It was such a foreign feeling for Steffen to have anyone care about him; he kept doubting whether Arliss really loved him, or whether she was just playing a cruel trick on him, just pretending to love him—like everyone else in his life had.
But the more time Steffen had spent with her, the more sincere he could feel she was. She really loved him. It was a hard feeling for him to accept. No one in his life had ever, truly, unconditionally loved him for exactly who he was. He almost didn’t know how to react. All that he knew was that he felt an overwhelming rush of love and gratitude for her.
“Please go below, my love,” he said to her. “You will get cold and wet up here, too. I myself cannot go below. Not with Gwendolyn above.”
“But she urged you to go below.”
He shrugged.
“I don’t like having her out of my sight. At least not when Thorgrin is not here. I owe her a great debt.”
Arliss nodded.
“I understand. Our Queen is most endearing; she has taken me in like a sister, and I feel the same loyalty to her as you do. But no danger could befall her here. She is amongst her own people. On a ship, in the middle of an ocean.”
“I know,” Steffen said. “But it is my duty. And my duty I take very seriously.”
Arliss clutched the rail, looking out to sea, and Steffen detected sadness in her face.
“What is it, my love?” Steffen asked.
She sighed.
“When I think of the Ring, of all we’ve left behind, it is overwhelming. It is hard to conceive. Everyone we’ve known and loved, everything, completely destroyed. The Ring is now a wasteland. How can it be?”
Steffen shook his head, understanding, feeling hollow out himself. There was nothing he could say. He thought back to his hometown, to all his family, now surely dead, and while they were never kind to him, still he felt sadness.
“Isn’t it hard for you to think of?” she pressed. “That life will never be the same? That that we can never return home?”
Steffen looked out to the horizon and sighed.
“For me, I’ve nothing left behind,” he said. “Everything we left back home, all those towns of the Ring, they hold nothing for me. As for the people I care about, they are here. We can reinvent our hometown. It is a chance to start life over again. All that I care about in this world is my duty. Which means Gwendolyn. And now, of course, you,” he said as he lowered his head and blushed.
Arliss, clearly touched, looked at him and smiled, then kissed him.
They held the kiss for a long time.
She sighed as she looked out to sea.
“The people we grew up with were cruel,” she said. “They do not deserve our tears. Yet still, a part of me feels guilty. After all, we’re the only ones that escaped. What if I hadn’t come to King’s Court? What if I had never met you? I would be dead right now.”
Steffen gazed out at the horizon and realized he hadn’t thought of that.
“I love you,” she said. “I owe you my life.”
Steffen shook his head.
“You owe me nothing. I did not save you. The fates did.”
“But the fates brought you to me.”
She leaned in close, and Steffen put his arm around her shoulder, holding her tight, rubbing her shoulder which was trembling. It was an amazing feeling, to hold a girl tight, to feel wanted, loved. He felt as if his life mattered more than it had before, and he felt less alone in the world.
“My love, you’re trembling,” he said. “The mist thickens. Please. Go down below.”
“Only if you promise to join me.”
Needing her to go below, finally, he nodded.
“I will,” he said. “Soon enough.”
Arliss leaned in, gave him a kiss, and quickly descended below deck.
Steffen turned back to Gwendolyn. She was still standing there, alone, her back to him, gazing out at the ocean, holding Guwayne. He wondered what thoughts were racing through her mind.
Steffen could not let her stand here like this, all alone, freezing cold. He resolved to go to her once again, and to implore her to come below. He knew she would not, proud and stubborn as she was, and with so much on her mind. She felt as if she had to stay up here, he knew, to sacrifice herself for her people; she always had. Steffen loved and admired her for that. But he wanted her safe.
As Steffen began to approach her, he suddenly spotted motion out of the corner of his eye. Something moved quickly in the darkness, on the other side of the deck, and his heart leapt as he saw a figure wearing a black hood. He was sprinting in the gloom and fog, heading along the side of the ship—and running right for Gwendolyn.
Steffen saw a gleam in the light, and he realized, with dread, what it was: a dagger. The man, he realized, was an assassin, a blade shining in his hands, on his way to kill Gwendolyn.
“Gwendolyn!” Steffen shouted.
Steffen broke into a run, sprinting for her—but he realized the assassin already had a wide lead on him.
Gwen turned at his shout, and as she did, she saw the assassin racing for her. She clutched Guwayne tight, then she waited until the last moment and dodged the knife; the assassin charged past her, just missing, his knife cutting through the air as he stumbled across the bow.
That was all the time Steffen needed. He raced forward as the assassin circled around, and without hesitating, he drew his sword and plunged it through the assassin’s heart.
The man cried out, gasping, blood gurgling from his mouth and throat, and collapsed in Steffen’s arms, as if hugging him. Steffen dropped him, and the man collapsed to the deck, dead.
Alarm horns sounded on deck, and within moments, dozens of knights, led by Kendrick and Godfrey, came rushing out of the bowels of the ship, racing toward Gwendolyn, who stood there, ashen.
“Are you okay?” Kendrick asked her, breathing hard. He looked down at the dead body in horror, then looked in every direction for any signs of another attacker. But there were none.
Gwendolyn nodded.
Kendrick reached down and pulled the dead assassin to his feet. He yanked back his hood and examined his face with disgust.
“One of Tirus’s men,” Godfrey said, stepping forward. “A spy.”
Kendrick picked him up high overhead and hurled him over the side of the ship. They watched as his body splashed in the ocean and was quickly carried away by the waves.
“Steffen saved my life,” Gwen said.