Chapter Text
Chapter 24
As soon as she feels the earth of Insmire under her boots, Jude questions the first palace guard in sight.
“Where is the King?”
“In the chambers with the healer, Your Majesty. When the group arrived by submarine, the King ordered knights to be sent to Insear and then fainted.”
She nods with a tight heart.
“I see. Take the witch to the dungeons of Hollow Hall, she will be sent to the Tower of Oblivion after her trial. And help Prince Oak look after Wren, call in all the healers in the kingdom if necessary. Now. Go.”
The guard hurries to obey her and Jude rushes off to find her love. When she arrives at the door to her chambers, the royal healer, an older fairy with amber-colored wings, is coming out.
“How is he?” Jude asks, trying to disguise her panting.
“Sleeping, Your Majesty.” The fae replied with a curtsy. “The King has a fever due to blood loss. The seams of his wound have opened up and he hasn't stopped calling your name during the treatment. He’ll be fine, but needs to rest.”
There’s caution in the healer’s tone, and whether it’s compassion for his love or aversion to the High King’s frailty, it’s hard to say. But Jude doesn’t care about the possible gossip and enters the room, controlling her anxiety so as not to make a sound and wake him.
Her Cardan is under the covers, wearing a luxurious robe that doesn’t match his sickly pallor. He grumbles and tosses and turns as much as his bandage allows, wrapping his feet in the sheets as alwayss does when he’s in a restless sleep.
She can hear her name whispered in a hoarse, desperate tone escaping his lips, as if Cardan were trying to break free from his sleep to go after her and save her.
Jude lies down carefully next to him, brushing his damp hair away from forehead lovingly and whispering in his ear:
“I’m here. I promised I’d come back, didn’t I?”
Cardan groans.
“Am I hallucinating?” He murmurs, opening the eyes a little with difficulty.
She smiles and his mouth curves lazily too.
“No, it’s not a hallucination. I’m really here. And I love you.” She murmurs and leaves a chaste kiss on his lips as he finally drifts off into a deep, peaceful sleep.
Jude gets up cautiously. She bathes and puts on clean, dry clothes, leaving only to find out if her orders have been carried out and how her brother Is. Oak refuses to come out of his quarters and leave Wren, but Jude won’t scold him this time. Although she doesn’t agree with many of his decisions, she understands him now, and especially understands the urge to take care of and stay by the side of someone you love when they’re hurting, even if there’s nothing you can do.
Despite everything, she sincerely hopes that Wren will get well and make Oak happy.
When she returns to her quarters, Jude lies down, exhausted, next to Cardan. She snuggles into his arms carefully so as not to hurt him. And as If he could feel her in his dreams, he hugs her gently and Instinctively.
She doesn’t know how many hours have passed when she feels long fingers stroking her hair. Jude forces herself to open the sleepy eyes and sees his handsome face, hovering above her.
And when he smiles, it’s as if the sun has finally come out after a hundred years of rain.
“You’ve come back to me.” He says, as if saying it out loud confirms that she is real.
“Did you think I was lying?” She smiles and raises her eyebrows, sitting down on the bed so she can get closer to him. And thanking herself internally for not drooling in the sleep.
He shakes his head.
“It’s my greatest weakness, believing everything you say. I need to be careful with you, Jude.”
She kisses him and he responds so quickly and intensely that she knows that just because he thinks he needs to be careful with her, doesn't mean he will. When he tries to move to embrace her, Cardan shudders with pain and she pulls away.
“Is it hurting too much? I forbid you to do something so stupid again.”
Her harsh look suggests that if he gets in front of a dagger again, she’ll stab him herself.
“It wasn’t stupid, it was heroic. And I’d repeat it a thousand times if I had to.” Cardan retorts between kisses in whatever position is possible, giving her no time to continue the sermon.
When he pulls away, Jude’s lips are swollen and she’s out of breath.
“Tell me what happened with Bogdana and Wren.” He asks, smiling at her bewildered expression.
Jude blinks and opens her mouth to speak, but a sound escapes from her empty, mortal belly. She’s starving. Cardan chuckles.
“You’d better eat some before I’m devoured.”
“Oh, shut up.” She gets up and puts on a robe, asking a guard to bring them both a meal.
They eat in bed while she tells him all the details.
Cardan whistles in surprise.
“You know that if Wren survives, Oak might not want to take the throne to rule the Ice Citadel with her, don’t you? Or the two of them could flee together to the Mortal World and rule nothing. Or Wren might want to destroy Elfhame and Oak, blinded by love, will support her, so there will be no throne left.” The last hypothesis is just drama to prove his point.
Jude make a face.
“Why do all the possibilities result in Oak refusing to take the throne?” She asks stubbornly.
“Because you know that he never wanted it and that Oak wouldn’t be happy as High King. And now that you also know that he’s not as naive as he seems, you have to consider that he may well sneak around and find a way to escape responsibility forever. Well, it’s not as if I didn’t warn you.” He shrugs with an arrogant expression.
“Yes, yes, you’ve already said that. It goes on and on, Cardan.” Jude makes a nonchalant gesture with her hand, which Cardan is sure she stole from him.
He just smiles. Little does Jude know that he’s only just begun.
She sighs.
“I think I’ve made enough people take a throne for one lifetime.”
Cardan laughs.
“Yes, you have. And Oak will be very happy to choose his own destiny. It also means that we can think about certain things now…” He comments cautiously.
“Yes, we can.” Jude gives a small smile, nodding as she pretends to be distracted and pops a blackberry into her mouth.
“But we’ll still have plenty of time to think about it.” Cardan adds softly.
“Yes, we will. Plenty of time.” She agrees, a conspiratorial look in her bright amber eyes.
He hates to spoil this very special moment, but he’d better tell her soon.
“Now, about the Undersea rescue…”
“Oh yes, tell me how it went. Taryn said she was terrified.”
He tells her, including Madoc’s frown because it’s funny and Jude laughs.
“But there’s a problem.” He gives her a cautious look and Jude stares at him with raised eyebrows. “Nicasia has demanded that we take a diplomatic trip to the Undersea in thanks, to watch her suitors' battles."
“Ah.” That’s all Jude says, lowering her gaze.
She still remembers the cold water penetrating her bones, the suffocating sensation of the sea pressing on her lungs. The fear and humiliation. The merciless longing in her heart. But when Cardan takes her hands in his, all the bad memories fade away.
“You don’t have to go if you really don’t feel comfortable, Jude. I can very well attend on my own and Nicasia will have to accept.” He says softly. “Although I’d like you to remember that you’ll be returning as High Queen and if there’s anyone you should be afraid of, it’s the Selkies and Nicasia, not you.”
Jude smiles into his sparkling eyes. It doesn’t seem possible to feel grateful enough for his love. She nods with conviction.
“You’re right. It’s been a long time. I won’t let the past interfere with the present or the future. I will. It might be fun to watch dozens of selkies battle to the death.”
She gives a wicked smile and Cardan leaves a kiss on her calloused hands, his eyes conveying his admiration for Jude’s strength. He’s not sure he’d have the same courage as her.
Jude kiss his cheek in return and stands up.
“Where are you going?” He doesn’t let her go and groans in pain as his body follows her movements.
Jude returns him to his position with firm hands.
“What’s wrong with you? Stay there, I don’t want to see you out of this bed for anything. Understand?” she demands, but Cardan just stares at her sulky.
“I don’t want to be alone. It’s boring.” Cardan doesn’t say it, but he also doesn’t want her to be alone after what he’s told, mulling over her repressed feelings.
Jude opens her mouth to argue, then remembers that before she came back, he was in pain and fever, suffering at the hands of the healer while there was no one by his side to support him. Jude doubts that his mother even stopped by to check that he was still alive.
She lets out a sigh and strokes his hair.
“There are things to sort out, but I won’t be long. Have a rest and read a book. I’ll try to find some distraction for you.”
He nods with a sigh and accepts the book she holds out, a note written by her marking the page where he paused reading.
When she opens the door a crack, for what seems like an eternity later, a small smile shapes her mouth.
“I brought you some company.”
Cardan can see the short legs behind her before Leander brushes past Jude and rushes into the room.
“Hey, don’t run!” Taryn scolds right behind him, frowning in concern. Jude just smiles after her.
“Good thing you’re alive! If you died, the feasts would be very boring.” Leander says, sitting down next to Cardan on the bed with a Mortal deck in his little hands. “Jude said you were bored, so I brought UNO.”
Cardan smiles at the child, oblivious to his indiscretion and impudence.
“I’m glad you came. It’s hard be boring when you’re around making a fuss.”
His mother, however, seems embarrassed by his behavior.
“He was worried that Cardan wasn’t well.” She explains.
Jude shakes her head.
“Don’t worry Leander, if Cardan wasn’t well, I’d kill him myself.”
The little boy stops shuffling the cards to stare at her with wide eyes. Cardan laughs.
“She’s only joking, little imp. Your aunt has this strange sense of humor.”
“I heard you helped your grandparents and mother get back safely to Insmire. I’m proud.” She smiles as her nephew puffs out his chest and prepares to chatter excitedly.
“It’s true, we went back through the Undersea on sharks! I asked Cardan if you wouldn’t be angry, since they say the queen there was his girlfriend. But he said you didn’t have to worry, because you were the only woman in his heart. I thought it corny.” He concluded with a grimace.
Cardan’s eyes widen and Jude can see him trying not to cover the boy’s mouth with his hand. He gives a nervous smile.
“Chatty little boy. You don’t have to tell the others everything I tell you.”
Leander laughs mischievously and Cardan suddenly seems very interested in the UNO. She can’t help but smile. And promises to reward him when he’s better.
She turns to Taryn, still with a sad expression. They’ll miss Garret too. Jude prefers to hope that he’ll come back.
“How’s Oak? I have some good news to tell him.”
“Oriana said he refused to leave Wren’s side until she woke up. She survived, after all. What do you need to tell him?”
Jude tells her and her sister’s eyebrows rise, the first smile in days on her face.
“Oh. He’ll be very happy.” Then she frowns. “That means he’s really going to marry Wren.”
“He will.” Jude shrugs. “And we’ll all have to accept her into the family. Including you and Oriana.”
Her sister grimaces.
“I think it’s unanimous that Heather is the favorite.” Taryn mutters sullenly, apparently not realizing what her statement implies.
Jude laughs as Cardan stares at her with his eyebrows raised in outrage, “suddenly” paying attention to their conversation.
All right, he’s always preferred Vivi too.
When Leander and Taryn go away, Jude leaves Cardan’s side only to ask the guards to call Oak, then returns cheerfully to her post.
“How long do you think it will take for the wound to heal?” He asks with a worried frown.
“I don’t know, maybe a week. Why, do you already miss fulfilling your duties as King?”
“Oh no, that’s not what I’m going to miss…” He smiles naughty.
Jude shakes her head, but can’t hold back a smile. Of course his concerns are so depraved…
“You’re such a pervert.”
“Don’t be a hypocrite, judging by your behavior, you’ll be missed as much as I am. I promise to recover as quickly as possible for you, Jude.”
She slaps his leg, but a heat rises in her cheeks. Jude doesn’t say it, but hopes that Cardan really does keep his promise.
“There is one good thing in all this misery, though: we finally got rid of Randalin.” Cardan raises his eyebrows.
Jude laughs.
“Ah yes, finally! Although now we’ll need to find a new Minister of Keys. And hold Bogdana’s trial. And investigate all the suspects in this damned conspiracy.” Jude sighed. “There’s a lot of work to do.”
“And I’m stuck here in this bed without being able to help you. I wish Randalin had survived just so I could cut off his horns.”
Jude gives a proud smile. Marriage really had made them more alike.
“Don’t worry, I can take care of everything.”
Cardan knows that she is fully capable of solving all the world’s problems on her own, but he really wishes he could keep his promise to help her carry any burden. He's practically just made it and he's already failing.
“I hate being unwell,” he says.
“You’re not sick,” Jude tells him. “You are recovering from being stabbed—or rather, throwing yourself on a knife.”
At that, he smiles.
“You would have done the same for me,” he says airily.
“I would not,” Jude snaps.
“Liar,” Cardan says fondly.
Jude takes a deep breath and turns to Oak, waiting behind them.
She communicates her decision and her more relaxed posture calms him down a little too. But Cardan also has a few things to say to his nephew. It’s not as if Oak doesn’t deserve a few scoldings.
The doors open minutes after Oak has left. Her eyes go straight to the bed and then her brow furrows deeply when she realizes he's not there. She narrows her eyes and searches the entire room, until she stops at him, sitting lazily on the sofa.
Cardan forces a charming smile, but when Jude crosses her arms and frowns at him, he realizes that he should have asked Oak to take him back to bed.
“I thought I’d made myself clear. No getting up and making sudden movements. Wait, did you get up to drink?” She asks when she notices the two glasses and the half-empty bottle of wine.
“My legs were getting numb. And the drink helped ease the pain. And I was giving Oak brotherly advices.” Cardan says all the excuses he can think of to calm her nerves.
The last confession makes her mouth curve just a little. Then her lips return to a thin line.
“Help me get back into bed, will you?” His eyes flash with innocence.
She taps her boot on the floor, plotting.
“I should leave you to sleep right there. Cold and uncomfortable.”
“And then you’d be cold too without the warmth of my naked body to warm you up.”
Jude lets out a smile and shakes her head.
“You’re terrible.” She helps him up and rests him on her shoulder, surprised by a kiss on the top of her head.
She tucks him into the spider silk sheets. He sighs contentedly and taps his side of the bed so that Jude joins him.
He carefully slips his arm around her waist and Jude rests her head gently on his shoulder.
“Are you sure you want to make the trip to the Undersea? Be honest with me Jude, there’s no weakness in not wanting to go back there.” He adds, before she can think of lying or hiding her feelings.
Jude takes a deep breath.
“I’ll be fine. As long as you’re by my side.” She snuggles into his arms and he can feel the truth in her voice.
“Always.” He promises into her lips before kissing her.
And even if Cardan were capable of lying, Jude would blindly trust his words.