A Tale of Shadows - THE OUTDATED VERSION

Chapter 14 - To Dream Awake

"Melinda, what have you been doing in the dungeon?" Malcolm asked, his eyes wide open.

"I was not doing anything important in there," Melinda mumbled. "I was merely exploring it to see if anything can be done with it."

Malcolm shrugged. "I believe you. It is not as if I should be thinking about it that much."

At the exact moment she smiled and was about to hold his hand, Melinda remembered something. "What are you doing here in the first place? Your arrival is something I had no reason to expect."

Malcolm's eyes widened. "I apologize, my queen, as it is not quite urgent. However, I thought it a matter that ought to be organized as soon as possible. The Winter Ball is to be held nine months from now, and there you shall decide who your next husband will be. Naturally, you will have many options, and you will have to study and meet with all of them beforehand. It is a shame we cannot do anything about this tradition. The citizens would not be happy if you chose to rule all by yourself."

"Of course," Melinda said, laughing awkwardly. "I would never let the power I have over those easily influenced and simpleminded people slip from my grasp in the blink of an eye."

"I know that you are too smart for such an oversight."

"Thank you," Melinda chirped. "Also, since we are speaking about me, I must say that I have the need for a confession."

"Then confess."

"If I wish to preserve my royal bloodline, I should give birth to more than one child. I am incapable of anticipating the end of my current pregnancy at last, even though it has started rather recently. The fiance must be believed to be the father, and he most certainly will not be. You will be the father of the child, Malcolm. I desire that you be."

The courtyard went silent for nearly a minute afterwards. Both Melinda and Malcolm struggled to find the right words to say as a bird sang quietly in the distance, hidden amongst the bushes full of pretty flowers that were to be found everywhere. Malcolm's mouth was wide open for a while during his session of staring at her grave facial expression. He had been hoping for a vastly different answer, as though she was the type of person who loved farces. He could never stop underestimating her ability to surprise him, no matter how hard he tried. There was always a part of her soul that would remain hidden even to him, although she was strikingly honest in front of him. He had no idea what to believe anymore.

"You cannot love me, for it would mean yet another web of lies, yet another act your people would never forgive you for, yet another obstacle that causes you to shiver," he gasped.

"I never said that, and I have no reason to."

"I know you have a reason. Please, I beseech you, do not lie to me. I believed that you trusted me," he spoke, placing his hands on her chin.

She noticed the frown on his face and the blue in his eyes in an instant, as if the sorrow in his voice wasn't enough to make her feel regret. She sensed his caring touch against her gentle skin, and a flame rose amidst the coldness in her veins. She remembered all the times she smiled and felt pure, unfiltered joy thanks to him. She could not refuse to see the truth that was staring her dead in the eye, overpowering and unflinching, something she couldn't have expected when all of this had begun.

Melinda sighed. "I cannot lie to you, and not only due to the fact that you would have found out the truth either way. You know me all too well, Malcolm, and I feel as if I have known you for a while now. The passions of my heart cannot be silenced. I must admit that I do indeed love you, much to my dismay."

"At least you have told me the truth, and I cannot deny that I am charmed by your presence too. Despite all of the obstacles in front of us, we could be together, even if the time we spend like that does not last that long. All the things we will do together will surely make everything worth it."

She embraced him tightly, her hands wrapping around him slowly, yet with great force, like ivy that engulfs an abandoned house as years upon years pass and everyone forgets about it. Her hands, which were cold all the time, did not seem as if they were within the embrace. Her mind could not believe what it was processing, as though she had slipped into another, completely foreign reality for those several moments, where she could drown herself in happiness without worry and where the future did not look as gloomy as it always did. As the sun illuminated the two of them, she smiled more softly than before, just like him, forgetting why she should care about time. If every single part of that was a dream, which she severely doubted, she never wanted to wake up.

"Should we commence organizing the ball already, my queen? I think we should," Malcolm told her as soon as he got out of the hug.

"I already have something prepared for the ball," she informed, grabbing a few papers from a pocket on her dress. "There are all the compositions we are going to play."

Malcolm raised an eyebrow after having looked at the papers. "The fact that these papers are important to you is peculiar in and of itself, but it also feels like you chose the most difficult compositions you could have. I mean, there is even not only one Tchaikovsky composition on the list, but a number of them! What if our pianists cannot learn all the compositions perfectly on time? I'd also wager that some of them are slaves. That concerns me all the more."

Melinda laughed, her laughter resembling a coloratura. "It's only a few pieces, because of which I would advise you to calm down. Even The Queen of Night's second aria from the Magic Flute is not that hard to play if one has the right mindset and pair of hands needed to learn it. Furthermore, I would never hurt any of my slaves for a small provocation. Perhaps I do take it a bit too far sometimes, but it's not as if that would send any of them to the bleak gates of Death. As long as they live, I shall have no repentance."

"And what we will do about the food and the drinks and all the other matters?"

Melinda's facial expression became grave again. "That is not what I am going to think about today nor tomorrow. A far more urgent business is making a trip to my headquarters and turning a handful of my old friends, the Joneses, into mindless zombies. I am afraid they might discover the whole thing otherwise. I shall do that in around twenty-four hours from now. In the meantime, I will take care of infrastructural and political issues. It's not easy being a queen."

Malcolm's jaw dropped. "I comprehend your intentions. Farewell, Melinda."

"Farewell to you as well," she said, leaving a backyard with a face still grave and a heart still on fire.