Ravian's Quest Page 11

  They came to their feet, brushing the dirt and grass off their clothing, and Ravian sheathed his weapon.

  ‘That little shit, Pinnius!’ Lefia spat, as she bent to recover her own sword. ‘I could tell straight away that he had been giving you lessons but I didn’t think he would give away my secrets.’

  ‘I had to beg him to help me,’ Ravian said, ‘otherwise you would have made a complete fool of me again.’

  ‘Well, you’re certainly not above doing whatever it takes to win.’

  ‘No,’ Ravian replied frankly, ‘I’m not.’

  Lefia gave him a tight, mirthless smile.

  ‘Anyway,’ she said, ‘by whatever means, you have defeated me. Enjoy the moment – it doesn’t happen very often.’

  ‘I’m sure that’s true,’ replied Ravian. ‘However, I intend to celebrate this obviously rare moment by collecting on your promise to show me where you live.’

  She cocked her head to one side and, suddenly, her smile was broad and genuine.

  ‘Very well, I’m a woman of my word. There’s not much to see but, if you insist, you had better follow me.’

  With that, she turned and began walking along the mountaintop trail. Ravian paused only long enough to tether his horse at the edge of the olive grove before he followed after her.

  The trail wound up out of the dell and then around the side of an austere pillar of rock. Once past the monolith, Lefia led him across a razorback ridge and then over several tussock-covered hilltops, before turning south into a gentler part of the mountains. Then, for no reason that was apparent to Ravian, she stopped.

  ‘What is it?’ he asked.

  ‘You promise me you will tell no one else where I live?’

  ‘Of course,’ he replied.

  ‘Well, here we are then.’

  For a moment, all Ravian could see was the stony trail, the hills and a few scattered, wind-stunted trees. Then, below the trail, he saw a small, stone house snuggled against the south-facing hillside – overgrown with moss and weeds and looking for all the world as though it had been abandoned long ago. Beyond the low wall and riotous garden that surrounded the house, he saw Lefia’s horse, grazing on a hillside that fell away into a wide, deep valley, then swept up to the mountains on the other side in a breath-taking panorama.

  ‘You certainly have a view,’ said Ravian. ‘It must be awfully cold up here in winter though.’

  ‘I…haven’t been here that long,’ she said. ‘If it does get too cold, well…I’ll just go somewhere where it’s warmer.’

  Ravian looked at her – her chin tilting bravely, her face so serious.

  There were so many questions he wanted to ask her about herself, he thought – but he knew that he must not.

  ‘Well, are you going to show me more?’ he asked. ‘Or am I to admire your house from a distance.’

  Her smile returned.

  ‘All right,’ she said. ‘Come on, I’ll see if I can find you something to eat and drink.’

  Inside, the house was simple but clean, its earth floor swept daily, he suspected. There was a small bed, a table and two chairs, a fireplace – and very little else. Lefia produced a loaf of bread and a jug of water and, picking her way through the tangled, colourful confusion of her garden, she led him to the wall. There they sat, eating and drinking in silence – lost in their own thoughts, the splendid vista before them and the sound of cicadas worshipping the summer sun.

  ‘Where do you go to when you leave Trebedan?’ she asked, at last.

  ‘Well, back to Portana, of course – then we sail south towards the Western Portal. I haven’t quite made my mind up yet, but we may explore the west coast of Saravene a little before we head back into the Sapphire Sea.’

  ‘And then?’

  Ravian shrugged.

  ‘Back to Tarcus, I suppose.’

  ‘Via the Delenes Islands?’ her voice innocent, but her smile knowing.

  ‘I don’t really know,’ Ravian replied honestly, wondering where she had acquired that piece of information.

  ‘Do you miss Tarcus?’ Lefia asked.

  ‘I haven’t – not really,’ he replied. ‘I have my family there, of course – and, from what I’ve seen of the rest of the world, it’s still the place I would most prefer to live. But I’ve enjoyed this voyage – particularly exploring new coastlines.’

  ‘Yes,’ she said, her eyes shining. ‘It must be wonderful to see new places. I’ve never been beyond this valley.’

  Their eyes met and there was a flash of understanding between them. Ravian realised that he wanted to show the world to Lefia more than he wanted anything but he also understood that, for the moment, he would need to keep his thoughts to himself.

  ‘Yes,’ he said, ‘there are some wonderful sights to be seen. However, I fear that this talk is only to distract me from collecting the other part of our wager.’

  ‘Other part?’ she said, frowning. ‘What other part?’

  ‘You were, if you remember, to serenade me with your flute.’

  Lefia grinned.

  ‘Well, I don’t recall anything about serenading – but I did promise a song. Wait here while I get my pipes.’

  She returned from the house with the instrument and sat, cross-legged atop the wall. As she began to play a beautiful, light melody, she gazed out across the valley and appeared to become lost in the music. Taking the opportunity to study her closely, Ravian was again reminded that she was not what men would call a great beauty – yet he felt his heart swell as he watched her and knew that he would never forget this moment.

  She finished her tune and looked at him.

  ‘Most pleasant,’ he said. ‘Now, perhaps you could play me the song that you woke me with the other day. You know – the sad one.’

  A look of sorrow flashed across Lefia’s face and Ravian realised that he had made a mistake. Then, she seemed to recover and gave him an enigmatic smile.

  ‘No, I’ve played that one too often lately,’ she said. ‘I don’t think I’ll be playing it again for a while.’

  When Ravian returned to King Postus’s castle that evening, he had barely been in his room for a minute before there was a knock on the door and Lectus burst in.

  ‘Success, Your Highness, success!’ his advisor announced. ‘I have had to dig very deep – and press gold into many palms – but I have uncovered the fate of Princess Karrala! At last we can leave this tedious valley and return to more civilised surroundings!’

  Ravian settled back in a chair, draping one leg nonchalantly over one of its arms.

  ‘Really, Lectus? Please, do enlighten me.’

  ‘As I suspected, Your Highness – a scandal! A royal scandal!’

  Ravian felt a sinking sensation in his stomach.

  ‘Go on,’ he said.

  ‘Well,’ the courtier continued with relish, ‘it seems that the Princess Karrala was a young woman of a most strong and contrary nature – always a handful for her poor, widowed father. Anyway, a few months ago, the king made the unfortunate discovery that she had taken to bedding one of the castle guards. Can you imagine it?’

  ‘And?’ Ravian asked, his blood going cold.

  ‘Well, apparently, Postus was furious and had the princess’s lover executed out of hand. As I understand it, he was also going to have his daughter put to death, but Prince Pinnius hid his sister until the king had calmed down. Even then, once the old man had established that there was to be no issue from the…er…connection, he banished her from the valley – as he said, he “has no daughter”. That must have been Karrala with Pinnius the day we arrived here. It’s no wonder Pinnius was so keen for his father not to know he was with his sister – she’s not even supposed to be in the valley!’

  Ravian said nothing, but his mind was reeling with Lectus’s news.

  ‘Well, Your Highness,’ Lectus asked, ‘shall I advise the guard that we ride out tomorrow?’

  ‘No, not tomorrow, Lectus,’ Ravian said. ‘It will have to be the day af
ter, at the earliest.’

  Lectus scowled.

  ‘But why, Your Highness? There is no earthly reason for us to linger here.’

  ‘Because I say so,’ Ravian replied through clenched teeth.

  Lectus opened his mouth to protest further but then he saw the look on Ravian’s face.

  ‘Oh…ah…very well, Your Highness,’ he said. ‘The day after tomorrow then.’

  ‘At the earliest!’ Ravian snapped.

  ‘Yes, Your Highness – at the earliest,’ Lectus stammered, retreating from the room in frightened confusion.

  As the door closed behind the courtier, Ravian leapt to his feet and began pacing the floor in agitation.

  Damn! He hadn’t expected anything like this!

  He stared out the window at the mountains where, even now, she would be preparing to spend another evening of exile alone in her run-down retreat.

  It was too late for him not to care, he realised – too late not to be stupidly, selfishly, jealous of her executed lover and too late to deny to himself that he had fallen in love with her.

  He could not sleep that night, tossing and turning in his bed until well after midnight. Finally, he gave up and, again, began pacing the floor of his room.

  He thought about the similarity between his own situation and Karrala’s – or Lefia’s, as he thought of her. At almost the same time, in different parts of the world, they had both lost their loves because of their royal blood. He tried to imagine how he would have felt if Jeniel had had Belice executed – but realised that he could not. Still, now he could more fully understand Lefia’s deep sorrow and the hopelessness of her situation, and he could also see the hypocritical injustice that had made victims of the princess and her lover.

  As young men, he and his brothers had been tacitly encouraged to “sow their wild oats”, and it would never have occurred to any of them that they were risking banishment and the execution of their lovers in doing so. Yet, he knew, things would have been very different for their sister, had they had one, and that her virtue would have been zealously guarded, not least by her own brothers.

  As the sky began to lighten with the approach of dawn, he knew what he had to do and, so, he had Lectus summoned to his room even before the morning sun had kissed the mountaintops.

  After the prince’s mood of the night before, Lectus was nervous – and the pre-dawn summons did little to reassure him.

  ‘Lectus,’ Ravian began, ‘I must apologise for my outburst last night. Please forgive me.’

  ‘Ah…that’s all right, Your Highness,’ Lectus replied, still very much on his guard. ‘We all have our off moments,’

  ‘Yes...anyway, Lectus, I have had an idea.’

  ‘An idea? Yes, Your Highness?’

  ‘Yes. I propose to seek out the Princess Karrala and return to Tarcus with her as my bride.’

  Lectus gaped at him and, for a few moments, he was at a loss for words.

  ‘But, Your Highness, why would you want to marry such a…’

  Lectus’s instincts for self-preservation came to his rescue just in time.

  ‘I mean,’ he corrected himself, ‘why would you choose such an alliance over one, for instance, with Princess Flamina?’

  ‘Strategy, my dear Lectus,’ Ravian told him. ‘Bolstenia sits nicely between Survene and the other northern countries. My intuition tells me that King Decrastes of Survene is not quite so staunch a friend to Tarcus as he once was, and I would hate to see a Northern alliance that extended all the way from Dekane to the Western Portal. A stronger bond with Bolstenia would give some insurance against that.’

  Lectus appeared to consider the idea.

  ‘You may have a point, Your Highness, but what about Delenes?’

  ‘I believe that our relationship with Delenes will stand whether I marry Princess Flamina or not. Zecretes needs us as much as we need him and he’s a good friend into the bargain.’

  ‘But King Postus won’t even acknowledge Princess Karrala,’ Lectus reminded him.

  ‘He’s a proud, angry man,’ Ravian agreed, ‘but I’m sure that he’s enough of a pragmatist that he would restore Princess Karrala’s royal status were there to be a valuable alliance in the offing.’

  ‘But what about the scandal?’

  ‘It sounds as though the details of Princess Karrala’s exile have been kept well hushed up. No one else needs to know about it.’

  ‘Yes, Your Highness,’ Lectus said, ‘but the one detail we know is that she is no longer a virgin.’

  Ravian smiled.

  ‘And neither am I,’ he said. ‘Frankly, Lectus, I didn’t think that virginity was an asset that either of us set a great deal of store by.’

  Lectus frowned in concentration.

  ‘Yes, Your Highness,’ he said, ‘now that I think about it, it does seem a reasonable opportunity. His Majesty would be well enough pleased.’

  ‘Precisely, Lectus,’ Ravian agreed, pressing home his advantage. ‘Now, I think that, in the current situation, you should act as the broker of this alliance. See if you can arrange an audience with King Postus and help him understand the opportunity that is before him. He needs never see his daughter again, if that is his wish – we can take her out of this valley forever.’

  ‘Assuming she is willing – and that we can find her,’ Lectus said, starting to look suspicious.

  ‘Oh, I’m sure that Prince Pinnius will be able to tell us where she is – once he knows the situation,’ Ravian said casually.

  ‘Yes,’ said Lectus, his voice suddenly laced with irony ‘it’s all rather neat and tidy really, isn’t it?’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘Well, if you’ll forgive me for saying so, Your Highness, I’m rather surprised that you are suddenly be so keen to negotiate yourself as part of a political marriage, particularly one involving a degree of...forbearance, shall we say? Is there something that you’re not telling me?’

  ‘Well, I must confess that there is one detail that I have omitted.’

  ‘Really, Your Highness? And might I ask what that would be?”

  Ravian tossed a single gold coin to Lectus.

  ‘Ah! Now I see,’ said the big man, his expression softening as he stared down at the gleaming disc of metal in his hand. ‘And when do you wish me to meet with King Postus?’

  ‘Today – I’m heading out to see Princess Karrala shortly.’

  Lectus rolled his eyes.

  ‘Am I to gather that she knows nothing of your plans? Does she even know how you feel about her?’

  ‘Of my plans – no,’ Ravian admitted. ‘As to how I feel about her – perhaps. Her situation is…well, complex.’

  Lectus chuckled.

  ‘Oh, Your Highness, you don’t change do you? Why take the normal, easy road when you can find a rocky way? The Princess Karalla has the reputation of being contrary and strong-willed – you should make a perfect match.’

  ‘Yes. Anyway, I’ll get going now,’ Ravian said, seeing that the sun had risen above the mountains at last.

  ‘Good fortune go with you, Your Highness, I’ll ask for the first available appointment with King Postus,’ Lectus said, and made to leave the room.

  Then the courtier hesitated and, as he turned back again, Ravian was surprised to see a tear in his eye.

  ‘Your Highness, I must say that – whatever happens – it gives me great pleasure to be the winner of our wager. I will do everything I can to help you succeed with the path you have chosen.’

  ‘Thank you, My Friend. I know that you will,’ Ravian replied and, to his consternation, found that he had to turn away from Lectus to hide the moistness he suddenly felt in his own eyes

  Ravian arrived at the summit of the southern ranges rather earlier than had been his habit, and found Lefia trying to establish some semblance of order in the chaos of her cottage’s garden. She looked up from her work at the crunch of his boots on the pathway, and her smile said that she was pleased to see him.

  ‘Pri
nce Ravian,’ she chuckled. ‘You must have risen at cock’s crow.’

  ‘Yes, rather earlier in fact,’ he said. ‘Lefia, there is something important that I need to discuss with you.’

  Her face became serious.

  ‘Very well, shall we sit where we were yesterday?’

  She led him to their place on the garden wall and they sat in silence for a few moments, watching sunrise chase the line of morning shade down the hillside and into the valley.

  Ravian turned to Lefia and, seeing her bathed in the golden morning light, any lingering doubts he might have had over his course of action vanished.

  ‘Lefia, we will be leaving Trebedan tomorrow.’

  He thought he saw disappointment – and then resignation – in her eyes.

  ‘Well,’ she said, ‘you were always bound to leave sometime. I shall miss your visits though.’

  ‘Lefia, I want you to come with me.’

  ‘What?!’ she exclaimed. ‘Why?!’

  Ravian smiled.

  ‘Well, I could say that I need someone to practice my white-metal swordsmanship with – and that would be true – but the truth is that I have fallen in love with you and I would like you to return to Tarcus with me. I want to marry you.’

  For a moment, he saw her eyes shine. Then she looked away.

  ‘I can’t go with you,’ she said.

  ‘Yes, you can,’ he replied. ‘There’s nothing for you here.’

  ‘You don’t know who I really am,’ she said, and he saw a glistening tear roll down her cheek.

  ‘Actually, I do know who you are – I think I’ve known since the first day when you fired that arrow. I also know your story and I’m truly sorry. I also lost my love recently – but I can’t imagine how it must have been for you.’

  She rounded on him then, her eyes flashing.

  ‘No, you can’t – but that’s what this is, isn’t it? You feel sorry for the poor, disgraced, little princess! You want to bestow your royal favour on me so that I’ll be forever in your debt. Well, don’t bother, Prince Ravian, I may not have much, but at least I’m my own person! I suggest that you go off and marry your royal admirer in Zedezee – she’s a far more suitable match for you!’