Enchanting the King (The Beauty's Beast Fantasy Series) (21 page)

Guillaume paused in a large courtyard with even more intricate tiling and decoration. The space was open and airy with arched doorways leading off to the rest of the palace. Aliénor gaped. Even the finest castles back home would have looked cramped and barbaric compared to this elegant splendor. “This is beautiful, Guillaume.”

He grinned. “It is, isn’t it? This structure was once an old Tiochene fortress that our Jerdic forces took over when we came south in your father’s day. I inherited it from the last Jerdic governor.”

Aliénor swallowed and looked away from the intricate tile mosaics, the beautiful stonework her artisans back home could not possibly recreate. How much might her people have learned if they had worked with the Tiochene back then instead of trying to conquer them all?

Guillaume dismounted and clapped to summon his servants. Two young boys emerged from the shadows at once. They looked barely old enough to be servants at all, not even ten, she would guess.
All the older boys must have been called to man the city’s walls
.

Guillaume scrubbed a hand over his face. “I’m afraid I cannot offer you much in the way of refreshments, though I think we do have some good meat left. Maybe some fruit?”

“That sounds fine, Guillaume.”

He didn’t seem to have heard her, for he still rambled on like a horse heading home for his stable that would not let his rider turn him from the path. “The bathhouses still work, so you can clean up. I’ll dig up some fresh clothes for you and your ladies. The knights too. I’ll speak to my steward about arranging a boat.”

“Guillaume, thank you—”

“Have to give you some supplies for the trip. Can’t spare much. Maybe send your horses with you, but no, we might need them. Perhaps I can—”

“Guillaume.” She gripped his arm and gave it a little shake. “I’m sure whatever you arrange will be suitable, and I thank you for thinking of my comfort at all in such a desperate time as this. I am most sorry to be adding to your burdens.”

He covered her hand with his own. “Here, let’s get your men and the other ladies settled while you and I make our plans.”

Aliénor swallowed as she looked back at Thomas. She raised her eyebrow, asking silent permission. He nodded and stepped forward. Aliénor drew a deep breath in. “By your leave, cousin, there is one more of my party that we must include in our plans.”

Thomas moved to stand at Aliénor’s side, and Guillaume frowned at him, raking his gaze up and down Thomas’s tall form. “Who—”

Aliénor wet her lips. “Lord Guillaume of Anutitum, allow me to present to you King Thomas of Lyond.”

Thomas watched Guillaume closely, but the man had a soldier’s training, and upon hearing Aliénor’s pronouncement, he merely blinked. “Well.” The master of Anutitum turned away and motioned for the two of them to follow him. His face had gone blank, his eyes distant like windows with the shutters closed. “All right. This way.”

Aliénor fell in step behind her cousin, chewing on her lower lip. Thomas wondered if she knew she was doing that. He settled his own hand carelessly on the hilt of his sword.
I hope we have not made a very grave error in trusting this Guillaume
.

Her cousin’s office was large but simple, with a table and several chairs. Rows upon rows of shelves filled with parchment and sheaths of vellum were stacked behind the table with all kinds of colorful stones to weigh the loose leaflets down. Reports, inventories, correspondence. The sight made Thomas homesick for some reason. He had been gone too long from Lyond. He only hoped his regent was managing. It had been months since Thomas had received any news from home.

Guillaume settled behind his desk and steepled his fingers under his chin. “I am sorry for the loss of your men, King Thomas, and I regret to tell you that your colony cities have all been overrun by the Tiochene already.”

He’d been expecting this, but still it was like having a knife shoved under his ribs and twisted.
What an old fool and a failure I am
. He hissed his breath out sharply through his teeth. “Were many of the Lyondi colonists killed?”

“Some fled here, but we were forced to send them away with our own people along the river to the last few cities controlled by Jerdic forces. A few of the colonists in your cities refused to abandon their homes. They stayed behind and surrendered to the Tiochene, even agreeing to convert. All the Lyondi cities were taken with relatively little bloodshed, so I’m told.”

Thomas should have felt outrage that any of his countrymen had defected to a foreign enemy. He felt only a weary resignation. He had seen how harsh this place was, how brutal. How could he judge or condemn his people for doing what they thought best to survive?

“Now, please.” Guillaume’s frowning gaze flicked back and forth between Thomas and Aliénor. “Tell me how you—both of you—came to survive. And to be traveling together in this way.”

Thomas glanced over at Aliénor, and she made a small
you go first
motion with her chin. Thomas snorted and settled back in his chair. “Many weeks ago now, my men and I were marching along the mountain pass…”

As their tale continued, Aliénor watched Guillaume’s expression become more and more incredulous. Though the story sounded outlandish, they even told him everything they knew of the blood witch.

“No such woman has been seen, has she?”

Guillaume spread his empty hands in a gesture of helplessness. “Thousands of people have passed through my city, cousin. I will ask my men to watch for this witch, but it’s possible she’s already found her way inside the walls. I wouldn’t worry overmuch, though. Magic is forbidden in my city.”

Aliénor tilted her head. “What? Why?”

Guillaume’s jaw twitched, his eyes going distant. “Oh, the Tiochene population here were making trouble last year. The other Jerdic colony-cities too. Rumor is, the Tiochene faction in the mountains have been training anyone with a modicum of Talent in magic—even
women
. And then recruiting them for their army. So I banned magic altogether and imprisoned anyone caught practicing it.”

“You don’t even have a court magician?” Thomas asked.

“No,” Guillaume scoffed. “More trouble than they’re worth, if you ask me. Like your blood witch problem: why keep someone close to the throne who has the power to make you her puppet?”

Aliénor couldn’t exactly disagree, but not all magicians were as unscrupulous as Mistress Helen. She couldn’t help but think how useful and brave Master Llewellyn had shown himself to be, for instance. Having a good magician on your side could be a powerful boon.
Especially when your enemies are creating an
army
of magic users
. Guillaume’s outlawing of magic seemed marvelously short-sighted to her, cruel even. A Talented midwife, for instance, could save more lives in her time than even a skilled court magician like Llewellyn.

“How did you break the witch’s curse, cousin?” Guillaume asked, his eyebrow raised.

She dropped her gaze to the floor to keep from looking at Thomas. “Oh, ’twas the bite of apple. Once they took that out of my mouth, the spell was broken.”

Guillaume frowned but did not probe further.

Thomas casually picked up the thread of the story
after
the shepherd’s hut. He’d fudged the details there too, she’d noticed, so that Guillaume would not know they had ever been alone together.

Indeed, no one could ever know she and Thomas had been alone together for so long or Aliénor would be utterly ruined. So many traps in this interview with her cousin, so many details to distort and conceal.

Of course, some foolish part of her did not wish to conceal her indiscretion with Thomas. Why should that thought tempt her so? To tell Guillaume everything, to scandalize and shame her kinsman so Guillaume would force Thomas to marry her. Perhaps it was because she could feel Thomas slipping away from her. He’d already let her go on the road outside Anutitum, already switched from calling her “Aliénor” to calling her “Princess.”

Each moment they spent in this city, in their real world, it felt like Thomas was being taken away piece by piece. It made her anxious, desperate, but she had enough good sense left that she did not speak. Guillaume was just as likely to kill Thomas to avenge her honor as to order them married.

No, she had to find another way to keep Thomas. They would be together on the boat up the river. Perhaps that would be enough time, enough privacy for them to figure out a way to keep each other. She smiled a little.
Jerdun and Lyond surrendering to one another.

“I do hope you will look at my arrangements on the wall before you take ship, King Thomas.” Guillaume nodded graciously. “Your strategic maneuvers at the siege of Tanab are legendary, and I would appreciate any suggestions you might have for improving the city’s defenses.”

“Of course.” Thomas shifted in his seat and looked suddenly over at Aliénor.

She beamed at him, as warmly as she dared with Guillaume watching, but Thomas’s eyes remained unaccountably sad as he gazed at her.

Thomas wet his lips. “I thank you for all your generosity, Lord Guillaume, but I must tell you that I do not plan to take ship with the princess tomorrow.”

“No?”

“
What?
” Aliénor half started from her chair before she remembered herself. Heart in her throat, she clasped her hands together in her lap. “King Thomas, what do you mean?”

He turned from her. “I mean to stay in Anutitum. Lord Guillaume, I mean to help you defend your city.”

Guillaume’s face split wide in happy shock, his teeth shinning as he grinned at Thomas. “This is generosity unlooked-for, King Thomas. I thank you and most humbly accept your sword to help me defend Anutitum.”

Aliénor’s body felt frozen and on fire all at once. She could not move, could not speak. Inside it felt like her entire body was a tumultuous mess. As if Tiochene raiders were tearing and looting through the chambers of her heart. Burning everything in their wake with spell-fire. “Thomas, no. You can’t. You mustn’t.”

His chair creaked as he gripped the arms tight. He did not look at her. “I set out to defend my people from the Tiochene, and I miserably failed at that. I would like now to help Lord Guillaume defend his city. I am a soldier and a knight. I am an
old
soldier, but my arm is still strong, my sword sharp. I can be of use here.”

Guillaume cleared his throat and made a show of shuffling the papers on his desk. “Cousin Aliénor, perhaps you would like to eat and wash up. I will let you know what arrangements have been made to get you and your ladies safely away.”

Aliénor shoved to her feet, her chair clattering behind her. Accepting her dismissal with lowered eyes and a raging heart, she walked out of the room.
Oh, Thomas, you fool. You stubborn, honorable, wonderful fool
.

Thomas and Guillaume stayed closeted together another hour or so, discussing how best to get Aliénor and her ladies safely away. After that was settled, their talk turned to how best to deploy the limited number of troops available, what precautions to take against magic, catapults, fire, disease…

Guillaume was an intelligent enough soldier, conscientious but unimaginative, and his prejudice against magic seemed to Thomas to have left Anutitum dangerously vulnerable.
Nothing to do about that now
.

Thomas was exhausted by the time their talk wrapped up. He read a similar weariness in Guillaume as the younger man pushed away from his desk and stood. Thomas clapped Guillaume on the shoulder. “You should rest, Lord Guillaume. And eat.”

Guillaume waved a dismissive hand. “I will by and by. Once I’ve secured the boat for Princess Aliénor. I do not wish to waste a moment in getting her away to safety.”

“No. Nor I.” She’d looked so hurt, so betrayed when Thomas said he meant to stay behind. He’d hated to do it, but he was a knight. A solider. He could not walk away from this fight and still call himself an honorable man.

Guillaume was watching him and opened his mouth as if to speak.

Thomas raised an eyebrow in challenge.

The younger man snapped his mouth shut with a small, self-conscious laugh. “Until tomorrow, King Thomas.”

“Until tomorrow.”

When Thomas stepped into the hall, he was tired enough that a small growl of irritation escaped him at the sight of Llewellyn waiting for him there. “What?”

“We’re staying behind, my lord?” The magician’s voice was bone-dry.

“No.
I’m
staying behind with any of our other knights who wish to fight.
You
are going on ahead with Princess Aliénor to make sure that she gets to safety.” Thomas started down the hallway in the direction his guest room was supposed to be in.

Llewellyn fell in step beside him. “And I don’t suppose you’ll see her again before she leaves.”

“Perhaps in passing.” Thomas clenched his fists at his side. Llewellyn must know this was a fresh wound for him, so why the devil did his magician insist on poking it? Too tired to pretend this conversation was about something else, Thomas huffed out a gusty sigh. “I’m too old for her anyway.”

Llewellyn snorted. “She has the makings of a queen, sire. A great queen. You’re a fool if you let her go.” The magician said no more, merely stomped ahead of Thomas down the hallway, and pushed one of the doors open ahead of him. “This is your chamber. Rest well, sire.”

“Llewellyn.” Thomas caught his friend’s arm. “You were the one who warned me away from her. Political consequences. A possible war with Jerdun. What has become of your objections now?” Thomas shouldn’t have been so mad, but hot anger spiked inside his veins all the same.

Llewellyn shook his head, a muscle ticking in the magician’s jaw. “You think any of that matters now with the Tiochene army about to fall on our heads?”

“What?”

“You want to stay behind and do the honorable thing. I understand that, and I would stay behind to die bravely with you if you would let me.”

“No. You’re to go with the princess.”

“I know. I am.” Llewellyn fisted his hands and shook them in front of his face with a low growl of frustration. “My king, I know what it is to lose someone. So do you. Don’t double your regrets and hers.”