Fate War: Alliance (22 page)

“Or what?” Cole crossed the room, and forcibly turned her from the mirror. “Or what?” He couldn’t stand the fear in her eyes. He wrapped her in his arms so he didn’t have to see it. “Or she’ll yell at you? Send you to your room?”

“She’ll send me away again.” Sam wailed into his chest, finally overcome with dread.

“No.” He held her tighter and buried his face in her hair. He wanted to say that she wasn’t going anywhere. She was his and no one would ever take her away from him. He wanted to send her mother away and never think about the woman again, but that would only further strip Sam of any power she’d gained.

“I like you like this,” he said and trailed his fingertips along her naked side. He was rewarded by an outbreak of goose bumps and Sam’s arms encircling his waist. “But you have to wear something. Wear what you want. I won’t let anyone take you against your will. I promise.”

Cole let her go and left the room without looking back. He would lose his resolve to let her make the decision if he did. Once out of their room, the sharp sounds of conflict reached him. Nana was obviously doing her best to hold off the queen. As he exited the staircase, the sight of Nana and Queen Adella nose to nose would have been entertainment any other time. Two Perspician royal guards flanked the Queen and teetered on the edge of interfering.

“I don’t care if he is indisposed,” the Queen seethed. “I am a Queen, and I wish to see the Prince immediately.”

“And I’ll tell you again, wish in one hand and clinker in the other, and see which one gets full first. The Prince will be here when he gets here and you can wait in the sitting room until that time. You b – “

“Nana!” Cole interrupted. “Thank you for greeting our guest. That will be all.”

Nana turned from the Queen with a smug smile and a wink that only Cole could see.

“Prince Cole, you should have that woman flogged for her insolence. What you consider proper servants here. I say.”

“Queen Adella. To what do we owe the pleasure?”

“Don’t be obtuse.” Queen Adella eyed him like something that exited the tail end of a horse. “I arrived at the castle for a visit with Samantha only to find that you disregarded The Binding, and dragged my daughter to this ramshackle backwater to be attacked, not only endangering her life but the treaty between our countries, and yet you have the audacity to act the ignorant fool.”

The taste of iron filled his mouth as Cole bit his tongue. No one had spoken to him in this manner ever, even his father, but returning insults would not serve Sam.

“Queen Adella, would you like to have a seat so we can discuss this civilly?” Cole gestured to the couches in the sitting room, struggling to keep his voice and hand steady.

“My dear boy, I do not wish to
discuss
anything,” she said in a saccharine tone, batting her eyes. “I wish for you to tell me why you have jeopardized the trust and rapport our countries have worked so hard to build.”

The Queen glowered at him for a moment, then her gaze slipped over his head to the staircase. She blanched and her jaw went slack. Cole couldn’t hide a satisfied smirk as he guessed what was behind him. A quick look verified Sam’s entrance, as herself. She wore her riding pants and blouse, but averted her eyes, and held her arms across her stomach, trying to hide.

“Oh…Oh my…” Queen Adella tottered, and her guards were quick to help her to the plush sofa. “Prince Cole, I understand now. Forgive me. I’m so sorry.” The Queen fanned herself, and her eyes rolled about like she was on the verge of fainting.

“What exactly are you sorry for?” Cole baited.

“We tried, Prince Cole. We tried to make her suitable,” the Queen lamented.

“Oh, I think you misunderstand. Sam is more than su –” Cole snapped back.

“The pains,” Queen Adella interrupted. “The pains we have gone through to tame that wild –”

“The pains? Don’t you speak of pains after what –” Neither royal would give ground and they continued in a verbal duel.

“ – such an embarrassment, for you and your –”

“She is NOT an embarrassment! She is the most –

“ – assure you that this can be fixed, and your honor –”

“ – don’t want her fixed –”

“ – the shame upon your family –”

“Shut up!” Cole had enough. The Queen’s guards took steps toward the boiling Prince, but Queen Adella waved them off and rose. Her eyes narrowed to small slits in her sallow face. Voluminous skirts held up with bowed elbows and crouched shoulders, gave the impression of a lioness about to pounce.

“How dare you?” She thrust.

“How dare
you
!” Cole parried and repost. “That is not only your daughter you are speaking of, but my wife, and more importantly a person. If you dare insult her again I will have you forcibly removed from my property.”

“You haven’t the authority.” Queen Adella stepped close enough that their toes touched.

“I have more guards.” Cole leaned into her space just close enough to keep focus on her glowering eyes. As if to prove a point, the sound of hoof beats drew their attention to the window as Captain Jensen and the Sagewood garrison arrived, most likely investigating the arrival of the air ship. The guards’ arrival diffused the moment slightly and the Queen and Prince created a bit of space between them.

“Now you’re going to listen,” Cole said in the calmest voice he could muster. “I don’t think you know how special your daughter is.”

“Of course my daughter is special,” the Queen said, aghast.

“I sincerely doubt you understand what I’m talking about after attempting to squelch her genius with corsets and conciliatory banter.”

“Genius, pah!” The Queen dismissed him with a wave of the hand and turned back to the couch. Something had passed through her eyes just before she moved.

“Yes, genius.” Cole pushed and followed her across the room to demand her acceptance. “Among other things, Sam has an eidetic memory. She can recall everything she has read or seen, and even heard. Your daughter also has abilities I can’t account for scientifically. The closest term I can come to is savant. Have you even heard of that?”

The Queen waved him off again. “No, I haven’t. This is all nonsense.” She turned a steely gaze on him, but the same fear he saw before tainted her eyes.

“I have.” Sam whispered and left the stairs. Cole wrapped a protective arm around her waist. She was trembling.

“Of course you haven’t dear.” Queen Adella patronized.

“Do savants run in families?” Sam queried of Cole.

“Probably.” Cole curtly replied. Now was not the time for her endless curiosity.

The Queen took Sam’s arm. “Now let’s take you back up stairs and make you app –”

“No.” Though quiet, the finality of the word resonated through the room. “And you lie.”

Sam dislodged herself from the grip Cole hadn’t realized he had so tight on her, and from her mother’s. “You’ve heard savant before, Mother.”

“No. No, I haven’t.” The Queen tried to keep her voice steady, but the twinge of fear in her eyes was overtaking her schooled composure.

“You can’t lie to me mother.” Sam growled. The Perspician guards stood at the ready to defend their Queen. “You see, Cole is right about me. I’m very, very special. Most people, they see a pattern like a letter and connect it with a sound. They see a pattern of a few letters and connect it with a word, an idea. Me? The page in a book is a pattern that I can recognize as easily as you can your own name. I see patterns in everything mother, numbers, machines, and animals all have them. Everything behaves according to pre-set parameters.” Sam’s lip curled in a menacing sneer, and she began pacing a slow circle around her mother. “Even people.”

Once, Cole witnessed a boiler explode. The incident began with bone rattling tremors much like Sam’s now. When the pressure was too great, rivets burst and seams split, killing the men closest instantly, as scalding steam and fragments of metal decimated them. Cole took a step back from the overheating Sam, not wanting to be in the blast radius.

“You’re lying mother. I can read it as clearly as words on a page. You know a savant. Cole said I was one, and that provided the final piece to a pattern I’ve missed for quite a while. It all makes sense now. Why you didn’t allow instruments in the castle, keeping me from the tinkers and advanced tutors, the chastity belt.” The last word she spat out like rotten fish. “Why you insisted on The Verification when King Arnold pleaded for its removal from the pact. Why you would have me tortured at that school to keep my secret. Actually, to keep
your
secret. The secret you’ve worked so diligently to keep from me and everyone else. Say it mother. Say you know a savant. Say it!” The words screeched like steam whistling through a burst rivet.

The Queen clutched at her bodice and spun in a tight circle at the center of Sam’s pacing. Unexpectedly, she waved off her guards, sending them outside. Her eyes pleaded to Cole to do the same. In that moment he was struck by how much the Queen resembled Sam in the way her emotions played across her face. Cole obliged and sent his guards out of the room as well.

“I know a savant.” The Queen whimpered. “Please, Samantha…Sam. Stop talking.”

“Fine. You talk. Who is a savant mother?” Sam stopped her circling and stalked toward the Queen, face red in burning fury. Cole wasn’t fond of this particular shade. “Who did you call a savant, Mother. Who!”

“Ja…Jasper.” Queen Adella stammered. “Please, Sam. Stop this.”

“Who is Jasper, Mother?”

“I had to protect the kingdom. I had to protect you!”

“Say it. Tell me the truth. Say who he is. Say it!”

Queen Adella’s answer was so soft Cole could have mistaken it, but he didn’t.

“Your father.”

When Sam blew, Cole expected the emotional shrapnel to be aimed at the Queen. Instead his fuming wife stormed through the door and down the front steps through the gathering of red and blue guards. A few moments later, she barreled bareback across the lawn atop Freedom, and out of sight.

“Torture. What silly things that girl will come up with. I would hardly consider writing lines and withholding dessert torture. Although, it looks like she could go without dessert a little more often, actually.” The Queen stated flippantly, trying to sound unaffected by her scandalous admission. The wringing of her hands and quivering mouth blared the truth.

Cole had never hit a woman, but the Queen sorely tempted him. She would, however, incur his verbal wrath.

“You slag-hag,” he spat. “Sit down and shut up. There are things you need to know.”

Hay prickled Sam’s legs through the fabric of her riding pants, its rich odor combined with manure and ammonia wrapped her in a warm blanket of familiarity against the cold of reality. Freedom snuffled softly in the corner of the stall. The horse came to lip her hair ever so often, checking on her. Sprocket sat with gold wings drooped, spindly legs splayed on her knee, mirroring her mood.

The reckless ride through the countryside at dusk had done little to ease the turmoil in Sam’s mind and heart. She should be angry at her mother. The woman had stifled Sam since birth to protect her own infidelity. She should be worried about the ramifications of discovering Jasper was her father, and the affects it would have on The Alliance. She should be crying or screaming, but she could do neither.

All Sam could think about was Cole. Now that he knew she wasn’t a princess, would he abandon her? Her heart wanted to believe he wouldn’t, but her mind knew he never wanted this marriage. Now there was nothing keeping him in it. He could be free of her, and that terrified her more than impending war and dissolving treaties.

“That’s not too safe there, Miss Sam.”

The familiar voice shocked Sam out of her spiraling extrapolations.

“Zeb.” she cried, recognizing the weathered face peering at her over the stall door.

“The one and only, Miss.”

“Zeb! How…when…” Sam couldn’t form a coherent sentence as she scrambled to extract herself from the nest of hay, but her legs wouldn’t work. She’d sat here most of the night and they had gone numb.

“I’ll come to ya, Miss Sam.” Zeb chuckled at her fumbling and entered the stall. With a groan and the audible creak of joints, Zeb lowered himself beside her. Her arms found his neck and tears finally found her eyes.

“Oh, Zeb,” Sam sobbed.

“There now, Miss Sam.” He awkwardly patted her shoulder. He never was comfortable with this kind of affection. After a few moments, Sam gained some control and wiped her eyes.

“And hello there to ya too, Sprocket.” The creature greeted Zeb with the zeal of an old dog too long separated from its master. Zeb hadn’t changed much over the years. A little more wrinkled and a little less of his completely gray hair, perhaps. The metal of his mechanical arm had tarnished as well. His kind eyes remained the same, and Sam couldn’t help but feel ten years old again sitting next to the wizened man.

“I’ve missed you, Zeb,” Sam said affectionately.

“And I you, Miss.” He ruffled her hair just like the child she felt like in his presence.

“Why…how did you get here?” Sam asked.

“Yer mother doesn’t keep me too far from her these days. She lets me be her personal porter, seein’ as I’m no use in the stables no more. I came with her on the air ship. Don’t quite like travelin’ that way,” he said, removing his cap and scratching his head. Sam tried not to laugh at the strained look on his face as he recalled the journey.