The Twilight Saga: Summer Moon (Fanfiction)

17. Invitation

Renesmee

It had been two days since we returned from village. Some changes, that were necessary for our stay in the tower, were made in these two days.

The so called tower was not just a tower anymore. Edmund and other wizards had changed it totally. Now it looked more like a fortified castle. The very room in which we were staying had turned into a grand hall. Instead of the wild flowers and trees, the tower or more properly the castle was now surrounded by huge walls. Our castle was not as big as Elizabeth's. But it ensured our safety and our stay. I was totally amazed at this outstanding work of the wizards. In such a less time they had managed to create this.

Time. That was the only problem. Time was less and there was so much to prepare. All that had clogged my brain was, what will be Elizabeth's strategy? Are we ready to face them? What was she going to do with the captives? Will we find Emilie's parents?

I had no answers to these questions. All I had was support. Support of my family, friends and Jacob.

Jacob had totally engrossed himself into the preparations. He had started listening to Edmund and this made me happy. Finally, everybody was working in complete unity.

It was when I and Edmund were sitting in the hall and looking at the map of the island, when he said.

"Look, this is our position and this is Elizabeth's castle."

He was keeping his finger on the respective places on the map.

"If we start in morning, we can make it to her castle by noon." he continued.

"What do you think? Will she try to talk?", I asked him. An another question that was troubling me.

"I cannot say anything.", he replied, not looking at me.

"What do you mean by I cannot say anything?", I asked him, confused and frustrated, "She's your sister. Who could know her better than you?", I continued.

He smiled now and rubbed his temple with his index finger.

"No man, on this earth, has been so lucky that can understand a woman.", he replied, his smile widened, touching his eyes.

This made me to smile too.

"I am asking about her basic nature.", I explained.

He looked at me, smiling a little and asked.

"What do you think?"

"I think she'll talk to you or more properly to say, she'll talk only to you. Maybe, persuade you to join her." I replied, not meeting his gaze.

"And do you think she'll succeed?", he asked me with a raised eyebrow.
"I count on you. You'll take a wise decision.", I replied, looking at his face.
He took my hands into his, making it a bit awkward for me.
"Then you know, what my decision's gonna be.", he replied, looking straight into my eyes. I was unable to move, unable to resist his stare. He was doing it again. He had locked me into his eyes.
"Renesmee?", I recognised that it was Jacob. It made Edmund to look in his direction and I was able to free my hands as well as the complete me, from his grip.
"What was happening here?", Jacob asked. He sounded as if he was irritated. It was also reflecting from his eyes. And also, the continuous stare, he was giving to Edmund, explained that.
"I am so sorry Renesmee.", Edmund replied looking at me. Then he looked at Jacob and said, "Sorry Jacob. It's very difficult to control my feelings when I am around Renesmee."
"Then you should start giving it a try.", replied Jacob with clenched teeth.
"Jacob, please, keep calm.", I tried to make him understand. Jacob moved back, but continued giving him those deadly stares.
"Now, please leave, I want to talk to Edmund.", I said to him again.
Now, he was giving me those stares.
"Nessie?", he asked, as if he had heard something wrong.
"Alone.", I said again, not meeting his gaze.
He kept on standing there for a while, gave bad looks to Edmund and finally, walked out of the room, to give us some privacy.
I was gathering all my courage to talk to Edmund. It had been quite difficult for me to talk to him, after knowing about his affection for me.
"Edmund...", I started.
"Please, Renesmee.", he said, cutting off my sentence. I looked at him.
"I know what you wanna talk about.", he said and he walked over to window. Staring outside, not looking at me, he said.
"I am sorry. The more I try to control myself, the more it gets difficult for me."
He looked at me again and said.
"You have to be patient."
Again, it was difficult to reply, so I didn't met his gaze and replied.
"I can be patient, Edmund. But you must not stop trying. You have to make yourself understand that, the only relationship I can have with you, is, of a friend."
I looked at him, after finishing. He turned his face towards the window again. He mumbled something under his breath and so I was only able to make out the word difficult.
"I promise you, Renesmee, I'll never stop trying. But..", he looked at me again.
"...I can never stop loving you. It's like breathing. My love for you will end only when this body of mine...will stop...breathing.", he said, in earnest passion.
"Edmund, please, don't say that word again. You're as important as Jacob is to me.", I replied, once again, not looking at him. I had fixed my stare on my feet.
"If only I was..", he said and continued looking out of the window.
I had asked Jacob to leave, just because I wanted to talk to Edmund in privacy, but now, I was out of words. Totally blank. I didn't know what to say.
I was still busy in fumbling through my thoughts when I heard, extremely feeble footsteps. I was definite that these were coming from outside the castle. But I couldn't identify the scent, neither it was a vampire, nor a werewolf and even not a wizard. Then who?
"What's he doing here?", Edmund said, looking out of the window. He was very attentive suddenly.
"Who's here?", I asked. Edmund took to his heels before I could complete my sentence.
"Let's go.", he said and led me out of the hall.
When we reached outside, we saw a man who looked more like a knight, standing on the gate. The wolf gang was already there, growling at the unexpected visitor. The knight was telling them what he was here for but, obviously, the wolf gang was not listening to that.
"Let him in. He's just a messenger. He'll do no harm.", Edmund said to the wolves.
The wolves agreed after a long stare in the messenger's direction, their growls, continued. The messenger walked over to us.
"Why are you here, Simon?", Edmund asked the messenger.
"Prince Edmund, I have a message for you and Miss Renesmee Cullen, from Queen Elizabeth.", he replied, ready to open the royal letter.
Edmund quickly glanced at me and then replied.
"We're not in a mood to entertain anybody. You may go."
"No.", I disagreed. Edmund looked at me, surprised, "Tell us about the message.", I continued.
"But Ness..."
"Edmund please.", I requested him. He kept on giving me that look for a long while but finally, he turned towards the messenger.
"Okay, tell us what's the message."
The messenger unfolded the royal later and began.
"Queen Elizabeth, on behalf of Sir William Wavell, Colin Havelock and Henry Campbell, challenges you for a fight.
The winner gets the kingdom and the Queen ensures the freedom of the captives. The one who loses, has to surrender.
The fight will start, two days from now at day break in the opening in front of the Queen's castle. If you're not present there by that time, the Queen will attack your castle.
The Queen's decision is final and irrevocable. No one, except Prince Edmund, is allowed to talk to the Queen, before the fight."
Elizabeth.

The messenger finished reading, folded the parchment and looked at us to see if we had any questions. As far as we were concerned...we had nothing to say.
"Tell your Queen, that we'll see her, day after tomorrow, at day break." said Edmund and looked at me.
"Will Prince Edmund like to talk to the Queen?", the messenger inquired before he could leave.
At this moment, I looked at Edmund. He was already looking at me. Maybe he was waiting for my reply.
I smiled and nodded. His expressions remained the same. Finally, he turned towards the messenger and replied.
"No. You may go now.", Edmund replied and turned around. He started for the castle, at once, not looking at me again.
The messenger, walked out through the gates. He didn't look satisfied.
I knew that Elizabeth will try everything to get Edmund to her side. Maybe she'll succeed in doing that..or..maybe not. I was confused because of Edmund's mood swings. He was difficult to understand. It was upto him what he wanted to do, but what he was doing, I thought, he was doing that because of me. And he was doing that for me because he loved me, and I didn't want him do that for me. That's how the things were.
I decided to take the risk. I was going to talk to Edmund, once again. I know it was going to be difficult for me. I was a confident person but in front of Edmund, I never found words. And it had become all the more difficult after that incident. I was a bit angry and anger always gives you strength of doing the greatest reckless things. And what I was doing, was one of them.
I started for the hall and I knew that I'll have to encounter Jacob, before going in front of Edmund. Both these guys were driving me insane.
Jacob followed me quietly until we reached the hall. I turned around to face him. I looked at him with my eyebrows raised.
"What?", he asked.
I don't know why Jacob was doing this to me. He knew me from my cradle. He knew that I was going to talk to Edmund and he wanted to be a part of that. But I was thinking it from Edmund's prospective. He was never going to share anything with me, in front of Jacob. That is what his basic nature was.
"You know what.", I replied, keeping my expressions same.
He knew what I was going to say next. Without any warning, he entered into the hall. I followed him.
"Jacob...", I tried to stop him.
He walked over to Edmund, who was still standing on the window.
"Dude, please, tell us about your problem, otherwise my girlfriend will not be able to sleep at night."
Edmund surprisingly looked at Jacob and then at me. And as the words had already came out of Jacob's mouth, there was nothing much that I could do.
Edmund didnt change his expression, rather he was now lost in deep thoughts.
"Jacob I don't think it's the right time.", I said.
"No, Ness, it's okay. I know you're worried about me. And when you're worried..", he said smiling a little, "Jacob gets automatically worried."
Jake and I looked at each other and smiled.
"Edmund, when you share things, you feel good.", Jake said placing his hand on Edmund's shoulder.
Edmund looked at me and Jacob. I nodded. He smiled. He was now ready to share his feelings.
"Why are you not going to meet Elizabeth?", I put forth the first question.
"I am not going to answer that.", he scoffed.
"Edmund, don't make me to use my wolf methods.", warned Jacob.
Edmund smiled. This time, his smile touched his eyes.
"I am sorry Jacob, that I didn't answer Renesmee's question.", he replied, still smiling. He turned towards me and said.
"I don't think there's any need to do that. You and I know what she'll say and what she'll try to do. So there's no point of going there and wasting our time, when there are still ton of preparations to do."
"So you're not going to meet your sister because of the preparations?", I asked with my eyebrows raised. Edmund instantly realised that it was a tricky question, so he replied with full confidence.
"Yes."
"I never expected such stupidity from you.", I said in all seriousness.
"Then always remember...expectations hurt.", he replied in a very different manner. He looked angry, as his eyes blazed through me when he was replying. It was very shocking. I could have never imagined Edmund, acting this weird.
I moved back, he had numbed me.
"You're right..", I said, fighting back the tears in my eyes, "Expectations hurt. But friends never hurt."
The last line was barely coming out of my mouth, as my throat was heavy.
"Ness.."
"Edmund...please! Jacob, let's go.", I said, taking Jacob's hand in mine. Tears had already started to run down my cheeks. Jacob was furious and so I made Jacob to come out with me, still I could feel Edmund, staring my back.