Two Heirs (The Marmoros Trilogy Book 1) (53 page)

Unfortunately, this particular passage was a dead end and they were turning back when a boom followed by a blast of air signified that the door from the storage chambers had been breached. Sergeant
Grimshaw felt the blast too and ran into the final storage chamber in time to loose a snap shot that whistled past Alcanzar’s
ear. Startled the little man whirled round.

“Hold them back,” he ordered one of the marines.

David’s party were taking corners at random now, following passages that twisted and turned ever deeper into the hillside. But always the sound of footsteps drew ever closer behind them.

“It’s no use, milord,” Carl said eventually. “I don’t know how they’re tracking us but they know every move we make. The ladies can’t go on much further. It’s time to make a stand.”

David looked around at the group. The two women were out of breath and the ambassadors were no better. “Right, next intersection,” he said.

The next intersection turned out to be a crossroads. Carl turned right and flattened himself against the wall and Jeren did the same to the left.

“Seb, Baltur take the ladies and the ambassadors on round the next corner and keep going, even if you can only walk.”

“But what about you, my lord?” Seb replied.

“They’re either tracking Rachel or the ambassadors. If they think we’re still going, we will at least have the advantage of surprise. Now go.”

David joined Jeren
in the left hand passage and waited as the footsteps approached. As they reached the intersection, Carl swung his
battle axe
round the corner with every ounce of strength in his giant frame. It crashed through the assault rifle that the marine was carrying across his chest and embedded itself in his breastplate. The rifle exploded with a blast that knocked everybody off their feet.

Jeren was the first to recover and ran round the corner, thumbing the stud on the hilt of his sword and thrusting the blue glowing blade into the vulnerable part of the marine’s armour between the top of the breastplate and the bottom of the helmet. Behind the marine, a wild-eyed Alcanzar was staggering to his feet with a nasty looking blast pistol in his hand.

David rounded the corner and flexed the muscles in his wrist to release the needler
into his hand. As Alcanzar was raising the pistol to Jeren, a neat little hole appeared in the centre of his
forehead and he dropped to the ground again.

David knelt by the giant axeman
who was still flat on his back. “How are you doing, Carl?”

“I can’t feel my left arm, milord. Other than that I’ll probably live.”

“Okay, we’ll get you some treatment for that as soon as we can.

“Sergeant, report please.”

“Third hostile’s down, sir. No more inside the palace. Trooper Adams has used up one of his nine lives but he’s okay and I’ve sent him out to round up the one outside the city walls. The palace is secure, sir.”

Chapter 27

Jeren was in a foul mood. There was no other way to describe it. The early euphoria of surviving the Belsi attack had worn off and he was furious. He stormed round the palace ‘overseeing’ the repairs to the doors, the façade, the courtyard and the boundary wall. He snapped and shouted at people, contradicting instructions and generally creating an atmosphere of uncertainty wherever he went. He was rude to so many people that eventually, Falaise summoned him to her private quarters. She sat quietly watching him as he entered.

“You sent for me, mother?”

“I did,” she replied and said nothing more.

He paced up and down for a full two minutes before he finally broke the silence.

“Why?”

“Why did I send for you? You know the answer to that. You are behaving like a spoiled brat who is about to have his favourite toy taken away. Only Rachel is not a toy, is she? She is the queen of the Ystrad just as you are king of the Lyenar. She has responsibilities and duties to her people in exactly the same way as you do to yours.”

“But I love her, mother. I don’t want her to go.”

“I know, my son, and my heart bleeds for you. But life can be cruel sometimes, particularly it seems, to those who control the destinies of others.”

“Why does she have to go so soon?”

“That I think, is a question you had best ask her. She is waiting for you in the next room. It took me a lot of time and trouble to prise her out of the grasp of those ambassadors. So make sure you sort this out between you because I don’t want to see either of you again until you are ready to rule your respective peoples.”

“Thank you, mother.” He gave her a quick peck on the cheek and ran to the inter-connecting door.

Rachel turned at the sound of the door and he could see the streaks left by tears on her cheeks. She threw herself into his arms and they stood there just holding each other as a fresh flood of tears burst forth.

“Oh, Jerry, I’m so sorry,” she sobbed. “I wish they’d never found me.”

“But they did. And now you have to go away. But I don’t understand why.”

“Yes you do, Jerry. In your heart you do. You just don’t want to admit it.”

Rachel paused for a moment and pushed him away without letting go of his hands so that they faced each other.

“You made a speech some months ago. A speech that inspired your people and changed their lives for ever. The Lyenar were scattered throughout all the lands and you drew them together and gave them a purpose. You united them in a common goal, to retake their ancestral home. They followed you and they died for you, but in the end, you and they were victorious. You are standing even now in the palace of your fathers, in your own city of Marmoros.

“And that speech you made, changed my life too. We heard of your vision, hundreds of leagues away in Puerto Reis and I came with Josep and Agnes to be a part of that dream. If you hadn’t made that speech, we would never have met and I might never have found my own people.

“But now I have found them or they found me. And they are scattered as a result of a terrible
conflict, just as yours were. It is my role now to try to inspire my people, to draw them together and give them a vision of the future. To give them something to work towards, to live for and if necessary, fight for. I don’t know if I can achieve anything as spectacular as you have, my love. But I know that I have to try.

“I love you, Jerry, and it’s tearing me apart. I don’t want to leave you but I have to go and I need you to understand why.”

They clung to each other again until the tears subsided. Jeren smoothed her hair and kissed away the remaining traces of the tears.

“I love you too, Rachel and I am not giving up on us. You may have to go now but that is not the end of it. I don’t care how far away your country is, or how difficult it is to get there, I swear that I will find you and we will be together again.”

Rachel kissed him and then broke free of the embrace. “You would fight my battles for me, my sweet prince?” she teased. “Are you that bloodthirsty?”

“I’m that much in love with you. If I could fight your battles for you then I would. You already know that, so stop teasing me. I just want to see you every day, to talk to you and hold you in my arms.”

She frowned at him. “That last part I can’t manage but I have a gift for you that might help with the other two.”

Rachel reached into a pocket concealed in the skirt of her dress and produced the amulet that David had ripped off the unfortunate captain.

“Where did you get that?” Jeren demanded.

“I begged it from Lord David. Hold still while I fasten it round your neck.”

She clipped it in place and then placed two fingers in the centre of Jeren’s forehead.

“Now, I want you to close your eyes and tell me what you see.”

Jeren obediently closed his eyes and waited for a few seconds. “Nothing,” he said.

“Concentrate, Jerry. Think about me.”

He closed his eyes again and almost immediately an image sprang into view. With a gasp of shock, he stepped back a pace and broke the contact.

“What was it, Jerry? What did you see?”

“I don’t know. It was me, I think. It was like I was looking at myself in a mirror but it didn’t look right.”

“That’s because it wasn’t a reflection. You were seeing yourself through my eyes. Now let’s try something else. Stay right there, close your eyes and don’t move.”

Rachel ran over to the window and looked out across the city,

“Concentrate on me and tell me what you see.”

“I can see the roofs of houses and the city walls behind them. I can see the mountains in the distance beyond the river but I can’t quite see the river itself.”

Rachel turned her head slightly.

“Now I can see the river running down the length of the valley. Am I truly looking through your eyes?”

“Yes, my darling, you are.”

He spun round and stared at her.

“You spoke to me in my head, without actually speaking.”

She turned and smiled at him.
“Yes, I can do that too, my love.”

“Can I speak to you like that as well? Can you see what I see?”

“Yes, when our minds are touching but Lord David says that it is a technique that you will have to practice. Until then, I can pick images out of your mind but I won’t know if they’re from the present or something you’re remembering from your past. You will have to learn to concentrate
on what you want to show me.”

He pulled her close to him and kissed her. “I will learn, my darling. I promise I will learn. Do you think Lord David will teach me?”

“I’m sure he will. But first I think there are some people we need to see.”

“Hm. I think I may have to spend a bit of time for the next day or so, going round apologising to everybody. And I’d probably better start with mother.”

Falaise frowned at them as they opened the door and walked into her chamber hand in hand.

“Don’t frown, mother. You’ll get wrinkles and then Lord David won’t love you anymore.”

“Jeren!”

“Sorry, mother but if Rachel and I want to hold hands until she has to leave then that’s what we’re going to do.”

Falaise visibly relaxed and smiled at them. “So you’ve sorted things out between you then?”

“Yes we have. Mother, I want
to apologise for my behaviour over the last few days.”

“I don’t think it’s me you need to apologise to, Jeren.”

He gave a little laugh. “I think I probably need to apologise to half the people in the palace but I am starting with you because you are not only the queen regent, you are my mother. I love you very much and I am sorry if I have disappointed you these last few days.”

Falaise stepped over and put an arm round him. Then she put the other arm around Rachel and drew them both into a hug.

“You have never disappointed me, my son. And you, Rachel. I had hoped to one day call you daughter.”

“Don’t give up on that thought, mother. I’m just not sure how we’re going to do it yet.”

“What do you mean?” Falaise asked, a note of worry creeping back into her voice.

“No, don’t worry, Lady Falaise,” Rachel said.

“Call me Falaise, please my dear.”

“Falaise then. I don’t want to go any more than Jeren wants me to. But it is my duty and I have to help my people. I know that I have to go. I cannot predict what will happen over the next few months and years but I know that I will never forget either of you. If I can find a way to get back here, then I will. I love Jeren and I love his mother.”

Falaise gave them both another hug. “Come, my dears. It’s time to face the world.”

She led them out through the corridors to an audience chamber where David and the ambassadors were waiting. As they entered, she looked at David and gave a little nod.

Mahagama was wearing an expression of disapproval on his face. “Your majesty, we have been waiting for you.”

Rachel raised an eyebrow and said nothing.

“We have made all the arrangements for your departure, your majesty. We leave first thing in the morning.”

The temperature in the room dropped several degrees as Rachel replied. “I do not remember being consulted about this.”

“There was no time, your majesty. We thought it best to get you away from here as soon as possible.”

“You thought!” Rachel’s voice thundered around the room, amplified by mentally enhanced
subsonics. “You forget to whom you are speaking.”

The expression of disapproval was replaced by a look of horror as the three ambassadors dropped to their knees, foreheads touching the floor.

“You do not make decisions on my behalf, ambassador. I will decide when we will leave and it most certainly will not be tomorrow morning.”

“But we have made the arrangements, your majesty,” Mahagama said without raising his eyes from the floor.

“Then you can unmake the arrangements again. I will not be leaving here until I have seen Prince Jeren crowned king. That is my decision and you will base any travel arrangements around that. Do you understand me?”

“Yes, your majesty,” the ambassadors chorused in unison.

“Then, gentlemen, you are dismissed. You have arrangements to remake.”

As the door closed behind the ambassadors, David remarked to Falaise. “You know, I think she’s picking up this queen business quite quickly. I was nearly on my knees myself there.”

Rachel rounded on him, eyes still blazing with fury but when she saw the smiles on their faces, she paused for a moment and then burst into laughter.

“Did I overdo it, do you think?”

“My dear,” Falaise replied. “You were absolutely splendid and I am thrilled that you will be here for the coronation.”

***

Preparations for the coronation proceeded rapidly and a lot more smoothly after that. Jeren made his apologies to everybody and then concentrated his efforts on moving the supplies they had found in the tunnels, back into the store rooms. The concealed entrance to the tunnels had been destroyed by the Belsi and he had to organise a permanent guard there until it could be rebuilt. In the meantime, David sent search parties into the tunnels to explore and map the complex and particularly to find any exits to the hills or the quarries.