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“Yeah, what parts?”
“Well, you told Atlas that you didn’t have an ocean, which was a lie. To come to Nas Laed, we crossed dunes and suffered more than one sandstorm. And from the books I’ve read, where there is sand, there is a beach. And where there is a beach, there is an ocean. You lied.” She smirks as if proud she’s caught me in one of my lies.
“You think you’re clever, do you, Your Highness?” I goad lightheartedly. “But your memory must be hazy because I didn’t lie. When we had that conversation, I was merely talking about Nas Laed, not the south. And when Atlas went on his rant and didn’t give me the opportunity to add that tidbit of truth, I simply chose to leave it out.”
“Why though?” she asks curiously, hanging on to my every word.
“Atlas was so proud in his assumption that his kingdom was the only one that faced the ocean, I didn’t have the heart to contradict him. Of course, he was only a kid then. I’m sure by now in his many sailing expeditions, he’s learned his way around a map and knows the truth.”
Katrina nods pensively, and then says something that has my heart melting at her words.
“You were always a good friend to Atlas. Even when it didn’t seem like you were.”
“Yeah, well, he never saw that,” I mumble, pulling out the grass at my side by its roots and flinging it in the air.
“Does that mean you two haven’t kept in touch?”
“Have you?” I raise a knowing brow.
“No.” She shakes her head, a sullen expression to her face. “After my mother died, our friendship seemed to deteriorate, too. All of our friendships.”
You can thank your bastard of a father for that one.
Mine too.
“We grew apart,” I lie, instead of telling her the truth since it is obvious she has no idea what happened after her mother passed away. “It happens sometimes.”
“Does it?” she counters with that same somber tone to her voice. “I thought what we had was stronger than that. That our friendship meant something.”
“Hey,” I interject, placing my hand on her cheek. “It did mean something. We were a family, kitten. One that fought as hard as it loved. And we did love each other. We did.”
I still do.
I swallow dryly when she covers my hand with hers on her cheek.
“We were a family, weren’t we?”
“The best fucking dysfunctional family of all of Aikyam, kitten.”
She lets out a dispirited giggle but plants a smile on her lips nonetheless. Her gentle gaze continues on mine as she pulls my hand off her face.
“I would like to see it someday. Your ocean.”
My smile is as sullen as hers.
“Maybe one day, my queen. Maybe one day.”
If I could, I would take her this very minute, but it’s a three-week voyage and the clock is ticking on me as it is.
“However, if a swim is what you want, I can make that happen.”
Katrina looks at the swarm of people all happily swimming in front of us, enjoying the beauty of the waterfall above them, and frowns.
“I told you. I can’t go swimming here. I’m still the queen of Aikyam.”
In other words, she can’t get buck naked and rule with her virtue and dignity intact. Not only is the north cold and uninviting, but its lords are a stern bunch, sticklers to their archaic rule that no woman should show her bare skin to anyone save her wedded husband. Not even a queen.
But this is the south.
