Chapter 3
ELAINA
“Oh, my Lady! Are you excited for your wedding day tomorrow? Oh, just think how grand everything will be! The decorations and the flowers…the food and the music! Oh, I’ve always wanted to see a Royal Wedding!”
Tanzy, my maid, flitters around the room as she draws my bath, chirping like an excited cricket. She’s a tiny, thin, quick girl a few years younger than me and I like her immensely.
She’s real and genuine in a way the Nobles aren’t. True, she wears her feelings on her sleeve and blurts out everything she thinks, but she does it in such an adorable way, I can’t be mad or irritated.
“Yes, well…I suppose it’s exciting,” I say, as I hand her my robe and lower myself into the steaming tub. The water is scented with rose petals—a nice touch. I love the subtle scent it leaves on my skin.
“You suppose it’s exciting?” Tanzy’s eyes go wide. “Why, my Lady—tomorrow you’ll be a princess. A real-live princess! And then one day, since you’re marrying the Crown Prince, you’ll be the Queen.”
“Yes, well…I doubt that will be any time soon,” I say dryly. Though King Harrow has white hair, his wife is much younger. I can’t see Queen Virelda giving up her place to a “Northern peasant” as I heard her calling me to one of her ladies-in-waiting, anytime soon.
“Tanzy,” I say, as I relax in the bath. “Tell me about my brother-in-law to be. Tell me about Xaren. What happened to him? Why does he hide the left side of his face?”
“Oh, you don’t know?” Her eyes go wide again. “Why, the Dark Prince was kidnapped and tortured when he was just a lad! They say his face is scarred so terribly it would make you sick to look at it—that’s why he hides it, don’t you know.”
“Kidnapped and tortured?” It’s my turn to have wide eyes. “How awful! How could such a thing happen to a prince?”
“I don’t know.” Tanzy shrugs. “I was just a baby when it happened but I grew up hearing people whisper about it. They say he’s been hard as a stone ever since and his Drake is barely kept in check.
” Her voice drops to a whisper. “It’s a Black Drake, you know—the worst kind.
Some say they’re cursed. But others just say they can’t be controlled. ”
“I…didn’t know there were different kinds of Drakes,” I say slowly.
“Oh, yes, my Lady! Why the old King has a Gray Drake—they’re supposed to be extra wise, you know.”
“What about Prince Dorian, my husband-to-be?” I ask. “What kind of Drake does he have?”
“Oh, well…his is a Blue Drake. Light blue, you know. And it’s not very big, unfortunately.”
“It’s not?” I frown. “How big is it, then?”
“Oh, well…” Tanzy sucks her teeth for a moment, lost in thought. “I saw it during the last military parade—that’s when the Royals all Shift so we can see their Drakes, you know,” she adds. “And I’d say it was about the size of a small cottage.”
Goddess of Mercy, a being as big as a cottage seems large enough to me! I wonder how big the King’s Drake is. And for that matter, how large is Xaren’s?
Tanzy misinterprets my expression.
“I know that’s not very big, but that’s just the way of it with Royals—some males change into really big Drakes…
and some don’t.” She shrugs her thin shoulders.
“I’m sure when you bear Prince Dorian heirs, your sons will shift into truly magnificent Drakes,” she adds, smiling brightly, as though to take my mind off my fiancé’s smaller than average Drake.
“Thank you, Tanzy—that’s kind of you,” I say.
“You’re welcome, my Lady. Now shift up a bit so I can scrub your back.
” She draws a three-legged wooden stool up to the head of the deep, curving tub and then dunks a sponge in the water.
“So are you interested in the Dark Prince because he took your part against the Queen tonight?” she asks conversationally.
I jerk and splash water over the edge of the tub.
“Tanzy! How do you know about that?” I exclaim.
“Sorry, my Lady, but everyone in Court knew about it five minutes after it happened.” She shrugs. “That’s just how it is here—gossip travels fast.”
“I guess it does,” I mutter. It’s not nice to know that the entire Citadel is probably talking about the altercation at dinner, but there’s nothing I can do about it now. I sigh. “I guess I’m just surprised that he would take my side, that’s all,” I tell her.
“Oh, that doesn’t surprise me one bit!” Tanzy chirps, scrubbing industriously at my back with the sponge.
“It doesn’t?” I turn my head to look at her. “Why not?”
“Oh, why because it’s not the first time he’s taken up for a girl who was being harmed in some way,” she remarks. “There was that incident at the stables about a year ago…”
“What incident?” I’m turned almost all the way around now, eager to hear.
Tanzy tuts in mild annoyance.
“Now how can I wash your back when you’re giving me your front? Turn around so I can keep scrubbing and I’ll tell you, my Lady,” she says.
“All right.” I turn back around but I’m dying to know. Luckily, Tanzy likes to talk.
“So around about a year ago, one of the milkmaids from the Royal Dairy went to the stables for some reason. I don’t know why—I think maybe the Dairy Master wanted her to bring a wheel of cheese to the Stable Master.
Whatever the reason, some of the stable boys took after her.
They decided they wanted to have her, I suppose—round the side of the stable. ”
“Have her?” Her words sink in and I feel my stomach roll. “Oh…that’s awful.”
“So it is, my Lady,” she says matter-of-factly.
“The Stable Master doesn’t care what his boys do, so the stables aren’t a safe place for a girl alone.
You’d be fine of course,” she adds comfortingly.
“They wouldn’t dare bother a Royal. But the common girls of the Citadel—the servants and servers and the like—we know well enough to avoid that place.
Only the milkmaid couldn’t, since her Master sent her. ”
“What happened to her?” I ask, still feeling sick. “Did they…get to her?”
“Oh, they tried right enough, but Prince Xaren heard her screaming. He’d been riding that big, black stallion of his, you know. He named him ‘Death’ and nobody but him can handle the big brute.”
“Yes, but go on with the story—what happened?” I demand. I find I’m on the edge of my seat—well, not literally, since I’m in the bath—but you get the idea.
“Well, as I said, the Dark Prince heard her screaming and he came round the side of the stables and saw what the stables boys were doing. Or trying to do, as it were,” she says.
“So from what I heard, he hauled them off of her and beat them all bloody! Said he wouldn’t tolerate rape in his kingdom.
Can you imagine? None of the other Nobles or Royals cares about such things—especially not when it’s just a lowly servant girl. ”
Actually, I can imagine. In my mind’s eye, it’s a vivid image—the huge figure of the Dark Prince grabbing the dirty stable boys and yanking them off the poor girl, helpless and screaming. I can almost see his fist plowing into their faces as his left eye burns with dragon fire and rage…
I have no idea why this has captured my imagination so, but I confess that it has. I finish my bath and—at Tanzy’s urging—go to bed early. Because, as she chirps, “Tomorrow is a big day for you, my Lady! You must be well rested for the ceremony. And then afterwards…your wedding night.”
I try very hard not to think about her words as I snuggle down in bed. Instead, I picture Xaren beating up the stable boys again and wonder why he did it. As Tanzy said, none of the other Nobles or Royals would care enough to stop a rape in progress.
That’s true in my home too. A girl has to be careful where she goes and who she’s with.
If she’s raped, she gets the blame. People will say she was “loose” or “asking for it.” That’s one reason my dalliance with our own stable boy was so foolish.
I could have gotten myself pregnant if he’d pressed the issue harder and I hadn’t managed to get away from him in time.
Then where would I be? Out on the streets instead of sleeping in the Royal Citadel, about to marry the Crown Prince—that’s where.
I push the images and ideas out of my head. I don’t want to think about tomorrow… about getting married and what follows after. I just want to rest so I can get through the wedding ceremony.
I’ll worry about the wedding night afterwards.