Her jaw went slack. “I—I…”
“My apologies,” King Elian cut in. “I just assumed your sire had informed you.”
“Nay,” Dari said quietly. “He did not speak of it.”
“Well, he mayhap had his reasons.”
Like as naught he was too busy mourning the loss of me. “Aye,” Dari replied.You’ve broken up our family just as yours was taken from you. “Mayhap.”
She wanted to feel anger towards the king and his sole heir, yet she couldn’t help but to feel sorrow for them in her hearts. She knew too well what it felt like to lose everyone you most loved, but at least she still held a hope of seeing her family again. King Elian and Gio would have no such reunion. Leastways, not on this side of theRah.
Lost in her thoughts, Dari absently ate from her trencher. She didn’t wish to have a care for the Z’an Tars’ huge loss, yet there it was.
“My son tells me you will see fifteenYessat-Yearstwo fortnights from now.” King Elian waved a hand toward the princess. “We shall celebrate your day with a big feast for a certainty.”
“I give you my thanks, but please do not trouble yourself.”
“’Tis no trouble at all,” Gio assured her. “Leastways, we want you to come to loveArakiaas do we. I know ‘twill take time, but I shan’t give up.” He winked. “What I lack in patience I make up for in persistence.”
Dari found a small smile despite herself. She threw a stray micro-braid o’er her onyx shoulder. “’Tis for a certainty, that.”
The remainder of the meal passed with an ease she hadn’t expected to feel ever, much less one short morn later. She put questions to King Elian and Gio and vice versa, the conversation more natural and fluid than it had started out. By the time her belly was full, Dari had come to one unmistakable conclusion: ‘twas going to be difficult at best and impossible at worst to feel a hatred for the Z’an Tar males. They were quite alike, this sire and his son, and she was beginning to realize ‘twas not a bad thing.
Both males laughed easily and jested often. Both males sported the same dimples—a charming characteristic that showed with every smile. In fact, the Z’an Tars were alike in all ways save their ages. King Elian was still passing fair in his handsomeness, the years having not dimmed that attribute. Yet there was a palpable fatigue to Arak’s ruler that bespoke of an agedness. ‘Twas obvious in the extreme that said king placed all of his hopes for the future in Gio—a burden and a privilege for a certainty. But then Gio was all he had left. Until Dari, that was.
The princess slowly exhaled to steady herself. She might have known only fourteen years, but it didn’t take a wizened High Priestess to surmise that the Z’an Tars would keep her close at all times. How could they not? she thought warily. The entire future of their lineage lay in her virgin womb.
After the morn meal, Dari took to her feet and prepared to return to her rooms. “Would you walk with me?” Gio asked, obviously sensing her desire to flee. “I would that I could show you the gardens.”
The princess hesitated. Part of her wanted to go back to her bedchamber that she might be alone with her thoughts, yet another part of her was desirous of accompanying him for reasons she couldn’t altogether understand. In the end, she agreed to the walk.
The king nodded his permission. “Jamy!” he called out to a warrior guardsman. “You will act as escort on my behalf.”
The warrior nodded. “Aye, my king.”
King Elian excused himself from the morn meal. Gio extended his hand to Dari. She vacillated for a brief pause, but eventually relented—an action that caused Gio’s bedeviling dimples to pop out. The princess knew in her hearts that Gio would never touch a child inappropriately, yet she was glad just the same for their escort.
“Come,” Gio prodded, gallantly moving her hand to his forearm. “’Tis a vow you will adore the gardens.”
* * * * *
“And did you?” Klykka asked. “Enjoy the gardens?”
“Oh aye,” Dari breathed out. “O’er theYessat-Years‘twas my favored place to be.” Her smile faltered. “Leastways, such was the way of it in the beginning.”
“And later?” The Gy’at Li smoothly inquired.
“Later it became my nightmare. ‘Twas where I first discovered that an insidious force had come to dwell withinArakia.”
“The garden of good and evil.”
“Aye,” she murmured. “The garden of good and evil.”
Klykka gave her a moment to gather her emotions. “Tell me child,” she said softly. “Tell me of the first time you encountered this evil.”
Dari nodded. “’Twas nigh unto my eighteenthYessat-Year. I was an emotional mess as it was for I was reticent to hurt Gio by running from him, yet I’d also made a sacred vow amongst cousins. I had given them my word I would join them in their journey to Galis and the time to do so was nearing.”
“Yet you stayed behind.”
