To Stand Beside Her (12 page)

“Sitting outside the palace walls trying to get back in,” Nalick replied. Theo’s father laughed pulling up a chair beside Leila.

“Any good stories about these boys?” she asked trying to get dirt on Nalick.

“
Many. Let’s start with when we first met the future king.
He was only about eight
-
years
-
old when Theo
met
him at the market
,
”
Theo’s father started telling stories
over lunch
.
“I guess Nalick had been mad at his father and told him he was going to run away.
So he packed a bag and left.”
Nalick shook his head in agreement, but Leila could also see a bit of embarrassment.
“Once he got to the market he didn’t know what to do.
The poor child had never been outside the palace before without an escort to show him home.
Little did he know
, he did have an escort.
Macarius there had seen Nalick leave and followed after him.
Between the two of them
,
they didn’t know how to find their way home and each was too afraid to tell anyone who Nalick really was.”

“That’s how I found them,” Theo explained interrupting
him
.
“They were standing in front of tent arguing.”
Theo took a large bite of his stew.

“We were hungry
,
” Macarius defend
ed
arguing with Nalick.

“Yeah, they were hungry and had no money
,
” Theo corrected
patting Macarius on the back
.

“Well, I really didn’t plan that far ahead,” Nalick inserted into the story.

“I thought we should just tell a food shop owner who Nalick was and then they would feed us, but Nalick didn’t want to tell anyone because he said they would make us go home,” Macarius laughed.
“The thing was
I wasn’t running away.
Nalick was the only cousin I had that way nice to me, so when he left I kind a just followed.
I didn’t want to run away.”

“Either way,” Theo’s father continued. “Theo brought home you two with him that he said were hungry. I knew right away who Nalick was, so I sent word to the palace he was at my inn and safe. I didn’t tell the boys though.” Both Nalick and Macarius shook their heads no. “I offered them a room in exchange for helping with chores. After less than twenty-four hours of doing chores, they decided they didn’t exactly like life outside the palace,” he patted Nalick on the back which caused the king to crack a smile, “so they came to me to tell me who they were and that they wanted to go home. I pretended to be surprised and took them home myself. After that, though, every time the palace life made Nalick upset, he would be on our doorstep asking to stay in return for doing chores.”

Nalick smiled, “And every time I would realize I had to go home and face whatever problem I was running away from.
I wished I could just stay here and pretend I didn’t have another life.
Here we could be kids and run around the inn and to the market on market days.”

“Oh
,
they use to terrorize the market,” Theo’s mom said
with a smile
.
“They had some game that would always end with the biggest meanest tent owner dragging the three boys here and scolding me to keep better track of them.”

Macarius laughed, “Oh you mean tent dodging.”
All three
men
laughed.
Leila watched Nalick. He was carefree and laughing, something she never expected to see. He was actually starting to seem like a normal man.

“We would make up routes to run through the market between the tents and see who could run it the fa
stest,” Theo explained to Leila,
“Macarius always won because he was the shortest
;
Nalick and I would get caught easier.”

“Hey, I won because I was the fastest,” Macarius sulked.

“I
t is so nice to have you boys all here,” Theo’s mother changed the subject.

“You should be thanking Leila,” Nalick said winking at Leila.
He had already finished his food and was intently watching her.

“Well
,
dear, hopefully you can bring him around more often.
We do miss seeing them all
together
.” Theo’s mother stood to pick up the dirty dishes off the table.
Leila offered to help, but Theo’s
mother
would not let her.

Leila found the place all three men actually called home.
Reluctantly
,
all four needed to return to the palace. After hugs and good-byes, they were on their way.

“I remember reading you were quite young when you became king,” Leila tried to start a conversation with Nalick.

“I was
fourteen
; the lowest legal age the council would let me take the throne at.
From the very few civil conversations we had when I was growing up,
my father
told me everything here reminded him of my mom and he needed to get away from it
. He was counting the days to my fourteenth birthday and I was counting the days until he would finally leave me
,
”
Nalick
explained
.

“Isn’t
fourteen
a little young to be ruling a country?”

“I was eighteen when I first led an army into battle.
Yes,
four
teen is too young, but I didn’t have much of a choice.
”
Nalick smiled.
Leila was actually talking to him and asking questions.
Through their conversation, they had reached the palace gates.
Nalick walked Leila to the stairway to the royal quarters.

“I will have to leave you here.
I need to finish preparations for tomorrow.
We will be heading to Dria early tomorrow morning.
My father has sent word asking to meet you
,
and it is customary to get his approval before we wed.
Not that it matters to me
.”
Leila nodded and began walking up the stairs behind Theo and Macarius.
She turned around and watched Nalick walk back the way they had come.

Maybe this won’t be so bad after all
, she thought.

Chapter
7

The next morning before the sun had risen, Nalick silently crept into Leila’s room. On the bed in the middle of the room, Leila was sound asleep and Nalick did not wish to wake her. Gently he scooped her up in his arms. She stirred a little and faintly opened her eyes, smiled at him, and then went back to sleep. Once on board, he laid her in the bed in the captain’s quarters and covered her with a light blanket. Gently he moved the locks of hair covering her face. She was completely defenseless and looked younger than he had ever seen her.

It was early morning, after the sun had already rose, when Leila woke. She rubbed her eyes and looked around the room. Vaguely, Leila remembered being picked up by Nalick. Through the rose colored tint of light streaming through the window Leila could see in the corner sat Nalick quietly watching her. She was lying in a large, swaying bed in a room lavishly decorated. From the slight rocking of the room from side to side she could tell she was on a boat. It was the most well-furnished boat she had ever been on.

“I didn’t want to wake you,”
Nalick
explained.

“How late is it?”
Leila
asked rubbing her eyes again.

“About mid-morning,” he replied. “We are about half way to Dria. Would you like some breakfast?” he asked; she nodded while yawning. Nalick left the room and within five minutes two women from the palace were entering with trays of food.

Leila quickly ate and then moved to the right side window of the cabin. Outside she could see the shoreline of a city they were passing by. On the piers stood a large crowd of people cheering. Leila moved to the back window. Behind their boat were three more boats serving as escorts. Leila had traveled much with her job but most of the time she traveled with the lowest classes of people on horseback or by herself. It was much easier to fit in and go unnoticed if you traveled in a group of peasants, but it was not the most comfortable way to travel.

So this is what it is like to travel as royalty
, she thought.

Leila looked at the large container of water
sitting in the corner
that the servants had filled when they brought the food
.
It was just big enough to sit in
. Leila
had expected it to be cold, yet it was quite warm.

What a change,
she thought about her life. Leila wondered if she would ever get used to the luxury of being part of a royal family.

After she was clean, she dried off and wrapped a robe around herself climbing back on the bed and lying down on the mountain of lush pillows. It was the first time in days that Leila had a moment to herself to reflect on everything.
Am I making the right decision? Nothing will be easy, but am I ready to stay in one place?

As the maids
began to dress her
,
Leila
could not believe the ornate decorations on the dress and the amount of bare skin the dress
displayed
.
T
he dress exposed her shoulders
and arm
so that
all
could clearly see the
markings
.
Leila shivered and blushed at the same time from being so exposed. One dress could feed a family in the
North Country
for a month.

Leila stepped out
of
the
cabin door
into the sunlight.
It warmed her exposed skin.
She could feel the
wind blow and was happy to finally feel a cool breeze.
Across the deck at the front of the boat
Leila
could see Nalick leaning against the rail looking forward.
She walked down the five stairs to the main deck and crossed over to where Nalick was.
As
Leila
passed the crew, each man stopped and bowed to her.
Leila walked over near Nalick and leaned backwards against the rail so that she could see his face.

“You know, this bowing stuff really needs to stop,”
Leila
complained while smiling.
“The people around her spend so much time bowing; you know
,
I bet if you add it all up it would amount to months of bowing that could be used more productively.”

Nalick smiled at her, “You are so practical. Next time there is a council meeting I shall bring that up.” He moved closer to her and she did not move away. He was finally beginning to build her trust. Leaning down he whispered in her ear, “You look beautiful.”

Shivering at the warm breath on her ear, Leila winked at him. “Well, I figured, since I am meeting your father and all, I could at least behave for one day. Maybe.”

Leila turned and looked over the horizon at the front of the ship to distract her from him. She could see a city up ahead. “Is that Dria?” she asked. Leila had never approached Dria from the river before. The boat swayed slightly and Nalick put his arm around her to grab the rail and steady both.

“Yes,” Nalick returned his gaze to the water
but did not remove his arm
.

“How long has it been?”
s
he asked
,
aware of his arm
being
so close
.

“I have not seen him in five years.
He refuses to travel to Lexia
,
and for the most part
,
I refuse to travel to him.”
Nalick was anxious about the trip.
Leila
reached over and
touched
his hand.
Nalick’s heart raced.
It was the first affectionate gesture she had shown him.