“Give that back,” Anla said as Raulin held her blouse out-of-reach. “Unless, of course, you want all the men aboard the ship looking at my bare chest.”
He handed it back quickly. “You’ve ruined the fun.”
“I could keep it going,” she said with a sly smile. “I like this idea of not wearing clothes. I think I’ll go sun on the deck with nothing on, see if anyone talks with me. Might be interesting. You know, the captain isn’t a bad looking man. I wonder if-”
He grabbed and kissed her to shut her up. “Now you’ve really spoiled things.”
“No, I just turned the tables. It’s fun for me.” She put on her blouse and smoothed the wrinkles out, then grabbed her hairbrush. Raulin sat on the edge of the bed and put on his boots with a sober look on his face. “What’s wrong?”
“I hate this,” he said, pausing.
“You hate us being together?”
“I hate slinking around. You’re my wife; I should be able to be your husband in public as well as in private.”
She bit her lip, avoiding saying everything she wanted to him in that moment. Instead, she tried to bring the mood up again. “’I hate this’ is a three word phrase I don’t want us to part with. I think you can think of a better one,” she said, standing between his legs.
“Like ‘I love you’?”
“Like that,” she said kissing him.
“Like ‘You’re so beautiful’?”
“That’s a nice one, too.”
“How about ‘Be my queen’?”
She started to laugh, then her eyes widened. “You’re serious! You mean it. You’re going to Arvonne, to take back the throne?” He nodded. “What, how? When did you decide this?”
“Mmm, this morning,” he said, giving her a devilish grin.
“What does this mean?”
“It means absolutely nothing until you give me your answer.”
Her smile fell, but hardened into a brave expression. She touched the side of his face. “Ever since you told us who you were, I’ve hoped you would say you were going home. It’s your destiny. But, my love, you need to marry a princess, and I’m a commoner. I will be with you however you want me to be, and I mean that, but I can’t be your queen. They’d never accept me.”
Raulin’s face wavered between confusion and amusement several times before realization dawned on his face. “He didn’t tell you,” he said quietly. “I thought you were keeping this secret, but you didn’t know.”
“I didn’t know what? Who didn’t tell me ?”
“Your father. He never told you that you’re noble blooded.”
She gave him an incredulous laugh. “I’m not noble, ainler. As much as it would help, I’m just the daughter of an elven woman and an Arvonnese doctor.”
“An Arvonnese doctor who happened to be the third son of a principal. Your father made quite the scandal when he decided to go to medical school when he was eighteen. Nobles don’t learn menial jobs like that; it’s beneath their station. But, he fought his father tooth and nail for almost a year until your grandfather finally relented, hoping it would make him happy enough to return to his life. Instead, he left for Gheny almost immediately after he graduated and no one knew what happened to him, until you told me.”
All mirth had left her. “How do you know this?”
“I knew your father-”
“You knew my father and you didn’t say anything?”
He ducked his shoulders as she sat next to him. “I was going to bring it up at some point. And I didn’t know him well. As a prince, I had hundreds of nobles below me that would greet me at balls and soirees. I was a kid, he was almost an adult who attended those events with friends. He would politely say hello in the receiving line, but I didn’t know him well.”
She stared ahead. “I know you believe you’re telling the truth, but this doesn’t make any sense to me. How can I be an aristocrat?”
“Do you remember the first time we spoke?”
“In the jail?”
“Alone, just the two of us.”
Anla thought about this for a moment. “At your camp.”
“Yes. We had escaped from Carvek and you came to negotiate our group dynamic.”
“I didn’t find you at your camp, so I went to the clearing and found you there. I watched you do your exercises.” She smirked and turned to him. “I liked watching you even then.”
“And then what happened?”
“You caught me and threw a stone as a warning.”
“Ah, but I didn’t. I threw that stone meaning to hit you. I mean, I thought you were Al and I was irritated by him and pretty much everything he did. I missed because I couldn’t hurt you. Nobles can’t hurt each other.”
“You have, though…”
“Yes, it’s technically possible for one noble to hurt each other, but it pains them greatly. My wrist killed after I brought you back to my room in Mount Kalista. And Katerin’s wrist was sprained after she slapped you. I once held a marquess at knife point and had to grit my teeth until I was finished. You can get away with small things, but killing definitely not. That’s why I never take contracts that involve killing nobles; I can’t.”
Her mouth quirked up for a moment. “Well, okay. What’s my merit, then?”
“Some form of Augury. You have more than an uncanny knack when you read your runes. I’ve never seen you be wrong. It’s a rare one; most nobles don’t test for that merit because why would they play around with cards or stones?”
She shook her head, frowning. “I don’t understand…”
“Anla, you’re noble. You’re an Arvonnese duchess in your own right, which is like a marchioness in Gheny. So, no, you’re not a princess, but they should have a hard time saying ‘no’ to someone so high in the peerage.” He took her hand. “It’s a lot, being a queen. I want you to think about the responsibilities that come with it before you say ‘yes’. It means doing what other tell you to do, spending from dawn until midnight at engagements, traveling. It means…” He pulled her to him and rocked. “Shh. I know, it’s overwhelming. Exciting, though, yes?”
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
“No!” she said, pulling away. His eyes widened. Though her eyes were dry, she was obviously unhappy about this piece of news.
“Now it’s my turn not to understand…”
She held her head in her hands. “This is not who I am.”
“It is, though.”
“No,” she said, shaking her head. “I am…an orphaned girl who lives on the streets. I am a courier, a barmaid, a homeless wretch who serves and begs and pleads for food and a warm place to sleep. I am not someone who’s never starved or debased themselves in order to survive. I have earned the money I have, every cent. I am not someone who is given everything they want. I am not someone,” she swallowed hard, “whose family is safe.”
He swore. “Garlin. I am sorry, ainle. I had hoped you would find him after you forgot about me.”
She shook her head again. “I don’t know who I am if I’m a machioness.”
“Ah,” he said, picking up her hand and kissing it. “We both need to readjust our lives to new identities.”
“But, you’ve always known. You chose not to return to your place. I never had that choice. My siblings and I, we could have at least walked to Hanala and knocked on the door to the Duke’s palace and explained what had happened. Maybe he wouldn’t have taken us in, but someone else would have.”
“The aristocracy isn’t without their share of problems.”
“Yes, occasionally they have to sell a third house,” she said bitterly.
“I mean, look at Vanif. He was disowned as the heir-”
“He still has a job and an allowance. What I mean is…” She heeled her eyes for a moment, then whispered, “…all of our suffering has been for nothing.”
“You didn’t know…”
“He should have told us! At least Raidet! Why would you do that to your children? He was always about giving us every advantage he could; why wouldn’t he tell us?”
“Maybe he wanted to let you live by your merit, not your inheritance. Maybe he wanted to leave it all behind him and live like a commoner. I’d think that would be the reason why he left it. Don’t judge him too harshly; he was just a man, faced with his mortality and the worry that his children were about to be orphans. Telling you about lineage might not have been a priority.”
“I need to think about this,” she said softly.
“Understandable.” He leaned down and kissed her temple before leaving.
* * *
“I think it means he’s considering,” Al said to Tel as they sat on the forecastle deck.
“What do you plan on saying to him about it?”
“Nothing!” he said, holding up his hands. “I think this is a great step forward. As much as I’d like to nudge him along, maybe tell his some of the things I forgot to mention, I am leaving it alone. Who knows? Maybe by the time the trip is finished he’ll have decided to go through Arvonne. And then, he might see how terrible things are and change his mind.”
“And if he doesn’t?”
Al sighed. “I don’t know, Tel. I realize I’ve staked a lot on Raulin’s decision making, which has never been the best.”
“It’s something to consider.”
Al was about to speak when Ilden and Encran stopped in front of them. “Hello, gentleman,” Al said with a nod and a smile.
“See, I like him,” Encran said. “He still thinks of us as ‘gentleman’. He doesn’t have to be so nice.”
“Makes this all the harder,” Ilden said.
“What’s harder?” Al asked.
“Well, you know your wife?” Encran said, squatting down.
“I should hope so,” Al said, smiling.
“You know that arrangement you have with that trirec guy?”
“Yes? She’s making excellent progress. She can hold a conversation with him now.”
“Well, that’s not all she’s holding.”
Al kept the smile on his face, though he was afraid he knew where this was going. “Pardon? I don’t think I follow you.”
Ilden chimed in. “Let’s just say he’s teaching her a tongue, but not the one you think.”
Al shook his head. “What do you mean?”
“He’s making like an starfish on a sunny rock. Purring at her cat-heads. Nibbling on your rib. Spreading her jam. Hoisting her sails.”
“He’s shtooping your wife,” Encran said.
“No,” Al said, waving his arm, “she’s a faithful woman. She’d never cheat on me.”
“Well, you see, Ilden’s a man who likes being on the rat lines and they happen to be outside your room. And, well, your wife isn’t a quiet woman…”
Al’s smile dropped.
“I mean, I suppose she could still have a cold and need to sneeze. A lot. Like, one long, sustained wind up for it…” Ilden posited.
“Okay,” Al said, moving his fists to his face to think. “I get your point.”
“Are you going to do something about it?” Encran asked. “I know he’s a trirec, but no man can withstand the blows from a mob of sailors. And one angry husband, of course. Maybe the tall guy will help, too.”
“No, I’m a gentleman and I will handle this in my own fashion.” He stood, his mind racing to come up with a plan.
He stomped off, looking for Raulin. He spotted him at a railing, looking out at the sea. “Wizard,” he said, “I need to talk with you about-”
Al grabbed a fistful of his shirt and slammed him against the nearest wall. Raulin’s eyes were wide beneath his mask. “Just go with it,” Al said between clenched teeth. Loudly, he asked, “Are you sleeping with my wife?”
“N-no!” Raulin said. “You asked me to teach her Arvonnese, so I am!”
“I trusted you! I tried to befriend you when others said it was a bad idea. I let you use my cabin, speak with my wife in private, no supervision!” He felt the eyes of many people as he turned Raulin and grabbed the back of his shirt and shoved him forward. “We’re going to have a nice chat with Maya and see what’s to be done about this!”
The two marched quickly to Al and Anla’s cabin. After opening the hatch, he threw Raulin inside and closed the door behind them.
Anla’s eyes were wide as she looked up from the tiles she had spread out on the bed. “What passes?” she asked.
Raulin sat next to her and leaned against the wall. “I think our ruse is up.”
“Al, what happened?”
“Those two knuckleheads just approached me and told me that my wife was tumbling with her tutor. In crass terms, they pretty much said you were quite vocal about it.”
“I’m sorry,” she said, bringing her hand to her mouth. When she turned, Raulin had laced his hands behind his head and crossed his ankles.
“So, we need to come up with a plan,” Al said. “I need to get a length of rope, some flour, a gull, and a little bacon grease.”
“Aren’t you going to tell him?” Anla asked Raulin.
“Actually, I’m kind of curious as to what this plan entails.”
“Tell me what?” Al asked, taking a break from his pacing.
“We’re going with the other plan.”
“Other plan?” he asked, exasperated. “I don’t have a backup plan for this!”
“No, Wizard, I mean the plan.”
“What? Oh. Oh! You’re…you want me to get you out of Arvarikor? Seriously?”
“Seriously. I’m done.”
“I am so happy to hear this!” Al laughed, clapping his hands together and looking around the room. “This is great! Okay, um, I need to go speak with the captain and gather a few things.”
“Are you going to let us in on what this entails?”
“Are you going to tell him the rest?” Anla asked, a smirk on her face.
“Well, that all depends on you.”
She held up three tiles in her hand. “I’ve drawn these now four times in a row. I gave my bag a good shake in between, too.” She held up the runes for yaw, maw, and ef. “I’m going to need longer to…understand everything, but my answer to you is ‘yes’.”
Raulin let out a held breath, then moved forward so he was sitting next to her. “Thank you. You don’t know how much that means to me.” He touched his head to hers, then turned to Al. “I’ve decided to return to Arvonne and claim the throne.”
Al’s jaw dropped. “You’re serious? He’s serious?” he asked Anla. She smiled and nodded, wrapping her arms around Raulin’s arm.
“Oh, wow,” he said, moving things off the desk and sitting. “May I ask what changed your mind?”
“I did a lot of thinking and I looked at all the parts of the problem. Then, I removed something and everything made sense.”
“What did you remove?”
“Me.”
“So, you don’t want to do it?”
Raulin sighed. “I am still fighting against why I’ve known, or thought I’ve known, for most of my life. But, I listened to you and others who spoke about Arvonne, and I concluded that I’ve been unfair. The pain still rests here,” he said, tapping his heart, “but in time I think I can begin to include the Arvonnese when I say I love my country.”
“It’s a start in the right direction,” Al said. “Now, I need to go talk to Jorme about our plan. Sir?”
Raulin stood. “First, what’s the plan?”
Al opened his mouth, then shut it, instead letting his teeth show in a wolfish grin. “You’ll just have to trust me.”
“I deserved that.”
“Just, find a second and when I give you the signal, take off your mask.”
“Second? Like, a duel second?”
“Yes.”
“Okay. Make sure to grab my shirt in between my shoulder blades. You’ll get a sturdier grip, especially since you’re shorter than I am.”
“Right here?”
“Yes.”
Al unlatched the door and opened it, momentarily shocked by the amount of people milling about outside of the cabin. He shoved Raulin out and said, “If I catch you even looking at my wife, I will find everything on this ship that has a name and nail a piece of you to it.”
The door was slammed shut and Raulin caught his stride. As he walked to his cabin, the eyes of quite a few people on him, he had to admit that was a pretty good idle threat. The wizard was learning even in subjects like that.
As he laid down on his bed, he tried to remember what the third part of his dream had been. He closed his eyes and recalled the large hand closing around his own, the pain, the tears running from what he guessed was Anla’s face. The voice had been deep, obviously Telbarisk’s.
He looks good for a man who’s died three times.
Raulin bolted up. What was the wizard planning on doing?