Aurelia (8 page)

"Then he ought to have told me the truth." she lifted her chin. "If I tell you how I left, you must swear not to share the information with anyone, not even Chris or your uncle."

His jaw clenched. uncle Henry had been none too happy about the escapade the night before. On the other hand, if robert did not learn how she had managed to leave without an escort, how was he to prevent her from doing so in the future? besides, he had already disobeyed the king's orders by telling her about the assassination plot. What was to prevent her from sharing his secret if he betrayed hers? "I swear."

she ducked under a curtain of willow branches beside the winding road. "I smuggled my way out on a supply wagon. guards are trained to keep a threat from entering the palace. They rarely inspect wagons going out."

"What about when you return? Won't the guard at the front gate tell your father then?"

"And admit to being on duty when I left?" she popped back out from behind the branches. "No one wants to be that person, robert."

He tried to squelch a sense of admiration. It took a certain amount of courage, wit, and reckless abandon to manipulate an entire palace guard. Not to mention her father. "Why?" robert asked. "drew says you do this often. Why go to all that trouble time and time again?"

she turned around and walked backward up the hill, sweeping a hand at the view below her. "This is my city, robert, its curves, its hidden crannies. I wanted to know it. Not just the polished mansions and the sculpted gardens, but the warped wooden doors, the rusted balconies, the broken tiles. And the people who live in it. I
do
know them. I can barter with a blacksmith, outsell a paperboy, or coax a tart from a stingy baker."

Or a story from an old seaman,
robert thought.

"I could never do any of those things dressed as a princess," Aurelia said, "with a train of guards at my heels." There was an earnest tone to her voice, an honesty that held him. As did the irony of her words.
That is why the people like her,
he thought.
They want her as a ruler because she does not behave like one.

As she neared the front gate, Aurelia placed a hand on his shoulder. "Wait awhile before coming through. I would not want the guard to blame you for my leaving."

she began to pull away, but robert caught her inner elbow. strands of dark hair had begun to escape from beneath her white cap. "you're safe in the palace where the guards can protect you," he said, willing himself to believe it. "I'm certain that is why the last attempt happened on the street. Tell me you will let me know the next time you leave."

she met his gaze, gave a faint half smile, then removed his fingers from her elbow and walked toward the gate.

The promise did not come.

Chapter Seven

THE PULSE OF POLITICS

THE PARTY WAS LOVELY, SO LOVELY EVEN AURELIA was enjoying herself. Candles glowed from every windowsill in the ballroom. A mixture of men in dark frock coats and women in blue and purple gowns visited with one another. Champagne glasses clinked, toasting her. Aurelia nodded at the smiling faces, thanking the guests for their good wishes. She stepped through the crowd, steering a path to the dance floor. Someone was waiting for her.

A glimpse of her father brought her to a halt. He was speaking with Henry but turned to salute her with a glass. The king smiled and beckoned. A pathway opened up until she was close enough to hear his voice over the chattering crowd and humming music. He bent his head down close. "I'm so proud of you, my dear," he whispered, giving her a light kiss on the forehead, then raising up in rich laughter. Henry joined in. Aurelia did not catch what they said as she returned to her quest to reach the ballroom's center.

Elise blocked her path, towering oddly above Aurelia's head. The queen's snow-white gown clashed with the sea of dark party wear. She did not look at her stepdaughter, instead resting her eyes above Aurelia's tiara. "Here she is, lost among the crowd," Elise said, her shrill voice echoing above the din. She was speaking to someone just behind Aurelia's left shoulder.

Then she chastised her stepdaughter. "You need to begin the first waltz, silly child. No one can have the pleasure of dancing at your wedding until you do so first." The queen reached out, took Aurelia's hand in her gloved grasp, and pushed with astonishing power.

Stepping back, Aurelia felt a cold, viselike grip close around her upper left arm. It steered her free of the crowd out to the center of the dance floor. The music stopped, and the voices quieted. Even the clinking of crystal ceased. Across the empty space, a thousand eyes blurred into a hazy fog.

The viselike grip on her arm turned her around. She gazed at a black cravat resting on a black silk shirt between the folds of a black frock coat. Her eyes raised to see the face of the owner of the cravat, the shirt, the coat, and the grip molded to her arm. But there was no face to see.

She was staring into the hollow pits of an empty black skull.

Aurelia jolted awake, her chest aching with terror. she gasped for breath, trying to squeeze extra air from the lungs caging her heart. The nightmare skull seared her mind. she reached a shaking hand up to her forehead, pushing back thick strands of hair. Then her eyes ran fearfully around the room, peering into the shadows. Nothing. No one.

she stumbled out of the bed over to the fireplace. somehow she managed to secure a slender wooden brand and set it on the banked coals. Her trembling fingers took what seemed like hours to transfer the flame to the candle on her bedside table. Finally, light glowed. Her salvation.

A council meeting was called for ten o'clock in the morning. As always, Aurelia was the first to arrive. The room's long mahogany table and matching chairs reflected her father's taste rather than her stepmother's. perhaps elise had found the cramped space not worth changing, or perhaps she feared her husband might move the old, sharp-edged furniture elsewhere.

Aurelia slipped into her favorite seat. she could not sit at the table's ends as those were reserved for her father and stepmother, and she would not sit at the back, neither wanting to be trapped nor to give the impression of hiding. she preferred to sit along the outside at least one chair down from her father. This suited her both because it placed her beside Henry, whom she trusted, and because she was close enough to look her father in the eye.

The captain of the guard and the finance minister arrived next. They scurried behind the table along the wall, burying themselves in the shadows of a thick maroon tapestry. she eyed the captain. The thought of him covering up attempts on her life left a sour film in her throat. Her stomach rolled. everyone attending this meeting--except her--had probably been aware of the danger.

Henry and the general in charge of the military arrived at the same time, followed by elise carrying an opal-colored goblet. Thinking everyone except the king had arrived, Aurelia moved to push in two extra chairs on her right.

"desist!" Chris snatched a chair out of her hand and plopped down on the hard seat. she raised an eyebrow. Henry was always trying to persuade his son to attend meetings in order to "learn through experience," but Chris had not been present for several weeks. she doubted he would ever take over his father's role as king's adviser.

"Thought I'd show robert how the vital decisions are made." Chris motioned toward the door.

she looked up, stunned to see his cousin slip inside the room. "With royal permission, of course," robert said.

elise frowned at Chris, and for a moment Aurelia thought her stepmother might turn robert away because of his cousin's careless attitude; however, the queen's eyes turned to Henry instead, and the joy on the adviser's face must have convinced her to allow his nephew to stay. she stated smoothly, "you are welcome. There is nothing on today's agenda to exclude the presence of a guest. you are Henry's nephew, I believe?"

"yes, your majesty." robert gave a slight bow. "Thank you."

she nodded and turned away.

rather than taking the empty seat beside Chris, robert slid past Aurelia and his uncle without comment. He pulled out the chair across from Henry and scooted it back from the table, burying himself in the corner by the wall. Aurelia quelled an unwanted wave of distress at having been ignored.

Finally, the king entered the room. His gray head hung low, and his feet shuffled. everyone stood up at once upon his entrance. He slumped down at the head of the table and began talking before the rest of the council members even had a chance to return to their seats. "I planned to begin this meeting with your usual reports; however, I have just received troubling news from king edward of Anthone, who is staying with us for a while. He tells me his forces have failed to keep citizens of the Outer realms from entering his country."

robert's head jerked up. Aurelia wondered if robert, too, was thinking of the seaman's story from the day before. It seemed strange that the Outer realms would become the topic of a council meeting this soon after hearing the tale of the refugee boy.

"A shame." elise spoke up. "but edward has never done well protecting his borders. We are fortunate the border we share with Anthone is all desert."

"still there must be a concern on our part," the general said. "If people from the Outer realms are smuggling themselves into Anthone, sooner or later they will try to enter Tyralt."

Aurelia thought about the boy in the story.
Why should anyone in need be turned away?

The king sighed. "yes, both of you have a point, but you have not listened to the entire issue. my concern is not that a few members of the Outer realms sneak into Tyralt but that edward is now lifting his exclusion law."

Aurelia's head snapped up at her father's words. much as she disliked edward of Anthone, she found herself trying to squelch a desire to grin. she would have expected the sixty-year-old monarch to be even more obsessed with tradition than her father, but the old scavenger was defying regional policy. That would set every kingdom along the coast up in arms.

"Tell him the change is out of the question," elise demanded. "We cannot afford to open the gates to the Outer realms. Think of all the problems which come with refugees. We have enough beggars and thieves on the streets without inviting foreign criminals."

"They wouldn't be criminals, elise, if we allowed them to enter Tyralt legally," Aurelia argued.

Ignoring his daughter's outburst, the king replied to his wife, "I am afraid telling edward of Anthone to change his mind is not an option. I asked him to wait to speak with other leaders in the region, but he refused."

elise raised her voice. "Once again he leaves us to deal with problems he incurs."

"perhaps it is time to rethink
our
policies," Aurelia said. "Two days ago . . . " she started to tell her father about the protest in the market square.

but elise interrupted. "The king of Anthone cannot be firm about his decision, my dear," she said to her husband. "After all, he came to you. He must be open to discussing some type of arrangement."

Aurelia eyed her stepmother's goblet, wishing it contained something to induce silence.

The king frowned. "I need time to think about the only request edward has of me."

A strange hush fell over the room as the listeners waited for details that did not come. Henry tapped his hand softly on the table. "you believe his change in policy is a veiled threat, your majesty?"

Aurelia's eyes widened, her brief enthusiasm for edward's spark of independence snuffed out. she wanted to throttle the man.

"my dear," elise said to her husband, "the request cannot be that bad. We can't just allow him to disrupt the region. What is--"

"Father, you must reject any request made under intimidation," Aurelia argued.

The queen's gaze settled on her stepdaughter's shoulders. "I shouldn't have to point this out, young lady, but this is not your decision."

"I have as much right to an opinion as you."

Her stepmother's eyes narrowed in icy fury. "The only right you have is to marry someone who will not allow you to destroy this kingdom."

"do embroider your mouth shut, elise!"

"Aurelia!" the king boomed, facing his daughter for the first time during the entire meeting. red lines etched the whites of his eyes, and veins popped out on his forehead.

"Our precious region could do with some disruption," Aurelia continued. "maybe if we were not enslaved to tradition, Tyralt might actually improve."

"Aurelia . . . " Her father's voice steadied. "It is obvious to me that you have not yet recovered from yesterday's illness. you are excused from the rest of this meeting."

Warning bells went off in her head. If she left, what message would she be sending to the rest of the council? To elise? she was angry with her father for hiding the truth about the assassination attempts, she realized. He had treated her like a child. Fury wrapped around her brain, and she wanted to scream in outrage.

Her eyes flicked toward robert. He had been watching the queen, but for a second his gaze met hers with a blue calm. He gave the slightest shake of his head, sending her a message.

she could not attack her father for his secrecy because she had promised to hide her knowledge of the assassination plot. The legs of her chair scraped back across the bare floor, and she left the room, the voice in her head counting and counting and counting to smother her anger.

robert watched everyone watch her go. A wide smirk stretched across Chris's face. Henry wrinkled his brow in concern. blank facades hid any emotions felt by the captain, general, and finance minister. The queen took a sip from her goblet and smoothly placed it back on the table. The only person who appeared greatly shaken by the exchange was the king, who leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes.

"I can see I allowed myself to bring this issue to the council without enough thought," he said. "We will cease to discuss it today and progress to other topics." Then he lapsed into silence.

"perhaps the captain of the guard can share his report," the queen said, rescuing her husband.

The captain began shuffling through papers, and the discussion drifted into a string of reports until the meeting broke up.

"That was the most entertaining council meeting I've ever attended," Chris joked, elbowing robert in the stomach. "you must be good luck."

"does the queen always talk that much?"

"Never. usually the king won't stop. 'Course Aurelia always has to have her say, just like back when we had class together. she and her father argue sometimes, but I've never seen her take on the queen before."

"The king was certainly upset," robert commented.

"yes. Father says the king had a tough time running things after the prince died, but I don't remember His majesty ever letting someone take over a meeting."

"do you have any idea what edward of Anthone wants from him?"

"No, but I'll be certain to tell you as soon as I find out." Chris smiled at the prospect.

"something was bothering the king."

"besides the fact that his daughter was almost murdered twice in the last three nights?"

Murdered. Was it any wonder the king had looked on edge?
robert barely lifted a hand as his cousin departed down the hallway. The plot on Aurelia's life had run under the surface of the entire meeting. robert's sole purpose in attending had been to observe the way the most powerful people in the kingdom reacted to the crown princess. The relationship between the queen and her stepdaughter could certainly be described as explosive.

He set off in search of Aurelia, hoping she had not allowed her anger to propel her too far afield. He tried her rooms first. No one was there except a flustered young lady's maid who could not keep track of her mistress.

robert headed next to the royal stables. A rare feeling of warmth and peace filled the stables' interior. Wooden boards and beams separated each stall into its own private nook, not only for the horses but for the human visitors as well. One could hang a horseshoe on an outer corner as a signal to the staff and spend hours without interruption. The sight of metal arching over a nail outside his own horse's alcove told robert he had found Aurelia.

she sat high on the edge of Horizon's stall, her earlier attire exchanged for a unique riding outfit. Its white shirt and brown vest were loose rather than fitted, and tan trousers stuck out from beneath a simple brown skirt. black riding boots on her feet rested beside a gap in the stall boards.

she was holding out a handful of hay toward Horizon. The stallion snorted, tossing his head and sprinkling Aurelia's hair with fresh green strands.