Finding Heathcliff

Eight

Orion smiled at her encouragingly as they approached the tall arched door leading to the regent's private quarters.

Astrid had never been beyond that door before, and from what Orion had told her, neither had he. Whenever her uncle had wanted to see him, he had been called into the Great Hall where the regent met with everyone-- Astrid's tutors, messengers, his guards coming back from their patrols, ambassadors from distant corners of the world which Astrid had only read about in geography books.

She attempted a brave smile in response to Orion's but he had already turned away from her, to nod at the two guards standing on either side of the door, his excitement and curiosity a stark contrast to Astrid's anxiety. She didn't have a good feeling about this; she would turn and run away if Orion wasn't with her...

Which would be wrong, a betrayal of her mother and the other queens before her, she reminded herself. They had all passed their trial when they reached the age of ascension and had ruled well afterwards. It was her duty to replace her uncle now.

Tightening her grip on her fiancé's arm, Astrid allowed him to tug her into the room even as the door slid open for them. And then they both stopped mid-stride just beyond the threshold, blinded by the sudden onslaught of unusually strong light. Unused to such brightness, Astrid had to close her eyes for a few moments. The light was too brilliant and stable to be the result of any amount of candles or fires. If felt magical.

Forcing her eyes open as she heard her uncle's laughter at seeing their reaction, Astrid blinked into the light, then looked around the vast chamber in search of the source of all that luminosity, finding none.

What she did see, though, was that her uncle wasn't alone. The sight of Deimos sitting on a low stool placed on the wooden dais next to his elaborate, gilded throne, confirmed her suspicions-- the light was magic, Deimos' magic which Uncle Arcturus reserved for his private use... She turned to see Orion's face; now, he would have to admit that the beautiful Deimos was a sorceress. But Orion had already recovered from the surprise-- the quickness with which he could compose his features into a smooth mask of polite emotionlessness was something Astrid, whose face was an open book for everyone, admired greatly-- and bowed, reminding her to curtsey to her uncle.

Out of the corner of her eye, Astrid saw Uncle Arcturus nod to someone behind her wordlessly and in no time a servant appeared carrying at first two chairs for her and Orion, and while they sat down, a large, wrought iron brazier filled with coals.

Coal was a rarity only Uncle Arcturus could afford. Astrid had been taught how exhausted the soil of her country was after the centuries of mining, she knew of mines so deep to get to the remaining coal veins that they were horribly unsafe and only the most desperate people worked in them... The thought made her frown. Whenever she asked her tutors why such desperate people existed in the kingdom where the regent and his court lived in luxury, they brushed her questions off...

Orion, knowing Astrid too well not to notice her slipping into a reverie, squeezed her hand to bring her mind back within the walls of the room even as Uncle Arcturus finally addressed her, "So, here you are, my queen."

He laughed again, and Astrid didn't know if it was because he found the notion of her becoming the queen ridiculous, or because of the way Orion jumped when the coals in the brazier standing between the young couple and the regent and his sorceress burst into flames from a single look from Deimos.

That was something that couldn't scare Astrid; she had set too many things on fire in the past to feel stunned now. But she was surprised by the knowing look Deimos gave her when their eyes met-- Deimos... knew about it. And she was... afraid for Astrid, but her setting things on fire wasn't the reason...

Mesmerised by the sorceress' gaze keeping hold of her, she gasped, realising that somehow, at this moment, she was seeing the woman she had seen thousands of times before, for the first time, as if only now Astrid's eyes were allowed to focus on her properly. Astrid had never noticed how different the sorceress looked from the other inhabitants of the castle, that her long, curly hair which she had always perceived to be as dark as Orion's was bright copper, that her eyes were the colour of sea foam, like... like the mysterious man's...
Had Deimos been using magic to cover her real looks, was she permitting Astrid to see her now?

As if she could read her thoughts, the sorceress nodded imperceptibly at Astrid before she looked away, her hair darkening into its usual raven-black as she turned towards the fire, her eyes, dark as they had always been, making the lively flames grow so tall that Astrid could hardly see her uncle through them.

"We, your tutors, my councillors, and I have finally come up with a task for you, child." His voice reached her from beyond the fire, the sentence followed by a bemused chuckle as he corrected himself, "I must stop calling you child, you have been a fully grown adult for a couple of weeks now. Sixteen is such a sweet, magical age, and soon you will be married to this precious young man... Aren't you a lucky woman, Astrid?"

Astrid had never felt close to Uncle Arcturus; she held no feelings for him. But right now, she was beginning to sense a faint dislike spreading in her heart-- his words were making her hair stand on ends, and his voice was scaring her. Uncle Arcturus didn't care about her as Orion and Arabella did; he wouldn't mind if she failed the trial he had designed for her. The thought invaded her mind suddenly, and felt so alien that she looked at Deimos-- Was it the sorceress whispering the truth into her mind?-- but the woman wasn't paying Astrid any attention, her eyes were trained on the dancing flames.

It took all of Astrid's concentration to listen to her uncle as he resumed talking, "But first, let me tell you about your task and send you on your way. We will prepare your wedding before you two return; I believe that you know that our young Orion insists on accompanying you?"

Astrid looked at Orion, and only once that he nodded at her, a firm resolve to join her in whatever was coming shining in his sapphire irises, she replied to the regent, "Yes, Uncle."

Even as she spoke, feeling as if she was sealing her own fate with those words, the flames shifted again, flattening impossibly in the centre of the brazier, creating what looked like a pane of golden glass floating above the coals pulsating with heat. Moving images appeared on the fire screen, and Astrid focused on them, attempting to ignore the trembling, ghost-like forms of Arcturus and Deimos, which she could perceive through the blaze.