Chapter 4
Chapter Four
Iwas stunned stupid for moments, before I managed to get a grip on myself. “I thought my coming here, and my marriage to your son, was the repayment for any such debt.”
“You yourself wouldn’t be worth one coin of what is owed,” King Wilhelm sneered, rubbing his hands together, light glinting off his rings. “What you are capable of, though, now that will be sure to reimburse us.”
“What I’m capable of?” I repeated dazedly.
He scowled at me. “Don’t play dumb, child. I’ve heard the stories about the women in your bloodline, the magic you carry.”
I gaped at him. This was the first time I had ever heard of anyone in the Avongartan royal family possessing any magic of their own.
Perhaps there were some ancestors going back to when the Northland Kingdoms were one empire, but that was centuries ago.
He couldn’t possibly believe that I—that Gertrude had magic.
He confirmed that belief when he added, “Going all the way back to Queen Charlotte, you possess the power to turn things into gold. And you will prove that power to me today.”
My jaw dropped, and every thought in my head stalled. I sought out Heinrich’s eyes, hoping for any further explanation. The prince merely looked down at his feet, as if the shine of his boots was far more important than the conversation I had been roped into.
“Surely, if we had such powers then we wouldn’t have relied on your support during the war,” I said, hoping injecting some logic into the topic would calm him down.
The king harrumphed. “You relied on our support in terms of boots on the ground, and money to pay your own men, thinking you could preserve your own wealth, and trade yourself—to your sole benefit, I may add—in exchange for nearly bankrupting us with your stupid war.”
“That makes no sense!” I objected.
“It makes all the sense, with how conniving your father has always been. After all, why spend yours when you can spend ours?”
I shook my head weakly. “But I can’t do what you want me to.”
“You mean you won’t,” he said furiously. “Thinking that you are enough to settle your debts to us is nothing but pure arrogance, an unforgivable insult. Now you will do what I request, or else.”
I didn’t want to ask what else. I couldn’t. Instead, I heard my voice trembling on another question. “Do you have any proof of my family ever having such power?”
Wilhelm laughed bitterly, pulling a chain off from around his neck and dangling it in front of me.
It bore a palm-sized medallion bearing the face of the sun god with his hair in spiky rays of sunlight.
“This was made by the last Avongartan to marry into my bloodline. Princess Irmintrude made all her jewelry gold, as well as many coins in our treasury.”
There was no telling how old that medallion was, or how long ago that belief began. Said princess could have easily been a sorceress, or had the help of a sorcerer…
Roderick! I needed him to undo this impersonation spell and spare me from this madness. But how?
The king interrupted my spiral, tucking the medallion back into his shirt. “If you refuse to perform in public, then we will give you some privacy. But that is all I’m affording you until you prove your worth to me.”
Before I could blurt anything else out, guards flanked me, two gripping my arms and frogmarching me out of the throne room, with Wilhelm right behind us.
Sharp whispers followed us out into the hall and up carpeted steps to a room at the far end of the floor.
Inside was outdated but luxurious furniture and cloth bags in a pile before a spinning wheel of all things.
A dining table was laid with food, but mostly covered with an assortment of metal objects such as goblets, daggers and a scale.
Once they’d pushed me in, I turned around, desperate to bolt but knowing I had nowhere to go. I was trapped.
Wilhelm stood in the doorway, eyes narrowed at me. “You have until tomorrow morning to turn the contents of these bags to gold.”
“And if I can’t?” I whispered, my voice wobbling.
“Then I’ll take it as an insult and declare war on your kingdom,” he spat. “I will march into your father’s castle, and take what I want straight from your vaults. Oh, and you will never again see the light of day.”
There was nothing for me to respond with as he shut and locked the door.
As soon as the sound of their voices and footsteps faded down the hall, I collapsed onto the nearest chair, put my head in my hands and let the situation sink in.
Once it did, and with stress seizing my chest in a vise, I burst into tears.
This wasn’t supposed to be how this went.
I was supposed to have a grand welcome and be waited on, to be pampered and readied for the wedding of the decade, if not the century.
I was meant to live the rest of my life at peace, with my every need taken care of, and with children who would grow up far better than I ever could have imagined.
Now, I was stuck in this room and I had until dawn to turn its contents into enough gold to cause inflation.
“Don’t go ruining your royal makeup and attire,” said a familiar voice lazily. “I’m sure there must be a way out of this mess.”
Mid-sniffle, I bolted upright to face Roderick, sitting on the chair across from mine in a casual, improper slouch with one leg crossed over the other, playing with a single gold coin that rolled back and forth between his fingers.
Without the hood and the darkness of night to shield him from my eager eyes, I could now fully see what he looked like.
His shock of white-blond hair was close-cropped at the sides and swept back on top.
It crowned a long, sharp face with a strong jaw and cheekbones, and centered by an aristocratic nose, and a wide, cruel mouth that easily gave way into devastatingly devious grins.
His thick, dark brows shadowed eyes that were a silver-blue so bright they seemed to glow.
But those weren’t the strangest part of him, that honor went to his pointed ears.
“You’re a faerie!” I wheezed in startled realization.
“And you’re here.”
“Of course I am. I had to see how my little experiment was faring,” he said casually.
I blinked. “Experiment?”
“Mhm. I wasn’t expecting him to spring this on you immediately.” He sighed, as if this was a mere inconvenience and not my fate, and the fate of kingdoms, at stake. “But the king always had the impatience of a toddler.”
“You…you knew this was going to happen,” I said slowly, realization sinking in. “And you didn’t warn me.”
He sat up, smirking. “If I had, you wouldn’t have taken my offer, now would you?”
“You tricked me,” I said in a small voice. “Why? What did I do to deserve this?”
“Nothing.”
“Liar!” I jumped up to my feet and kicked one bag. I heard coins’ metallic clinks. “This is because I dared dream of what I didn’t deserve, isn’t it? Are you punishing me for not being a good servant, or are you protecting her from this fate?”
He sat up properly, hands on the gilded armrests. “I’m doing neither. This isn’t about either of you.”
“Then what is this about?” I asked, more tears pouring out my inflamed eyes. “Why am I here?”
He shrugged. “You’re here so you can owe me a great favor.”
“And what’s that?”
The sly smile returned to his lips. “Nothing that concerns you at the moment.”
I crossed my arms over my still heaving chest. “I beg to differ, considering this might mean war, or my head on the chopping block.”
“When you marry the prince, you’ll have power, perhaps even the ear of the king, and I need him to change some laws regarding people that look like me.
So, when I came to see what kind of person your mistress was, I found her to be most disagreeable.
Then I saw you.” He flipped the coin up into the air before catching it as he stood.
“It was then I figured I’d kill two birds with one stone, and strike a deal that benefits us both.
I marry you to the prince, and you help make an amendment to this land’s laws. ”
So, I was his best path to achieving his goals. But neither of our wishes were coming true if I didn’t do the impossible, and indulge King Wilhelm’s delusions.
“How am I supposed to do any of that?”
He waved me off, coin held between his thumb and index finger. “All you have to do is give that greedy lout what he wants, and we’d both be closer to what we want.”
I took a stomping step closer to him. “Unless you’re an alchemist that cracked the secret to turning anything into gold, I doubt we’re getting anything.”
Dismissive, he blew his lips like a horse, mirroring my movement, bringing us even closer, like we were on the ship’s balcony yesterday. “Don’t be so negative, of course I have a way around this.”
“How are you going to do what alchemists couldn’t for centuries?”
“First of all, I have magic, and most of them didn’t,” he said with a self-assured smile, wagging his eyebrows at me.
“Second, there are rules to transmutation and the reason they hit walls in their experiments was because they wanted to turn lead into gold, not iron or even silver, which is what you’ll be expected to do. ”
“If it’s so easy why don’t you do it yourself?” I snapped.
“Gladly.” Roderick bowed with a sarcastic flourish and bent to hoist one of the heavy money bags onto the table with a heavy, rattling thud.
He pulled its string loose, revealing a mouthwatering amount of silver coins.
He lifted his gaze to me and fixed me with a glance that made me shiver.
“Since this will be quite exhausting, turning not one but six bags-worth of coins into gold, I’m going to need a little payment upfront this time. ”
I turned up my hands. “Well, you know I have nothing, so what will it be? A handful of the coins you gild?”
He shook his head, his deep voice revving in his chest as he chuckled softly. “No, I don’t need money.”
I moved even closer, face turned up to gaze right into the hypnotic, bright, silvery eyes. “Then what do you need?”
His eyes flit from my own to my mouth, and one side of his mouth curled up in a half-grin. “For now, I’d like a kiss.”
Taken aback, I blinked at him a few times. “Are you joking?”
“Not in the slightest.”
It was an odd sort of payment, something out of a folktale, where people paid with locks of hair or even memories to the magical beings they encountered. It fit the theme, I supposed, considering I was dealing with a faerie sorcerer.
A kiss…that was a simple request. I could do that.
I shuffled closer to him, closed my eyes, pursed my lips and waited.
Roderick didn’t kiss me, instead he laughed.
Confused, and more than a little offended, I opened my eyes. “What’s so funny?”
“You look like you’re bracing yourself for something dire.” he laughed, hand on his chest. “Have you never been kissed before?”
“Of course, I haven’t,” I said, cheeks now flushed not because of crying but from embarrassment. “I’m a maid, remember?”
“What does that have to do with it? I’m sure there were plenty of kitchen boys and guards that found you worth a peck, let alone a rose plucked from the castle gardens.”
I shook my head, offense and self-pity deepening. “None that I’m aware of.”
“Then let me have the honor of being your first kiss,” he murmured, mesmerizing gaze settling on my lips, and his large, warm hand on my waist. “I promise I don’t bite.”
It was difficult, considering how tense I normally was and how stiff this entire situation had made me. I untangled my arms from my chest and breathed out the tension as his other hand came to my face.
“Are you ready?” He asked.
I nodded.
Roderick then swooped in and pressed his lips against mine. They were warm and smooth as they sweetly, softly moved against my own. They made no demand but that of proximity, lulled me into a sense of peace I had never felt.
They silenced the constant buzz in my head for all of thirty seconds until he pulled away. I almost followed him, wanting to continue what we started.
His thumb stroked my cheek with the softest touch, only his eyes smiling now. “That wasn’t so bad now, was it?”
Dazed and disoriented, I’d nearly forgotten what we were here for. But I couldn’t tell him how it had felt. I had no words for it myself.
I shook my head and mumbled, “No, I suppose not.”
“Good.” He smiled again, if only with his lips this time. His eyes had an unreadable expression, before he seemed to shake himself out of it, rubbing his hands together. “Now let’s get these out of the way.”
He turned and raised his arms. Lightning-blue lights sparked in his hands, creating a glowing circle that encompassed the bag of coins, turning them from silver-grey to the warm yellow of gold right before my stunned eyes.
Inhaling in wonder, I couldn’t help touching the coins, watching how they shone, polished and beautiful and worth so, so much.
Looking strained, Roderick moved on to the other sacks in the room, doing the same to them one after the other. By the time he was done, even though I was still angry at him for tricking me into this mess in the first place, I could have kissed him again.
“Now what?” I asked.
Breathing heavily, he plunged a hand into the last sack of coins, pulled out a handful, then let them fall one by one back down to join the others. “Now, you rest easy, because the hard part is over.”
“What do I do if you’re not right?”
“Then I’ll be back for more than a kiss next time,” he promised, the glow in his eyes sinister.