Out of the Faold (Whilst Old Legends Fade Synchronicles) (23 page)

Coral and Pearl raced into the Gardens, Pearl slightly ahead cheering in her victory. She waved at Prince Jimm who was waiting for her. Tomas sat on a bench under a blossoming fruit tree fifty strides away. He glanced up but looked away shyly. Mother pushed Glory to go to him.

To Coral Mother whispered, “I’ll make her Queen if it’s the last thing.
.
.” but was interrupted by
a screech from Pearl.

She had just spotted Amias as he entered the gardens by a side door. He stood in his uniform, hatchet hanging from his belt, his coat unbuttoned over his leather armor, looking a
s unkempt and handsome as ever.

He grinned at Pearl as she ran to him for a hug that lifted her up off the ground. Glory was next, forgetting her ladylike manners, and accepted kisses all over her face. Coral hadn’t seen him that happy in ages and it warmed her heart. He noticed her presence but drew the girls over to the bench where Prince Jimm sat. He saluted the young Prince and sat next to him, listening intently to the girls chatter about how they missed him. After a few minutes Prince Jimm stood and asked Pearl to go play
. Amias sent her off and walked
Gl
ory to visit with Prince Tomas.

He didn’t come back to speak with Coral so she smiled at Mother and walked through the garden
s
toward him.
She stopped at his side as he watched the girls.

“I’ve missed them.”

“They have missed you too,” she told him. “Thank you for seeing them.”

He nodded then said, “The King ordered me here to meet her. I would prefer if you weren’t here.”

“Why Amias?”

He looked at her with pain in his eyes. “Do you care about me?”

She smiled. “You know I do.”

“I don’t say this to hurt you but I need to explain to you why you must go,” he whispered without looking at her. He absently watched the girls. “You haunt me. From the moment I laid eyes on you in that horrible grey Brother robe to this very moment, you haunt me. I have
forced myself from you because of your duty. Forced myself from you because of my duty. I know you feel for me the way I feel for you so I beg you, please, go from here so you don’t have to witness this farce of a marriage to a woman I will always detest because she wasn’t you. If I saw you held by another, knowing you longed for me, it would kill me. Please, just go before she gets here.”

“It’s too late for that…” she began as King Fredrick burst through the main entrance to the gardens in a flourish of laugh
ter and guards trailing behind.

“Did I miss anything?” he shouted, grinning
.

“Oh no,” Coral muttered then to Amias under her breath she said, “I am so sorry for this, please
,
please forgive me.”

He looked at her in confusion
then to the King, who dragged Mother along with him. She folded her gloves in her hands repeatedly in nervousness as she tried to keep up gracefully with his long, f
ast strides through the garden.

“Captain Doran, did you receive your orders?”

“Yes, Your Majesty. My Marshalls are preparing for our departure.”

Coral sought his eyes but he wouldn’t look at her. Departure. Orders. Panic swept her as she realized the King was sending him away. And he didn’t know
about her
yet. And they hadn’t been married more than a few hours. And they hadn’t had any time alone…

“So what are you doing here?”

“You arranged for me to meet…my wife,”
he paused, reminding the King.

“Yes, I did. Well, she is to go with you. Take her safely home, will you? I stationed you close to home so you can work on getting that palace you are building finished and patrol the coast. Does your father have room to host the Marshalls?”

“Of course, Your Majesty.”

“Brother Karl.”

“Yes,
Your Majesty,” Coral breathed.

“What are you doing here?”

She stared at him unable to think of what to say. She pointed at t
he girls playing with his sons.

“Ah, yes. Lovely girls,” he smiled. To Mother he said, “I think we might just have to betroth Glory to Tomas. Look how she brightens up that boy.”

And they all looked over to see Prince Tomas listening intently to Glory as she told him stories of their adventures. Mother squeezed Coral’s arm in excitement that her intention to make Glory queen may have just been realized.

The King turned to Coral with his wicked grin once more. She looked at Amias with the apologetic look and called out to the girls, “Pearl, Glory, come.
We need to go change. We are leaving. Back into our riding dresses.”

Both of them cheered, waved to the boys and made promises to come visit soon. They hugged Amias and King Fredrick, to Mother’s dismay, and giggled at Coral as the three of them left the gardens. Coral looked back at Amias, who watched them as they went.

“Forgive my rudeness,” the King stated. “Captain Amias Natan Filbar Doran, may I present to you Lady Mara Dena Linn Marden. She is the mother of your bride.”

Captain Doran snapped to attention in surprise, saluted by mistake, and then took her hand gently. “Forgive me,” he muttered.

Mother smiled
sweetly
and curtsied.
An unfamiliar feeling swept through her as she looked at the man her daughter loved and who the King was torturing with his evil sense of humor. An uncharacteristic urge filled her to play along so she
caught
the King
’s eye
briefly.

“I hear good things about you, Captain. I hope you do well by my daughter.”

“Yes, Lady
Marden
, of course. She will be well cared for.”

“King Fredrick tells me you are building her a grand home. We will be to visit soon.
When will you be completed?”

Amias stammered, “I…we should be available to have visitors…in...in perhaps two months.”

She nodded. “You have enough staff to care for her?”

“Yes, my Lady.”

She nodded approval then examined him with her eyes. She took in his long disheveled hair, his unshaved chin and his unbuttoned shirt collar. She leaned over to the King and asked, “Do you allow all your officers to look like ruffians?”

The King barked a loud, “Ha!”
then pointed at Amias.
“No, just this one. He refuses to take my threats of court martial seriously.”

“
If I find any signs of chafing on my daughter I’ll personally come at you with a straight blade, do you understand?”

King Fredrick turned beet red in his attempt to hold in his bursting enjoyment of the moment. Mother gave her own version of a wicked smile to the King, curtsied and started to turn to go.

Captain Doran called out, “Lady, I’ve come to meet your daughter. Is she not here?”

The King nodded at her when she looked at him. Mother smiled and taunted, “Dear, she was just here. Your Majesty, I thought you said he was bright. I don’t want my grandchildren dumb as fence
posts.”

The King doubled over and slapped his knees
as he howled in laughter. Amias became annoyed at the theatrics and when Fredrick saw his face he put his arm around his Captain, which he’d nev
er done before, and apologized.

When he calmed down he turned Amias to face him and said seriously, “If you ever ignore a summons from your King again I will behead you.”

Captain Doran saw the look in the man’s eyes and knew he was not kidding any longer. He would put him to death if he didn’t follow his every command. A chill ran through his spine as he nodded then saluted.

“Good!” Fredrick called out, back to his jovial
tone
. “Now, my captain, your bride awaits you. Since, as our kind Lady has pointed out to us, you are as dumb as a fence post, though that is entirely my doing so don’t you blame your new bride or I’ll behead you…”

“Karl,” Amias exhaled in disbelief.

“Coral,” Mother stated. “
Karl was the name she took as a Brother. When her sister Ruby died she was released of her duties to the
Faold
and was then betrothed…”

But Mother couldn’t finish before Amias rushed from the garden
s leaving them behind.

“Lady Marden, I must commend you. Stunning display of on the spot wickedness.”

“Thank you, Your Majesty,” she beamed curtsying. “I couldn’t let the two of you have all the fun.”

He laughed then said to her, “He is a great man.”

She smiled, content with the events of the afternoon. When the King bowed to take his leave she waved at him and called out, “Oh, Your Majesty. Shall I send word to the Strenns so they don’t worry about Glory being in the hands of the Sisters?”

“Yes, please do!” he told her. “I’m ashamed to say I haven’t done so already. And, Lady Marden. Please, inform them of her betrothal to Prince Tomas.”

Coral sat stone still on the bed as the girls rushed around the adjoining room packing their things and donning their riding dresses. She could hear the clomp of his heavy boots in the
corridor
as
he
approached then his voice asking for the Marden suite. His fist pounded on the door in urgency. The girls startled in the next room and she waved at them to stay where they were. If he was angry she didn’t want them to witness it. She never wanted them to be afraid of Amias.

He pounded again. Though scared to face what she’d wrought, she opened the door slowly to find him shooing servants away. With straight back she stared at him, trying to determine his
temper.
Amias
searched her face for long moments then
leaned in
close. His mouth against
her ear sent shivers
along her skin
. H
is ragged breaths
tickled her neck. Her smooth cheek met his rough one and his hair tickled her nose.
Coral
inhaled his scent when he rested his head against hers. She nuzzled his cheek, her breath catching when he
held
his mouth close to hers but didn’t kiss her. As he pulled away
Coral
sought his eyes but
Amias
kept them closed as he turned to
stride
down the hall.

Ten
long
steps away he spun and called out, “
Lady Doran, your escort awaits. Please be ready to depart.”

The standard double row of Marshall war
horses
exited the southern gate picking up the pace as they left the population of the city. Pearl and Glory sat upon their own sleek tan mares in the center. Coral took up Pat’s empty spot near the end
. It was where she preferred to be for a time, watching the straight back of
Captain Doran
who led them from the front
. She wanted to revisit the life they’d
spent on the road;
Kel at his side, the others
watchful and kind to
the girls.
S
he sat on her horse taking in the familiarity and comfort of it all.

The ride south
to the outpost at the crossroads was cheerful. The Marshalls had a good chuckle at the expense of their Captain at the
retelling
of the trickery by their King. A cheer erupted for Coral when she
had
been first
referred to as Lady Doran and they took ever
y opportunity to call her that.

The garrison
hosted their group for the night, though to Kel’s annoyance it didn’t have a private room for his Captain and his new bride.
Coral put the girls in a lower bunk across from hers
before joining the others in a common room where they’d got a fire going in the hearth and told stories of what they’d been doing since they had parted months before. The men passed bottles of ale and tossed a few games of dice while laughing
and sharing good company again.

Amias would glance at Coral occasionally
from a table where he sat with Kel and Denon, one of the archers
. S
he made herself busy mending the hem on
Pearl’s dress
.
K
el prompted her to tell the
story of
the horse-napping Sister
. A low whistle of approval sounded in the room as she recounted how she’d dragged the Kusira woman into the grey world.
With stories complete and ale diminished the men soon stood to retire to their bunks, bowing to Lady Doran with a chuckle. Kel clapped Amias on the back when he left the two of
them alone in the common room.

She smiled at him. He walked across the room and took her hand to lift her to her feet. As she stood in front of him he leaned close and whispered, “This isn’t the ideal wedding night. I’m sorry.”