Naturally, our passage through the castle gate was unhindered, given the presence of a Royal in the carriage, and we were granted immediate access to the Golden Palace.
The carriage entered slowly, driving past a long line of guards who stood at attention as we passed. We continued up the road and circled around the outside of the Palace, avoiding the grand main entrance.
Up close, the Golden Palace shone, no less. Its luster was overwhelming to my eyes. It was adorned with stained glass windows and jewel encrusted doors. The grounds were perfectly polished and filled with flowers in full bloom.
The carriage followed a long cobblestone path that led through the garden and around the back of the Palace.
We stopped in front of a discreet back entrance that looked like a door for servants to enter. A few moments after we'd stopped, the carriage driver came around, opened the door, and bowed deeply.
“Your Highness, we have arrived,” the driver said reverently, without lifting his head, “may this humble servant be of any further assistance?”
“That will be all,” replied the Second Prince, “We will enter from here and I will escort the Marquis to his room. Return the carriage and horses to the stable and you may retire from there.”
“Yes, your Highness. Thank you, your Highness.” The man lifted his head so he could bow deeply once more before stepping aside to allow us space to exit.
The Second Prince gestured for me to get out first, so I carefully climbed out of the carriage. The back entrance that the Second Prince had chosen was far less populated than the one in front, with only a few servants scattered about, completing their daily tasks. I could feel their eyes on me as I emerged.
I could only imagine what they must have been thinking when they saw me. My hair, which had grown long enough to be called unruly, was as unwashed as the rest of me from the journey; my clothes were dirty from travel, and my wrists were still bound in chains. It must have looked as if the Second Prince had brought a commoner prisoner home for a visit.
Their eyes quickly averted the moment the Second Prince stepped out of the carriage behind me. He lazily looked around at the people hovering nearby, but they were all suddenly busy with their assigned tasks and I had become invisible to them.
The driver went to depart, but then he turned around to look at me. Our eyes met for a brief moment, and I couldn’t help but notice the pity in his gaze as he bade me farewell, “Good luck, young Lord. I hope to greet thee on the other side.”
Having given me the traditional greeting of long partings, he climbed back up to his post and drove off with the carriage. Having experienced so little kindness in the last nine years, his casual words tugged at my heartstrings a little.
I shall hope to see you again too, kind sir, I thought, hoping the sentiment would somehow reach him. It was naught but a simple, careless greeting on his part, but it had lifted my spirits, if only for a moment.
“Right then, follow me. I will show you to your room.” My spirits dropped right back down when the voice of the Second Prince interrupted my thoughts.
I nodded to show my understanding and followed him into the Palace.
The interior of the Royal Palace was no less opulent, but far less gilded than the exterior. Everyway I looked I saw ornamental rugs, jewels on display, portraits of the Royal Family, and other pieces of decadent decor.
The poor people of the city's slums could have feasted for a year from the riches housed in any of the rooms we passed.
Servants passed by constantly, averting their eyes and whispering, “Greetings, Your Highness,” as they hurried off to finish their work.
None of them dared to look the Second Prince in the eye, but all of them snuck a peek at me as soon as they were past the Second Prince’s gaze. Hostility, curiosity, or pity. All of them looked at me with at least one of those three.
The servants in my father’s house had been entirely indifferent to me, if not contemptuous of me, but I wasn’t sure if I could call this an improvement.
I wondered if the Palace servants knew who I was. Did they know what I was here for, or was I simply something different to look at, wonder about, and judge? I wished they wouldn’t look at me like that.
I was pretty sure I preferred the indifference of my father’s servants. At least they didn’t make me feel like a spectacle.
We swiftly proceeded through the Palace, preventing me from thinking about it any further.
After countless corridors and several staircases, we reached an isolated wing of the palace where there were no servants at all.
There, at the end of a long, empty corridor, was a door with two knights standing at attention on either side. They offered sharp and well synchronized bows to the Second Prince before returning to their original positions.
The Second Prince simply held out his hand as we approached the door. The knight on the left immediately produced a key, unlocked the door, handed the key to the Second Prince, and took a few steps back.
The knight on the right opened the door for us and also stepped back. Their movements were so coordinated that I wondered if they had rehearsed it.
The room was one of the most unusual sights I had ever seen, as it was flooded with natural light, yet there wasn’t a single window.
Its walls were covered with burgundy and gold wallpaper, with paintings and tapestries hung in various locations around the room.
To one side, there was a golden mantle with a fire already burning in the hearth. Next to the hearth were a couch, a chair, and a small table set atop a fluffy, white rug.
On the opposite side of the room was a bed, placed on top of an enormous rug that matched the one by the hearth. The bed was a sea of emerald silk and looked too luxurious to actually sleep in.
Next to the bed, in the far right corner was an enormous bookshelf that was built into the wall, and there had to be hundreds of books on its white and gold shelves. A single book could take a scribe almost a full moon cycle to create, so seeing that many being kept in an unused area felt wrong to me.
When I finally managed to pull my gaze away from the books and look upward, I saw the reason for all the natural light in the windowless room. The ceiling, which was nearly twenty feet high, was made entirely of glass panels held together by a golden frame. It was an asymmetrical marvel that let the sunlight in during the day and allowed you to see the stars at night.
"This room, we call it the Sun Room. It was once a private tea room designed for enjoying the midwinter sun, but it hasn't been used as such for many years. This is where you shall stay. The beastmen contingent will arrive tonight, but you won’t greet them until tomorrow. Wait here until we come for you.”
He looked me in the eyes to confirm that I understood. I gave him a short nod and he turned to leave.
“Oh, yes,” he said as he reached the door, “You are not permitted to leave this room, but feel free to read the books on the shelf. The books were chosen with the intention of reading them on a sunny afternoon, so you should find them to be pleasant, light reading. You can read, can’t you?”
I nodded that yes, I could. My mother, unlike most commoners, was not illiterate. Perhaps she had learned while she was the Duke’s maid. She’d made sure to teach me how to read the written word from an early age, even if I couldn’t scribe it myself.
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“I’ll have the kitchen send you something light for now, and dinner will be served to you at the top of the seventh movement of descent. As long as you make no attempt to leave, please feel free to otherwise enjoy yourself. Enjoy your food and the books. This may be your last night, so I suggest you make the most of it.”
With that, he walked out of the room. The knights bowed sharply in unison as he passed by. After the Second Prince was gone, one of the knights turned to me.
“If you need food or drink, knock twice.” He gave two taps on the door to demonstrate his meaning. The voice from inside the helmet sounded disciplined and no-nonsense. “There’s a chamber pot under the bed. If it needs to be changed, knock three times. We’ll call for a servant.”
Without waiting for my acknowledgement, he closed the door.
I stood stunned, alone in the sunny room. The transition from the carriage to here had happened so quickly that my head was spinning.
The beastmen would arrive that night? I’d thought they would be a week or two away at least, not arriving the same day as me.
I broke into a cold sweat as I processed this new information. During the journey here, I'd been too enraptured by the outside world to think about such things. I had just assumed there would be more time.
None of it had truly felt real until this moment. All that had mattered before now was that I was finally free from my father’s house.
But now I was all alone in this beautiful and inescapable room, where I would possibly be spending my last night.
The more I thought about it, the more terrifying my thoughts became. The beastmen would arrive tonight. Tomorrow, my life could be over. Or maybe I would be wishing it were.
I started having trouble breathing.
It was all too much.
My heart was racing at an alarming pace.
Too soon. It was too soon.
Blackness spotted in my vision.
Too fast.
I thought I still had time. Why was I so convinced that I still had time? It was all over tomorrow.
A foggy haze danced in my peripheral vision.
I wasn’t ready for this.
I started choking when I tried to pull in a full breath. I had no air. I couldn’t breathe.
I don’t want to die!
I fell to the ground, my breaths shuddering in and out in ragged gasps. I felt dizzy. I felt sick.
No, no, no, no! What should I do?
I don’t want to die. I want to go outside again.
Why would they show me all of that just to take it all away again?
I’m scared. Why me? What did I do?
I’m so scared. I want to live.
It’s too much.
I don’t want to be here. I need to escape.
I need to… escape…
As my body lay hyperventilating on the floor, my consciousness drifted into a familiar foggy haze. I went there and it was calm again.
It wasn’t quite like sleep, more like a waking dream in my subconscious. I was aware of the passage of time, but the fog blocked my perception of external stimuli. My conscious mind simply existed somewhere else for a while.
But it was only for a while. Eventually, I had to return to my body and face whatever awaited me in reality.
It was a knock on the door that brought me back to awareness.
My instinctive reaction was fear. I must have been gone too long and they were here to take me away.
I quickly got up, my heart pounding painfully loud in my chest. I looked around and saw that the sun was still in the sky. It was early afternoon when I arrived, so not too much time had passed while my mind was away.
My head cleared a bit and I realized that I should probably answer the door.
Before I could put the thought into action, the door opened of its own accord and a servant entered, pushing a cart with food on it.
“My Lord,” she said, giving me a gentle nod of the head before unloading the contents of the cart onto the table by the hearth. I took a few deep breaths, trying to calm the feeling of panic I had felt upon waking.
When she was finished, the servant turned to me, observing me carefully and making no attempt to hide it. I looked back at her, still trembling slightly, wondering what she wanted from me.
She looked as if she wanted to say something. Whatever it was, she decided not to say it, and she shook her head slightly while gazing at me with an indecipherable expression.
After a moment, she moved to take her cart and head back out the door. She moved past me, still standing frozen in the center of the room, and softly, so softly I might have imagined it, she whispered, “Don’t let your fate be decided by fear.”
Then, at an audible volume, she said, “Someone will come with dinner in a few movements time. Please advise the knights if you require anything before then. They will notify me.” Then, with another quick nod, she exited the room, and the door closed behind her.
I made my way over to the table to see what had been left for me. I hadn’t eaten since the early morning and my stomach was beginning to feel hollow.
On the table, I found a plate of small, triangle shaped sandwiches, made with cucumber, tomato, and a creamy cheese. There was also a plate of butter cookies stuffed with a mix of finely chopped nuts, miniature tarts filled with ground meat, and a small plate of sliced fruit. I ate with no regard for propriety, shoving the bite sized snacks into my mouth two or three at a time.
After some time in my safe space and a belly full of food, I felt a lot calmer. I was ready to think my way through this.
I don’t want to die here and the only situation where I won’t die is the one where I end up married.
I have no choice in what happens, but is there anything at all I can do to create a better outcome?
Despite the assumptions of my father and the Second Prince, I doubt that he is likely to kill me. That would mean throwing away the treaty they've worked so hard to initiate.
So it's his rejection that I must somehow avoid.
How can I convince him to marry me without offering my body as part of the deal?
And if I have to, is that really a fate worse than death?
In the end, I decided it wasn’t. Not if General Rastari was a somewhat decent man. What happened to my mother, it didn’t have to happen to me.
Don’t let your fate be decided by fear. Those softly spoken words echoed in my mind.
But I had nothing but fear. No one was on my side. No one cared whether I lived or died. No one cared that I was afraid.
I suddenly realized that it really didn't matter if I was afraid. Only a fool wouldn't be afraid in my situation. I couldn't stop myself from being afraid, so I had to push through it. I had to be brave.
If I ignored the fears that plagued me and looked at the facts, marriage to a beastman or death were my only options.
The beastmen asked for a marriage treaty as a show of good faith, likely because they don’t trust our intentions. But they definitely want peace.
Offering a male bride makes a clear statement about Vrayna’s attitude. It’s a union that can't produce a child. It shows our distaste toward interspecies breeding, but more importantly, it gives this treaty an expiration date, since there won’t be a next generation to uphold it.
The Second Prince is convinced they’ll react violently, but he underestimates their intelligence. Hopefully, they’ll see through him and not play into his hands.
But will the general go along with this for the sake of peace, or will he insist on a breedable partner?
I have no idea what they want. They were the inevitable victors, yet they sued for peace, and they must be aware that the humans they’re treating with hate them and look down on them.
So what do they stand to gain?
I didn’t know enough about the beastmen’s motivations to even guess at their purpose. All I could do was wait. Either they would accept me or they wouldn’t. If I saw an opportunity, I’d take it, but I didn’t feel like I had any control over the situation.
All I could do was prepare myself and try to be optimistic. I hadn’t dared to hope for anything in a very long time. But for just that one night, I was ready to risk the disappointment and devastation that could come from having hope.
I got up from my chair by the hearth, and walked over to the bookshelf. I looked at the various titles, and eventually settled on a story about a knight, a princess, and a magical bullfrog.
I’d never read something that’s primary purpose wasn’t education, and I found myself completely engrossed in it until a servant came with dinner.
Much to my disappointment, it wasn’t the servant girl from before. This time, the servant walked in unannounced, placed my food on the table, and left without so much as a glance in my direction.
The dinner they’d brought consisted of a small roasted fowl, mashed potatoes, and a leafy green vegetable seasoned with herbs and citrus. I ate more than my fill before moving myself to the bed.
I climbed under the blankets with the book from earlier, and looked up at the open sky ceiling. There was still the tiniest hint of light in the sky, the sun’s last finale before it sank below the horizon.
I gazed at the stars scattered across the night sky for a long while before turning back to the book.
I finished the story by candlelight and fell asleep staring at the stars.