The Balance (First Draft | Discontinued)

Chapter 11 (Runa)

Runa was still breathing heavily for quite some time after Ari left. She hadn't meant to get quite so angry with him, but it was as if she couldn't help it. Why was it that children were too young to have any true malice but could always stick the knife exactly where it would hurt the most?

Standing, she sighed and went back over to the window, looking out at the city below. Sun shining bright off the clay-tiled rooftops, ships with their billowing sails out in the pale waters beyond the harbor, verdant evergreens looming next to windowed shops and townhouses... her city in her country, but one day it would all be Ari's. Sighing again, she turned away.

She wondered, not for the first time, how a child like Ari had resulted from her and Marek of all people. He may have looked like her, but there was something so... soft about him, even for a child, that she'd never had when she was younger. On the one hand, she knew it would cause him issues as a ruler, but on the other, she wanted to protect it, protect him.

When she had found out that she was pregnant, she'd been more than a little upset. She had been haunted by the idea of having to bear King Ulrik's children, and although his death had spared her from that, Marek wasn't a better option. Ulrik was dangerous in the way that a wild boar was: full of rage and out of control, especially when he did not get his way. But Marek... he was far more of a threat.

He was a good lover, a good advisor, and she grudgingly had to admit that he was a good opponent— one that she could not get rid of just yet. He was not, however, the kind of man that she ever wanted to have a hold over her, and a child was just another weakness to exploit in his eyes. Ari was a danger to her from the moment he was conceived, either as a bargaining chip or as a legacy of his father. Luckily, Ari was nothing like him. Even better, he had no inclination to even speak to his father, and it seemed like the disinterest was mutual for Marek.

He hardly has an inclination to speak to you at the moment, Runa thought, and closed her eyes. She would have to mend the situation with her son later. Right now, she had more immediate issues to deal with. Aleksander Jelen had arrived back from his mission in Feirvangen, without what she had demanded. Again.

And so Runa made her way down to the drawing room. It was the same room that she had been in when she had sent Aleksander to Feirvangen, so it was only fitting that it was where his mission ended. She pulled out one of the chairs at the polished oak table and sat, waiting. It wasn't long before one of the soldiers entered, a young man with thick, flaxen hair and an extremely pointed chin. He bowed low.

"What's your name, soldier?" she asked.

"Erlend Valdssen, my queen."

"And you are one of Jelen's men?"

"Yes, my queen."

"Tell me what happened in Feirvangen."

He nodded once, and she listened patiently as he recounted the events. Apparently, Aleksander had caused a scene in the town, chasing after a young woman and fracturing the jaw of one of the townspeople who had tried to stop him. The woman was seen in a white-and-red uniform by another soldier, and her and Aleksander had disappeared into the woods. Aleksander had come back a while later, bloodied and bruised but with no captive in tow and no metal bracelet as proof of death. All of the bracelets on Runa's arms shifted and clinked as she folded her hands in her lap.

"I see," she said when Valdssen had finished. "Bring him in."

The soldier bowed again and left. Moments later, he returned with Aleksander following him. Runa's eyes passed over Valdssen entirely and focused on the other man, who was now kneeling in front of her as was expected.