Chapter 6 Calytrix
SIX
CALYTRIX
Over the last few days, I had been plucked and painted and primped like a goose on her way to slaughter.
By the end of the beauty treatments, I didn’t recognize myself in the mirror.
My long black locks were curled, and my face was coated in bronze and shimmer.
Kohl lined my eyes, and gold paint covered my eyelids.
Even my lips were stained a deep red, but none of that was the worst of it.
The worst were my golden nails. They were almost weapons in their own right.
Elongated, using some mixture of powdered dragon scale and ground Pegasus hoof, which was artfully sculpted to create these artificial dragon-like talons that were the current fashion among the females of the upper classes.
But they were my worst nightmare. I was rendered virtually incapable of doing any of what I love with my hands like this.
I couldn’t feed my horse or put his saddle on.
I couldn’t clean his hooves, or any of the other care I spent my days doing to pass the time in this gilded cage I lived within.
And even if I left all those tasks to servants and only wanted to take pleasure in riding my best friend, I couldn’t even do that with these damned things.
The nails felt more like shackles than the guards posted outside my doors.
I was sure it was by design. Father probably ordered them done to keep me compliant, so that I had to face the future my ancestors had mapped out for me.
And they couldn’t even be removed without a special solution, which neutralized the magic between the ingredients!
I was hobbled like a mare ready for breeding.
I turned away from the mirror as a call alerted from the watchtowers and quickly caught on throughout the battlements and then inside the castle. I knew what it was about before I could make out the words. The ship bearing the envoy had been spotted off the coast.
They’d be here before sunrise.
I didn’t sleep a wink as the ship grew on the horizon.
After nearly fist-fighting one of the castle guards, I was allowed out on my balcony to watch the ship come in.
Just before dawn in the still hours, my eyes were getting heavy as the ship anchored offshore.
She was a massive vessel but not decked out in full royal regalia.
Which wasn’t how I expected the future King to arrive.
I had expected fanfare and flags flying.
I also expected excess since the King was known for his excess, and his heir, by all accounts, took that proclivity to new levels.
But this just looked like a merchant ship.
Perhaps they had misidentified it, and I still had some time?
Unless the King had ordered the party to travel in secret.
Surely not? The entire Light Castle had been preparing for this visit for weeks.
There were banquets prepared, and Father had gone all out on posturing to ensure the princes knew what prizes they were getting in their brides.
He had spent wealth he barely had to create the right impression, and the princes would just show up here in a merchant vessel?
What if it was a reflection of the crown’s current financial status?
If they couldn’t afford to even pretend to have wealth, what did our future look like?
I was not particularly interested in the trappings of wealth, but I needed to know my sister would be taken care of.
She was the softer of the two of us, and she was sacrificing enough.
I couldn’t let her sacrifice her comfort, too.
Invisible hands closed around my heart and squeezed.
The cage we had to walk into kept getting tighter and tighter.
I was being suffocated in plain sight. I had a gut feeling all of this was a trap, and it got worse with every detail.
I knew my father wouldn’t believe me if I pleaded with him to stop this bargain.
He’d call it paranoia. He really believed he knew what he was selling Nova and I to, and his ability to pretend the Twelve Kingdom’s peace would continue if he did this was beyond me. I wished I could be so delusional.
As if marriage to a debauchee prince could do anything to secure peace between kingdoms who had clashed for millennia.
The only thing that had ever unified us was the external threat of the Vivi Mortui from centuries ago, and since that war was won, the unity had been in name only.
Light had long shunned the over-governance of the First Kingdom, and tensions brewed constantly in defiance of the crown.
Yet my sister and I were supposed to give ourselves willingly, all primped and preened, to the disreputable progeny of a King we’ve never respected.
It was all such an absurd concept, but I was a mere female, incapable of understanding the whims of the males in charge.
Finally, I pried myself from the stone of the balcony, my limbs tingly and numb. I was sure I looked a wreck, but there’d be an army of handmaidens to re-polish me before they came ashore.
Sure enough, a team arrived before breakfast, and Nova was in my room before they’d half tamed my hair.
“They’re here! Can you believe it?” Her words were tentative. She was trying to guard my feelings, and I loved her for it.
“It’s okay to be excited.” I looked at her in the mirror, feeling guilty that she was tamping down her feelings for my benefit.
She blushed. “I’m not excited so much as tired of waiting, sister mine. Limbo is excruciating.”
“It is.” I looked her over as a handmaiden nearly ripped my hair from the roots while brushing it.
She looked the picture of perfection. Everything our father wished I was.
She was sweet and beautiful. A real princess.
I’d bet she could even function satisfactorily, bound into these artificial claws.
While I’d always been rough around the edges.
I often thought she should have been born first. She would make a better queen.
But I’d never put that on her. She was too good to be ruined by that.
We picked at the breakfast that was delivered to my quarters, while I listened to the palace thrown into a whirl of last-minute preparations.
I barely touched the food, which was unlike me.
I liked to fuel up in the morning for a day of riding and physical work with the horses.
But it was not easy to eat in a gown that barely allowed breathing and only parting my lips enough that I didn’t crack the paint on my face.
Even using cutlery was a challenge with the nails.
I couldn’t keep this up. I’d starve. And I needed my energy for—
Then it hit me again, as it had in waves over the past few weeks, that version of me was to be no more.
I was not allowed to bring my horse with me, despite numerous attempts to appeal to Father.
Upper-class females of the First Kingdom, and especially princesses, did not defile themselves with such manual tasks, I was told.
If horses were required, they would be provided from the King's stable and cared for by grooms. Though I felt more inclined to believe that the real truth was that if given horses and the skills to manage them, such females would take their leave and find their own paths in life, so they were, like me, hobbled.
I sighed, then winced at the way my gown bit back from the over-expansion of my ribs.
Of course breathing was restricted—just another way to ensure I couldn’t run away.
Nova studied me for a long moment, and I tried not to get annoyed at her scrutiny.
I had to keep reminding myself we were in this together, and she needed me. It wasn’t her fault this was happening.
In the end, though, it got too much. “Do I have something between my teeth?” I half snapped but managed to rein in my tone at the last moment.
She smiled fondly and shook her head. “I was just thinking what a bride you will make for a prince. You look beautiful, Caly. I know you hate this, but you really are.”
I scoffed. “I’m not concerned with how I please a prince. They should be worried about how they please us. Turning up here on a merchant ship does not set the best impression.
“Word among the guard is that they did that to fool any would-be attackers. It’s for safety,” Nova said with authority.
I rolled my eyes, “Please, all we have heard for years is how decadent and frivolous these princes are. Am I expected to believe that this no-frills arrival is not cause for concern? What if they are selling us to a flat broke crown?”
“I didn’t think you were so materialistic,” Nova scolded.
“I’m not. But I do care whether the King has the means to provide for this kingdom, all that is set out in the treaty. I’m not being hauled across the middle sea and shackled to a hedonist only to discover they were empty promises and our kingdom suffers.”
Nova looked contrite. “No, I see your point. Let’s hope that’s not the case.”
“I will not leave this to hope. I will demand answers. They cannot have us if it is not for the good of our people. No matter how handsome or powerful or otherwise supposedly desirable the princes are.” Nova looked chastised, which wasn’t my intention.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to snap at you. This has just got me so wound up.”
“I’m with you, Caly. We are in this together,” she said softly. “Wherever you go, I go, and if they can’t meet their end of the treaty, then I agree, they can’t have us. I’m not any more excited to leave my home than you are. But at least we will be together.”
I nodded.
“And hey, maybe we can make changes from the inside. You will be queen, you know!”
“For all the good it will do. You know they don’t let their females hold power. I’ll be for decoration only.” Groaning, I tried to adjust the foul corset.