Page 3 of The Moon Blessed King
He draws her in to kiss her brow once more, then gently pulls away. She keeps her fingers around his wrists, not willing to be parted. ‘I’m tired,’ he murmurs.
She guides him to the kitchen table and sits him in a simple wooden chair, hardly befitting a king. He does not seem to notice or care. He sinks into it. Fen kneels at his side, just like she used to when she was a much smaller girl and wanted to hear all hisadventures. ‘Lio said you were held separately from him for most of your time in Alelune.’ He nods listlessly. ‘What happened to you?’
‘Nothing,’ he replies.
‘Nothing?’
‘Their…scientist, Eline de Carsay, wanted to know how Givers worked. How we could heal and how our powers restored someone from death. But there was nothing she could do to me that lasted more than a few moments at a time. It is the truth: nothing happened to me. I’m fine, and I always will be.’
‘Just because something doesn’t last doesn’t mean it didn’t happen,’ she murmurs.
He changes the subject. ‘Father wrote you a letter before he died.’ He speaks strangely now, stilted and slow, like there is a flow to the conversation that he missed at some point and he can only manage a few thoughts at a time. ‘He wrote to all of us…I have not read mine. I need to give Lio his.’
‘Before we were sent here, Father said Uncle Anslian was going to assassinate him.’
‘That was the plan,’ Elician agrees.
‘But Lio says Anslian did not kill him…’
‘He didn’t. Hopefully that’s in the letter.’
‘Why didn’t you read yours?’
‘I’m tired,’ Elician says again.
‘Lio says you haven’t been sleeping.’
‘Lio says a lot of things.’
‘I think he’s scared for you.’
Somehow, Elician’s shoulders manage to slump even more. ‘He always is,’ he says, reaching into his shirt and removing a packet of envelopes. He flicks through them until he finds the one with her name on it and then passes it over. She does not open it.
‘Why did Father lie to me,’ Fen asks, ‘about Uncle Anslian?’
‘He was trying his best to die, and you and Cat kept getting in his way. Maybe you made him mad. I don’t know. But he lied to makesure the lie was believed, and so that you’d finally stop interfering,’ Elician spits out.
‘You’re angry with him. About what he did?’
‘He used me as bait to lure Queen Alenée into a trap that ended with three dead members of both royal families. Four, if we count Lio. I’mfuriouswith him.’
‘Are we counting Lio?’
‘Yes. What if I hadn’t been in time?’ he asks. ‘What if I hadn’t been able to save him? Father and Anslian would have still died, and that would have left Adalei to do…what? Pretend? Hope she finds someone else to love after six years of courting?’
‘You can always find someone to love too,’ Fen murmurs. ‘You’re more than capable of having children. Of continuing the line on your own. Adalei doesn’t need to be the one to do it.’
‘I have never loved anyone,’ Elician refutes. ‘She will always be my heir.’
‘You could, you know. Love someone.’
‘Maybe I could,’ he concedes. She searches his face, looking for a sign or a hint of something more. He does not glance up towards the stairs, nor does he seem to be thinking of anything or anyone in particular. He speaks slowly and hopelessly, as if the very notion is beyond his ability to comprehend. ‘It does not matter in any case. I will never have children, and so it is Adalei who will be my heir.’
‘Don’t you want children?’ she asks.
‘I don’t want to watch them die. I’m already going to watch all of you die – why would I invite more pain into my life? I’ve already had more than enough of that, thanks.’
Fen bites her lip. She twists the fabric of her dress in her hands, then stands just to do something else with herself. She gets him food, water, changes the topic. ‘I did what you said, you know.’
