When Calfax confirmed the news, Arianne could scarcely believe it.
She had worked herself into a state of vexation as she fought the desire to place more importance on the symptoms she felt. Then she began to accept without question that all were signs of some impending joy. She had moved through her daily life, feeling as if she were in a state of limbo, driving her poor husband to distraction because he could not fathom what was at the heart of her temperamental state. She longed to tell him all that was in her mind, but was held back by the thought of disappointing him.
That, and the possibility that he might become so terrified by the idea that he could take the first horse out of the kingdom and hide in Tamsyn’s remote tower in the forgotten corners of the Jagged Teeth.
What was it with men of courage and strength, who could ride forth and slay a thousand Berserker warriors without a flinch but went into complete and utter ruin when confronted with the possibility of becoming a father? Arianne suspected that not even the Gods could answer that question, and as a result chose not to torment her King with the possibility that he might have an heir before she herself knew for certain.
Besides, Dare had many other matters to occupy his mind.
As the High King of the newly unified Carleon, the former War Dragon was working hard to rebuild the kingdom in the wake of the destruction wrought by Balfure’s war. Any who thought that being King was about power and glory would be shocked to learn how arduous it was to be architect of a country’s restoration. Too many times Arianne had stepped into the Great Hall to see him working tirelessly in consultation with his ministers.
When he paused to catch his breath, Arianne could see the glimmer in his eyes that longed for simpler days, when he was simply Dare—the exiled Prince of Carleon.
Yet he was a good man, this one she loved beyond reason or thought. He would carry the burden because his people needed him and because he was the last of his house, at least until now. He alone had left Eden Halas and stepped out into the world, with the courage and the will to see Balfure driven from Avalyne for all time. And Arianne would be at his side forever, carrying that burden with him, to fill his life with the simple pleasures such as the news she was now about to impart.
Today there was no longer any doubt in mind after Calfax, the royal physician, had confirmed that had suspicions had been true—she was with child. She drifted, if it was possible for a flesh and blood being to drift, through the halls of the palace, with her hands on her belly in secret delight. What a sight she must have been to the palace staff—the Queen of Carleon sweeping about the place wearing the smile of a happy fool.
She knew they were probably grateful for her good mood since she had difficult been of late. Arianne resolved to make it up to those who had borne the brunt of her mood, especially Dare, who was a devoted and attentive husband. After all, being Queen did not excuse bad behaviour in any shape or form.
Her mother had taught her that.
Thinking of Queen Lylea made Arianne's smile widen, knowing how thrilled she would be at the news. Despite her sometimes aloof manner and her adherence to ensuring all forms were observed, Arianne knew her mother would like nothing better than to be a grandmother allowed to spoil her grandchildren shameless.
It was a grandmother’s, right after all.
*******
As always when he was with taking counsel with his counsellors and advisors, Dare was in the Great Hall when Arianne found him a short time after she had received her news. He spent a great deal of time in this room of late, attempting to portion out men and resources to the lands that were still being plagued by scattered remains of Balfure’s army. The Berserkers, without their master, were even more dangerous than before, as their rampage was now without purpose or direction. They were mindless beast, driven by instinct and need, which made their behaviour difficult to predict and even harder to defend.
She watched him a moment, circling the large wooden table covered with maps, engaged in serious discussion with Aeron and Ronen (his most trusted advisers), while she stood there being so very proud of him.
*******
Arianne remembered the day Dare first arrived at her mother’s court in Eden Taryn.
He was but twenty-five, having spent much of his life in the court of Eden Halas. Arianne had heard the gossip of a human child being adopted by Queen Syanne, and how this action had caused much disquiet between her and her King. Naturally, she was curious as to what reason this human could have to seek an audience with her mother—the elven High Queen in all of Avalyne. He had been taken through the Veil protecting their city by Syanne’s youngest child, Prince Aeron. Even so, Arianne was astonished that her mother allowed the incursion by a human into their lands, even if he was accompanied by an elf.
However, Lylea, who possessed the gift of the Sight, had claimed this audience was one of importance. It could change everything.
Arianne could not imagine how so when she first saw him. He looked like a ruffian, with threadbare clothes that were dusty from too much travel and the leather of his boots were scuffed and worn. Sporting a day’s growth on his face, his dark brown hair was unruly and hung about his shoulders like it had never seen a brush. However, she noticed, even as she sat at her mother’s right hand to receive him, that he was beautiful, despite the pains he took to conceal it. She wondered if he simply did not care enough to exploit it or whether this was a guise he wore to disarm people into believing he was nothing more than a vagabond.
Overall, it was not a good first impression.
At least not until he spoke in that soft spoken voice of his and revealed words that were remarkably eloquent, possessing a tone of humility and awe at being in their presence. Even without the gift of her mother’s Sight, Arianne was capable of recognising liars, and she knew every word he uttered was issued with sincerity and reverence. When he addressed them, he did not bandy about words of flattery and posture, he spoke from the heart and told them what he dreamed.
He dreamed to unite Carleon and drive Balfure from Avalyne forever.
He was the last son of House Icara and it was his duty to honour the kings that came before him by restoring Carleon to its people once more. Such dreams were nothing new from the race of men, Arianne had thought. They were always quick to anger and easily prodded into war, which was why the elves had little to do with them in the past and remained hidden behind the Veil. However, what he said next made everyone in the court sit up and pay attention.
Dare said defeating Balfure could not be done alone.
The folly of all the races had been the attempt to defeat them alone because prejudice and tradition prevented them from considering anything else. All the people of Avalyne needed to work together, not just men and elves but the dwarves too and any race that felt their liberty threatened by Balfure’s hunger for conquest. To her mother, he had asked how much longer were they prepared to put all their faith in the Veil protecting them from Balfure. He had breached Eden Ardhen once. What was to stop him from breaching the protection of Eden Taryn if he set his mind to it? And if he chose to come, were they certain that they could stop him?
These were disturbing questions and Arianne knew her mother had considered them at length. When Balfure swept through Eden Ardhen he used dark magic to penetrate the Veil and destroy their home of thousands of years. Her older brother, Adric, died during that battle to defend it, and both she and her mother mourned him still. Dare’s words had much effect upon Lylea’s still grieving heart and she too saw the wisdom in his words.
If we do not stand united, we will fall divided.
Arianne remembered how those words had resonated with her, even after the audience had finished. Lylea had dismissed him until she made her decision, and Dare had respected the lady’s need for deliberation, retreating to the woods where his and his circle were camped. However, as he departed Lylea’s throne room, he paused long enough to cast a shy gaze at Arianne. When their eyes touched, he pulled away embarrassed, as if he was caught spying upon something he had no business in seeing.
Intrigued, Arianne found him at the campsite later that day and when she spoke to him, he was barely able to meet her gaze. She found it utterly endearing that he, who had been so strong and determined before her mother, was now flustered and uncertain in her presence. However, when he did look at her, Arianne found herself staring into eyes so blue, it was like staring into a drop of sky distilled from the heavens. His gaze was penetrating and he spoke to her with the wonder of a man who could scarcely believe that he was in the company of such as her.
Arianne was a thousand years old, but no elf she had ever met in all that time had ever touched her heart the way he did when she finally got him to smile.
*******
She hated to interrupt him when he was in counsel with Ronen, the Bân of Carleon, and Aeron, representing the elves, because Dare wanted the relationship forged by the Alliance against Balfure endure beyond the war. Alliances had to be maintained, Dare had told her, or else each race would fall back into its old practices of isolation and they would be in the same vulnerable place that Balfure had found them in.
Arianne did not have to hear what was being discussed to know that the subject of greatest concern at this time was the rampage of the Berserkers across Northern Province. Dare had told her the night before that he would have to dispatch soldiers to clear out the infested lands so that the business of farming and industry could resume once more. They need to feed and they need to build to forge a new future and that could not be done if towns were being besieged by the remains of Balfure’s monstrous armies.
It was Aeron with his keen elven senses that first noticed her arrival. The others followed his gaze and stopped immediately what they were doing to face her. She stifled a laugh when she saw Dare’s pained expression, as he wondered what sin he had committed to warrant an unexpected visit to call him out. Poor Dare, she thought, and knew that she had many amends to make to her husband, who could not conceive of her unhappiness if there were something he could do to change it.
‘Your highness,’ Ronen, the second highest authority in the kingdom, greeted her. She always found that he was such a contrast to Dare with his dark blond hair worn loose, as that was the fashion for men in Carleon who wished to appear well-groomed, unlike Dare’s perpetually unruly locks.
‘Ronen,’ she answered with a slight bow of her head.
Ronen was given the title of Bân because he was the first captain of Sandrine to follow Dare when the exiled Prince returned to the city to rallying the forces needed to fight Balfure. By the time Dare had arrived, Ronen’s spirit was near exhausted from having to uphold Balfure’s occupation of his homeland. A soldier with a good heart, he was not much older than Dare and enforcing Balfure’s law was driving him to breaking point.
The arrival of the King had renewed him and given him a sense hope while Ronen reminded Dare of a childhood friend and a trusted member of his circle who died before the war against Balfure had begun. Ronen’s renewed sense of hope and Dare’s memory built a bond between them that was more than the service of a lord to his King, it was one of real friendship.
There was no need for such formality when she regarded Aeron. He was fair, like all her people were fair. Tall and lean, his brown almost black hair was worn loose, and always seemed wild and tousled even though it was braided in places to keep from being unruly. Only the tips of his elven ears were exposed through the dark strands. Aeron was handsome and always of interest to the opposite sex, though he had yet to bonded to anyone. Even though he had walked Avalyne for a thousand years, to men he had the appearance of a thirty year old.
‘My Queen,’ he said, his dark blue eyes dancing with mischief while a small smile crossed his lips.
Arianne rolled her eyes at the formal greeting, wondering how it was that Aeron, with whom she had spent many summers as a child during Lylea’s visits to Eden Halas, could still be as vexing as when were children. No matter how many times she reminded him that since she gave him his first kiss when they were both eight, had witnessed his first fall out of a tree, and that they had known each other for most of their lives, he need not call her by title when they were among friends, he continued to ignore her. Arianne was convinced he was doing it to be annoying like he was when they were children.
Dolt.
‘Arianne, is something wrong?’ Dare asked his wife gingerly, as she was easier to provoke these days than an ogre with a bad tooth.
‘Nothing my love,’ Arianne assured him, and disarmed his anxiety with a smile he’d know was meant just for him. ‘I would just like a moment alone with my King, if my lords do not mind?’ She glanced at the two men.
‘Of course,’ Ronen answered without hesitation, and he glanced at Dare for the King’s leave to depart.
’I will send for you when we are done,’ Dare replied, thinking absurdly that she wanted privacy so there would be no witnesses when she slaughtered him.
Both men and elf obeyed and left the room.
‘If this is about where I left my boots again, I swear that affairs of state occupied my mind and I forgot…’ Dare started to apologise before Arianne closed the distance between them and silenced him with a kiss.
Caught by surprise, he stared at her with puzzlement for a moment before the pleasure of it made him slide his arms around her waist and kiss her back with equal affection. She was the love of his life and being King would not mean as much if she were not at his side. Her love had given him the strength to take back his kingdom, save his people and be the man he was today. If he became a great king, it was because she had made him so.
‘I am confused,’ he finally admitted when they parted.
‘Of course you are,’ she said smiling, ‘I come here on an entirely new matter. However, now that you have made mention of it, is it so hard to put them away?’
‘You are teasing me,’ he retorted, a brow cocked over one eye in playful accusation.
‘Yes, I am,’ she confessed, smirking.
Dare pulled her to him and kissed her again, glad to see that she was in a better mood than she had been during the past few days. In truth, his desire for self-preservation was superseded by his love for her, and so he worried what could have bothered her so greatly that she was lashing out so uncharacteristically. Arianne’s nature was playful and spirited but she was never biting in her manner. Her behaviour of late had been a new experience for him.
Yet it took only a kiss for him to fall in love with her all over again.
Her effect on him was always the same. Since the very first moment he laid eyes upon her at Lylea’s court, Dare was lost. She was a vision of loveliness that almost made him forget everything he came to say during that first audience with Lylea. Unlike her mother, who was known for her gold hair, Arianne took after her father, possessing his dark brown hair that shimmered when she wore it long. It framed her oval face with its high cheek bones, full lips and eyes as blue as Dare imagined the deepest corner of the ocean would be. Her skin, like all elven ladies, was pale, but to his eyes it was almost luminescent. She did not seemed quite real, like something that had wandered out of a dream. Watching her that first time, his heart pounded in his chest like he was a boy.
To this day, Dare never understood why she loved him enough to give up immortality.
‘And what can the King do for his Queen today?’ he asked, considerably more at ease.
‘I came to apologize for how I have been these past few weeks,’ Arianne admitted first and foremost. ‘I know I have been difficult.’
That was an understatement, but he wisely chose to remain silent.
‘What troubled you, my love?’ he asked, grateful that at last she was talking to him about this. They always shared everything and not knowing the reason for her foul mood had provoked his worst fears about their relationship. ‘I was starting to fear that you might have regretted the choice to give up your immortality for me.’
Arianne stared at him with disbelief at the mere suggestion.
‘Fool,’ she snapped, and slapped him on the arm for still harbouring such foolish insecurities. Did he still not grasp even now that he was her life? ‘You men can be so frightfully wrong at times,’ Arianne chided.
‘I warn you lady, striking the King is a mortal offense,’ he returned playfully.
‘I will take my chances,’ she snorted dismissively. ‘I will tell you this once more, but if I have to do it again, I will call upon all the powers at my disposal to show you my displeasure. I love you and I always will. Were I was immortal or not, you are my soul mate. If one lifetime with you is all there is, I will never regret it. You hold my heart, my King. Be secure in that fact, if no other.’
Properly admonished, Dare nodded in silence and knew that it was foolishness that allowed his mind to travel such dark roads. She had proven her love for him on more occasions than he could count and he had faith in her. Still, he could not help but wonder what in the name of Celestial Gods she saw in him to abandon her immortal existence to share a very mortal one with him.
‘All right,’ he conceded defeat, ‘but you must admit you were rather frightening these past weeks and fear is not something I succumb to easily. I’ve fought monsters.’
‘I have my reasons,’ she said dryly, disappointed that the surprise she had intended to give him had been waylaid by an old argument. Then again, what in life ever took place according to plan? ‘Something had been preying upon my mind that I could not speak of to you until I had confirmation of it. I am afraid waiting for an answer frayed at my nerves more than my disposition could endure.’
‘What, Rian?’ he demanded, a little alarmed that she had not told him that she was so vexed about something. Theirs was a relationship that turned on their ability to confide everything to each other. It worried him what she might think too much for him to bear. ‘Did something happen? Are you alright?’
‘I am fine,’ she stilled him again her finger. ‘Dare, we are going to have a baby.’
The expression of stunned silence that crossed his face was so acute that there was an instant she thought this news was not to his liking. All men wanted sons, did they not? She wanted to give him an heir, to consolidate his claim to the throne and show him that he was not the last son of his house. However, his astonishment was but brief and her fears were dispelled when a great light flickered into being behind his eyes, and soon it encompassed his face with a brilliant and happy grin.
‘A baby!’ he exclaimed, with the eagerness of a boy given a wondrous gift. ‘Are you sure?’
‘Yes,’ she nodded, relieved to be able to tell him finally and now being able to share the joy of it by his reaction to her news. ‘I had begun to suspect weeks ago that I might be quickened, but I could not be certain until today. That is why I was seemed so out of sorts. I am sorry that I upset you but I so wanted to be certain before I told you.’
‘And you are now?’ he asked, staring at her in wonder before his gaze dropped to her stomach where his child, no their child, was growing within.
‘Yes. Calfax confirmed it for me today. We are going to have a baby in the spring.’
‘Oh, Rian!’ he exclaimed, and he lifted her up by the waist and twirled her around in an uncharacteristic show of exhilaration. ‘I love you and I will love our son.’
‘Your son?’ She gazed down at him with an imperious stare. ‘Are you so sure it’s going to be a boy? It could be a girl.’
‘I don't care what it is,’ he admitted immediately. ‘I do not care if we have a boy or a girl. I will love it either way. You have already made me happier than I ever thought possible but now, knowing that we have created this together—there are no words to describe it.’
‘Oh, Dare,’ she spoke, her voice choking with the emotion that corresponded with the tears glistening in her eyes at the delight she saw in his face. Resting her head against his chest, she took comfort in the sound of his heart beating so close to her ear and wondered if her baby was listening to hers in the same fashion. ‘We are going to have a baby! Keeping this to myself has been so hard, I've wanted to shout it out from the roof tops ever since I first thought I might be with child. I am so glad I no longer have to keep this from you!’
‘I wish you had told me,’ he said, brushing the top of her dark hair with a light kiss. ‘You should not have to keep such a thing to yourself. It’s no wonder you were so disagreeable.’
‘I did not want to plant false hopes, my love. You have so much to worry your mind already, I did not wish to see you disappointed if I was wrong.’
‘Nothing that you do could ever disappoint me my love.’ Dare stared into her face and wanted her to see that it was the truth. Still, he could not deny that he was delighted that they were going to have a child and he truly meant it when he said that he cared not if it were a boy or a girl. ‘However, now that we know for sure, I feel as you do. I want everyone to know!’
‘Everyone?’ She gave him a look wondering what devilry was he conjuring in his mind.
‘Yes,’ he grinned. ‘I think it is time that the King and Queen of Carleon hold court with their friends again. How about we have a little party and we can make the announcement to the whole city?’
Arianne thought of her Lylea, Queen Syanne, the wizard Tamsyn, Kyou the dwarf, Celene, Tully and Keira of the Green, who had all given Dare refuge when Balfure's most evil servants—the Disciples—had been hunting him. The last time they had all been gathered, it was during Dare's coronation and wedding. She would dearly love to see them again, and knew that Dare would also be pleased to spend time with the people who knew him before he became King.
‘I think that would be most acceptable, my Lord.’ She showed her agreement with another kiss.
‘Well then run along and arrange it,’ he smirked, dismissing her with a wave of his hand.
‘This was your idea!’ she exclaimed with mock outrage. ‘How is it the duty falls to me?’
‘Well, celebrations are strictly your responsibility, my Queen. I only deal with the running of the kingdom, fighting the wars and killing of the occasional insect in our chambers. If you wished the arrangement changed, I have no objection.’ He winked at her.
‘Really?’ Arianne snorted and pulled away from him. In truth, her duties amounted to a little more than that. As his Queen, it was her responsibility to ensure well being of their people by seeing to the creation of schools, houses of healing and other public works. Nevertheless, her mind whirling already with all the things had to be done for such a celebration to take place. ‘I will do your bidding this once, my King,’ she teased. ‘But only because it suits me.’
‘Well thank you, my Queen,’ he returned, smiling as he watched her sauntering towards away. Knowing that he was soon to be a father by a woman he never thought could love him back made the day's duty a little less tedious. Arianne was able to lift his spirit like no one else alive, and he still marvelled at the discovery that someone so beautiful could also be as equally kind.
‘Rian,’ he called out before she left the hall.
‘Yes, Dare?’ She cast those magnificent blue eyes back at him with a quizzical expression.
‘I love you,’ he said softly.
‘As you should, my love,’ she replied as she left.