The Lord Son's Travels (55 page)

Chapter 53

Elenna
couldn’t remain in her bed a minute longer.
 
She had tossed and turned for the last hour, as the light
from the moon disappeared from the tiny window of her room in the castle.
 
Nothing and everything flooded her
mind, chasing away any possibility for peaceful rest.
 
The expected start of battle and Adrien’s departure was now
only forty eight hours away; she switched back and forth on her opinion of
which was worse.
 
Today would be
spent just as every other day in the past week in yet more planning sessions
and more time with the smiths trying to produce guns for as many soldiers as
possible.
 

Finally
she gave up on sleep, throwing back her covers and climbing down from the high
bed.
 
Adrien had never come to join
her that night.
 
She assumed he was
still at his evening meeting with the other royals.
 
She grabbed a clean dress from the wardrobe and pulled it
over her head, and pulled her hair into a quick untidy bun.
 
She strode down the guest hall to the
main corridor, bypassing the rooms where her companions were still sleeping the
best they could in these trying days. She borrowed a lantern to maneuver down
the poorly-lit main staircase, hoping to find someone in the kitchens who could
scare up a decent cup of something hot and maybe caffeinated before the rush of
breakfast.
 
She overheard familiar
voices as she passed a dining room and peeked in to find Adrien and Tarien
sharing a vigorous laugh.
 
She
paused in the doorway, enjoying the unusual sight.

Tarien
noted their visitor and greeted her with a smile.
 
“Here is the Lady in question!
 
Come in and join us!”
 
Adrien offered a cup of freshly steamed cafu brew.
 
She accepted very gratefully and asked
what had given them so much amusement so early in the morning.

“You,
my Lady,” Tarien replied cheerfully.
 
“I hear with great pleasure that you have accepted my wayward pupil as
your own.”
 
Adrien had left his
meeting only an hour before, planning to take a walk to clear his head before
going to bed.
 
He had found Tarien
in his wanderings, and told him of his marriage decision and its results.
 
“A royal will be by steel made,” he
quoted the old legendary prediction with glee.
 
“Help will come from the Lady’s hands.
 
Adrien, I feel sure that you are the
one to meet the demands of Evenral.”
 
He rose to his feet.
 
“Now I
must go to work.
 
I will see you
again at the morning meal.”
 
He
grabbed his cane and shuffled away, refusing Adrien’s offer of help.
 
Elenna shook her head and laughed with
bemusement once the Counselor had left the room.

“I
like him,” she announced.
 
Adrien
returned to his seat, smiling as well.

“He
wishes to resign his seat on the Council when all is done and we return
home.
 
I think Brendan would be a
proper choice for the next Counselor of the Foreign.”

Elenna
agreed.
 
She picked up her cup to
take with her on her journey out to the smithery.
 
She paused when she realized he hadn’t moved from his seat.
 
Suddenly he inquired, “When would you
wish to hold the marriage ceremony?”

She
stopped in surprise.
 
“I thought we
would be married afterwards.
 
In
Allè-dôn.”
 
Then she continued in
suspicion, “Adrien, when do you want to have the ceremony?”

He
raised his eyes with a plaintive expression.
 
“Tomorrow?” he offered.

Her
eyes flew open in surprise, shaking her head at his earnestness.
 
“My mother will insist on a large
formal ceremony in Allé-dôn when we are crowned,” he continued eagerly, “But we
need not wait for that if you would agree.
 
Brendan or Tarien can perform the ritual, and we need not
tell anyone else until after the battles are over.”

“Here?”
she motioned to all of Rose Court.

He
shrugged.
 
“Why not?
 
I have no impediments to marriage
anymore.
 
It… it would give me
peace of mind as I go forth on my journey.”

“I’ll
do it on one condition,” she said.
 
“I go with you.”

“Elenna!
 
We agreed!” he chastised.
 

“Well,
things have changed,” she argued.
 
“The verse you and Tarien talked about, doesn’t it say a Lady will help
you?
 
If that is me, shouldn’t I
stay with you for the whole journey?
 
I've done everything I can do here with the weapons, but maybe I can be
helpful for you with my knowledge.
 
And how am I going to be any safer here if we lose?”
 
He frowned and stammered, but he
couldn’t find fault with any of her string of reasons.
 
So finally he broke down and agreed to
the bargain.
 
She kissed him in
triumph and left to make arrangements for her departure, leaving him to arrange
for the wedding plans with the other Allè-dônians.
 

It
really wasn’t much of a loss for him, he had to admit to himself.
 
Her arguments were reasonable, and he
had been dreading the separation more than he cared to admit to himself.
 
The more he thought about it, the more
it made sense, really.
 
For the
first time two
Allè-dôn
ians
would be traveling together on the quest for Evenral.

Elenna
had become quite satisfied with the work of the blacksmiths and assured them
they did not need her presence any longer.
 
Wedding or no, two day’s hence she would be traveling the
roughest roads of her strange journey, and she needed to be prepared.
 
She decided to take a few hours to
review the maps Adrien had taken from Evendor.
 
She found them neatly packed in their sitting room in the
guest wing, and curled up in the most comfortable chair with the aging parchments.
 
She followed with her finger the path
he had drawn in with light pencil.
 
There were places Adrien had not talked to her about that gave her good
reason to shudder, but she stayed resolute in her plans to accompany her future
husband.

Adrien
kept smiling at inappropriate times during his morning meetings.
 
The others noted this new quirk but
ignored it, attributing his unusual behavior to stress.
 
He called for an early noonmeal break,
and slipped away before anyone could capture him into a new discussion.
 
He searched the castle grounds for the
other Allè-dônians.
 
Brendan was
walking the soldiers' campground with Tomas, bantering the plans for attack
back and forth, hoping one or the other would find the flaws within their
schemes.
 
Adrien pulled him away to
lead him to the main house and their chambers to share his latest scheme.
Brendan folded his arms tightly across his chest and regarded his closest
friend with exasperation.

“Your
mother’s heart will break if she cannot even plan the ceremony.
 
Why the hurry?”

“My
mother need not know we are already wed.
 
When we return she can plan the largest gala in years with my happy
consent.”
 
Adrien poured both cups
of drink and handed one to Brendan.
 
“I wish the union done before our next travels begin.”

Brendan
studied Adrien over the rim of his cup.
 
“You are going to the West now,” he stated slowly as the idea occurred.

“I
leave the morn after next,” Adrien confirmed.
 
“Elenna comes with me.”

Brendan
dropped his cup to his lap, unmindful of the splashes of wine on his leg.
 
“Lord Son!
 
Why would she go with you?”

Adrien
paused.
 
“I don’t want her in this
battle.”

“Not
in this battle?
 
I agree, but what
you may find on your road could be much worse than this fight.”

Adrien
shook his head.
 
“If she is with
me,” he paused for the right words, “then I know where she is and what she is
doing.
 
I can protect if I can see
her.
 
If she stays here… you know
Elenna, no one could keep her from the battle.
 
And the prediction…”
 
He paused.
 
Brendan pursed
his lips before he could say anything hasty.

Adrien
rose from his seat.
 
“She has
become a highly competent fighter, especially since she received Midiral.
 
I believe her strange knowledge will be
helpful as well.
 
I want you to
take leadership of the battle here when I have gone.”

Brendan
had thought this was would be his likely next request.
 
He nodded in acquiesce.
 
“We’ll win this battle.”

“I
doubt it not,” Adrien assured him.
 
“And we will win ours.”
 
He
smiled at Brendan.
 
“Strange roads
we’ve traveled, my friend.”

“Strange
indeed,” Brendan saluted him with a raised glass.
 
“I have hope they’ll come to a fine end.”

The
afternoon conference brought pleasant surprises for the gathered leaders.
 
Adrien had sent out word to all of the
factions of the alliance that critical information would be disclosed, so
despite the short notice all of the Allè-dônians, the leaderships of the other
nations involved had assembled quickly in the main hall of the building.
 
Brendan announced to the group that
their meeting would need to move from the building to a location outside.
 
The gathered royals grumbled at the
thought of the troubles of the transition, but curiosity overcame their
reluctance.
 
Adrien had taken a
position in the back of the group, ready to let Brendan take control of the
proceedings.

As
the group rose to their feet to follow their new leader, Elenna slipped to
Adrien’s side and waited patiently for his news.
 
He waited until the room was clear, and in the time-honored
Allé-dônian fashion, took her open hand and kissed her palm.
 
She laughed, and nodded her head.
 

“Yes!”
she answered, laughing to cover the sudden blush his actions had brought
on.
 
He smiled and clasped her
hands tightly in his, charmed by her unusual fluster of emotion.
 

“That
is our way,” he said as he brought one hand up to his lips for another soft
kiss.
 
“What is the tradition in
your land?”
 
She described an
old-fashioned proposal.
 
His
forehead furled at the strange tradition, but gamely played along.

“I
have no finger ring here,” he said, looking around for a potential
substitute.
 
“I shall have one by
tomorrow evening.
 
But…” he knelt
before her in the classic position and asked his question again.
 
She gave the same answer with a shiver
in her voice, slightly overcome by the sight.
 
“We must keep the marriage secret,” he advised her
again.
 
She motioned for him to
stand, hoping that their short absence from the crowd had not been noticed.
 
They followed the crowd at some
distance as Brendan led the way out of Rose Court.
 
Adrien continued quietly discussing plans for a small
ceremony the next day at sunset, the traditional time for Allé-dônian weddings.
 
Any Allé-dônian could perform a
legal marriage rite; a royal marriage required two nobleborns as witnesses.
 
Elenna agreed to his ideas, adding a
few of her own traditions to which he readily consented.
 
They followed behind the rest of their
comrades, who had exited the building in confusion to find horses saddled and
waiting in the courtyard.
 

“What
is going on?” Elenna returned to business and inquired about their unforeseen
ride.
 
It appeared they were
exiting the city, heading for the uninhabited forest beyond.

“The
elves are camped in the woods,” Adrien explained.
 
“Tis time for the others to see the true force we bring to
the battle.”
 
The group rode single
file through the thick forests.
 
Soon even the tallest towers of Trees Man were lost out of view past the
tips of the pines. The woods were eerily silent; even Adrien began to doubt
that any type of large contingent could be hidden nearby.
 
Finally Brendan paused, and with a
raise of his hand motioned his followers to stop.