The Gypsy Queen (51 page)

 
Yana
’s shadow was cast over him from four lights, and he was not darkened by her shadow. Red and gold emanated from him. It did pale, as he struggled to get up. Was that what Luba had meant all along? Follow Bastion? Was it her own fate she had been running from?

  “Treason!” Bastion shouted at her.
Yana
was startled.

  “You have betrayed me,
Yana
,” Bastion said, his voice soaked in pain. “It was not enough to leave me? Not enough
to go with another? You betray
me?”

 
Yana
backed up a few steps. If she had ever been afraid of Bastion, it was never more so than now.

  “Bastion,” she said, cut off by his outrage.

  “
King
Bastion, you damned gypsy!” he said, getting to his feet.
Yana
looked around, horrified. People were gathering. She backed up some more.

  “I decree you are guilty of treason!” Bastion boomed, summoning all his strength. “You are guilty of high treason!” 
Yana
had no words.

  “Get out of this
kingdom
, and never return,
Yana
,” he growled. “If you ever enter this
kingdom
again, you’ll be hanged for treason.”

 
Yana
tried to speak again, and failed, her pleading eyes only causing him agony.

  “Get out,” he said.

 
Yana
picked up her bow and ran, terrified, back into the King’s passage. She scraped along the sides in a panic, stumbling over Draiman’s dead friend Gunari, that Bastion had stabbed in their attack. Only her deep urgency to flee kept her from complete collapse. She emerged on the other side, fell to her knees, and screamed into the night air. The first light of sunrise was creeping up behind
her, as she fell into the dirt
and cried, all alone at the foot of Bastion’s mountain.

_______________________

The Gypsy Queen- CHAPTER 29- “undone”

  Bastion collapsed, los
ing blood. The night watchmen
rushed to him.

  “King Bastion,” one of them said, sounding like he was far away.

  “Get me to the palace,” Bastion mumbled. “Hurry.”

  They lifted him up, a man under each shoulder, and they hustled toward the palace. The toes of Bastion’s boots dragged along the ground, as he fought to stay conscious. The men entered the palace, both shouting to the guards at the entrance.

  “Get the doctor!” they shouted. The guards bolted down a hall, as the two watchmen tried to stop the bleeding. One man tore his shirt off, and tied it high up on Bastion’s leg, as tight as he could. The doctor came out, dragged from sleep, and took over.

  “Get him to my room!” he shouted. The men lifted Bastion back up under his arms, and followed. The doctor hastily lit his oil lamps, and set up a mirror, angling the reflection of the candlelight back onto his table for
extra
light. He got Bastion ready, and cleaned the wound.

  “That’s a damn lucky slice,” the doctor told the King. “Any worse and you’d already be gone.”

  Bastion’s leg hurt badly. He thought of the doctor’s words. For him to be already dead would be a kindness. His beloved had betrayed him, a far worse injury, far more painful.

  “I’m going to stitch up this leg,” the doctor said. “You may want to drink some rum first,” he said, handing over a bottle. “I have something I can put on it to ease the pain, but it won’t help much.”

  “No. No drink. Just go,” Bastion said, thinking of the young Dimmie, who bravely faced the same kind of in
jury on the battlefield that
night. He would do no less. The doctor began, threading Bastion’s skin. He gritted his teeth and bore the pain as long as he could. Before the doctor could finish, he finally passed out, his last conscious breath affording only one word.

  “
Yana
....”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~  

 
Yana
careened into the west meadows as the sunrise encroached over the city walls into the meadow. She staggered with determination. She got to her wagon, and began preparations. She hooked up her horse, Kuta, to her wagon. Her own caravan of gypsy friends watched her in silence, but not for long.

  “Where are you going?” Jaelle said, Emilee coming up behind her.

  “I am leaving this
kingdom
,”
Yana
said, her voice cold and hard.

  “But where are you going?” Emilee said. “You aren’t going with Draiman, are you?”

  “Draiman is dead. I killed him,”
Yana
said. “The Ursari wagons are already gone.”

  “You killed Draiman?” Luba said, having left Dimmie to see her. “Aren’t you going to wait until we are well enough to travel?”

  “I have been banished from the
k
ingdom
forever,” Yana said. “I go now.”

  “Banished?” Luba said. “By who?
”

  “Who do you think?”
Yana
snarled.

  “Dimmie got hurt in a battle last night,” Luba said. “You should come see him.”

  “What battle?”
Yana
said, tugging a strap, getting her wagon ready.

  “We fought with Bastion and the black riders,” Emilee said. “We helped him battle an army! The Ursari tribe was working with them to overthrow the King.”
Yana
stopped what she was doing.

  “What kind of army?” she said.

  “Hundreds of men, Moldavians, from Kaffa,” Emilee said. “You should have seen Bastion fight! We beat the army and set more slaves free too!”

  “I think I have seen the last of Bastion,”
Yana
said. “This is where we say goodbye, my friends,” Luba was angry with her.

  “What about Lyubov?” she said.
Yana
nodded her head, and went to Lyubov’s wagon, and climbed inside. Lyubov woke, hearing her come in.

  “Goodbye, Lyubov,” she said. She would cry, but her tears were all spent. “Ya tebya lublu,” she told the old woman, kissing her forehead. “I’m free now.”

  “You not free,
Yana
,” Lyubov replied. “Not free.”
Yana
left the wagon, not wanting conversation.

  “I will come with you!” Emilee said, when she came out. “We will meet you!” She was desperate for her friend.

  “I am going alone,”
Yana
said. “Don’t follow me.” She hopped up on the bench of her wagon, and released the brake.

  “Travel well,” she bid them, and snapped the reins. Her horse faithfully pulled forward, and she headed east. Her friends all watched in disbelief, as
Yana
left them all behind.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

  Bastion sat in his bed, his Uncle Otta next to him. Nico and Obadiah came in and joined them.

  “You know, you really should stick to the palace,” Nico said. “I don’t think you’re cut out for field work,” he joked with the King.

  “Yeah,” Bastion said. “I will send Otta out with the black riders next time.”

  “I think I will stay here in the palace too,” Otta said. “A fight like last night should be the last for an old man like me.”

  “Sorry I missed the action
,
boys,” Obadiah said. “I have just been busy trying to finish the stone work.”

  “How is it coming?” Bastion said.

  “The towers are about finished,” Obadiah said. “All I have left is your project in the west meadows.” He thought about it for a moment. “Do you still want me to complete that project, Sire? We are far along.”

  “Yes,” Bastion said. “Finish the work.” Obadiah knew the story of last night, including Bastion declaring treason on
Yana
.

  “What are you going to do, Sire?” Nico asked.

  “There is little I can do,” Bastion replied. Otta spoke up to explain.

  “A decree of treason cannot be undone,” Otta said. “It cannot be pardoned, and it cannot be rescinded. If
Yana
comes back into
Jedikai
, she will be hung for treason.”

  “You... can’t fix it?” Obadiah said. “That is a harsh punishment, Sire.”

  “I wish I could undo it,” Bastion said. “I still love her. But she did commit treas
on. I cannot change what she chose to do
, and now, I cannot change her penalty for it.”

  “Now you know what it is to be King,” Otta said. “Your father endured sacrifice, too.”

  “Otta, was my mother a gypsy?” Bastion asked.

  “Yes. She was a beautiful gypsy woman,” Otta said.

  “Was she happy here in the city?”

  “She was happy with the King. She chose this life. She did not travel very much after marrying your father, but she managed. She loved you dearly,” Otta said.

  “Why didn’t my father ever tell me?”

  “He ordered us not to. He didn’t want to see any mistreatment like the kind you got from choosing
Yana
.” Bastion let that sink in.

  “Tell me,” Bastion said, “i
f my father was in my position right now, what do you think he would do?”

  “I saw the way your father loved your mother,” Otta said. “I cannot dream of him being in a moment as awful as yours last night. But if I knew the man a
t all... I know
he would
not
hav
e let his little gypsy go
so
easily.”

  “What am I to do? She left me, she betrayed me, and now she cannot come back,” Bastion said. He leaned his head back in exasperation. “If I had just killed that lying gypsy, there would be no treason now. I should have protected her from him.”

  “No doubt he lied to her at will,” Otta said. “Every single thing he ever told me was a lie
. It was like getting
information
backwards
.”

  “Do you think he lied about
Yana
selling me out?” Bastion said.

  “There was no other way Draiman could have known
about the passage,” Otta said. “He may have
tricked her to get the secret, though.”

  “King Bastion,” Nico said, “I don’t think
Yana
was ever your enemy. I think it was Draiman, all along. He used her to hurt you.”

  “And now, as his final blow, he destroyed us,” Bastion said. “I am undone, my brothers,” Bastion said. “I am ruined.
Yana
is gone from me, and I can accept no other.”

  “You will heal, one day,”
Obadiah said. “Even your heart
will heal.” Bastion looked at his giant friend Obadiah. He knew what he had to do.

  “Nico,” he said, “where is my knife?”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

  Mille walked the halls of a gloomy palace. The girls in the galley had all heard of
Yana
’s treason the night before. Mille was grieved to no end.
Yana
was well-liked among them, and Mille found herself missing their would-be queen. If past days were any indication, being around Bastion would be difficult too. A heartbreak like that could ruin a man.

  Bastion came hobbling around the corner quickly with a staff in hand, surprising Mille.

  “Oi, Mille,” Bastion called out.

  “King Bastion, are you al
right?”
Mille asked.

  “No, I should say not,” Bastion answered. He hobbled right past her, heading outside the palace.

  Bastion got to the stables, and commanded his horse to be brought at once. The stable hands worked quickly, without question. They brought forth his stallion, and helped him up.

  “Make sure there’s food and water,” Bastion said. The boys ran and added rations, and waterskins. Bastion departed straightaway, to the west meadows outside the city. He wore the red and gold mantle the gypsy girls had given him for his Coronation.

  Bastion arrived in the west meadows in short order, and approached
Yana
’s caravan. As he feared, her wagon was gone. Emilee hurried up to him, and helped him down.