The Queen Revealed (5 page)

Something about the images felt unwholesome; from the little naked people dancing about in such wicked glee, to the strange writing that ringed the image, its letters sharp and unreadable. Adele didn’t feel comfortable studying the tapestry with her children by her side so she quickly shooed them away to the next room, which was a large bedroom. A huge canopied bed rested in the center of the room and several couches of various sizes had been pushed haphazardly against the walls. A large wardrobe sat in the corner. An image of an ugly, goblin face had been engraved in the doors and it scared the little girls so Adele decided that her Queen’s Guard could have this room.

The second reception room was all the way on the other side of the sitting room, and was almost completely bare of furniture. Tattered, grey silk curtains hung at the floor to ceiling windows, and a huge stone dragon glared menacingly from above the fireplace, perched as if it had just climbed down from the ceiling. A single leather armchair sat in the center of the room, facing the windows. A stain lay spread at the foot of the chair, marring the floorboards darkly, and Adele didn’t want to look too closely to see what had caused it.

Through this empty room, Adele found the bedroom where she was to sleep with the children and their nannies. As she ran her fingers over the heavy black furniture, it felt cold to the touch. Everything was made of iron, and the sharp metallic smell of it filled the room. Adele looked up as Seraphina’s lantern threw shadows into the dark corners and studied the walls searching for any hint of secret doors or passageways. Rainere had shown her that the Golden Palace had been full of such secret tunnels when he had stayed there and she guessed that his own home would be the same.

Caitlin bustled into the room with the children running ahead of her and their night things in her arms. Adele helped to bathe the children in the cavernous bathroom attached to the bedroom. The soporific effect of a hot bath working well to calm their frazzled nerves after a stressful day of travelling, and as they had already filled up on the snacks laid out, the children were ready to sleep quickly.

Adele kissed each of her little ones goodnight as they snuggled down under the surprisingly fresh sheets of the great bed. The three puppies had piled into their basket under the bed, already snoring. Adele leant down and gave Hero Dog a little pat. The dog stirred and wuffed in his sleep.

It had been so odd today when Aaron had claimed that Hero Boy had told him about the snow. It wasn’t like Aaron to make up stories like that. Was it possible that she wasn’t the only one to have Magic wake up inside now that they lived in this new world? Anxious, Adele chewed her bottom lip as she headed for the door.

“Are you going to see the Prince, Mummy?” asked a little voice behind her.

“I don’t know, Aaron, maybe,” whispered Adele, turning back to the bed to see her son sitting up between his sleeping sisters. “You should rest now, sweetheart. I’ll be back later though, and I’m going to sleep right next to you, I promise.”

“Tell him I like his snow, don’t I, Mummy?” said Aaron and thankfully fell back on his pillows ready to sleep.

“I think it’s beautiful, too, Aaron,” whispered Adele, as she breathed a sigh of relief at the innocence of the comment. She couldn’t take any more puzzles tonight.
Perhaps, he had heard the QGs talking about Ripenzo’s storm earlier,
she thought.
Maybe one of them suggested that it meant snow was coming.

Adele made her way back into the central sitting room.

“Everything alright, Your Majesty?” asked Seraphina, as the young nanny put down her fork to stand for Adele.

“When you’ve finished your dinner, could you please stay close to the children?” asked Adele. “The girls are already asleep, but Aaron is still a bit unsettled.”

Seraphina bobbed and sat again, ready to bolt down her food and do as she was asked.

“Can’t say I blame the little tyke,” said General Ohrig as he made his way across the sitting room from the opposite doorway. No doubt he had been looking at the strange set up next door. “I will station guards at your bedroom door and at the front here throughout the night, Your Majesty.”

“Do you really think that’s necessary, General?” protested Adele. “I’m sure the men are all exhausted from the hard ride today and everyone could do with a good night’s sleep.”

She also couldn’t think of how she was to sneak away to find Rainere if there were guards all over the apartment. “I’m sure there is no reason to be ‘overly alarmed’,” she joked, making a play for humor.

General Ohrig gave her a skeptical look. “Your Majesty, there is something you should know while we are here in the Grey Palace…” he began, but was interrupted by a loud knock at the door.

Tilburn scurried to answer it and stepped back in surprise as Grotto strode past him into the room, searching the group until his eyes alighted on Adele. She almost flinched from the venom in his glance.

“His Highness, Prince Rainere, extends a cordial invitation to Her Majesty the Queen, to dine with him in the High State Dining Room this evening,” he said stiffly, almost choking on the word
cordial
.

Tilburn was incensed and jumped in front of the Prince’s manservant. “Surely the Prince would not expect Her Majesty to join him for dinner at this late hour, with such little notice?” he asked in a scandalized tone. “It would be most forward and outside all manner of protocols to even suggest such a thing!”

Grotto’s expression told the Majordomo what he could do with his protocols. “The Marchant
Prince
has invited the
Queen
to dine with him
this
evening,” insisted Grotto enunciating each word and leaning over Tilburn menacingly.

“I accept the invitation!” interjected Adele before Tilburn could explode into righteous fury once again. “Thank you, Mr. Grotto, please tell the Prince I can be ready to join him within the hour.”

Grotto snapped a shallow bow and turned smartly, exiting the room and banging the doors loudly behind himself.

Adele looked about and saw everyone in the room was staring at her with varying degrees of horror on their faces. She laughed nervously. “What? He’s our host! I have to be polite.” She smiled as the butterflies began batting against the sides of her stomach. “Besides, I’ve already told you. I’ve met the Prince before and he isn’t as scary as everyone seems to think.”

Adele turned away to avoid General Ohrig’s gaze, pretending not to see the hand he raised to stop her as she moved off towards the bedroom.

“Girls, I’ll need some help getting ready,” she called back to Seraphina and Caitlin. “Please find my nice dress for me, the red I think? And get the make-up and things out. I need to wash the smell of horse and dust off me before dinner.”

The moment she had been waiting nearly two weeks for was about to happen. No grumpy General was going to stop her from seeing Prince Rainere tonight. Nothing was going to keep them apart now.

Chapter Six

“No Good Sense”

At the appointed hour, Adele was washed and groomed for her dinner with the Prince. She was pleased that she had brought the red silk dress with her. She hadn’t worn it once in Sandar, so it was still clean, and relatively unwrinkled. Adele loved this dress, as the tight bodice gave her waist a wonderful waspish shape and pushed her small breasts up prettily. It made her blush to wonder what Rainere would think of it. Following Grotto down the dark corridor, Adele let a grin dance across her face. Her heart thudded in her chest and she clenched her hands together to hide her damp palms. She was so excited that she almost passed by Grotto when he stopped in front of a large open doorway, and gestured for her to enter ahead of him.

The High State Dining Room was large, but by no means cavernous like the one at the Golden Palace. It had been decorated for the dinner with hundreds of fresh candles sitting on white china plates, stacked three rows deep on each of the dozen buffets lining the walls. A fire roared in the grate and took the chill off the air and provided most of the light in the room. A long dining table stood in the center, twelve chairs lining each side and heavy chargers sitting at either end.

Adele stepped into the room and made her way over to the table. Her slippers clicked noisily on the bare marble floors. Though her eyes roamed the room she was not sure she would have seen him if he hadn’t moved.

Prince Rainere was leaning against the mantle of the fireplace, his velvet coat camouflaging him against the dark wood. As he turned to face her, his long black hair fell to either side of his face, framing his chiseled cheeks and sharp chin. His gaze found hers and his frozen expression became colder still.

Blithely, Adele headed straight for Rainere and almost fell over Grotto again as he pulled out a charger from the table directly into her path. “Wine, Your Majesty?” he asked, and the question was also a curt demand to sit down.

Remembering herself, and where she was, Adele sat down on the offered chair and blushed furiously. Of course she couldn’t just throw herself at Rainere here in the dining room. Anyone could be looking! She quietly thanked Grotto as he poured her a glass of ruby red wine. She fingered the base of the crystal goblet, and bit her bottom lip feeling suddenly and completely out of her depth. Rainere hadn’t moved from the fireplace, nor had he yet said a word to her.

Perhaps he is only waiting for the servants to leave?
thought Adele, but then watched in dismay as Grotto took his place by a buffet against the wall opposite her. All the better to glare balefully at her, she supposed. How could she be feeling this unwelcome in Rainere’s home?

“Your Highness, thank you for taking us in tonight, the storm in the forest was quite fierce,” Adele began and risked a glance up at Rainere, and then another over to Grotto. “I’m sure that we would have frozen solid if we’d been out there any longer.” She tried for a smile but it caught uncomfortably in a lopsided grin. She quickly straightened her lips.

“Queen Adelena.” Rainere’s voice was one of her favorite things in this new world and its deep rasp sent a warm thrill through her. “I am so glad that I could be of assistance to you and your party tonight. It is indeed such good fortune that you were so near the Grey Palace when the storm hit.”

He moved towards her as he spoke. His arms held behind his back as he reached the table in a few slow strides. Rainere was dressed simply, but elegantly, as always. The velvet jacket was long and fluted at the back, his leather trousers were tight and the silk shirt was only half-way tucked in, as if he had just gotten dressed this minute. Adele looked up into the Prince’s dark green eyes as he came to stand next to her.

“It’s good to see you, Rainere,” she said softly. “It’s been such a long time and… so much has happened. I have so much to tell you.”

Adele couldn’t disguise the wobble in her voice. She had been tired and scared for too long during the two weeks they had been apart, and she didn’t want to play games with Rainere right now. She held her chin high and let him see the tears that shone in her eyes.

Rainere pulled out a chair and sat close, the silver ring around his black pupils pulsed and flashed. Was he angry? “By all means, Your Majesty.” Rainere inclined his head, and continued to stare at her coldly. “You have my fullest attention.”

Adele couldn’t speak. A gut-wrenching disappointment held her mute. She shook her head and stifled a sob. Rainere leaned forward and Adele felt the menace even before she heard it in his voice.

“Careful, my Queen,” he growled. “An unguarded moment like this could be your undoing. You should be aware that I have seen everything you have done since entering my grounds.”

Adele dashed away the tears and frowned up at him, confusion swirling with the hurt inside her. What did he mean
unguarded moment
? A warm rush of anger dried her tears as suddenly as they had sprung up. She needed to know what was making Rainere act like this. Now.

“I can’t talk to you properly here,” she whispered. “You need to tell me what is going on with you, and I need to tell you what happened to me in Sandar.” She could see his restrained emotion in the slight shake of his hands on the table, and the defensive tilt of his chin.

Prince Rainere’s eyes flashed at her. “
Going
on
with me?”

So he was going to keep up this charade, was he?

“Now, Rainere!” hissed Adele impatiently, throwing a dark look at Grotto who had approached the table to refill their still-full glasses of wine and listen in. She stood up, pushing the heavy chair back with difficulty. Adele fussed unnecessarily with her skirts as she avoided looking at Rainere and waited for him to rise. She knew she was being rude and she had no idea how far she would have to take this
I’m the Queen, do as I say
act, but now she was desperate to get Rainere alone. Something was very wrong with him and her instincts told her she was the only one who could fix it.

Rainere stood slowly and led her out of the dining room and along so many dim and deserted corridors that she soon lost all sense of direction. The only comfort Adele could take in their heavy silence was that they had left his manservant Grotto far behind them in the dining room.

Finally, they stopped in front of a single door that was glowing greenly and sparked a little when Rainere pushed it open. Adele entered the room with a confident step. She was determined not to get teary again now that she had Rainere alone. She let her guard down so often with this man and they had too much to discuss to waste time with tears. But her decision didn’t stop her from jumping a mile when the door slammed shut behind her. She glanced at Rainere, but the Prince had stalked off to a cabinet in the corner of the room and was fiddling about with glasses and a bottle.

Adele looked around the chamber and saw that a huge bed, dressed in white silk sheets and heavy fur blankets, dominated the room. She had to hide her smile when she realized that Rainere had brought her to his bedroom. Obviously, there was hope for them left.

She watched as Rainere moved to the fireplace and set down two tiny glasses of golden Fire Whiskey on a table by an armchair. He leaned against the mantelpiece and gazed moodily into the flames, the firelight warming his features and illuminating his dark green eyes.

“I don’t know why you are so angry with me, darling,” began Adelena, as she made her way to settle in the armchair. She had to stay confident, after all she hadn’t done anything wrong that Rainere could be aware of. “I was so looking forward to seeing you again…”

“Were you, my Queen?” snapped the Prince, turning on her in a fury. “Perhaps if you expect me to believe that you should have hidden your lover from me better!”

Adele was genuinely stunned. “Lover? Rainere, you are being ridiculous.”

“I’m being
ridiculous
!” he snarled and stepped forward to tower over her where she sat on the armchair.

Adele caught the intoxicating scent of cold smoke and rich spices that only Rainere could smell of, and didn’t even have the good sense to be afraid. She felt a tug deep between her legs and the gentle ringing of the Chime-Voices in her head that reassured her that in spite of his size and anger, Adele was still very much in control of the Prince. She could drop him where he stood with just a single word of Command.

Adele squared her shoulders and looked up at Rainere. Her face was distractingly close to his hips. She enjoyed the warmth that swirled up from her pelvis, and pressed her knees together. “Yes, you are,” she smiled.

“Then tell me. Who is that blonde gentleman who held you so tenderly in his arms at my very gate this night?” asked Rainere, his voice tight and cold.

Adele blanked. Blonde gentleman?

“Who? Captain Lucky? Rainere, he’s the Captain of my Guard.” She laughed in relief at the misunderstanding. “He was only holding me because the wind was blowing me over outside the gate. You might not have seen how strong the blizzard was on your grounds, but out there the wind was terrible.”

Rainere narrowed his eyes at her amusement. “Is that his name? Lucky?” he asked darkly.

Adele smiled. Rainere had seen Lucky catch her in the wind and thought they were lovers. Was he really that jealous? Though Adele could see from the flashing rings in his eyes and the stony set of his mouth that Rainere took anyone touching her very seriously indeed. She needed to reassure him that she was his again. Obviously this separation of theirs had been just as hard on him as it had been on her. The thought of that made her very happy.

“Rainere, give me some credit, please! He is just a boy,” she smiled up at his serious expression. “You know I need more than that.”

Adele placed her hand on the back of his knee and gave a playful tug. Rainere flinched at the touch, but didn’t move, his expression still hard. “Then he held you again on my steps and made you laugh. I saw you both there. Was that nothing too?”

“Rainere, I would never do that to you, to us,” she said keeping her eyes on his. She could see the war between relief and hurt still swirling in their troubled green depths. She had never played the seductress or even tried to exert any kind of feminine charm on a man before, and she was entirely unsure it would work with Rainere now. But she
was
sure that he loved her and she could tell that he desperately wanted to be convinced of her faithfulness. In any case, of all the terrible things that Adele had done in the last two weeks in the nation of Sandar, being disloyal to Rainere was not one of them.

She leaned forward to close the gap between them, her face a mere inch from his belt, and looked up at him.

“Rainere, I missed you so much,” she begged him. “Please don’t do this to me.” She ran her hand up the back of his thigh and let it slide up under his shirt, touching the cool skin at his waist, her fingers tracing the tattoo that was engraved there.

Rainere caught his breath sharply and pressed into her hand. His eyes closed in a moment of pleasure before he jerked away.

“So, he is nothing to you, this Captain Lucky?” he asked softly.

“He is just one of my Queen’s Guard,” she reassured him, placing her other hand in his, and squeezed his fingers.

“Adelena, c
ara mia
,” he whispered, and just like that he was hers again. Rainere ran a tender hand along her cheek and caught her chin in a gentle pinch. “Forgive me, my love.”

The relief that flowed through Adele was so heady it made her head spin. She felt giddy with happiness and decided to enjoy herself now that the drama portion of the evening seemed to have passed.

“You are so cruel, Rainere,” she tried to pout over her grin. “I’ve had to suffer two weeks without you,
two weeks
without so much as a word from you since our last night together at the Golden Palace. I’ve been here for hours in your palace and you haven’t even kissed me once. Then I have to listen to your accusations…it’s just too much!” Adele paused for dramatic effect and threw herself back in her armchair determined not to look at her Prince, but her smile betrayed her.

Rainere threw his head back and laughed. The deep wicked sound of it made Adele blush all over again. She pulled herself up to stand in front of him, pressing close. He was tall, much taller than her, and the top of her head barely brushed his chin. He smiled down at her and it was like sunshine on her shadowed heart.

“As your Queen, I order you to kiss me, Prince Rainere of Marchant,” she requested, and slid her arms around his waist. “Also I want you to take your shirt off.” She bit back her giggle when Rainere raised one perfect eyebrow at her.

“You order me, Your Majesty?”

“And the pants,” she insisted and tried to match his look with her own.

Suddenly, Adele found herself caught up in a puff of green sparkles and flew through the air only to land softly in the middle of the enormous bed, yards from where she had been standing. Belatedly, she shrieked in protest and hit Rainere on the shoulder when he landed next to her.

“You
order
me, Your Majesty?” His tone was imperious, but his gaze was soft with longing. He caught up her hands as they batted at him with just one of his own and pinned them over her head. “You have no authority here my little St. Lucidis Queen, my darling
cara mia.
We are in the Grey Palace now, which is Marchant territory, and I am the only sovereign ruler here.” He bent down and lay a lingering kiss on her neck.