The Workmen

Chapter 19

Stele and Larz sat quietly across from one another, she sipping a broth stew and he chomping on some red, round fruit indigenous to Ediw. Neither of them wanted to acknowledge the events of the last week. Everything had happened so quickly and Stele was still trying to grasp it all. On her left hand sat a dazzling ring of silver and topaz that any woman would envy. Larz looked up from his scrolls and papers to admire his bride.

"Why so quiet," he asked already knowing the answer.

"Thinking," Stele replied before blowing on a spoon full of vegetables and meat.

Larz leaned forward in his chair. He looked around the room before whispering, "You know I had no other choice, don't you?"

Stele swallowed her breakfast. She had no intention of bringing any of what happened up. Her thoughts were focused on how lucky she was to be married, how her little sister would have loved to see the castle and all its splendor.

"I need to know that you are with me. I need to know that you trust me. Everything I did was for us. No one can come between our happiness ever again. Don't you get that?"

Stele finally met her husband's worried eyes. Dark circles were shadowing the vibrancy of his handsome face. Nightmares and his duties as the newly appointed King of Ediw had been stealing Larz's sleep. Wearing the kingdom's crown may have been heavier than gold, but murder was by far a heftier burden. She had problems with her family, but she could never imagine having to kill them.

Though their time was short together, she was mad for the former prince. Seeing him bound up and stressed shot arrows into her heart. He was her savior, the man who had sacrificed it all to keep her safe. Stele had never known anyone to be so unconditionally devoted to her. Surly he could fill the cavernous hole that had embedded itself within her years ago. He was all she needed.

"Of course I do. You're my white knight and I'm your...your rescued princess."

"Queen," he corrected softly, "you are my Queen."

"Your majesty," a guard called from one of the four entrances, startling the King with his presence, "the search party has returned."

"Did they retrieve the traitors?"

"Yes sir, they also have two strangers with them, a man and a woman."

His words struck a chord in Stele. "A woman," she repeated.

"Yes, my lady, not much younger than yourself. We're awaiting your orders, King Larz." The King still couldn't get used to his title and probably never would. "We weren't sure what you wanted us to do with them."

"Very good. Send them to the palace prison. Make sure to put the woman in a separate cell." He added the last part only for his wife's benefit. Considering what had almost gone down, he figured she would appreciate the gesture.

The guard bowed and walked away.

Stele had an illogical feeling that Keira was alive. Somehow, her determined young sister had evaded capture as Worran burned, survived the horrors of The Dunes, and found her way to Ediw. Fear argued against her flurrying hope, telling her that depending on dreams would only end in more misery. She needed to trust in what she could see, and until Keira was standing in front of her she was going to assume the female prisoner was just another commoner.

"Larz?"

"Yes, love." He could tell there was something pressing on her mind.

"When you go to see the prisoners, may I come with you?" Stele knew that her doting husband did not have the will power to say no.

"I don't see why not. Any particular reason you want to grace those scum with your presence?"

"No," she lied without really knowing why. She tried to redeem herself with a half-truth. "I'm just curious to see who the strangers are."

Suspicion yanked at Larz's heart. He didn't like secrets, especially those involving the ones he was meant to trust. His wife's truth in being curious was not under scrutiny. It was her willingness to hide things from him that drove him up a wall, as if he wasn't good enough to hear the whole truth. It reminded him of his father, always excluding him out of minor details and making them a big deal to his two butt kissing brothers. The only trait Larz was happy to have inherited from his vile family was the ability to hold a phony face.

"Well, if you still wish to join me later, meet me in the throne room in an hour." Larz gathered his documents and excused himself from the table with a dishonest air of happiness. Guilt welled up inside of him as he gently kissed Stele's forehead to seal the deal.

The weight of Larz's kiss lingered on Stele's conscience. He loved her so entirely. She should have told him why the strangers' arrival sparked her interest. So why didn't she?

The question gouged at the Queen's brain. He was her husband. The man had saved her life and literally gave her the world, so why this sudden urge to keep things from him? On and on the rail car of uncertainty rode, backing her nerves against a wall. Perhaps it was the way Larz labeled the prisoners, even the strangers. He marked them all off as filth before he questioned the additional man and woman's motives.

That was it. That had to be it. Stele hated judgmental people, her parents being the worst of them, and seeing her husband do the same as they did made her skin crawl. When next she saw her husband she would tell him everything. Secrets destroyed her family and they weren't going to ruin her new one.