Chapter 11

Collin had an interesting story to tell.

However, he was smart enough to duly admire his ladies first and pronounce them breath taking. He made fresh kaffe and once they were all seated, he wowed them with the story about his visitor.

“So, this Lord Wizard, whom you just happen to know, he believes you have changed, and he now wants you to make him a set of swords?” Serpin asked for qualification.

“Yep, I already have the design in my head. I think he and Kat will love them. I’ll have to make her a set too and just hope she doesn’t use the dirk to cut my nuts off,” he said with a grin.

“She will have to get through me first,” Serpin hissed to Collin’s surprise.

Paige then added, “No one is taking those lovely balls. Serpin and I have not finished with them yet.”

“I was only joking girls,” Collin said in surprise, although, he was quite tickled that these two lovely ladies considered him important enough to them to defend him.

“Well, we aren’t. You are ours and we have become rather fond of you and your nuts and bolt. Nor are we planning on raising your kids without you to help. Lord Wizard or not, he is not getting you back to satisfy a hurt you didn’t inflict. Your body may have been used but you and I both know your mind was not involved with what your father did,” Serpin said.

Collin got up and hugged his ladies, “Trae said he would talk to them. He has seen my memories too, sweetie, and he did tell me that I had made my own cuff. I don’t believe he will take me from you and Paige.”

“Good,” a relieved Serpin replied.

They decided they had better get ready for the Ball.

Collin, Paige and Serpin were surprised at the door.

Since they were only a couple of blocks from the Palace, they walked. It was a warm evening and a beautiful night, so they didn’t hurry. Once they approached the main entrance one of the men in livery hurried down the last couple of steps towards them.

“Lady Serpin, Regent Aydan asked me to keep an eye out for you and your companions. If you would like to follow me,” he said and led them down a side hall. He knocked on a door and when it opened, he stepped back so they could enter.

“Ah, Collin, I can see that your eye for beautiful women has not changed,” Trae said as he moved over to them. He bowed slightly, “Let me guess, you would have to be Lady Serpin Smith and you would have to be Lady Paige Smith. I’m called Trae by my friends and ‘That Bastard’ by my enemies. I hope that for us, it will stay, just Trae.”

Serpin and Paige both had to giggle at Trae’s introduction.

“Collin told me a little about you both and I can see why he is besotted. I hope the surprise I have for him tonight will not upset him too much, but she insisted.” He turned and took Collin by the arm, “Collin, I think someone has missed you as much as you have missed her.”

Justine took that as her cue and stood. She rose from the seat that had hidden her and turned to face her brother. Her hands were clasped together, and she sucked in a breath when she saw him. The weirdest memories came flooding back. She knew as soon as she saw him that her father and her maid had played with her memories.

When Trae had come to see her earlier that day and talked about Collin, he had asked if he could share a memory that Collin had of her. It was when he tried to send her the memory that he found that she had blocks in her mind and he had tried to help her remove them.

He said that she had been breaking them down herself and her father and her maid must have spent a lot of time to get past her defences to block what they had and to make her believe that Collin despised her. They could only determine that Carl had been jealous of her love for Collin, while her hatred of Carl was very strong.

He had even tried to use Collin’s body to make her hate him, but she had remembered that if he tried to force Collin to do anything bad to her, Collin shut down on him. Trae’d had a glimpse of one such memory when in Collin’s mind. He felt that Collin hadn’t recognised the significance of it with all the other bad memories he had.

When he presented it to Justine, it smashed many of the blocks in her mind. She had cried for some time and wailed about all of the cruel things she had said and thought about Collin. She had then begged Trae to take her to Collin. Tray felt that they both needed to see each other, and he had agreed. He watched Collin, as he stared at his sister.

“Justine, when did you grow into such a beautiful woman?” Collin blurted out. “I hope Trae and Edward are making sure you’re safe, since I’ve not been there to do it. I’m sorry for running out on you. If I could have taken you with me, I would have. I knew he was dead before I left. I just didn’t know it was his shade that was making me run,” Collin rattled off until he halted.

He was not sure if he was making any sense at all, and feeling foolish, he stopped. He then had to put out his arms to catch his sister as she launched herself at him. He hugged her tight as she blubbered and said stuff that had him chuckling, as they were as half said as his crap, but he got the gist that she had missed him too.

“Shush, Justine, shush. I’m just so happy that you are well,” he said and gently rubbed her back as he held her.

She finely let him go a little and asked, “So you don’t hate me?”

Collin looked at her in shock, “Baby sister, how could I possibly hate you? It should be you hating me.”

“I did but then after he died, things in my head didn’t add up and I had strange memories and then today, Trae proved they were real and that you did love me when I was little,” she gushed.

“Justine, you were always my baby sister, if there are any good memories in my head, they are about you,” Collin replied.

“You put the spells on my door, didn’t you?” she suddenly asked.

“Yes, when Carl made me go live in the apartments, I was worried about you being safe with him,” he replied.

Justine beamed at Trae, “Thank you, Cousin Trae, I think it worked, I think all the blocks are gone now. Just seeing him again seemed to break through the rest.” She happily hugged Collin again and then stepped back. She went to wipe her tears away when Paige offered her a hanky.

She took it and smiled at Paige. “Thank you, I have to agree with Cousin Trae, you and Serpin are both beautiful. Collin always had an eye for beauty. Is he drawing things again? He once drew for me all the time and he was incredibly good at telling me stories when I was little.”

“Yes, he is drawing things, but he doesn’t tell us stories at night. I’m sure he’ll get a lot more practice at that when our children come,” Paige replied.

Justine squealed and hugged Paige, “I’m going to be an Aunty. That is wonderful news.” She then linked arms with Paige, collected a bemused Serpin and dragged them out the door saying, “So what trouble has my big brother gotten into since he has been here?”

Collin just shook his head, “They will tell her everything, you know.”

Trae chuckled, “Women, do that anyway. Come on, I need a drink after all that emotion and I’m damn sure you do.”

They caught up with the three women and followed them into the ball room.

As huge as the room was, it was crowded and noisy.

The room was split into two sections. At the far end was a dais. It was three steps high so those at the back could see the people seated on it. It had a throne with two less-ornate chairs placed on each side of it. The chairs were in the middle of the dais and well back from the edge as they sat in a concave formation.

Curtains were angled so the waiters from the kitchen behind could walk past this area and appear at the tables beyond the short open space in front of the throne. Access to the privies was also behind the curtains. A rich green carpet led from the throne and divided this end of the room in half.

On each side of the carpet were tables that were only half a metre wide. Two tables were curved to form a quarter of a circle with a gap between that was wide enough to be walked through. Two matching tables were placed on the dais either side of the middle chairs, so their concave arc faced the guests.

When meals were served, a special table was placed before the Regent and the middle four chairs to complete the arc for the high table. The other two tables also boasted chairs to seat four people. The people had plenty of room to move behind the three tables on the dais.

Six seats in the style of round topped three legged stools were behind each of the lower tables with enough space for a person to walk around behind a seated person. The stools did have soft padding on them. Nine rows plus the top tables allowed for a two hundred and forty people plus the Regent to be seated.

The other half of the room allowed for mingling and dancing. The musicians were set up on one side and refreshment tables on the other. Bench type seats were placed around the walls where doorways to the outside permitted. The dining tables could be pushed together to provide more room for less formal gatherings.

Collin and Trae managed to steer the women to the refreshments table, and they all got a drink. Collin looked around when a hand dropped on to his shoulder, “Well, are you going to introduce me to that ravishing beauty with your wives?”

Collin chuckled and turned to Ayden, “Careful, your Majesty, she is my sister.”

Ayden’s eyes went wide, “How could that vision possibly be related to you?”

“Unbelievable as it is, Countess Justine De Ullina is my little sister. She inherited her title from her mother. Lord Trae was kind enough to bring her here to see me. I thought you knew since one of your men took us to see them?”

“Lord Trae just asked me if he could meet with you first when you arrived. He didn’t say why. He turned up here this morning and asked for a couple of rooms. I had to move into my mother’s quarters so he could have my suite. I had to do it eventually, but it kept the poor servants busy shifting her stuff to the attic and mine in.”

Collin then heard Ayden swear just loud enough that he and Trae heard him. He looked to see what had upset Ayden. The woman was not exactly ugly, but she wasn’t far from it. Collin decided it was the sour disposition she displayed as much as anything else about her. The younger woman with her wasn’t a lot better.

“Ayden, this is such a crush,” complained the older woman. “I’m surprised you didn’t set up a receiving room for me, so I wasn’t subjected to this.”

“Sorry, Ivana,” he responded. He deliberately didn’t use her title since she didn’t bother with his. “I happen to like rubbing shoulders with my people. It keeps me in touch and makes them feel that I am approachable. It seems to stop a lot of gossip and fosters better relations with them.”

She harrumphed her displeasure and then whined in her nasally voice, “While I do realise that this is your Coronation Ball, I believe you should also announce your pending joining to my daughter. If you had made yourself available to me in the last two days, we could have discussed this before now.”

“Hey, Ayden, we had already made a deal, and you agreed. You can’t get out of marrying my sister that easy,” Collin said and grinned, since he had noticed Ayden kept glancing at Justine while talking to him. He hadn’t missed her interest either.

All eyes close by looked at Collin stunned. A message flashed into Ayden’s head from Ameca, ‘He says that she belongs to the pink sword.’ He sent back, ‘What about the red one?’ A picture flashed into his head of a girl and he smiled.

“Now Collin, I agreed that if she was acceptable, to one of the swords, then I would be delighted to join with her,” Ayden responded. No one missed the lingering look he sent Justine’s way or the cute little smile of interest she sent his.

“What’s this about swords?” Ivana blustered, as this was news to her. She knew Ayden’s was broken. She had been wondering how he was going to pretend that it wasn’t.

“I have two sets of swords and dirks. They will only go to my partners,” Ayden replied. “Fussy things magical items but they insist they must help me choose.”

“And when were you going to tell me this?” Ivana asked angrily. Deep red splotches staining her cheeks.

“When I told everyone else after Lord Wizard Trae announced that I was the true heir to Northern Boa Island,” he explained patiently.

“What rubbish is this? We don’t have a Lord Wizard?” she cried even more upset than before. Her nasal whine grated on everyone’s ears.

“Ivana! I’m shocked. Your spies are slipping. Cuttail Island has had a Lord Wizard for over five months,” Ayden replied.

“That doesn’t make him our Lord Wizard,” she shot back.

“True, but if you’re game enough to denounce Lord Trae, and defy a Wizard, you go your hardest, Ivana,” he said with a warning tone in his voice.

“Yes,” drawled Trae, sending shivers down many backs. “Please denounce me. I haven’t had to prove my abilities with a sword or a spell in a while.” Everyone trembled at the frost in his voice. They were all sure the temperature in the room had dropped as well.

Ivana baulked and even stepped back from Trae. However, she had been a Queen for a while and she sprung back, “Fine, you will give the sword to Lacy and declare her one of your partners as the next ceremony.”

“No, I will declare that I have two positions as my partners to be filled and anyone who is magically gifted and preferably a Shifter can try their luck. If a sword chooses them, then I will join with them,” Ayden replied.

“What? That is preposterous, you don’t have to marry a Shifter,” Ivana spat back.

“True, but if I don’t, then it limits my ability to produce an heir, as you well know. I also believe that the swords, having been made by smiths of the Boa-people, would prefer the candidates have both attributes.”

“What are you trying to pull, Ayden? You don’t have any magical swords, this is all a hoax,” she growled at him.

Ayden smiled, he then stepped back several paces and his weapons appeared at his sides just before he drew them. “Are these magical enough for you, Ivana?”

There were several more gasped as Collin, Serpin and Page moved to Aydan’s sides and their swords appeared just before they drew them. They all held them pointed out so the blades could be seen.

Trae chuckled and spoke conversationally to Ivana but so nearly everyone in the room seemed to be able to hear him, “Yes, they are impressive, aren’t they? I was damn sure that slider in Collin’s sword was going to bite me when I first inspected it. They are some of the finest blades I’ve seen and the spells on them are impressive.”

“In case you’re wondering, they are all wearing Boa-skin vambraces and the entities have claimed the swords and dirks as part of the items in their sets. Personally, I think Northern Boa Island is in fine hands. When Ayden finds his partners, it will be even better.”