Chapter Seven: An Odd Couple

Imagine my shock when I discovered that the Prince of the Estival had painted a near-perfect replica of the flag of the Kingdom of Prussia, which made up a great big chunk of Germany. A stylized bird I might overlook, but this one had a crown, sceptre, and orb… the chances of painting all of that by chance were astronomical. Prince Calivar regarded me curiously, his expression somewhere between worried and amused.

"It is a curiosity, my lady. A fictitious coat of arms painted on a whim, nothing more. I apologize if…"

"Bullshit," I said. "Don't bullshit a bullshitter, Hans. This is the Prussian flag… where the hell do you know it from."

He was genuinely taken aback. "You… you know of Prussia? Of Deuschland?"

"You're goddamn right I do," I said. "I got blown up trying to stop them from crossing the Oise River."

Calivar just stared at me for a moment and then he burst into laughter. He had to brace himself against a table to keep himself from collapsing. He looked me up and down with a newfound appreciation. "That means you're the Englishman who blew me up. That was the most audacious bit of stupid bravery I've ever seen."

"American," I corrected. "Were… were you in one of those tanks?"

Calivar nodded. "The only Mark IVs in our division… captured some weeks prior, and we were eager to use them to shell some engineers who'd captured ordinance that command wanted their hands on." He shrugged. "The Fatherland's loss is my gain. Oberleutenant Knut Dietrich of the 24th Landwehr."

He stuck out his hand and I shook it. My delicate hand was dwarfed by his, and I suspect he could have crushed it if he had a mind to. "Lieutenant Larry Born of the Nebraska 909th. I take it we aren't going to fight?"

"You were leading those men." Calivar stated, a bit impressed. He poured himself some wine and offered me some. It was white wine, no hint of blue poison, so I accepted. Then he padded away from the gallery, still chuckling to himself. "Why would we fight? It would be a very short betrothal, to be sure. There's no Deuschland here, no France, no America. I am prince in a tropical kingdom… and I have no particular desire to go back to driving through the summer mud in Flanders."

I sipped at the wine - it was fruity and sweet like the cider that York Henderson used to make. "Do they know about you? Who you really are?"

Calivar glanced down the hall to ensure that nobody was eavesdropping. "My footman does. He was the one who brought me to this body after it was poisoned by… Wisthelm, I believe he called the place. I told him I wouldn't reveal his folly if he helped me pass as the prince, and apparently nobody's noticed. I'm not sure the king would even care, so long as I have good intentions for his kingdom, which I do. I am a lucky mushroom, and don't I know it. What about you, Princess Larry Born? Who knows of your…" he mimed an object falling out of the sky, which is about what falling out of limbo had felt like.

"My handmaiden, the queen, the queen's handmaiden, and now you. The queen is heartbroken, but she wants this union more than she wants to rage over the loss of her daughter. So I guess we're both sitting pretty."

"Me not nearly so much as you," Calivar said. On a lark, he took my hand and kissed it, his lustrous eyes never leaving mine, and I couldn't find the will to stop him. "I'll show you to your room… we'll have time enough to discuss our common provenance later."

+++++

We convened in the throne room the next morning, which was a first for me. I'd been a princess for a few weeks already, but Alathea didn't use the throne room much when court wasn't in session. The Vernal Court ran throughout springtime every year. And, while it was springtime all the time in the Vernal realm, it was only really springtime when it was really springtime. Strange but true. We convened in King Alvaelic's throne room, directly prior to which I had to down the violet phial the queen had given me.

The throne room was huge, pretty close to the size of a football field. Granite pillars ran along the outside and the center was a long procession with a set of stairs at the end leading up to the throne. The center of the room was open to the sky, and birds flitted about the upper expanse of the place. They must have had a zephrylite or three because there wasn't a single bird splat to be seen. Lord knows what they did when it rained. The king stood atop the stairway and waited for Alathea to join him while everybody else bowed or, if they were royalty (like me) stood at a little half-bow or curtsy.

"Thank you, friends," the king said. "Please, stand. Today is a joyous occasion, for we have made a pledge with Queen Alathea of the Vernal to a union of our two realms, a union between Calivar, the sole prince of Estival, and Laeanna, the sole princess of Vernal. Tales of Laeanna's beauty, I am sad to say, do her a grave disservice, and who doesn't want beautiful grandchildren, even if I may not remain in Alfheim long enough to see them born? But fair looks do not hold our realms together, nor a strong bond make outside the bedchamber. We are a magical people - that is our bedrock, the basis from whence we rule these realms, and if our lands are ever to be truly united, it will take a generation of phenoms. Stand before us, Calivar and Laeanna, and demonstrate to us the potential of your union."

With that, the queen took control over my body. Up there on the throne platform, I could see her fingers twitch, could see her delicate eyebrows wavering up and down as she concentrated on controlling me. And, step by step, I plodded forward to where two robed sorcerers wearing leather gloves and silvered goggles held crystal globes a bit smaller than soccer balls. My fingers jumped to life, speeding through a serious of magical manipulations as my pool of mana roiled. Then I placed one hand on the globe and it burst into brilliant light.

Next to me, Calivar was doing something similar - my globe was a brilliant aquamarine color while his was a rosy orange. Whether he was just better at magic than me or was also getting an assist, I couldn't say. But I certainly felt Alathea's presence, the potion's power leeching into my will and forcing me to keep my hand on the globe, forcing me to expend my mana. Without my meaning it to, I felt my energy shaping itself, aggregating into complex and interesting patterns that I had never even considered, though I certainly wanted to try them now. The orb shone bright and, as the wizards brought the two globes into contact, they both shifted to a pure, intensely bright white. Even with my eyes closed it hurt to look at and the heat of the luminance prickled at my face like hot truck exhaust. I heard a woman scream… I was worried that it might be me, since I still wasn't in control of my body. But it wasn't - a few seconds later, a man screamed and the two orbs fell, crashing to the floor and shattering into countless little shards. The sorceress frantically patted her palms against the floor, trying to put the fire on her hands out while the sorcerer yanked the gloves from his hands and blew.

"Fools!" King Alvaelic shouted at them. "This is sorcery, not falconry… I told you they were a powerful pair, and in your hubris, you bring these injuries upon yourselves. Leave - and send someone in to clean this mess up. You are responsible for creating me new oracularies to replace this pair." He calmed himself and forced a smile. "Laeanna… I see clearly enough that the tales of your magical prowess were true… and you can see that my son is a formidable talent, as well. The spring and the summer, joined, are stronger than any star in the heavens. I would be a fool not to bless this union - what say you, Alathea?"

I finally felt the queen's control drop from me. She smiled and waved to the assembled nobles. "I say the King of the Estival is wise. On behalf of all the Vernal Court, I, too, give my blessing to this union."

Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

"Wonderful!" The king clapped his hands. "Come, friends, let us feast! And… do watch your feet. Some of those shards look very sharp."

+++++

The royal banquet was probably the finest feast I'd had since Thanksgiving at the four farms a few years before. As with most royal-anythings, it was very hoity-toity with more servants than guests and silverware sets that were probably worth more than all forty acres of the Born family farm. Alvaelic and Alathea sat at opposite ends of the big table while Calivar and I sat next to one another at the center. Meliswe had done a good job of getting me prettied up tout-suite, and I guess the prince's footman was pretty good, because Calivar cleaned up pretty nicely, too.

He kept glancing at me and squeezing my hand and smiling, and when he laughed it was a confident chortle from deep in his chest that crested atop a low hum. Part of me found it enthralling and part of me was aghast that I found it enthralling. This was a man, and a kraut officer to boot, and here I was getting butterflies in my stomach. Whenever I looked in Meliswe's direction, she was looking away… that had to be deliberate. I tried to focus on being neat and polite… there were three spoons, two knives, two forks, and what looked to be a tiny flapjack spatula, and the onlooking courtiers would be whispering about the uncouth foreign princess later that night if I used the wrong one. So I simply waited until I spotted at least two or three people using a utensil on any particular dish before employing it and simply pretended I was a slow eater… well, not entirely. Laeanna ate like a bird and I was stuffed to the gills by the end of the feast despite having eaten less than half of what had been set in front of me. Calivar cleaned every dish to the last morsel, though he did so with exemplary manners.

"I'm sorry… what was that?" I asked him. He'd asked me the same question twice in a row.

"Would you take a stroll with me?"

"Of course!" I stood as gracefully as I could, which was less than usual. I'd downed two glasses of wine, but that was plenty for the slender princess. Fortunately, fae have fast metabolisms and I'd be right as rain within an hour or two.

It was only late afternoon when we walked out to the garden, but it felt like I'd already experienced two days' worth of day between the fireworks in the throne room and the feasting in the banquet hall. We walked through the palace, past colonnades and arabesques. A lot of the palace was open to the air, the golden sun beating down and drawing perspiration with any significant exertion. In the Vernal realm, the days were usually mild, pleasant to be outside in without a jacket, while the nights were chilly without being too uncomfortable. In Estival, the nights were pleasantly neutral, especially with a breeze, while the days were just warm enough to avoid discomfort if you lazed in the shade but a bit too tepid otherwise.

We arrived at a sizable courtyard, mostly shaded in afternoon shadow with a great big fountain in the middle. It was practically a pond, three or four feet deep at its deepest, and a hundred small fish of every color flitted and sparkled in its cool waters.

"Have you been studying magic?" Calivar asked.

"A little," I said. That was an understatement - I'd been studying it a lot lately. I just wasn't very good with it. Not yet, maybe not ever.

He leaned over the pool and made a series of slow and deliberate motions with his hands - a reasonably complex spell and one he wasn't yet proficient in. With a look of intense concentration, he waved his hands over the pool and proceeded to direct the fish, congregating them near his spot and having them swim in circles and patterns as he liked. I had to admit - it looked pretty fun.

"See if you can summon more than me," he said with a sly grin.

I scampered to the far side of the pool and repeated the hand motions, far faster than he'd done them - Laeanna had enough magical muscle memory (try saying that five times fast) that I could do pretty much any pattern I'd seen once… the real trick was coming up with fresh patterns on my lonesome. I shaped my mana in line with the symbols and was suddenly aware of hundreds of little motes of life - the fish in the fountain, the lily pads they swam under, dragonflies and midges in the air, and the great shining beacon of Knut Dietrich, aka Calivar, Prince of the Estival. I doubted I had the chops to even nudge Calivar, but I could control the fish and bugs easily enough. I pulled some away from his formation and then some more, willing them into little figure-eights and twisting ribbons with my mana. I willed the fish toward me and Calivar willed them back… back and forth, we battled for fish. I think I had more, though not by a hell of a lot, but then I noticed… distress. The fish were stressed, panicked at being pulled in opposite directions by powerful draws. I hated that they felt so distressed and released them from my control.

Calivar must have seen my distressed look. "Don't be so gentle-hearted. The fish will be fine. Toss them some food and they'll be happy as pigs."

"Gentle-hearted?" I smirked. And then I started dive-bombing him with dragonflies. And the dragonflies loved to dive-bomb things, some predatory instinct deep within their tiny brains flaring with pleasure whenever they zoomed in, even though there was no prey.

"I yield! I yield!" He laughed, shielding his face from the little bombardiers.

We continued through sunlit corridors. Calivar walked next to me, his hand barely touching my lower back, subtly guiding me like an expert ballroom dancer. I was aware of his size, nearly a head taller than me and probably twice my weight. I was just above average height for a fae woman and tastefully slender, while he was both tall and broad for a fae man. Hell, he was pretty solid by human standards - by fae standards, he could have been a heavyweight champion.

As if sensing my inner conflict, he asked: "You don't find it off-putting? The notion of marriage with a man?"

I looked up at him, looked up at his coppery eyes taking me in as we walked down incense-scented hallways. "Ours could just be a marriage of politics, though I'm pretty sure Alathea wants grandbabies before too long. But…" I bit my lip. Some part of me gauged his reaction… I had him completely champed down on the hook, and I liked it. "I like what Laeanna liked. And she liked big strapping boys who're a little too full of themselves."

She also liked sweet, buxom handmaidens. Calivar didn't need to know that bit quite yet.

"How very fortunate for me." He flashed pearl-white teeth. "For the realm, I mean. Would you like to see it?"

"See what?"

"The realm. Our realm. Most of it, at least." As we passed into yet another courtyard, he pointed up - far up to the top of the highest tower, its top parapets hazy in the afternoon humidity. "The top of the tower is accessible only by flight." He unfurled his wings, broad, bronzed things buttressed by a network of iridescent filaments.

"I've never flown… not on purpose."

"I'll show you how." he held out his hand. "Out with your wings, princess, and we fly."

Calivar basically dragged me to the observation platform. I buzzed my wings enough to take to the air and awkwardly hover and he took my hand and nudged me up. The fae can't fly side-by-side and hand-in-hand… our wings our too broad and they'd thump into one another. Instead, we stood face to face when we lifted off, Calivar providing most of the direction but occasionally urging me to guide our path of flight. And, after a few minutes of figuring it out, I could actually direct myself pretty well - more muscle memory, I guess. After a minute of ascent, we arrived at the top of the tower, breathing heavily from the exertion.

"Sometimes I like to paint up here," he said - and he even had a few canvases and some paints up there, protected from the elements beneath an awning. From the observation deck, I could see the distant bronze gate I'd entered Estival through to the west and the teeming harbor I'd seen in Calivar's painting to the north, crowded with barques and galleys sliding across the shining waters like toy boats. Distant mountains were barely visible to the south through the haze, and mile upon mile of seemingly-unbroken jungle. I'd later learn that Estivalia contained ninety percent of the realm's population - beyond that, there were only tiny towns and villages, as well as the pilgrimage gathering upon Lubruaun Island, barely visible on the northern horizon. "Estival is the size of Switzerland, but it will grow much larger when our union is complete."

"By merging Estival and Vernal?" I asked - it hadn't been my impression that this would happen.

"Not quite - it's something magical that happens, I gather. The lands literally expand from the combined power of royal unions. The fae realms started out very small, barely the size of an alpine barony, but they've grown into proper kingdoms and will soon be larger still. I'm curious to see how it will work."

I sighed. "Whenever I think I'm starting to understand this place, I don't."