Chapter Eight

Chapter Eight

 

 

M

alinna turned toward him.  Their noses nearly touching.  She looked in his eyes and saw that he was truly sincere. 

“Ah hum, Malinna, Daemon, the carpet merchant will be here in a minute,” Sonya said, “JayJay went to watch for him.”

“Thank you, Sonya,” Daemon said. 

“You asked me what you can do to make me believe you,” Malinna said, her heart fluttering, “Keep saying it.  Eventually I might believe you.”

“Fine,” Daemon said, wrapping his arm around her, “Let’s get these last two meetings over with and I’ll tell you over and over again until you believe me.”

Malinna let him lead her back to the chair.  They no more sat down, and there was a knock on the door.  Malinna took a deep to calm her nerves. 

“Come in,” she said. 

Two men entered each carrying a box.  Following them was a young woman. The three of them set their stuff on the table. 

“Princess, we were told that you requested to see us,” said the man next to the young woman. 

“You are?” Malinna asked. 

“We sell fragrances, Your Majesty,” the woman said, “How can we help you?”

“I need to buy a bottle of vanilla,” Malinna said. 

“Is that all?” the man asked. 

“Yes, that is all I need,” Malinna said. 

“What size bottle would you like?” the woman asked. 

“A medium sized bottle will be enough,” Malinna said.

“One of us will bring the perfume to you,” the man said. 

Malinna nodded her head and the two of them left.  The other man stepped forward and started gesturing to the two boxes. 

“Malinna, this is Galanor.  He can’t speak,” JayJay said, “He just happened to be in town and heard that you needed carpet.  He brought samples for you.”

Malinna dug through samples of shag, patterned and many other types of carpet.  She found one that she liked at the bottom of the second box.  It was dark blue shag with flecks of silver scattered throughout it. 

She pulled it out of the box and said, “This.”  She handed it to the merchant.  He looked at it and started gesturing again.  JayJay quickly started translating. 

“This carpet comes from the DragonLands.  It will take many trips to bring enough carpet to cover this floor.  If you want the job done quickly, you had best choose something different,” JayJay said. 

“I don’t care how long it takes.  That is the carpet I want.  Take as long as you need to get it here,” Malinna said, to him. 

“As you wish, Your Majesty,” JayJay translated, “Is there someone that can help me carry the samples back out to my cart?” 

“Sonya, will you go get one of the footmen to help Mister Galanor,” Malinna said. 

Sonya nodded and flew out the door.  A minute later she returned with a young man to help Galanor.  Galanor and the young man picked up the boxes and left the room.  Malinna leaned back in the chair and breathed a sigh of relief. 

“That was the last meeting right,” Malinna asked. 

“Yes, we’re done, until dinner.  So we have five hours for me to keep telling you how beautiful and smart you are,” Daemon said, smiling. 

Malinna smiled.  Sonya shook her head, “Not quite sir.”

“Why’s that, Sonya?” Daemon asked. 

“We have to finish putting everything where Malinna wants it,” Sonya said, “Unless you want to leave?”

“What else needs to be done,” Daemon said, rolling up his sleeves. 

Malinna and Sonya got up and walked to the center of the room.  Sonya’s castle was in the middle of the room, herbs needed to be put away, and portraits needed to be hung.  Sonya called the maids and footmen back in the room, and they immediately took up their abandoned tasks.  One of the footmen picked up Sonya’s castle and looked at Malinna for orders.

“Put that in my bedroom, near the door,” Malinna said. 

“Malinna, your wardrobe was put in the closet for now, so that you can unpack it.  Carmenta said that you would need it empty for some of the lessons,” Sonya said.  

“Thanks Sonya, I’ll go unpack and you can supervise the rest out here,” Malinna said, “Daemon, you don’t have to stay if you don’t want to.  I would understand if you left for a little while.”

“I’m just fine here,” Daemon said grinning, “I’m sure Sonya can find something for me to do.”

Malinna shook her head as she walked to her room.  As she walked into her room, she smiled.  She couldn’t believe that all of this was for her.  It seemed too good to be true.  She walked to the other door in the room and found her wardrobe in the center of the walk in closet.  She walked over to the wardrobe, pulling the key from the bodice of her dress. As she unlocked the wardrobe, she heard a rustling.  She paused, listening to the sound.  She was shocked when she discovered that the noise was coming from inside the wardrobe. She pulled the door open and saw a little black fairy rummaging through her things. 

“What do you think you are doing in there?” Malinna said.

“You have been chosen. You will participate in the Triduana.”

“Who are you?” Malinna asked, quickly becoming frightened. 

“Who I am does not matter, it’s who are you becoming that matters.”

“Daemon!” Malinna yelled. 

The fairy disappeared as Daemon entered the room.  Malinna was staring at the place where the fairy had just stood only moments before.  Daemon stopped beside her and placed a gentle hand on her shoulder.  Malinna took a deep breath to calm herself down. 

“There was a fairy in my wardrobe, Daemon,” Malinna said, “I didn’t know who it was but it told me that I had to participate in the Triduana.”

Daemon turned her to face him and said, “What did it look like? Do you remember exactly what it said?”

“It was black, about Sonya’s size, a little bigger maybe.  No I don’t remember its exact words,” Malinna said, “What was it?”

“A dragon spirit messenger,” said a female voice. 

Malinna and Daemon turned around, slightly startled.  Standing in the doorway was a familiar, but long absent face.  Malinna smiled as she saw the familiar, loving face from her past.  The woman standing before them was tall and lean with long dark hair that fell in waves to her waist. 

“Carmenta, welcome back,” Daemon said, bowing to her, “I thought you weren’t going to be back until eight. If I had known, we would have met you on the roof.”

“Don’t worry about it Alumno Daemon.  I haven’t officially returned. I wanted some time to spend with my students without having to worry about other things.  It is so good to see you after so many years, Malinna,” Carmenta said, her eyes showing the emotion that her face hides.

Malinna looked at her for a moment, and said, “Oh, how I’ve missed you, Mother.”

Carmenta gasped, “You know?  When did you find out, why didn’t you tell me that you knew?” 

“I found out on my birthday. I recognized all the signs that you drilled into my head.  I knew for certain when my father told me everything last night before I came here,” Malinna said, stepping closer to her, “What I don’t understand is how you could leave me to deal with Brianna by myself.  Why did you just give up?” 

“I didn’t give up, Malinna.  Never would I give up on you.  There were so many things that happened at the same time, and I couldn’t stay and fight for you.  Brianna wouldn’t let me forget what happened to her and she laid the blame on me” Carmenta said. 

Malinna looked at her for a moment then asked, “What did she blame you for?”

Carmenta took a deep breath and said, “Why don’t we sit down and I will tell you about everything.”

Malinna nodded, and the three of them walked out to the lounge area.  Daemon and Malinna sat down together on one of the couches, as Carmenta sat in the chair.

“Why did you leave without fighting for me?  Why didn’t you take me with you?” Malinna asked. 

Carmenta took a deep breath, and began her story, “When I found out that I was pregnant, your father wasn’t happy in his marriage, neither was Brianna for that matter.  Cole and I were dealing with a lot, politically, at that time.  So I waited a week for things to settle down before I told him.  We talked for a long time about what we were going to do, and we decided to deceive Brianna.  I took some time to return to the DragonLands to do some research on how we could do it.  My sister, who was regent at the time, found an ancient spell for taking ones memories and copying them to another’s brain.  I studied that spell for a long time before I was able to find a way that I thought would make it work.  So I returned to Encantada.  I told Cole that I thought that I had figured it out. We kept Brianna busy throughout my entire pregnancy. You were such a tiny thing. I didn’t show any signs of pregnancy until about the seventh month, and even then I didn’t get very big.  The night I gave birth, I knew that the spell wouldn’t last forever, but I didn’t have the time to make it better.  I cast the spell the next morning.  I couldn’t erase her memories without damaging her mind, so I repressed the memories, and then implanted my own.  It lasted for years, Cole and I thought that it might have been more permanent than we first thought.  I was still watching her closely when I noticed that she was having more and more headaches, and looked confused more often. On the day before your tenth birthday, Cole and I were having a conference in the throne room, when Brianna came running through the door. She was screaming, saying that she didn’t know how we could live with ourselves.  Cole asked her what she was talking about.  We honestly didn’t know that the spell had worn off.  Looking back I should have seen in coming, but I didn’t.  She said that she knew that you weren’t hers, and she couldn’t believe that she hadn’t figured out that we were having an affair.  She gave Cole an ultimatum, but before he could answer, a spirit messenger appeared and informed me that my sister had died in service to our country.  I had to return to the DragonLands.  Brianna threatened to have you hung to punish the both of us, until I said that I would take you with me.  She said that she would never allow me to take “her daughter” away from her.  I couldn’t fight with her.  I knew that I wouldn’t have the time to raise you the way you deserved to be.  I knew that the gods would bring you back into my life when you were ready to make your own way.  I kept an eye on you and I tried to make sure you were always protected.  I told Brianna before I left, that if anything happened to you that she would pay the price. What she said to me will never go away.” 

“What did she say?” Daemon asked. 

“She said, ‘Go ahead, what are you going to do? I’ve lost my mother because your mother chose to kill her.’  I left with out saying goodbye to any of the people that I love, because I knew that if I stayed I would end up hurting her,” Carmenta said. 

“She did what?!?!” Malinna said, “I can’t believe that she would resort to blackmail.  I know that she is an awful person, and she has no sense of right and wrong, but blackmail.” 

“She plans on doing anything and everything she can to keep what she thinks belongs to her.  She couldn’t stand the fact that I gave your father what he wanted most in the entire world.  The person you know is not the same person that I came to know in all my time in Encantada.  Brianna has a twisted since of right and wrong.  And she won’t rest until she has ruined my life.  Ha, she thought she had when she got to raise you.  She got to do what I wasn’t able to,” Carmenta said, “She got to see the most beautiful child grow into the stunning adult that I see today.”

Malinna smiled, “She didn’t have one thing though.”

“What was that?” Carmenta asked. 

“My love,” Malinna said, tears beginning to form.

Carmenta smile as tears began to run down her cheek, Malinna got up and hugged her.  Daemon stood and said, “I’ll leave you two to get ready for dinner.  It’s in half an hour.”

Malinna and Carmenta laughed and looked at the clock that sat on the mantle.  They let go of each other and stood up.  Malinna walked Daemon and Carmenta to the door, and shut it behind them.