by Amber Jaeger
Lian warily circled the table to take his own seat. “And what would that be? Flowers? Chocolates? I am not her lover.”
“Luckily for her,” she retorted. “Please do not tell me a great and powerful king like yourself cannot think of something she wants or needs and present it to her with a sincere apology.”
Lian looked at her doubtfully and Katiyana rolled her eyes.
“You should not speak to the king so,” Bennet said from where he still stood. “And nor will you ever raise your hand to him again.”
“What was that, coward?” Katiyana taunted. “I could not hear you from all the way over there. It sounded as though you were upset someone raised their voice and hand to your king, but surely that cannot be it if you are willing to allow him to do the same thing to a defenseless girl.”
“Enough,” Lian said with a sigh. “Bennet, sit. Katiyana is right. You owe Alma an apology as well. And I owe you one if I have not given you the leave you need to tell me when I am being a terrible ass.”
Anger still rolling off him, Bennet sat stiffly. He refused to look at Katiyana. “Now, as we were discussing, the labor and soldier problem.”
The king looked to Katiyana and though his hands were unfisted and relaxed on the table, his eyes were still just a shade darker than a summer sky. “I must have more guards, there is no way around that.”
Bennet sighed and rubbed a hand over his face. “Then I will leave it to you to explain that to our council and farmers.”
Two sets of angry eyes fixed on her face when she cleared her throat. “You say we need the soldiers for the labor because of how difficult the plans are to follow?” she asked.
Bennet nodded.
“Well, need they all be soldiers? Surely one could overlook many workers. Whoever the youth are looking to join the guard, perhaps they would like to labor under the soldiers. I assume they would be paid for their work?” she added.
Bennet rubbed his chin. “Now that may work. I would only need a few soldiers to read the plans and oversee the project, the rest could return to their duties. And you can have the extra men for her,” he said grudgingly.
Lian smiled widely. “You may prove to be more of a queen than you thought,” he said to Katiyana.
Assuming she was dismissed, she gave a quick curtsy and nearly sprinted for the door. Hoping to find Alma, she headed to her room but the girl was not there. Nor was she in the library, the gardens or the kitchens. She worried as she searched and wondered what she could possibly say to comfort her.
Exhausted and hungry, she finally wandered into the kitchen after dark and took some fruit and cheese back up to her room. In the hall upstairs she could see a faint glow under Alma’s door. Empty stomach forgotten, she knocked quietly and prayed Alma would answer.
She only had to wait a moment for the bewildered woman to answer the door. “Are you here to give me something as well?”
Katiyana bit back a smile. “What do you mean?”
Alma opened the door wider, inviting her in. The room was very similar to hers except for the poorer quality of the rug and furniture. On a scratched and sagging table was a large bouquet of bright flowers that lightly scented the whole room. “Bennet brought them,” she said, the wonder in her voice evident. “He apologized for… And then Lian came. He apologized as well and said I am to see Mr. Gace. Apparently de does not feel my clothes are representative of my station.”
Katiyana kept her face smooth as she took in the young woman’s plain, worn dress and apron. “And that makes you happy?”
Alma grinned and bumped her shoulder. “Any woman besides you would be happy about getting new dresses. What was said after I left? I would have never expected such things from them.”
“Oh, well. Um, I may have called Bennet a coward.” Alma winced. “And slapped Lian.”
The girls stood staring at each other for a full minute before bursting into laughter.
CHAPTER TEN
Time in the palace passed so much more slowly than in the forest. Lian and Alma had all their usual tasks to attend to but Katiyana had none, save for refining her manners and trying to learn to act like a lady. She had small success in those areas and it only contributed to the guilt she felt over lazing about the castle while her friends and her people toiled for their harsh lives.
The king had allowed her to have access to the file on the queen and some of her crimes. Children were hungry, families were homeless, and wives had been widowed. The lands themselves were down trodden. Crops went unplanted, farmers could not care for their cattle.
And yet by all accounts, the queen prospered. There were reports of gowns and jewels and lavish parties for those who supported her. They were richly rewarded for their loyalty.
Katiyana remembered how much hope she had when Sula had come into their lives. Her father would be happy, she would finally have someone to guide her and they would all be a loving family together. Instead her father was dead, she was in hiding and the queen was destroying her home and everyone that lived there.
Alma had begged her to stop climbing on the roofs but she could not help herself. The height reminded her of climbing trees back home and gave her a place to sit and think, even if they were sad, lonely thoughts.
Bennet found her on the roof of the kitchens. She could hear his feet skittering over the clay tiles but did not turn around. He had not been very happy the last time she had seen him.
Highly polished black boots stopped next to her and she finally looked up at him.
“Alma sent me,” he explained before she could ask.
A glance at the ground showed a worried looking Alma twisting her hands in her apron. “Drat, I did not think she would see me up here.”
“She always looks up when she is looking for you.”
Katiyana chuckled at that then sighed and her face fell again. It felt wrong to laugh and live and eat and be safe when so many could not.
“You are worried for your people?” Bennet asked.
Surprised by his guess, she turned towards him. “I am, very much so. How did you know?”
Bennet knelt down gracefully to sit on the warm tiles next to her. “It is hard to miss and who would not be worried for their subjects in such dire circumstances?” He gazed at her face for a moment. “And there is something more.”
Katiyana hung her head shamefully. “I do not understand how she became like this. I knew she was unhappy when she came. But evil?”
“She murdered your father and tried to have you killed as well,” he said dryly.
“I knew she wanted me dead in the end but I did not learn my father had been murdered until I learned all the other things. I knew she was bitter, that she had not wanted to leave her home and marry my father. But how did that grow into this?”
Bennet was quiet a long moment, looking out over the land. Finally he said, “Pain and anger can grow into a poison if it is not dealt with. It can maim and kill. My king, and my friend, struggles with this every day and has for years. I fear how it has changed him, how it could twist him further.”
“He is not evil,” Katiyana protested. Bennet raised an eyebrow at her defense of the king and she flushed. “Well, he is not.”
“I did not say that he was. But he is a different man than he once was. As time goes by with the queen unpunished for her crimes, he gets angrier. The boy I grew up with did not have a temper and the man he is now cannot control it. When we were growing up, he talked of ways to improve the kingdom and the lives of everyone in it. He was most concerned with the happiness and fruitfulness of his people. He wanted them to have comfortable lives, meaningful work and always a warm home and full bellies. Now…” he shrugged. “You have seen our disagreements over the plans for better irrigation for the farmers and cattle raisers. The boy I grew up with would have done anything to bring that plan to fruition. Now, he fights it because it might delay his revenge.”
“He truly does hate her,” Katiyana said quietly.
“He
does, and I understand why. First his mother and the child she carried were taken and then his father. And I know it does not seem it now, but the way your people have been treated has incited him from the first day he learned of it. But his anger blinds him. Instead of grieving and finding a way to help those that are suffering, he has committed himself to seeing her unthroned and everything else has fallen by the wayside.”
Her heart hurt for the king. “I grieved my father a very long time. There are some days still that I feel the pain as sharply as I did on the day he died. And I was sent out in the woods to die before his funeral ceremony. I struggled with that for a long time, even though there was no way I could have attended. At least King Lian got that.”
“No, he did not, at least not for his father.”
“Why ever not?”
“He would not allow one to take place. He felt he could not put his father to rest without punishing the one who had killed him.”
The only sound was the wind rushing through the far off in the fields. “But that… how could he do that? Not mourn his own father, not allow the kingdom to mourn him?”
“That is what I meant about pain and anger being a poison. He is so caught up in his revenge he will not even allow himself to heal from his father’s death.”
Katiyana shook her head. “That is incredibly sad. Thank you for sharing it with me, I suppose I understand the king and his temper a bit better now. Not that I condone it,” she added quickly.
“Nor do I.” Bennet stood. “I will tell Alma you are fine up here, tree girl.”
Katiyana scoffed but smiled.
Dinner with the king was a different affair that night. She had spent the day processing what Bennett had told her and she was curious about the man grooming her to be a queen.
“You look very much like your father,” she said as the first course was being served.
Lian look up at her, his eyes wary. “I suppose I do.” He shifted in his seat and looked back down to his meal.
“I didn’t see any portraits of your mother. What was she like? Did you get your eyes from her?”
Lian picked his fork up, hesitated and set it back down. “I did. She was lovely. Are you satisfied?”
Katiyana scowled. “This is not an interrogation, I was merely trying to make conversation.”
“Fine. Let us talk about something useful. Have you thought of the things you will speak about to the other dignitaries? The wedding is not far off.”
“What I will speak to them about? I do not know, I suppose whatever they want to talk about,” she said, confused.
“No, that is the wrong answer. You must guide the conversations, else they will spend all their time asking about what happened and where you were hiding and how you survived. The conversation must be focused on putting you in power and what it could mean for them.”
“Mean for them? Why would they even care?”
Lian sighed. “We have spoken about this. The queen’s crimes and evils are far reaching. She has murdered their royalty, sent spies into their kingdoms and tried to incite their own people against them. She has destroyed mines and poisoned lakes. You must remind them of the acts committed against them by her and then tell them how you will rectify it, if possible, and how much better things will be when you are in power.”
“Right, that.”
Lian glared at her. “And using your manners instead of being flippant will take you a farther way with them.”
“I plan on helping my people, that is all. I have no interest in playing political games.”
“These are not games. And while it is good you will help your people, you need to make the royals see why that is the best thing for them as well. Your land has much of the fruit crops. Supplies have dwindled for years and people are not happy. I know some kingdoms have tried their hand at growing their own, but they cannot. If you heal your people and the land, you can begin exporting the fruits and trading.”
“So I should tell them if they help get me on the throne, I will sell them apples.”
Lian set his cup back on the table with more force than necessary. “You illustrate to them how helping you heal your land and people will benefit them. People do not do things for free, everyone wants something.”
Katiyana swirled the food around on her plate. “And what do you want?”
“I want the queen punished,” he said flatly.
“And after that?”
“Then I shall continue on as I have been,” he said uncertainly.
“I should hope not,” she said sharply. “All of your time and energy and resources, your pour them into your quest for revenge. What will you do with them when that is no longer your goal? Do you have a new goal in mind?”
“Such as?”
Katiyana threw her hands up. “I do not know, perhaps you should have a funeral ceremony for your father and allow your people and yourself to heal.”
His eyes grew dark and his hand clenched around the fork he was holding. “That will come in due time. Do not concern yourself with it.”
“Fine. Then what about marriage, and heirs? You are king yet you have done nothing to ensure your line continues.”
Lian leaned back in shocked amusement. “You are so concerned with my bachelorhood? How curious.”
“Why do you not just marry Wilemina? I am sure she would put up with you, temper and all.”
His amusement faded. “Like you said, Wilemina is a twit. And besides, I do not love her. Truly, I do not even like her. My parents married for love and they were very happy. I would like the same thing for myself.”
“Then perhaps you should work on your temper. I cannot imagine anyone besides Wilemina would put up with you.”
“Thank you for that flattering assessment. Perhaps it would do you some good to hear one of your own.” Dread filled her as the king leaned forward, putting his face uncomfortably close to hers. “Your lack of manners and ability to hold your tongue is appalling, as is your refusal to act and dress like a lady. When you are not aggravating me, you are up on the roof of all places, daydreaming. I cannot imagine a man wanting to tie himself to a woman like that.”
“There was not a lot of time to practice my womanly skills while trying to survive in the wild as a child. I did only what was necessary to survive.”
“And now I guarantee your survival and safety. Your time would be better spent sanding off your rough edges then giving Alma near heart attacks by climbing up the palace walls.”
Angry and shaken, Katiyana could not think of proper retort. Lian gave a tight smile and sat back in his chair. He waited for a response, and finally satisfied she could hold her tongue for once in her life, picked up his fork to resume his meal.
Unable to look at him a moment longer, she shoved back her chair and bolted from the room.
“Do not forget, the dressmaker is coming tomorrow,” he called after her. “And for his sake, take a bath!”
Katiyana burst into her room and slammed the door shut behind her. Alma jumped from where she was bending to begin a fire in the fireplace. “What on earth?” she asked, clutching a hand over her chest.
“That, that, him! He is awful!”
“I see,” Alma said, bedding back down to tend the fire. “I assume you speak of the king.”
“Who else would be as infuriating as him?” Katiyana spit out, flopping down onto the bed. “He told me to take a bath.”
Alma tried to stifle her giggles, but wasn’t fast enough and Katiyana shot up on the bed. “I am clean, I wash every day.”
“I am sure that you do, but still, your aversion to baths is confusing.”
Katiyana sighed. “It is not that I do not like them, I just feel bad taking them.”
“You feel guilty for bathing?” Alma asked, her eyebrows pinched down together.
“I feel guilty for all of it,” she said, collapsing back down on the bed. “Here I am, living like a princess, and my friends and all the people of my kingdom have to worry how t
hey will stay warm at night and fill their bellies in the morning.”
“First, you are a princess.”
Katiyana stuck her tongue out at the ceiling.
“And second, you cannot help your circumstances. You have already committed to improving theirs. They will have the lives you desire for them soon enough.”
Katiyana jumped off the bed and began pacing. “And how am I going to do that? By promising other royals I will sell them apples if they put me on the throne?”
“You give them too much credit. If they could have pulled Sula down and put someone else up, they would have already. It is as if she knows all of our plans. They have tried spies, poison and even diplomatic offerings. The only thing they have not done yet is declared all-out war. She knows they hesitate because of the loss of life that would be sure to occur. She is a formidable foe, one that you must defeat. They may be able to help, but you are the one that must bear the burden of removing her from the throne and then filling it.”
