Midnight Pearls

  His father had been planning for years to kill King Philip and seize the throne. The day after next, years of planning would start to pay off. It was a shame, really, that he wasn’t going to have an opportunity to have Pearl in his bed. She would be dead before sundown, though.

  The servant finished and, bowing, left the room. After a minute, Robert crossed to his father.

  “Everything is in place,” the duke said, a wicked gleam in his eye. “In the morning, a dangerous criminal will escape and poison the king.”

  “The killer’s connection to the prince will be discovered, and he will be killed.”

  “And after the others are dead, the throne will be ours.”

  Robert picked up a wine goblet from the table. “I’ll drink to that,” he said, and downed the clarrey in one swallow.

  The duke lifted a glass as well. “Here’s to us: What a fine pair of widowers we will be.”

  Dearly beloved, we are gathered here in the eyes of God and these witnesses to join Robert and Pearl in holy matrimony. If there is anyone here who knows of any reason why these two should not be joined, let him speak now or forever hold his peace.

  It was the day before her wedding. Pearl fingered the fabric of her gown where it was hanging and wondered what the morrow would bring There was nothing left for her to do. Between Mary and the servant, Martha, everything had been taken out of her hands. There was nothing left for her to do but wait.

  She realized that it was one of the only times she had been alone since entering the castle. Robert was being fitted for his wedding clothes, else she was sure he would be with her. He had been her constant companion for the past several days.

  She wandered the castle, seeing all the places where James had played as a child. This was home to him and, after tomorrow, could never be for her. From the looks of things, it would, however, be home to Faye

  Faye. She had seen the girl at every turn she had made the last few days, but always there had been others around, and before she could speak to her, Faye would have disappeared again. Pearl felt convinced, though, that Faye always looked as though she was about to speak, or at least try to. Does she want to see me about something? Pearl wondered. If she did, she obviously didn’t want others to be around when she approached her. If she’s going to marry James, maybe she’s just curious about me, or worried that I’m competition. Pearl snorted to herself. There was little worry about the last. With Faye around, James hadn’t even given her a second glance. So much for friendship. She sighed. At least she knew he wasn’t in love with her. That made it a little easier to marry Robert, knowing that she never could have had James’s heart.

  Still, there was one who did love her, or claimed to, at any rate. She couldn’t help but wonder what had happened to Kale. Where had the guards taken him? She felt sorry for him. From him her thoughts returned to Faye. The two seemed so alike, somehow. It was more than just their startling physical attributes, so similar to her own. It just seemed strange that one was blind and the other mute.

  On one of the few occasions that she had seen Faye she had observed the girl trying to speak. That was not the action of someone mute from birth. Kale had also claimed that his blindness had come on suddenly, within twenty-four hours of their meeting. Our official meeting, at any rate, she thought, remembering his claim to have seen her the day before while she was swimming for shore.

  She stopped, noting one of the finer tapestries in the corridor she was walking. It was a picture of the ocean with a mermaid sitting on a rock in the middle of it. Young men were sailing their ship toward her. Mermaid as temptress. It was an interesting story. She sighed and continued on her walk

  She heard a footstep behind her in the hall and she turned. Faye darted up to her swiftly her enormous eyes bright. Before Pearl could say a word, Faye took her by the hand and motioned for her to follow. Her curiosity piqued, Pearl went along.

  Faye moved silently, her steps inaudible on the floor. Pearl’s own footfalls were thunderous by comparison. Faye finally turned to her and placed a finger over her lips, signaling for Pearl to be quiet. Pearl nodded understanding.

  Faye moved through the corridors as though she had been haunting them all her life. Her head bobbed from side to side as though she was listening for something, or someone.

  A chill danced up Pearl’s spine. Wherever Faye was taking her, it was clear she didn’t want anyone else to discover them. For a brief moment Pearl thought the other girl was luring her somewhere to kill her so she would have no competition. The thought was a silly one, though, and Pearl banished it with a wave of her hand. Not only did the other girl have nothing to fear from her, but Pearl couldn’t believe that anyone with such innocent eyes was capable of violence.

  They turned down a last corridor and then began descending a flight of stairs. Down they went, farther and farther into the bowels of the castle. Torches lit the way every few feet. Faye glanced back frequently to make sure that she was still following.

  At last they reached the bottom. Empty cells stood on either side of them. The dungeon, she realized. The place sent cold shivers of dread up Pearl’s spine. Still, she forced her feet to keep moving. At the very end of the row of cells Faye stopped.

  Pearl joined her and slowly peered in. Kale! His skin stood out in sharp contrast to the darkness around him. He came to the front and extended a hand out through the bars, groping blindly. Nervously, Pearl took it. Faye nodded slightly and then moved away, giving them privacy.

  “Pearl?” he said.

  “Yes.”

  “It seems you’ve met my sister,” Kale noted.

  “Yes,” Pearl said, at a loss for what else to say.

  “Are you all right?” he questioned.

  “Yes. Do you know where you are?”

  He laughed sharply. “Well, Faye, hasn’t had a lot to say.”

  Pearl winced at that. “Sorry.”

  “Don’t trouble yourself over it.”

  “You’re in a dungeon. They say you’ve attacked women.”

  He shook his head. “That’s not true. I hope you don’t believe that.”

  She shook her head, frustrated. “I don’t know what to believe, to be honest.”

  “Believe that I love you.”

  A lump rose in her throat, and she couldn’t speak for a moment. Her world seemed upside down.

  “Pearl, are you all right?”

  “No,” she sobbed. “Everything is all wrong. A week ago I had a simple life, just my parents, a close friend I might have loved, and me. Now there is just too much.”

  “What’s too much?” he asked.

  “You and Robert.”

  “Who is Robert?”

  “Robert is a marquis, and…and my intended husband. I only met him the day I met you, and yet we are to marry tomorrow morning.”

  “No!” he shouted, throwing his whole body against the bars. “You cannot!”

  Frightened, she jumped away, dropping his hand. “There is nothing I can do,” she protested.

  “There is everything you can do. You are a princess. It is within your power to change this. You alone have the right to say who you will marry.”

  His expression was fierce, and it frightened her. She took another step backward. “A princess? How can that be?”

  “You are! You must see that, you must remember!”

  “I must do nothing more than what I am told,” she stammered. She backed into a cell door and barely muffled a scream as the cold metal dug into her flesh. “I—I must go,” she cried, turning and fleeing back toward the stairs

  “You need to remember who you are, Adriana!” he shouted after her “Return to the ocean and you will find yourself!”

  She tripped on the stairs, falling to her knees with a painful thud. She huddled for a moment, crying in pain, before struggling back to her feet. She was relieved that Faye seemed to have disappeared.

  With Kale’s words echoing in her mind, she fled the castle. Startled servants marked her pas
sage but did not try to stop her. Once free of the castle walls, she headed for the ocean.

  Who am I? What did Kale mean that I was a princess and that the ocean would help me find myself? Where do I come from? A thousand questions collided in her head, crashing like the waves upon the shore.

  She slowed only when she reached the sand. The blood was roaring in her ears to match the pounding of the surf. She stopped at the water’s edge and stared out at the blue-green of the water, “Who am I?” she asked the seas.

  The ocean was silent.

  “Who am I?” she asked herself. She had been asking the question all of her life, but she had always been too afraid to hear the answer. Now she needed to know, no matter what the answer.

  “I’m not human,” she whispered to herself. It was more than her physical appearance; there had always been something deep inside her that told her she didn’t belong. Mary and Finneas knew, too; they had just never been able to admit it to her.

  “If not human, then what?” she asked softly

  She had always felt pity for the fish that Finneas caught, though she had never had any such pity for the beasts of the land that men also ate. He had pulled her from the ocean during a storm. Kale had been in the water when the boat that she and James were in had sunk. She had found Kale sitting here beside the ocean. And something, or someone, had tried very hard to make sure that she would never step foot in the water.

  It could not all be coincidence; it could all only mean one thing: She had come from the ocean. Therefore, to the ocean she would need to return to discover the truth. Maybe all those years spent sitting and staring at the ocean she had actually been searching for answers. They weren’t to be found on the shore, though, she knew that now.

  She picked up her skirts in one hand. Nervously grasping the pearl around her neck, she stepped into the water, taking several quick steps until she was standing in it knee-deep. “I want to know who I really am. I want to be who I really am!” she shouted

  Her legs gave way beneath her, and she crashed down into the water. She watched in stunned horror as her legs began to grow together and scales began to cover them. Pain and fear ripped through her and she scrambled backward, finally throwing herself up onto the sand. “I take it back!” she screamed. “I want to be a human!”

  The pain ceased, and she lay still for a moment, too frightened to look down. At last she struggled to a sitting position. Her two legs were back as they had been: pale, gangly, and covered in human skin.

  She sobbed to herself. She knew who she was. Years of searching and questioning were over. After all that seeking, she finally had the answer, but she lacked the strength to act upon it. I am too much a coward to actually be that which I know I am, she realized sadly.

  The sun was beginning to set when she made her way, limping, back to the castle. The whole place seemed to be in an uproar, with servants and guards running about frantically. Something was wrong.

  Martha was hurrying by, and Pearl caught her arm. The servant spun, startled, then hastily curtsied.

  “What has happened here?”

  “Someone has tried to poison the king”

  “What! Who?”

  “A man who was a prisoner in the dungeon. Someone helped him escape ”

  Pearl’s blood ran cold. Kale had been the only prisoner in the dungeon. Faye must have been the one to help him escape. “Does the king live?”

  “Only by the grace of God ”

  Pearl released Martha’s arm, and the other woman rushed on her way

  “Pearl!”

  She jumped at the sound of her voice and whirled toward the speaker.

  It was James. His face was as dark as a thundercloud. “Come with me,” he ordered, barely slowing as he passed her. Frightened, she turned to hurry behind him. Thoughts tumbled together in her head. Maybe he had heard about her dealings with Kale and Faye. Maybe he thought that she had had some part in the attempt on his father’s life

  She tried to calm herself. It was useless to conjecture; it would only serve to frighten her and nothing else. She just kept moving, stumbling along behind on legs that felt even more alien to her than they had just hours before. At last they stopped, and Pearl gasped when she saw where they were

  They were in the throne room. Pearl had never been there before, but it was impossible to mistake. At one end of the room on a raised dais were two magnificent chairs the likes of which she had never seen. Guards and servants stood at every door.

  “Everyone out and shut the doors!” James thundered

  Everyone hastened to comply and when the last door slammed closed, Pearl and James were all alone. Finally he stood for a moment, every inch of his frame quivering.

  At last he turned to her “You have heard what has happened”

  It was a statement, not a question.

  “Yes,” she answered, her mouth dry.

  He stood staring at her for a long minute, and she grew increasingly nervous. She finally realized, though, that he was staring through her rather than at her.

  Slowly he stopped shaking, and it was as though she could physically see the fight leaving his body He collapsed in the middle of the floor and buried his head in his hands.

  She sank down next to him, unsure how to help. Hesitantly she reached out and placed a hand on his shoulder. He tensed for a moment, and then slumped again. His body began to shudder, and she sat quietly with him, waiting for him to speak first.

  At last he lifted his head and looked at her. “My father almost died today.”

  “I know,” she whispered.

  “I should have seen this coming. I’ve been so blind, though, so befuddled, I haven’t been paying attention to the things I should have been paying attention to” He looked at her and smiled grimly “Or the people, either.”

  She felt tears welling in her eyes. “Everyone understands,” she whispered.

  “I don’t care about everyone. I care about you. I’ve let you down, I know that.”

  “No, you haven’t,” she denied.

  “Don’t lie to me, Pearl,” he said, taking her hand. “No lies between us, remember?”

  She nodded, not trusting her voice to speak.

  “I have been a terrible judge of character, lately. I haven’t been myself since that day I hit my head on the boat.”

  “You’ve just been preoccupied.”

  “And the more shame on me for it,” he said, wincing.

  She waited for him to continue. He sat quietly for a moment, but she could see from the flashing of his eyes and the twitching of his jaw that there was a storm raging inside.

  “A few days ago the guards captured a criminal, a murderer. He had done things—terrible things that you shouldn’t have to hear about. He has been down in the dungeon. This afternoon he escaped. He tried to poison my father. He got away. The guards are searching for him as we speak.”

  She began to shake uncontrollably. “Are you certain this man did the things he has been accused of?”

  He nodded grimly. “And now, this. There’s more….” He hesitated.

  Dread filled her. “What is it, James? I beg you, tell me.”

  He looked at her, and his eyes were filled with tenderness. “He wounded Sir Robert before he escaped. Don’t fear, though, he will be all right. He’s a good man and I have judged him unfairly.” James snorted. “He’s my better in many ways. He had the good sense to see at a glance what it took me years to figure out.”

  She stared deeply into his eyes and felt herself begin to tremble inside. What was the glimmer in his eye? For a wild moment she thought he was going to kiss her.“ What about Faye?” she whispered.

  “Faye,” His voice took on the hard edge again, “Well, it seems that Faye is the one who helped him escape. It turns out that she is his sister, I was a fool,”

  “Maybe you’re judging her too harshly. Maybe her brother was falsely accused,” Pearl protested.

  “No hope of that, I’m afraid, A witness has come
forth who positively identified him yesterday,”

  Pearl felt as though the world were crashing around her. Kale was a murderer and Faye his accomplice. Had they been trying to use her in some way in their plan to kill the king? She felt as though she was going to be sick.

  “Pearl, I don’t want you to worry yourself about any of this now,” James told her, again speaking in a gentle voice.

  “Why?” she questioned through her tears.

  “You have more important things to be worrying about right now,”

  He stood up abruptly and held out his hands to her. She clasped them, and he helped her to her feet. He held her hands for a moment and stared down at them. He ran his thumbs lightly over the backs of them before lifting his eyes to stare into hers.

  “Pearl, I really do wish you and Robert the best of luck. I know you’ll be very happy together. Don’t worry about the things I’ve told you. I just want you to relax and enjoy your wedding day tomorrow.”

  Solemnly, he leaned forward and kissed her on the cheek. Then he released her hands and turned on his heel, striding quickly from the room. As the door slammed shut behind him, she fell to her knees and sobbed.

  It was deathly silent, so when the doors of the chapel were flung open, everyone jumped. Pearl’s eyes flew open as a voice rang out.

  “I object!”

  Pearl spun around as everyone gasped.

  There at the far end of the aisle stood Kale. He was covered in dirt and blood, and his hair was matted down. His clothes hung in tatters from his body.

  From the front row, James leaped to his feet. “Seize him!” he ordered.

  Kale sprinted up the aisle toward her, and Pearl took a step backward. He nearly reached her before three guards tackled him to the ground. He strained his head upward, his sightless eyes staring past her.

  “Don’t! Pearl, don’t throw your life away on someone you don’t love!”

  “Why did you come here?” she shouted above the hubbub.

  “Because I love you,” he cried.