Allegiance (33 page)

We left immediately after breakfast, arriving at the edge of a deep gorge the colour of pale sand layered with sun. Leif set me on my feet and I peered over the side. Cleaving to the steep walls below us was a wide river glittering like star-sprinkled aquamarine. I swayed, giddy—an echo of a time when I didn’t know I had wings. I lifted my eyes. Carved into the opposite rock face was an enormous castle. So beautiful! I thought of pictures I’d seen
of ancient European civilisations. This is how the buildings might have looked if they hadn’t been left to crumble. After being greeted by two members of the King’s Guard, we were escorted to a balcony where we were joined by a maid. She smiled and curtsied and batted her eyelashes at Leif before showing us into the receiving room. When she threw wide the curtains, shafts of light spilled inside, turning everything to bleached cream dabbed with blue and gold.

King Denar and Queen Orla joined us a moment later. We soon learned that neither had seen nor heard from Mirren since he relinquished his kingdom to King Telophy. Queen Ayana had lived in Denar’s kingdom ever since, forsaking her son’s castle despite her position for a simple life amongst his subjects.

‘Naturally I am curious as to what became of my father,’ King Denar said. ‘And I have raised the subject with my mother, but I’ve only to see how troubled she becomes to stay my questions. I feel she wishes to spare me the details of my father’s disgrace.’

‘But my father has said she has agreed to speak with me,’ Leif said.

‘So she has,’ King Denar agreed. ‘But, Grandson, be careful how you go, I would not have my mother distressed.’

‘No more would I,’ Leif told him.

The king nodded and gave Leif directions, which my betrothed committed to the map of Faera inside his mind, then after the promise of a future visit, we left.

I flew in Leif’s arms over rocky hills, twinkling rivers and sweeping grasslands. The trees were filled with fruit and nuts and gorgeous flowers spilling sweetness to the breeze and carpets of
pink and yellow across the ground. There just seemed no end to the beauty of Faera.

Ayana lived in a little house carved into a rocky hill. Even
I
had to stoop to fit through the door when she welcomed us inside. We sat on well-worn chairs around a stone table tucked into a corner. The only hint of luxury in the tiny home was the bedroom. Visible through a roughly hewn arch to the side, it was full of cherry-coloured silk, plump pillows and soft gold—a romantic little cave. I wondered at the point of it since she no longer lived with her betrothed.

Ayana poured daneela flower tea sweetened with nectar and set a tray of crispy bread with creamy dip and fat green olives before us. Then she joined us at the table and said, ‘I saw you once, Grandson, I was in a crowd when you came to visit. You were just a boy of thirteen. I apologise for not making your acquaintance at that time but… I am no queen here.’

Leif told her not to think of it and after a few minutes of chatting—about the latest festival and the escalating excitement of the impending birth of a neighbour’s infant—Leif put down his drink and said, ‘Grandmother, my father has said you would be willing to speak with us about your time as queen.’

Ayana hesitated just a moment. ‘It pleases me not to revisit that time… But, if Mirren is somehow connected to your father’s problems…’

Despite a long pause the rest of her sentence remained unspoken. Finally Leif said, ‘I imagine it must be difficult to speak of my grandfather, Mirren.’

‘Ah, well, he is my husband no longer,’ Ayana said, seeming to glaze over.

Leif watched his hands. I’d never seen him so lost for words. I reached for his fingers and squeezed as I cast my mind back to the death of my grandfather. ‘We’re really sorry for your loss, Ayana,’
I said softly. They were the words I’d heard repeated over and over the day of his funeral—because there was nothing else to say.

Ayana leaned forward. ‘You think my betrothed passed? No, no. Mirren lives—only not with me.’

I felt my eyes pop wide as Leif straightened. I didn’t need to hear his voice in my head to know we were thinking the same thing—
if Mirren is alive, then why isn’t he with his betrothed?
A scuffling noise outside drew our eyes to the door. A moment later it opened and a man walked in, his king’s insignia inked over his heart. His emerald eyes sparkled as they flicked between us. They stopped on Leif, becoming wide. Then the man put the dagger he carried into the scabbard at his side and bowed low. ‘Highness,’ he said, voice filled with reverence.

Leif watched him, baffled, before looking to his grandmother.

‘My husband,’ she told him, ‘Darra.’

Her husband!
I glanced at Leif to catch his reaction. His eyes, wide with shock, flicked between the two like he just couldn’t make meaning from what his grandmother had said.

Darra straightened and Ayana finished the introductions, inviting him to join us. He kissed her forehead before taking a seat.

‘Now, what were we speaking of?’ Ayana said, ‘Ah yes, my husband past. Long years Mirren and I were wed, and happy we were—or so I believed.’

A short silence followed then Leif seemed to gather himself together. ‘What happened?’ he asked.

‘He betrayed me.’ Ayana’s voice was flat. Darra watched his wife, but remained silent. ‘It almost ended me,’ she continued after a moment. ‘Were it not for my husband current, it well could have.’ Darra started to protest. ‘No, no,’ she shushed him. ‘You know it is so.’ She reached across the table and lay her fingers on his. He tipped his hand sideways to catch them. ‘Darra lost his
betrothed around the same time I lost mine—though not in quite the same way.’

‘The Shadow Fae,’ Darra said softly when our eyes went to him.

‘As you can see, Darra is of my son’s Most High, but when we met he was yet a young sentry guard.’ She smiled at her husband.

‘I was at the castle with my infant daughter strapped to my back when I first lay eyes on Ayana,’ Darra said, taking over the story. ‘I was waiting to see my king. He’d noticed my fragile state and told me to come to him when I’d finished my work for the day. I found his mother while I waited.’ Darra caught her eyes. ‘We wept together that day.’

‘And many days after,’ Ayana said. ‘Soon we were the closest of friends and I a mother to his little Seely.’

‘And more,’ Darra added, a smile lifting one corner of his mouth.

Ayana blinked twice as she watched him. ‘Yes… and more.’

I was stunned. They seemed so in tune, so right together, and yet Ayana’s betrothed was alive! I looked at Leif, wondering how it was possible.

‘So, you have no contact with Mirren now?’ he asked.

‘Oh yes, I have contact with him, or more aptly
he
has contact with me.’

I wondered what she meant by that, but didn’t like to ask.

‘My father is anxious to speak with him,’ Leif said.

‘Yes,’ she said, ‘But, tell me, how is it you believe Mirren has effected what takes place in your father’s kingdom after all this time?’

‘I… We,’ he corrected looking at me, ‘suspect he may have created a Shadow King.’

Ayana’s eyes went wide as she made a small squeaking noise in her throat. ‘What makes you believe so?’ she asked when she found her voice.

I told her the story of Arelle.

‘It might explain some things,’ Darra said, watching his wife.

‘Indeed,’ she said, then in a firmer voice added, ‘I need time to consider, to consult with Mirren… But, Grandson,
if
I agree to make a path for you to speak with him, you must promise he will come to no harm. Despite our… situation, I would not have him injured.’

‘My vow on it,’ Leif said immediately.

‘And do you swear for your father, also?’

‘He has given me leave to.’

‘Good, expect to hear from me soon.’

‘Do you think Ayana’s son has confused her?’ I asked Leif when we’d returned from Denar and were making our way to report to his father.

‘After all these years? I think it unlikely.’

I looked at him. ‘Why?’

‘Such a thing takes energy, Marla. It’s not something a king would usually maintain for a long period.’

‘Then how does she resist Mirren?’

‘I have no idea.’ Leif flicked a glance in my direction. ‘Could you resist me so?’

Not in a million years, I thought, as I shook my head.

He squeezed my hand and smiled—the kind of steamy-eyed smile that never failed to make my heart race. I knew he felt the effects because his smile grew wide and spread to the other side of his mouth. ‘Then all is right in the world,’ he said, his voice soft and sexy.

I frowned, half captivated and half annoyed. He knew very well I couldn’t resist him. Hadn’t I proven it every time I’d thrown
myself at him? I almost asked him if he could resist me. But he was already looking ahead as we carried on down the hall. In any case, I knew he’d say, ‘Oh, my love, of
course
I cannot resist you!’ or some rubbish like it, and I didn’t want to hear him lie to me. It struck me just how unbalanced our relationship was, how unhealthy really. I pushed the vile thought away. But the uncomfortable feeling it had brought with it lingered—like a heavy weight in my chest. He must have sensed something because he looked down at me as we arrived outside the receiving room and said, ‘Are you well, Marla?’

‘Well enough,’ I replied.

He turned to me. ‘What’s wrong?’

But I didn’t have to answer because his father was opening the door and ushering us inside.

First King Telophy listened to Leif’s report, nodding and tutting with the occasional burst of outrage. Then he gave his son yet another task—to meet with the parents of a girl called Harp who’d been snatched from their home while they slept. I went with him and I did all I could to offer them hope as Leif took the edge off their pain with his power.

The next few days brought more of the same: an ever-growing list of missing people—parents, husbands, wives, friends—all with virtually the same story. After a period of memory loss, they’d wake to find the sunstones around their homes drained and a loved one missing. There were no clues, no explanations. The growing fear was palpable and I prayed if King Mirren did turn up, he would be able to shed some light on the mystery.

On New Year’s day, Leif and I travelled to Earth. After he’d helped convince Jack and Hilary’s families they were going to be spending a gap year in Europe, he left to pick up Lysander. We
all met back at my place a couple of hours later. My friends were excited and my brother hung around for a while listening to them before quietly drifting off to the spare room. I waited a couple of minutes then went after him. I found him lying on the bed, staring at the ceiling.

‘You all right?’ I asked.

‘Sure.’

I sat on the bed beside him. ‘No, you’re not.’

He dragged his eyes from the ceiling to look at me. ‘How can you stand to be there with that king after what he’s done?’

I sat quietly for a moment while I tried to get the answer straight in my head. Finally I said, ‘I understand
exactly
how you feel and I don’t expect you to get this, but… oh geez… I hate to even say it.’