I was pulled out of my thoughts by Arkadian's angry words. I realized the eldermen were still discussing a match between the two of us, the high priestess being the most favorable voice in the room.
"I've had enough of this pointless discussion. It makes me question whether all your minds have gone to rot and ruin," Arkadian shouted.
He was angrier than I had seen him in a very long time, so angry that I was worried if someone else spoke in favor of a union between us, he would leap across the table with his dagger in his hand.
"Surely you must all see that my Emerus would be the best choice," the Duke of Divestra said to a few groans of protest from around the table. He was not deterred, though. "If a new dynasty must be formed, then it should be of the House of Divestra, who came to these shores with Edgeon himself before the angels planted the godsgrass!" He finished with a palm laid reverently on the seal of Divestra before him.
"Perhaps we could ask Aelia for her opinion," Arkadian said, darting a glance to where I sat in my little chair by the window.
I shook my head, widening my eyes in warning. I had no interest in discussing this yet...or ever. I would have little say in the matter, even if I did express a preference for one of the useless lords and nobles who had come to court.
"The Princess is not permitted to speak in enclave before she is crowned," Markus said, and then breezed past the whole subject. "The emissaries from Nightfall will be arriving in a few days. We should spend some time looking at the terms they sent before we meet them. They have not expressed any interest in the hand of the Princess," he added, as though it needed clarification. A fae on the Godsgrass Throne would be unthinkable.
"And is there any word from the tudemond?" Titus Matterson asked, surprising me when the baron from the merchant city of Finharrow steered the subject firmly back to my betrothal.
"Not as of yet," Markus said with a frown. "Though if the word from Balus is true, he may have his hands full at the moment...with an invasion."
"Has the tudemond really expressed a renewed interest in the Princess after...?" Baron Mandelian asked, letting the words trail off meaningfully.
"He has," Markus said.
Many of the eldermen around the table gave me sympathetic looks. It was no secret the disaster that resulted from the attempted marriage contract between me and the Tudemond of Balus when I was thirteen.
"You should have made it clear to that weasel-dicked little prick that he is not welcome in Albiyn after what he did," Arkadian said, rising from his chair and leaning angrily over the table again.
The spoiled young ruler of Balus had reached over and pinched me hard under the arm when I was unwilling to let him look at my teeth.
"Though, perhaps Penjan will do us all a favor and wipe his entire line from the map," Arkadian added coldly.
And then the meeting devolved into talk of the threat of Penjani shadow magic, and I slumped in my seat in exhaustion.
That evening, I found myself in my bedchamber after an exhausting day with the suitors crowding the castle.
Most were staying in the various inns, taverns, and townhouses across the sprawling city, but long-held custom dictated that some of them be invited into the castle to spend a few days and nights in honored comfort with the royal family.
This meant every moment I was out of my chambers, I was picked over like a prized pig, marched down the halls with my arm trapped in a sweaty elbow, or led to the gardens so that they could take turns herding me into a secluded corner to either try to steal a kiss or ask me pointedly inappropriate questions.
It had taken all my nerve not to punch Lord Emerus in the face when he had asked me if I remembered, "that time in the garden, with the snow laying all across the land, when you allowed me to steal a kiss?"
I had allowed nothing, and he had taken much more.
"Ouch," I said, turning to look where the seamstress was crouched behind me, sliding pins into the waist of my gown as she gathered the material of the wide skirts.
"Sorry, Your Highness," Edriana said around a mouthful of pins. "If you did not have quite so much ass, my job might be a bit easier."
I huffed, though I knew her words were good-natured. She was constantly expressing jealousy that her thin frame didn’t bear a lot of shape in the backside. But I knew the seamstress was only trying to make me feel better, as usual, while in the presence of my Lady's Companion, Tatana. Shewas lounging in a chair by the door, her long, graceful legs encased in loose-fitting silk.
The soft, comfortable pants were the custom in Elysium, where she lived as a child, before being taken by ruthless men and brought to Albiyn.
Tatana and her little brother, Set, had been lucky to be placed in service to the crown. An Elysiun, especially one as beautiful as Tatana, with her long, straight fall of inky black hair and big brown eyes, would have been a prized addition to any Albiyn pleasure house.
Tatana set her book aside and unfolded herself from the chair as Edriana's assistant opened a trunk and began to pull out dresses.
She smiled excitedly as the rich, colorful fabrics were revealed. "These are beautiful, Aelia," she said in her sweet, lilting voice. She looked at me warily. "I have never seen you choose so much color."
She was right. Bright colors had never done my pale skin and bone-white hair justice. "I chose the colors for you—for the Lady of Aracet."
Tatana’s face fell slightly as I added the title. She went to the dresses and began thumbing through them where the assistant was hanging them on a rolling rack for our perusal.
