Journey of a Girl

Ajo: Chapter Sixteen

When Ajo appeared before her, the Queen wept.

The castle had fallen into more gloom, and everyone moved like aimless spirits.

But when Ajo returned, hope returned with him. The Queen wrapped her arms around her son and placed a dozen kisses on his face. For the briefest of moments, a sense of peace stirred within him.

The familiarity of his old life.

He pushed it aside.

They moved to the Queen's chambers and sat at the small table as they had countless times in the past.

"Where did you go?" his mother asked.

"Don't you know?" he bit back.

"There was a rumor that you had begun a quest to find a queen."

"You believed it?"

The Queen grew visibly ashamed. "It was peculiar, that you left without a word and didn't take Fallow with you. But when Galeia and her husband settled in the woods and you did not follow after...I went to her. She repeated the same rumor, she promised you had found peace between each other and she had convinced you to find another love. What could I do but conclude she was telling the truth?"

"You never tried, not even once, to find me?"

"Of course I did! I searched the woods, I asked every ruler in every kingdom—"

"And when they said they had not seen me, you never pressed the matter?"

"I believed you wanted time to yourself. You had been taking so much of it—remaining away for days and nights. And you always had a talent for hiding. I assumed you wanted solitude, so I gave it to you. You are not a child, and it wasn't my place to intervene."

Ajo scoffed. "How could you believe Galeia? How could you believe a traitor?"

"Because she was my child once, Ajo. When you did not seek to make good on your threats, I hoped it was a sign of change."

"You were willing to overlook what was right under your nose. At the cost of me. You and your excuses are weak. It's a danger to this kingdom."

The Queen's eyes narrowed at the insult but she did not argue. Ajo decided to keep the truth from his mother, for he knew she would try to change what he had become.

She would take away the power he had learned at so great a cost.

"Did you find a queen?" she asked, her tone balanced between civility and desperation.

Ajo released a mean laugh. "I was unsuccessful in the task."

"There's still time. There's still hope."

"Is there? You made me devote my life to her. There is nothing left for anyone else."

A thread of fear ran through the Queen. There was a dangerous energy surrounding her son, an unpredictability that seemed ready to strike at any second. He plucked a grape from a bowl and squeezed it. He did not eat it, but set it on the table, where it sat like a squashed bug.

"You never once asked the same devotion of Galeia, did you? Did you ever consider that I might need to be chased in return? That I deserved to be courted, too? No. You made me a servant to her whims while filling my head with foolish notions of romance. And Galeia answered with spite." His gaze lowered to the grape in front of him. "I shouldn't have left for the trial. I know that's when Galeia set her eyes on someone else."

"A King's Trial is necessary. You had to endure it, or you would not have been allowed to take the throne."

"But I wouldn't have lost her." He mashed his thumb into the grape, driving it further into the table. "But you gave a command and we must live with the consequences. Your failures as queen cost—"