Without love no man is a king

33.

The king spent an anxious few days worrying over his son, trying to watch over Inara. She had shut herself away, refusing to see or speak to anyone. Not even the king. On the morning of the fifth day the sound of horse hooves approaching had the castle rushing to see if it was friend or foe.

"Your highness, it's prince Roland." A guard rushed in, the king running through hallways to greet his son
"Roland!" The king frantically helped his obviously wounded son down from his horse.
"Inara?" The prince asked weakly, holding onto his father for support.
"In your room, I will fetch her. She.....she is not fairing well."
"Take me to her, Digory! My penance, bring it." The prince hobbled along.
"Call a physician!" Bellford ordered
"No!" The prince insisted "I will not see him if he comes. Do not waste his journey."
"I have you, your highness, lean on me" Digory draped Roland's arm over his shoulder

"Son, what happened! Where have you been?"
"Dreconton" he winced out limping along "I must see Inara before the sun sets." He declared determinedly
"Inara!" The king bellowed down the corridor "Inara! I demand your presence! Roland has returned!"
Inara opened her door a crack to check it was not a trick to get her to leave the safety of her room. She gasped running down the long stone corridor towards them.
"My Roland!" She fussed over him "Roland wounded. Roland..."
"Yours now" he stumbled into her "I have paid my penance Inara and I am free of her. I am yours. I bring word from your mother."
"Mother?" Inara asked, her eyes widening "Roland go Dreconton! Alone, no Inara! No no no no no. No safe!"
"My love for you is strong Inara. I realise this now and I am so very sorry. For all the anguish I caused you."

They reached the prince's room placing him gently down, Inara still fussing over him.
"He needs a physician!" Beric panicked "your majesty....."
"Son. You do not look well. You are battered and bleeding."
"I have taken your pain away Inara" he reached for her, pulling her face to his, speaking the four Drecontonian words her mother had told him to, that he had repeated on a loop in his head on his journey back so not to forget them. "Understand my love? I have taken your pain and made it my own to bare."
"Roland....very brave" Inara nodded, kissing him "my Roland return Inara."
"Of course" the prince weekly smiled "Digory...show her." He groaned in pain.

Digory dragged a bloodied sack over, opening it up revealing deer antlers and the freshly skinned fur of a wolf.
"He battled both bare handed." Digory explained
"Cedmond?"
"No. Eris. We did not enter their territory. Stayed on the outskirts of Dreconton. What they call the out-lands. He does not know we were there and Eris said he will not discover our trip or the reason for it."
"Son.....what have you done now?"
"I have repented my sins father. I went to seek Eris' council. She said this would be enough." He undid his shirt pulling it off to gasps.
"My Roland......father?" Inara asked the king "Roland...Roland....bath! Bathe. Wounds...clean."

"Draw a bath quickly, his wounds need tending to."
"My Inara will see to it." The Prince held the princess' face sweetly "I have missed you terribly, you look thin and pale."
"She has not eaten a single morsel or left this room since you departed." The king bought him up to speed.
"Roland! What is this!" Bellford held up the human hair from the sack.
"I have taken her beauty from her" the prince held Inara's face so she would concentrate "she holds no beauty to make my eyes wander from you, not anymore."

"We visited lady Stephanie on our return." Digory whispered "on Eris' orders."
"Tell me he did not..."
"No. She lives. He cut her hair to the scalp and.....scared her face, not too much. It is not something he took pleasure in. also.....she will not be desirable to any man or lay her eyes on the prince again. Put it that way. Eris rode back with us to see to it and witness his actions. She performed the punishment not the prince. He only took her hair and slashed her face with a knife.....she refused to marry the match you made. She was returning to the castle your majesty, to tell the kingdom of their affair, to try again to remain as his mistress. Her father was there trying to convince her to stay put. He consented to the punishment. For seducing the prince away from Inara and her brazen attitude over what happened. When we left she was alive and being cared for. Eris returned to Dreconton and we rode back here."