The Arranged Marriage (31 page)

“Here it is,” She said as he watched
her pull a piece of paper out of the basket and babbled to him
about what had happened back at the Quart. Ison didn’t know whether
to shout at her or hug her. She took his look as an angry
one.

“Ison, do put your face straight. I
didn’t put myself at risk and I used my senses to guide me, just as
they guided me to you.” She smiled, her smile way too sweet for his
liking as she looked back at the letter.

“What does it say?” He
asked.

Rohesia began to read
aloud:

My Queen,

I am sorry to do this in secrecy but
to have not done so may have put you in greater danger. I am well
respected here due to my ancestry in the Quart but I am not proud
of it, and not many people are. We have been encouraged by the ones
before us to look after what is our own, and to not succumb to the
claims that Ecripian has on our land.

The people here are not bad people,
not even most of those you know as the rebels, but they are being
led into things by their blindness by someone who knows only greed.
I cannot give a name as I only know pieces from the people who hear
things and relay back to me. However, I can honestly say there is a
danger amongst us all that is threatening to erupt from within the
Quart. People are not doing this to start a war, but they feel
badly dealt by Ecripian and see you as the enemy, with one man
stirring things to his advantage.

I must explain, quickly as you will be
here soon so excuse my handwriting. The Quart, even though
represented by the laws of Ecripian, was always seen as the lesser
half. It was never declared as such but felt, which I understand
can be worse. People were only invited to balls and celebrations as
an afterthought and eventually not at all. They were taxed and the
money divided with Ecripian instead of treated as an individual
portion, and if people crossed over into Ecripian they were treated
as strangers not equals. It was evident how people from Ecripian
felt about those from the Quart. We know it is not their fault, or
that of your father’s. But he did wrong by following his ancestors
into the same error of ignorance, and for that mistake the seed of
hatred has been fed and watered. Your father was not a bad man, and
to a degree he was a great ruler, but you will be greater if you
rise above this and unite the worlds as one. We have all been
divided for too long, between the Mookai, Dondayas, and the Quart,
and it is time we fought as one army, one land.

I apologise for my frankness but I
must relay my thoughts to you, as you and your husband are our one
and only chance. You are our future I sense, and I hope that I am
right.

Yours with kindness, a
friend

“Oh my,” Is all Rohesia could say as
she looked up from the parchment. “I never thought.”

“How could you Rohesia? You have only
been a queen for a short amount of time.”

“But a princess all my life.” She
whispered.

“You wouldn’t have known.”

“I should have known Ison, I should
have seen, something. My father would have listened to me, he would
have not let all of that go on knowingly, he wouldn’t.”

He took the letter from her hands and
folded it away into his tunic. He would deal with that
later.

“Your father was doing what he thought
best. He was a good ruler, you know that. Now it is time for you to
do the same, for us to do the same.” He put his hand on her chin
and lifted her face to see her eyes.

“You have been given an opportunity to
understand what is going on, and it was your initiative, your
instinct that discovered that. Without you we wouldn’t have a clue
which way to turn.”

“Again it was luck Ison, as
before.”

“It had nothing to do with luck. None
of it has been. The tunnels, the old mine, today, this letter, this
information? It all leads to you, how you think, how you act.
Rohesia, you have achieved all this, you have already looked passed
what everything that your father, my father, and those before them
saw.”

She shook her head.

“I just can’t believe that all this
started with Ecripian. The way they were treated, we have brought
this on ourselves.”

“No we haven’t. This all boils down to
the fact that someone has found a weakness and is using it to their
advantage. It is not anybody’s fault, but it is our job to put it
right.”

“Oh damnation,” She blurted out
suddenly. “I forgot to tell you about the ring.”

“What ring?”

“The baron, remember? You said he had
left but I don’t think he has. I think you underestimate him and I
think he may be Yena’s lover, I think he may have instigated the
murder of my father.”

“What? Where has all this come
from?”

“Sick, when I was feeling ill, before,
I burst into Yena’s study to use her basin and discovered a ring, a
man’s ring, lying on a piece of twine that Yena must have used to
place it around her neck. It had the baron’s emblem on it, it was
his ring Ison.”

“Rohesia, what are you getting at?” He
could feel his own anxiety rising through him.

“Oh my, I am so stupid. It is all so
clear now.”

“What is?”

“From every point it appears that the
rebels are being geared into this, and now that letter tells us
that one person is instigating this for greed. The baron would have
the funding and capability to that wouldn’t he?”

“Not on his own Rohesia, it would take
a fortune, and he is only a baron. Also, he is not here, when we
checked him out he had left for the Foreign Lands, there was no
sign of him anywhere in Centurias.”

“He could have hidden out. Think about
it, I don’t think you’re giving him enough credit, and I don’t
think it has anything to do with you,” She started to walk back and
forth as she spoke, her mind elsewhere. “He asked for my hand in
marriage, why? To be king that’s why, but when that didn’t work out
he became the lover of Yena and got her with child and had my
father murdered. He is now trying to weaken us with these attacks
in order for us to begin a war with the rebels, and somehow he is
using Yena to do it. Perfect.”

She finally stood still with her hands
on her hips, obviously satisfied with her deduction, but Ison was
dubious.

“That’s a lot of effort for a kingdom
he wouldn’t have actually ruled Rohesia. And there is no way he
would be able to overthrow the kingdom with just the rebels behind
him. ”

“Well, maybe I am not exact in my
thinking, but his ring in her chamber and his proposal to me are
far too much of a coincidence. I am certain the Baron is involved
in this Ison. I had a feeling about him the last time he was near.
He seemed different somehow.”

Ison didn’t know what to think. He had
a wife with child ranting in front of him, about something that
sounded nonsense, but when he thought back to all the times she had
been right. It was when he recalled Fabian’s previous comment about
how well Rohesia listened to herself, when an idea suddenly came to
him.

“I’ll look into it. If I find out he
is still here then I will have him put straight into
custody.”

“Under what charge?” She asked
suspiciously.

“Treason. It will be easily done, and
it is the only charge punishable by death on Centurias.”

“
You are just humouring me
with this aren’t you?” She asked him cautiously.

“I will be honest with you Rohesia, I
cannot make sense of this and I am letting you guide me on it. I am
open to anything at this moment in time but I want you to
understand that there is a possibility you may be
wrong.”

“I may be Ison,” She stated quietly.
“But I will not believe it until I am proved wrong.”

“Very well,” He kissed her lightly on
the brow. “You have done your part, now let me do mine.”

“I will, thank you for listening to
me.”

“
You’re very welcome my
lady, I am sure you can find some way to repay me
later.”

She laughed heartedly as Ison bowed to
her and left the room, joining in with her laughter as he made his
way out of the chamber.

Ison decided not to tell Rohesia that
he was riding out to see Fabian again. He needed to see him alone
without Rohesia as a distraction, and he needed someone else’s
opinion that he could trust regarding the letter they had received.
He hadn’t fully determined yet if the writer behind the letter was
completely genuine anyway. He needed to keep all his options open
until he had worked out which pathway to follow. He hadn’t
requested an invite on this occasion, and he rode out alone with
only his basic arms to protect him. He just hoped that Fabian was
home.

It wasn’t long after he reached the
Traja Oak that Fabian came out to approach him; alone.

“Ison soon-to-be king, how may I
address the pleasure of your visit?”

“I have something I need your council
on. It is of great import, I apologise for the surprise
visit.”

“You come alone?” Fabian
noted.

“I do, Rohesia doesn’t know that I’m
here and there is no need for her to know. This is something I
needed to do alone.”

“Quite persistent when she is on to
something isn’t she? Enough to give anyone a need for some space.”
He smiled to lighten his observation, and instead of being offended
Ison actually felt a certain kinship with Fabian at that moment. It
was a relief to know someone else who had suffered at her hand now
Argarth was gone. Ison nodded in agreement.

“Something like that.”

“Come, have something to eat and we
will talk.”

“What has happened to your entourage?”
He asked as they motioned through the trees.

Fabian looked at him before answering,
as if weighing up the trust between them.

“There are a few politics being thrown
around the Mookai camp at the moment. I have given my people some
time to think about what they want, and on which side they wish to
put themselves.”

“And what sides are they?” He
probed.

“That is Mookai business, but let us
say I have had enough of the old ways,” He suddenly looked very
shy. “Your wife has a way of making one look at himself; inside and
out.”

Ison smiled and was surprised when no
jealously presented itself within him. Either he was spending way
too much time with Rohesia, or because, deep down, he knew there
was nothing that could ever come between them.

“She has a habit of doing that,” He
admitted, knowing that was exactly what she had done to him. “You
eventually come to a point where there is no point in hiding from
it. You can only fight it for so long.”

“Agreed.” He nodded. “She will be a
good queen, although I feel for the men of your
kingdom.”

Ison laughed with him as they stopped
at the tree stump where goblets lay and plates of chicken and bread
were laid out.

“Expecting someone?” He asked as he
sat on the rock positioned by the stump.

“Let’s just say I sensed you before
the Traja. I’ve been sitting up there for a time.”

Ison didn’t probe further. It appeared
Fabian was going through his own problems.

“I have something to show you.” Ison
took out the letter from his tunic and relayed all that had
happened since his last visit, from the attack to Rohesia’s
suspicions. For some reason Ison didn’t want to leave anything out.
He needed some enlightenment on this and stayed silent whilst
Fabian read.

“Help yourself to the food Ison, there
is plenty more.” He advised once he had finished reading the letter
and handed it back.

“And?” Ison encouraged.

“A while back, if you had come to me
with this I would have said that it was non-Mookai business and fed
you some blah de blah about looking within yourself for the
answer.”

“And now?”

“Now I tell you that I worry too.
There is too much going on out there to make sense of it, and I
have finally acknowledged the fact that to beat this we can no
longer stand alone.”

“Is that what is causing the divide
within your camp?”

Fabian nodded.

“The old way of the Mookai has been
seen as cowardice, I am aware of that, but during the War of
Quitize the Mookai had their reasons for staying out of the
battle,” He sighed. “There were few of us and we saw ourselves as
the balance of Centurias. There is no other race known to have the
same sense or instinct that we possess.”

“So your ancestors chose the right to
protect your race?”

“Yes, and to promote that we do not
believe in war. It is a loser’s game.”

“But you don’t quite believe that do
you?” He said gently, surprising himself as well as
Fabian.

“My my, you have been spending a lot
of time with our Rohesia haven’t you Bloodhunter,” He chuckled
before turning serious again. “I understand what the warriors were
doing when they launched a war on Quitize. He was a mad man and he
would have finally eaten into the Foreign Lands until nothing was
sacred. He was poison and the war ridded us of him.”