| |
DRESSED WARMLY, WITH her hair loose and curled, Everleigh starts wandering around the castle grounds. Halfreda will find her with ease.
She finds herself back at the river. Can she do it again? Without Halfreda’s direction? There’s no one around, no one near anyway. She whispers, “Rise.” She cannot see a change in the water and moves closer to the edge, disappointment an actual taste in her mouth. She wants this so much to be real. “Rise, rise, rise.” Her voice is firmer, louder and she sees it. The water rises. Elation fills her where disappointment was. “Rise, rise, rise.” She skips out of the way as the river spills its banks, pooling near her feet. “Rest.” It’s a simple word but the river listens. Commanding mother nature with a mere whisper, she feels the power coursing through her like a physical thing. There is no doubt left in her mind. She will live. She will rule.
Bending down she swirls her finger in the water before drying it on her gown. Happy and content she heads back to the castle gardens, strolls through the rose garden and then sits upon one of the benches.
She doesn’t know how long she’ll have to wait, but she’s happy to sit and enjoy the sunshine.
“Queen.” Halfreda’s voice is low and hoarse.
Everleigh opens her eyes. Halfreda sits next to her. “Good morning, Halfreda.”
“How did you sleep, child, Queen, oh I need to stop calling you that until...understand if I call you child or princess, I am not being disrespectful.”
Everleigh nods. She doesn’t much care what Halfreda calls her, she just wants answers.
“Have you had any ideas?” Everleigh asks quietly.
Halfreda shakes her head. “I tried using all and any of my powers last night to bring an answer as to what to do next, without any luck. But my teacher arrived this morning. He’s the one who first showed me the prophecy. He’ll know what to do.”
There is a lot to decide. How they will tell her father, how they will help her brothers to understand and accept this twist in their fate.
“We will make a plan today,” Halfreda says.
Everleigh puts her hand on Halfreda’s. “I am more frightened by this uncertainty than I was when I knew I was to die.”
“I know Queen, I understand. We need to keep this a secret; I know that much. We are trying to change the course of history here and do something that has never been done before. I can’t just announce it lightly. I need wisdom and advice.”
Everleigh nods, she understands that. “So, what do I do, while I wait for you to decide?”
Halfreda smiles. “Nothing. Just carry on as normal.”
The problem was, nothing was normal any more.
“You must carry on as normal. All around you will believe that you are the Kingmaker and that the official sacrificial ceremony is coming closer, as it always was.”
Everleigh wants to cry. What Halfreda is saying makes sense, but it’s boring, an anti-climax. She wants drama and excitement, a definite change in her circumstances.
“Don’t be disappointed, Everleigh. You have a lifetime ahead of you now. You have a life, a destiny. But we must change the mind-set of the entire Realm first. Give me time.”
Everleigh nods. If she is to live, then the urgency is gone.
“I have put one thing in to motion, in readiness for you becoming Queen. Every Queen needs a protector. A Knight that will fight for her, die for her.”
If she is Queen she will need an entire army that loves and believes in her, men who will fight for her and yes, die for her.
“I have a nephew. A great, great, great, great nephew.” Halfreda smiles. “Maybe even more greats than that – I am quite old after all. Anyway, he is young, only seventeen but he has been fighting in jousts for five years. In disguise, of course, but he’s been fighting and winning.”
“Your nephew, is he coming here?” Everleigh asks.
“He is here already. I have told him the truth of you. He is happy to serve you. He has always believed it was his destiny. To serve. And strangely, he always had an idea that he would serve a Queen. Maybe he has some of my powers? Whatever happens next, I believe he will keep you safe. I have instructed him to stay near you and to keep you safe. He will protect your life at all costs. Though there should be no need, as all will remain as it has been.”
“I don’t know what to say. I’m nervous and excited, but I trust you. I will say nothing and wait for you.” Everleigh fleetingly thinks about Lanorie. But she knows she can trust her.
Halfreda stands up slowly, straightening out her hunched over spine. “I told him to come here. You can trust him.”
“I’m sure.”
“Here he comes.”
Before she even sees him, Everleigh knows who he is. It has to be. He has appeared from nowhere, arriving at the castle just in time for her feast.
“Archer,” Everleigh whispers his name as he comes in to sight. He figures out the connection too and grins at her. Then his face turns serious. He drops in to a low bow. He lifts his head and meets her eyes. “Queen. I promise to honour, obey, serve and protect you. You will be safe with me.”
Everleigh takes his hand and helps him back on to his feet. “I trust Halfreda. I trust you, Archer.”
Halfreda coughs. “I will be gone for a few hours.”
“Halfreda, we’ll be fine. I’ll keep her safe.”
“How can you pledge your life to a Queen?” Everleigh asks Archer, as Halfreda shuffles off to make history changing decisions with her teacher.
Archer drops down on to the bench. Everleigh sits next to him, an appropriate distance apart. “I don’t know. I knew I could be a knight. And because of Halfreda’s connections I got taken on by a rich family. But I was only a squire. I wasn’t meant to be fighting in real jousts.” Archer shrugs. “I was a good fighter. I started training constantly, in private, in the woods, like I was when I saw you.”
Everleigh blushes thinking about the way he makes her feel.
“I trained and I got better. I fought and I won. I was always in disguise though.” Archer tousles his hair. “I’m pretty recognisable.”
Everleigh laughs. It’s true. Having seen him only a handful of times she would recognise him anywhere. And not just because of his hair. She would know him anywhere now.
“As time went on and I got better and better, I got to thinking about my future, I suppose and what I would do.” He looks down at his feet, seeming embarrassed. “I studied the great knights and I thought maybe I would be one too. Maybe I would be written about and sung about.” He looks up, meeting her eyes. “I’m good.”
She has seen him practise. She knows he’s good.
“I met Halfreda when she was with our kin on one of her trips away from here. I spoke to her about my plans and my hopes. I also told her about a dream I had.” He peers up at Everleigh again. She wants to touch him, to reassure him, to encourage him to carry on but she doesn’t. It wouldn’t be proper. “Do you think I’m stupid? Talking about dreams?” he asks her.
Everleigh shakes her head quickly. “No Halfreda always told me and my brothers that dreams were important. They could be a warning or a glimpse in to our future. They could help us to understand things.”
“That’s what my dream was. I dreamt that I would be a knight, a great knight.” He grins. “And that I would protect a beautiful and great Queen.”
Everleigh looks down at her lap at the word beautiful. She doesn’t know what to say to him.
“I came as soon as Halfreda called me and the journey here was my friend. It made me feel like I was on the right track.”
Everleigh frowns; she’s not sure what he means. “Your friend?”
“When I travel a long way for jousts, or whatever, I always get caught up in something. It might be the weather, or outlaws. It could be a battle or a flooded village. But my journey is never easy. That’s just the nature of long journeys, I guess. But this time I mounted my horse and I flew along. Everything went my way. I feel like it was because I was doing the right thing. I was meant to come to you.” He looks serious now. “Queen, I have so many friends, good young men, who would find it an honour to protect you once you are Queen. I will rally an army for you and they will keep you safe for the whole of your long and happy reign.”
“Thank you,” she whispers, her voice catching slightly. “Thank you for believing that I can rule.”
“Queen, I know it.”
Their eyes lock, both smiling. She feels like she knows him already and wonders if he feels the same way.
“Everleigh.” Everleigh and Archer both jump as a harsh voice interrupts them. Archer stands up and dips in to a bow. It’s Everleigh’s brother, Millard.
“Millard.” Everleigh smiles. She really shouldn’t be alone with Archer; luckily, they are outside. “Let me introduce Halfreda’s nephew, Archer, visiting his kin.”
Millard nods at Archer but frowns. “Where is Halfreda then? She knows better than to leave you alone.”
“She had to rush off on some business. We’re only talking about the rose gardens. You can entertain him now; I’m behind with my sewing.”
Millard smiles and takes his sister’s hand. “Sorry.” He kisses her hand gently and smiles at Archer. He guides him away from Everleigh, slapping his back and suggesting a horse ride before the evening’s entertainment.
Archer lets himself be led away but turns once to look at Everleigh. He smiles, and she nods at him.
She feels safe now. Halfreda is right. This man will protect her until they decide what to do next.
***
SHE SITS IN THE MIDDLE of the forest, not far from her mother’s grave. The sun is streaming through the branches, dappling patterns across the moss on the forest floor and across her lap.
She had sat with her father and her brothers eating their midday meal and now she needs some privacy. She has been doing exactly what Halfreda told her – acting like everything is the same as it has always been. In less than a week she will die and one of her brothers will become King.
The whole castle is in a frenzy of preparation for the day itself and she keeps an innocent smile on her face. As far as anyone knows, she accepts her role in life and therefore she accepts the end of her life in the same way.
Only Halfreda, Lanorie and Archer know the truth. She likes Archer a lot and truly trusts him, immediately she had felt an affinity with him. He’s off practising his sword fighting with some of the other men in readiness for the joust tomorrow. They all know that he is Halfreda’s kin and that he is in the middle of a visit with her which coincidentally coincides with the feast and Everleigh’s death day. No one questions him, especially now with strangers milling everywhere.
She wants to try something. After making the river rise again she wants to see what else she’s capable of. She sits quietly and still. Then she whispers, “Come to me, creatures come to me.”
She doesn’t move but she can see and hear the floor around her come to life. The floor becomes a wriggling mass as ants, spiders and bugs all move towards her. They stop in a ring around her, as though they have come to worship her.
Everleigh smiles at the sight of them. She will live. She will rule. She has powers untold and a future before her waiting to be mapped out by herself and not anyone else. She doesn’t think that she’ll ever get bored of this feeling.
“Rabbits, come to me,” she whispers and then watches the bushes twitch as the rabbits make their way to her. One jumps right on to her lap, but the others stay outside the ring of creatures.
“Hedgehogs, grass snakes, squirrels come to me. Birds come to me. Deer come to me.”
The forest comes alive. The floor writhing with life; the deer watching through the branches, coming closer than their instinct should ever allow them to. The rabbit is still on her lap, enjoying its ears being smoothed. The birds are perched all around her, some on the floor, some on branches, one tiny bird, she doesn’t know what breed it is, sits on the back of one of the deer.
She touches them, and they don’t flinch. She is Queen.
And if she rules the people and her brothers as easily as she rules these creatures, all will be well.
She stands up, and the bunny rabbit hops away. Tiny, fizzy bubbles of excitement fill her up. They have taken the place of the butterflies of death, these bubbles of life.