Chapter 14

Sumon

“Lady Castel invites you this afternoon for tea with other ladies,” a maid said, standing at the door of her chambers.

Sumon rolled her eyes while Claire, her servant, tied her dress laces behind her back. The last thing she needed was to deal with the lady of the fortress. She had neither the time nor the desire.

Claire finished with the laces and smoothed her blue skirt. Sumon turned to allow her to place the rigid band under her breasts, raising it slightly and making it look bigger than it was. Claire turned around and tied it behind her back. When she finished fixing it, Sumon sat down so Claire could fix her hair.

“Thanks, Lady Castel, for the kind invitation, but unfortunately, I am forced to decline for today.”

And forever, she thought.

“There are urgent matters that require my presence,” she smiled.

The maid nodded and bowed, then left the room. Sumon snorted while Claire continued to brush her red hair gently.

“No one can refuse an invitation with the delicacy you use, Majesty.” Sumon laughed as she watched the servant through the mirror in front of her: brown hair was tied behind the nape of her neck, and green eyes shone brightly.

“I don’t want to waste time with them. I have to deal with other things.” She saw Claire take a few strands of her hair and quickly braid them by tying them behind the nape of her neck, then put on a tiara with pendants hanging down her hair. So, from a distance, it might have looked like she had gems in her hair.

“Today, I will go to the temple to pray, I do not want to be disturbed by anyone,” Sumon continued lying shamelessly.

When Claire had finished, she stood up and smoothed her dress’s blue and soft skirt. The skirt rubbed on the floor as she moved. She opened the door and walked out onto the open corridor, finding the royal guards in front of her.

The corridor of the fortress area where her chambers were located, made of stone, had a wide view of the city from the ample open space that made the cold of that day.

The corridor was completely devoid of windows and being a private area where only Sumon, her servants, and her guards had access, it was used as a large balcony on which each room on that floor was overlooked.

The balcony parapet was finished in marble, the lower wall was painted with several runes in a language so ancient that no one spoke it anymore. It was divided into several sections thanks to the presence of stone columns decorated and finished by hand.

The air was cold, the sky was completely gray. The storm is near, she thought and smiled. She turned to walk away when she saw Doreon. He was sitting on the marble parapet, with his back resting on a column dividing the balustrade into sections. One leg extended, the other bent, had one arm resting on the knee and face facing the view. His black hair swung slowly with the wind. He was thoughtful.

Sumon approached and positioned her shoulder against the opposite column and in front of him.

“Do you admire the view?” she asked delicately.

Her escort was not far from them, so it was convenient to speak in a lower tone and weigh the words she would use above all.

“I was thinking.” He turned to look at her, his eyes of gold darker because of the climate and probably also because of the thoughts that crowded his mind.

“It is not the best time to leave,” he said quietly.

“But at least the farmers will have something to celebrate,” she declared.

She placed her forehead on the cold column, crossing her arms across her chest.

“You can go,” she said, turning her head towards the guards.

“It is an order,” she insisted when she saw that the guards were not moving.

After a moment of hesitation, they nodded and left them alone.

Sumon sat on the parapet, her back resting on the column and one leg bent over the marble while the other dangling. Her hands gathered in her lap as she looked at Doreon’s pale face, which in turn looked at her in silence, his golden eyes shining.

“What were you thinking?” she asked him gently.

“Nothing important,” he said, shaking his head. He’s lying. Doreon always shook his head when he was lying.

“I thought you didn’t want to talk to me anymore,” he continued after a bit of silence.

“Why?”

“In the last few days, I had the impression that you were avoiding me,” Doreon said, looking straight into her eyes and letting the forefinger and thumb of the hand resting on the knee touch each other.

“Me? It’s not so, it’s that...”

“The other night, I came to your chambers,” Doreon continued Doreon “but you were not there. Then I heard the servants say you would spend the night in Nathan’s rooms. Are you back to try again?”

He asked her by looking at her, his tone was quiet.

Sumon sighed as she turned to the grey sky.

“Nathan’s position hangs in the balance as well as mine. An heir could restore some balance.” Sumon closed her eyes and laid her head on the marble behind her. “So I think it’s better if you and I...”

“Shall we interrupt our nocturnal adventures?” Doreon laughed. “Don’t worry, I’m not here to complain. Or rather, yes.”

Sumon opened her eyes and looked at him. “You know you can tell me everything without hiding. First of all, we are friends, with some benefit true, but always friends.” Sumon smiled.

“I know,” she admitted.

Doreon was the person she knew she could count on all along. She would trust him for her own life and knew no one in the world would protect Nathan better than he would. Doreon was Mihdel’s most loyal person, and when he married a cause, he always found himself in the front row and married Nathan’s cause. He was his friend, almost like a brother, so Nathan would rather keep him next to him than send him to lead his legions north.

Doreon smiled at her and turned again to look at the horizon. The darkness brought out her eyes, making them shine like glittering gold. She, too, turned towards the view. From there, they could see the whole city.

From that distance, the roofs of the houses looked like a large agglomeration of tiles joined. The walls surrounding the city seemed tiny compared to their actual size. she could see the woods and beyond, the mountains to the east and the plain to the west. It was like seeing three different kinds of territories altogether.

Sumon wanted to see the ocean too. Only the gods knew how much she missed the sea. Feel the water between her toes and the salty smell in the air. It had been five years since she had seen the ocean since she had seen her home—five years since she said goodbye.

Now her home was Sierra, and her husband’s people were also her people. That was where she had to be, the people she had to protect and one day rule.

She shook her head and turned to Doreon. He was too gloomy. She knew him well and knew something was wrong. She reached out and put her hand on his.

“Is everything okay?” she asked. He turned to look at her, and a strand of black hair fell on his forehead gently, giving him a disheveled look.

“Very well,” he said, shaking his head, lying again.

“I know when you lie.” Doreon smiled sadly and looked back at the city.

“Today is the anniversary”, he said in a whisper, always looking ahead.

“Damien...”

“Today, it’s been four years since he left and never returned,” he said sadly.

“Nathan was also down today, well... more than usual,” Sumon breathed deeply. “It’s normal to feel down. It’s what makes you human. You loved him, and you lost him.”

Doreon closed his eyes and rested his head on the column. His expression was painful. He was deeply inspiring in his attempt to hide his feelings. Feelings that could appear wrong in the eyes of many, including those of Doreon himself.

Sumon understood how she felt. Just as he always understood how she felt. That’s why they could always pick each other up. They were always able to sustain themselves, to understand each other so deeply that they were unknown even to them. She didn’t understand their connection exactly, but she knew he was there, that Doreon was there with her, and that he could always count on him.

Silence fell between them. Both turned their heads to the side, looking at the dark sky.

Sumon remembered a day when she was particularly sad and found herself in the same place, with tears running down her cheeks. She remembered that day she was particularly depressed after trying to get close to Nathan and being rejected immediately after an intimate encounter.

Her husband had run away when she started asking too many questions about his mistress. Nathan didn’t like to talk about her with anyone. Sumon was sitting right there and looking at the crystal-clear sky, she was lonely, tremendously lonely. She remembered how Damien had approached her silently, so much that she hadn’t even noticed her presence.

“You must not let him influence you too much!” he told her, making her jump.“Did he mistreat you?”

Sumon turned to look at him as he watched her with eyes full of understanding and compassion, eyes identical to her husband’s. “If he did, I’ll take care of him” Sumon had dried her tears quickly, trying to hide them, but it was too late.

“No, on the contrary. Nathan is always kind to me, too often. It’s just…” she then had breathed deeply, feeling the tears come back to wet her eyes “I am alone, completely alone, far from home, from my brother, with a husband who cannot even look me in the eyes while we f...”

She had shaken her head, looking for the right words not to seem too vulgar, she was still a princess.

Damien had sat next to her, giving his back to the magnificent view of the city, and shaking his head, that movement highlighted the coppery shades in his blond hair.

“Being away from all the people you love is difficult, I know my brother is not of help, but give him some time. I’m sure he’ll let you into his heart.” Sumon had shaken his head and started crying again.

“He will never love me, he can never do it. During our first night, while he slept, he sighed her name. He wasn’t even conscious, but it was her name that he kept repeating in his sleep.” Her voice trembled, Damien approached her and dried the tears that continued to flow undaunted on her face.

At that moment, he looked at her with a look full of compassion and pity. Pity for a little girl who believed in love, in the fool’s image, her husband would love her as her father had loved her mother until the end of her days.

“It’s not easy to get someone you love with all your soul and can never have because you know it’s morally wrong, out of your head” Sumon wasn’t sure if those words from Damien were referring to her or himself. “Is that why your face is so striped with tears?”

At that moment, Damien had reminded her of her father in the way he caressed her cheek, the same method he used when he was sad and cried disconsolately as a child.

That thought warmed her heart and made her feel better. Pulling up her nose, she had explained to Damien the reason for his sadness, and he had consoled her as no one had done before that moment. That was the first of many times that Damien had made her feel safe, especially at home.

She remembered the pain she felt when she learned of his disappearance and tried not to cry, but one day, sitting in her room in front of the mirror, Her eye had fallen on the falcon feather he had given her, and she had fallen into uncontrollable tears. Luckily, no one was there to see or hear her, no one because she was back alone again.

A flash pierced the sky and awakened her from her memories. After a few seconds, the roar of thunder was also heard.

Finally, the sky opened, and a light rain began to fall from the gray clouds. The sound of rain filled the silence around them.

Sumon and Doreon had approached each other after Damien’s disappearance, trying to comfort each other, while Nathan closed in his own pain: the pain of losing another person he loved.

Sumon had tied herself and clung to Doreon just like he had to her, but it wasn’t him who had taken them to bed.

Maybe it was the immense loneliness that Sumon had felt to push her into Doreon’s bed, or perhaps the simple bodily need to be with a man after Nathan hadn’t touched her for a long time. She wasn’t sure. She knew it was wrong, they both knew it, but that didn’t stop her from meeting up every night and doing it again and again.

Maybe it was a good thing that Nathan wanted to try again between Doreon and Sumon was getting more and more dangerous, and sooner or later, they would be discovered and hanged, and Sumon didn’t want Doreon to pay for something she started.

She turned to look at him, Doreon was silently looking at the horizon. But was he seeing what was in front of him? He was probably too immersed in his thoughts. She sighed, relaxing against the column again.

Sumon and Doreon sat there for a while, watching the rain fall in an accomplice’s silence.