Darkness and Beauty (The Fated Series, #1)

Chapter 49 - Lance - Sleep Talking

I hear soft footsteps and wake up instantly, senses alert. Kat's still on my lap, her head on my shoulder as she sleeps. I heard Fauna and Darius walk out not too long ago, and have been sleeping lightly since. Now the door opens again and the King walks in. He looks over at me with blank, tired eyes. I go to stand but he stops me with a raised hand. He looks like he just found out that his wife died in childbirth. She's sleeping – not dead. Though I do double-check that she's unharmed and still breathing. Something I think has become a habit since she's fallen asleep and I come in and out of sleep.
He walks over to the cradles and I slide my hand in easy reach of my blade. I don't think that he'll kill either one of them, but you can never be too sure. Stories of Kings and Queens alike have been told for centuries, doing unspeakable things to ensure their reign is a long and unthreatened one. Killing brothers, sisters, parents, and children. Babies, more specifically. A baby boy birthed of any royal bloodline is a threat. With this world's hierarchy, female babes, not so much, but I have a feeling that point of view will change given the women currently overtaking their thrones and their husbands.
Claritia kept the whole twin thing a secret from us for her reason of surprise, but I don't know if he knew until now. Darius might've told him if they ran into each other, but I know they don't necessarily have an exemplary relationship.
Come to think of it, I haven't seen King Neven that much at all since we've been here. He doesn't come to visit the Queen and rarely walks the halls. I've only seen him outside of his room in the past few days for the Festival. I haven't really concerned myself with him since Aillard's always near him – and we all know how I feel about him - but it's odd to see such rarity of the person who technically has to keep the kingdom running. There haven't been councils called nor has Court been held for years. What runs on Vandarian soil has been run by its people, not its King. Not as far as I'm concerned. Yet here he is, present for his children's birth. Well, their first day in this world, that is.
I didn't want to ask the Queen about his scarcity and negligence when I did remember that we have a thing called a King. If she wanted to talk about it, then she'd talk about it. Fauna hasn't mentioned Darius saying anything about it, and I did notice how awfully close they were standing earlier. I told her to be careful cycles ago, and I trust her to know that she is. I probably would've scolded her into oblivion that would've made my father proud for the look that was in her eyes when she watched Siscilla hand Darius his baby sister. A look that said enough about what decision - what risk - my little sister decided to take despite the lessons of the past and the dangers of the future. I made that same decision and held my breath when I did because I knew just how quickly it could all go wrong, and just how fast you could lose it all right after you find it. There may never be a time when I don't fear what making that decision can bring about.
  Fear controls what love doesn't want to lose, and despite what we've been hardened into and taught the hard way around, my sister and I love more deeply than I think anyone really knows.
I watch as the King walks to Clarita. His eyes look so...old. Weary. He moves slowly as if someone's draining the life from his body, and he's just moving with whatever he's got left. When you think of the King, you don't see the man standing in the room now. He's never publicly done something that no other King would, but he's been absent and cruel through other means. Through negligence. He drains the people. The town of Fernweh may look like it's thriving, but that's only Howler Street where the wealthiest and most successful businessmen stand. There are vendors all along the street, but everything they have on their tables is the same objects as they were a month ago. No one can afford the pleasantries, so the people who crowd the streets every day are only admiring the sights and greeting one another once again. Just another routine in their day rather than a thing they do to treat themselves or their families.
There are only a few factories left still standing, and all those workers who desperately needed a job when they closed either found a job here or looked elsewhere for them. They'd go all throughout Vandaria in search of work, and when they found the towns just as bad as the capital, they went to the neighboring kingdoms. This town used to be just as crowded everywhere as Howler Street is now - or so I vaguely remember years ago - but the east and western portions have lost their residents. Even after late Queen Adeline told them to wait, they couldn't very well pay their taxes to do so. Those who are left are depending on their jobs to stay in business, and those who have to take a trader's work aren't here often. It's hard to save a kingdom when all that's left are the bones and a few atrophied muscles, but we all do what we can.
He sits on the bed and looks down at his sleeping wife. She doesn't wake, doesn't move when he puts his hand on hers. A memory of my father doing the same to my mother flashes in a blink, and for a second, I see my mother lying on the bed. I see her long dark hair and sunkissed skin, and those soft hands that meant home. I see the woman who was always smiling and putting a hand on my shoulder. I see her, and then she's gone again, leaving the Queen to open her green eyes.
"Neven?"
"It's alright. Go back to sleep," he tells her, gently touching her shoulder to keep her from sitting up.
She starts to blink the sleep from her eyes, checking her shoulder for the two still occupied cribs. "Are the babies-"
"They're asleep, Clarry."
I flinch at the nickname. Will used to call Fauna that as a secondary to her middle name alias. Despite their closeness, she never told him her real name. Sometimes I think it's the only smart decision she made when it came to him.
The Queen looks around the room, searching for someone. "Where's Darius?"
"He..." I squint as the King hesitates to answer, watching his breathing and searching myself for any tells of a lie. I don't get more than a nervous deep breath that shakes a little when he inhales. "He went to his rooms."
"Neven-"
"Clarry, you've had a long day. Please, rest." She doesn't listen and instead sits up. They sit there, not saying anything, just staring at each other. I feel like I'm intruding on something very personal, but I don't move to get up. Instead, I look away but make sure to keep them in my peripheral.
The Queen once asked me what I would do if it came down to a choice between her children and her husband. Cycles ago when she asked me, I couldn't believe that she was. My answer was a hesitant one then, but now it's definite. I pray to the Gods and their Saints that he doesn't make me choose - that he does what he's done for the past few years and just does nothing. I may have rumors in every ear in every tavern or on the lips of eagerly loose tongued gossipers, but the last thing I need is to add King Killer to my list of names. Don't think that'd go over well with many people.
"What's wrong?" I hear her ask.
"Nothing. I just...I wished you would've told me you were having twins," he answers. He really does sound tired. It has me glancing over really quickly to look at him again, only this time it's out of curiosity about what he's really been doing to have heavy fatigue weighing on him.
"I'm sorry, I thought that-"
"Don't apologize." My shoulders square a little at his tone, only when I look over again I find her cradled in his arms.
I clearly missed something in the hour I've been asleep.
He sets his chin gently on the top of her head. "You've given me more than enough. Even before you were pregnant with them."
Claritia starts crying, and I quickly look away. Neglectful as King Neven has been, it seems to me that perhaps he'll come to be the King we've been needing and greatly missing.
The room drifts back into silence and I close my eyes but keep myself wide awake. Not because I think Neven will make a bad decision, but because there are now four royals I'm in charge of. Aillard is no doubt standing at the door, but with the number of tunnels beneath the castle, I'm not entirely convinced that one of them doesn't lead into this room. There have been too many for me and Fauna to try and map out, and the library has come up empty with sources of information or maps. Kat checked with the Head Scholar and he didn't have a clue as to what tunnels she was referring to. Whoever had them made must've had the plans burned a long time ago. Claritia didn't even know that her son explored them when he got free of his nursemaid. She says he got an earful of how stupid it was for him to do so. It only got worse when Thomas told her of the several times they used the tunnels to sneak into town the other night. She knew he had a secret way of getting past the guards and the wall, but she didn't think he had been walking through the sewers beneath the city.
"I want to go back to my rooms," Claritia says in between her sniffles.
"Clarry-"
"Come with me. Please - just for one night."
He doesn't answer right away, and she keeps begging, until, "Alright."
I open my eyes again, finding them both already moving. I try to carefully wake up Kat, but two taps of my hand on her knee and she shoots upright. She relaxes when she finds no threat – which I suppose is from being around me and Fey too much – but she stiffens when she sees the King. Her glare says enough about how she feels about me not waking her sooner. It only flares hotter when I smile at how cute she looks when non-verbally threatening to end my life.
"Arthur, could you grab the babes please?" I completely freeze for a whole ass long second before nodding at the King's request. Not sure what I was necessarily expecting, but a please and a question rather than an outright snapped order was not at all even close to making the list.
The twins have small flower crowns on their heads, likely my sister's doing. It makes them look ten times cuter than they have any right to be. I try and slip my hands beneath Allerick's head and body as delicately as possible. Siscilla said their wails could break glass, and I'd rather not have blood dripping from my ears anytime soon. He stays quiet as I bring him against my chest, and I start to slightly bounce on my toes when his arms move to try and soothe him back to sleep. I don't know what in the hells is soothing about bouncing, but it seems to work. Kat does the same with Aurelia and I can't help but smile at the sight.
Neven picks up his wife in his arms, and then we all head back to the Queen's chambers. One of the healers who was with Siscilla during the birth had just made it down the stairs as we walked out. I told her to follow us to the rooms and then she could notify Siscilla that we'd moved. Aillard looked prone to snatching Allerick out of my arms, but one look at the King, and he refrained. He's an ungrateful little twit who deserves a beating, but I don't think beating him with a baby in one arm is as fun as it sounds. Not to mention that Claritia would likely behead me if I did.
There are already two cradles set in one of the extra rooms that Lena must've brought in while we were gone. I would've thought they'd be in the bedroom or with a nursemaid on the other side of the castle, but I suppose that things are run differently with Claritia.
Neven takes her to the bedroom, Kat, the healer, and I head into the sitting room. We lay the twins in the cradles and I leave the healer and Kat to check on them while I go to the bedroom to make sure the Queen's still alive. Call me overprotective. I find Claritia and Neven lying beneath the blankets, her tucked into his side. It's nice to see her happy without someone having to crack a joke or me playing the piano to sing her to sleep. He still looks wistful, but he holds her close.
Another memory of my parents flickers, but this time it's my father I see. The bags beneath his eyes, the distant look as if he's still wandering his mind through an assignment. It's how I last remembered him before everything turned to hell. Content, but not happy.
A blink, and he disappears. Just like mom.
With one last look around the room, I wink at Claritia who noticed me in the doorway and close the doors.