Chapter 8: No Going Back
”I’m still dreaming, minister, please tell me I am still dreaming?” Velador growled and put his hand on the minister’s shoulder.
Tolston looked beyond confused and said, “Well, I’m glad you find Yyrdra attractive, at least.”
The squire and nearby guards chuckled.
“The fisherman that is set to rule a kingdom,” I commented.
“Duchy and this is not happening. This arrangement is over,” Velador shouted.
“What, why?” the minister asked bewildered. “I urge you to reconsider, lord!”
“My friend is dead because of you!” he shouted and stormed off towards the fire.
“And you shot my leg with an arrow!” I rebutted and pushed past Minister Tolston to follow Velador. “I spared your life and if you executed your friend after I bit him, his death is on you!”
“Don’t you pin this on me! He was gone when we returned to the boat!” Velador exclaimed.
“Gone or gone?” I asked vaguely for clarification.
“Gone, as in he ran away to go bite more innocent folks,” Velador replied and pointed for effect.
“He survived then,” I corrected.
Velador threw up his hands and Minister Tolston shouted, “Can I ask how you know each other already?”
At the same time…
“She attacked me.”
“He shot me.”
“One at a time! What is going on?” Minister Tolston yelled, displacing a purse of coins from his coat in the process.
“A week ago, I left to go camping and fishing with two of my most trusted soldiers. I only returned with one because she attacked us in broad daylight!” Velador shouted.
“Is this true, Yyrdra,” Tolston asked.
“It wasn’t supposed to escalate,” I admitted.
“You know we have treaties in place that forbid you from hunting on our lands?” Tolston growled.
“I was lost and seriously dehydrated. Believe me, my father had choice words about the matter,” I explained and white lied.
Velador turned around and looked at the fireplace with his hands on his hips. He brooded on whether to throw me into that very fire or walk hand-in-hand with me into the flames as one. This arrangement, this marriage just may be his father’s dying decree if the Grand Duke is as old as they say.
“My lord, shall I show Yyrdra and her chambermaid to their rooms?” Tolston asked. By now, the commotion had garnered more attention. Heads peeked from around corners and ears from behind doors; I saw at least five more castle workers in the shadows waiting for a decision.
The right words proved hard to come by, so I kept quiet as the fisherman lord contemplated his choices.
“I must seek counsel on the matter. This is bigger than her or I,” Velador said, stared at me with a deadly focus in his eyes and ventured back upstairs.
An addled Minister Tolston soon turned to me with wide-open, yet exhausted eyes. My chest heaved with each heartbeat as I tried to calm down. My fantasy of salivating over the fisherman once more had come true and fell apart in tandem.
“Help them with their luggage to their rooms. Duchess’ chamber and her handmaid’s,” Tolston ordered. “I’ll escort you up.”
“Thank you,” I mumbled and followed him up the stone stairs as two guards carried my two crates and Melyiana’s single.
Upon reaching the second floor, a castle aide asked her friend, “Are they vampires?”
I trust there will be a lot of that going around unless I find myself knee deep in a bucket of silver and water tied to a stake come morning’s light.
“Your accommodation is on this floor,” Tolston said to Melyiana when we reached the third level after another twist in the stairwell.
“I will see Yyrdra to her room first,” Melyiana stated.
“Very well. One more floor,” he answered and we climbed further up and around the nexus of the castle. We stopped at my chambers at the end of the hall and Toltson said, “His chambers are on the other end.”
I peered down the dark hallway, lit only by an ovular window at the end. Tolston opened the room to my door and several candles burned for light.
With an impressive footprint, a large bed sat upon an elevated slab of stone slumbering against the middle of the side wall. A turret on the corner allowed the room fresh air and a perfect vantage of the city. A wash basin occupied another corner and wooden furniture from wardrobe to table populated various other locations. It would do.
They placed our belongings on a table and the floor and departed. Minister Tolston said, “I’m sure we’ll come to a civilized agreement. I’ll have one of the aides remain in the hallway for when she’s ready to see her chambers.”
“I should stay by her side tonight. At least until tempers settle,” Melyiana replied.
I nodded and said, “Thank you, minister.”
He took his leave and I began walking to the open turret to admire the city at night. Over my shoulder, Melyiana finally asked, “Forgive me if this is out of place but you probably should’ve mentioned you almost killed an Avenadyn duke a few days ago. There aren’t many of those in this country!”
“I didn’t know he was set to become a duke! I assumed him to be a petty lord of a nearby town or village,” I answered while flailing my hands.
“Alright, I believe you but what’s our next plan? They could execute us tomorrow for this,” Melyiana theorized.
“I don’t know. I haven’t had many good answers as of late,” I replied and focused on one of the pillars of smoke coming from a chimney below. I turned around and said, “Let me go talk to him.”
She looked less than supportive but said, “Alright.”
I exhaled, brushed the front of my gown as if it would help my success and left my chambers. Two guards stood outside his room that weren’t there before so I guessed he didn’t trust me.
“Evening,” I said.
The guards looked stunned at first and one aimed his spear down the hallway while asking, “What do you want?”
“I’d like to speak with Velador, please.”
They looked at each other and the spearman replied, “He’s preoccupied. Preparations for an emergency council in the morning.”
“Can I at least speak through the door in hopes he’ll listen?” I asked.
“Fine,” he said after consideration.
I walked closer with caution as the spearman backed away but the other silent guard let me pass by. I loitered in front of the wooden door and touched the grain in a plank for a few moments until I realized the spear still hovered dangerously close.
“Do you mind?” I asked and pointed to the spear less than an arm’s length from my ribs.
“Okay,” he obliged and retreated a couple paces.
I leaned my ear on the door and tried to listen for Velador’s pulse. Faintly it reached me and I hoped he sat within earshot.
Nothing about this was ordinary and Melyiana’s comment of our execution the next day had me riled, but there was something about him on that lake shore that teased me. Now, in his very castle I find his thumping pulse soothing despite the fury flung my way just minutes ago.
I tapped on the door gently and said, “There is literal bad blood between not only our people but also you and I. I think that’s apparent. But my father saw the merit in this plan that he concocted with your father so to honor our families, it mustn’t fall apart before we get the chance to forge the pieces together.”
His heartbeat quickened during my short speech. He heard me.
“I’m sure you were equally surprised to learn you’d be marrying outside your race and I only just found out right before they told me to get into an Avenadyn coach. It jolts the soul into questioning one’s place in this world if your free will can be rescinded so easily. But I,” I stammered to find more words.
The guard shifted his weight which caused several pieces of gear to creak.
“Perhaps this is where I need to be and we can learn how to seal this marriage with good intentions, if nothing else.”
* * * * *
The following morning, maids rushed in startling Melyiana and I out of bed. We had only just begun to fall asleep so acclimating to a human sleep schedule wouldn’t be easy. Two younger girls and an older woman rushed about.
“Good morrow, Yyrdra. I am in charge of your every outfit, your every meal, your, wait. Hm, perhaps that meal part needs an edit,” she smirked and opened Melyiana’s crate.
“That’s mine,” Melyiana stated.
“You, bring her to her room downstairs,” the head mistress commanded the youngest - a blonde girl with freckles still in her teens.
“What is going on?”
“Right, sorry. Introductions!” she clapped. “I haven’t been assigned to a duchess, well duchess-to-be, in years so I’m a bit rusty. My name is Madam Holsienne and I am your personal attendant. You are awfully pale so we’ll have to find dresses that work with your complexion.”
“Shall I hang these dresses in the armoire?” the other servant girl asked.
“Yes, let us see what they sent her with,” Holsienne said. “Come, out of bed. Step into the light!”
She pointed to the beaming sunlight coming in through the room’s only window and I hesitated. “Do you not know?”
Madam Holsienne replied with a blank expression and said, “Come, we haven’t time. The council will begin in an hour.”
“I’m from Mirewood.”
Holsienne shook her head which caused graying curls to bounce with each motion. “I’m afraid I haven’t heard of it. Is it a small kingdom?”
The other girl, noticeably keeping her distance, must’ve heard the commotion last night yet somehow Holsienne was not informed. “It’s small, yes,” I said with a wide smile until she noticed.
“It’s true!” she shouted and dropped the dress on the floor before jumping back in fright. “My gosh, is it true? They brought a, no, they didn’t. Are you? Are, are you, are those real fangs and you’re so pale and won’t step into the light for me so it makes…” She trailed off for a moment and said, “Pull my corpse from the ground and call me a cabbage, I thought I’d never see the day.”
“You made a comment about my meals, though,” I reminded.
“Only because I’m not the chef.”
I pointed to the dresses and said, “You’ll find most of the dresses have hoods so I can remain safe from the sunlight.”
“But what will you eat?” Madam Holsienne asked, still flabbergasted.
“I hope we figure that out soon,” I replied with a smile as her eyes found my fangs again.
She exhaled, collected herself while she looked through the dresses and gowns her aide hung by color. There were only a dozen but she took upwards of five minutes to render her judgment.
She pulled out a simple blue dress with white sleeves and a sewn in blue hood; the color mismatched. “This will do,” she said, handed the dress to her assistant and left the room.
“Disrobe please.”
“I’m sorry?”
“I must change you,” the girl said.
“I’m capable of it,” I smiled. She nodded and probably appreciated that I dismissed her. Before she left I asked, “What is your name?”
“I’m Jissabel,” she smiled, curtseyed out of habit or fear and exited.
After changing, I followed Holsienne and Jissabel downstairs. En route, Madam Holsienne said, “You are to meet the noble families during this special council, per Velador’s request.”
“Sounds intimidating,” I replied and had to hold the dress as I walked due to its length tailored to a taller woman. I’m not even that short.
We reached the foyer of the castle and took a side door through a hallway to another building it seemed. It opened into a large rectangular room but part of it remained sectioned off by curtains, of which we remained behind. A plethora of voices and conversations bounced off the room’s odd acoustics.
“Stay quiet and listen,” Madam Holsienne ordered. “Young Jissabel, you are dismissed.”
Within the span of a few minutes, Velador calmed the room with, “Good morning, please quiet down!”
“Lord Velador, this awfully early for a council. Is your father well?” a nobleman asked.
“No worse or better than usual. He remains bedridden, as you well know,” Velador said.
“We are sorry to hear.”
“I’ve summoned you here this morning to cast a vote. There have been actions and decisions made in the background with noble influence or knowledge,” Velador announced, spurring whispers. “I am to take a bride soon. She’s here, in the Avenadyn Duchy as we speak in this very castle.”
“That’s wonderful news! We haven’t heard of any wedding preparations though,” a different nobleman commented.
“My friends in high places would have alerted me as well,” a noblewoman said with a snicker.
“We’ve kept it a secret and believe this marriage will help unify the realm. If it doesn’t, at least history can say we tried,” Velador stated and cleared his throat. It sounded like he took a gulp of water or wine. I thought I smelled grapes.
“Which kingdom is she from?” a nobleman asked - a new voice to the discussion.
“None that are on your maps. She is a vampire, the tribal heiress to the Mirewood,” Velador explained.
The room kept quiet for a moment before one man asked, “You’ve summoned us at this hour to tell us a joke. Not all of us live nearby, young Velador!”
“I was not going to call this council but new developments forced my hand. Several days ago, a vampire girl bit my friend on the neck, which turned him, and now I don’t know where he is,” Velador retold.
“Are you saying you’re betrothed to a vampire!” a noblewoman shouted.
“That vampire girl, unbeknownst to me, was who I was set to marry. I need your votes to make sure we are aligned as a country and that this is a safe choice for our future!” Velador shouted over their doubts.
The room burst into chaos. Utter bedlam as if someone howled in the middle of a flock of sheep. I couldn’t decipher anything and even Velador shouted into the pandemonium.
Finally he regained control and he said, “Vampires are a threat! Yes, I know this! But they have reason and laws and the Mirewood tribe has proven, for the most part, that they can work together with us!”
“And rip out our necks when we sleep!”
“This is outlandish, absurd! This is your father’s idea of protecting our future?”
“The only future he’s protecting is the vampire's future. They will turn every last one of us given the chance!”
“Enough!” a nobleman shouted. “Our rivals to the west grow in power, extend their borders unchecked and we haven’t the armies to repel both the Bahrholst and Crasmor kingdoms if they should unite! Our allies grow complacent in their place in Vymenia, leaving us vulnerable!”
“What are you saying!”
“I’m saying that if we can make allies with a vampire tribe that respects their borders and our sovereignty, then perhaps it isn’t the worst idea our dying duke has had,” the nobleman pressed.
“We should vote! I’m sure it won’t take long to count those in favor,” a noblewoman cried out.
“The Avenadyn Duchy is strong! We are a good and united people,” Velador said. “I am not asking you to lend your firstborn to the fangs of a vampire. That will never happen and I will die preventing it. I am asking you to honor my father’s vision for this duchy for he has served her well and when he is gone, I don’t want to find out he was the only thing keeping us intact!”
The room mulled his words for a few moments and eventually agreed to vote. Before casting, Velador said, “As is custom, my house and the duchess’ house earn a vote as well.”
“She’s no duchess yet!”
“She became one the moment she stepped on our lands. My father decreed it several weeks ago,” Velador answered. “He still rules as our Grand Duke, remember?”
The comment caught up to my overwhelmed mind and I realized that when I attacked him around that lake on Avenadyn territory, I was somehow his duchess already. Was that why I was so drawn to him?
The group then voted. As Velador read out the names, the tally grew surprisingly close to equal.
“How are you voting like this in good conscience!” a man shouted, angry that it wasn’t going his way.
“Think of your children and their vulnerable necks,” a woman growled.
“That is, five houses favor the union and six do not. With my house’s vote, that equals the tally,” Velador said. He then held aside a section of the curtain ten paces away and said, “Duchess Yyrdra, please render your vote.”
I gulped, stepped out into the room to startled, angry and intrigued faces. I could vote no and return home freely or yes and remain an enemy to this state.
This union teetered on the edge of a very thin blade.
Velador allowed several moments to gain my bearings before he asked, “Are you in favor?”
I latched onto his eyes with a cosmic gaze and there was no going back.