“You did what you had to do, Your Majesty. She’s petulant, but she must cooperate or this whole thing is for naught.”
Dain nodded his head, running a hand through his hair. He motioned toward the squire at the gate. “Henri, send Alastair to me at once.”
He bowed and left. A few minutes later the Captain of the Guard approached and bowed to his liege. “You called for me, Your Majesty?”
“I want you to assign a guard to keep an eye on the princess at all times. She’s not to leave the castle walls. Make sure you pick the right man, because you will take the responsibility if something happens. If you like your head where it is, I suggest you don’t let her out of your sight again.”
The guard swallowed and bowed. “Yes, Your Majesty.” He left them. Alek was staring at him, a slight smile on his face.
“What?” Dain asked him.
“Now you’re sounding like a king.”
He looked toward the entrance of the castle, then upward toward Melenthia’s room. He sighed. “She has spent her whole life being told what to do by everyone. She rebelled against it because no one ever took the time to ask her what she wanted. It’s a wonder she didn’t leave her home sooner. Then her father betrays her in the most painful way possible. I just broke whatever trust she had in me. I didn’t want it to come to that.”
Alek put his hand on his shoulder. “She’ll come to realize in time that you did it to keep her alive.”
“What difference does it make if she’s not alive on the inside. To her, that is worse than death.”
“She’ll understand, I promise.” Alek looked to Sol and went over, embracing him. “It’s good to see you, Sol. Was your trip informative?”
“Quite.” He looked at Dain and said, “Your Majesty, may I introduce you to Tomaz Faolin, High Warrior of Vallis. He’s been assigned to accompany me here. There are things we must discuss.”
He reached out and shook Tomaz’s hand, then shook his. “I owe the deepest gratitude to you both. How did you know she was there?”
“We were passing through on our way here. We stopped for a few supplies. Running into Melenthia was purely accidental.”
“A most fortunate accident. Please, come inside and settle yourselves. I’m sure your trip was long and you require some sustenance.”
“A bit of warm food would hit the spot. I grow tired of cold rations,” Sol complained.
“Well, we have no cold rations here. We’ll eat, then we can talk.”
Tomaz and Sol followed Dain inside. He instructed Alek to get them whatever they required and to get the staff to assign them each to a room. “I’ll be down in a minute. There’s something I need to do first.”
He walked up the stairs to his mother’s rooms, which Melenthia now occupied. He felt guilt. When she returned safe, he was relieved, but the anger had soon taken over. He yelled because he wanted to make sure she understood that he’d been worried, but he never wanted to upset her. He wanted her to know that he’d been angry at her disobedience, not because he wanted to control her, but because he cared deeply for her. His feelings for her had been growing for some time, and the thought of losing her to Fallon scared him beyond belief. The bruise on her face and her torn clothing made him lose his mind. These emotions were new to him, and he was trying to get a handle on them.
He knew some time ago that she would not remain hidden forever; eventually Fallon or his spies would find her. Now he knew, or would in short order, and they had decisions to make, and some of them would be painful. He had vowed to protect her as a favor to Alek and Kevaan, but as time went on, his want to protect her grew stronger. He vowed to keep her safe, but he also had a kingdom to protect as well. He didn’t know how he would choose between them if it came to that. He hoped he wouldn’t have to.
Alek was right, if the elf was here, then things were more dire than expected. He didn’t know how she fit into all this exactly, but a simple marriage proposal did seem rather trivial. There was something else, something bigger than that, bigger than them all. Ever since Brogan voiced his opinion on her importance in the world, Dain had been thinking about it a lot.
He reached her door and knocked lightly. He waited for an answer, and when he almost thought he wouldn’t get one, and turned to leave, she opened it just enough for him to see her face. Besides the purple bruise on her cheek, it was now red, and it looked as though she’d been crying.
“Please, Melenthia, a moment.”
She looked at him for a few minutes, debating, he guessed, if she wanted to see him, then opened the door enough to let him pass. He went over and looked out the window at the fading colors of the recently set sun streaking across the darkening sky. The air was cool and smelled like rain.