Liora found her daughter sitting next to the window as the first ray of sunlight slithered into her room. She didn’t look like she had had a wink of sleep.
“Do you want to take a nap first?” She took her by the shoulders and led her to the bed.
“Just five minutes, then I have to get married to Archer,” she moaned.
“Xander,” her mother corrected.
“Yes Xander,” Adalia pulled the covers over her head and closed her eyes.
***
Archer, Samson and a couple of men from the colony hid in the bushes outside the palace walls. They had been waiting there the whole night. At first they had planned to invade the castle in the dark but their numbers were nothing compared to the place guards that marched and flew over and around the palace walls.
They slept outside, but Archer couldn’t sleep. His arms itched for Adalia especially since she was only a few footsteps away from her. Being so close he felt his heart break all over again, thinking that Adalia had a hand in his attempted murder. He spent the night talking himself out of that idea while still convincing himself that it all couldn’t be a coincidence.
“Are you ready?” Samson pulled him out of his head. “They are opening the gates for the people to witness the wedding.”
“Let’s go,” but he wasn’t there to witness it but to disrupt it.
He jumped back when he saw a convoy of carriages heading their way. They were white with flags that had a hawk symbol on them. It was his family. Archer fought back the urge of stopping the convoy and telling his family he was alive. He hid behind the tree and just watched as his family entered the palace gates.
“I know you want to go to them, but you have to be careful,” Samson could see the longing in his eyes but he had to caution him.
Archer threw a hood over his head and followed the long line of people walking into the palace gates. They waited with the throngs of people before breaking from them and hiding in a corner. They needed to wait for the procession to start that way everyone would be distracted, but they waited for a long time.
“What’s going on?” Samson asked agitated.
Archer could remember how Adalia would cause a fit before changing out of her training clothes to wear her dresses. The memory made him laugh.
“What’s so funny?”
“Adalia hates getting dressed up. If she could she would walk into that chapel in her armor,” his smiled but his joy was labored.
The crowd started getting agitated with murmurs flying around of a cancelation. Archer could only wish that it was true, this way he could stop suspecting Adalia of foul play. But how could he. An hour passed before someone came out to give them an update but it still didn’t look like the ceremony was about to start any time soon.
***
Randi and Novia walked into Adalia’s room to find her asleep on her mother’s lap. When Liora saw them she raised her finger to her lips asking them to be quiet.
“Mother what is going on?” Randi sat on the bed beside his mother.
“Why is she still asleep?” Novia was now examining Adalia and she could see the marks of exhaustion on her face.
“I think she spent the whole night crying,” Liora combed her fingers through Adalia thick raven hair. “She’s only doing this because her father asked her to. She’s devastated that it isn’t Archer she’s marrying.”
“I miss my brother.”
Adalia was woken up by the voices around her, but she didn’t open her eyes. She was terrified that if she did she would have to face her new life, a life she didn’t want. She didn’t move, she lay there listening to them talk about Archer.
“He loved her didn’t he?” Randi said. “I think he could have been the only one to handle my sister. And that is only because he seemed to give her whatever she wanted.”
“That’s how he was,” Novia chuckled. “But he was so in love with her I thought he would go crazy.”
Adalia whimpered letting everyone around her know that she was awake. She sat up and tried to blink the tears away, but she couldn’t. She talked through her tears, wiping them away as they fell.
“I’m happy that you were able to come,” she forced a smile.
“What are you doing?” there was a tone of annoyance in Randi’s voice.
“I have to get married, and you know that,” Adalia scurried off her bed hoping to get away from her brother’s glaring eyes.
“But not so soon. You need time to deal with Archer’s death,” he followed her wherever she tried to run to.
“I don’t have time, the rebels-,”
“Lionell and I can handle the rebels. I am still Gabrielle’s first son.”
“But I am his first born, it’s my duty,” she picked up a veil, for the first time noticing her gown laid on the chair beside her.
Randi caught the look of terror immediately her eyes fell on the waiting gown. He snatched the veil from her hands and ripped it into pieces. “I won’t let you do this to yourself.”
“Father is sick, I need to step up it’s my duty,” she shrieked, the word duty replaying itself in her mind.
“I was bred for duty and responsibility. My Kingdom and my crown are more important than my desires and personal needs,” Novia recited. “That was what Archer kept telling himself and he never got to live his life the way he wanted to.”
“But it’s true, why else were we born,” Adalia was trying to convince herself and no one else.
“That saying is misguided and idiotic. I don’t know why my father kept on saying it to Archer,” Novia took both Adalia’s hands. “You were born to live, why don’t you do that?”