Born to Rule Page 3

  “So, you moved him. How?”

  I don’t want to be rude or personal, but Archer is pretty tall and the teacher is a dwarf.

  “I admit it was difficult. I wrapped my cloak around his feet, tight as I could manage and I dragged him. It took a long time, but luck was on my side. Those who saw me must have found the sight of a dwarf dragging a dead body along strange enough to ignore me. There are rumours about dwarves; that we like to eat our young, and other such nonsense. No one questioned me or tried to stop me. By the time I got Archer to the woods I was almost dead myself.”

  Archer, even though he’s the subject of the story and knows some of the details, is as transfixed as me. I cannot believe I am seeing them both. I cannot get my head around Archer being alive, being next to me.

  “I stripped off his top and found the shield underneath. Without it I could feel the beat of life within him. Faint, but present. I made a fire, tended to his wounds – the wounds I had caused by dragging him and the wounds your brother inflicted. I searched the woods and found these caves. I made potions with what I could gather, I healed him with my abilities. I administered every cure I could think of, hoping that one or more would work.”

  “And they did.” Archer’s voice is like a balm to me. It takes me back to when I first met him, strangers but planning a future together. He knew he would serve a Queen. I knew I would live. I can close my eyes, breathe in the – pretty unpleasant at the moment, actually – smell of him and I am transported. The Realm is a happy place; the people I love are alive and safe.

  The teacher continues and I open my eyes, back to the present. “After a few days, the beat in his chest became stronger, the colour came back to him, he opened his eyes. He’s still far from well.”

  “I thought he was dead. I’ll take him however he is.”

  Both men smile at me, and I smile back. They mean so much to me in different ways.

  The teacher represents freedom from my sure death as the Kingmaker. He told Halfreda of the prophecy and she told me. He also told me that it was my choice to live which made me the Kingmaker who would rule and he brought the actual prophecy to me so I could see it with my own eyes.

  And Archer. The first boy, man, I have loved. Kissed.

  I spent my whole life until I was almost seventeen waiting to die, knowing it was coming and accepting it. I never thought I would find love, or even the chance of it. I don’t know if I’ll be with Archer forever but the fact that I could be, that I have the choice, that we have the choice, that he’s not dead, is filling my head and my heart with the most happiness I have felt since my father was killed.

  “And Brett?” He’s not here now but he was. And he saved me.

  I don’t understand why and I have to ask. The last time I saw Brett I fired an arrow into his hand while he and his friends were fighting Archer. The time before that he...I cannot stand to think of it, what he would have done, might have done, alone in the forest with me if Archer hadn’t shot his arrow at him.

  Archer saved me and I saved him. We have a bond. He believed I could rule. But Brett? He wished nothing but ill for me.

  “That’s a funny story.” The teacher’s voice is deep and soft and I could listen to him all day.

  “Funny how?”

  “Well apparently, after he got hit the second time, his mother and three sisters sat him down and interrogated him until he told them the truth of his actions and the decisions that led to his injuries. According to him, they were furious, they made him feel terrible. They told him what it is to be a woman in the Realm, to feel the injustice of men having their way all the time, about having no choice. The fear they feel walking alone at night, being judged for their clothes or their actions and they made him feel just awful. They asked him to imagine how he would feel if someone had done that to them, to any of his female relatives. He felt chastened and sorry more than he would have imagined. Ever since he’d been trying to find a way to make amends. He’s the one who knocked Archer out during Millard’s coronation. He overheard Ginata tell him of her vision, when she saw Archer die, and Brett tried to put him out of harm’s way.”

  “And we never knew.”

  “No. He came across us by accident.” Archer’s voice is deep with regret. “I wish I could have protected you, instead of him.”

  I shush him and hold his hand tighter. I won’t have him feeling guilty for almost being killed.

  “Archer tried to jump up when Brett came in here, as if he could have fought him in his condition, but straight away Brett had his hands up, placatory. He told us what I just told you and what your brother has been up to and we came up with a plan. If and when he could see a way to step in and rescue you, he would. And he’d bring you here.”

  I can understand that people change. I can believe it. I would never have thought I’d want to kill my brother. Never in a million years. But if I could get my hands on him now, with Addyson safe and Lanorie dead, I’d murder him easily.

  “So where is he now? He can’t go back without me if my brother thinks he has me. He’ll kill him.”

  “Well, we thought he would be better placed in your brother’s company.”

  “But he’ll kill him. He killed Lanorie.”

  “No!”

  Both men look upset and I nod. “He’d kill me if he got hold of me.”

  “He won’t know Brett helped you. I punched him, gave him a black eye, a bloody nose and a fat lip.”

  “Did you really?”

  Archer nods, looking embarrassed. “I had to, we needed Millard to believe he hadn’t helped you in any way.”

  “Good idea. It might work...” I go quiet, thinking of the change that’s come over my brother. The change that came over both of them.

  All my life my brothers have been by my side, or me by theirs, more like it. I was their annoying little shadow, insisting I was allowed to ride and hunt and learn to fire an arrow. If I was as muddy as they were, as smelly as they were, if I cursed while kicking my foot into dog mess, then I’d had a good day.

  How could Macsen have killed our father? What went through his mind when he gave him the death draught? I cannot even imagine. I cannot understand wanting to hurt him. I’d been cross with my father many times. I idolised him growing up; he was the King of the Realm and I was his favourite. His daughter. But after Addyson was born, I couldn’t understand the way he treated her, the way he shunned her. I spent more time by her side then than my brother’s. I had to look after her, love her, stick up for her and shelter her from my father’s anger, his disgust. What that’s done to her, I’ll never know.

  Poor Addyson.

  As though he’s heard my thoughts the teacher asks after her. “How’s Addyson? Brett seemed to think she’d been rescued. By you?”

  “Yes. Well, no, not quite. It’s a long story. Lanorie took Addyson’s place in the tower and then I tried to kill my brother, but he told me if he was found dead the guards would kill Addyson. Of course, I knew it wasn’t Addyson locked up but Lanorie. I couldn’t let him kill her either. I left him alive and we tried to get her out but failed.”

  “That was dangerous, Everleigh, trying to kill your brother.” The teacher’s voice is stern and makes me feel bad. “I had to try.” I attempt to sound strong willed but sound a bit petulant I know.

  “Anyway, we had some help then, to get Lanorie out. But then she was caught again.”

  “Who helped you?”

  I look at Archer. He’ll be upset to think his friends thought he was dead but pleased to know they helped us. I think. I do not know him as well as I would like to. Not yet.

  “We had two very capable helpers.”

  “That’s good. We’ve been so worried about you.”

  “It was your friends, Archer, they came looking for you when you didn’t go home. Weaver and Ceryn.”

  “Weaver and Ceryn? Really? Are they alright? Do they think I’m...”

  He trails off as tears fill his eyes. I wipe them away with my fing
ers. “They’ll be so happy you’re alive.” Especially Ceryn, I can’t help but think. Ceryn has told me she is in love with Archer. Will this still stand? Probably more so now he’s back from the dead. I know that’s how I’m feeling.

  Like I won’t ever let him out of my sight in case I lose him again.

  4

  ONCE THE VERY PUBLIC dining is over, Della and Addyson go to her room and Will slips off to his. Weaver agrees to leave them alone, if they bolt the room from the inside. Before they do, Della orders provisions, which Cook brings herself. “Darling girl!”

  She showers them with food and drink and exclamations of all sorts before going quiet. “Can I ask you something, your highness?”

  Addyson nods.

  Cook takes a big breath as though steadying herself. “Lanorie?”

  Della holds onto Addyson’s hand, reaching out her other hand to Cook and answering on Addyson’s behalf. “The King murdered her. I’m so sorry. I take it you were close?”

  “Well I hadn’t seen her for a bit, since she’d been in the tower. I was hoping she was alright. She was like a daughter to me.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “Me too.”

  She leaves the room, grief evident in the set of her body as she walks away.

  Della bolts the door, and puts another log on the fire.

  “Listen little one, there are too many bad thoughts and bad deeds going on and you are only young. Let’s think of only lovely things tonight.”

  Della hands Addyson a tiny cake and brushes her hair for a long time before plaiting it gently, talking of her life and Finn’s, filling the room with her soft, melodious voice.

  WEAVER DOESN’T WANT to leave Addyson alone but doesn’t want to babysit a little girl either. He needs to be of use, and with Millard missing in action he’s not sure she’s in that much danger.

  Either Millard has been taken to whoever has Everleigh or whoever has Everleigh doesn’t know Millard has gone from the castle and they’ll bring her back to him.

  He’s well-armed and able to fight and so heads to Millard’s rooms.

  He can wait.

  WILL NEEDS TO BE ON his own. Since waking up in Ginata’s work room he’s not had a minute alone. He curls up on his bed and cries. Lanorie is dead – he can remember Millard taking her now, and Everleigh is missing because he didn’t look after her.

  No one would understand the guilt he’s feeling. He has always looked after Everleigh, been her best friend, her silly fool in the making. Needing to make her laugh, make her happy. He loves her. She’s a sister to him and after all she’s been through since she learned that she would live, he lost her.

  He was in charge of the most precious thing, his Kingmaker, his Queen, and he let her get away. He cannot remember running or being hit, he can remember the noose around his neck when Millard threatened to hang him to draw Everleigh out of hiding, but nothing more.

  How could he have let someone take her? Why didn’t he keep her safe? And if she’s alive, if they find her, will she ever forgive him?

  CERYN SHAKES HER HEAD. Finn is not Weaver. When she’s with Weaver, and when Archer was alive, they just knew what the other was thinking. They worked together, and bounced off each other. Basically, with Finn, she is telling him what to do, where to go, where to look, to be quiet, to be careful. She would be quicker and more efficient searching on her own.

  Ginata is even more useless than Finn, and that’s really saying something.

  Impatience taking over she sends them back to the castle. The look of relief on both their faces is palpable and Ceryn grins as she rides away from them.

  GINATA CLIMBS SILENTLY onto the back of Finn’s horse, holding loosely on to his waist. She has the sickest feeling in her stomach and no way of knowing how to fix it.

  Finn rides quickly back to the castle, he will be glad to have some ale and a rest in front of the fire.

  ARCHER IS STILL VISIBLY upset. “I know how you felt now, when we pretended to send your body off the island. You didn’t want your sister to think you were dead. My friends must be...” He trails off and Everleigh finishes for him. “Heart broken, traumatised, unable to get through the day.”

  Archer can’t help but grin. “Hopefully. I mean I don’t like to think of them being sad, but I’d like to know my death meant something.”

  “You goose, you’re alive.”

  “Yes, but they thought I was dead.”

  She wonders whether she should tell him about Ceryn, but thinks better of it. If she still loves him then she can tell him. Everleigh just hopes it doesn’t make him rethink his feelings for her. She stares at him then, his shock of red hair, calm blue eyes, so handsome. She can only hope that he doesn’t want Ceryn, or anyone else.

  “Tell me about them. I mean I know them a little bit. Ceryn is spiky but nice and Weaver seems lovely. And they helped me set Lanorie free.”

  Archer shifts and groans in pain.

  “You need more pain relief,” the teacher says, reaching for something off the floor. A vial of green liquid. “Drink this.”

  Archer does as he is told without question and then turns back to Everleigh.

  “Well, they are my two best friends in the whole world. Ceryn is spiky. She’s got good reason though.”

  “I’ve seen her mark.”

  “You have?”

  “Yes, she showed us all.”

  “Who’s us all?”

  “Me, Will, Addyson, Ginata and her old neighbours, Della and Finn.”

  “Wow. She never takes that mask off.”

  “Well, she does now. Indoors anyway.”

  “That’s good to hear. I think she needs to know that people will accept her.”

  Archer is silent for a minute and then grins. “So, anyway. Ceryn is spiky and you know why. Weaver is lovely. The nicest person you’ll ever meet. He’ll do anything for anyone and usually does.”

  “How do you know them?”

  “I met them in the village near where I live. I live in a nice house – or I did – thanks to Halfreda. She knew a family who needed a squire to train up to be a knight and it was all I ever wanted to do. I worked in the stables and got to look after the horses, that was my main duty when I wasn’t training to fight. I took out my favourite horse one day – Ink – she’s mine now, and I met Weaver down at the river. He’d tripped and hurt himself. I helped him to get back home, and we laughed and talked the whole way. It was nice to talk with someone my age. We started meeting every week to fish down at the river. He would catch a hundred fish in an hour, or so it seemed. I would laugh and ask him why he didn’t throw them back in. But he told me that he took two fish home for him and his family and the rest he gives out to the villagers.”

  “That’s nice.”

  “Ah, he is nice. I liked his idea and started helping him too. We would hunt as well and give out our spare meat or game. It was good. We came across Ceryn one afternoon while we were hunting. I shot a rabbit at the same time that she did and she was furious. Came at the two of us like a wild woman, mask covering her face, eyes shining with anger. We laughed at her and she got so mad, started ranting and raving at us, swearing like a soldier. I don’t even remember how we started talking, laughing, getting along. She was scary.”

  I remember the first time we met. The way she screamed at me. Came at me on the path by Ginata’s little cottage. I’ve never been so scared of another person, especially not a girl. I didn’t feel the protection of being a princess that day. “She is pretty scary. She screamed at me too the first time she met me.”

  “Screamed at you? Why would she scream at you?”

  “She thought I got you killed.”

  “Right. Sorry. She is a frightening old thing when she’s mad.”

  “She is. But we’re fine now. Addyson loves her.”

  “Really?”

  “Yes. Addyson is the cursed princess, Ceryn’s got the devil’s mark.”

  “That’s not what it is.”

&nbs
p; “I know that. I know. But that’s what people call it.”

  “Yes, people are stupid.”

  “True. But they’ve bonded over it. They really seem to like each other.”

  “Well she doesn’t like many people.”

  “But you’re friends?”

  “Yes. Ceryn lived alone... I don’t know how much she’s told you, but if she’s showed you her mark... well, the man who looked after her when her parents threw her out died and so she lives in his house. Weaver only lives five minutes from her and I’m about ten minutes in the other direction. We spent all our time together. We would help in the village, if the King’s men were being idiots, or if someone needed help. It was good. I can’t wait to see them.”

  “I think they’ll feel the same. They’ll be as happy as I am that you’re alive. We should go to Ginata’s cottage. Someone will be there. You can eat properly, sleep in a comfy bed.”

  The teacher grins. “That sounds wonderful. I’m not made for sleeping outdoors. I’m not used to it.”

  “What about Millard? Won’t he wonder where you are? If Brett goes back to the castle without you?”

  “We’ll have to be careful. One of his men took Lanorie and then he killed her.”

  “I’m not up to fighting.” Archer stands up and lifts his top, showing Everleigh his wounds and bruises. She shakes her head; how he is not dead, she’ll never know.

  “He’s lucky to be alive. If I wasn’t so good...”

  Archer rolls his eyes. “At least that wasn’t a riddle. That was blatant big headedness.”

  The teacher bows and laughs. “I am not a big-headed man, but I know my capabilities. Aside from Halfreda, no one else in this Realm could have saved you. And that’s the truth.”

  Ginata

  AS SOON AS FINN PULLS the horse to a stop, I jump off without a word and run inside the castle to my rooms. I cannot stand the way I feel; like I need to escape from myself, which is impossible.