Family Secrets

Nolen struggles to conceal his feelings for Arianelle as they are imprisoned together.

20.

Family Secrets

 

“That didn’t go too well,”   Arianelle said as they looked around their prison cell.

The room had a single bunk, a small table and a stool.

“Hopefully Lee will figure out a way to assist us,”   Nolen replied, sitting down on the edge of the bunk.

“I wouldn’t count on that - he fled like a scared rabbit.”   

Arianelle sat down next to him and didn’t notice Nolen’s uneasiness.   He fidgeted nervously, but tried to appear relaxed, “He’s not that bad, Aria, really, he’s not.”

“Oh really?   Then why did he abandon us?”   She held his gaze, anticipating his response, but she was too close to him and he was caught up in her eyes.    Realizing how he was reacting, he simply shook his head and looked down at his hands.

“See?    You are as frustrated with him as I am!”   she grumbled, oblivious to his nervousness around her.  He was relieved that she was so focused on their situation that she didn’t notice anything unusual about him.

“Aria, he could be formulating a plan to free us,”   he said, not daring to look up at her, “We really didn’t have a plan, you know.    I’d say that Lee simply escaping was worth it.     He needs us, you know.”

“Why would he need us?”

“He’s not a believer in Yesh.    Despite what that rebel leader told us, the Fisher King remains our best chance at saving everyone.   This whole place seems too dream-like to me.   It’s suspicious.    Perhaps this is all some sort of test for us.”

“So this might not be real?”

“Maybe…it just seems… well, strange.”

“But we still have to figure out what to do, whether this is all an illusion or not.”

“Yes, you’re right.   Calvin may respect us more if we just give him time to consider everything, so I think we should just passively wait.    If we try to escape and he recaptures us, we probably won’t get another chance.”

“So we just have to sit here?”

“That would be my suggestion.”

Arianelle sighed and began unbuckling a strap at her shoulder.

“What are you doing?”   Nolen asked worriedly. 

“I’m going to get comfortable.”

“But Calvin allowed us to keep our armor in case of an attack, so he probably expects us to wear it.”

“I’m not going to try to sleep in plate armor when we’re in a locked room with a tiny window the size of an arrow slit.”

“But-“

“Help me with the straps, Nolen.”

“Um…”

She looked at him, somewhat annoyed, “For Heaven’s sake, I thought paladins were to be fearless.    Surely you’re not afraid of taking off your bulky armor so we can get some rest?”

Chastised, he blushed and silently helped her unbuckle the shoulder strap.

“What’s wrong with you, anyway?”  she asked after he was silent for a few moments.

“Nothing… a lot has happened.”

She of course thought of the death of his parents and her mood quickly softened.    Suddenly she took his hand compassionately, “Oh, Nolen, I’m sorry, how callus of me.   Tell me what you are thinking.”

“Uh…I…I…don’t know, I guess I’m just… tired,”  he stammered.

“All the more reason to get some rest.”   Releasing his hand, she began pulling off pieces of her plate armor.   Though she had her arming doublet underneath, he sat there mesmerized while watching her, until guilt finally compelled him to start work on his own armor.

He had his arm pieces removed when she suddenly stood up, having finished removing all the metal plates, “I’ve never understood how Paladins could learn to sleep in armor, or even an armoring doublet.   Fortunately, I am not a paladin.”

To his dismay, she began wiggling out of the snug fitting arming doublet.     He could not look away, for her gyrations to free herself of the doublet was maddingly hypnotic.    Amazingly, she seemed to be completely oblivious to how sensual her movements were to him.  

Mortified at the intense desire he was feeling toward her, he jumped to his feet and crossed the room to the door, though he knew it would be locked.   Still, he tried pushing it open, with no success.    What was wrong with him?    She was his cousin!  

His hands trembled and his pulse raced, as he tried to force himself to think of sobering thoughts.    He reminded himself of the death of his parents and that brought the agony of loss to the front of his mind, yet somehow it also made him think of Aria too.

Maybe it was a reaction to his parents’ deaths and the danger his grandparents faced.    Aria had inherited the great beauty of her drow grandmother as well as Lady Mathlyn.     With such lovely ancestors, she obviously would be beautiful.    Could his reaction to her simply be a warped need for family now?   It didn’t make sense to him, but he latched on to that explanation.   

It was the stress of the situation, because they were thrown together in the middle of a traumatic time.    Once things calmed down, common sense and sanity would return.    For now he had to fight what he was feeling, remind himself of the perversity of lusting after a cousin and the sin of lusting after any woman when he was a paladin, then focus on the task at hand; finding the Fisher King.

“It’s locked, isn’t it?”   she asked, not understanding why he was at the door.

“Yeah… I was just checking to see how secure our prison was.   I have a set of Ogre Strength Gauntlets that my father gave me, so we could bust out of here anytime we choose.”

“I’ve got a set too!   Amala gave me them before they left.    I thought the plan was to wait… did you have a change of heart?”

“No… I’m just restless, I guess.”   He forced himself not to look her way.

“Well, we ought to rest while we have a chance, I guess, since we’re ‘imprisoned’ here.”

“You go ahead and get some sleep; I’ll keep watch.”

“Keep watch for what?   We’re locked inside, Nolen.”

“Yeah… but they could come in suddenly and one of us should be ready.”

He heard his cousin snort in amusement, “We don’t even have our weapons!    I don’t think it will matter if we’re watching the door or not.”

“Never-the-less, I think I’ll stand guard.”

“Well, alright, but you have to at least sit down over here.    I don’t want to hear the floor creaking as you pace back and forth.   You can ‘stand guard’ while you are sitting down.”

“That’s never a good idea, Aria.”

“Humor me, Nolen; I don’t think I could get any sleep with someone standing around.    That would make me nervous.”

With a resigned sigh, Nolen went across the room, averting his eyes as he approached.     She had stripped off her arming doublet and had it flung across a chair next to the bed.    He was curious what garments she wore underneath the doublet, but he didn’t look.

Instead he sat down at the foot of the bed, facing away from her and focused on removing the remaining pieces of his armor.    He hoped she’d simply slip under the woolen bedspread and go to sleep.

 

For a few minutes he thought she had done just that, but as he slid the last piece of his armor onto the floor (mixing there with the pieces of her armor), he heard her rustling and moving down toward him.

“I can’t sleep… I’m too keyed up,” she announced, and he heard her recline at the foot of the bed near where he sat in the floor.

Of course he had to look at her when she spoke and immediately he regretted doing this.    Most knights would wear a linen shirt and pants under their arming doublet to keep it from rubbing sores in the places where the chainmail was attached.

Aria, however, wasn’t a formally trained knight and though she wore the typical linen pants of a knight, instead of a linen shirt, she had chosen some sort of silky slip-like garment that was probably meant to be worn under a ball-gown.    Thin straps crossed her shoulders and the cut of the slip revealed an extremely generous view of her cleavage.

He was surprised to see how mature she was.    Of course he had never seen her wearing so little, but it was shockingly apparent that she had inherited the extra large bosom of her mother’s female drow family.

Nolen found himself staring at her buxomness, until he finally tore his lustful gaze away.     His palms sweated as he wrung his hands, looking any place but toward her.     Aria still seemed entirely clueless to his reaction.

“Waiting around is so hard,”   she told him with a restless sigh, leaning forward on her elbows which did nothing but emphasize her chest. 

 

Nolen closed his eyes, “This whole thing is supernatural.  I don’t think any of this is real.   I think we’re being manipulated by this illusion.”

“How?”   She asked and he glanced at her, locking his sight on her eyes.

“I think that even now we’re being tested… to see how worthy we are to see the Fisher King.   This whole ‘world’ is testing us, Aria.”

Her eyes widened and she glanced around as if sinister forces were hovering all around them, “So… you’re sure now that this whole meeting with Calvin and his forces are to test us?”

“Maybe…I’m not sure how any of this works.    But I do know that this is some sort of test.”

“I wonder how I’m being tested?”   Arianelle pondered, rolling over to her back and staring at the ceiling.     Nolen continued to try to look away from her form, but found himself frequently peeking.

“You know, I do struggle with trusting strangers.”   She finally said, “Could this be my test?”

“Well, we are at the mercy of strangers right now, and Prince Lee, who you are suspicious of, may be our only hope.”   

“Then Lee would be struggling with something as well.    Maybe his test is to put others before himself.    I wonder how he’ll respond?”

“I pray that the seriousness of our quest will enable him to overcome his flaws.”  

He tested his willpower by looking at her as he spoke; reminding himself mentally that she was his relative.    But his eyes just took in an unconsciously sensual young woman, reclining on the bed as she talked with her cousin.     She was at ease and relaxed around him, and a part of him wanted to tell her exactly what he was feeling, so she would be on guard against him.

“You realize you are our best hope of success.”   Aria’s voice broke his trance and he blinked his vision back into focus with a quizzical expression.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, you’re a paladin,”  she said with a sigh, “You are focused and devout, unlike Lee and I.   He has his issues and I have mine, but you can achieve the goal.”

He looked down at his sweaty hands and snorted, “I’m not at all sure of that.”

“Why?   You seem to be able to handle anything, Nolen.    You’re tough and clear-headed.    Just look at you - if I had just lost my parents, I’d be a wreck, but though you are grieving, you still seem determined to finish this quest.    You’re solid and strong - so you’ll be successful.”

He couldn’t look at her, but simply shook his head slowly.

 

“Nolen, there’s no need to be humble, I’m not jealous of your resolve, in fact I’m proud of your strength of character.”

“You have no idea, Aria,”   He mumbled, wishing that he hadn’t said it as soon as the words left his mouth.

Looking very concerned about him, she leaned in closer, “Tell me.”

Of course he couldn’t do that, without shaming himself and scaring her to death.    What could he say?   How could he explain to her of all people?

“I…I-I have…um…temptations…”

Arianelle’s eyebrows arched, “You?   Really?   What would possibly tempt you?”

He bowed his head, unable to reply, his face reddening with shame and embarrassment.

But Aria then realized (at least partially) what his temptation was and she actually giggled like a servant maid told a juicy secret, “Oh no, someone has caught your eye!”

He kept his head bowed and now closed his eyes, for her girlish glee at what she perceived to be a simple crush did not help the situation.

Her feminine curiosity now had control of her and she rolled over to her side and leaned in close, her lovely red eyes glowing brightly, “You’ve got to tell me, Nolen!    Who is she?   Is she someone at grandpa’s court or back at King’s Reach?”

He tried to move away from her, but she grabbed his arm, thinking he was embarrassed of having his first crush.     She had no idea of the seriousness of his problem.

“Aria… please…”

“Huh uh, you’ve simply got to tell me!   It’s a member of grandpa’s court, isn’t it?”   She was inches away from him, grinning like a gossiping washer-woman.    Her beauty was almost too much for him right then, but he flinched backward as he felt himself being drawn toward her full red lips.

“Aria…it’s…it’s personal…I-I… I don’t want to talk about it… please.”

“No chance, buddy, I’m not going to quit until I know who she is!    She is one of the ladies of the court, isn’t she?    Is it Duke Kassic’s daughter?”

“Duke Kassic’s daughter?”   He repeated, having no idea who this girl was, though he had met the Duke several times.

“You know - the human girl with the big b***s- her name is Casandra or Cassinovia… something like that.    She’s not really that pretty, but a lot of the pages and squires ogle her because she walks around like this all day.”    Aria demonstrated by sitting up on the bed and thrusting her chest out proudly, her voice taking on a high pitched, nasal tone, as she said, “Hi there, my name is Casandra… or maybe I’m Cassinovia… I’m not really sure, you know.    How are you, Prince Nolen?    Gee, you are handsome!    Maybe we could dance together sometime and I could push my b***s up against you.    You’d like that, wouldn’t you?”

To his horror she reached out and hugged him against her, still parodying the human girl.     Nolen had no idea how well-endowed this Casandra girl was, but he knew without a doubt that Aria had her easily beaten.     Her breasts pushed against his chest as she tightly hugged him, batting her eyelashes comically.   Her portrayal was humorous, but he was too shaken by her hug to even smile.

Instead he looked at her as if she had just stabbed him fatally in the back with a poisoned dagger.   She interpreted his terrified look to mean that his secret crush on the human girl had been discovered and she giggled in delight.

“I knew it!”   She exclaimed, “You’re a b**b guy and Casandra’s set is your terrible temptation, isn’t it?”

“Aria, stop it!” He almost yelled at her, unnerved, “This is hardly the time for such trivial things!”

His rebuke did little to curb her mischievousness toward him, though she completely misread his reaction as a youthful man’s awkwardness toward his own privately guarded emotions, mixed with shyness.   She laughed at him, jiggling her bosom in his face as she resumed her impression of Duke Kassic’s daughter, “Oh Prince Nolen, you are so wonderful and handsome!   Would you like to pick some melons with me?   I have big, ripe ones in my garden, and I’d let you pluck them if you’d like to!”

She made an exaggerated puckering motion with her lips, cupping her hands around her breasts to press them together and leaning in as if she was going to kiss him.

“STOP IT, ARIA!”  He yelled, crawling backwards and then leaping to his feet to retreat to the room’s door.    He kept his back to her, for he did not want her to see how her clowning around had aroused him.   Wildly he tried to think of a way to escape this situation.   His heart raced and he was soaked in sweat.

“Yesh, have mercy upon me.”   He whispered as he leaned with his forehead against the cold wood of the door.

A few tense moments passed, and he heard Arianelle slipping out of bed.    What was he going to do now?   He could hear her light footfall as she came over to him.

“Hey…don’t be upset.   I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make fun of her.     I was just kidding…”   She touched his arm but he didn’t dare turn to her.

“Aria, this is a serious problem for me,”   he said without opening his eyes.

“I didn’t understand, now I do.   I’m sorry, she’s really a nice girl.   I had no right to make fun of her like that.   I guess I really have no right to joke about how she looks, huh?”

“No,”   He said, not venturing to add anything else.

“Come back over to the bunk, sit down and talk with me, okay?   I’ll take it seriously now, I promise.    I might be able to help you deal with your dilemma.”   She gently began pulling his arm.

“I don’t want your help, Aria,”   He replied, knowing it sounded terribly rude, so he softened it with a guarded smile as he let her lead him back to the bed.     He kept his eyes on the floor as they transversed the room.

  She didn’t say anything, but bid him to sit on the bed, then sat down next to him, “Nolen, what can I say to get you to forgive me?”

“Aria, just forget it, okay?   We’ve got much more important things to focus on than my…problem.”

“Nolen, your 'problem' actually might not be such a bad thing.   You know, you are the heir of grandfather now and you’ll have to think of producing an heir in the near future.”

“Aria-“

“I’m serious, Nolen!   I know you’re young and it seems really crazy to say such a thing, but since your parents are dead, the barons are going to expect the crown prince to have children as soon as possible, to ensure a continuation of the dynasty.    They are very anxious about making certain that a dynasty is secure.”

“How would you know all this?”

“Because my father’s court have been politely but persistently hinting to my Mom that more heirs are needed, especially a male heir.    As if it was my mom’s fault that all they have is me.    I know that the human barons are especially peculiar about heirs, and so I’m quite sure they’ll start hounding you soon… especially if our mission fails.”

For a moment, this thought sobered both of them, but finally Nolen shook the gloom off. “Aria, I think I have some time before I need to worry about that.”

“I think you’ll be surprised, Nolen.    Duke Kassic’s daughter would actually be a smart choice.    Since she is human, she may be able to conceive children easier than elves.    A child with her would be half-elf, though of course Casandra or Cassinovia would age and die, at least you’d have some good and happy years.”

Nolen bravely looked her in the eyes. “Aria, I’m not interested in this girl.”

Arianelle looked surprised. “You’re not?”

“No, in fact I don’t even know who she is.”

“Well then, for Heaven’s sake, who is it who is giving you such trouble?”

Before he could think of a lie to tell her, there came a series of loud explosions from somewhere outside, followed by the sounds of shouting and the ringing of swords against swords.

 

Reviews

[Elina]

"Braen may respect us more if we just give him time to consider everything..." and "But Braen allowed us to keep our armor..." I'm not entirely sure, but I think that you may have meant to use "Calvin," here. ?
"I just was kidding…" Perhaps switch "just" and "was."