Disclaimer: I don't own Narnia or any characters you may recognize from the books or the movies, I wish I did but I don't... I also don't own the Narnian Calendar. It belongs to Elecktrum who was kind enough to let me borrow it for my story. Her own stories are awesome and you should go read them too.
Summary: When memory is veiled, can the love forged between two hearts survive?
A/N: If you have not read the first seven stories in the A Light in the Darkness main story arc (Awakened, Shadowed, Revealed, Concealed, Rekindled, Refracted, and Reflected), I highly recommend you do so for the full experience. However, I have included a quick summary of the previous stories so if you want to give this one a whirl on its own, you can.
Chapter Eight: Veiled
The wind caressed her face and she closed her eyes, turning toward it. Then, the touch of the wind was replaced with calloused fingers that lightly skimmed her jaw and chin. She didn't open her eyes as warm breath not her own tickled her lips. "You are my heart, do not forget."
Her own voice echoed in her ears, a contented whisper. "Never, I promise." She opened her eyes, wanting, no, needing to see him.
Whatever had stirred in her heart died when the gentle caress was replaced with a hard, crushing grip. Fear and pain wrapped around her as the ropes dug into her clothing and skin. The sickly smooth voice assaulted her ears. "Tell me where it is. Tell me so I don't have to hurt you again, Fair One. Come now, Ishara Reborn. Look at me. Look at me!" The fingers dug in harder, bruising as blunt nails cut into her skin, and forced her to turn her head. Her eyes widened and terror gripped her as a twisted, dark, leering face loomed in front of her. She jerked away, screaming.
She sat up, panting. Sweat had plastered her shift to her back and a number of tendrils that had escaped her braid clung damply to her forehead and neck. She kicked at the covers, needing to escape all confines, and bolted out of bed. She pressed her hand against her ribs, checking for something she couldn't remember, and then raised her trembling hands before her eyes. She…she had to regain control.
Taking deep, calming breaths, she moved to the window and opened it, allowing the sounds of the distant ocean and somewhat closer chatter of people in. Breathe. A light tap at the door seemed to be what she needed to regain her composure. Her breathing steadied and she forced her hands to still, turning away from the window as the door opened and the Nymph from the day before came in. She scrambled for a name… The Nymph smiled in a motherly fashion and the name slid into place. She smiled back, dipping her head slightly. "Tuulea."
Something about her greeting must have been wrong for the Nymph, Tuulea, did not look pleased for the briefest of moments. But then Tuulea smiled again and she felt herself relax. She hadn't even realized she had been tense. "Alambiel. How do you feel?"
She swallowed hard then offered a shrug. "I am…confused, still. But, physically, I do feel well." Her mind recoiled from the memory of the nightmare and her tongue seemed to stick to the roof of her mouth at even the thought of speaking of it. No, no, she could not force herself down that path just yet.
Tuulea moved closer, reaching up to touch her cheek. "You are pale still, little one. And it seems the heat is still effecting you. Are you feeling overly warm?"
She shook her head. "N-no. I am well. I'm just…I think I overslept since it's already almost noon judging by the sun's position."
"Do not be concerned, Alambiel. We all understand." Tuulea picked up a dark blue robe and helped her into it. "You will, however, need to remain in the healers' wing another night or two for observation. I want to ensure you are quite recovered."
"Save for my memory, you mean." The words left a bitter taste on her tongue and she instantly regretted them. "Forgive me, I shouldn't have said that."
Tuulea's dark brown eyes filled with sympathy and something inside started to bristle then relaxed as she realized Tuulea didn't feel an empty pity for her. "I know this is difficult. But, Aslan willing, you will unlock your memories again."
She frowned slightly at the emphasis on yet another unknown name but it hardly mattered. She knelt and clung to Tuulea's hands, feeling like a child turning to her mother (though she could not explain it). "Tuulea, Tuulea, you would tell me if I were married, right? I…I don't think I could stand it if I have forgotten someone as important as a husband." She thought for a moment that she heard something outside but then she shook her head. Tightening her grip on Tuulea's hands, she allowed just a hint of the distress swallowing her to enter her voice. "If I'm walking by my husband without ever realizing it, I don't know that… Please tell me I have not had that much stolen from me. Please, Tuulea."
"Oh, Alambiel," Tuulea whispered as she knelt on the floor and wrapped her arms around her. "Oh, you poor child." Her hand pet her hair as the Nymph whispered the words she needed to hear, "No, you are not wed." There was a pause, almost as if Tuulea had changed her mind about what to say before she repeated herself. "You are not wed, Alambiel. You will not be walking by your husband unawares."
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"Please tell me I have not had that much stolen from me."
Oreius shook his head as he attempted to focus on his paperwork. If only he could have entered the room and reassured Alambiel that she would be all right again, that he would wait until she remembered him again. But, he had not dared to push the door open, to speak. He would only frighten her again.
Would learning that she has forgotten someone who loves her and had every intention of wedding her cause her any less distress? He slammed his fist down on the desk, uncaring for the way it disturbed his papers. He knew the answer. It pained him, but he knew that Alambiel would be overwhelmed and even more afraid if she knew of what they had had together. She was too afraid of him for him to risk it.
"Aslan…I do not know how this is Your will, but I beg You to help her. Comfort her as I cannot any longer." The words tore at him almost as much as Alambiel's anguished petition to Tuulea. Bowing his head, Oreius knew what he needed to do now.
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Their steps were whisper-soft. Susan exchanged a worried look with Lucy as Alithia met them at the doors to Kat's quarters. Oreius' message had been quite cryptic. He was waiting for them inside. Susan noted that he looked far more stern and impassive than he had in a very long time, at least when there was not a battle immediately at hand. The Centaur bowed slightly. "Majesties, Alithia, thank you for coming."
Susan exchanged another look with Lucy before they both looked at Alithia. Lucy stepped forward, her sweet face earnest. "You said you needed us to help. What is it? What can we do?"
"You are aware that I must remove the sensitive documents in Alambiel's care before she is released from the healers' wing. However, I am in need of your aid in removing other items." He paused then gestured to Kat's bedchamber. "Anything you find that would reveal our courtship needs to be removed."
"But, Oreius, are you certain this is a good idea?" Susan shook her head. "How can she remember if we don't allow her access to the best clues?"
Those dark eyes went flat. "What help will it be for her to be confronted with a relationship she does not want? My Queens, you saw Alambiel's reaction to me. This is the wiser choice," Oreius stated stiffly.
She didn't think he believed his own words, but she placed a staying hand on Lucy's arm before her sister could protest. "What are we looking for?"
"Letters, jewelry, anything that might give away we had something more than friendship between us." Oreius' words were clipped and devoid of all the emotions Susan knew he must be experiencing. He returned to Kat's study.
They stood in silence for a few minutes. Susan watched the Centaur General who had stood by her and her siblings for eight years sorting through Kat's less than tidy paperwork, jaw tight, but other than that he was too controlled. Sighing, she nudged Lucy and nodded to the bedchamber while Alithia went to check the bookshelf in the corner of the sitting room. Her little sister pushed the door to then whispered, "Can't we leave one thing, Su? One thing of them together for her to find?"
Much as she disliked doing so, Susan shook her head. "No. You heard Oreius, he doesn't want her stumbling across anything before she's ready."
"I know," Lucy sighed as they started with the easiest place – Kat's jewelry box. "It's just so sad that it took six years for them to realize they loved each other and now Kat's not getting much of a chance to remember on her own."
Susan nodded. "It is, but for now he might be right about not overwhelming her." She tapped the golden crown nestled in the bottom of the jewelry box. "This will be difficult enough for her at the moment."
She frowned as she surveyed the rather minimal contents then pulled out a flat case that had been resting next to the crown. Opening it, Susan stared at the elegantly simple necklace with its silver chain and oval-shaped pedant formed of silver eternal knots cradling an amethyst teardrop and the smaller matching pendant earrings. Kat wore them almost every time she had to participate in a formal banquet as the Princess Royal. After their courtship had been revealed, she had finally confessed that Oreius had given them to her when they first began courting not quite a year ago. Susan closed the case and carefully set it aside. The gold half hoop earrings could be left where they were as well as several bracelets that had been Christmas and birthday gifts from Lucy and her when they were trying to help Kat look just a tad less like a warrior as the Princess Royal. There were a few simple necklaces that Kat rarely wore and one ornate star-cut sapphire pendant and diamond chain necklace that they wouldn't let her return after King Lune so graciously presented it to her for rescuing Corin from a Werewolf. She had worn it exactly one time because they had all ordered her to do so for Lune's welcoming dinner in the days leading up to Peter's wedding.
Kat's hair beads, two sapphire beads with the silver etchings of a rampant lion and a stylized sunburst, and her silver thumb ring were gone. Susan started to shut the jewelry box when Lucy pointed at something tucked behind the crown. "Is that what I think it is?"
Susan gave a little laugh as Lucy pulled out the small ornate dagger. "I'm afraid it is." She paused and Lucy looked at her with wide blue eyes. Then they spun around and shouted, "Oreius!"
Their call brought both Centaurs to the door, but it was Oreius who spoke. "Where did you find that one?"
"In her jewelry box," Lucy said, handing the dagger to him.
"And what about all of her other knives?" Susan smoothed some wrinkles on her skirts as she tried to find a kind way to put her next thought into words. "It is, well, it is a risk to leave her armed when she may be startled by someone she doesn't know is her friend."
Oreius gave a curt nod. "You speak the truth, my Queen. I have already removed the knives she left in her study, but we shall have to search out the rest of her knives as well."
It was a long process, figuring out where Kat had hidden her frighteningly large collection of knives. They were hidden under the mattress, in a groove in the headboard, beneath three pillows, and in the false bottom of the washstand's drawer. They currently had a dozen knives plus another dozen Oreius and Alaithia had found stashed in the sitting room and study laid out on the bed. Susan pulled another small dagger out of a dancing slipper. "She has too many knives."
"Kat doesn't think so," Lucy mumbled. "Where else do we need to look?"
"Bottom drawer of the wardrobe," Oreius stated.
Susan's eyes widened as they pulled open the drawer. There were stacks of drawing notebooks, a number of drawing implements, and two carved wooden boxes. She opened the top notebook and gasped at the remarkable likeness of Peter and Thalia dancing at their wedding. The next sketch was one of herself surrounded by her ladies. The next of Lucy and Edmund racing along the beach with the Wolves bounding after them. And the next sketch was of Oreius…he looked content and there was softness to his eyes. Feeling as though she had intruded upon their privacy, Susan quickly shut the notebook. "I didn't realize how much Kat drew, if all of these are filled…"
"Remove those as well."
She looked up in surprise, but Oreius' face was set in the same stern lines as before. She glanced at Alithia who silently held her hands out for the notebooks. Lucy opened the boxes. "The letters."
Oreius opened the top letter of one stack then replaced it. He took the other box without looking at the letters. "Leave that box. It has nothing she cannot know about in it." The impassive look wavered for a single moment before he set the box next to Kat's knives, notebooks, and the jewelry case. "Now, for the rest of her weapons."
Stepping forward, Oreius lifted the false bottom of the large drawer. Susan heard Lucy gasp and her own breath caught at the sight of the carefully organized collection of knives and short swords. She did a quick count and came up with twenty-one blades not including the five empty spaces. "She has too many knives…and this isn't even counting her grandfather's claymore and Chrysaor."
Oreius did not reply. Alithia touched his shoulder but he merely turned away to look through the notebooks filled with Kat's drawings. He removed two and returned them to the drawer next to the drawing implements and the sole box of letters left. "She should still be able to draw if she wishes."
Susan's heart broke a little and she blinked back tears on behalf of two very dear friends. No, Oreius and Kat were family. And now, Oreius was removing all the testaments to their hard-won courtship just to keep Kat from suffering more confusion. Oh Aslan, why did this happen to them?
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Oreius stared at the contents of the jewelry case then, with a heavy sigh, he closed the lid. He couldn't give it to her, certainly not as he had planned, to represent their betrothal as was custom among Centaurs. Unlocking the desk drawer, he placed the case next to the one that held Alambiel's silver and amethyst jewelry. He started to close the drawer but stopped. Pulling out the small framed drawing of his Alambiel (her Christmas gift to him…the only self-portrait she had drawn), he brushed his fingers over the smile he now doubted he would ever see aimed at him again. "I am sorry I could not protect you." Gently setting the drawing back down, he closed the drawer and turned the key, locking away everything that represented his too short time with Alambiel. He prayed that one day she might remember or, at least, look at him with something other than fear.
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A/N: Please Read and Review!
A/N2: Jaygee (Jesus' girl 4ever) has now made trailers for my stories Rekindled and Refracted! The links are in my profile. Do let me know what y'all think of them.