Remnant of Power

Chapter Seventeen

Yavenna

As the Princess entered the dining room for lunch later that day her spirits were still low. Having to spend time with her chaperone did nothing to lift them. The plump, grey-haired lady rose awkwardly from her chair to greet Yavenna.

"Good afternoon my lovely. It's lovely to see you again. You are looking a bit less pale than yesterday, although not much." Aunt Breanna wrapped her in a spongy embrace and smacked a wet kiss on her cheek. She stared at Yavenna all through the meal.

Afterwards, she and Lady Rassten sat with Yavenna to discuss the choice of food for the wedding banquet. Yavenna's mind was wandering. She remembered that the King had said he might not see her at dinner.

"Has His Majesty gone somewhere today?" she enquired, pretending to look down the list of desserts. Lady Rassten always seemed to know the King's whereabouts.

"Indeed he has, Your Highness. He actually got up early this morning," and here the woman yawned very obviously. "He's spending the entire day at the city garrison." She glanced at a large mirror on the wall above the table and patted her hair, adjusting a diamond hair clip slightly.

As Yavenna deliberately looked away, knowing the woman wanted her to watch her preening, a movement in the doorway caught her eye. The rhododendron girl stood watching them. Daggers! What was she doing here? Yavenna's throat tightened. Would she tell Aunt Breanna that Yavenna had been looking in the mage's room? But as Yavenna peered at her, she saw the expression on the girl's face. Deep contempt. The Princess choked back a laugh.

Aunt Breanna banged on the table. "Arielle! What are you doing here? You should be at home studying with Miss Sybil."

The girl lazily picked up the glass eye ring that was hanging on a chain around her neck and held it up. She looked through it at Aunt Breanna, then moved it slightly to the side to look at Lady Rassten and Yavenna.

"Miss Sybil had to retire to her chamber, mother. She became suddenly unwell."

Mother! Yavenna couldn't believe that's what the girl had just called Aunt Breanna. Surely, she'd heard incorrectly? Clearly the woman was far too old to be Arielle's mother.

Arielle looked down at the skirt of her dress, which was a plain dark brown, and picked off imaginary flecks of dirt with the hand that wasn't holding the eye ring. "I was lucky actually, the contents of her stomach narrowly missed my dress." She looked at Aunt Breanna again. "The woman eats too much." She then lowered her eye-glass and stared at Yavenna.

"Oh, hello again. Are you a visitor to the castle?"

Aunt Breanna huffed and waved her hand as if waving away a fly. "Your Highness, this is my daughter, Arielle. She should be studying with her governess, but unfortunately it sounds like the poor lady has decided she's had enough of Arielle for one day." Yavenna looked from Arielle to Aunt Breanna. With a gulp, she suddenly remembered what she'd been telling Sharva when she first saw Arielle. Her heart pounded and she took a big gulp of water. She'd been telling her maid she couldn't bear to marry the King! Now Arielle knew who she was, would she tell her mother what she'd heard Yavenna say about him, as well as seeing her in the mage's room? Yavenna narrowed her eyes and stared at Arielle, waiting. Yavenna realized she was pressing her hands against her lips. She pulled them away and sat on them. Whatever Arielle said, she'd just deny it.

Learning heavily on the table, Aunt Breanna pushed herself up to standing. "Well, if Miss Sybil is unwell, I'd better go and check on her. Do excuse me, dearest Princess, this is most unfortunate. Come along, Arielle, we need to make sure she's alright."

"I can't come home at the moment, Mama. I bumped into Lord Rassten and he's given me an errand to run." After she finished speaking she glanced over at Yavenna, the look in her eyes briefly making her seem older than the sixteen or so years she had to be.

Yavenna stood up, trying not to stare at the girl, and agreed with Breanna's arrangements to play croquet after dinner, saying she was just going to read a book first. In fact, as Yavenna climbed the main staircase to the next floor she had a completely different plan. She glanced over the bannister into the hall. The castle seemed strangely quiet that afternoon; there were noticeably fewer guards positioned around the place. The King was away from the castle; it was obviously the ideal time to go back to his study.

**

Yavenna knelt down in front of the wardrobe. Biting her lip, she pulled open the drawer and picked up the scroll. It was exactly where she'd shoved it last night. The only problem was, in her haste, she'd bent it. One end of the scroll had a fold. Biting her lip harder, she pressed it on the carpet, trying to smooth the fold out. But it was impossible. There was nothing she could do. When the King next looked at the scroll, he'd see that someone else had been looking at it.

Quickly, Yavenna pulled the ribbon open.

Apart from a date at the top – a little over two months ago - there were just a few words written:

Ulric,

I am disappointed with your search.

You must extend it.

Marry the girl as soon as possible.

It was signed with one word, "Zorad" and was underlined five times.

Yavenna stared at the words. "Marry the girl as soon as possible." So Lord Rassten had been lying, the wedding hadn't been arranged with her father two years ago. Thank goodness! A tiny part of the anxiety she'd been keeping so tightly coiled up in her stomach slipped away. It had been so awful not knowing if she could believe her father or not. Yavenna saw a chair tucked under a desk. She pulled it out and slumped down onto it, letting out a huge sigh. But then the relief was overtaken by a whirl of questions. What were they searching for? What was the blue light? And what in the world was causing her pendant to heat up? She laid the scroll down on Ulric's desk, wedging one end down with a glass paperweight, and the other with a candlestick. Staring at the writing again, she rubbed her temples.

Zorad was disappointed with Ulric's search. That must mean Ulric hadn't found what he was looking for. But why did he have to marry her? Was it to get his hands on the diamonds sometimes found in Tarhasta's barren mountains? The stones she had brought as her dowry. It certainly seemed like he liked diamonds. Her head started to thump. Well, she was glad of one thing. At least if her father hadn't lied to her perhaps he wouldn't be quite so awful to her when she arrived back home after escaping from Ulric. She read it one last time, then retied it, and got up to put it carefully back in the drawer.

Then she noticed! Today there was no light coming from the drawer above. Absentmindedly, she touched her pendant and found it was cold – or rather it was the temperature she would expect it to be. But why was it sometimes heating up? And how on earth could she find out?

But, despite the mystery of the pendant, Yavenna felt quite pleased with her snooping, so she pushed the chair back and half walked, half-skipped to the door. At least now she had one answer. Her father hadn't lied to her. Even though now she had something else to find out as well. Putting her hand out to pull the study door ajar she had the shock of her life as it swung open towards her.