Captives of the Curse, page 52
part #3 of The Kyona Chronicles Series
“A little push?” repeated Cal faintly, and Jo could see him tighten his hold convulsively on Elnora’s hands.
She just flashed him a grin. “If I could learn to pick a lock at age eleven, and scale a three story building without making a sound, surely I can pick up all this court stuff with a little bit of application.”
“Of course you can,” said Cal, his whole face alight with his love and admiration. “I think that little showdown demonstrated that you’re already well on the way.” He put a hand gently on her cheek. Jo felt like he could read Cal’s mind, sure that his friend wanted desperately to take Elnora in his arms and kiss her then and there, but was restrained by the interested crowd. Even so, the look passing between them was so intimate that Jo coughed, looking away to share an amused look with Scarlett.
The sound seemed to draw Elnora’s attention to them, and she smiled warmly at Scarlett. “I have you to thank for helping me figure out how stupid I was being, by the way.”
“Me?” asked Scarlett, startled. “I don’t think I did anything useful!”
“No, nothing much. Just little things, like taking out about half of Yaeger’s men, rescuing Jo, and coming back for me when Yaeger had a sword to my throat,” said Elnora dryly, and Jo squeezed Scarlett’s hand. “But that’s not what I meant,” Elnora continued. “I was struck by what you told me, back at my suite, about your parents. How your mother was a wonderful person and a much better wife than your father deserved, but how he thought she had nothing to contribute because of her common birth. Well, when I saw what he tried to do back there, and realized what kind of person that attitude had turned him into…I realized that was the last type of thinking I should give any weight to.”
“I’m glad,” said Scarlett, but Jo thought her smile seemed strained, and as soon as Elnora’s attention was back on Cal he addressed Scarlett quietly.
“What is it, Scarlett? Is it your injury?” He looked anxiously at the gash on her chest. It wasn’t bleeding anymore, but it was still alarming to see the blood staining her clothes. “We need to get you looked at.”
She sighed, looking down at their joined hands. “No, it’s not that. It’s…I just wish I’d been as successful in facing down my demons,” she said. “After everything, I still couldn’t stand up to my father.”
“What are you talking about?” Jo demanded. “Of course you stood up to him! He had a sword to your throat, and you still refused to give him the rock.”
“Yes, but I wasn’t brave like you were. Nothing had changed—I was still afraid of him. Years as a supposedly fearless rebel leader, and I’ve always been afraid of him. He had a hold on me that no one else did.”
“He was your father, Scarlett,” said Jonan gently. “Of course he had a hold on you. And how can you possibly say you weren’t brave? Being brave doesn’t mean you can’t be afraid. I don’t think you can even really be considered brave if you’re not scared. I mean it,” he insisted as she made a disbelieving noise. “The fact that you stood up to him even though you were afraid is what makes you brave. Plus, you’re wrong if you think I wasn’t scared,” he added, smoothing her hair behind her ear. “I was terrified when I saw him with a blade to your throat.”
She looked up at him, her expression still sad. “I was certain he was going to kill me,” she said. “But I didn’t fight him. I had no trouble fighting back against any of the others, but with him, I still froze up.”
“You don’t have to be invulnerable, Scarlett,” said Jonan gently. “No one can be. We all have weaknesses. The last thing I want is for you to be some kind of indestructible unreachable rock. You have a softness about you, a gentleness that I loved from the start. Don’t let it make you doubt your unbelievable strength. The two things are not enemies.”
She said nothing, but the look on her upturned face spoke volumes, her eyes shining with the joy of being known so deeply.
“And if you’re berating yourself for not taking him down,” said Jonan, his voice still soft, “then stop. I would never wish it on you to carry the burden of killing your own father.”
“I didn’t wish it on you, either,” she whispered.
Jonan shook his head. “It’s not the same. I’ll admit that there have been times these last few months when I’ve been so angry with him that I wanted to kill him in cold blood, and that would have been a mistake. But what happened today—that won’t keep me up at night. Not when the alternative was letting him kill you.”
He captured her gaze and held it, glorying in the sight of her, whole and mostly unharmed and breathtakingly beautiful. “That I couldn’t live with, because it would mean living without you, and I’m not brave enough to do that.” He let go of one of her hands to lay his palm against her cheek, his fingers tangling in her hair. “I love you, Scarlett,” he said, his voice clear. “I love every part of you.”
Her eyes seemed to glisten as she met his look, her own voice coming out soft but strong. “I loved you as soon as you stepped in front of that whip, Jonan, and I’ll love you as long as I live.”
Jo beamed back at her. He took just one moment to delight in the fact that he wasn’t king and Scarlett wasn’t going to be queen, and he didn’t have to care one jot for the opinion of all the interested onlookers. Then he forgot all about them as he pulled Scarlett close and kissed her, with all the passion of their first stolen embrace, and all the confidence of knowing that there was no longer anything to part them. Either now or in a future that seemed full of the promise of a different kind of adventure.
Epilogue
Jonan stood on the quay, watching eagerly as the ship was docked. He could see the other vessels in the armada approaching Alezae’s harbor. Scarlett’s grip on his hand was painfully tight, but he just smiled down at her barely contained excitement. It was hard to tell who was more impatient out of her and Elnora, who stood nearby with Cal. Cal was more restrained, clearly torn between entering into Elnora’s nervous excitement, and presenting the calm and authoritative face of a king receiving a large group of his subjects, freed from a long and undeserved exile.
It was hard to believe this day had finally come. There had been times in the weeks that had passed since the curse was broken when Jonan had wondered if it would ever happen. The surviving soldiers and other representatives of the Balenan delegation had been sent back to Nohl without delay, but the time required for them to carry their message to Balenol’s king, and for the first of the Kyonans to sail across the sea, still felt interminable.
At first Cal had been concerned that Lord Wrendal’s death might spark war in just the way the nobleman had planned for Scarlett’s death to do. But Scarlett seemed to think it was very unlikely. Her father’s plan had relied on his own role in exercising his considerable influence over King Siloam to act against Scarlett’s supposed killers, playing the part of a bereaved father. Plus, the Balenan soldiers had seen Elddreki in the forest, and the rest of the delegation had seen him when he descended on Kynton.
From all accounts the image of the dragon perched upon the turret of the castle’s highest tower, spewing flames from his ferocious mouth, would be hard to forget. The Balenans had clearly formed the impression that the young Kyonan king could call dragons to his aid at will. When the delegation, significantly reduced in both number and spirits, set sail for Balenol Jo was confident that its members would report to their king that to resist the demands of King Calinnae would be to court disaster.
Still, more than once since then, Jo had been gripped by the fear that King Siloam would be convinced by someone like Lord Grentan that he should refuse to release the captives after all. Scarlett, sending a long and persuasive letter to Prince Giles along with the ship, had told Jonan that he could count on her cousin’s influence. She had placed her faith in Prince Giles’s readiness to do what was right, now that it could at least be argued to align with the interests of the kingdom. And it seemed she had been right.
“You must be eager to be reunited with your friends,” said Leander, coming up alongside Scarlett now. “To be honest, I was surprised you didn’t want to return with the delegation yourself, to oversee the process.”
“I thought about it,” said Scarlett. “But I didn’t think it was safe for Jo to return to Nohl, not until things settle down, and he wouldn’t hear of me going without him.” She looked over at Jonan, her cheeks flushing delightfully. “He seemed to think it was wiser to wait until we’re married before I return there.”
Jo smiled at her, returning the pressure of her hand. That day couldn’t come fast enough as far as he was concerned. He turned to Leander with a dry grin. “What she means,” he said, “is that her family on her mother’s side would try to talk her out of throwing herself away on me, and her family on her father’s side would try to forcibly restrain her from returning to me.”
Scarlett laughed reluctantly. “Yes, he’s right,” she admitted. “Besides, I wasn’t in any hurry to leave. I like it here. The air is so clear. I don’t know if it was because I was always playing a part, but so much of the time I used to feel like I was suffocating. Here I can really breathe.” Jo let go of her hand to slide an arm around her waist and give her a quick squeeze. She leaned her head against his shoulder fleetingly, the confiding gesture characteristic of her.
“I’ll need to return to Balenol sometime of course,” Scarlett continued. “Just for a visit, and to tie up loose ends. And I would like to see my aunt and my cousins now that I don’t have to hide anything from them. But if Jo and I go together, already married, it will make things much simpler.”
“You are, in fact, learning from someone else’s experience,” said Leander with the hint of a smile, his gaze resting on the young king and his future queen standing nearby.
Jo flashed him a grin and didn’t try to deny it. He felt a bit sorry for Cal that his wedding still hadn’t happened, but it seemed that such a royal celebration took an unbelievable amount of planning. Cal had been ready to defy convention and insist on a hasty ceremony, but once Elnora had confessed that with the curse broken she would like to wait so that her sister could be present, Cal had swallowed his impatience.
And it seemed that everyone’s patience was about to be rewarded. The ship’s gangplank was lowered at last, and crew members began to bustle about as they prepared to disembark. Jonan ignored them, his eyes straining for any familiar figure. A moment later he saw a small form throw itself eagerly down the walkway, and he exchanged a brief grin with Scarlett. It was no surprise that Cody would be first to put himself forward. They started toward him, and his eyes, roaming the area excitedly, latched onto them.
“Scar! Jo!” he cried, launching himself at them. “You did it! You broke the curse! I knew you would—I told them all, they’ll do it, don’t worry. This is the liberator we’re talking about! And Scar is—well, it’s Scar! And when you broke the curse, everyone saw I was right. We could tell—they felt it right throughout the city, and even in the jungle! It was like a tidal wave, but without the water. Everyone was knocked flat!”
“Slow down, Cody,” said a long-suffering voice. “Give them a minute to breathe.”
“Bonnie!” Scarlett cried, embracing her friend eagerly. “You made it!”
“Yes, milady, we made it,” said Bonnie with a grin. “And thank goodness the voyage is over.” She sent a fond but exasperated glance in Cody’s direction. “I thought this one was stir crazy at the base tree, but being stuck on a ship with him for three weeks was even worse.”
“Oh stuff,” said Cody scornfully. “Being at sea was great fun!”
“Maybe for you,” said Bonnie darkly. She turned to Scarlett again. “But are you really all right, milady? Your father didn’t carry out any of his awful schemes?”
“I’m really all right,” said Scarlett warmly. “And you don’t need to call me milady anymore, Bonnie. There’s no audience to perform for now.”
“Audience or not, you’re still Lady Wrendal,” said Bonnie stubbornly.
“Not for much longer,” Scarlett smiled, once again blushing adorably as she glanced up at Jo.
“So that’s how it is, is it?” asked Bonnie, raising an eyebrow at Jo, even as she grinned. “You’d better look after her, or you’ll have the whole resistance after you.”
Jo grinned back. “That’s my plan,” he assured her.
“Yes, yes, never mind that,” said Cody impatiently, not interested in discussion of Jo and Scarlett’s betrothal. “Did you really run the Overseer through the heart, Jo?”
Jo hesitated, glancing down at Scarlett, but she didn’t seem upset. She just smiled faintly at the young rebel’s bloodthirsty enthusiasm.
“Yes, I did,” acknowledged Jo. He drew his brows together a bit as Cody crowed in delight. “But not because I didn’t like him, Cody. He was about to kill Scar, and I did it to stop him.”
Bonnie turned distressed eyes on Scarlett, but Cody ignored the qualification. “And was there really a dragon there? An actual dragon?”
Scarlett laughed. “Yes, there really was.”
“Did you see it, Scar?” asked Cody eagerly.
She nodded, her smile indulgent. “I didn’t just see him, Cody, I even got to talk with him.”
“Wow,” breathed Cody, his eyes round and his tone a bit wistful. Apparently being sold into slavery as a child, then escaping, joining a dangerous resistance, and living a guerrilla lifestyle full of daring feats and espionage wasn’t enough adventure to satisfy Cody. Not when there were dragons on offer.
“I can hardly believe we’re in Kyona,” said Bonnie, looking around. “It’s even more beautiful than I remembered.”
“It is beautiful, isn’t it?” said Scarlett softly. “I just wish Raldo could have been here for this moment. He never even got to see Kyona.”
Jo squeezed her hand as they all fell silent for a moment, remembering the bravery of their friend. He looked around at the disembarking Kyonans, frowning as he took in who was missing.
“Where’s Stan?” he asked. “Don’t tell me she wasn’t on this ship. Elnora would be so disappointed.”
“She’s here,” said Bonnie. “Just nervous. Probably hiding at the back.”
“Stan, nervous?” asked Jo, raising his eyebrows. “That’s hard to picture.”
Even as he said it, he caught sight of Stan. As Bonnie had predicted, she was lurking at the back of the group, looking anxious. A sudden cry told Jo that Elnora had also seen her sister. Letting go of Cal’s hand, she threw herself forward. At sight of this undignified approach, Stan’s eyes lit up and she hurried forward too. The sisters embraced, laughing and crying at the same time, their words tumbling over each other. Cal had been speaking quietly with the ship’s captain, but he hurried forward eagerly to be introduced. Jo thought that Stan looked wary, but not for nothing had Cal been working hard to develop his natural aptitude for diplomacy. Jo couldn’t hear their conversation, but even from a distance he could see that Cal’s open manner and kind words soon put Stan at ease.
In fact, from what Jo could observe, the arriving Kyonans all seemed to be quite taken with their handsome young king. Observing his friend critically, Jo saw with approval that Cal carried himself with confidence and grace, the calm sense and good humor that had characterized him when they were growing up somehow not lost under the dignity and authority conferred on him by kingship.
Jo was getting plenty of attention himself, lots of the new arrivals eager to swarm their beloved Scar and the liberator, and to thank them personally for breaking the curse. Jo saw Cal watching with some amusement as Jo was mobbed by a group of awestruck girls who had not until now met the liberator in the flesh. Jo grimaced slightly back at his friend, and Cal turned away with a grin.
“Did you see Giles before you left?” Scarlett was asking Bonnie. “I assume he got my letter?”
Bonnie nodded. “He got it. The royals were pretty upset that you weren’t with the delegation when it returned, but the prince calmed them all down a bit after he read your letter.”
Scarlett sighed. “I don’t envy them the task ahead.” Seeing Bonnie’s look, she hurried to add, “Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad King Siloam is releasing all the slaves. But they’re going to leave behind an incredible mess to clean up, and somehow I don’t think King Siloam will do much to bring things into order. My uncle, and probably my cousin too, will have all the work without the benefit of the actual crown.”
“I’m sure you’re right,” said Bonnie, although she didn’t look too troubled by the plight of the Balenans. She looked across at Cal, her expression shrewd. “It strikes me that there’s a pretty overwhelming job to do at this end, too. There are a lot of us coming, you know, and the reentry won’t be easy. It’s been generations for some. Is the new king really up to the challenge, do you think?”
“Oh yes,” said Scarlett confidently. “He’s more capable than you think.”
“Good,” said Bonnie with a smile. “Because I for one am glad to be home.”
“Me too,” said Jonan emphatically.
Scarlett smiled, her voice soft and her heart in her eyes as she looked up at him. “Me too.”
With the long-awaited arrival of the first ship behind them, the castle threw itself into preparations for the royal wedding with a fervor Jo found alarming. Scarlett was to be one of Elnora’s attendants, and Cal had even guilted Jo into agreeing to stand up beside him for the ceremony. Cal said it was the least Jo could do given that he intended to once again desert Cal and leave Kynton.
But Jo knew Cal was just using dirty tactics to get him to agree about the wedding. They had discussed plans for the future at length, and Cal was fully supportive of Jonan’s intended course. He had looked a bit sad, and Jo knew that Cal would miss Jo as much as he would miss his friend, but Cal had to acknowledge that Jo wouldn’t thrive in the court. Scarlett had the capacity to do so, of course, but she had assured Jo earnestly that she wanted nothing more than to be free of that lifestyle.
