Chapter 37
“Does Lysande have a new suit?” Meera leaned forward, trying to get a better look from where we were sitting. “Mhm,” I murmured, still lying on my back with my hands behind my head. She glanced toward me, then gestured with her hands for an explanation.
“His old suit was worn and too small, so I ordered him a new one.” I tried to sound as casual as possible, but apparently I hadn't convinced Meera. She lowered the book she had been reading and turned toward me.
“You ordered it?” she asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Come on, sister. I know you want to ask me something else, so just ask.” I rolled my eyes, and she chuckled.
“Sanaedeo was right. You really have become perceptive.”
“And you two talk about me a lot?”
“Actually, yes. He asks about you all the time.” A smile pulled at my lips at her words.
“And what did you want to ask me?”
“So... did he forgive you for what you did? For hurting him?”
My smile faded at her words, and I pushed myself into a sitting position. My eyes immediately found him, following every movement he made, every swing of his sword and every cocky tilt of his head.
“He did,” I answered. “I listened to you and found a true companion in him.”
I turned toward her, and her blue eyes, the same shade as our mother's, were already watching me.
“Good,” she said, turning as well to watch our knights.
“And how did you manage to make yours wear your colors every day?” I asked with genuine curiosity.
I pulled my knees to my chest and wrapped my arms around them, waiting for her answer.
She chuckled. “And who told you I had to make him?”
“Well, right now he's wearing a pink cape with purple lilacs.”
“And it looks perfect on him.” She smoothed down her dress, which was, of course, pink with a lilac pattern, and stretched her legs out in front of her.
Then her expression suddenly became serious.
“You know what it's like for him...” she began quietly, so quietly that even the birds around us wouldn't hear. “He thinks he looks less frightening when he wears those colors. He can't change his face, but at least he can change something about himself.”
Her words left a sour feeling in my stomach.
“I mean, yes, I was the one who suggested it, and yes, I wanted him to wear my colors, but he accepted it.”
She looked down at her legs, and it was as though she were saying the next words aloud for the first time.
“He couldn't believe that I actually wanted it, you know... to make sure everyone knows he was my knight.”
She looked at me, and finally I could see the truth in her eyes.
All the sadness she carried with her. It was his sadness too.
“Then he's truly lucky to have you. And you're lucky to have him.”
She smiled through her tears, wiping her eyes with the sleeve of her dress.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Corian notice that she had begun to cry, even from this distance and even while he was fighting Lys.
He raised a hand in front of himself to stop Lys, then looked toward the two of us.
His pink cape fluttered in the wind as he watched Meera with a cold expression that I was only now beginning to understand was actually one of concern.
Meera was still looking down at her legs and hadn't noticed that they had stopped, so I just nodded and smiled to let him know everything was alright. He waited another moment, looked at me again, and when he realized nothing serious had happened, he nodded back.
He said something to Lys, who lifted his chin back at him and gave him a pat on the shoulder.
“Why did they stop?” Meera finally asked, only now lifting her head. “Ah, just water,” she answered herself when she saw Corian drinking. He watched her while his lips were against the canteen. She waved at him, and only then did he visibly relax.
He picked up his sword again and turned toward Lys.
“You know what I don't understand, sister?” I asked as soon as they began fighting again.
“Hm?” She turned toward me as though she'd been lost in thought.
“I said, you know what I don't understand?”
“What?”
“For us high-standing ladies, we're forbidden from having... adventures with men, the kind that are allowed for lords and other men. It's very dangerous for us to even be alone in a room with another man, and yet with them, we're allowed to do almost everything alone.”
I nodded toward our men, who were now wrestling on the ground, both of them having lost their swords.
“They're our blood. They're considered part of us, and because of that, it's allowed,” she explained.
“Yes, but it's so stupid. You said it yourself. They have feelings too. The same feelings as every other man.”
She looked at me.
“Did something happen, Isolde?” she asked, sounding more concerned than judgmental.
“No,” I said immediately. “Really, nothing happened. But I don't understand. I go riding with him, and we go to the gardens, usually alone and without anyone else, and no one questions anything. But if it were any other man, there would be consequences, and terrible ones.”
She adjusted her hair, then scratched lightly at her neck.
“Then, sister, don't question that freedom. If you enjoy it, use it.”
I looked at her from the corner of my eye. It was strange advice, and somehow it felt as though it wasn't meant only for me.
“Do you know how they came to be?” she suddenly asked.
“Who?”
“The Blood Knights.”
I tried to search my mind for an answer, but considering I'd slept through most of my history lessons, I didn't find much.
“Tell me,” I said, turning my whole body toward her, now genuinely interested.
“King Luy III, about three hundred years ago or so, had one son and eight daughters whom he adored. At the time, there were problems with unrest and criminals, and one of his daughters was killed even though she had guards with her.
They ran away because they didn't want to risk their own lives for hers.”
I snorted at that, and she shook her head.
“Anyway, after that, instead of locking his daughters away in the castle or doing something like that, he decided to take a different approach. He let them go into the gardens, the stables, the taverns, and the courts.”
My brows drew together.
“Why?” I asked, confused.
“He told each of them to befriend one man. Not seduce him, just befriend him. After a few weeks, they came before him with stable hands, court jesters, and poets, but he sent them back and told them they needed to get to know them better.”
She paused for a moment before continuing.
“After a month, when he saw that all those men had begun to care for the princesses in some way, whether they had fallen in love with them or were truly only friends didn't matter.
Then he brought all seven men before him and told them they could become the princesses' personal guards, and that once the danger had passed, he would give them whatever they wanted.”
“They slept in the same rooms. Of course, there were a few maids there as well, but that wasn't important. They became the first Blood Knights.”
My jaw dropped. “You're joking?” She shook her head with a chuckle.
“No. That's really how they came to be. The king believed that if even just one man loved a princess enough, he would defend her with his life better than if he were promised all the wealth in the world. And that's exactly what happened.”
She blew a strand of hair from her eyes and continued.
“There were attacks against them, even by traitorous servants and assassins who managed to sneak through the windows, but not a single one of the princesses was killed.
Afterwards, when the danger had passed, they were asked what reward they wanted.
Five of them asked for the princesses' hands.
Two stable hands, two poets, and one court jester.
They were all made lords, and the princesses were given to them in marriage.”
I stared at Corian as he defeated Lys this time, still in complete disbelief as I listened to her story.
Then, like a bolt of lightning, something else occurred to me. “So it was allowed back then?” I asked. She looked at me in confusion, awaiting explanation.
“I mean... for a knight to marry a princess.” She watched me for a moment before tilting her head with something that almost looked like pity.
“No. Not normally. It was only allowed in that particular situation, because of the circumstances.” She began scratching at a hangnail with her fingernail.
“Back then, they were real and necessary. Now they're just another ceremony, sister.”
She shrugged, then said something that made me suspicious all over again.
“Now they can only be friends.”
Whatever she actually meant by that, whether it was what I suspected or something else entirely, made her awkwardly open her book and bury her nose in it, saying nothing more.
Her fingers tapped against the hard cover while the swords clashed in front of us.
I looked at the two of them as they now made their way toward us, exhausted from their training.
They were destined to be nothing more than our shadows and our friends.