18. Keelan

Chapter 18

Keelan

J ess stifled a yawn, covering her mouth with the back of her hand. I grinned at her effort to mask her sleepiness but chose to save her embarrassment and yawned myself, stretching my arms to emphasize the point.

“I didn’t realize how long we’ve been sitting here. It must be well past midnight,” I said, feigning exhaustion I didn’t feel. “We should get some sleep soon. How do you think we should handle the morrow?”

She released an imprisoned yawn. “We should return to Fontaine.”

“We?” I asked. “Is that the royal we , or actually you and me both?”

She snorted. “I think you and I are past royal formalities such as referring to me as we . I have never understood that turn of phrase. There is only one of me, even if I am Queen. Why am I a we ?”

I grinned. “I believe, Your Most Royal Majesty, the we refers to the monarch representing all of the people and the land . . . and whatever else she might claim as her own.”

“Look at you playing amateur royal. I am unsure you are correct in your definition, but I am far too tired to argue.” She stood. “Besides, I meant that you should return to the Palace with me. The Council will want to hear your account of the siege firsthand. We have received messengers with updates from before the siege, but only one returned after it happened. You will be able to fill in many gaps.”

I eyed her. “You’ve changed.”

“Changed? What do you mean?”

“You were so afraid before. Atikus and I did everything we could to get you to talk, but you were locked up tight. And there were times you’d nip at anyone who got too close. I suppose that’s to be expected after what you survived, but the woman before me is very different from the girl I knew only a few months ago.”

Now it was her turn to eye me. A long moment of silence passed.

I started to fear I’d gone too far when she spoke in a quiet voice. “My father always said the crown changes anyone who wears it. I watched how it changed him over the years. He seemed to always be debating something in his mind.” She walked to her cot and sat facing me. “When I was a little girl, he was so carefree, carrying me on his shoulders into the gardens, tossing me into the air before plopping me down on the back of a horse. He loved to ride with me sitting in front of him, his arms wrapped around my sides. I loved it, too. I would snuggle into his chest and watch the world pass by from the safety of his saddle. As I got older, he grew more serious. He . . . lost that playfulness.”

“Maybe you lost a bit of that as you got older, too? We all do.”

She nodded. “Maybe. I sat in many of his Council meetings and stood by the throne as he heard petitions and negotiated trade or whatever pressed. He loved being King, but the weight of the crown took its toll over time. I guess . . . I am scared it will do that to me, too.”

I stepped to my cot, sat, and leaned forward, taking her hands in mine. My eyes found hers. “Jess Vester, you are the strongest woman I know. You’ve lived through things that would’ve destroyed most other people, but you never gave up. Of course the crown will change you. How could it not? But you have the power to choose how that change will occur, whether it’s positive or negative, whether joy or bitterness grows in your heart, whether or not you hold on to all the special things that make you, well, you.”

Jess’s eyes fell to our tightly clutched fingers.

“You think I am special?” a child’s voice asked.

“Very.” I smiled, squeezed her hands, then pulled back. “But you were right about us needing rest. If we’re going to return to face the Palace tomorrow, we both need to be at our best.”

A moment later, I was wrapped in my blanket, eyes closed, when Jess whispered into the night, “Thank you, Keelan.”

“Good night, Your Majesty,” I replied through the grin teasing my lips.

By some feat of magic, as the sun rose on the next morning, the torches in the cavern flared to life and brightened. I had forgotten that trick from our last visit to the cave and stared in wonder as the flames danced higher.

“I never knew magic could do so many amazing things,” Jess said from her cot. “I mean, Gifts are everywhere, but to make something like this cave, or those torches, or that wine , it really is wondrous.”

“It’s definitely something,” I grunted as I rose and rummaged through my pack. “May I fix Her Majesty’s breakfast? We have dried meat and cheese or cheese and dried meat.”

She smiled and sat up, her head tilted upward. “Our royal pleasure commands cheese and meat, kind sir.”

I lifted two wrapped bundles, turned, and offered an exaggerated bow. “As you wish, Your Most Bedheaded Majesty.”

“Bedheaded?” Both her hands flew to her hair. “That is not even a word. And don’t look at my hair! I need that mirror to just be a mirror before you see me again.”

I laughed, a deep rumble that echoed off the rough cavern walls. “No need to fret, Majesty. Your humble servant will busy himself with preparations for our journey while you, well, do whatever it is you royals do in that mirror.”

She tossed her pillow into my back and padded toward the mirror. “How dare you mock me! I am Queen!”

When I muttered, “Not my queen,” under my breath, another pillow slammed into my back, causing me to spill a bit of the magical wine I nearly had to my lips. “Hey!”

She giggled as she brushed the tangles out of her hair. Dittler, who’d remained near the cave’s entrance all night, clomped over to the table and nudged my shoulder.

“I know you’re hungry, boy. We’ll get you some breakfast when we’re at the Palace, okay?”

“You two seem to be getting along much better now,” Jess said, packing her brush away and smoothing out her dress. “I swear he just sent me an image of you feeding him some kind of fruit. I am fairly certain that image was his way of communicating affection.”

“You mean hunger . We’ve reached an agreement of sorts, but I wouldn’t call it affection,” I said, patting the massive stallion one last time before turning to face Jess.

I froze as my eyes widened.

“What? I did the best I could on short notice.”

I shook my head but struggled to speak.

Nothing had changed since we’d spent the last day and evening talking, but it felt like the first time I’d looked at her. Really looked at her.

She wore an elegant emerald gown with white lace around the neck and the ends of her sleeves. The green of the fabric shimmered in the torchlight and brought out the auburn tint in her rich brown hair. I’d never paid much attention to that red tint before. In fact, I’d never noticed her before. She was a girl I rescued, a girl seven years my junior, not unlike many other victims of crimes I’d helped back home.

But for some reason I couldn’t explain, the woman who stood before me in that moment was someone entirely new.

“No, no. You, um, did fine. I mean . . . you look fine . . . good . . . you look good,” I stammered, then ran my hand over my stubbly chin. “I’m an idiot. Ignore me.”

Her smile brightened the magically lit cavern more than any sunrise I’d ever seen.

She offered a mischievous wink. “We need to work on your complimenting skills, but that will do for now.”

She sat and began spreading cheese across what was left of our crusty loaf. Dittler made a sound I thought bordered on a laugh.

“Thanks a lot, friend ,” I said to the horse, patting him one last time before turning to sit.

An hour later, our packs were fastened, skins were filled with wine, and we stood, hesitating, before the mirror.

“What’s it like? Going through that thing?”

Jess shrugged. “It is like going through a door. One minute you are in this room, the next you are in another. I did not feel anything unusual, except a little disorientation at returning in the crypt. That part was creepy.” She turned and reached up to pat Dittler. “Maybe I should lead him through. He will have the hardest time walking through a portal.”

“Okay, but he led Atikus and me into the cave and didn’t have any trouble walking through faux solid stone,” I said. “For the record, that was creepy.”

“Okay, baby boy, you need to follow me,” she told Dittler as she gripped his reins, then stepped through the mirror, horse in tow.

I watched them vanish, sucked in a nervous breath, and followed.

I emerged in the crypt and bumped into Dittler’s flanks with my first step, receiving a snap of tail to my face in return.

“Oof! We’re going to have to practice that some. I’ll be picking horsehair out of my mouth all day now.”

Dittler and Jess shared a chuckle at my expense.

“Woah, this place is . . .” I trailed off as my head swiveled and my eyes took in the crypt’s majestic creepiness. That’s what I called it in my head, but I didn’t dare insult Jess’s royal line by voicing that opinion.

“What’s in here?” I asked, running my hand across the Phoenix etched in a pair of golden doors that towered to the right of the mirror. I yanked my hand back as magic’s glow flared and followed my touch.

Jess shrugged. “I have no idea. My father did not know how to get into that chamber. We guessed it is some ancient king or Mage, but no one knows for sure.”

My investigator-brain kicked into overdrive as I examined the door and the metal plate on the wall beside it. “Well, someone knows what’s inside.”

Jess’s head snapped around. “Why do you say that?”

I pointed to the plate, my face only a few hands from its gleaming surface. “Look here. There isn’t any dust on this plate. That would’ve helped us see if it had been disturbed recently. But . . . you can still see parts of a very faint handprint.” I pointed and stepped back for Jess. “The oils on a person’s hand almost always leave a trace on metal, especially when it’s cold like it is down here.”

“The priests who maintain this place are down here every day. It is likely one of them decided to try their luck. Those doors have not opened in centuries, probably longer.”

Jess stared a moment, then reached up and pressed her palm to the plate. The Phoenix flared, and magical light swirled in its grooves, but the door didn’t stir. “Well, it was worth a try. I thought maybe the monarch’s touch might open it, but there is likely something else required. A password or magical phrase that has been lost to time.”

She turned back toward me. “Are you ready to be scrutinized by the entire royal court? The moment we return, tongues will wag about who you are and what you have done to me.”

“Done to you? What do you mean?”

“I left alone but returned with a Melucian. That will be curious enough to start all sorts of rumors, but when you join in Council meetings, some will grow jealous or suspicious—or both.”

“You want me to join in Council meetings?”

She nodded. “Some, yes. They need to hear firsthand what you saw when you returned to Saltstone. They must know what your people experienced. They will want to question you, some quite aggressively.”

The concern creasing her face touched something in me in a way I didn’t understand. I studied her face a moment before responding. “I’ve spent the past few years being questioned and scrutinized by the toughest old man in Melucia, the Captain- Commander of the Guard. On occasion, I’ve stood before the Triad on the Eye. There’s nothing quite like that experience. I’ll be all right, especially with you there.”

“Keelan, listen to me. I won’t be able to help you. When we walk out of here, I will be Queen. You will have to address me as such, and I will need to treat you as a visiting . . . hmm . . . dignitary? Emissary? What are you?”

“Guest is fine. I don’t need a fancy title.”

“I see you have never been in a palace or dealt with nobles. Titles are everything. Without one, you will be invisible, barely worth their notice.” She thought a moment before her eyes lit up. “ Ambassador . You are Melucia’s new ambassador to the Kingdom. That will work.”

I barked a laugh and shook my head. “I’m pretty sure the Triad has to make that appointment on behalf of our country.”

“It will be fine. This can be temporary until they appoint a permanent one. I am sure Atikus will smooth things out on his side of the mountains.” She nodded to herself. “That is settled. Let us go, Ambassador.”

Without another word, she gripped Dittler’s reins, strode to the end of the crypt, and opened the doors leading up to the Temple.