The Greens

By A. Afuhaamango

Chapter One

“You always smell so sweet,” her voice purred, muffled by her lips pressed against the curve of my body. I looked down over the sheets between us to meet her dark brown eyes.

Here on our bed, we lay with our legs and our sheets tangled from the night before. In this waking morning, neither of us want last night to end. Our day is about to start, and we must separate for work. Today will be excruciating before we can touch at the end of the day. Sometimes it took months before she and I could reunite. Just like those days, this day might mean I depart again.

I hated to leave her. My High lady, my Queen, Qala of Rorvik the Stone Kingdom.

I felt little kisses pressing down my side before I reached down to catch Qala’s face in hand. “You say this all the time,” I remind my love. I pressed my thumb against her temple, and brushed it across her skin, watch her face flush a lovely shade of red.

"Of the Goddess Freyja! I do love the way you look at me," Qala purred once more before digging her face back into the crook of my side and our bed. "It makes my heart race..." She said this in a whisper, probably meant for herself, but this made my own heart spin, too. Qala’s honesty is what affects me the most when she vocalizes her love for me.

But I try to stay focused.

“You are always so honest, my love.” I watch her pull up towards me to feather another set of kisses on my neck.

“And that is something you say to me often,” Qala says as she her kisses move to my collarbone. “Please say my name… In the tongue of your Elder’s folk.” Qala loved hearing my language, something about the lines felt like home she said.

I shook my head with a laugh. This silly woman and her silly little pleasures. Her dark eyes are blinking at me with earnest emotion, keeping her eyes wide to tempt me to make love for a few more hours.

By the Goddess, her candor excites me.

I gave in a little and allowed my hands run through her thick blond hair. I let my fingers rake lightly onto her naked back, caressing circles on its way down. “We must wake,” I say to her and watch her face me grimly.

“Today is important and a decision must be made.” I say this, but my lover is not listening to me. She has decided to curl up and sulk, puckering her lips as she often does in anger.

“Just an hour?” I hear Qala chirp.

I rolled away from her in case she decided to try and grab me again. I swing my legs for the floor and sit up. “No,” I tried to give her a stern look. “If we don’t leave this bed, Katan will howl about our lateness the entire day…”

Qala swiped to grab me at the elbow, but I evaded her pawing a second time. I turned to look at Qala before nodding toward the window behind us. “And the sun is up.”

Just as I was about to stand when in an instant her arms snake their way around my waist.

I had not escaped as I had thought. The love of my life whimpered into my back, “I will not give in to the audaciousness of an old man – “

“To whom we owe your crown–” I interrupted with another gentle reminder while gently pulling her arms apart. As I stood, I could hear her groaning and tossing around in the bed. I bit my tongue to keep from smiling at her. Instead, I offered another firm look that I hoped meant I was serious. Even if I wasn’t really that serious about it.

“Malin…” This aggravating woman tried to pout as she said my name. Really, she’s worse than a puppy.

I ignored this. “Lady Hulda will be here soon –”

“Malin…”

This version of my name was achingly sweet.

I sighed and then turned around to face the bed behind me. I addressed her as "High Lady Qala of Rorvik" in the manner of entry guards when introducing her at court.

High Lady Qala's face was pressed together in annoyance. Despite her serious expression, I was in awe of her beauty. Rorvik bards have composed tunes and lyrics that compared her to the Alpine flowers in the mountains because of her snow-white skin and a curtain of hair so yellow.

Stray sunlight from the behind Qala’s bare body produced a subtle glow. I had been told her petite, heart-shaped face and a long neck seemed to be characteristics of the ladies in her family. The Mark of Rorvik imprinted on her hip was something I could never fail to ignore. Two intertwined circles and the Gebo letter X over it. According to Royal Histories, this intriguing family mark has appeared on every Rorvik royal since the Golden Ember Days through birth.

Lady Hulda of Hávog, Qala Lady-in-waiting, had rejected my fleeting suggestion that it was formed by magic.

“Let us not guess if we don’t really know,” Lady Hulda explained. “Least you forget the hatred that Rorvik holds for your kind.”

I never mentioned it again because I did understand. I had not forgot when I arrived here the treatment I received.

And I would never forget.

Qala gathered her hair and tossed it, still very cross. “I would burn this whole castle to the ground if you do not do as I ask!” Repositioning her body, Qala sat on her knees and pulled the sheets to her chest. “I want my name from your lips, High Command or else suffer the consequences!”

“Such hostile manners are not befitting of the High Lady,” I jestingly chided.

Qala whining loudly brought my attention back to us. “Malinnnnn,” Qala reached out to me, childlike in her expression of want and need.

I laughed at this. I quickly banded my black hair on top of my head before kneeling back into her inviting body. I use the voice I only use for her, for my High Lady. “Lór tók káp Sa, Qala…” In The Greens language of my people.

Qala seemed to enjoy this, I think; she is truly so very expressive. Her face relaxed and she wrapped her arms around my neck. I leaned into a kiss and let her into my mouth. I lap at her taste, nipping at her lip and hearing her moan out my name. I felt my own flush and I knew that I needed to force my body to stand back up.

I quickly added just one more kiss to her head. I could hear another round of frustrated groans behind me as I walked away

Over my shoulder, I told her “Up, my High Lady. We’ve work to do.”

“Malinnnn! You can’t just kiss me like that and leave me like this!” Qala yelled angrily before slumping back into bed.

I quickly exited her room. Qala has a way with me. It’s too dangerous to let that kiss get any further today. We would never leave if we restarted.

I closed the door once outside. No one needs to hear the High Lady’s irate expletives at her High Command.

Before beginning my routine, I tighten my robe and proceed along Magnifik Hall to my bed chamber, which is at the end. The palace is empty at this hour of dawn, and the daily route I regularly take is deserted.

Today, today… I think these words over and over. Today is important. Yet, the High Lady's face is interfering with my capacity to focus on my own duties, and today is important.

To think it has been ten years already. A decade has gone in a flash.

I quickly think of the past as usual. When I look at the walls, draped in silver and navy, my earliest memories of Himmel Castle come to me.

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I passed by the grand window overlooking the front gate. All those years ago I had arrived at that gate to speak with the King of Rorvik of the Stone Kingdom. I was dressed in a dark green cloak with The Greens' insignia on my cheek. My sword was strapped to my back, and the hardship of my journey was written on my face in splattered blood and thick grime.

Before I even saw Himmel Castle, I had fought off River Gypsies prowling the east bank of Rorvik, then killed two great wolves who stalking me since I stepped ashore. I had not been prepared to see how much stone Rorvik was made of.

Through my treacherous hike, I realized why Rorvik was called the Stone Kingdom. Massive cliffs at sharp angles and talk heights made me feel like a small ant in a maze. I would come across insanely large moss-covered boulders that felt ancient in deep valleys. I think I counted only 100 trees on my way to see the King of Rorvik. I did make note of that there were a plenty of lots and patches of random grass fields. The Rorvik kin had built on anything green small sheep pins or managed to farm a few lots.

When Himmel Castle was in view, I couldn't believe how magnificent it stood atop the greenest of Rorvik's cliffs.

I had never traveled away from my home and now suddenly I was so far away. Before even approaching Himmel Castle's gate, I drank a lemon leaf tea to soothe my nerves.

I tried to remember my training.

Tell only truths.

Listen don’t talk.

Let your heart guide you.

See I was forewarned by the Greens Elders that the Rorvik people could be cruel. Rorvik people distrusted folk from The Greens. Truly any Magics and Alchemists were not welcomed in Rorvik. Rorvik kin particularly hated Black Witches and blamed them for ending the Golden Ember Days.

So, because of these warnings, I was extremely nervous. I had prayed once I knew I was but an hour away from Himmel Castle. I prayed to Our Green Goddess Aryaena to help keep my voice steady and strong, and that no harm to come my way.

When I neared the front gates, it had been two weeks. I had made it.

Eyeing up the keep walls, I eyed the men watching me from above. The guard with a gray beard bellowed, “Hail, and come forward.”

Two weeks of travel later now a guard was shouting at me. Now I had to contend with him.

“Good morning!” I made sure I was loud enough to be heard clearly. "I have been called from The Greens, from where my Elder Folk set me across the river to warn you. I must speak to your king!" I called up to the four guardsmen at the top of the gate.

“Are you of Magi of the Greens or the Mountaineers of the Low Greens?” Shouted the oldest of the four, gray in beard and hair.

“All that matters is the impending threat to our side of life. The Azam have sent fire signals claiming the Gate of Sandvágur.” I kept telling myself to keep eye contact. Kept my hand loose as well in order to unsheathe my sword if needed. If these Rorvik men did murder me then at least I would go down fighting.

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“It matters, girl.” The gray-beard guard looked at his men and they armed themselves with bows and arrows. “We Rorvik are not slaves like the Magics and Alchemists. We do not rely on the Old Magic as The Greens do. Old Magic died alongside the Golden Ember Days. Have your Elder Folk forgotten the Battle at the Gate of Sandvágur? Well, it was won but at the cost of Rorvik blood. Our sacrifice of young men and young women all to keep your peoples’ demons and dragons locked up was not worth our suffering. Or do they teach you the lie in The Greens that Rorvik brought upon destruction on our own people?”

Home in The Greens, I had been trained by the Black Witches on the importance of history and the sides they create. There was no use in arguing with the misinformed. The Greens can only focus on what is necessary. And it was not necessary to change this fixed viewpoint of a past long gone.

“Time can only bring forth truth and the truth comes at its own pace. Even if it is The Greens that are wrong,” the Elder Folk would say “…then it we were wrong. And then deal with the outcome.”

I pulled myself straight up, and leaned slightly forward. “The Greens tell me that the King of Rorvik is fair. This is all that I was taught…” I was getting desperate that day. I could still remember the jittery, fearful flutter in my chest. Very tired, too, from having traveled this length of time.

“I am Olofsson of Wulfstan, Captain of the Guard for Himmel Castle, and Second High Command for the royal family of Rorvik.” The old guard had given his titles with volume, “And I was there, girl. We don’t trust you Greens folk after our people sacrificed their lives to close that damn gate!”

I had not come to fight off the River Gypsies, and those strange wolves only to then end my journey being rejected by an angry, graying ox-of-a-man.

“The Azam are seeking to open the gate and gain the old power. I only wish to speak with King Meloc to warn him of the dangers beyond our river.” I tried not to sound as if I was pleading pathetically.

The fear that the Rorvik people would not heed my warning and The Azam would attack. The Azam was rich in raw materials and great wealth. They lay east on the ocean side of Rorvik and even further away from The Greens. They enjoy the benefit of warm days and nights which creates opportunity to plan for invading the Gate of Sandvágur. The Azam believe in a misplaced need for power in Magics and believe Sandvágur is the key.

The Azam cannot be allowed into Rorvik.

“Be gone, witch!” Captain Olofsson roared.

Just as the notion of getting on my knees was being considered, I spotted a long-haired blonde step out from behind the four guardsmen.

It was Qala. Princess Heir, and not yet High Lady, seemed floating wearing a white feathered gown and azure braided laces on the front. On her head, billowing yellow hair fell from a silver Viking headdress.

“My La –” Captain Olofsson suddenly silenced by the lift of Qala’s hand.

“So, you are from The Greens then?” Qala asked.

Tell the truth, I had told myself. “Yes,” I called back.

Qala loudly asked,” And are you a witch?”

Reminding myself, tell the truth.

I don’t want to delve into The Greens custom further but I force myself to speak. “I am an apprentice to the Black Warlock Störmberg.” I heard only silence, so I explained further. “I am not yet a Magics, alchemist or witch. I have not gained the ability of reading The Signs, yet. Nor have I been tested.”

“Störmberg,” I watched Captain Olofsson say to Qala. “That is a noble family name. Up north…” The rest I cannot hear but I do see Qala nod her head at the Captain.

“Your markings on your cheek,” Qala had shouted down to me. “What are the symbols of?”

Still desperate, and not sure who this girl was at the time, I swiftly answered in hopes she was important. “Painted four circles, my Lady, with runes centered in each one. They read for protection, safe travels, strength, and good luck.”

“You must have good luck, indeed,” the girl nodded to my last statement. She looked about my age or a little older. I couldn’t make out her face at that high of a distance. “I saw you walking a mile away from the Grand Window in our bedroom hall. If I hadn’t seen you, Captain Olofsson would have shot you at the sight of your dark green coat.”

I heaved in a bit of air, hope clinging softly through my mind. “Will I be able to speak to King Meloc?”

“You will speak to me,” Qala said. After getting Captain Olofsson’s attention, Qala disappeared. This made me nervous as I believed she really did save my life from this old, Guard Captain.

Captain Olofsson still had arrows pointed at me. After a few minutes, the Captain motioned to his fellow men to lower their weapons.

“Open the Gates!” Captain Olofsson’s voice bellowed. “Arms at ease, guardsmen. Announcing Princess Qala of Rorvik, daughter of High Sir Meloc of Himmel, King of Rorvik the Stone Kingdom.”

Upon hearing the raising of chains, I prepped myself ready to accept this woman. I needed her to understand what was at stake. The Azam are coming. The Greens see the fire signals. Our river is in trouble…

Then Princess Qala emerged before me.

The most exquisite being I had ever seen. Tall but lithe and fair, this Princess shined under the sun like white stones. At first glance she looked petite in frame, but she was strong with an ample in bosom. Her most distinguishable trait were her large, brown eyes that I made me feel strange to look at.

“Hello…” I said somewhat manageable.

“Hello…” She stated. Princess Qala's previously audible voice was now nearly silent. Her voice transformed to shy and sweet, and her approach to me felt sincere.

We were frozen in each other's gaze, standing in silence. I thought time had stopped.

“Princess…” I started to say.

I stopped, listen don’t talk. I was unable to speak because I was too busy staring at Qala's face to even remember why I was there.

I let Qala speak. “Um, yes. Qala, I am. I mean, I am Princess. Yes, of Rorvik…” Her face was as blushing red then as it is now. “You may speak to me first. My father, who is the king of course… seeing as I am a princess which would make me quite important so you would don’t feel like you’re wasting your time. Not that you are wasting your time on me because I am very important – well… most days I am important I’d like to think…” Qala voice trailed off and into two, small coughs.

I could have just gazed at her for days.

“I’m Princess Qala,” Qala finally said after more bouts of silence.

I was staring so much.

Qala coughed, “…And you are?”

I learned then that Qala coughed only when she was nervous.

“I am Apprentice Malin of The Greens…” My voice floated away, but I was able to refocus. “You are beautiful…” I told her with a smile.

Because she was and still is so expressive and honest, she was very simple to read. Not that I thought she was feeling anything for me then but since then, Qala had told me that this was the time she fell in love with me. And I look at the time between us, and completely understand that she absolutely did fall in love with me.

I smiled thinking about it all from this view, almost feeling like I could see our young selves.

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“High Command,” the recognizable Viking accent shook me from my thoughts.

I turned the corner of Cord Hall, spotting the curvaceous Lady Hulda who was heading towards High Lady Qala’s room – early as always. Lady Hulda had pulled up her gray tresses into a lovely twist, and she dressed herself in her familiar Northerner style with the silver and blue Rorvik colors. She saw me and I could feel her blue eyes piercing through me.

“Now Lady Hulda –” I began.

“I’ve not the time today, High Commander.” Lady Hulda interrupted with purpose. “She must make haste as should you.”

Lady Hulda of Brimirsholm from the Northern Lands. She had been Lady-in-Waiting to the High Lady-Consort Emilie, Qala’s mother during the Golden Ember Days. Rumors have Lady Hulda, after High Lady-Consort’s death, marked as a Rorvik private liaison under the Rorvik banner to negotiate terms with The Greens. She was also Assembly member for her Brimirsholm, before being asked back to Rorvik Castle by the High Sir Meloc. Then after serving as Governess for the Princess Qala, Lady Hulda returned to the position she had with Qala’s when Qala was crowned.

“Her Majesty is –” I began.

“Do not give her an excuse. She knows better. To be early is to be on time. To be on time is late. And I shall stab my eye before I let that rebellious girl push Rorvik to ruin!” Lady Hulda’s thick Viking accent filled the sentence with ferocity. “Oh, her mother was an easier temperament. This insufferable twat has too much of her father’s blood is what I think!”

Only could Lady Hulda could talk about the High Lady as she does. Just yesterday, seven Lords from the Alwin Islands, had made a court appearance to speak to High Lady Qala about trade. They were instead trapped within Himmel Court as witnesses to a war of words between Lady Hulda and High Lady Qala on the details of the arrangement.

To say the Lords from Alwin were shocked is an understatement. I kept myself from laughing at the youngest, nineteen-year-old Lord Godfrey of Alwin leaning in towards his brother and asking if all women in Rorvik were this scary.

“I am sorry, Lady Hulda.” I bowed to my elder in apology.

“I am glad for your presence today, and for every day you been here.” Lady Hulda huffed, “Its that child, Qala. You are both the same ages, but you are so different. Don’t think your service goes unnoticed, High Command Malin. Without you, Qala would have had such difficulty staying focused.”

I smile, “Thank you.”

Lady Hulda smiled at me as she shuffled the dress lying across her arms. I then noticed the plum hue of the dress.

While touching the material, “Will she wear the color?” I asked.

Lady Hulda’s grey tresses bounced with a shake of her head, “I was hoping you would know.”

I heaved a sigh in response. “Our woes stay far away from our bed at night though our people like to think otherwise.”

“They don’t know much,” Lady Hulda eased her words to comfort my thoughts. “They may say what they want, but most are relieved you stayed all these years. The Rorvik people know when help arrives, and you came to us at the right time with the right intentions.”

“It didn’t feel like it at the time,” I confided.

“I had the same issues being Brimirsholm kin,” Lady Hulda said. “The Rorvik kin made up so many stories, one of which stated I was married to a bear!”

“But you are not from The Greens,” I say.

Lady Hulda sighed in agreement, “Yes, you are right. I am not from The Greens. But time will heal, and truth will overcome.”

I laughed as I’m reminded of my, “I’ve heard a version of that before. Time can only bring forth truth and the truth comes at its own pace. From home in The Greens.”

Lady Hulda grinned, “what a nice way to say that.”

Looking at that plum dress, my heart is tight with anxiousness. Knowing what it represents in these lands, and I can feel it. That fear I felt all those years ago when I walked up to the Himmel Castle gates to warn Rorvik about The Azam.

Plum is the Rorvik kin call to arms. War has come to our riverbanks.

A color is worn in support of the Rorvik army before the start of any war on Rorvik land. It marks the entry into the battle for the Gate of Sandvágur War. The colors were also flown during the Attack of The Azam and countless pervious battles for Rorvik.

No one wants war.

But The Azam have made it clear: give them the Gate of Sandvágur or everyone dies.

Last night High Lady Qala was given the choice to defend, attack, or wait based on the information from their spy masters.

Lady Hulda must have felt my anxiety because she put her hand on my arm.

“My dear,” Lady Hulda sighed patting my arm. “Whether she wears plum or not, she will have constant pressure to do one or the other. Be prepared,” Lady Hulda firmly nodded in agreement, “To be her support. We are at the cusp of another war, a rematch for the ages against The Azam once again –”

Lady Hulda halted her speech and seemed startled after her eyes noticed something outside the Grand Window. “Oh my… Is that whom I think it is?”

I followed her gaze.

It was much more serious than I thought.

I know home when I see it. Over the stone castles walls, I can see dark green cloaks, gold armored soldiers, and black uniformed witches in straight line formation marching from the horizon. Flying banners have already made its way through our courtyard and overhead the gatekeep. The banners are held by White-tailed Sea Eagles that have homeland marker reading as The Greens.

Ravens surround the castle while chanting a tune I hadn't heard in a long time as they create scouting patterns behind the banner. The moment the music changes, I am aware that I have already been seen through the window. The tune of the songs that were written by my mother, their mothers, and their mothers. My chest constricts.

I instead refocus on bustle of the castle guards running across the keep.

“Positions, men! To your positions, lads!” One of the guards were shouting out loud.

One of the lower ranked guards throws a few arrows to men as they pass him, “Check your kit! Check your kit!” He tells them.

It is customary for The Greens to send a mediator ahead of their army. The mediator I recognize from childhood. The Greens protection sigil is painted on the mediator Stasia of Alp Waeor - four circles with the four runes centered in each circle, just as I did all those years ago.

All the Himmel Castle guards are lined up across the gatekeep as an older Captain Olofsson ascend the steps. Captain Olofsson stops center of the keep and turns in a circle toward the grand window with a quiet anger he meant for me to see.

I mentally curse. I knew what I would hear it.

“That wasp…” Lady Hulda scoffed.

I knew sh

“Thank you,” I tell Lady Hulda, and she nods back.

“Men! At arms!” Captain Olofsson circled forward and addressed the guardsmen before he bellowed below, “Hail, and come forward!”

“I am the Black Witch Stasia of Alp Waeor, mediator for The Greens! I need an audience with High Lady Qala of Rorvik. And I am not asking!”

Captain Olofsson turns back to me through the Grand Window, gesturing for me to come out. I acknowledge him and turn to walk to my room to get dressed. I am not looking forward to this.

I glance back at the banners. Even though they were kin, I am still nervous.

“The Elder Folk of The Greens have spoken,” Lady Hulda looked up at me.

“Yes, they have,” I walk away, and I add “and it will most likely be plum today, Lady Hulda.”

“Oh, Goddess…” She sighs, and I can hear her running quickly. “That fool girl had better be up.”

I notice the gates opening as I pass another window, and Stasia is coming through the entryway.

War was at our door now, and I hoped Qala was prepared.

I start to pray, Our Green Goddess Aryaena, please help us…