly, Arden probably had to have gathered all his strength and courage to face her and May was well aware of her spitfire personality. But, it saddened her, and she did feel guilty for blaming the man.

She smiled weakly at the soldier that was still watching her warily. "Then, since it is a request of my future, sometime, husband, I should probably let you stay by my side then," she said.

She looked back at her father, who nodded. "I think, since General Hayden trusted you this task, you are probably good enough." He shook his head sadly, "It seems not so long ago that I told Drew this, but please take care of her," he said.

Arden nodded and watched the floor, "Then, I will as long as you will allow me," he said.

May nodded at him and then for the first in a long time May sought the cover of her father's arms and cried.

Listlessly, May watched husbands getting united with their wives as she walked through the village that was near the castle. She had felt choked up between the castle walls, the stone closing in in her. She didn't want the court's sympathetic and pitying looks, but now she asked herself whether she should have stayed in the castle for seeing, truly seeing families reunited was somehow painful.

She had felt like she was intruding when she saw Anna's mother, a usually docile woman, tackle her husband in a flying hug.

She had left without saying a word. It was not that she wasn't glad for them, but she hated the fact that only Drew hadn't come home, to her.

"Are you sure you want to be here, your highness?" Arden asked.

May looked back at him, for he kept a rather respectful distance, something she would have to address soon as well, and said sternly, "May, it's just May," she corrected him.

Arden smiled ruefully and rubbed a hand in his brown hair, "Ah, yes. I keep forgetting, " he muttered more to himself.

May looked at him curiously. She had quickly come to like the man, even if she had only met him today in not exactly the most pleasant circumstances. He had a rather laid-back attitude that would be quite unbecoming of him if he wasn't such a dutiful and loyal man. May had quickly learned that he wasn't married for he had traveling in his blood, a restlessness that made him feel every once in a while feel the urge to escape.

He had had it in all of his 32 summers, and it had driven his mother quite to desperation when the baby him had gone exploring.

Arden grinned back at her, "Drew said something rather alike to me; he was a lot less gentle about it though. Told me he'd make me do squats every time I called him uncalled for formally." He shook his head, "You might have blue blood, May, but you and Drew are not that different. In wanting to be normal"

At this thought, May smiled wistfully. Being normal sounded pretty good.

A hand on her arm stopped May from walking further and leaving town. "We should head back May," Arden said. "I might be here, but the woods are still not safe."

May stared back in the thick green, knowing it would soon enough turn yellow and after that white. This forest, instead of facing south to the mountains, or east to the rocky fields, both places filled with memories of battle, faced west and behind the forest was the ocean.

She wanted to go there. She wanted to hear the waves rolling on the shore. Most of all she didn't want to look south, because those mountains in the far distance did not bring her Drew.

"He will come back May," Arden said, noticing his guard had lost track of her mind.

May shook her head, "How do you know that? You don't even know for sure he's still alive,"

Arden rested a hand on her shoulder and gently guided May back to the castle. "Have a little faith in him. It's Drew so he will come back," he told her. May wished she could be as much of a believer as he was.

And that's that! You wouldn't guess! I passed my University freshman-year! Hell yeah!

Please review guys; I am rather curious to your views on this story. I'm still rather excited about it!

Edit: Guys! No! Drew did not send Arden to MARRY May but more of an appointed guardian, since she is the type to naturally get into trouble! Sorry if I implied that but please don't misunderstand that!