"So," Ria dragged her mind back the business at hand. It was question and answer day. Ria had a mini flashback of show and tell at elementary school. "Princess Venna, you are at liberty to ask me anything you desire to know about your intended husband, King Xagrun of Dragona," Ria's voice rattled off the prescribed lines of her office.
Then she added her own adaptation, thankful that the aide was distracted. "And don't worry about asking the 'right' questions, we don't have to include every single word in the records," she said, winking conspiratorially.
Venna's silver laugh tinkled behind her veil, solidifying Ria's mental Disney Princess image of her. An idea for a really cool Sci-fi Disney story began forming in her head, although strictly speaking, the word Sci-fi suddenly didn't hold all the meaning for her that it used to.
"Alright," the very non-fictional princess began, "What is King Xagruns' favourite food?"
A mental image of the king slobbering away at the lumps of strange grey flesh that he routinely ingested flitted across Ria's mind. "Just, uhm, before we continue, how honestly do I have to answer these questions?"
"Well," Venna's voice sounded contemplative, "according to political norms, I guess you could say whatever you like and I would be obliged not to question your integrity. However," she paused, glancing again at the aide's window gazing silhouette, "As a woman, I would prefer to know the whole truth. So that I may prepare myself, you know? Mentally. Emotionally. Perhaps even physically."
Her last words sounded more like questions than statements. Ria nodded. She understood entirely. The least she could do was to spare this equally innocent woman the shock she had been subjected to in all of those departments.
"Okay, diplomacy will just have to take a back seat. You and I are going to speak woman to woman, the bare facts. So, what is his favourite food? Magling Eel, raw. It's quite disgusting to watch, but apparently, it's highly nutritious for his specific constitution."
"Hmmm... I did learn about those eels in my royal lessons. I hope he won't require me to enjoy them with him."
The two women laughed.
"Does he love music? And what kind?"
"Hmmm... Yes, he listens to it often. There is always some kind of music echoing through the palace hallways," Ria reminisced, "He seems to have a vast array of genres that he enjoys, depending on his mood. Sometimes it is gentle and soothing, sometimes there's a lot of powerful drumming or heavy basslines. We usually don't approach him with diplomatic problems or bad news when he's playing that last kind."
"That sounds wise," Venna remarked, "Does he often get moody?"
"Well, I would say, about once a week, but it's usually pretty short lived. He has the luxury of being able to take out his frustrations on his..." Ria stopped short. Perhaps the 'whole truth and nothing but the truth' idea was not wise to use in every single question.
"You were going to say 'concubines', weren't you?" Venna's voice was so gentle it almost made Ria cry. She nodded mutely, looking down. She could imagine that no woman facing an impending marriage, albeit an arranged one, wanted to think about her promised groom sleeping with a roomful of sex slaves. Then again, she was thinking in terms of her own frame of reference.
"How do you feel about him having concubines?" Ria blurted out, thankful that it was a back and forth session, but also knowing that this question had not been on Xagrun's list.
"It is part of his culture, and I must accept it." The princess' voice was resigned.
"But not part of yours. How will you deal with it?" Ria knew that Venna was aware of her dual role in King Xagrun's palace. She was asking the question more for herself than for the king, although she was of the very strong opinion that it was something he needed to know and pay attention to.
"It is not part of your culture either, is it?" Venna surprised her by answering with a question.
"No, it's not." Ria stared at her hands.
"And yet, you have found a way to deal with your situation. We are really not that dissimilar, Ria. We are both prisoners and helpless to dictate our circumstances. And so, we find ways to adapt and to make the best of the status quo."
Respect is what this princess deserved. Far from being a little slow in the head, as Ria had originally thought, she had as much a head on her shoulders as any male of her species, or any species, for that matter, Ria decided.
"You will make an amazing queen someday, Princess Venna. I believe you will bring in a new era to your kingdom when you do ascend the throne." Ria said, genuinely, her voice filled with awe that she made no effort to disguise.
"Thank you, Ria," the voice behind the veil conveyed the smile that Ria could not see. "I hope and trust that it will be as you say."
Ria smiled, "I'm sure it will. Now, another question?"
Venna took a deep breath. "I deleted my list after I had memorised it because I didn't want my aide seeing all my questions. Especially this one: Does he know how to love a woman?"
Ria didn't need to ask for clarification, especially in the light of what they had just discussed. She had to tell the truth, and yet the truth seemed so difficult to tell, because suddenly it had come closer to home than she had ever imagined possible, or even wanted to be possible.
"He is learning," she said, softening the truth a little. "He has already learned a great deal in that respect and I can see he is earnest in learning more about what it takes to make a woman's heart bloom."
Venna nodded, "You speak very eloquently and sensitively, Ambassador Ria. The king has a true ambassador in you." A short silence hung between them before the princess filled it with the inevitable question. "It is you who is teaching him how to love a woman, yes?"
Ria nodded, her eyes downcast. A completely irrational desire not to share him with this princess, as likeable as she was, rose up to choke her. My Stockholm syndrome seems to be getting a little out of hand, she thought to herself, trying to make light of it and get the heavy weight of emotion off her chest.
She wished she could see behind the veil, know what was going on in the princess' mind and heart. Did she resent her for being her future husband's concubine and thus his sexual partner? It felt almost like what she would imagine being the 'other woman' was like.
"Oh my!" The clearly distressed voice of Venna's aide startled them both, and they broke from their conversation to look at what had caused her outburst. The lizard lady's face was a picture of perplexity. "Another mob on the way, your highness! Princess Venna! Ambassador! We must hide you both!"
She quickly drew the ceiling to floor drapes across the windows just as Ria got a glimpse of the angry protesters approaching the palace. The sound of chanting and angry cries, which Ria only now realised had been a faint hum in the background of the morning cacophony, became too obvious for her brain to filter out.
The faces of the mob were contorted into the same visage of rage and irreverent determination that she had seen two days ago. Their shouts and chants rang in Ria's ears now, and she could see them brandishing various kinds of what seemed to be weapons this time.
The aide ushered Ria and Venna to an ornate dresser cum bookshelf against the far wall of the study they occupied. Reaching in behind it, she pulled a small lever and the whole furnishing swung out away from the wall to reveal a hidden cave in the wall.
It was constructed of black, volcanic rock, much like the floors of King Xagrun's castle.
"Hide in here and don't make a sound or a move until someone comes to get you with the password. It's quite a lovely day today."
Only when Ria was inside she realised that the aide's last comment had not been sarcasm, but the actual password. She stumbled forward into the darkness of the cave as the concealed door closed behind them. It was also a thick slab of black rock. The darkness inside was almost tangible.
Barely daring to breathe, they heard shots fired and much shouting and commotion outside. In a slew of colourful threats, screamed out amid the shooting, the mob demanded the life of the 'foreign mixed breed ambas
sador' and claimed they were going to protect their princess from the 'barbarian invasion'.
The irony of their rhetoric was not lost on Ria, but her focus was more on how close they were, and whether they were actually making it into the palace. She could hear the guards also shouting and firing back at the protesters. Harsh warnings and barked commands from the captain of the guard rang out over the ruckus.
Despite the fact this was an another galaxy entirely, the unspoken rules of society seemed to be an exact replica of Earth's. There was always class differentiation, always the fanatics, the purists, the people taking the law into their own hands. Revolution was truly a universal phenomenon, Ria thought.
As they waited and listened, the shouting and gunfire gradually died down, leaving a breathless, seemingly endless silence where Ria's thoughts echoed in her head.
The princess and the ambassador waited, scarcely daring to breathe until Ria could take it no more, she had to see if there was a way out of their hidey hole. She felt like a sitting duck, and she wanted to see if Venna was okay, without having to speak to her. Anyone could be out there, listening as quietly as they were. And who knew how much oxygen was in this place?
She remembered her bracelet had a flashlight built into it as well as all the other myriad features. Tapping here and there until she found the right place, she flooded the cave with bright light. She looked around her and saw the princess huddled in the corner to her left. Then Ria clapped her hands over her face, partly to stop herself from screaming out loud and partly to shield her eyes, as her blood ran cold in her veins.
Venna's eyes were as big as saucers, staring out of her bronze-scaled face that seemed to have paled to a sickly yellow.
The only way Ria could tell, was because Venna's veil was off, leaving the indescribable beauty of the princess' closely guarded features exposed to Ria's eyes. The eyes of a commoner.
Chapter 10: Desperate Measures
"Ambassador!" Venna hissed, terror and anger evident even in her hoarse whisper, "How dare you look upon my countenance! Do you wish to lose your eyes?!"
Ria wasn't sure what horrified her more: the idea of losing her eyes or losing her life if those protesters were still about and heard Venna's outburst. She clamped a hand over the princess' mouth, "Do you wish to get me killed and yourself kidnapped?!" she hissed back, blind survival winning the toss over sighted death.
Venna thankfully regained her practical mindset as her culture shock abated in the very present danger of her new friend's possible mob execution. As if on cue, they heard the sound of heavy footsteps on the marble floor outside their hiding place.
"They were in here, I'm sure of it!" growled a voice in ominous tones and with a bit of a thick tongue.
"You sure? This place has so many windows..." another voice drawled dubiously.
"Yes, I'm sure!" the first voice barked back, "I saw them, the princess and the filthy Dragonesque ambassador, I'm sure of it!"
"Well... Clearly, they ain't here now..."
"Shut your wisecracking trap and help me search! These rich people's houses always have trapdoors and secret passages."
"No need to get cranky. We could always torture the aide..."
Ria heard Venna gasp next to her, "Vorda!" She avoided looking at her face, and she didn't really need to see her to know that there was great consternation in her eyes. Venna seemed to be capable of loving even the most unlovable of beings.
The sounds of furniture being shifted and drapes being ripped alerted Ria to the fact that they really needed to do something before they were found by their murderous pursuers, who were calling to each other, "Nothing here. Let's check over there."
She flashed the light from her bracelet, looking for an exit door, or a secret passage, but only cold, shiny rock reflected the rays of the flashlight back at her. Suddenly she remembered what the garrulous tech peddler had told her about the safety features of her bracelet. Only barely managing to swallow a whoop of joy at her find, she mentally thanked her fellow techie and spun the bracelet around looking for that almost imperceptible engraving under the leather lining.
Tapping out her activation code on it, she selected the setting, 'unidentified voices' and activated the defence system. Then she waited, still studiously avoiding looking at Venna, even though she longed to convey to her that she had found a way to get rid of the threat. She could almost feel the pain in her eyeballs already and hoped against hope that Venna would be kindly disposed toward her and not tell anyone that the ambassador from Dragona had 'feasted upon her loveliness'.
The bracelet lit up with a pulsating red glow and then, suddenly, what seemed to be tiny red lights drifted up from it making their way to the tiny crevice between the secret door and the palace wall.
A crash and a scream erupted beyond their hiding place, "Aaaaggghhh! Nano drones! Nano drones! Get the EMP! Get the EMP!"
"Shut up, you fool! They're targeting our voices! Aaaggghhh!"
More screams and crashing furniture and then, as suddenly as anarchy had descended, an eerie silence followed in its wake. For what seemed an eternity, the two women sat in nervous silence, their ears straining to hear any sign of life on the outside. There was no way of knowing if the threat really was gone, or if they were waiting in ambush. Finally, Ria heaved a shuddering sigh and focused her flashlight on the door of their hiding place.
There, as if mocking her, hung Venna's veil, wedged in the same crack that the drones had just exited through. She pulled it loose and handed it wordlessly to Venna cramped up behind her. Then she switched off her bracelet's flashlight and felt carefully along the edges of the solid rock door until she found the small button she had seen on the way in. Pressing it and leaning against the cold rock, she edged the door open, ever so slightly.
Natural light flooded in, almost blinding her and revealing a scene of total carnage. Furniture was strewn across the room, the drapes hung in tatters, and bodies of protesters were draped grotesquely over couches or sprawled on the floor, hands stretched out towards the door of the room.
"Is your veil on?" Ria asked in a whisper, without looking at Venna.
"Yes," was all the princess could manage in a very shaky voice.
Ria looked back at her and held out her hand. Venna took it, and Ria felt her trembling like a leaf in a winter breeze as she helped her out of the emergency shelter. Once they emerged, she noticed that the princess held her veil together with her other, equally unsteady hand.
Her heart sank. That meant that the veil had ripped, and that would raise questions. She was grateful that she had made it out alive, this far, but she still didn't relish the idea of walking around with a white cane for the rest of her days.
Voices reached their ears as they picked their way through the destruction of the once serene study. "Princess? Ambassador?" A very worried and dishevelled aide appeared at the doorway, her eyes large with fright and fear.
"They're still here! They are safe!" she called over her shoulder, and at once running footsteps could be heard in the hallway behind her. A posse of guards burst into the room.
"Who activated the nano drones?" enquired the leading guard.
"I did," Ria admitted, suddenly feeling a little confused.
"Well done, Ambassador! You saved yourself and the princess with that smart move!" The big, burly guard grinned from ear to ear.
His hearty congratulations seemed a little out of place among a mass of dead bodies, but Ria managed a slight smile and a small nod in acknowledgement. She wanted to be sick. She was an astronaut, not a soldier, and all her training had not rendered her immune to wanton killing, even if it was administered by herself.
"Come Ambassador, let me escort you to the Dragon King. Captain, could you please escort the princess to her quarters. Her ladies in waiting are already in attendance." The crusty lady seemed to possess more compassion that Ria had credited her with, and she followed meekly while the guards whisked Venna away. If anyone had noticed the torn veil, t
hey didn't let on that they had. Ria felt like she had swallowed a rock.
She, herself, was lucid enough to notice that the protocols of courtship were still strictly adhered to even in times as desperate as this. The Dragon King was confined to his quarters, with great big guards posted at his door.
As Ria entered with Venna's aide, she noticed there were more guards posted on the balcony, at every window, in every room, along with the obligatory Onoatiga. The Kingdom of Haut were wisely taking their royal guest's safety very seriously. The king paced the floor, his back and neck rigid with anxiety. It was actually quite dizzying how quickly the atmosphere had changed.
"Ria!" King Xagrun cried out as he saw her enter, rushing over and burying her in a bear-like embrace as if he wanted to shield her from the entire universe. "Leave us, Aide," he said, abruptly.
"Her name is Vorda. Thank you, Vorda," Ria managed to interject.
"You're welcome, Ambassador Ria," Vorda replied, sounding a little surprised that Ria knew her name.
As soon as the door closed behind her, Xagrun held Ria at arm's length, scanning her with worried eyes. Ria had never seen him like this, and it seemed to expose yet another facet of his burgeoning humanity that was relentlessly endearing him to her.
"Are you okay? You didn't get hurt? I could kill those vermin for daring to wish you harm! They made me stay here. I wanted to come find you. Oh, these infernal laws and rules are more like fetters than pillars!"
Ria smiled weakly, placing a reassuring hand on his arm. "I'm okay, I just..." her voice faltered.
In a flash of comprehension, his face softened, and without warning, he picked her up in his arms and carried her to one of the huge couches that populated the living area of his chambers. His arms held her as effortlessly as if she was no heavier than a little finch, his body was warm against hers, soothing the stress out of her muscles. His emanating pulse waves of power radiated through her, but there was some new frequency permeating them. Something akin to affection.
Gifted To The Dragon King Page 10
