Page 4 of Awariye

The first person I recognized was Evelyn. Hers was a story I had heard among the common folk. Evelyn was not only clearly beautiful but joyous, laughing as she struggled to hold onto the little girl in her arms that was doing her darndest to wriggle out of her mother's grasp and come to me. From the dark, wild curls on the little girl, I could tell it must be her father across the table, with an arm slung around each of his boys, who were watching me with surprise. The father, Sören, smirked, bemused that his kids could be so enraptured by Merlin's story.

Sören was Evelyn’s husband, and that already pointed out the fact that Ulbrecht was no ordinary king, and his likeness to Arthur among his people was not unfounded.

According to the medieval romances, as opposed to the older Welsh texts that originated closer to the fifth century of the historical Arthur, the Great Bear's queen and his top soldier had fallen in love. In that time, there had been no socially accepted resolution, and due to the fact that Arthur had no heirs, his hard-fought peace did not outlive his death.

But Ulbrecht had found a way to circumvent this potentially devastating challenge to his reign.

Evelyn had been betrothed to Ulbrecht to become his queen, but Ulbrecht’s best friend and foster brother, Sören, had fallen in love with her, and Evelyn had felt the same way. Rather than succumb to jealousy, Ulbrecht had allowed them to marry and had not taken a wife.

He'd instead given them to each other, and as such, he already had three potential heirs. It was rumored that Ulbrecht had only taken a fiancée out of duty, and that he had rather always hoped for a husband but knew the pressure for heirs would not allow it.

Evelyn and Sören’s marriage was something the people seemed to accept, and if my reading was accurate, I thought the people of this area were more concerned with whether their ruler could defend and protect their homeland rather than the particulars of his sexuality. I'd also not heard a single rumor that Ulbrecht was licentious in his proclivities.

As I came to the end of the tale, when young Merlin the wizard-bard sang his own hymn, prophesying the coming king, I swept my gaze across the audience one last time and then dared to address the end of the table. Ulbrecht had his head cocked toward another man who whispered in his ear, the king's expression one of mirth and delight. He wasn't listening to my story at all, but as I finished with a flourish and everyone else at the table clapped, the king turned smiling eyes on me, and his companion straightened and caught my eye.

Everything else vanished as I zeroed in on the beaming face from another life. "...Wren?"

CHAPTERFOUR

AWARIYE

Wren of Helvetica dashed around the table as I stared in shock. I barely had time to prepare myself before he flew into my arms.

"Awariye!" he exclaimed. "I've been dreaming about you—I can't believe you're here!"

I couldn't believe it, either. The jaded part of me wondered whether I was actually crossing the threshold to the Otherworld, seeing a friend in such an unexpected place.

And to find him whispering in the Danubian King's ear.

"What are you doing here?" I asked as he said the exact same thing.

Wren laughed and pinched me in jest, then pulled back enough to cup my face. "It really is you, Awariye. I have so much to tell you."

"Ja, you do," I concurred, even as the adrenaline rush came crashing down and worry pressed upon me that I might faint. "Was that really you talking to Ulbrecht...am I in the right place?"

Wren laughed, but his joy popped like a bubble on water when his hands grazed my back and he gasped. "Why are you so thin?" he whispered.

"I've been singing sparingly to save my voice," I said softly, not in shame but just to protect my own privacy. "My vocal cords hurt these days, which is a sign of damage. I can't entertain a crowd for an evening just to get a hot meal. Then I thought I'd meet up with Ceredigion, but he got mugged on the road, and by the time I got to the lodge, he was already headed back to Diana."

"Which road?" a deep voice demanded.

I looked up to find King Ulbrecht glaring at me, his arms crossed and his expression hard. But I still had Wren in my arms, and thus I couldn't bow to him respectfully.

"It was south of your lands, sir, past the Slovenian border, a day's ride from here," I answered.

He clenched his jaw and nodded, clearly not liking that answer but also not able to directly act on it.

Then his eyes softened as his gaze fell on the man holding me. "Wren dreamed you here. I've already heard of your connection. Welcome, Awariye. Stay the night."

"No, stay the winter," Wren said against my shoulder.

"Thank you, sir," I responded, thrown by this rapid turn of events.

My friend sensed my fatigue and thankfully pulled my arm around his shoulders and helped me out of the hall. I gave him some of my weight as he led me to a back kitchen and into a blessed chair.

A sharp-looking woman with white hair pulled up in a bun peeked in. "Dinner for the guest?"

"I can't," I whispered, in fear that I wouldn't be able to hold it down.