This excited every upper-caste lady without a ring on their hand, and only their fathers began to see the business opportunity. Other men grumbled at the scandal.
As a stable boy, too poor to take a wife and too busy to raise a child, I did not mind it much myself hearing someone else's happy news. Good for the Prince, ah... I meant the King. Tigris would have his Queen. The wealthiest and most powerful bachelor, the last of his bloodline utterly alone in an empty castle golden and smoldering of candles. But would Tigris settle? And who was the lucky woman he would wed?
I woke up at night, wondering how would they meet? How would the King fall in love, and if she would be Queen, how would she? Being a romantic and a writer, I wrote a few poetic turns on a parchment at my desk before faltering. I never experienced love. So how could I imagine it? I tried but did not write anymore.
It was decided with great mortification and sick humor that I would attend the masquerade. I was bone-thin, shaped by stable work, and graceful like a woman dealing with jittery horses. I mimicked the noble women on my free time, so I can blend in. I can get away with it. 765Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡm23AX7J3AN
So I took one of my mother's church clothes and cut it enough to make me look like an exotic bellydancer. I used the satin shreds to craft a filgree mask and hid most of my manly face. My lips were small and pouty enough, I suppose? I hoped they had plenty to drink beforehand.
I snuck onto castle grounds and was found by a guard. "Halt! The lavatory is down that wing." I waved, "Such a gentleman."
The ballroom was massive, packed with waltzing women in various masks much more expensive and glamorous than mine. They sparkled with gems, blooming flowers and feathers. One by one, they filed to the King's bedchamber and ran out sobbing.
Fascinated, I drew closer to the ornate tiger doors and eavesdropped. From the King's lips spilled soft velvet words but pointed questions. Could she rule a country in the event of his untimely death? Could she birth a healthy son and heir? Could she win a war? The King confessed his doubts from a look at her. The lady burst in tears, leaving the chamber, and a guard grabbed me, pushing me further in.
My heart pounded. I forced myself to enter. The King Tigris paced the bedchamber and gave an order: "Lie on the bed. Don't take anything off."
Relieved, I climbed onto the bed and lied there, looking up at the carved jungle ceiling. The King Tigris examined my body, how I looked in his bed, and asked: "How do you have the most beautiful legs?"
Being a stable boy, I stifled a laugh. "I work with horses, your Highness," I said before shutting up.
The King ordered me to sit at the table near the roaring fire and play a game of chess. He then added, "If I win, leave and never return to my line of sight again. If you win, you will be my wife and my queen."
I had half a mind to make a fool out of him, but that would mean getting the axe and I was no fool. While we made careful moves, the King and I shared childhood stories but never got near the subject of our parents.
While he made me snicker about his pulling pranks on foreign messengers and private tutors, I stirred an uproar from the King over me rounding up all the escaped gallivanting horses. His grey sapphire eyes lingered on my shredded satin mask, wanting to see the face behind them. He took my pawn, but I took his knight. His eyes widened.
So impressed with my putting up a longer fight, King Tigris whispered to a servant who promptly left the room.
He and I continued talking; from the past to the future. "Do you love another?"
I silently shook my head, feeling guilty by the second. Why was I here, toying with his emotions? I steered the conversation towards philosophy, astronomy, and stories from faraway lands, thinking that would keep his heart safe. I was wrong.
An uncontrollable smirk possessed his rough, shaven face. He made a hasty decision that left his King trapped and wide open for the kill. If that was a wedding proposal, I turned it down. I asked to excuse myself. The King stood, stammering question after question if I would be back quickly. I assured him that I would.
Instead, I ran home, burned the dress, and holed up in my little bed, wishing that I had been a noble woman. I laughed at myself, being a writer and a hopeless romantic that I was. That was a close one, a dangerous and humiliating one but I had enough material to write love stories for a lifetime.
A week passed, and rumors of the masquerade flooded back to us over mugs of ale. They said the King Tigris had sent all the guests home early. He was heard scoffing and whispering how spineless and tasteless they were, falling like water in his hands, how unfit they were to be the ideal queen. By now, this enraged more men, were the rumors true. They steamed, returning to work feeling cheated until the horseback knights returned clanging bells.
"Your King is here!"
We kneeled, my head bowed most of all. What was he doing here? King Tigris's grey sapphire eyes seemed to scavenge the place. Recognition lit up when he saw the fence I had described, where the horses escaped. He had found my place and he knew it. My face blushed as I debated whether if I should steal a horse and run.
After seeing no noble woman around for miles, the King stopped in front of me. He studied my bare toned legs.
He asked, "Where are the noble women?"
I said not a word.
"This one, this stable boy," he declared making eye contact with everyone but me. "He will raise my purebred steed."
I said quiet farewells to my parents and lived at the castle. Since then, I still had not said a word to the King. I was clothed in golden attire, and I worked in the finest stable. The royal steed was so purebred with majestic hair, I questioned my reality.
The King gave another order. I was to have dinner in the dining hall with him. I complied. There were many smoldering candles. A violinist played in one corner and an organist played down the hall. We had a feast of turkeys and pheasants and goblets of blood red wine. Again, he hungrily asked me questions about noble women who might have visited my stable.
"I don't know, your Highness."
The King's ears perked at my familiar voice. He scarfed down his meal and left his plate clean. "Stable boy, tell me your name."
"Leo."
The King tasted the sound of my name, rolling it over his tongue. "I am going to make you a knight. Do you have any objections, Leo?"
I silently shook my head. He chuckled sardonically, but I did not know at what.
Tigris gave his next order: a game of chess.
My heart dropped. Was he an avid chess player or was this revenge? My neck itched at the barraging thought of the executioner and his towering unsharpened axe.
We sat at the roaring fire, and the King kept eyeing his bed. He looked lonely, reminiscing his favorite legs. We began making careful moves before he brooded and gave me an order.
"Make a wish, one thing you desire, anything in the world that I can acquire."
My mind drew a blank, but he interrupted, "Don't tell me yet. Only tell me if you win. If I win, I'll tell you mine."
"What would a stable boy have that a king doesn't?" I teased but he wasn't laughing.
In a way, I was frightened but at least this time, I wasn't held back and can really try to beat the Tiger King at chess. Maybe I could make him cry. So we played.
We talked about how we missed our parents. Him, more so. I had a lump in my throat, but still took his bishop. Then out of curiosity, I asked if he had loved before.
"Ever? No." He confessed he had never until the masquerade, the one who he knew he wanted to spend the rest of his life with. My heart pounded and ached. So I had toyed with his emotions after all. I was a horrible and most terrible villain...
I made a mistake and let my King open to kill. The King said, "Checkmate."
I gulped. He said, "I know it was you. You're the mysterious satin lady." My eyes teared up. Well, this only meant my beheading. He continued his tormenting tone, "My wish is to know what you would have wished for."
"Forgive me," I insisted of the King.
"Forgive you? I love you."
The Tiger King and I locked lips by the fire, in his empty castle of smoldering candles, atop mountains and cascading creeks, under the million shooting stars.
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