“Arken.” Vivian’s voice remained as harsh now as when she spoke that strange language to the Wolven. “What did you mean, Xavier will get his blood soon? What are you planning?”
“Stay at the castle a little longer, Vivian,” said Arken hoarsely. He rubbed his tender neck as if to ensure that it hadn’t been broken. “I think you’ll find that the game isn’t over.”
“Arken!” she cried.
With a flourish of his cloak, he was gone.
*
He should have gone straight to Tanya and Tristan. He looked forward to showing them that he had fulfilled his part of the plan. He anticipated the joy and approval he would see on his mother’s face.
But somehow, that wasn’t enough.
You want a woman to love and respect you, she had told him. You always have, my dear. Your desire to earn my approval is the most pertinent example.
He gripped the key at his side, feeling its sharp teeth bite his skin.
In the end, it won’t matter. Once you have the key, we can claim that the Grand Keep contains whatever suits our purpose, and everyone else will believe us.
He imagined the death of Lord Gerald at the hands of the Wolven, and he enjoyed the vision greatly. But wouldn’t it be even better if he could take the crown all on his own? If he did not depend on his family, or a damnable Wolven, to take what belonged to him? And what if he could win back Nadia’s heart in the process?
He still had some time before dawn. And now that he held the key in his hands, he didn’t want to wait any longer. He wanted to see what precious item lurked in the dark stones of the Grand Keep. Whatever treasure it contained would be his, and his alone. He wanted to enjoy that before he let Tanya and Tristan taint his victory with their own machinations.
So he took hold of a chinder torch and made his way to the Grand Keep.
He stood before the large, metal door a long while without moving. He found it difficult to breathe, and he did not think the aching bruise on his neck was the only reason. He watched the colorful flames of the chinder torch shift in the door’s reflection, and wondered what could possibly be so important that someone locked it away for hundreds of years. Could it be a trap of some kind? If he died as soon as the door opened, would he deserve it? Or what if it held some item of unspeakable power? Could he trust himself to wield that power wisely? Or would the curse of his namesake get the best of him?
He forced a long, deep breath through his weary throat. There was only one way to find the answer to his questions. He pushed the key into the lock and turned it.
Click.
His heart skipped a beat. The sound was so soft, so simple. Yet as soon as the lock released, he felt the steel shift under his hands.
He pushed with all of his might, and the door to the Grand Keep swung open.
A dark cave yawned before him. He waved the torch around, hoping to spread the light far enough that he would not have to step inside. But only sheer blackness rewarded his efforts.
Finally, he stepped through the entrance.
Once again, he saw only shadows. He waved the torch further. For a moment, he thought he glimpsed a silvery shape, but further inspection revealed just a cobweb. He took another step.
Eventually, he worked up the courage to explore the entire keep. He walked from one end to the other, sweeping the torch over every which way, examining every stone and cobweb in the gods-forsaken cavern. But no matter where he looked, he found nothing.
The Grand Keep of Castle Krondolee was completely and utterly empty.
CHAPTER 7
Life and Death
Before she heard the rumors, Queen Nadia sensed the truth.
Vivian Trell no longer wore the necklace around her neck, people whispered. The key was gone. But no one knew its whereabouts. Vivian would not name the lucky winner, and whoever possessed it had not yet come forward. Many people suspected that Queen Nadia procured the key after eating dinner with Vivian; after all, the timing made sense.
Nadia knew the truth. She did not have the key. But she had a very strong suspicion of who did.
So if Arken had the key, why had he not yet come forward?
She spent a large amount of the day pacing in her room, or rocking angrily in a chair when her ankles began to hurt. She tried to come up with a plan to counter-act whatever the Jeridars would have in store for her. She sent guards to watch the Grand Keep and alert her as soon as it opened. But as far as they knew, it remained shut all morning.
Wouldn’t the Jeridars try to enter the Grand Keep as soon as the key came into their clutches? Vivian didn’t understand. How could she prepare for the worst when she had no idea what that might be?
Nadia considered calling together an emergency meeting of the Royal Duma. But she feared that tempers would be too heated, and she had little doubt that the Jeridars would use the chaos of a frenzied Duma to turn the tables against her.
Instead, she called some of her most trusted Houses to meet near her chambers. To avoid drawing too much attention, she did not just invite the House Leaders, but their entire families. This would make the meeting seem more like a social gathering than a formal assembly.
Among those who joined her in the Upper Balconies for breakfast were the Perins, the Feldrens, and the Grandils. Slowly, carefully, Nadia drew in the House Leaders for a more intimate discussion. But Selene stood close by her husband Williard, House Leader of the Perins, and the elderly House Leader Grandil kept his teenaged granddaughter close by his side.
When Nadia shot the young girl a curious glance, House Leader Grandil said proudly, “This is my son’s daughter, Belatrix. I need a young pair of ears with me because I’m a little hard of hearing these days. I assure you, Belatrix can be trusted with the most sensitive of information.”
“If you say so, Lord Grandil, then I believe you,” said Nadia. In fact, she believed it just by staring into the teenager’s eyes. Though she couldn’t be much older than thirteen or fourteen, Belatrix’s dark eyes suggested wisdom beyond her years. She possessed some of her family’s most outlandish physical traits: dark skin, light brown eyes, and thick red hair. But far more captivating was her small but muscular frame, accented by a lovely but stern face. The young woman exemplified a rare combination of beauty and strength working harmoniously together. A Grandil daughter, indeed.
“In that case,” Nadia continued, “I’ll get straight to the point. You must all suspect why I called you for ‘breakfast.’ I hear that the key to the Grand Keep has vanished. Vivian Trell admits she gave it away. Many people suspect she gave it to me at dinner last night. I see no reason to deny such rumors publicly; the longer people believe that, the better. But I will admit to those of you here now that the key is not in my possession. I strongly suspect that the Jeridars have the key.”
A solemn silence followed the queen’s confession. House Leader Grandil tapped Belatrix’s shoulder, who then whispered in the old man’s ear. Afterwards, he just shook his head until his long white braids rattled around his shoulders.
“This cannot be,” said the honored elder.
“I feel the same way,” said Nadia with a weary sigh. “For the Jeridars to possess the key presents the worst possible scenario. But it is one we must prepare for—”
“No, I mean it cannot be,” insisted House Leader Grandil. His shaky hand tapped his granddaughter’s shoulder once more. “Tell them, Belatrix!”
She nodded, then fixed Nadia with a fierce brown stare. Even the queen felt intimidated by the intensity of the young girl’s gaze. “What my grandfather means is: you are wrong. I often visit the Jeridars to look after Tristan’s toddler son, Kallias. I looked after him all of last night because Tristan claimed he had work to do. This morning, I heard Tristan and his mother Tanya arguing about the fact that they didn’t have the key yet. They heard the same rumors you did and became very upset. So you must be mistaken.”
“I see,” said Nadia. But now, she felt annoyed by the girl’s indignant tone. Sh
e also found it harder to deny the apparent truth. Perhaps Arken had the key, but had not yet shared it with his family. In that case, what could he possibly plan to do with it?
“I find it suspicious that Tristan Jeridar had ‘work’ to do,” scoffed Selene Perin.
Nadia appreciated her friend’s graceful intervention, for the queen found herself at a loss. She was supposed to have all the answers. Why did she grow so easily confused as soon as Arken became a part of the problem?
Gerald’s calm, resonant voice filled the silence. “All we can do from here is speculate,” said the Grand Prince. “I see little reason to entertain theories without solid proof. So with the approval all the House Leaders we can gather, I think the queen should seize the Jeridars for questioning. She has every right to do this if she fears for the kingdom’s safety. And until we know what the Grand Keep contains, we must assume that its contents could be dangerous. This situation merits extreme measures. Don’t you agree, Nadia?”
Nadia continued to stare off in a daze, her concentration shattered. She hadn’t slept much last night. Vivian’s cruel words kept echoing in her ears, over and over and over again. So, in the end, against all odds, a Jeridar chose love over power, and an Elborn chose power over love? Or maybe, greed and love are really not so different from each other.
“Nadia?” said her husband. “Are you well?”
A gentle hand reached out and gripped Nadia’s shoulder. It was Selene’s. “Um... maybe you won’t have to seize the Jeridars for questioning, after all, Majesty.” Her grip tightened with urgency.
Nadia looked up at her friend with surprise. Selene nodded across the balcony.
Nadia followed her gaze to an adjacent bridge that stretched between towers. Upon it stood Arken Jeridar, his silken robes gleaming in the morning light, his golden eyes fixing her from afar.
*
If Arken wanted to avoid the queen, he could have easily outpaced her slow, waddling footsteps. But if that had been his intention, he would not have wandered up to the Upper Balconies and waited for her to notice him. So she tried not to rush as she dragged her swollen body out to meet him, and he remained in place, waiting patiently.
Even from a distance, she sensed that something about him was unusual. When she came close enough, she quickly discerned what. The Man of Silk was disheveled, his yellow hair tangled, his pale skin stained with dirt, his eyelids sagging. She suspected he had gotten even less sleep than she did.
“You look terrible,” she greeted him.
He smiled wearily back at her. “I wish I could say the same about you, my Queen. But even in your condition, you remain somehow... radiant.”
She could not take his words as a compliment when he said them so bitterly. She leaned on the railing next to him, out of necessity, and released a heavy sigh. Her regret filled her up so completely, she worried that it would spill out even sooner than her unborn child. So she took what control of it she could muster. “Arken, I wanted to tell you I’ve been thinking a lot about what happened between us. And I think I owe you—”
“Don’t. I already told you. I don’t wish to hear it.” This time, however, his tone carried more sadness than anger. And without further ado, he reached into a pouch against his belt and pulled out the necklace.
Nadia gasped with surprise as the key to the Grand Keep sparkled before her.
“I obtained the key with Vivian’s permission,” said Arken. “You need not worry about that. And yes, my family had an elaborate scheme as to what I should do with it. I nearly gave in to them. But I can assure you that if you hate me now, you would hate me ten times more if I did what they wanted. And despite everything... even when I want you to experience the pain that I’ve suffered... I do not think I could bear for you to hate me.”
“Arken...” Nadia’s whole body trembled. “I could never...”
“Don’t, Nadia. Just... don’t.” He shook his head sharply, then sighed and looked out at the horizon. “I have tried to find other ambitions. I am young. Mother tells me the world is mine for the taking. But most of the world doesn’t interest me. I like the idea of ruling the kingdom, just as any man would. I especially like the idea of ruling alongside you. But all of that would mean nothing to me if you did not believe I deserved it—if you saw me as no more than a power-grabbing Jeridar. If you did not believe that my feelings for you could root more deeply than that.”
She resisted the urge to speak again as he took her hand, peeled her fingers open, and held the necklace over her waiting palm.
“The necklace is yours if you’ll only say one thing to me, Nadia. Say it and mean it.”
“Say what?” she asked breathlessly.
His voice hardened, deepened with need. “Admit you were wrong about me. Tell me you made a mistake. That is all I want to hear from you. And then the key is yours.”
She nodded weakly, desperately. She knew she needed to say the words, even if he hadn’t requested them. Tears spilled down her cheeks as evidence of her guilt. “I was wrong about you, Arken. We would have ruled well together. And when I chose Gerald instead of you, I made the wrong decision. I know that now. But it is too late to change what happened. And we must both live with the consequences.”
His hand tightened against hers. He took a quick, rasping breath. Then, as he dropped the necklace into her hand, he leaned over to brush his lips against her cheek. “Must we?”
He pushed her fingers over the key, until its sharp teeth raked her fingers. Then he turned and walked away.
*
Nadia fell into a daze. When she walked back to her guests, she could not find the strength to explain herself. She could only say, “We need not worry anymore. I have the key now.”
They surrounded her with questions, but she could not answer. She fell into a chair, clutching her aching head. “Thank you all for coming,” she groaned. “But now you must go.”
Must we?
They fussed. They lingered. They asked questions. She couldn’t even ignore them; that would require some effort. She simply couldn’t pay attention to them. Fortunately, Gerald helped persuade them to leave. Only Selene remained; perhaps little Nikolaos still ran in circles around his mother’s skirts, Nadia wasn’t sure. She felt a sharp pain seizing her midriff. She leaned back and watched the clouds spinning above her. At least they seemed to be spinning.
She cried out suddenly. She felt as if the gods reached down from the heavens, gripped her body with a hand on each end, and wrenched her in opposite directions.
“The baby is coming,” someone said. “We must take her inside.”
Selene helped Nadia to her feet. Wetness trickled down her legs. Gerald stood on the other side, his eyes wide with shock. Could the man of perfect balance feel surprise, or fear?
To her own puzzlement, she found herself smiling with a confidence she did not feel. “Don’t worry, Gerald. No matter what happens, Serafina will be fine. Of this, I am certain.”
Her strength went out of her, and she gave in to the support of her companions. For once, she appreciated the stability of Gerald’s composure as he guided her to her chambers.
Seconds and minutes stretched into what felt like hours of agony, one after another. Nadia eventually collapsed in her bed and succumbed to the contractions searing through her. She writhed in the blankets, yelled, and cursed. Selene brought in a midwife and then offered her moral support. She wiped cool water over Nadia’s brow in moments of stillness, and offered a hand for Nadia to grip and twist in moments of agony.
Eventually, Gerald left the women alone, muttering that he needed to assure the other House Leaders that Queen Nadia now possessed the key. At one point, he reached to take it from Nadia. But even through a haze of pain, she yanked it from his grasp and flung it around her neck.
“Tell the House Leaders whatever you want,” she hissed. Selene winced as Nadia twisted her hand every which way. “But we don’t open the Grand Keep until I say so!”
“Ver
y well, Nadia.” Gerald bobbed his head in submission, then attempted a quick pat on Nadia’s leg. “I’ll be back soon. May the Guardian be with you.”
If he tried to say anything else, his words quickly became lost in another scream ripping from Nadia’s throat.
The day wore on, and Nadia wondered if the pain would ever stop. She found herself mumbling to Selene as the kind maid brushed another rag over her face.
“I hoped... childbirth... might be easy... for me.”
Selene snorted. “Easy! I doubt bearing a child is ever easy, even for Demetral herself. But trust me, Nadia, this childbirth is going more smoothly than most. Your contractions are coming so quickly, the baby should come out any moment!”
Nadia screamed as a contraction seized her more fiercely than all the ones before it, confirming Selene’s suspicions. The queen’s nails dug into the bed, the midwife reached between her legs, and inch by inch, push by push, the baby began to slip out of her.
She tried to concentrate on breathing and pushing, though distracted by the fear that her body would rip in half as she forced the newborn from her womb. She tried not to let the pain overwhelm her, to sweep her away from the miracle of Serafina’s creation.
At long last, the baby’s cry echoed through the room, and Nadia collapsed back on the blankets.
“It’s a girl!” announced the midwife.
Nadia wept tears of joy and exhaustion as she received the wet, squirming bundle into her arms.
“Just as you suspected,” said Selene, running her fingers through the queen’s sweat-ridden hair.
“My little Serafina,” whispered Nadia. And she knew without a doubt that the tiny infant in her arms would grow up to be the most magnificent woman in Darzia.
“I will fetch Grand Prince Gerald,” said Selene. She leaned down and kissed Nadia’s forehead before rising to go. “Congratulations, Queen Nadia.”
Even though the key to the Grand Keep remained nestled against Nadia’s chest, she forgot its existence. Suddenly, nothing on earth mattered more than the life she had created. And she suspected that no matter what else she accomplished as queen of Darzia, Serafina would remain her greatest achievement.
*
Nadia waited a long while for Selene to return. The midwife remained to nurture the mother and child. A host of guards stayed outside the room, as always. Nadia lost track of time as she sat and stared down at her baby. Briefly, she wondered what Gerald would think of their child. Despite all her frustration towards Gerald, Nadia knew that Serafina would never have existed if not for their union. Perhaps even Gerald would find awe in that concept.