Chapter Sixty Three: Home is Where the Heart Is

There had been no guards stationed inside the quarters of the new bride and groom, because their expected activities that evening were of course meant to be performed free of all intrusion and surveillance. Duke Marseir and his operatives however, most clearly intended for there to be no consummation of this union. Kareem held open the door for Charlotte to enter, but the second he closed it, that needle jabbed into his throat, and he collapsed to the stones. A hand clamped tight around Charlotte’s mouth and muffled her scream, and a familiar voice sounded in her ear in soothing refrain, “Shh, Charlotte. Hush. You’re safe now. You’re safe.”

Charlotte threw off her father’s hand and dropped to the side of her twitching new husband, yanking out the needle and demanding jaggedly, “What have you done?!”

“Lower your…” The door flew open, and Marseir’s words trailed off with a heavy sigh.

His assassins did not even need the order to deal with the pair of Arakesh guardsmen barging their way in to investigate Charlotte’s cry. More darts flew out, and the warriors were laid out on the ground within an instant, being dragged carefully inside the shadowed chamber.

“Keep lowered your voice as we make our way out through these corridors, alright?” Marseir enforced, reaching down to haul her away from her poisoned new love.

Charlotte slapped away his hand, taking a vial of most precious liquid out from under her skirts. “I am not going with you, father, and I am not going to let him die.” She tipped the antidote into Kareem’s mouth. She had been carrying it with her ever since Marseir’s agents had attacked Carnen.

Her father lit a lantern and instantly snatched the already empty container from her hands, holding it up to the light. “Is this…? How did you know the proper counter-agent?”

“I made a broad-spectrum treatment for the most common poisons I used to make for you,” Charlotte informed him coldly, rising to her feet. “And how dare you use one of those poisons here, on my husband, on my wedding night!”

“He is not your husband. He is your captor. You are a captive of these people, and I am freeing you. Come along now,” her father ordered, hauling her to her feet. “We are going home.”

“I hate it at home!” she screamed, and his hand dropped from her in shock. “I hate it. It’s a prison.” Her shoulders were shaking and her eyes spilling tears, as her father watched on in bleary eyed confusion. “You keep me in a cage, never allowed to even go out riding, or to meet anyone, not even our own family! And I know it is because of mother. I know that she was poisoned, daddy, that she did not die of natural causes, but you cannot protect me by smothering me to death! I can protect myself by being strong, by being prepared.” She pointed to the empty vial of antidote. “I can treat whatever poison you or anyone else tries to use against us. I can test for the toxin before I or anyone I care for even ingests it. I am just as smart as you are, father, and I am grown up now. I can protect myself, and I can choose where my home is.” She knelt back at the side of her husband, pulling his head to her chest. “I can choose who I go with, and I choose him. I love him.”

“You just met him today!” Marseir snapped. “You cannot love him. I am the only one that loves you, Charlotte. I love you more than anything.”

“I know. I love you too.” She sobbed. “I will always love you, daddy, but you have done such terrible things.” His eyes darkened, lips pressing together in an unhappy, rigid line. “You broke the law, and you murdered people. You made children into murderers to act on your behalf, and you need to stand trial for that.”

“I should never have allowed you to know of that,” he murmured. “I should never have allowed you to craft poisons. I should never have brought Aya into our home.”

“Aya is the best thing to ever happen to me,” Charlotte countered. “I could not have survived locked away so long without her, but I need other people too.” She held all the tighter to Kareem. “He has promised to be mine, father, and I want that. I need it.”

“That scoundrel will take a dozen wives and mistresses, exactly like his father, and you will be absolutely miserable!” her father snapped, and she flinched.

“I’m sure a man with your resources can threaten him into monogamy,” Aya offered. It seemed she had been listening from the other side of the door this entire conversation, and she kicked it open now and yanked Marseir out in front of her with knife held to his throat. Marseir’s two assassins had already drawn knives of their own, but Aya stared them down in fearless warning. “Make a move, your duke dies.”

They knew it to be true, and their blades went right back into their sheaths. Aya turned her eyes to Charlotte and she bounded to her feet. “Aya! You’re… Free. That’s good. I just... I meant to… get you… rescued,” she remembered with sudden shame, embarrassed that she had been having such fun today while her dearest friend was still in prison. “I just… I got a little swept up in my whole… marriage.”

“It’s fine, Char. I did fine on my own,” Aya offered, shifting her eyes back to Marseir. “Now for you, Lord Duke. I am not going to naively insist you stay here and stand trial for all your many crimes and let your cousin pass sentence. I’m not even going to call the guards. I am instead going to escort you myself right down to our docks where you will sail into exile and never again return to these lands. Charlotte will do exactly as she wants with her life now, going forward, and if you try and stop her from that, it will be only by forcibly detaining her. She will hate you forever then. Is that truly what you want?”

Marseir lifted his eyes to his daughter, gesturing derogatorily to her unconscious husband. “And that is what you want?”

“Yes,” Charlotte insisted, pulling him close.

“Just know, your father was not lying about that multiple wives thing,” Aya enforced. “That cad ‘loves’ you, just as much as he ‘loves’ me, and probably any other woman that catches his eye.”

“I know. He told me,” Charlotte assured her. “He told me everything, but he promised to make me happy and… I don’t think he was lying. Even if he was… It is my mistake to make.”

Aya nodded her head. “All the best then, Char. Come along now, sir.”

She escorted Etienne Marseir at knife point right out of that castle, and Charlotte knew she might not be seeing either of them for a good, long while. She pushed a loving hand through Kareem’s hair as his eyes fluttered open and dismissed all her worries. It was time for an adventure of her own, overseas in exotic lands, and whatever the consequences of those decisions, she promised herself nonetheless that she would never be lonely again.