To Stand Beside Her (13 page)

“Your father is one of the few kings I have not met.
Trust me
,
he can’t be as bad as some of those men
,
”
Leila tried to reassure him.
“The palace is on the water, right?”
s
he asked.
Nalick nodded.
From the shores of Dria one could see the
beaches
of the
North Country
.
Leila was eager to be so close to home.

“My
K
ing,” a
sailor
said approaching them from behind
,
“
w
e should be there shortly.
Your father will have horses waiting at the port for you and the queen.
Would you like Master Theo or Macarius to accompany you to the palace?”

“
No, that is fine
,” Nalick replied as the man bowed and then left.
Leila giggled.

“See,” Leila replied
,
a
s
Nalick also laughed.

“I saw the wanted posters yesterday,” Nalick commented.
“Are they all you?”
h
e asked
.

Leila smiled coyly
not responding
.

“W
e attribute
anything
to you that they have no witnesses or cannot tell
who committed the crime,
”
he added.

“Oh, I don’t commit crimes,”
Leila
smiled at him.
“If it was a crime, then it was not done by
me
.”
Nalick
nodded his head sarcastically.
He was marrying a thief - and a good thief at that.
“I merely right some previous wrongs,” she explained.
“And yes, they were all me.
Though it is a bit disappointing,” she
paused
.

“Being on a wanted poster is disappointing?”
h
e asked.

“Well, I noticed that you are only actively looking for four of my previous identities. I have been to Lexia quite a few times, and yet you only want to find four versions of me,” Leila said while grinning at him.

“The only version of you I want to find is standing right here in front of me,” he responded
and gazed back over the water
not wanting the boat to stop and him to have to move his arm
.

Leila smiled as the boat pulled up to the port filled with people.
Nalick protectively
kept
his arm on the rail around her.
Below the crowd cheered as they saw Leila.
Nalick slipped his arm around her waist as she turned.
Leila looked down at everyone.
Nalick stood and waved to the people, who cheered louder.

“They are all here to see you,” he whispered in her ear.

These people will be so disappointed if nothing changes
, she thought.

Nalick escorted her off the boat and to the waiting carriages. It was a quick ride through the city filled with smiling faces of those wanting to see the king and his future queen.

“Your majesty, your father is in his study,”
a
man informed Nalick
as they approached the palace
.

Nalick took Leila’s hand and led her through the palace. If he had not been as nervous, he would have been more appreciative of how easily Leila accepted his hand. Unlike their palace in Lexia, the Dria palace was all one level, and there were no stairs to climb. Nalick led Leila through many passages until they arrived at the back of the palace. Nalick opened the door for Leila. As she entered, Leila glanced around the room with books lining the back wall. Off to the right was a room with an open balcony over water. Nalick led Leila to the room on the left. Lying on a couch with a book over his face was an old man. His hair was white from age and he had a long thin beard that reached from beneath his book down to his chest. He did not move as they entered.

“Lule, I am taking a rest. My son should be here soon, and I want to be rested,” the man complained.

“Hi, father,” Nalick said coolly, startling the old man causing him to drop his book to the floor.

As
the former king
regained his composure, he sat up and smiled.
E
ven though his hair and beard were white, he was not as old as
Leila
originally thought.
“Welcome,”
the man
said jumping up and kissing her hand.
“It is a pleasure to finally meet you.”
Nalick’s father
greedily eyed Leila.

Leila did not know how to respond.
F
rom the look he was giving her, he was just like any other king she had ever encountered.
Luckily
,
Nalick responded for her.

“Father, please behave yourself.”
Nalick gave the old man a disapproving glare.
Leila was not the only one that noticed the former king’s attitude.
“Did you not just take a new bride last year?
Even younger than Leila?
” Nalick commented.
The
former king had several wives.
“Remember father, this is my future wife here.” Nalick continued to glare at his father while putting a protective arm around Leila.

“Leila, this is my father Godfrith
,” Nalick introduced his father
but continued to hold Leila near himself.
Leila could feel the tension between them.

Godfrith
understood his son and apologized, “I am sorry miss if I offended you.
I had heard tales about
you
,
but they just don’t do you justice.”
The old man’s attitude changed.
He walked over and shook Nalick’s hand.

“It is so good to see you son.”
Godfrith
was sincere.
“How long ha
s
it been?”

“A few years,” Nalick replied.
T
he
strain
in the air
had not lifted
.
Not wanting to be between the two men, Leila drifted over to the window.

“After being on a boat all morning it would be good for me to go for a walk
,
”
Leila suggested.
Nalick did not like the idea of her being alone, so she took Nalick’s hand and squeezed it.
“I will be down by the shore.
Would you like me to go get Theo or Macarius?”
s
he asked.
Nalick shook his head no.

Godfrith walked over and opened the hidden door.
“This is the best way to get down there.”

Leila gazed one last time at Nalick, but he did not try to stop her as she walked down the stairs to the shore.
At the end of the stairs
,
Leila removed her shoes and wandered out onto the sand.
From her position on the beach she could see the shore of the
North Country
.
S
he was so close to home,
yet
still
very far away.
Cautiously,
Leila
lifted her dress and wandered into the water to get her feet wet.
Amused at the contrast of how cold the water was compared to the hot sun that was beating down on the beach made Leila laugh to herself.
B
oats passed going out to sea.
The colorful sails billowed in the wind.
Sailing off on an adventure was the kind of life Leila always expected to have, yet now she had agreed to be stuck in one place
;
Leila again began to doubt her decision.
Leila did not need to turn around as
she could hear a single person walking down the staircase from the palace.
Theo or Macarius
?
she wondered.
Without turning to see who was watching over her, she continued to walk along the shore.

Nearing
the farthest end of the
former king’s beach
,
she could hear the laughter of children.
Looking up she could see five children running through the gardens near the beach.
All five were running full speed toward the area where Leila was standing.
As the first child neared Leila, he stopped in his tracks.

“Mica, who’s she?” a young girl dressed in a
filthy
blue dress asked the first child.
The boy did not respond but just stare
d
at her.

“I am Leila,” she said to the girl in the blue dress.

“Where did you come from?” the boy with bright yellow hair standing next to the girl asked.

“Over there,” Leila pointed at the staircase that Macarius was sitting on.

“She’s the new queen
,
”
the first boy finally spoke
.
“Sorry for disturbing you,”
he
said to Leila
beginning
to usher the younger children back towards the garden.

“Why are you leaving?” Leila asked.

“My mother said you are a dangerous person,”
the boy
replied.

Leila laughed.
“
Do I look dangerous
?
”

The children stopped and pleaded with the older boy.
T
he little girl whispered loudly
,
“Is she really a queen?”
The girl eyed Leila from head to toe.

“Can’t we stay?” the younger boy asked.

“Yeah,” the tall thin boy behind him begged.

The older boy began pushing his friends.
“My mother said
she
robs and steals from people
,
”
he
stated
matter-of-factly.

“Oh,” the short fat boy shook his head in understanding.
“You’re a courier
.”

The tall boy joined his friend and gazed at Leila.
She was not tall like he imagine
d
couriers
to be,
or even strong. She was a normal girl not much older than themselves.

“They let girls be couriers?”
the thin boy
asked in amazement.
“I thought you had to be strong.”

“Girls can be anything,” the little girl pushed her friend aside and curtsied.
“Please
d
to meet you
my majesty
,” she said sweetly before pulling Leila into their game.

Chapter
8

Nalick watched out the window.
He was trying his best to talk to his father, but it had been years since they had seen eye
-
to
-
eye on any issue.
It
was much easier to watch Leila than listen to his father.
Nalick
did not hear the last statement his father made
,
and soon Godfrith was standing right next to
him
.

“She sure is a beauty,” Godfrith said looking out the window at Leil
a along
side Nalick.
“So I heard you are forcing her to stay.
You know you can’t win a woman’s heart by force.”

Nalick walked away from his father
to the doorway
.
“And you
w
ould know
.
” He opened the door and walked out onto the top step.
Below
,
in the sand, Leila was blindfolded as the children cheered
.
S
he tried to catch them
as they ran away from her
.