The Heirs

Chapter 29- Three Shrouds

if I should die,
and you should live,
and time should gurgle on,
and morn should beam,
and noon should burn,
as it has usual done;
if birds should build as early,
and bees as bustling go,-
one might depart at option
from enterprise below!
-

"Are you sure you don't want to stay for the funeral?"

The Pirate Prince nodded, "Quite sure. Formal events are not my forté, and I have paid my respects to them on my own."

"Of course." Aura inclined her head graciously, understanding. She'd have done the same, if the funeral had not been for her family. "If you don't mind my asking- your manner of talking caught my ear. Were you raised noble?"

"Yes. My father is a Telmarine Lord." He said shortly, choosing not to divulge who the Lord was. The less people knew about him, the better. "And by your manner of speech, I can tell you were taught etiquette and proper speaking skills quite late in life."

"Good ear." Aura couldn't smile, simply nodding instead. "I was twenty-nine when I got engaged to the then-High King," sweetheart, "and was made to endure lessons to learn how to be royalty. Late in life, indeed."

"But you two didn't get married." Pleion didn't know why he was poking into this relatively unknown woman's life. Perhaps he was procrastinating his departure from Cair Paravel.
Perhaps he really did want to attend the funeral, which was to be held in the afternoon.
Perhaps he just wanted to take his mind off the memory of Jem and Selene's bodies.
He had found them. After the battle, he had not headed to Cair Paravel, like the rest of the people who had fought, but he and the Peregrine had gone to where the bird had reported seeing the dragon.
There had been no dragon, just the corpses.
Selene had been draped over Jem, both of them covered in blood and in a pool of unusually-blue water- Jem had been more grey than pale, and the unburnt parts of Selene's tan skin had been tinged with blue.
There'd been a gaping slash in Jem's throat, and Pleion had fallen to the ground.
There had also been another body. A redhead, on the ground, her eyes open and her mouth wide in a scream of terror or torture.
Her blouse had been torn off, exposing her chest and the bloody hole where her heart ought to be. The heart in question- a dark, veiny thing- lay halfway between Jade and Selene, and there had been a black dagger inches from where the latter- and Pleion, despite his grief, had managed to piece things together.
Jade had done something. Perhaps she had killed Jem. Selene must have lost her mind and killed her, and had died in the process.
He hadn't understood the why at that moment, though- but his question was answered soon.
He and Drileni, the Peregrine had gone to search deeper into the woods, just to make sure there were no more dead bodies lying around- there hadn't been- and just as they had almost reached back to the clearing where Jem and Selene were, he had seen a spectre- a djinn, he reminded himself. He hadn't dared to breathe, lest the djinn see him- and he watched as it picked up Jade's body with surprisingly solid yet gentle hands, before carrying her away.
The djinn did not seem to have taken her away to consume her body, the way carrions did. There had been something almost familiar about the gesture- something like love and grief.
Jade and the djinn. Jade and the djinn.
And then it occurred to him, moments after he had sent Drileni off to return with more men to escort Jem and Selene's bodies to Cair Paravel.
The girl had had a jasmine tattoo. It had been the first thing he had noticed on her naked body- apart from the hole in her chest- but Pleion had not given it much thought until that moment.
He remembered that Seraphina had said something- she and the Rihaayan soldier, Cleo, had shown up to where he and his crew had been temporarily staying- about the fact djinns were attracted to jasmine flowers- or they were linked to them, or something.
Perhaps Jade had been no faerie after all. Perhaps Jade was part-djinn-
The djinn's action hadn't just been familiar. It had been maternal.
And, as he dropped his head into his hands, he remembered another thing. There was someone else- someone else whom he had heard had had a djinn as their parent, too.
Jadis.
The White Witch was born of a djinn. It had been a rumour, floating around since the time of her reign- his mother had told him about it, when he'd asked how it was that normal humans could have faeries or gods or dryads as parents.
Maybe it had been the same djinn.
Jade was the White Witch's sister.
It would make sense as to why Selene had hated her so vehemently, how she had been suspicious of her before she had even known her name. It was no secret among the high-borns that the old Just King had had a dark past with the White Witch- and the Princess had quite proudly spoken often that everyone considered her to be her father's daughter, through and through.
But he had taken another look at the bodies- at his friends- and he found he could not give a fuck about the revelation.
Still, he had intended to speak about it once he reached the castle- but he'd forgotten to, as the first thing he had heard as he'd stepped in, was that Seraphina was dead.
He'd told people, of course- he had told Orieus, and he had told that Archenlandian Queen, and he had told Aura- but he could not care. How could he, when people he loved were dead?