The Ivory Knight

Chapter 11

"I know who attacked Gervan."

Adeleina's chest flooded with numbing ice. She gripped the seat of her chair and leaned forward, as if she and her father were sharing dark secrets.

"Who?"

King Corandell shook his head.

"Listen," he urged. Adeleina, slightly disgruntled, crossed her arms again. If her father knew who was plaguing their kingdom, why wasn't he taking action? Why was he still sitting here like a mouse in its hole?

"About thirty years ago, my father deemed it necessary for me to marry," he said. Adeleina stared at him as if he'd gone mad. Why on earth was he telling her his life's story now? What did his marriage have to do with anything?

"Wh-" Adeleina began. Her father shook his head again, and Adeleina swallowed her questions angrily.

"I met your mother then."

Adeleina froze.

Her mother.

Never in her life had Adeleina ever learned why she, unlike all the other children, lacked a mother. She'd never been a part of Adeleina's life. Not that she minded; her crooning old nurse and her father were enough to raise her well. She'd never known a mother. Even the word itself sounded strange and alien in her head. Adeleina had always supposed that her mother had died when she'd only been a babe. There were no vague memories of a kindly woman rocking a tiny Adeleina in her arms, only memories of her father tucking her bed, her father showing her how to swing a sword, her father holding her close when the nightmares of a child came. Adeleina simply grew up without a mother, and that was fine with her.

"She was the princess of Orben, the second child in the family," Adeleina's father continued. A vacant look occupied his eyes, as if he were speaking to someone that Adeleina could not see. She'd heard of Orben a few times; the king that ruled there must've been her mother's brother. That made him...her uncle? Adeleina squirmed uncomfortably in her chair. It was strange to think that she had such imminent members of her family whom she'd never met.

"Ingrith of Orben was an exceptional woman; impossibly stubborn and with a temper like a fickle mare. She drew me, like a candle draws a moth. I courted her for a year," King Corandell said. The hollow look that clouded his gaze still lingered, though his tone was marred by a touch of bitterness. Adeleina listened with incredulity, all her former anger forgotten.

"I loved her, but so did another man. He was prince of Seva at the time: a powerful man with a powerful kingdom. He pursued her hand in marriage, as did I. Ingrith, to her credit, saw the cruelty in the prince of Seva. She chose to marry me. Whether her decision was out of love for me or spite of him, I no longer know."

Cruelty? Spite? Adeleina's eyebrows furrowed. Her father wasn't even making sense anymore; he was evidently too far gone in his turmoiled memories. Yet, she didn't dare interrupt him. This was the most he'd ever spoken of her mother. Adeleina hadn't even known her name was Ingrith, for heavens' sake. It was a curious sensation, but she craved to know more. How had she never thought to ask of the woman who'd conceived her?

"After nearly twenty years of marriage, I fell into a false sense of peace. I believed that the prince of Seva, who'd married another woman and even produced a son and heir, no longer loved Ingrith, or even remembered her. "

A horrible, slow feeling was beginning to take root in Adeleina's gut, though she couldn't pinpoint exactly what it was.

"You were born. Immediately thereafter, Ingrith disappeared. She left everything behind: her belongings, her husband, and her newborn daughter. I found nothing of her departure but a single note. She told me she no longer wanted to be my wife, that she'd found love in someone else, that she begged me to not come looking for her."

A terrible anger burst inside Adeleina, who kept her eyes glued to the cold tiles of the floor as she listened to her father's trembling words. They had been abandoned, she when she'd only been a few days old. She'd always thought of her mother as someone who'd been forced away from her family by a cruel force like death, and it came as a rocking horror to find that her mother had left her family of her own free will. Adeleina was surprised to see a fat droplet fall from her eye, splashing to the ground. Her hands reached up to scrub at her damp eyes. She would not weep for a woman who'd caused so much pain to her father. No, that would not do.

"I'm sorry," Adeleina heard herself say in a very small voice. She herself didn't know exactly what she was apologizing for. Was it her guilt at being so difficult when her father was dealing with a crisis? Was it because of her shared sorrow that her mother had abandoned her? Was it out of compassion for her father, who'd mistakenly believed for twenty years that his wife, gods forbid, loved him?

"Don't be," her father reached out and ruffled her hair affectionately, mussing up the thin strands. Adeleina giggled weakly, hiccoughing slightly. "None of this is your fault."

"Still," Adeleina wiped away another tear that escaped her eye. "It's not your fault either," she told her father fiercely. If Ingrith of Orben had so cruelly abandoned her father, she was no mother of Adeleina. A mother and wife did not simply abandon her family.

"So you think the king of Seva is the one attacking our borders?" Adeleina asked, directing the discussion back to more important and less sentimental matters. King Corandell shrugged uncertainly.

"I can only guess," he said. "We've no evidence yet, and attacking Seva without certain provocation could mean an unneccesary war. I have no desire to spill any more blood than required to keep my kingdom safe."

Adeleina groaned in despair.

"What are you going to do, then?"

"Right now, we can only prepare for a battle. There's nothing to do but wait."

"For what?"

"For certainty."

Adeleina frowned at her father.

"That's no answer," she protested.

"No, it's not," King Corandell agreed absentmindedly. His thoughts were a thousand miles away, too far for Adeleina to fathom. He shook his head again, like a dog shaking water from its ears. "Well, Adeleina, I have much to do," he stood up, groaning at the stiffness in his knees. Adeleina stood, too. She stretched slightly in an attempt to ease the tightness in her back and legs.

"You should sleep first," she told the King, feigning reprimand. He smiled at that, and his cheeks creased wrinkles around his eyes.

"That I should. At this moment, I desire nothing more than to lock myself away in my chambers and doze the day away," he admitted, rubbing his eyes. "But," he continued regretfully, "Sir Estwick informs me that the court line stretches all the way out the door, and it may be a while yet before my duties are over for the day."

"I can attend the court cases for today," Adeleina hurriedly offered. She'd seen her father's rulings before, and surely she could step in as a passable substitute for a while. "You look worn to the bone."

King Corandell laughed and patted her shoulder dismissively, before striding past her to exit the room.

Adeleina watched him go, bewildered by the tale her father had told her, and, even more than that, wracked with an inexplicable, foreboding worry.