To Stand Beside Her (9 page)

If I just keep my eyes shut, maybe they will go away,
Leila tried to not to
move
.
The swish of the curtain told her the person was near.
Leila
felt the person sit down on the edge of the bed.
Leila waited but the person did not leave.
She slowly opened her eyes to
unexpectedly
find Nalick
, not a servant of his,
sitting on the end of the bed.

“Did I wake you?”
Nalick
asked softly, the tone of his voice and the look in his eyes was not the man she stood before two days earlier.
Leila did not answer
,
mesmerized by his deep brown eyes and kind smile
.
He was much more handsome when he wasn’t angry at her.

“I brought you this
,
”
Nalick
said as he
held out a small jar as a peace offering.
“It will help the swelling go down from last night.”

Nalick cautiously moved closer
.
Leila did not move but curiously watched him as he
shifted
closer and
tenderly
unwrapped the cloth from around her hand.
He opened the jar and
gently
rubbed the cream over the black lines that crisscrossed her hand and arm.
Immediately
,
the burning feeling was gone.
While he was busy concentrating on her hand,
Leila took the moment to
study
him.
The young king
was physically much larger
than any of the other
older
kings she had met over the years
.
The tales
Leila
had heard of him leading his army into war were most likely not
just
tales.
Today
,
though
,
Nalick
appeared
more real, not like the authority figure she met on her first night in the palace.
His hair that had been pulled back from his face
before
fell loosely almost to his shoulders.
His concern for her was drawn all over his face.
He turned her arm over
softly
and began
m
a
ssaging
the cream on the inside lines also.
He was gentle with his
calloused,
warrior hands.

“If you put this on a couple more times, the swelling and pain will be gone
for good
,”
Nalick
explained
finally looking up at her
.
Leila dropped her eyes to her hand also.

“Would you like me to also put it on your shoulder?”
he asked.

“Yes,” she responded mov
ing
her hair.
Nalick began rubbing the cream over the mark on her back.
Leila involuntarily shivered as tingles went down her toes
.
A man so fierce could be so gentle.

“Excuse me,”
a woman’s voice
said
from behind the bed
.

Startled, Leila quickly turned around to see an old woman dressed in a dark purple dress with a
crisp,
white shirt underneath.
Curiously Leila looked around the room.
She had not heard anyone enter from the heavy front doors that led into the room.
Nalick offered Leila his hand to help her out of the bed.
Once
Leila
stood
,
she realized the old lady was giving Nalick a stern gaze
;
Leila had to keep herself from laughing.
A
tiny woman would be giving a man almost three times her size a strict look
was amusing
.

“Leila, this is Mauve,” Nalick introduced the lady.
“She is responsible for taking care of you.”
Mauve still glared at Nalick
but gave a quick curtsy to Leila
.

“Nothing was happening,”
Nalick
explained to Mauve.
“I was just putting cream on her arm and back to
ease
the pain.”
Mauve still didn’t look like she believed him.
“Really I was not trying to do anything but help her.”

“It is improper for you to see your
future
bride
before we have had time to dress her for the day,” Mauve moved over and began pushing Nalick out of the room.
“Now that you have
woken
her, we will get her ready for the day.” Nalick was pushed out the door.

“Sorry
,
dear,”
Mauve
said to Leila.
“I knew you had a rough night
,
and I was trying to let you get your rest.
He snuck in when I had just left the room for a moment.
He was raised to have manners and trust me dear he does, but sometimes I just need to remind him.”
Leila like
d
this woman.

“There is breakfast on the table,”
Mauve
said pointing to the table filled with every breakfast food Leila had ever seen.
“I didn’t know what you ate for breakfast, so I had them make a little of everything.”

After
she
ate, servants ba
the
d
Leila and returned her to
Mauve
for inspection
.
Leila had never been cleaner, so Mauve would have no complaints.

“Theo and Macarius should be here so
on to escort you to the priests,” Mauve said as Leila passed inspection.
“
I’m so glad you decided to stay dear.
You look absolutely beautiful.
It is nice to finally have a woman back in Nalick’s life
.
”
Mauve and the servants left the room.

Leila walked out onto the balcony
to wait
.
She could feel the hot breeze blow her way even though she was standing in the shadows.
Why would anyone purposely build a
city in the middle of a hot de
sert?
s
he questioned.
Leila grew up in a valley in between two of the largest mountains in the range.
The days were typically warm
,
but there was always cool breeze.
A
hot breeze
was not much of a breeze at all
.
Can I really get use to this?
s
he wondered s
itting
down on the balcony rail.
Leila gazed over the rail and could see the city below.
People and carts moved around on the streets below.
Free
.
S
he had lost her freedom to run
regardless of the
open windows and balcony
.

“My lady,” Theo approached from inside the room. “Nalick is meeting with the priests right now. He requested that we kindly ask you to join him,” Theo said with a smile as he offered her his hand.

“Does he still think I am going to run?” Leila asked
her two armed escorts
as they led her out of the room
.

“Are you?” asked Macarius.
While Theo seemed to have a kind disposition towards Leila, Macarius seemed more cautious
of
accepting her.

“I don’t know,” Leila told the truth, but Macarius did not seem to appreciate it.

Leila
walked the rest of the way in silence.
Nalick
beamed as she approached.
She was more beautiful tha
n
he could imagine.
Dressed in a long green dress that complimented her red hair, Leila looked the part of the queen.
Mauve, as always, had done an excellent job.

“Didn’t know I cleaned up so well?” she joked.
He doesn’t clean up too bad
ly
either
, she thought.

A priest stood in the doorway and coughed to get her attention. Nalick gave her one last look before she faded from his view into the private chambers of the priests.

The meeting was brief as Leila was grilled by the priest elders.
They asked questions about everything from her parents and background to her time and date of birth. Each priest had their own objective, but Leila could not figure out what they wanted to know.

After the priests left the room, Leila turned to Nalick.
All the questioning of the priests made her think of her own questions for Nalick.
“I still don’t understand
. You know very little about me
and yet
,
want to marry
me
.
I
sn’t
every women of marry age waiting for you
?
You must have over a hundred noble women to choose from.
Why do you want me?”

“I was
five or
six
when you were born.
”
Nalick
stood up and walked over to one of the windows.
“You were seen as a prize
.
” Leila joined him by the window.
Nalick chuckled to himself
,
“I guess you still are by
most
of those kings.”

Nalick seemed to be caught in how to say the next part.
“
Lior
has had its problems over the years.
The nobles and their factions
often feud
ed
between each other.
The poor fight with the noble
s
and the nobles fight amongst themselves.
Twice
while I have been king
neighboring countries have taken advantage of the turmoil within
Lior
, to attack us.
I was eighteen when I led my first army to
defend
our country.
Before I even became king, t
he older priest you met just now told my father how he could stop all this
internal
fighting.”
Leila waited for the answer she guessed was coming.

“It was you.”
Nalick took Leila’s hand and walked her back near the bench.
“My father sent scouts each spring up to the
N
orth
C
ountry
to find you.
It was years before the scouts came back with news about you.
But it was too late.
Roger of Whitmore Valley
already found you
.”

Leila sat
back
down on the bench
with Nalick close beside her
.
Roger was the man that took her in and trained her to be a courier.
He was the manager of the courier station at
Whitmore
Valley
.
It began to make sense to Leila now.
She had always wondered why Roger allowed her to start training at the age of twelve when everyone had to wait until they were fourteen.

“I was king by the time the scouts actually found you
again
.
B
y the time we finally figured out which courier was you, kidnapping you would not work.
Why do you think the first thing Roger probably taught you was how to escape?”
Leila could remember the harsh
years of training
to escape any situation.

“Since no one
w
ould be able to touch you while under his protection, we waited for you to start assignments.
T
hat would not work either.
You were always accompanied by Erich who was just as good at protecting you as Roger was himself.
” Nalick wanted to reach over and touch her just to hold her hand, but she was far to
o
scared of hi
m
still.
“W
hen Erich died
,
Roger could not protect you
anymore. Y
ou began taking the hardest missions.
So we made a deal with Roger
. I
f he promised to send you on any assignment that would take you to Lexia, then we would make sure you could get out of any trouble you got into
elsewhere
.”
Nalick waited for her to respond.