By this time of the morning, Orken was usually already with Shaelyn, growing vegetables, but today, he waited outside the King's room for her when she stepped out. Aurelie turned her head to the side in question and took his arm, letting him lead her somewhere more private.
The guards didn't move a muscle to follow in her direction, but she turned anyway, checking that no one followed before she spoke, "What is it?"
"My spy came back with news."
Aurelie narrowed her eyes. "You have a spy? Where?" She looked around again as if the person would appear suddenly and shout, "Here I am!"
"Of course, I do, how else are we going to find the boy?" he asked her. "They've been almost intentionally useless at finding him.
"Has he found anything?" Aurelie's heart beat fast. She had been expecting the worst for a long time and the feeling grew worse whenever she heard anyone speak of Kirin.
"There's a name I've been meaning to ask you about. A Nicolai Morel, that rings a bell, yes?"
"Of course, his father is the commanderâor whatever they call it thereâof Redayrah. It is their ball that I was invited to back then when I took the portal."
"Yes, I thought so too." His lips pursed at the memory, but he said nothing of it, which Aurelie found rather strange. "He's the lad that called Kirin out that night, Aurelie. The Morel boy."
Aurelie stopped. Orken took a few steps forward and was tugged back by her arm, realizing that she hadn't followed, he walked back to her.
"Are you certain?" she asked.
"Quite."
A vicious smile spread across Aurelie's lips, bearing her teeth. "Well, that's interesting."
Orken frowned, startled by her expression. "What the hell do you mean?" he asked, the outrage growing twofold on his face.
"Nicolai Morel had aâ" Aurelie unbound her arm from Orken's and put both her hands on her hips, pacing. "He fell in love with," she thought better of saying that he had fallen in love with her and altered the phrase after a short pause, "title."
Her finger flew up into the air. "That bastard!" Her foot tapped against the floor. The vile taste of betrayal crept into her mouth. She frowned, seeing the blurry loops of her brows hover over her vision. Oh dear Nic, I don't think you quite understand what you've started.
"Lower your voice," Orken said, looking around an empty corridor.
"Oh, who cares who hears?" Aurelie's stomach took a bitter turn. She bit her lip and absently shook her head again. "Is there anything else?" she asked. "Do we know where he's held."
"No." Orken shook his head. Ã did here that they kept him there for three weeks before moving."
"Three weeks?" Aurelie's voice cracked. "You mean we could have just gone there and gotten him out?"
"You and what army?" he asked, caught between a sympathetic and an irritated expression.
"If I'd known he was there, I would not need an army."
"Would've, could've, should've. That's irrelevant now. My spy spoke to one of the maids who had seen Kirin, she said he hadn't been conscious once but that the guards assured her he was alive. They've moved him somewhere, we think it's the Icelands."
"We've found me a husband." Stopping, she looked Orken dead in the eye with a fiercely devious expression on her face. "We're having a ball."
"What?"
"It's either marriage or death. And," she smiled, "trust me; marriage will be much more potent."
"Perhaps we should discuss this first," Orken suggested, the corner of his lip pursed, pushing the other slightly in confusion. Yes, it didn't make sense to him now. Of course, it wouldn't, but it didn't have to. Aurelie was the only participant that was required in her plot.
"There's no need, Orken," she said. "I know exactly what I have to do. Love lost, that is what we all suffer from, isn't it? Well, perhaps it is time someone suffers with us."
Nic felt something for her. That, he couldn't fake. She remembered the pain that grew deep within his eyes when she rejected him. All of a sudden she remembered the vile way he looked at Kirin too, but perhaps that had been more to do with her imagination now that the pieces slowly formed together.
***
Two guards stood by the door of the King's chamber when she neared it. Without a word, they moved to stand in front of the door as she was about to reach the handle.
She frowned at them and stepped backward. "Are you well in the head, gentlemen?" she asked them, summoning a ball of fire into her hand. "Move. Please," she smiled ever so sweetly.
One of the guards gave her a pleading look. She turned her head to the side and increased the size of the flame in her hand.
"Your Majesty," the other guard, older and more confident, spoke up.
Aurelie squeezed past them before he could finish, knowing that they wouldn't dare lay a hand on her.
A squeal came from the inside of the chamber just as the door opened. It came from the King. Aurelie averted her eyes as soon as she entered the chamber and heard Niedry slide off the King's bed. When Aurelie was sure that they were both fully covered, she turned back.
"Niendry," she nodded in greeting. "Can I have a minute with my father?"
"Of course, my dear Princess, heaven forbid you had to wait for a single minute."
Aurelie raised her eyebrows with a smile and looked at her father who observed the two of them with a sort of bored look that you'd find on a man who had to wait for his wife at a shoe shop. For the entire journey, Aurelie had been trying to come up with a way to convince her father to be on her side about the ball, but the situation gave her some much-needed confidence.
"We're having a ball," she said.
"No, we're not."
"That's a brilliant idea," Niendry chipped in, clapping her hands, and then looked at the King processing his answer. "Why not?" her entire expression change.
"I've chosen a husband."
"Aurelie," the King widened his eyes, unable to express himself quite as clearly with Niendry in the room. "We've talked about this."
"Oh come now!" Niendry moaned. "It's two against one."
"Exactly," Aurelie smiled. "The ladies win."
"The ladies can have as many balls as they wish," the King said, struggling to feel at ease in his vulnerable position. "Aurelie can just not have that particular ball."
"You know, many people on the islands have more than one partner," Niendry added the matter of factly.
The King shot her the kind of look that would have anyone else drop down dead before he could even execute them. "What did you say?"
Niendry winked at her.
Aurelie turned to her father. "Trust me on this. I won't be stupid."
***
The days leading up to the ball grew shorter, and Aurelie felt a noose of her own making slowly wrap around her neck, but chose to keep herself busy with whatever she could lay her hands on. Most times that had been packing the vegetables into crates and carrying them to the bored guard meant to do the job.
Valice had healed and allowed the fitting of her wing. She had yet to fly but was able to strut around the field with it on, and quickly grew used to having it follow her. The ground suffered the most. When she was still unable to pick all the sharp plates off the ground, they plowed into the earth and left large dents behind. One of the guards on duty joked about turning the piece into farmland since she had readied it for them already. Of course, by night time the wing would be removed with the help of a wooden crane that the engineer came up with.
She was doing well and grew more eager to fly each day, but Aurelie did not quite trust the design enough to allow it. Not that Valice cared much for her orders, but kept to the ground anyway to lesson Aurelie's worries.
Now that she had been healed and less grouchy due to pain, she attracted quite the audience. People queued to see her from early morning right until the sunset. The brave ones even got close enough to pat her. Aurelie had been with her most times for precaution and found that she became one of the attractions as well. They sent more guards down each day as the queues grew. A camping ground had been asserted to the visitors from out of town on the land between the Dragon Cave and the castle.
Last week, at the council meeting, a member suggested that a fee should be introduced to gather the kingdom extra coin, but with all the damage that the attacks caused in the public opinion of the royal family, the idea was quickly squashed. A rumor spread that the crown could not even protect its own princess after the attack on Aurelie, and concerns for the safety of all Highfirians came into question.
Then there was Michael who added to the cloud that gathered over Aurelie's thoughts. He kept his word and stayed out of her way, but by doing so somehow managed to appear in her sight at least twice each day.
Aurelie scooped a boiled egg into her plate. With a quick tap of her fork a crack formed in the shell. The King looked down disapprovingly.
"There are egg servers for that purpose," he said and moved one closer to her plate.
"I thought this was a private breakfast," she said, removing the shell with her fingers.
The King shook his head and took an egg for himself, placed it into the server and carefully tapped the top with a little fork. "That does not mean we are to turn into barbarians."
Aurelie took a piece of toast and plumped it down onto her plate, picked the egg up and put it on top of the slice, then cut into the egg with her fork and pushed the loose pieces outward so that it covered the whole thing. "Just let me eat how I want," she said with a crease between her brows.
"Is there any other way that you do things?"
Aurelie, with a mouth full of bread and egg, grunted something incoherent and stopped mid-word, realizing that the King wouldn't be able to make out a single word. She chewed quickly and swallowed. "Yes, I've listened to you plenty of times."
"Have you?" The King said with a smile and pointed toward the corner of his mouth. "An eating etiquette is easier to comply with than a marriage. You've failed to listen to me both times."
Aurelie felt around her mouth for what the King gestured toward and wiped away a small spatter of runny yolk. "Maybe so but this is different."
"You married a boy who has a standing just above the guards."
The reference to Kirin caught Aurelie's breath like a kick to the stomach. She looked down at her plate and set down the bread. "Yes, well, it doesn't much bother me, father. It's the crowns reputation I worry about, not quite my own personal biases. Which, I might add, you will find there are rather few of when concerning class."
"I didn't meanâ" He let out a long sigh and left it at that, continuing with his breakfast that he now looked upon with contempt.
"I'm sorry," Aurelie said and took a sip of a hot, dark liquid with a strong bitter aroma that had arrived as a gift for the King from one of Aurelie's prospected husbands. "I have a knack of turning everything dark, don't I?"
The King stayed silent to this and gently rubbed his hand over hers. "There was something I've been meaning to ask. Truthfully, I hoped that you'd come to me with the subject first, but here we are."
"Oh," she said, looking up.
"I got news from three sources, and forgive me if I'm wrong, but have connected the pieces thusly. Kirin is lost and you believe that the Dream Realm still exists and has him trapped," his eyes narrowed at the last word, showing Aurelie that he had been uncertain on the matter, "somehow. Am I close?"
"Niendry and Revin," she said, stating it so that he was aware that she knew exactly whom he referred to as sources. "Who is the third? I don't remember discussing it with anyone else."
"Have I given them away so easily?" He pressed his lips together in half a smile, not seeming bothered by the matter in the slightest. "The third was more an observation of mine."
Aurelie tightened her brows in question. "Go on then."
"The opium you were caught with."
"Ah, I see," Aurelie said and leaned back in her chair. "Pray tell."
"You can't just clarify your intentions for me?" He dragged a hand through his dark hair, revealing strands of white that popped out between them.
"I'd like to know what you came up with first."
"Well, I assumed you were going to take the opium to induce a strong state of dreaming. Attempt to force yourself into the Realm, perhaps? From what I gathered from Revin and Niendry, that's the only outcome that made sense."
"You think I'm not mad enough to take it without reason?"
"Not quite."
Aurelie shook her head in approval. "Well, you're perceptive, father, I'll give you that."
"You shouldn't take it while you're with child, Aurelie," he leaned closer and lowered his voice. "It won't harm you, with the magic that seems to be protecting you now, but you can't say for certain whether or not it protects the child."
"You know about that too?"
"The scales?" The King's brow inclined, he seemed genuinely surprised by the question. "You thought I didn't know? God, I'm not blind, child. You think I'd have let you near the cathedral if I thought you were breakable?" He gave a less than amused snort and shook his head. "Not very likely, my dear."
Aurelie relaxed her chin on the top of her hand, elbow pressed against the armrest of her chair, and turned away from him for a second taking in the information. The windows were open, curtains swaying gently in the cool morning breeze, and the floors shining with fresh polish. She felt calm and despite everything on her mind, strangely at peace, for the moment. Though, that never did last very long.
"I thought I wasn't in the business of being allowed anything." She puckered her lips up into a cheeky smile and heard and exaggerated sigh come from the King's direction.