Page 35 of Enamored
“Will the king agree to it? He is eager to see me betrothed and named as his successor.”
“If he knows you’re yet undecided by the banquet tonight and you propose this challenge, he will comply with your wish to have help in the choosing.”
Though I wanted to discount the ancient engraving, what did I have to lose by giving the sword a chance? If none of the twelve could pull it free, then I could always choose one of them regardless. Perhaps I’d give the king the honor of selecting his favorite. Then the consequences of the decision would rest upon his shoulders and not mine.
I stepped away from the sword. The matter was settled. “Let us be on our way.” I spun and made my way through the church. I only had hours left of freedom, and I intended to make the most of them.
Maxim
Something didn’t add up with Rasmus’s plan to utilize the Sword of the Magi. But try as I might, I couldn’t work out the correct solution. Clearly, he intended for the chosen noblemen to fail. But why? As before, I could only conclude he was widening his scope.
I sat next to Elinor on the rocky shore, my feet bare and dangling in the sea. She swung her legs back and forth in the cold water, kicking up a spray that sparkled in the bright sunlight.
The questions had plagued me all throughout the afternoon we’d spent on the small island in Ostby Sound, talking and hiking and eating. Like last night, the time with Elinor had been a homecoming, as if my wandering soul had finally found rest. It had gone by too quickly, and now the guards waiting by our boat were growing restless.
I nodded at one, indicating that we would leave erelong. As much as I wanted to stay on the island and prevent Elinor from going to the feast, I had always put duty ahead of my personal desires and would continue to do so.
But what was my personal desire?
I glanced sideways at her. Her hair was tangled from the wind, her gown bedraggled from the sea and sand, her face uplifted to the sun, taking in the warm rays.
“I followed every lead,” she said, “and none ever brought me any closer to understanding what became of them.”
She’d been speaking of her mother and sister and the search she’d conducted once she’d been old enough to do so.
“Not that I could do more than you already have,” I replied, “but I would gladly examine all the clues and attempt to decipher them... if you’d like.”
“Would you?”
“Most certainly.”
Although I empathized with Elinor’s desire to understand her family’s fate and wanted to help her unlock the mystery, my mind went back to the sword and the puzzle that needed to be solved.
What were Rasmus’s intentions? With his luring the princess to my chamber earlier, with his command that I spend as much time as I could with her, with his undermining her confidence in the courtship process, surely he didn’t plan for me to loosen the sword from the case.
If he believed I could become betrothed to Elinor and stand in as the next king of Norvegia, he surely understood that no one would accept me. I was of common stock, and the law of the land clearly stated that royalty must marry someone of a royal or noble bloodline.
Even so, I would be a fool to ignore all the evidence that somehow Rasmus was plotting for me to take the throne. But what was the law in the hands of a skillful politician but clay to be molded to his benefit?
I didn’t know how Rasmus would change the law, but I had no doubt he’d find a way. Did he expect that in putting me at Elinor’s side as her co-ruler, I would be his puppet? That he would be able to rule through me?
The very thought sent a shiver of disquiet through me. Of course, what man could deny an opportunity to become a powerful king? If Rasmus indeed pushed me into it, I doubted I would be able to resist. Especially knowing Elinor would be mine and belong to no one else. Although I wanted to deny how much I cared about her—had been doing my best to reject my feelings—the more time I’d spent with her, the more I resented her being with anyone else.
“You are distracted.” Her quiet statement cut through my musings.
What should I tell her? My suspicions? And what if I was wrong? What if Rasmus had another plan entirely? I swirled my foot in the water lapping against the moss-covered stone. “I cannot keep my thoughts from dwelling on what is to come this eve.” It was the partial truth.
She pressed her lips and gazed back to the shoreline of Vordinberg, the Stavekirche at the pinnacle of the tall, colorful buildings along the waterfront and hills, all bowing to the castle where it sat in a majestic throne above the city, like a benevolent parent watching over a beloved child.
“I pray for God’s will to be done,” Elinor said softly.
I feared Rasmus’s will would be accomplished and that I had become his unwilling aid.
She shifted on the rock. “You will come tonight, will you not?”
“I haven’t been invited—”
“I invite you to sit by my side and give me counsel.”
