Chapter One #4
Sylas bowed at the waist. “Your Excellency, welcome back to the Aether demesne that is eternally loyal to the longevity of your reign.” After her father spoke the customary words, he added, “You honor me with your presence and with this union with my daughter.” Sylas finished by touching three fingers to his brow and then his heart to signal his eternal fealty to the exalted king.
Rishaud dipped his head, acknowledging the gesture.
Then he kissed Sylas’s brow, indicating for the courtiers looking on that Sylas held the liege lord’s favor.
“You honor me and the Celestials above with giving over your daughter’s hand to a union that is the will of the gods.
” Rishaud spoke loudly so his voice carried for all inside the throne room to hear.
When he grabbed Kadeesha’s hand, her palm violently burned where their flesh was joined as if she’d just gripped a wasp nest, knowing she couldn’t dare struggle or let go.
Rishaud turned to the gathered nobles and reminded them of a fact that Kadeesha ceaselessly worked to forget.
“Twenty and five years ago, the high clerics of the Six Kingdoms came together to bless the Aetherfolk’s new archprincess.
During that ceremony, the great Celestials saw fit to impart a prophecy to their holy servants.
Kadeesha Mercier was foretold to become high queen of a united Nimani and her future firstborn was foretold to be a strong son of dual royal blood who inherits an unfractured Nimani!
With our wedding tomorrow, the will of the Celestials will start to be fulfilled and the Six Kingdoms will declare formal war on the Apollyon Court.
With Kadeesha as my bride—and us vigorously working to sire a child”—Kadeesha almost became sick at that proclamation—“we will have the strength and favor of the Celestials behind us in our campaign to finally reclaim the territory from those faefolk who have refused to bow before me! It has been five centuries since the Celestials first anointed me as high king by allowing me to ascend as liege lord over all southern fae, but it will not be five more before the prophecy is fulfilled!”
The burning sensation in Kadeesha’s hand had turned into a blaze.
But this time it was born of her own temper, of her aether magic begging to be let loose on this zealot who sought to use her and sire a child upon her—whether she desired one or not—to seize greater autocratic power.
As devoted cheers erupted around the room, Kadeesha’s stomach soured.
Sylas motioned to the empty throne on Kadeesha’s right. “Please, Your Excellency, have a seat,” he told the male he was selling her off to.
And that’s exactly what this was: a sale.
Kadeesha had to sit demurely by as Rishaud and Sylas ironed out the final and binding terms of the marriage contract, the two men’s courtiers bearing witness.
The basic pillars of the contract were previously negotiated points lifted from her betrothal agreement.
However, with the wedding finally upon them, Sylas had accrued a bit more power to bargain for additional advantageous terms, and Rishaud clearly expected the Aether king to exercise it.
It was a dance among sovereigns who sold their daughters away that was as old as time.
In the end, Sylas came away with more favorable trade terms for the Aether Kingdom, placing its status above what the other vassal dominions had in place with the Hyperion Kingdom.
Sylas was also afforded a reduction in the tribute that he paid yearly, and he was promised that a sizable number of the Hyperion king’s army would be devoted to guarding Aether lands when war erupted between the Six Kingdoms and the Apollyon Court, or should civil war ever rend the Six Kingdoms apart.
Rishaud further agreed to quadruple Kadeesha’s dowry in compensation for beholding what a lovely specimen she had turned into as an adult.
An adult they talked about as if she were cattle.
An urge hit Kadeesha to gut both males. To eviscerate them like the pigs they were right there on the thrones they perched upon.
She relished the idea of attempting it—with the element of surprise on her side she might take out one of them at least—but even as she debated which of these so-called kings was most deserving, she knew she had little choice but to let her father barter her away like a pedigreed mare. Although …
If you may be walking to your eventual death with this marriage anyway, what does it matter if you speed it up? a wretched voice asked.
If Kadeesha had only herself to think about, she might consider listening to it.
Maybe she’d successfully take out the self-styled high king who sought to own her, leave one less asshole darkening the continent of Nimani—or she’d at least die on her own terms while attempting the feat.
But if she failed, which she likely would, considering the staggering power Rishaud wielded, then she would not be the only one to bear the consequences.
Rishaud and her own father were monarchs of the Six Kingdoms, after all.
Petty and vicious were standard traits for the lot.
It meant if she crossed either, her treasured Nkita—including Leisha and Samira, who her father knew meant the world to her—would likely be made to pay for Kadeesha’s crimes simply to spite her.
Worst, if she tried to kill Rishaud and failed, there was no way he’d let it go unanswered.
There’d be no excuse Rishaud could allow Sylas to make and still save face with his own court and the other vassal kings when the news reached them.
Even if Rishaud wasn’t a male who’d slaughter Sylas’s entire court in retribution merely to prove a point, the other monarchs would demand it regardless in order for Rishaud to keep his fearsome reputation intact and not seem weak—it was just the way of the fae.
She couldn’t be the cause of something heinous befalling her people due to self-serving actions.
So, Kadeesha sat on her throne, demure, quiet, and unobtrusive as Rishaud and Sylas reached over her to seal the finalized terms of her marriage contract with a handshake.