Chapter 54: Chapter 54
At noontime, Shia entered the library of the Rubiyah Manor. She has an appointment with King Caldwell at dinner time, but she wanted to come to talk to Danterion first so that she could make a clearer decision as to what she must do in order to free Langrey and Khailis.
She actually hated the idea of talking to Danterion, but she hated to blindly trust the king to keep his promise even more. She knew that Sirion would become privy to her plans, but she also knew that he could only know what she chooses to reveal, so there was no need to become too anxious.
Shia only half-expected Langrion’s brother to be at the library, but she did not expect that Lady Edelfina would be there as well. The golden-haired maiden eyed her smugly from across a cushioned seat while Prince Danterion looked up to her from a book he was reading as she came closer towards them.
“Lady Shia, I can’t say that it’s a surprise to see you, but it certainly is a surprise that you would send me a letter only after something this big has happened.” The prince bent down slightly to kiss her hand, as a common form of courtesy amongst the nobility, but Lady Edelfina moved closer towards his side as he did this, making everything feel awkward, even hostile.
“This was all unexpected as well,” Shia muttered, eyeing Edelfina suspiciously. She already hated the idea of possibly talking with Sirion, but adding the fact that Edelfina was there made everything all the more detestable.
“You, witch! How can you make all of these happen?” Edelfina said towards her. “It’s very suspicious that you were the only one left unscathed while Langrey and Khailis rot in prison! Tell me, what did you do? Were you part of those who accused them?” Edelfina’s condemning eyes were shooting daggers at her, but Prince Danterion put a hand against her shoulder to calm her down.
“Edelfina, sweetheart, I don’t think this is the right time to point fingers to anyone. Let’s give Lady Shia a chance to explain, shall we?”
Prince Danterion guided Edelfina back towards her seat, and Shia started to take the seat from across them. The prince sat at the arm rest of Edelfina’s cushion, perhaps trying to shield her betrothed from getting physical towards her. It looked as if they were ready to listen to the long version of her story, but Shia knew telling them everything from the start would probably be a waste of time.
“You are right,” Shia remarked. “I’m afraid I might be the reason why Langrey and Khailis are in this predicament.”
“I knew it, you vile wench! What did you do?!” Edelfina started to come forward to Shia again, but Danterion laid his hand over hers. They looked at each other before Shia sighed deeply and rolled her eyes in resignation.
“What do you mean?” Danterion said, his brows furrowing.
“Your uncle, the king, made a marriage proposal in exchange for Langrey and Khailis’ release,” Shia revealed. Edelfina’s eyes widened, but Danterion’s face remained unchanged. “I intend to accept it tonight.”
“You what?!” Edelfina exclaimed, more enraged than ever, “So this was your plan all along? You approached Langrion so that you could get close to the king and become his wife?!”
Her words hit Shia’s nerve with such force that she had to retaliate. “Hold your tongue right there! I had never intended for anything akin to this! If you want, I would gladly switch places with you! Let’s see if you can say what you just accused me of if the tables were turned!”
Edelfina stood high from her chair, ready to pounce at Shia, and Shia, who had no intention of backing down from this fight, stood up as well, looking straight at her challenger. The air was thick with animosity. Danterion could only study the two women who looked as if they would positively get down on the floor and hit each other anytime soon had they not been thoroughly taught about the basics of civility.
“Prince Danterion, I sent you a letter thinking that I could ask for your help, but I don’t think this is a good time to discuss it,” Shia said, still not backing away from Edelefina’s stare. She started to clutch the hem of her dark violet dress. “I shall make another appointment with you, and hopefully, we can make a sane discussion in private then.”
Shia started to turn around, but Danterion caught one of her arms, in spite of Edelfina’s disapproving stare.
“No wait, Lady Shia, let me hear it,” he said, “What kind of aid do you require from me?”
Shia looked back at the boy bearing Langrion’s face, his ocean-blue eyes laced with worry. She was missing Langrey more than ever. She started to sigh deeply.
“I-I need to train using the sword again... I need someone to help me...”
“What sort of lame excuse is that?! Your betrothed will be sentenced by the Capitol, and you choose to train in swordsmanship? That’s crap! Is it also part of your plot to ensnare Danterion?!” Edelfina burst out once again, positively charging towards her.
Prince Langrion raised his arm against Edelfina as she started to take a step forward. “Enough, Edelfina! Will you let us talk in peace?!”
“What?!” Edelfina said, her eyes blazing wildly, “you are sending me away so that you can talk to this snake?!”
“Yes! Get out and wait for me at my bed chamber! Please.”
Although he had ended his words with a request, Prince Danterion looked like a vicious wolf as he yelled at the lady who was supposed to be his fiancé. Although Shia and Langrion would fight most times, compared to him, Langrion was like a meek and mild-tempered sheep. Shia began to miss him all the more.
“Now, do speak. We haven’t got all day,” Prince Danterion said, rubbing his temples as he sat cross-legged in the chair that Edelfina left empty.
“Like I said, I need your help so that I could train using swords and arrows. I’m quite good with daggers, but I need to become better in using swords.”
“Is that all?” Danterion said.
Shia eyed him suspiciously. Can she trust this man with her request?...
“There is one more thing,” Shia started to say what she needed to say painfully. “A few months ago in Soccora... I know you were there... You killed six people.”
The prince shifted in his seat. The sun sparkled against the prince’s back, making his facial features hard to discern against the bright sunlight.
“I was supposed to be part of those people that have died that day, but I survived because I needed to find you. Above everything else, I wanted to kill you,” Shia looked at him straight in the eye, clutching her skirts while her body trembled as she was reminded of the things she hated to remember. “However, I will forget all of that, if you do one thing for me... For your brother.”
“I will forget your sins,” she said breathlessly, “if you help me free Langrey and Khailis and expose the truth about the king.”
******************
Edelfina fumed in fury as she slammed the door of the library. How can Danterion even think of sending her away like this, and in the presence of that woman? If there was something that Edelfina priced the most, apart from her beauty, it was that she was a woman of pride, but even that was slightly marred by how Danterion treated her just now.
There was only one person she could talk to regarding this spiteful matter, and she intended to let all hell break lose towards that person – even though he was none other than the Imperial Ruler of Gascone!
“I request a presence with the king,” Edelfina declared towards the knights that were guarding the door of King Caldwell’s bed chamber.
“Come in,” he said, hearing her voice from behind, “but mind you, I haven’t got all day.”
“Uncle, how could you? How could you send Langrion to prison like that just to steal that girl? Have you no shame left in yourself?!” Edelfina exclaimed as soon as the door to his chambers had been securely shut.
“For the last time, do not call me uncle. Remember that your name was borrowed – given - out of pity. Being my late cousin’s unverified child does not make us related in any way. Mind your own business as well.”
Edelfina’s body quivered. The detestable, old man was busy writing some letters in his study. He was wearing a pair of round spectacles that made him look grandfatherly and a little endearing – quite opposite of the sick, vile person he honestly was.
“Then, you won’t deny it? It’s true then that you are going to wed her?”
“Ah, and from whom did you hear it? I haven’t gotten a formal response yet, but your reaction verifies my upcoming victory.” He went back to what he was doing, only half-listening to Edelfina’s protests.
There was nothing new to that. The only time this man had ever minded her was when she attended the family gathering for the first time when she was thirteen. Edelfina was termed by the guests that night as a ‘flower of blossoming beauty’. That was also the night that she had discovered that she can have powers beyond imagination if she would only use her beauty in the right way.
Edelfina went around the chair of the man she used to call ‘uncle’. She extended her white, slender hands towards his neck and began to tenderly massage the muscles around his shoulders.
“Tell me, your grace, what did you promise that girl that made you so sure she will accept you? Did you also promise to make her queen if you could have her for a night, just as you had promised me before?”
The old man grabbed her left hand and yanked Edelfina painfully towards him until she was almost face to face with him.
“You devil, I told you not to speak of that time ever again!”
“And you told me I shall certainly become queen in the future if I stripped my dress for you and let you have your way, you despicable creature! Where is that promise now? Are you going to stop Danterion’s ascension to the throne by marrying a woman who could already be your grand daughter?” she hissed towards him.
“What I do is none of your business! If you had only listened to me and had killed those cursed twins, I wouldn’t have to go through with this plan!”
“Indeed, and where would that lead me? I know you would abandon me the second that I am discovered as a murderer. I am not as horrid as you! I would never kill the people I love!”
“And who is it that you love? That cursed prince and his deranged brother? Do they know that you have already been touched when you were thirteen? They will never look at you the same way ever again if they knew of our secret,” the king said, his eyes menacingly lighting up as he spoke.
Edelfina had lost millions of tears to this thought. When she first came to the house of Nanris after her mother’s death at the age of five, she had been looked down by the nobles of her house. Her mother was a common courtesan, a woman of filth, as they called her. She did not mind it though. She was a stunning resemblance of her, and she was grateful for inheriting such beauty. However, she soon learned that her good looks came with a price, and she learned this lesson the hard way from her supposed uncle – the present king, Caldwell the First.
He had showered her with compliments on the day she was presented at the family gathering as part of the upcoming nobles of the house. He said that she has the beauty befitting a queen, but he had only done so because he had filthy intentions towards her.
She was only thirteen – a mere child – when he had taken her innocence away. It was a turning point in her young life, but she survived it all on her own without anyone’s help. From then on, she had hardened her heart towards men. She was determined to place her own welfare at the top of her list. She vowed to use the men around her to get to where she wanted to be – to the seat of power itself – the throne of Gascone.
Edelfina had deliberately inched her way towards the hearts of the Imperial Heirs – Prince Danterion and Prince Langrion, but she had begun to love them both in the process. Like her, they were innocent children that grew from imperfect parents. They were always harshly criticized because of their deformity and because of the prophecy that surrounded them.
Langrion and Danterion became her friends when she was a mere nobody. They knew her every thought, like the back of their own hands. When they learned of the vile incident that happened to her when she was thirteen, they understood her, and they did not judge her at all.
“You were just a girl, Fina,” Langrion said stroking her head, “you couldn’t have possibly done anything. You were a child, and he took advantage of you. He was the filthy one...”
“Your past does not make you who you are,” Danterion said on a different occasion. “When I look at you, I don’t see a broken person. I see an angel...”
She had known the princes since they were children, but she had set her heart to become their queen when she was still very young. Now, she was so close to reaching her goal that she wouldn’t let anyone ruin it for her, especially the putrid, old, savage that everyone calls ‘king’.
“If you do not wish the unspeakable deed you have done to me to become public, make sure you release Langrion and Khailis, and you mustn’t let anyone get in my way towards the throne!” Edelfina sneered.
“Is that a threat?” Caldwell muttered.
“Of course not; I’m simply giving you a better option, your grace,” Edelfina said, smiling wickedly as she yanked his hand from her and walked gracefully away from his chamber.
She - Lady Edelfina Nanris - wasn’t the same helpless, innocent girl of thirteen. She’s now stronger, more influential, and more cunning that the devilish old prune who harmed her years ago. This time, she will never let him win; not ever.