Ariane Seydal never failed to make an entrance, be it in person or through a messenger.
She had a habit of only employing attractive servants and wrapping them up in the latest Wildewall fashion, from stable-helps to the head of her guard. The man who arrived on our doorstep at first light could have had a lucrative existence posing as a model for sculptors. He looked as if they cut him from stone, with sharp features and alabaster skin.
We were lucky Gisela and I, while practicing archery outside in the early morning, were the ones to see the man first. Had it been Valda, she would have swooned over the young, living sculpture donned in a ruby red, well-fitted doublet. I looked too. Naturally. I wasn't blind. The young man was attractive, but he didn't hold a candle to Oleander. I accepted the letter with Seydal's seal the messenger offered me and tucked it into my bag for later.
"Good morning," Gisela said, the only one of us unimpressed by the man's looks. "How may we help you?"
The messenger's gaze traveled to the bow and arrow, which Gisela still cautiously held in her hands. Then he smiled and bowed with flair. "I am here to announce Lady Ariane Seydal is on her way to the Thundercoast and expects you and her accommodation to be ready for her arrival."
"Oh, shit," blurted out of my mouth before I could stop myself. I felt the colour draining from my face at the prospect of meeting my betrothed again. It was too soon. It was always too soon.
Gisela ignored my outburst, but I felt the anger radiating off of her in waves. She took after our mother in that sense. "Thank you for your message," she spoke crisply. "When can we expect Lady Seydal to arrive?"
The alabaster man bowed his head again. "I left a few moments ahead, Lady Montbow. She stayed in Verspetin."
I almost swore again, but bit my tongue in time. Just as we had established a steady flow of coin and a new routine at the Thundercoast, Ariane had to come and stomp all over it. "I had thought Lady Seydal would've waited until we extended an invitation to her," I said.
So I would've been ready.
"So I see," the messenger replied. "However, Lady Seydal insisted she travel here after hearing about a mysterious herbalist. She will be shortly."
"Then we best start preparing for her arrival. Laurence, let's go." Gisela jutted her arrow back into the quiver and slung her bow over her right shoulder. She didn't spare the messenger another glance as she marched into the mansion.
I nodded at the messenger and followed, but felt like there were pounds of lead in my boots weighing me down.
Ariane's visit made no sense. Ten years ago my betrothed had made it very clear she wanted nothing to do with me nor to speak with me until I was a knight and house Montbow was out of exile. Now she was here regardless. I didn't want to face her. Not until we were forced to wed.
Gisela marched up the stairs to gather everyone from their rooms. Surprisingly, Valda was the first one who made it down to the lobby. Her expression was colder than a winter storm raging on the coast as she came up to me. "Ariane Seydal is here?"
"Good morning to you too, Valda," I replied dryly. "And no, she's not. Not yet, anyway."
"Why does she want to be here?" Valda blurted.
"I suppose she's here to see firsthand if we are up to her standards now." I shrugged, hiding my discomfort behind a why smile. "She won't trust another's word. And isn't this good? If she sees we are doing well, you may even go to the autumn ball."
My head knew it was good for our family if Ariane was willing to visit and approved of us and our antidotes. But my treacherous heart was upstairs. My eyes darted up toward Oleander's room. I knew I couldn't stay hide in the Thundercoast with Oleander forever. I just hadn't realised my duty would catch up with me this soon.
"Ariane won't think we are fit for the autumn ball with the mansion looking the way it does!" Valda scolded me. "She will only complain!"
"I'm sure she doesn't expect our home to be in a perfect state after what has been going on the past decade," I replied. "If we can show her Oleander and the antidote, I am certain she sees reason and understands the rumours she must've caught at court are all true."
Valda sighed. "I hope she will listen to you. She gives you some time of day because of you are storm-touched. Not the rest of us."
"I do not, do I now? Then it's probably because you didn't deserve my attention."
Valda and I both jumped at the woman's voice at the door. We both whirled around.
In the lobby with us stood a tall, willowy woman with a flaming red mane of hair, pale skin, and dark eyes. She wore a dark blue silken dress with wide-cut skirts and tight-fitting sleeves, and around her neck dangled a pendant with a symbol of a lion. She had matured, considering the last time we saw each other she had been twelve years old, but I still easily recognised her.
Ariane Seydal had made her entrance.
"Lady Seydal," Valda stammered. She curtseyed.
Ariane rose a brow. She ignored Valda and turned to me. "Don't leave your front door open, Laurence. Not that there's anything to steal from this place." She looked around the entrance hall and hummed. "The rumours of golden halls rivalling the court's at the Thundercoast now that you are earning coin from antidotes were highly exaggerated. Disappointing."
"It's nice to see you again too after over a decade, Ariane," I muttered.
Valda claimed I would get different treatment because of my thunder god's blessing, but my greeting got ignored the same way Valda's had. Ariane's eyes slowly travelled up the steps of our stairs. "And where is this miracle herbalist you plucked off of the Serpentine mountains?"
I crossed my arms. "Considering you hardly gave the sun a chance to rise today before arriving on our doorstep, he's still asleep."
Ariane looked at me levelly and then waved at Valda like she was a servant. "Go wake him then."
Valda's jaw clenched. She and Ariane held a silent staring contest. But then Valda lifted her skirts and stomped away.
While Valda went upstairs, Ariane's servants, among which the messenger, came trickling into the mansion carrying suitcases and foods. I directed them to the right places, while Gisela and Valda woke everyone.
A few moments later, everyone was gathered in the living quarters.
We had often joked that Ariane would want to inspect her future fortunes should she ever visit, but it rang very true now. Endris wasn't allowed in the room. And us Montbows were all but lined up with Ariane in front of us, like an inspection of her guard.
Ariane's shoes clacked on the floor as she walked past. Mother and Father received a polite nod in greeting, but Valda hardly got spared a glance, and neither did Gisela. Ariane stopped at Conrad. Her gaze glided from his boots to his eyes.
"You look like you've been up to no good Conrad, as usual," she spoke crisply. "How much blood did you spill last night?"
"I never spill blood, Lady Seydal," Conrad replied without missing a beat.
Conrad and Ariane held each other's gaze for a moment longer. Perhaps I had imagined it, but I swore Ariane's lips twitched before she moved on. "And then... finally, there's the miracle herbalist."
"Lady Seydal, Lord Montbow's betrothed," Oleander replied. His voice was silk, but I saw the fierceness in his eyes and the subtle defiance in his tense posture.
I wished Ariane would walk on because the tension was already tangible, but she stayed in front of him. She was taller, and Oleander had to jut his chin up to look her in the eyes.
"What's your name?" Ariane asked.
"Oleander," Oleander replied.
Ariane snickered quietly. "A herbalist named Oleander, saved from the mountains where dragons roam by a man who was there to be a knight. Like a tale from a book." She looked at me. "Very like you to choose to save a young man rather than slay a dragon. You haven't changed."
"Thank you," I said.
"It was not a compliment, dear."
Oleander shot my betrothed a baleful glance. He was burning up, and what was even worse: he was not trying to hide it. I needed to break this exchange up, and fast.
"Anyway, we need to get to work, Ariane," I said, clapping my hands. "The antidotes won't brew themselves and we have not had the time to bring our servants back to the mansion."
Ariane smiled at me. "They should get to work, indeed. You are coming with me to your quarters, my beloved. We have much to do and discuss after not seeing each other in a decade."
I nearly choked on my own spit when she winked, and I felt her gloved fingers reaching for my hand. As Ariane took my hand in an iron grip and tugged me along, I looked at Oleander apologetically. His soulful wide eyes broke my heart, and then I got dragged into the corridor.
Once we were out of sight, Ariane instantly dropped my hand and shoved it away from her. "Outside," she ordered.
I rolled my eyes up to the ceiling. "Ah, I understand. No moving into my quarters, just you giving me no quarter. You haven't changed either."
"I simply needed to know something," Ariane replied as we walked out the front door. "And now I know."
The breeze had picked up and played with Ariane's hair as we walked to the cliffs. The rising sun made her hair glow like flames in a furnace. Her dark eyes settled on me. "Taking pretty, vulnerable young men with nowhere else to turn home to warm your bed. You are very simple in your pleasures as you are as a person, aren't you?"
I opened and closed my mouth and sputtered, "You are one to complain about taking in pretty young men. That messenger you sent wasn't taken in by you for no reason."
"I don't bed my servants."
I flushed. "I don't bed Oleander."
Ariane narrowed her eyes at me. "You would if he snuck to your room after dark. You want your arms twined warmly around him, hm?"
I stopped myself from opening my big mouth and revealing that sneaking into my room was exactly what Oleander had done last night, and nothing but a kiss and an embrace had happened. I wasn't a monster, and I wasn't unaware of the differences in power between Oleander and I. If anything were to happen between us, I would wait for him to approach me and tell me he wanted more than a stolen kiss. But speaking here would offer me the fleeting satisfaction of countering Ariane's assumptions of what happened, only to reveal that her assumptions about what I wanted to happen were right.
Ariane's mouth went to a thin line. "Laurence, do whatever you will in this desolate place. Whatever desires you have, fulfil them here and never in Wildewall. When we are wed, your lover will live in a castle separate from everyone else, and you visit him when you have no other matters to attend to. You will not ruin my reputation with rumours that you would rather touch pretty boys. Am I clear?"
I stayed quiet. Out of resentment, and out of lack of an answer. I felt Oleander's whispers from last night brush gently against my ear, reminding me I was the blessed one and that people ought to listen to me, not the other way around. To purposely scorn Ariane here, however, was to make my and Oleanders life more difficult. I chose to keep my lips together and let my gut tie in knots in silence.
Ariane averted her gaze. She pointed one gloved finger at some trees growing on an adjacent cliff near the shoreline. "Laurence, do me a favour and split one of those rocks or trees in half."
I looked at the rocks and then at the trees, which gently swayed in the wind. "Why?"
"Just do it."
"Fine."
Destroying a target at a distance took more energy and focus than simply charging an arrow point with thunder magic. I breathed in deeply and closed my eyes. At my command, I felt the branches of the tree on my chest flare up, further and wider, until it reached every vein in my body. I spread my eyes open, aimed, and with a loud thunderclap, I struck the rock. Smoke rose from the thinning grass. The only remaining evidence of my thunder strike.
I waited a few moments. When Ariane didn't offer an explanation but only stared at the smoke, I cleared my throat. "So why did I destroy an innocent rock again?" I asked.
"To remind myself there is a reason we are betrothed." Ariane crossed her arms and wrapped them around herself. "When do you leave for the Serpentine mountains?"
"When you head home, I suppose," I replied. "The court won't accept you getting injured while at the Thundercoast and will blame the Montbows, as they like to blame us for anything that goes awry in this region."
"Yes, well," Ariane said. "For once, you're not speaking complete nonsense. Especially knight commander Ytel is not happy, you know. He departed from Wildewall after me."
I swallowed some curses. "He is on his way here?"
"Perhaps." Ariane shrugged. "But even he must return to Wildewall in time for the autumn ball, and so must you."
I stared at Ariane blankly. "The autumn ball? But I'm not going there."
Ariane clacked her tongue. "Let me spell it out for you, beloved. Did you not wonder why I am here already? It's not voluntarily, and it wasn't my decision. The queen send me, and ordered me to deliver the letter that accompanied my messenger. It holds an invitation for the autumn ball. With my house's blessing."
My jaw went slack. "You are giving us your blessing to visit the court? Already? Valda will be thrilled about her invitation to the autumn ball."
"Don't get ahead of yourselves," Ariane replied flatly. "The Montbows are not in such high standing yet. A fourth child with no distinguishable features and no outstanding talents like Valda is not invited. No, the queen's invitation is extended exclusively to you." Ariane fell quiet for a moment as she turned her head, ostensibly to hide a sneer. "Well, to you and your miracle herbalist."