Chapter 49
“Enter!” King Frederic called to a knock on the door. He looked up to see Empress Anita come through the doors. “What do you want?” he sighed, exasperated. He couldn’t understand why, when she hadn’t been interested in Orion for sixteen years, she seemed to care about him so much now. Although she wouldn’t go back to Lunspae unless he ordered it, she didn’t seem to spend much time with Orion at all. He couldn’t figure out why she thought her presence in the palace did any good at all. It just made him angry.
“I just wanted to talk, Frederic,” she said, walking over to his desk and leaning her hands on the edge.
“I don’t want to talk to you,” he said, glancing up, “I have too much work to do.”
“You just need a break,” she said, rounding the desk and coming up behind him, rubbing his shoulders. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, trying to keep his temper. He now understood why she wanted to be here on Olhoe instead of Lunspae. It wasn’t so much to be with Orion as it was to be with him.
“Anita, I-,” he began.
“Call me Annie,” she said, “Please?” She leaned over, next to his ear. He looked sideways at her. He tried to look irritated, but her bright blue eyes melted his heart and he smiled.
“Alright, Annie,” he sighed, setting his pen down and swiveling in his chair to face her. “What did you want to talk about?”
“Us,” she said, pulling on his shirt playfully, excited that she had his full attention.
“There is no ‘us’,” he said, frowning.
“But there could be,” she said, kneeling down and looking into his eyes.
“Not with the war going on,” he sighed and closed his eyes. Talking to her was worse than explaining the meaning of the universe to a child. “We are at war, Annie. We are enemies. We’re not supposed to be together like this.”
“But what about Orion? Orion will end the war in less than two years. Our people will be one!”
“Perhaps, but until then, we are still at war.” He removed her hands from his shirt, “Try to remember that, Annie.”
“One night isn’t going to change our lives, Freddie,” she cooed.
“It already has.” he scowled, looking deep into her eyes to make sure she understood what he said.
“But,” she got up, remembering the one night the two of them had spent together that had led to her getting pregnant with twins, Orion and Joshua. “But that worked out for the best. Think of all the good things those two have brought to us. And because Orion is a prince of your people as well as mine, the war will finally be over!” she kneeled down again, “Don’t tell me you regret spending that night with me?”
King Frederic looked away and thought hard before answering. He was the king of the telblec people. They expected him to lead them in the war against the lunimorves. They expected him to hate Empress Anita and her people, but he didn’t. At least when she gave him Orion, he was able to satisfy the curiosity of his people by telling them that Orion’s pale skin was a strange, new mutation. Although, now that Orion had explained everything to everyone, King Frederic couldn’t hide the truth from his people any longer. He had told them about how, when he was kidnaped, he had been tortured and put through many things that he had no power over. He had allowed his people to believe that getting the empress pregnant was one of those things. He had also convinced his people that he allowed the empress to be here because Orion needed her now, to help him cope with his handicap. Everyone loved their prince, so they had accepted King Frederic’s explanation. It wasn’t the complete truth. King Frederic enjoyed having her around, too, but he never let anyone know.
Did he regret spending that night with Empress Anita? No. The truth was that he was fascinated by her. He loved a woman he was supposed to hate, and he wanted to be with her. That was the reason he never married again, after his first wife died years ago. That was the reason he didn’t spend much time with his son, Orion. Orion reminded King Frederic of Empress Anita too much, and it hurt that they couldn’t be together. He wanted to be with Empress Anita, but he couldn’t, and no other woman was good enough for him. No other woman could come close to her charms. No other woman was half as beautiful as Empress Anita. He looked into her eyes, her beautiful, blue eyes. The same eyes she had given to Orion, and King Frederic had been forced to see every day as Orion grew up.
Without saying anything, he brought his hand up and brushed a tear away that had just begun to slide down her cheek. He allowed his hand to brush her ear, then her throat, finally resting on the nape of her neck, under her hair. He wrapped his other arm around her back and pulled her close to him, slipping off of the chair and standing up. He gazed deeply into her eyes, her face only inches from his. He closed his eyes slowly as his lips met hers.
An icy blast of wind rattled the large, glass doors in the den, startling both of them, and forcing them to look up. Letting go of Empress Anita, King Frederic walked over to his den and pulled the heavy, black curtain back. He watched the snow beat against the glass door, as if it was trying to break the glass and get in. King Frederic shivered.
“Looks like a blizzard,” Empress Anita said, stepping up to the glass door next to King Frederic and laying her hand on his arm.
“Yea,” King Frederic continued to stare out at the storm. He wasn’t seeing the snow for what it was, he was imagining it as what his people would do if they ever found out about his secret love. They would storm the palace, screaming for his execution. It had happened before. A man who was king had betrayed his people and was dethroned, dragged into the street, and stoned to death. His family had been executed, too. The people then chose a new king to rule them. That new king was King Frederic’s grandfather. King Frederic shivered to think of his people doing that to him. He had to keep Empress Anita away from him, not only for his own safety, but for his sons, too. He had to keep his secret, at least until Orion became king and ended the war. Then they would be free to love each other. Until then, it was too risky.
“Frederic,” she said, as if reading his mind, “You don’t have to be afraid. When my people found out about my love for you, I thought they would rebel, and force me from the throne,” she pushed his shoulder so that he was facing her, “But they didn’t. They were happy for me. Well, not so much for me as for themselves. It turns out that they were waiting for the war to end, and were overjoyed to learn that I had your child. A child that would eventually grow up to bring the telblec kingdom and the lunimorf empire together. Of course,” she looked down and smirked, “they thought that child was Josh, not Orion.” She smiled up at him. He towered over her. She was just over five foot tall, as was the normal height for a lunimorf. King Frederic, on the other hand, stood nearly seven feet tall, as did most telblecs.
“I’d rather not risk it,” he said, turning back to the storm.
“Frederic, I-,”
“Don’t, Annie,” he said, interrupting her, “Please, just go.”
“I do love you, Frederic,” she said as she kissed his arm and walked away. King Frederic watched her go from over his shoulder. After she left his rooms, he looked out at the blizzard again. He placed his hand on the cold glass and wept.