Tie It With a Ribbon

“Zanzibar, tell the soldiers they can stop searching,” I called loudly as I stepped up to my husband. The nearby soldiers stopped to listen. “I’ve already found him.”

His eyes flared suddenly. “Where?”

I looked away, daring to meet his gaze with such hopelessness in mine. “If we continue to search the country, you would never have found him without a shovel.”

“Stop it. You’re listening to the damn traitor, and his word is not to be trusted.”

“If you will not trust my own eyes, perhaps you will believe yours, then.”

He shook his head feverishly. “Do you think my soldiers have not scoured my graveyard already? Against my word, yes, but they did.”

“Did you ever search mine?”

“Why on earth would he have been buried there?”

“To torment me, why else? Why would Alexandros have buried him in the Leonian yard when he had been tied so closely to the Aquilan court? His followers also moved Reginald’s wife, because Alexandros deemed her as lowly as the worst scum. You can go look for yourself. He is there as well.”

“We don’t know that. Did you dig it up?”

My jaw dropped then. “What?” I shouted at him, not believing my ears. “You cannot be suggesting desecrating my father’s grave!” He stared at me, no hint of playful teasing in his serious eyes. “This is sick! You have gone mad, Zanzibar! I will not allow you to—”

“You there,” he directed, speaking to the nearby soldiers, “take your squadron and check the site for his body.”

They glanced to each other, qualms obvious in their gaze.

“Have you entirely lost your mind?” I asked him, shaking my head furiously. I turned to them. “You have reason to disagree with those orders. If you would rather, could you begin questioning if anyone has seen my mother?”

They were gone in that second before Zanzibar could say a word. He turned to me, obviously enraged.

“How dare you?” he snapped, lashing out and catching my wrist. “You cannot order my soldiers around!”

I met his gaze with equal determination, but it faltered as tears brimmed my eyelids. “Zanzibar, my father is dead before we even truly met each other.”

His gaze softened suddenly, and he frowned painfully as his hands dropped uselessly at his sides. “Oh, Alena. I’m so sorry that this has happened, but we do not know this for sure. What if he is still alive?”

I shook my head slowly. “You don’t honestly believe that.”

He dropped to the grass then, looking down at his clenched fists. “No, I don’t… But what hope can we have if he has been able to murder even in his cell? We don’t have any left, and I would rather cling to this last shred than go down without a fight.”

I kneeled in front of him, placing my hands on his shoulders. “Zanzibar, sometimes we have to let go. My mother still has a chance. Can you not see what you are doing? If anything, you are going to drive more to Alexandros’ side.”

“That’s not what I wanted,” he mumbled quietly, looking up to me sadly. “I need to tell my soldiers the new orders then…”

I helped him stand up, letting out a shaky breath. “Thank you for trying so hard to save him, at the very least.”

He embraced me carefully, sighing in my ear. “If only it had been enough.”

With that, he pulled himself from my arms and carried himself away, stopping every soldier he found on the way.

I was left to clean up the mess my husband had so foolishly created, so I had expected an audience to be requested with the royal pair who had seemingly gone insane. I had not expected, however, for the answers to be demanded so soon.

“Alena, I think once everyone realized that he has his sense back, we can forget this and move on,” Salina offered hopefully, joining me as soon as I entered the Den.

“We can only hope,” I agreed, looking into the audience hall.

Cadence was still on her knees, her hands clasped so firmly.

“Cadence,” I murmured, stepping up to her with Salina at my side. “I don’t think that will be necessary any longer. We found William, and Zanzibar seems to have accepted that. He’s calling off the search.”

“I see,” she mumbled, looking up to me. “And your mother?”

I shook my head. “Hopefully I won’t be the one to go insane once that search begins.”

“Is it true, then? William was…?”

“All evidence seems to point to that. I have not received a clear answer, but there is certainly enough to safely decide that perhaps this dream of mine is not entirely impossible. But I suppose we cannot be sure of that until Camille and her party have returned.”

“I am glad they were gone during this.”

“I am, too. But hopefully things will begin to settle down here. As for the Nest, well, I think it will only get worse there.”

“I can handle everything here, if you need to handle things with the birds,” she offered, thanking Salina as she helped her stand.

“I should say that it is the duty of the King and Queen to handle this, but that would be incredibly selfish to our country.”

“Help is not so taboo, Alena. If anyone, Zanzibar is the one who needs to fix things, not you. I love him dearly, but sometimes I think perhaps he truly does mix too many personal affairs with the throne…”

“This isn’t the end just yet, Cadence,” I offered, smiling, though I could not believe my words too fully.

“We can only hope.”