Chapter 174: A Whisper Before Dawn

Chapter 174: Chapter 174: A Whisper Before Dawn

Elysia had meant to stay awake.

She had told herself so the night before, lying in the dark beside him. However early he left, she would see him off properly. She would not let him slip away while she slept, the way he had done for the past two mornings.

But the day had been long, and her sleep had been fitful at first. When it finally deepened, it held her down like a heavy blanket.

It was only towards dawn that it began to thin.

Faint sounds drifted into her sleep. The soft click of the door. The quiet roll of wheels across the floorboards. The rustle of heavy cloth, and something small being set down with care.

Elysia stirred, then opened her eyes.

The room was still grey. Dawn had not quite arrived, and only the thinnest line of pale light showed beneath the curtains.

Cassiel was sitting on the edge of the bed with his back to her, already dressed. His travelling coat was buttoned to the throat, and his wheelchair stood waiting a short distance away.

For a moment, she simply watched him, her thoughts sluggish with sleep.

Then the realisation that he was about to leave struck her fully awake.

"Cassiel..."

Her voice was rough and drowsy.

He turned back towards her.

"Why are you awake?"

Elysia pushed herself up on one elbow, blinking at him through the remnants of sleep.

"Are you leaving?"

He gave a quiet sound of agreement.

She stared at him for a moment, still trying to gather her thoughts. There was something she was supposed to tell him. Something she had promised.

"Aunt Melissa came to see me last night," she said slowly. "Before you came home. She asked me to ask you..." She hesitated. "To help Xanther."

Cassiel looked at her for a long moment. In the grey light, his expression was impossible to read.

"I know," he said.

"Will you?"

"Don’t worry about it."

There was such calm certainty in his voice that, despite herself, the worry she had been carrying since last night began to ease.

She wanted to ask him how much he knew about what she had done. Whether he was upset that she had gone too far, and risked the good name of his mother’s family to do it.

But his hand came up to brush a stray strand of hair from her cheek so gently that she found she did not have the heart to press him.

She had kept her word to Melissa. That was all she had promised.

Cassiel began to turn away towards the wheelchair.

And before she could reconsider, Elysia murmured, "If you’re leaving, you can’t just... go like that."

He paused.

"You should say goodbye properly."

She was already pushing herself upright.

She had lived through real loss before. She knew all too well that sometimes a person rode away one morning and never came back, and the things one had meant to say were left unsaid forever.

Once, she had believed there would always be time.

She no longer took that for granted.

Cassiel would be travelling north, to the very same border, and she did not even know how long he would be gone. She did not want to spend the coming days wondering whether she should have said something, done something, or held him a little longer before he left.

So, before her courage could abandon her, Elysia moved closer and wrapped her arms around him.

His coat was cold beneath her cheek, as though he had already been out in the night air.

"Come back early," she said softly.

Her voice was still thick with sleep, warm and unguarded in a way it rarely was when she was fully awake.

Cassiel’s heart skipped a beat.

For a moment, he remained perfectly still, as though the unexpected embrace had caught him entirely off guard.

Elysia, meanwhile, seemed to realise what she had done. Her arms loosened, and she began to pull away.

Cassiel did not let her.

Instead, he turned and tightened his arms around her, drawing her closer until she was held firmly against his chest. His embrace was so secure that, for a moment, she felt as though she might disappear into him entirely.

"Okay," he murmured near her ear.

He held her for another moment. Then he said something else, his voice so low that it barely stirred the air between them.

Her sleep-heavy mind could not catch it.

"Hm?"

Elysia lifted her head slightly, trying to make out his words.

But Cassiel had already released her.

He brushed his thumb once across her cheek, then braced his hands against the bed and lowered himself into his wheelchair. By the time he looked back at her, his expression was composed once more.

"Go back to sleep, Lysa."

Elysia was still too drowsy to question him. She watched as he made his way towards the door, the wheels rolling softly over the floorboards, then gradually sank back against her pillow.

The door eased shut.

The faint sound of his wheelchair grew more and more distant down the corridor.

She wanted to stay awake until he was gone. To recall what he had just said.

But the warmth of the bed and the lingering heaviness of sleep proved too much.

Before long, she drifted off again.

In the front courtyard, the horses were already saddled.

The carriage that would carry Cassiel north waited by the steps, its lamps still lit against the last of the dark. Bran stood beside it, checking the straps one final time.

Two figures in dark clothing stepped out of the shadows of the colonnade as Cassiel wheeled himself down the ramp.

"Your Grace."

"Everything I asked for last night?"

"It has been arranged, Your Grace."

Cassiel gave a short nod.

"The two of you will stay behind," he said. "From today, you guard the Duchess. Wherever she goes, you go. If anyone so much as raises their voice to her, I want to hear of it."

The two shadow guards bowed.

"And send word to my aunt that I’ve left the city," Cassiel added. "She would want to know."

He paused at the foot of the carriage steps and looked back towards the inner courtyards.

From here, he could just make out the window of the bedchamber. The curtains were still drawn. Behind them, his wife was asleep, her hair spread across the pillow and his seal waiting beside her for when she woke.

For a moment, he simply looked.

"Your Grace?" Bran asked quietly. "We’ll lose the morning."

Cassiel turned away from the window.

"Let’s go."

When Elysia woke for the second time, the sun was already high in the sky.

She lay still for a while, staring up at the canopy as she slowly gathered her thoughts.

He was gone.

Somewhere on the northern road by now, with Bran beside him and the capital growing smaller behind them.

She tried to remember the words he had murmured against her ear before he let her go.

Something low. Something brief.

But no matter how hard she tried, all that came back to her was the warmth of his voice and the cold of his coat beneath her cheek. The words themselves had slipped away with her sleep.

She would have to ask him when he came back.

She turned her head towards his side of the bed.

Something lay on his pillow.

Elysia pushed herself up and reached for it.

It was a small object, heavy for its size and still faintly cool to the touch. A seal, cast in dark bronze, its base engraved with the crest of the House of Draevenor.

His personal seal.

Beneath it lay a folded slip of paper. When she opened it, she found only a few lines in Cassiel’s firm, sharp hand.

For anything you need while I’m away.

Don’t hesitate to use it.

Elysia stared at the words for a long time.

She knew what this seal meant. Orders bearing it would be obeyed in every corner of Aveanlor, and only the King’s own seal could overrule them.

And he had simply left it on his pillow for her, as though it were nothing more than a handkerchief.

She closed her fingers around the cool bronze and held it against her chest.

Then she heard footsteps outside.

"Miriam?"

"Yes, Your Grace."

Miriam stepped closer to the bed, looking relieved to see her awake.

"You’re awake?"

Elysia gave a small nod and placed the seal carefully on the bedside table before stretching beneath the blankets.

"You woke up at just the right time," Miriam remarked. "The Marchioness of Gildemont is waiting in the Great Hall."

Elysia froze.

"The Marchioness of Gildemont?"

She sat up so abruptly that her unfinished yawn disappeared.

"How long has she been here?"

Miriam thought for a moment.

"Almost... half an hour."

For an instant, Elysia’s vision went dark.

She nearly fainted.

The Marchioness of Gildemont had come to visit, and Elysia had left her waiting in the Great Hall for nearly half an hour?

She threw back the covers and hurriedly reached for her shoes.

"Why didn’t you wake me?" she exclaimed, slipping them on as quickly as she could. "You can’t just let her sit in the Great Hall waiting. That’s so inappropriate!"