House of Night

chapter 2, part 1

Ari also wanted to be wherever Sanna was. She had felt, sometimes, that she would follow Sanna to the ends of the world and back again. She had felt as if she would do anything - kneel before her, sob, beg, kiss her feet - for Sanna to give her the honour of acknowledging her.

But Sanna had been treating her icily, as she had when they'd first met. It wasn't just Ari; Sanna had been completely withdrawn from all of them, even as she sat in the same room. But Ari couldn't help feeling that Sanna's iciness was a particular insult towards her, after the two of them had kissed in the middle of a battle, in the middle of a blizzard.

"You should go home, Tom," Katja said.

Her voice was dull. The sparkle that had once shone behind Katja's eyes was gone. She had lost her boyfriend and then her mother, and as some sick gift, she had become a queen while she grieved. Her wolf, Helvig, sat with her head in the queen's lap. The wolf had barely left Katja's side in the weeks since the horrific failed coup that had ended in the queen's death.

"I can't," Tom said.

"Why not?"

"You need me here," Tom said.

"I don't," Katja said. "I have Sanna and Ari." As she said this, she lifted a hand from her wolf's head and placed it on Sanna's knee.

Sanna didn't look up from her book.

Ari sighed. "Tom, I think Katja's right. You need to face it. You need to go back to Lombardia. Besides, if you're there, you can keep a closer eye on what's happening in Vastier. I'm worried about the reports about the lords that your father is putting on the islands. Maybe you can encourage him to show mercy towards the Vastien rebels who are fighting. They're just fighting for their homelands."

Tom kicked his legs out before him and slumped in his seat, in a particularly undignified, un-princely posture. He stared up at the ceiling, which was a larger-than-life mural of plump pale women dancing in ecstasy, supposedly showing the golden age beyond death.

"I don't think I will have any power there, Ari," Tom said. "Raphael always said he could never convince his father of anything. Whatever Matthias Stone says, goes."

"Raph said he couldn't outwardly persuade his father," Katja said. "But he said he'd found ways of letting him come around to Raphael's point of view. Raphael wanted to spend the summer with me at the lake, remember? His father was adamantly against it. He thought Raph should stay in New Hamilton and have long lunches and dinners with all the most important lords. In Matthias's mind, that's the role of a royal."

"So I've seen," Tom scoffed.

"But Raph had me offer rooms and servants to a few of the highest lords of Lombardia for the summer. Then, when Matthias Stone realised that some of his most influential lords would be spending the summer in Norrlund, he thought it was a perfect idea that his son be there, so they could go hunting together and discuss politics and business."

"So Raph could convince his father to let him go on a vacation," Tom said. "I'm not sure I can convince the king to stop the total takeover of Vastier."

"But you could encourage him to have mercy towards the rebels," Ari said desperately.

Tom rubbed his eyes. "I supposed I could try that," he said. "I know how important it is to you, Ari."

Ari felt wounded by that. "It's not just important to me," she said. "You shouldn't do it because you think it's for me. You should do it because of your sense of justice. Your sense of fairness. You should do it because it's the right thing to do."

Tom stood up. "I know!" he said. "I have always, always, acted in the way that I think is right. Trust me, Ariane, it has been my life's endeavour." He was pacing now. "But how can I act the way I think is right when I believe my entire existence is wrong?"

"Oh, what now?" Katja said.

When Lumi wasn't around - she had slept long hours, weakened by the quelling she had performed on her army and her brother - Tom had been staying up late, and he was prone to ranting. Katja was getting tired of it.

"Why should I be a prince, just because some three-chinned king once..." here he spun in a circle, and refused to finish his sentence, before continuing. "Just because he's supposedly my father."

"If the world was fair and just, then Raphael would be here, instead of you," Katja said. "But it is not. You are the prince of Lombardia, Tom. That is who you need to be."

"If the world was fair and just, I don't think Raphael would be there at all."

"How dare you," Katja said. Her wolf raised her head and let out a growl in Tom's direction.

"I don't mean," Tom said, flapping his hands, and then collapsing back into his seat. "Of course I wish Raphael were here, Katja. He was my best friend, and I loved him dearly. I miss him every day. But if the world was fair and just, I don't think Raphael should have been prince any more than I should be."

"The Lombardian blood line..."

"Is made up!" Tom yelled. "It's all fake! Lombardia was a land of ancient air starrling nations, who lived in total peace and harmony with the water starrlings of the islands. There was no king, there was no heir. And then the Stargarzen came in and decided a land needs a king in order to be a true land, and they placed their own. And now, look, the king does the very same thing to our neighbours. And meanwhile, the common folk and the ords fight battles they never wished to, for a king they don't even know."

Sanna put down her book.

Ari glanced over at her, wanting desperately to hear Sanna's voice, but she was silent as ever, although it seemed she was listening.

Katja sat up. "Look at me, Tom," she said, and her voice was cold. "I need you to remember that what you have is an honour, and a duty, to your country. You didn't want this, but it is yours: this crown that you will wear for the rest of your life. And with it, you can be like your father, and claim the world with greed, or you can turn away from it all and be consumed by your rage, or you can do what you truly think is best, for all of your people."

Tom sighed. "I'll go to New Hamilton."

"I'm relieved," Katja said.

"I'll come with you," Ari said firmly. Something in Tom's words had alighted something in her. She knew, more than ever, that Tom's vision of power and justice aligned with her own. She believed in him. She wanted to be there beside him in Lombardia, while he did everything he could for his own people and for the Vastien people.

Sanna picked up her book and continued reading, as if Ari hadn't said a word.

This was what cemented it in her mind. Sanna had been ignoring her, and even now, she refused to show any flicker of emotion that Ari was intending to leave. So Ari would leave, and she would display no hint of emotion at leaving Sanna behind.

... to be continued

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elle