To Stand Beside Her (56 page)

“It won’t be a problem, but she might be disappointed you won’t be there,” Nalick added.
F
or his plan to work there would have to be more between Leila and Anatolio than a teacher
-
student relationship
in the future
.
Nalick was betting his life on the fact that Leila and Anatolio would end up together.

“She won’t even notice,” Anatolio lied.
He knew better than anyone that Leila noticed everything that happened.
She had never once failed to know exactly where he was in the two years that he had been following her.

“I know you are afraid of what everyone will think when I die and you take care of Leila and my family.
It doesn’t matter.
Everyone that matters knows that I asked you to be here.
I truly wish you would come tomorrow, but I am not going to force you.”
Nalick stared at the young man
.
Anatolio
had conflicted feelings on the issue.

“Do you have enough guards for her to be protected?” Anatolio asked.
Nalick nodded his head
yes
.
“Then
,
I wish to not come.”
Anatolio
had agreed to wait ten years
,
but he understood there would be times that it would be hard.
Seeing Leila on her wedding day
marrying someone else
would be one of them.

Leila hurried to her room quietly and slid under the covers.
She was confused.
Why
did Anatiolo
follow
me
non-stop for two months and yet now he
doesn’t
want to
?
W
hat changed now
?
Nalick did not know either.
Before long
,
Nalick joined her in bed
,
and she pretended to be asleep.
She felt his hand on her back as he quietly drifted off to sleep.

The next morning Leila yawned as she sat up next to Nalick who had gently shaken her awake before dawn.
“Is it morning already?”
Leila
asked
,
rubb
ing
her eyes.

“Sorry,”
Nalick
replied.
“Mauve needs to start early.
The first set of ceremonies begins at dawn.”

As she walked into the main room, it was still dark outside
,
but she could see the sun was creating a light haze
on
the horizon.
Nalick stood on the balcony looking at the city below him.
Leila approached quietly as he was deep in thought.
Nalick was busy watching the few people in the city below move around.
He too was filled with a mix of emotions
;
he
was setting in motion the events that would lead to his own death
,
but he only had a single regret.
He would leave Leila before they could grow old together.
Nalick
had made sure she would not be alone and his children would have a father, but still his death would greatly affect her life.
Words were not needed for him to understand her feelings towards him.

“Hey, you
!
” Leila said
,
startling him as he did not hear her approach.
“Are we going to do this or not?” she teas
ed
.

Nalick turned to see Leila dressed all in white with her hair hung loose down to her waist. To him she looked like the same wood nymph he thought she was the first time he saw her.
In the dimly lit room she seemed to sparkle.
Stunned
,
Nalick could not reply.
He was truly speechless at the sight of her.
Leila giggled and moved closer to him.

“Do I need to slap some sense into you?” she asked patting his face playfully.
Nalick smiled and took both her hands in his.
He could not find the words to tell her how beautiful he thought she looked so instead he just kissed her hands.
Leila blushed at his sudden loss for words.
“We better go
.
It will be dawn soon
,
and we wouldn’t want to be late to the start of a very long day.”
T
hey made their way to the door of their room.
Leila quickly looked up at Anatolio’s bedroom door and saw it was still shut.

“He’s young.
In ten years, he will be a man.
Things will be different between you then.
I
’m
sure he will love you,” Nalick replied
,
and she nodded her head.
At times she thought that she could see he already loved her, but at other times, he was completely indifferent.

I can do this
, she thought.
Nalick took her hand and squeezed it.
He could feel her nervousness
,
and he automatically smiled.
The great ghost courier could get nervous.

Chapter
33

The dawn ceremony lasted longer than
Leila
had expected
,
and she was happy to go back to their wing and find breakfast waiting.
The children happily greeted them at the door as they arrived.
Leila picked up Ruth as she moved to the table and gladly began to eat.
Ruth sat on
Leila’s lap and
began to play
with
her mother’s
loose
hair.

“Why’s mommy’s hair this color?”
Ruth asked and everyone laughed.

“Where I come from people have all different color hair,” Leila replied.
“Red
,
yellow
,
brown, black.”

“Can Ruth be different too?” Ruth asked.

“But you’re beautiful the way you are now,” Leila replied and Ruth grinned.
“You’re the most beautiful princess in all of Lior.”
Ruth giggled and clapped her hands.

Leila’s happy breakfast was short lived.
Nalick carefully kissed Leila’s forehead as he whispered, “I’ll see you at the amphitheater.”
Leila nodded
; she sat
Ruth on the chair and was
immediately
dragged away
by Mauve
.
S
he was already sick of all the pampering, but it was not a day to complain.
Leila’s thoughts wandered as she sat getting ready.
As Leila start
ed
to get sad thinking about how short ten years would be, Tim ran into the dressing room past the women
,
who all tried to catch him.
Quickly
,
he sat down and grabbed Leila’s leg.

“Mommy,”
Tim
cried.
“They are trying to make me wear girl clothes
.
”
Leila could not move to pick him up so she patted her lap
,
and he happily hopped on it.

“Are you sure it is girl
s'
clothes?”
Tim
nodded.
“We should tell dad about this,” she suggested knowing that if Tim saw what Nalick was wearing, he would change his mind.

“Mommy,” Tim started, “you look pretty.”
Leila hugged the small child.
He could cheer her up so easily
.
Leila hugged him again.
“Should I go tell daddy?”

“Sure,” Leila replied.
“He is in his office, but you better run quickly so they can’t catch you.”
Tim nodded and hopped off her lap and ran through the main room and kitchen to Nalick’s office.

“Come, come,” Mauve directed Leila.

“Nikias will be here soon to escort you,” Mauve explained
,
usher
ing
Leila
back to the dressing room.

“Just one more thing,”
Mauve
added carefully plac
ing
a thin gold crown on Leila’s head
to complete the pale blue
,
gold accented ensemble Leila wore
.
With Leila’s red hair, the crown was barely visible
as it
match
ed
the golden highlights of her hair.

“Now am I ready?”
Leila
asked
,
and Mauve circled her one last time.
Mauve nodded
,
and Leila slowly moved to the door.
Leila
was anxious
yet
scared at the same time.

Nikias was standing outside the door diligently waiting for her.
As Le
ila carefully opened the door,
Nikias
quickly bowed.
He was amazed by how different she seemed than the day he first saw her.
She
was
quieter and shy
er
than he ever imagine she could be.
H
esitation
filled
her eyes and
every
movemen
t
.
L
e
i
la
was much more uncomfo
rtable as a lady than
as
a warrior
.

“This way,”
Nikias
said leading her down the stairs and to a courtyard where her ride waited for her.
Leila took his arm, and he led her to the waiting carriage.

“I heard you gave Anatolio quite a bit of trouble the other day,”
Nikias
commented
,
lifting her gently to the seat
.

“It’s kind of hard to get alone time around here. He follows me like my own shadow.”
Leila yearned to pull the pins out of her head and
scratched
it.

“That is his job,” Nikias responded with a shrug
sitting beside her
. “Besides, after Seth coming into the palace and him not being there to protect you, I think he feels guilty
,
”
Nikias replied.

“That was not his fault.” Leila clenched her hands to not pull at her hair.

“You will let us know in the future if you decided to go wandering around outside the palace walls, right? There are still several kings wanting to get a hold of you. We have been sorting through reports of threats on a daily basis s
ince you came to stay in Lexia,” Nikias continued.

Leila was surprised to find how easy it was to talk to Nikias. She had not heard him talk much around her beyond barking directions to people.
Nikias lifted his arm to g
racefully brace her as she slid
on the seat at a turn. Leila was beginning to see that Anatolio had a good possibility of growing up into a quite different man than she had picture
d
. Nikias was qui
et
,
warm, enduring, and funny when alone.
Leila
would have never pictured this other side of him from all her previous interactions but was happy to see beyond the dull serious man he
had become
.

“Now don’t give Anatolio too
hard
of a time. He’s still young and learning,” Nikias added as the carriage came near the amphitheater.

“But if I don’t, how will I be entertained?”
Leila
asked, and he laughed again. Leila liked the sound of his laugh and smiled. Leila could see in Nikias the man Anatolio would be someday.
“Do you know why Anatolio isn’t escorting me?”