51, Recognition

Tenac was the first one to react. He slowly lowered his sword, but still held it in his hand. Zerden looked between Ayya and Tenac. He then lowered his sword as well.

“Thank you,” Ayya said. “You two, go wait outside. We will soon be out,” she then told Hermen and Lomi. They looked at Tenac and he nodded. They left, and Ayya was left with the two original combatants. She slowly walked forward so she could stand to the side of them.

“Ayya, don’t,” Tenac said.

“It’s okay. The castellan won’t hurt me, he doesn’t want to explain to his king why he injured the Lady’s deputy any more than you want to explain to me why we came all this way for you to cause us to turn around and go back,” Ayya calmly said. “Now, let’s try this again. Put your swords away,” she added. No one moved. “Tenac,” Ayya used her most determined voice. She wasn’t going to accept a no. She heard Tenac sighing and then he sheeted his sword. Zerden looked at Ayya and then at Tenac, and he followed suit. “Thank you,” Ayya said again. “Now who will tell me what is going on?” she then asked. There was dead silence, and the two men glared at each other. “Oh, for the sake of the gods. Tenac, spit it out,” Ayya said. She was losing her patience.

“The castellan made inquiries of your whereabouts and when I refused to tell him, he got agitated and drew his sword,” Tenac told her. What? Ayya thought. That didn’t make sense. Shouldn’t he already know where Ayya were staying? If nothing else, it wouldn’t be that hard to figure out since the Lady had been staying in the same place.

“That’s a lie,” Zerden growled.

“I must tell you that Tenac has never lied to me, but please tell me your side of the story,” Ayya said.

“I was asking about the girl that the chest belongs to. Your bodyguard refused to tell me anything about her. Something feels wrong. If he isn’t telling me where she is, there must be a reason. I detained him to find out what is going on,” Zerden told her. Ayya just looked at him and then looked at the chest behind Tenac. Then she laughed, and both men stopped glaring at each other and stared at her.

“I’m sorry. I know this isn’t funny, but it kind of is,” she said as she tried to contain her laughter. “You are both right. You are just looking at it from a different point of views,” Ayya said. She then lowered her hood and looked at Zerden. “Zerden, it’s me,” she told him. She saw how he looked at her without any kind of recognition.

---

Zerden had had a stressful week. It was his first time receiving official visitors as the castellan. He had to make sure the castle, and its inhabitants were kept safe and also make sure their guests were safe. As soon as they had learnt that the Lady would send a delegation to them, his mother had been overjoyed. She had been convinced that Mary would be coming back with the delegation. Zerden had tried to tell her that the chances of that happening were low. Even his father had tried to tell her that Mary probably wouldn’t be part of the delegation. But his mother was convinced she was right. She would get to see Mary again. Despite what Zerden had told his mother, he was secretly hoping that Mary would find a way to join the delegation. The last time he had any contact with her was four years ago. He had just broken off his engagement with Sarah after much soul searching. He had wanted to apologise to Mary for what he had said. When he, with some not so gentle nudging by his mother, had realised what he truly felt for Mary, he had realised why he had written those things to her. Zerden had felt her slip away, and he had tried to pull her back towards him. The only thing he managed to do was to completely sever the bond between them. He had sent a final note, apologising. Hoping that he would get a reply. If she at least had responded and forgave him, he could have continued to write to her. But there had been no reply. He had had to realise that she had given up on him. That had hurt, especially since he knew that if he had just seen what he had when she was in front of him, there was a good chance she would have stayed. That thought still haunted him.

When the delegation had arrived at the castle, he had hoped to see her familiar face. But he had looked at both the aari that accompanied the Lady’s deputy and neither of them could be Mary. The rest of the company were grey riders. He knew she wasn’t one of them. He had been more than disappointed. Zerden had been so occupied with looking for Mary that he hadn’t looked at the Lady’s deputy until she stood before him. For a moment, he had forgotten his training and had looked at her. She was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. She had taken his breath away. He thought he saw something in her eyes, that she was expecting something from him. But then he had realised what he was doing and turned to look straight ahead again. As he then had finished making sure that all the waggons of the guests had been stored away and his men knew what to do, he was heading home to get some sleep. And to get the courage to tell his mother that Mary hadn’t come along. That’s when he saw someone go inside the stable where the guests’ waggons were stored. Zerden thought he would just check it out to be safe and had followed the man. To his surprise, it was the bodyguard of the Lady’s deputy. He was up on one of the waggons. Zerden was about to leave when he saw what the man was carrying. It was Mary’s chest. He hadn’t even stopped to think about it before running to confront the man about where Mary was. That is how he ended up here. With the Lady’s deputy calling him by his name.

He looked at her again. With the hood down, her beauty was even more obvious. She almost seemed to radiate with confidence and power. A couple of strands of red hair had fallen out of the braids that were arranged around her head and were framing her face and her green eyes looked expectingly at him. Wait, he thought, her red hair and green eyes? He looked closer at her; he tried to find something he recognised and then his mind shut down out of sheer surprise.

---

Ayya looked at Zerden and saw him struggling to recognise her. The moment he did, she almost started laughing again. He looked stunned.

“Mary?” he asked in a shaky voice.

“It took you long enough,” she smiled at him. “Tenac, wait outside for five minutes. I think I need to speak to him,” she then told Tenac and switched to Heulu.

“No. There is no way I’m leaving you alone with him,” Tenac said. Ayya studied him and realised she wouldn’t get anywhere.

“Fine, but can you at least wait by the door?” she asked.

“Fine,” he said, and took the chest and walked past Zerden. He opened the door and gave the riders outside the chest with orders to bring it back to Ayya’s room.

“What if they get lost?” she pointed out.

“Then they shouldn’t be part of your father’s unit,” he simply said. Ayya smiled and turned back to Zerden. She realised he hadn’t understood a word that had been said.

“Sorry about that,” she told him. “How have you been?” she then asked with a smile.

“Fine, good, and you?” he asked.

“Really good. Life has been kinder than I thought was possible,” she smiled. “How are you parents, I hope your father is alright?” she asked.

“Yeah, they are good. Mom finally talked him into retiring,” he told her.

“Good. I would like to visit your mother while I’m here. Do you think she would be okay with that?” Ayya asked him.

“She would love that,” he nodded.

“Well, this was nice. It was nice to see you again. But I need to get going. Tenac and I need some rest to be in good condition for tomorrow,” she said. He nodded. “Bye Zerden, I’ll see you around,” she said and walked to where Tenac stood. Tenac opened the door for her and both of them stepped out into the night. They walked in silence all the way back to the room. Hinat was relieved to see them and Ayya reassured her friend that she could go to bed. Ayya walked into her room, closely followed by Tenac.

“Never do that again,” he told her.

“Do what?” she asked.

“Never put yourself in danger and refuse to listen to me. I am responsible for your safety,” he said. Ayya could hear the anger in his voice.

“What was I supposed to do? Leave you there with sword drawn?” she asked him, her own temper flaring.

“Do you think he would have won if it came to that?” Tenac hissed.

“Of course not. I wasn’t worried you would die. I was worried how I would explain to the king that we had maimed his castellan less than five hours after arriving,” she told him, poking his chest with her finger.

“Oh,” he said.

“Yeah, oh. I’m sorry, Tenac, but I have worked too hard for this, and have too much at stake, to just let something like that screw with it,” she told him, feeling her irritation disappear.

“Sorry. But I need to know that you will listen to me if we are in danger,” he insisted.

“It’s okay. I promise I will, most of the time,” she added. Tenac just shook his head and accepted defeat.

“So that is Zerden,” he said.

“That is Zerden,” she nodded.

“He is head over heels in love with you,” Tenac pointed out. Ayya started laughing again.

“You have no idea how wrong you are, my friend. But thank you for making me laugh. Now go and sleep. Tomorrow will be a long day,” she said.

“Fine. Sleep tight, Ayya,” he sighed, shaking his head.

“You too, Tenac. Thank you for putting up with me.”

“It’s not that hard, most of the time,” he told her as he walked into his room.

---

Zerden knocked on his parents’ door. He had planned on avoiding his mother, but things had changed, he thought. His mother opened the door and smiled at him.

“Come in,” she told him, and he followed her into the kitchen. He greeted his father that sat at the table.

“So?” his mother asked as he had sat down and she had put a cup of tea in front of him. She sat down next to his father.

“Yeah, she is here,” Zerden said. He could hardly believe it himself. His father looked surprised, and his mother did a little squeal and smiled.

“I told you she would,” his mother said. “Did you see her? Talk to her? Did she look to be all right? The journey didn’t tire her too much, did it?” his mother hurled questions at him.

“Now, Anna, let the boy answer,” his father chuckled. His mother fell silent and looked at him.

“Yes, I saw her and spoke to her briefly. She looked well, to be honest, I didn’t recognise her at first. She has changed, she is radiant,” he told his parents. His mother’s smile grew bigger. “She asked if it would be okay to come and visit you while she was here. I said you would like that,” he then told his mother.

“Of course, I would. You should have brought her along with you,” his mother said.

“They needed to get back to their party. They have had a long journey,” Zerden said.

“They?” his mother asked.

“Ah yes, Mary is here as the Lady’s deputy. I met her and her bodyguard,” Zerden told them.

“Oh, there you go. Isn’t that something, our Mary is moving up in the world,” his mother said proudly.

“I’m not sure she goes by Mary any more though,” he said.

“Why do you think that?” his father asked.

“The title she is using, she isn’t named as Mary in it,” he told his parents.

“We will just have to ask her when she comes by. I want to hear how her life is. If she has someone special in her life, is she married and has children? There are so many things I want to ask,” his mother said.

“Just remember mom, she doesn’t have much free time. It can take a while before she can come by and even then, she may not be able to stay for long,” Zerden reminded his mother.

“I’m not a child, son. I know, but I’m still excited. Next time you see her, tell her I said hi, and that she is welcome anytime she feels she has the time,” his mother said.

“I will,” Zerden nodded. He stayed a while before he headed over to his apartment. His mother had got him thinking. He had just assumed that once he had Mary close to him again, he could fix things. But what if she wasn’t available anymore? What if she was engaged or married? The bodyguard had looked at her in a way that Zerden had interpreted as more than just professional. He needed to think about it.