The Fire Prince was silent a moment before answering. “I … do.”
“Do you promise to keep yourself pure from the wife of another, to speak the truth as your native tongue, and to slay only in the defense of your country, your family, and the innocent, or at the commandment of Alphego?”
“I … I do.”
“Do you promise to serve Alphego with your whole heart and to seek His will in your every action? Do you promise that He will be the first in your life, that you will seek to further His kingdom, and that you will seek His forgiveness should you err?”
“I do.”
“If you should break these promises, are you willing that your sword break when you need it the most in the midst of battle? Are you willing that you should die a miserable death?”
The Fire Prince was once more silent for a second, casting a glance towards Clara, and her stomach twisted at the severity of the promises.
“I am.”
Rich lifted the sword for the briefest second and brought it down with an audible smack. The Fire Prince winced.
“May this blow serve as a reminder of your promises,” Rich explained. He put the hilt of the sword back into the Fire Prince’s hand. “Keep these promises, and may this sword serve you well. In the power invested in me as the Wind Prince of Klarand, I decree you a proper knight of Rizkaland.”
Two heartbeats later, Clara felt the flat of her own sword resting against her shoulder. Clara lifted her chin in expectation of what was to follow.
“Water Princess,” said Kath. “Do you promise to defend the weak and helpless, to help the fatherless and widow, and to protect those who cannot protect themselves?”
“I do,” Clara replied, without hesitation. Sure, there were a few differences from the promise extracted from the Fire Prince, but that was understandable since, apparently, a woman’s knighting was slightly different.
“Do you promise to keep yourself pure and modest in all situations, lest you cause your brothers to stumble? Do you promise to speak the truth as your native tongue and to slay only in the defense of your country, your family, and the innocent, or at the commandment of Alphego?”
Clara blinked at this larger difference, but it did make sense, after all. “I do.”
“Do you promise to serve Alphego with your whole heart and to seek His will in your every action? Do you promise that He will be the first in your life, that you will seek to further His kingdom, and that you will seek His forgiveness should you err?”
“I do.”
“If you should break these promises are you willing that your sword break when you need it most in the midst of battle, and that you should die a dishonored death?”
“I am.”
A swift blow like the one given to the Fire Prince fell on her shoulder. She winced because it did hurt. “May this blow serve as a reminder of these things that you have promised.” Then Kath returned the sword to Clara’s hand. “By the power invested in me as the Leaf Princess of Klarand, I declare you a proper knight of Rizkaland, after the order of Princess Isabelle.”
Dular and Alith appeared, each bearing a square velvet box, containing circlets and rings like the ones that Kath and Rich wore. The ones in Dular’s hand were studded with rubies, while the ones in Alith’s were adorned with sapphires. Slowly, reverently, Kath picked up the sapphire circlet, and Rich claimed the ruby.
“Now for the crowning,” said Rich.
Clara’s stomach twisted. It seemed there wasn’t any getting out of this for her after all.
“Fire Prince,” said the Wind Prince, and Andrew straightened further, casting a glance over at the Water Princess who was frowning slightly, “Water Princess, these crowns are not merely pretty jewelry that you wear at your whim and pleasure. They are symbols of the responsibility that lies on you as the rulers of Klarand, and of the power invested in you. While they are light in physical form, the weight they represent is great. It will be your duty to ensure to the safety and welfare of the people of Klarand.”
Andrew swallowed, fighting down panic at the gravity of what was happening. He’d accepted for quite some time that he was about to have the weight of a country on his shoulders, but now it was actually happening. The Water Princess looked like she was even less thrilled with the situation, though, so he shot her an encouraging half-smile. She didn’t seem to notice.
“As the rulers of Klarand,” said the Leaf Princess, “your lives will no longer be your own. You must be ready, at any hour, to settle an impossible quarrel among the people. You must be willing to speak and deal with the rulers of any of the inhabited islands, whether they be your friends or your enemies. You must pledge your allegiance to the kings and queens of Rizkaland itself, for Alphego set them over all of the islands, and to Alphego Himself, for He is supreme over all. You must be willing to guide and nurture your people, and to fight for them – even give up your lives if need be. Are you willing?”
Andrew glanced down, not liking the sound of that last bit, and knowing that the Leaf Princess expected an answer. They were only sixteen. How could anyone expect this of them? He met the eye of the Water Princess, who was staring at him expectantly, waiting for him to answer. She didn’t want this any more than he did, but they were called to it.
“I am,” they answered as one. He wasn’t sure how they did it, but they did.
“Do you promise that you will do all of those things if and when you are called to do them?” The query came from the Wind Prince.
Andrew’s eyes met with the Water Princess’s again.
“We do.” Again, with one voice.
“Then we bestow these crowns upon you,” said the Leaf Princess, “as the symbols of the weight you have now taken upon yourselves.” With a reverent air, she lowered the sapphire circlet onto the head of the Water Princess. Simultaneously, Andrew felt the ruby one press against his own brow. It was true that they didn’t weigh much, but, oh, what they represented!
“Never, ever place your crown on your own head,” said the Wind Prince. “Always allow someone else to do it, even if it’s only each other. Thus shall you be reminded that the power you wield as Fire Prince and Water Princess of Klarand is not from yourself, but is a gift from Alphego.”
Wow. Now it was a gift.
“For if you forget this,” said the Leaf Princess, “your power will go to your heads and you will become tyrants. Keep it in your hearts, for power swells. A large heart is to be desired. A big head is not.”
Clara wondered how much longer it would be before these ceremonies were over and she could stand up. Her legs had fallen asleep. The knighting was done, the coronation taken care of, but a sidelong glance at the rings that still remained in the boxes made her stomach twist.
During the crowning, Alith and Dular switched positions, and the box with the ruby ring was now held at Clara’s eye level. Glancing over, she saw that Alith did the same for the Fire Prince with the sapphire ring.
“Fire Prince,” said Alith, “take this ring and place it on the third finger of the Water Princess’s left hand.”
Clara glanced frantically about, but everyone seemed serious. At last her gaze fell on the Fire Prince, who by that point had the ring in his hand, and was staring at her awkwardly. For several seconds, she glared at him, but then she thrust out her hand. She barely felt the brush of his hand against her skin, so consumed was she with her anger. A moment later, the cool metal band slid down her finger, and he let her hand go.
She spared the ring a few moments’ glance. It was very pretty.
“Water Princess,” said Dular, cutting into her thoughts, “take this ring and place it on the third finger of the Fire Prince’s left hand.”
She hesitated a moment before she plucked up the ring with sullen care and turned to the Fire Prince who held out his hand, a sheepish grin on his face. She grabbed his hand and shoved the ring onto the appropriate finger, smirking when she saw him wince.
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Just like that. Nothing to it, yet she was terribly afraid of what these rings might – no, almost certainly meant.
Kath and Rich then each produced a pair of impossibly long leather cords, then took the newly-ringed hands of Water Princess and Fire Prince and pressed them together, sandwiching the ends of these cords between them, lacing their fingers together.
In other words, she was now holding hands with the Fire Prince. She shot a glare first to Kath, who ignored it, then to Rich, who also ignored it, and finally to the Fire Prince, who just returned a helpless half-grin.
She rolled her eyes.
“One cannot rule alone,” said Dular. Alith spoke at the same time, but her words were Rizkan. “One needs advisors, teachers, and lesser rulers to rely on. However, none of these are nearly as important as the one who stands beside you – the one who is Tied to you.”
Tied. From what Clara had heard and read, that word was pretty much the Rizkan equivalent to marriage, at least when used in this context. However, it was too late to pull out now, for Kath and Rich had been twisting the leather cords around their combined fist while the elves were talking, and their hands were now completely covered.
“Since the time of the Eight, the Ten, and Shanner and Fnae of the elves, man and woman have been tied together. They become no longer two, but one. One before Alphego.”
Yep, a marriage ceremony. Not what she’d signed up for at all. In a year or ten, maybe. But she was just sixteen, her life ahead of her. She wasn’t ready for this stage!
“Fire Prince,” Kath finally interrupted. “I give to you the Water Princess. Protect her as your own flesh. Love her and honor her as your own soul. Stand by her in good times, and in evil, so long as Alphego spares both of your lives.”
Clara flashed her friend another glare. She gave! The nerve!
Kath continued to ignore the glare. “Do you promise to do these things?”
The Fire Prince met Clara’s eye before he answered, and he actually looked scared. A small corner of her had some shred of pity for him. He hadn’t asked for this any more than she had, after all.
“I do,” he said, though his voice was not without a tremble.
She narrowed her eyes at him, then snapped her gaze away in anticipation of the promise they were clearly about to extract from her.
“Water Princess,” said Rich. “I give to you the Fire Prince. Care for him as your own flesh. Honor and love him as your own soul. Stand by him in good times and in evil, so long as Alphego spares both your lives. Do you promise to do those things?”
Clara didn’t want to answer. How could she, when she couldn’t say the words truthfully? A marriage vow was for two people who knew each other, actually cared for each other. Not … the practical strangers that she and the Fire Prince were.
And yet, a corner of her mind protested that claim, remembering the long hours she had spent in conversation with him, about their past, their aspirations, and their hobbies. She remembered well that morning when they’d practically bared their souls to each other.
Besides, there had been others throughout even Earth’s history who’d been required to make that promise with far less between them – sometimes having never met each other at all!
It was for Klarand. As the elves said, they couldn’t do it alone, either one of them, and at least the Fire Prince had earned her respect. Her trust.
“I do,” she finally admitted, shattering the silence.
“Then in the sight of those gathered here,” said Dular, “I pronounce you one before Alphego.”
Silence again while Kath and Rich finished with the cords, tucking the ends in so that they couldn’t be seen.
“Rise and stand in the sight of Alphego,” Dular instructed, and they did so. Kath and Rich, easily, but since Clara and the Fire Prince had been down longer, their legs were stiffer. Besides that, they were now joined at the hand, their left arms tied together from fist to elbow – her elbow at least, his arm was a bit longer than hers. Kath and Rich had to help them gain their feet.
“The two of you have to stay here the whole night,” Kath whispered in Clara’s ear, sending uncomfortable chills down her spine. “You may descend the Hill if you’d like, but you can’t untie yourselves. You don’t have to kiss him if that makes you feel any better.”
And then the four of them retreated each to a different set of stairs. Each pressed a fist to their heart. Alith and Dular bowed. Kath and Rich merely inclined their heads slightly. A few heartbeats later, Clara was alone in the room with the Fire Prince.
Chapter 4
The Water Princess was trembling. Whether from anger or something else, Andrew couldn’t tell, but she was also glaring at him, and the grip she had on his fingers was almost enough to make him lose circulation.
“So, uh, they’re just leaving us here?” he asked, in an effort to begin a conversation.
“Yes,” she said, flatly. “But we can leave this Hill, small miracles.”
And with that, she spun around and started to march off, nearly pulling Andrew off balance. She didn’t get far before she spun back around to glare at him.
“Um … warn me next time?” he asked.
“Let’s get off this Hill and stretch our legs a bit.” Her voice was tinged with barely constrained anger.
“Ah, good plan,” he said, deciding that agreeing with her would be the wisest course of action.
Since they were stuck in the room, it didn’t matter which set of stairs they descended. The Water Princess chose the one nearest the source of the purple glow, muttering something about how they should see what it was and make sure it wasn’t just another one of Klarand’s crazy quirks.
Descending the steps was difficult, since one of them had to go down backward, and she wasn’t in a very cooperative mood. However, once he mentioned the fact that they might fall and break their necks if they weren’t careful, she didn’t fight him as hard.
The glow’s source proved to be the fact that the floor was missing for the last three feet of the room, and they could see the purple water and fire liquid that had been their friend in the caves below. Andrew felt the Water Princess stiffen. There was a good two-foot wall running alongside the lack of floor, but it was still a long way down, straight into that terrible, burning liquid.
“Probably also the source of heat in this room, too,” Andrew observed.
She didn’t answer, but thrust their joined hands out into the light so that she could see them better, and then she began to pick at the cords.
“Are … you supposed to be doing that?” Andrew asked.
“No,” she answered, sullenly. “I was just looking. We can’t get them off, anyway. I don’t see why Kath took the time to tell me not to.”
“We … can’t?”
She shoved their arms into his face. “The ends of the cords have joined together. I don’t know how, but they did. More Klarand craziness, obviously.”
Andrew pushed their arms a bit further away from his eyes so he could see it better, then shook his head. “Freaky.”
“Oh, tell me about it!”
She didn’t sound like she wanted to be told about it.
Andrew swallowed. “Know what? Why don’t we get away from this fall to our deaths waiting to happen?” he pointed out.
She didn’t answer, but neither did she protest him pulling her away from the hole in the floor. There was silence for several minutes, and Andrew felt very awkward. They were alone in this room, their hands tied together, and she was very angry.
“If … if it makes you feel any better, I didn’t know about that last ceremony any more than you did,” Andrew pointed out, hoping that it’d make her relax slightly. The grip she held on his hand was painful.
“That’s what makes it worse!” she spat out. “We should have realized it. We’d heard them say often enough that you can’t rule Klarand alone. We’ve been here long enough that we should have picked up on at least this part of their culture.”
> “Clara, from what I’ve heard, Tying is more like engagement here in Klarand.”
“In the merest technicality,” said the Water Princess. “It’s as serious as marriage. You heard those promises we made. They’d be called wedding vows in our world. They don’t have weddings here, they have Tying Ceremonies.”
“Clara…”
“I wasn’t ready for this!” she continued, in a full-blow rant now. “I had my life all planned out. First, I’d go to the Olympics and win at least one gold medal, and then I’d come home and find someone to marry. It’s not marriage I’m against. It’s the timing!”
“Clara, it’s conflicting with my plans, too,” Andrew pointed out.
She was silent for several seconds, then launched back into her tirade. “My life has been upside down for weeks now. Coming here to Klarand and having this crown shoved onto my head was not part of the plan! The sword, I’ll admit, is cool, but I didn’t need it. And now – now my friends are here, and they’re older, and it’s all weird.” She rubbed at her eye with her free hand.
Andrew swallowed, noticing tears leaking out of her eyes.
“Hey, are you crying?” he asked, hesitantly, quietly.
“No,” she protested, rubbing at the other eye. “I am in complete control over my emotions at all times. It’s just – it’s just everything’s wrong, and I didn’t want this. You’re a great guy, I’m sure, but I’m not ready. They – they had no right to do this.”
The harder she fought the tears, the harder they came.
Andrew didn’t know much about girls, but he had watched his own parents for twelve years and seen the love between them. He’d just promised to love this girl. Unbidden, an image came to his mind from when he was maybe seven. His mother crying – though he didn’t know why – and his father comforting her.
Hesitantly, he wrapped his free arm around her shoulders and pulled her closer to him, expecting her to fight, protest, something, but she didn’t. She folded into his chest and just kept crying, not even trying to stop it anymore.
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