Lunamae (25 page)

“King Aeomon sent me to find you. We had just
received the note from the messenger you had sent in advance and we
are, as you can see, completely unprepared,” the man explained,
wrenching his hands together in nervousness.

“How did you not know Fanarions speak
Common?” I asked him, probably a bit rudely.

“The only one I ever
met
, Your
Highness, did not speak Common,” the man retorted.

“You speak it very well, sir,” Theron said
calmly, trying to extinguish the tense situation. I was really
annoyed more than angry. At least the people of Slievenamon looked
more like me than Theron. Being cooped up in a mountain didn’t lend
well to darkened skin from the solis.

“If you would accompany me, Prince Theron and
Princess Muirenn, I will lead you to meet the king. You can leave
your bags here and someone will attend to them. They should have
come out before me, although I don’t see them,” the man said. “I’m
called Brognan, if you would ever need me.”

We followed Brognan through the underground
streets of Slievenamon. The whole place was so dark and dimly lit,
with the smell of woodsmoke almost overpowering. I noticed there
were pipes leading up through the ceiling, most likely to vent the
smells like a chimney because otherwise in such a concentration I
was sure it would be toxic.

“Have you heard the tale of the drakon?”
Brognan asked me directly. I shook my head and he smiled. “King
Aeomon has been hunting one. His breath fuels the mountain off the
coast of Lermeri and sometimes he spits fire and smoke into the
air. He has been sleeping we think. His Majesty is going to arrange
an expedition to go to the fire mountain.”

“Wouldn’t that be dangerous?” I wondered.
“Surely if it can spit fire, you wouldn’t have an adequate means of
protection.”

“We have been guaranteed some mages from
Lermeri. They want to know just as much as we do about this
drakon,” Brognan explained. “I have only seen the drakon fly once
in my life. It was massive with great wings that seemed to be the
length of the whole of Slievenamon.”

We talked a bit more about the drakon until
we finally arrived at the halls of King Aeomon. The paintings I
wanted to see were on either side of the wall. While Brognan urged
us forward, he said that I might stay behind a bit to look at them.
The exquisite detail noted on each piece of canvas was truly
amazing. It was the work of a visual genius. I wondered who had
made each painting, but we didn’t have time for that.

Brognan opened the door and presented us to
the king, “Your Majesty, this is Prince Theron and Princess Muirenn
of Fanarion.” I cringed a little at the realization I could no
longer identify with my homeland of Feyris or my clan.

We bowed as we faced the king. It was
interesting to see how he dressed and how the room looked. It was
like a mix of our architecture and that of Fanarion. If this was
truly a twin city of Lermeri, they had sure done some work to it to
make it look unique. There were large columns that reached up and
fanned out over the ceiling with large wooden beams webbing across.
The throne was all wood atop a stone platform. King Aeomon rose and
came down to greet us. He was rather tall compared to Theron and
was surprisingly skinny. He had peppered hair and wore a thick fur
coat which he clasped over his chest. I wasn’t cold at all in the
room but it looked like he was. He offered an arm of greeting to
Theron and subtly bowed his head towards me. He turned up an
eyebrow to Brognan who rushed up to my side.

“Your Highness, the king wishes to speak
privately to the prince. If you wouldn’t mind, I could take you to
your quarters and you could wait for your husband there.” I nodded
hesitantly as Brogran rattled on. “You can look at the artwork in
the hall again as we go.”

We left the throne room and I stopped to
stare at the previous kings. There were no illustrations of their
wives or children in the background, I noticed. I hadn’t even heard
of there being a queen here.

“What are the roles of women here?” I asked
Brognan. “Remember, I am the niece of the Chief Dame of Feyris and
I am not accustomed to being treated as an unequal. It seems
strange how I’ve been treated lately.” I didn’t expect the man to
understand how I felt considering he
was
a man.

He smiled though, and answered me. “We do not
treat our women anything at all like they do in Fanarion. I have
heard what they do and I consider it to be barbaric. It’s only
because of Theron being from Fanarion that King Aeomon wanted to
talk to him privately. He didn’t want Theron feeling as an equal
while you were there because he didn’t think he would be used to
it.”

“Theron has been living in Feyris for quite
some time and he’s more than adapted to treating me well,” I told
Brognan. I took off my wrap and held it in my hands as we proceeded
through the hall.

“The message didn’t say you were coming but
we were prepared either way. If you would like, I could find Queen
Morawen to provide you with some company. She usually serves at her
husband’s side, but as I already explained, we thought the
situation dictated otherwise.” He scratched his head for a moment.
“If I could remember where she said she’d be.”

“That would be quite lovely Brognan,” I told
him. “If you can’t find her I am sure I can provide some
entertainment for myself. All you would need to is point me to your
apothecary shop. I’m always interested in learning more about the
medicinal and healing properties of various herbs. Perhaps there
are some that grow here that I do not know and I could take them
back with me.” Brognan nodded. He told me where the apothecary shop
was anyway, and led me through the carved tunnels of the city. The
tunnels were actually very nice. Whoever had crafted them also
carved elaborately into the ceilings so it seemed more artwork than
a mountain we were walking through. It was not long until we were
at a vast lake with glowing white things floating in the air and a
woman sitting on a bench, swirling the water with a naked toe.

“Your Majesty?” Brognan asked timidly. The
woman turned slowly and her face warmed at the sight of me. She
ushered Brognan forward as he continued his introduction as she
stood. “This is Pri- I mean Muirenn, daughter of Fanarion. She is
Chief Dame Angharad’s niece.”

“One of the peaceful clans, then?” Queen
Morawen asked with a smile. “It is such a pleasure to meet you.”
She offered me a hand which I took. “Come and sit with me.” She
dismissed Brognan who scurried off—most likely back to where King
Aeomon and Theron were.

The queen looked much younger than Aeomon,
probably by at least fifteen years. I realized that she could
easily have been an older sister to me. She had brown hair and
hazel eyes. She was wearing a simple dress, probably because she
didn’t want it to get dirty near the lake. If one didn’t know
better, she could have passed as any woman in the city.

“Thank you for your hospitality, Queen
Morawen,” I said to her.

“Hospitality?” the queen said with a light
laugh. “That is utter nonsense and you know it. I am well aware of
the late message from Lermeri. I fully expect it to have been on
purpose.”

“On purpose?” I quietly wondered. “They
seemed so nice, in general.”

“They also gave you soaps, no doubt,” she
said to me, looking around for what I had conveniently left in my
bag. There was no reason to bring soap up to the first meeting with
the king. “My husband does
not
smell bad. He smells like a
man.”

“Why would they try to harm your relationship
with us?” I asked her. She sighed and brushed a finger through her
hair.

“We have no idea. It would be in our best
interest to be friendly. They put on a façade but I can see right
through it. I think when Orinda separated it started. They have
always tried to distance themselves from us. They think they are
better than we are. They are no different. We are still people!”
The queen was getting worked up and I tried to calm her down with
some soft words about how I was not from Fanarion and I didn’t see
any reason why we had to have hostilities. I said we had come to
help mend whatever differences we had.

“Lodi did give me soap,” I said, not wanting
to flare her up anymore. I felt the need to be honest now. Who knew
whether she would have had someone look through my baggage. As much
as lying was against everything in the Text, I felt I needed to.
“It’s for me, to take home. We don’t have anything that smells like
that in Feyris.”

“It
does
smell good, I will give the
Lermeri people credit for that,” Queen Morawen conceded. “Why they
have to go all the way to the fire mountain to get it is far beyond
my comprehension. Did you hear about the expedition we were
planning?” I nodded. “Brognan says something about looking for a
drakon. I haven’t ever seen one.”

“Nor have I,” I stated plainly. I wondered if
perhaps someone had just imagined the drakon … or maybe the
Guardian of the Wood set it there to try to keep the peace between
the Lermeri and Slievenamon people. I had seen her do miraculous
things before. Maybe it was conjured by a follower of the Destroyer
to do just the opposite. Who knew.

“It’s getting late. Have you eaten anything?”
she asked me after I tried to hide a yawn.

“We had some in the coach. If you wouldn’t
mind, I’d like to see my room,” I told her. She nodded and got up,
leading me to my quarters. I was pleasantly surprised to see Theron
there when she arrived. After Morawen and Theron were introduced,
she took leave of us and I was left alone with my husband.

“How did your talks go?” I asked him
quietly.

“Well,” he said. “If you don’t mind, there is
something I’d rather do besides talk. I’ve missed your company.” I
smiled as he gave me a flirtatious wink. We worked our way to the
bed, enjoyed ourselves, and fell asleep peacefully in each other’s
arms.

Theron was hovering over me when I woke up.
He was smiling as I opened my eyes. I yawned and stretched and sat
up.

“What is the matter with you?” I asked him. I
was hoping he would let me be as I was tired.

“Pitter-patter,” he said, his eyes
sparkling.

“Pitter-patter?” I asked him. “What is that
supposed to mean?”

“Baby feet,” Theron replied wryly. He brushed
his hand over my face and moved it down till it rested on my belly.
“I can sense it.”

“You feel something there?” I wondered. If
conception had taken place over the course of the night there
wasn’t any anything more than a tiny … I don’t know. Whatever it
was had to be very, very small.

“You
do
realize I have the ability to
tell when something is different with a person regarding their
health,” he told me sarcastically.

“Yes. I thought it might take longer… when it
was bigger,” I told him. He embraced me and whispered into my
ear,

“There are more changes happening to you than
what’s in your womb.”

“Really?” I said, almost excited with the
thought. It was like learning about a new herb.

“It’s hard to explain but it’s kind of like a
complex recipe. You have all these ingredients inside of you and
it’s like a new one sprung up out of the blue. I felt it as soon as
I woke up,” he clarified, letting me go. He got up to get dressed
and I did the same. “We probably should cut our visit here short. I
can come back later. We need to get you back in Feyris where your
family is. I know you would be stressed in Midonia. I can’t have
you here, being pregnant, in the middle of winter. It’s too
dangerous. Even though you wouldn’t deliver until around Joyai,
traveling at four months pregnant would not be advisable.”

“How long do we have here, then?” I asked
him, with concern in my voice. I stuck a knuckle in my mouth to
teethe on. “I think the situation between Lermeri and Slievenamon
is rather tense at best. I don’t want to jeopardize anything by
leaving.”

“It’s fine, Muirenn,” Theron assured me,
pulling a shirt over his head. “I said I can come back.” He began
tying the laced fittings as I responded.

“I like being involved,” I whined, finishing
up the side stays on my dress. I put my shoes on and started
working on my hair which was quite messy thanks to the previous
night.

“You are going to have to adapt to taking a
subdued role when it comes to politics. We really need to figure
out where we are going to live and what we are going to do
together. My mother has been insisting that we stay in Midonia in
the home I have set for me, and I know you don’t want to,” he told
me softly, coming over to stand by me and run his fingers through
my just-brushed hair. I decided to leave it rather than do any
fancy plaiting.

“I don’t like how Fanarion treats women,” I
stated, my arms crossed defiantly over my chest. “What if we had a
girl?”