Ascension: The Affiliate Part 16

With a start, she realized that she was in the room she had waited in before her Presenting. It had been draped all over with rustic colors with too many throw pillows tossed about.

"No. Really, Kael, I'm fine," she said, using his given name like she always had.

He set the pitcher down and returned to her side. His hand trailed the length of her face and down her neck before circling her waist and pulling her closer. "You know I look out for your comfort, Cyrene," he said, her name falling off his lips like a caress.

She swallowed hard. Goose b.u.mps broke out across her skin, and she tried to push away the pestering feeling of wrongness in the air. Her mind flew to the first thing that might bring her to reality.

"Edric," she whispered.

Kael stiffened and pulled away. He looked hurt, and she immediately wanted to comfort him, but she wouldn't move.

"You really must have fainted. Did you hit your head?"

She remained silent.

"Edric has been gone for a year, Cyrene. I know it was hard for all of us, but that is why we are reinstating our vows-swearing fealty to the throne, to the Dremylon line, to me."

He reached out for her again, bringing his lips down onto hers. Her first instinct was to struggle, but she didn't.

What was she doing? And why couldn't she place why all of this felt wrong?

Kael broke the kiss with a smile. He was clearly pleased because his face showed only delight and smugness. "I want so much from you, but I'll start with your Oath of Acceptance," he said. "We can go from there."

Everything seemed to swirl around her at once. Edric was dead, gone. Kael was king, but he wasn't. He couldn't be. She could never swear fealty to him.

She wrenched backward, out of his embrace, and landed on a divan stacked with pillows. Her hands trembled. He wanted her to be his queen. She knew it with every fiber of her being. How could he think I would do that with Edric having been gone for only a year?

Kael a.s.sessed her with a look of concern. "Are you sure you'll be all right after that fainting spell?"

"Yes. Quite," she said.

"Then, I should probably bring you back into the throne room to finish the proceedings before the entire court is up in arms." He offered her his arm.

Seeing no other option, she begrudgingly took it and followed him back out into the throne room. The courtiers rea.s.sembled, and Kael returned to his place on the throne.

"You have been selected as an Affiliate of the realm. You have been announced to your Receiver and placed in her charge for proper training. Do you accept the circ.u.mstances of your Selecting?"

Cyrene defiantly stared back at Kael. She could not swear her fealty to him. She couldn't do it. Her loyalty rested with Edric, with Byern, with her people.

"Cyrene," he growled softly.

She stared up into those blue-gray eyes and tried to understand what she was supposed to do. How can I trust Kael?

Acceptance. She had to accept him. She had to accept him as the next in line on the Dremylon throne. She had to give her life to the line as much as to the land, the people, and the King.

She gritted her teeth and braced herself to answer him even though it was the last thing she wanted to do. "However I am fit and however I am able."

"Kael," Cyrene groaned into the silence.

Her hands were covering her face, and she was lying facedown on a hard flat surface. Tears ran down her cheeks, and her body shook when she remembered everything she had gone through-Third Cla.s.s, love, family, fealty.

She wiped tears from her eyes, unsure of how she looked or if anyone would be around. Her head throbbed, but she slowly pushed off from the marble patio and stood on shaky legs. Chairs had been set up before the small platform, and King Edric, Queen Kaliana, Consort Daufina, and Prince Kael all sat, staring at her with wide eyes.

With horror, Cyrene remembered that she had spoken Prince Kael's name when she first regained consciousness. She couldn't even look at him, but she could feel his eyes on her.

King Edric stood stiffly and walked to the flat podium where the gla.s.s vial still rested. "Affiliate Cyrene, you have completed two of the three tests of loyalty."

Two of the three? She almost wept.

"The final is the easiest to request and the hardest to follow. We have already required deference and dedication. Now, I ask discretion of you. Swear that you will speak of what you have seen in this test to no one."

Cyrene placed her palms flat on the marble table before her. She never wanted to speak of what she had seen with anyone, and she never intended to. Perhaps discretion was hardest for some, but it would not be for her.

"I swear," she murmured, staring into the King's blue-gray eyes. She let her gaze travel to the Queen Kaliana, Consort Daufina, and then finally rest on Prince Kael seated behind him, and repeated herself. "I swear."

She felt a jolt run through her body, and she clutched onto the table for support. Whatever that was...it was powerful.

"Congratulations, Affiliate Cyrene," King Edric said with a smile, not seeming to notice her momentary paralysis. "You have pa.s.sed the Ring of Gardens. You are now bound by your loyalty to Byern and the Dremylon line."

Cyrene sagged with relief. "Thank the Creator."

"You have had a long night. The Royal Guard will escort you back to the interior of the castle. Congratulations once again. It is great to have you as one among us."

Cyrene dipped a deep curtsy before walking past the royalty, toward the opposite entrance from which she'd come. As much as she'd sworn that she would never tell about the things she had seen, she would not soon forget the bitter taste of rea.s.signment, the deep ache of losing a lover, the crushing blow at the loss of a child, or the Oath of Acceptance to a king she did not trust or believe in.

"What in the Creator's name are you still doing in bed?" Maelia demanded.

Cyrene opened her eyes. "Why are you in my bedchamber?"

"I've been knocking at your door for fifteen minutes. Just because you walked with the King in the gardens doesn't mean that you can sleep through our study time."

"What time is it?" Cyrene groaned.

"Half past noon!"

Cyrene threw the covers off of her, aghast. "I can't believe that I was still asleep."

"Me either. Get dressed, and let's go down to the pavilion to work. It's beautiful out today."

"I just had a dreadful night."

Maelia raised her eyebrows. "What do you mean? We walked back to the Vines together."

Cyrene conspiratorially glanced around the room. "I know I can't talk about what happened, but I pa.s.sed."

"Oh. Oh! Wasn't it horrible?" Maelia asked. "I had nightmares for weeks."

"Yes, it was horrible and emotionally draining, but nothing as bad as the warrior ceremony," Cyrene admitted.

"Really? I thought King Edric had put a stop to the warrior ceremony."

"Yes, well, he wasn't happy when he found out."

"I'd think not after he'd given a direct order," Maelia said. "What happened to you? I was locked in the highest tower overnight and left to wonder if anyone was going to let me out."

Cyrene recounted her story about the underground lake to Maelia and watched her gradually grow paler.

"I've never heard of a warrior ceremony so gruesome. Did you tell Queen Kaliana what happened?" Maelia asked.

Cyrene laughed. "I would never bring anything to the Queen that I did not have to."

Maelia colored and looked down at her feet.

"I'm sorry, Maelia. I know how you feel about authority, but the Queen hates me. I would rather be in your shoes, working for the Consort."

Maelia appeared fl.u.s.tered and changed the subject. "We'll get nothing done if we sit here and talk all day. Come on. You have packages waiting for you."

"Packages?" Cyrene asked, her eyes alight.

Cyrene grabbed her dressing gown and pulled it over her head before rushing out of her bedchamber like a child on the morning of the Eos holiday. She walked past the table in her sitting room, cluttered with notes and papers from Affiliate Lorne's research, to the entrance table. The smaller package on top had no note or signature, and she moved it over to examine the second one, which was signed by Lady Cauthorn. Cyrene tore open the brown paper, revealing seven dresses, three in red, two in blue, and two in gray. She was still waiting on the ball gown and couldn't wait to get her hands on it.

After leaving the gowns carefully folded on the table for the servants to hang in her wardrobe, Cyrene returned to the smaller package. Her eyes gazed upon the nondescript wrapping. Coming up blank, she eased the paper back and gasped.

Inside laid a hooded cloak made of the finest crimson velvet and lined with white ermine. Her hands splayed across the brilliant fabric before tenderly pulling it from the wrapping. The cloak fell in folds to the ground, and Cyrene threw it over her shoulders. It was simply gorgeous and seemed to ripple and move with her. She tied the red leather ribbon in the front where a gold leaf hung at the end of each cord.

"That is gorgeous. Did you commission that from Lady Cauthorn?" Maelia asked.

Cyrene shook her head. "No. I have no idea who sent it. It had no note."

Maelia ran her hand down the smooth material. "Whoever sent it has good taste."

"Indeed," Cyrene agreed. She wondered who her mysterious benefactor could be, but she couldn't think of anyone who would have sent her something this exquisite. She wondered if it was because she had pa.s.sed the Rose Garden test. It was the only explanation that made sense to her. "Let me change, and then we can go study."

Cyrene slipped into a cream lace gown with a tight bust and a free-flowing skirt, and then she draped the exquisite cloak over it. With her work tucked under her arm, she hurried out of the chambers with Maelia.

The girls settled their work down inside a stone gazebo surrounded by hundreds of flowers blooming in the summer sun, next to an easy-moving creek. Maelia was busy researching herbal treatments while Cyrene stared at Affiliate Lorne's life's work. The woman had researched every region, every environment, and practically every species of plant in the known world.

Cyrene had spent hours working on a chart system that showed specific agricultural plants and how they grew based on region, climate, and various other properties. Then, she had supplemented that list with a note on whether or not she thought the plants would grow in Byern and how to implement a plan for new crop rotations. The burdensome report to the Queen was becoming almost too long.

Cyrene and Maelia had been working in the gazebo for a couple of hours when they heard voices approaching. Jardana rounded the corner of a large hedge with her three lackeys, and they started walking toward Cyrene and Maelia.

Jardana stood at the center of the group. She wore a sky-blue corset dress that made her look emaciated. Her waxen blonde hair was styled in a severe bun on the top of her head, the same fashion as the Queen. The girl on her right nearly towered over the other women. She had stick-straight light-brown hair hanging to her waist and a snub-nosed face with beady little eyes. A pudgy short girl with dirty-blonde hair and a round face with an open demeanor scurried her little feet double time to keep up with her companions.

The only thing Cyrene could make out about the girl behind them was her untamed strawberry-blonde locks. Cyrene's eyes narrowed at the color. She had seen a girl with strawberry-blonde hair at her warrior ceremony. This woman must be the masked Leif.

As if feeling Cyrene's eyes upon them, Jardana halted their progress and smiled up at her. "We did not mean to disturb you," she said with a high-pitched voice and a wicked smile.

"No bother," Cyrene said with the warmest smile she could muster.

She wasn't sure how she hadn't noticed the similarity before. Jardana had been the masked Braj. She doubted this woman was quite as dangerous, but with ambition, there was always danger, and Cyrene could tell Jardana had ambition in spades.

She wanted to know these girls and why they had performed the ceremony against the King's orders. "Would you care to join us?" Cyrene asked.

The two girls on either side of the Braj looked startled, and both glanced toward Jardana.

"We'd be delighted. Wouldn't we, girls?"

Cyrene cleared away her work and put it back in its leather folder as the girls took seats on the other benches. She didn't care that the warrior ceremony had just been a prank. She wanted retribution for the h.e.l.l they had put her through.

"I'm not certain we've been formally introduced. I'm Cyrene. This is my friend Maelia."

"Nice to see you all again," Maelia said.

As expected, the Braj spoke up first, "Pleasure to see you both. I am Jardana, and this is Nyasha." She gestured to the taller woman who reminded Cyrene of the peac.o.c.k.

"Cheala," Jardana said, pointing out the short woman, likely the dwarf.

"And Adelas."

The Leif.

"Well, I'm very pleased to meet all of you. Will you be accompanying the King on the procession to Albion?" Cyrene asked. "Maelia and I were both offered invitations."

Jardana sat up straighter on the bench with a self-importance and arrogance that could rival the Queen. "Of course we're attending the procession. We're to be on the Queen's own vessel as I am the a.s.sistant to the DIA."

"The Queen does not travel with His Majesty?" Cyrene asked, widening her eyes with innocence.

She knew the answer, having seen the King travel for the procession to Albion down the Keylani River her entire life. She even remembered when King Maltrier used to travel. The men always preferred the company of their consorts to their queens.

Jardana kept a forced smile on her face. "Consort Daufina has been offered the privilege of riding alongside His Majesty for this procession."

"But Prince Kael has decided to accompany the Queen," Adelas said.

Jardana's eyes snapped to Adelas and struck her with a fierce glare.

"That's wonderful," Cyrene cried, pretending not to notice Jardana's glower. "I know how much Her Majesty favors him."

"Yes, it is," Jardana responded slowly.

"Prince Kael is so very charming," Cyrene said.

She pushed her luck. Maelia looked at her in confusion, but Cyrene just smiled back at her, silently begging her friend to play along. Maelia's eyes widened in understanding.

"And attractive," Maelia said with a giggle.

"Very," Adelas agreed.

Jardana seemed to be warring with herself. "Do you know where you will be stationed?"