A Royal Mate

It's All Coming Together

It has been two months since the announcement of Si being Liam's mate and his proposal. The Council, who objected her being Queen, quickly changed their minds after learning that the next heir will be born soon enough. They may have also had a little prompting from a certain Prince, Dragon, and Head of the Royal guard to assist them in toeing the line.

Si and Liam have been residing at Pallios for the last two months while the renovations of the Royal apartment was being prepared to for the growing family. Dax and Collin thought that it would be best, since they still did not trust Lisa and her ambitions have been crushed. At least they know that the people there would be loyal to Si and Liam, as her house always held a great amount of respect and loyalty from the citizens in the duchy.

Si has been walking the halls of her duchy almost everyday, but with her growing belly, she has been keeping to the master bedroom her study and the kitchen. Leah and Allan have been helping her learn everything that she will need to know to be the Queen. Her days were long, and usually end with being wrapped in Liam's protective arms..

One night Liam awoke with a jolt, Si was not in the bed. He thinks that she maybe in the bathroom, as this is becoming her nightly routine as her pregnancy progressed. When she does not come out of the bathroom, Liam decides to go check. Fear clenches him as he discovers, she is no longer in their suite. He rushes down to the kitchen, she is not there either. He tries to sense her through the bond, but he cannot reach her. Panic sets in. His lion is restless, their mate is missing and they cannot reach her. He sprints to her study, she is not there, then it dawns on him, she talks of a library in her sleep sometimes, he tries to remember where it is, this a secret library.

He tries think of what he has heard her say, then he remembers.

Walk to where the hallway ends, between two stars your journey begins. The star to the east will lead to that which you seek. Turn the lever to the west, if you do not, you will forever rest. Descend to the place where knowledge is kept.

He tries to recollect where he seen two stars. He remembers that past her private study, there are two stain glass windows at the end hallway, running to the dead end he looks looks at the wall between the windows. Almost directly under each window there is a Phoenix sconce, Liam walks to the one on the right and rotates it to the left. There is the sound of latches undoing and the wall slide back, then to the left, before him are a set of stairs leading down. Rushing down the steps, he finds a beautiful library the furniture looks as if it was recently clean, he wanders further in and finally spots Si, she is dusting the book shelves, he calls out to her softly.

"Love?" he says, Si jumps and looks at him, finally he realizes that she is sleepwalking, he does not want to startle her, but then she looks as if she has just come out of a trance.

"Li, how... where..?" Si is confused.

"Love, you have been reciting a poem of sorts for the last few weeks. I just followed the clues." He goes and wraps her in his arms. "When you did not come back to bed, I panicked. I could not find you anywhere, then it hit me. So I came looking, and I found you. You must have been sleepwalking, or sleep cleaning in you case." he chuckles.

"Not funny, Li. This place it seems so familiar, but I have never been here before." Si states.

"Si, Love, there is so much that we do not know about your family, but I bet we can find the secrets in here. But let's do that at a reasonable hour, you need to sleep. The little ones will be here soon enough, and that will be the end of sleeping." He kisses her forehead and leads her out of the hidden room, back to their bedroom. They settle back into bed, and Si falls asleep quickly.

The next morning before Liam heads back to the Palace, he talks to Collin and Julie about the room that Si, discovered. He lets them know that since they have been there Si has been wandering around almost every night, she never bumps into anything or hurts herself. It is as if she knows the duchy by heart.