CHAPTER TWO
Days of blissful frolicking in the plains had been replaced by hours of weeping. Joyous conversations with her ladies now forgotten in the wake of being separated from the prince. Uonata sat pruning in a bath whose water grew cold, her thoughts lost in her depressive state. Days in the castle had grown increasingly dark. Raxsies would not look at her, he even refused to speak to her more often than not.
The princess sat pondering if life was worth living anymore. Without him she had nothing left, no one to defend her worth to the men of the world. She had no one else to turn to. The queen her mother, had died while in childbed. The feeling of loss was something the princess carried with her daily yet, the loss of her elder brother seemed too much to carry.
Swollen lids enveloped her eyes from nights of crying, the thought of being forgotten lingering still. When pressed with the question of her state, she used her pending betrothal as a needed shield. Sleep no longer stood her friend but her torturer. No rest would come, leaving her youthful appearance darkened and weak.
“I wish to be free of this pain,” she spoke silently. “I wish to be held in his arms, hidden from the lash of my father’s rule.” Her vision shifted onto the window before her. She closed her eyes and began to daydream. In a perfect world she shoved it open, and from its railings she jumped. Wings sprouted from her back carrying her away from Morgeideign and the restrictions it forced on her.
A rhythmic knock fell onto her door prying her out of her dream. The young woman knew the sound well, it was the knock only she and her brother shared. He used it when visiting her bedchambers on the nights he wished to educate her on the subject of a woman’s duties. Suddenly life blew breath into the girl and she shot upward from the water. Had her prayers been answered? Until that moment she feared the gods had forsaken her for her sins and turned a deaf ear to her pleading. Her feet carried her across the room to her robes. She pulled them around her, securing them with a satin tie. She swung the door open and in came the prince.
His eyes locked with her grey ones as he slid the door shut. His hands rushed into her curls as he kissed her. There was a famished hunger in his affections, one that now fled through the princess. Her steps fell backward until her back was hugged by her bed linens.
Raxsies scanned over the reddened hue of her face. “You have been weeping? I pray not due to my horrid actions toward you recently. I have found my courage to come and plead for your forgiveness,” his palms turned to fists in her strands. “I love you more than I know how to express. That weakness has led me to hurting you in the stead of attempting to find the proper words. Could you ever come to forgive my insalubrious actions?”
“Of course, I would forgive you a thousand times if it meant we would remain together. I know what we share is wrong, yet our love blossoms. Your guidance and approval are all I have ever known in a world where I am viewed as a vessel to be sold. Father grows ever hardened to my needs and sadly Exsidious and I have never been close. I wish I could be a woman untarnished by the acts of incest but, I do not regret what we have done. Nor do I want to be parted from you.”
The prince rolled over onto his side, propping his weight atop his elbow. He stared at her letting her words sink in. “My words the other evening were only spoken to protect us both. I did not mean to hurt you. We both know the penalty for our actions are death by dragon fire or crucifixion, if not both. I would rather see you claimed by another than witness you suffer such a fate.”
“Raxsies…I would happily take death by the hand to meet you in the underworld. Only there could we truly be together. The death dragon fire brings would be a welcomed pleasure in absence of having your gaze on me grow hollow and cold. We are not the only beings in this world who commit the sins that we have. Nor shall we be the last. I own the demerits I have willingly placed on my soul for you. I would burn down this world if it meant being in your arms.”
“How sweet and innocently naive you are dear sister. Your words have deeply burrowed into the strands of my heart. To hear that you think you would ever amount to more than a wife and mother is proof you need my protecting. You could never burn down this world or any other, such are the rights of men. You may be promised to Alo’car but you will forever be mine. No matter who spreads your legs, no matter whose child suckles at your breast I was the first man you knew in the marital way.”
As always, the words Raxsies spoke both warmed and chilled her. He often spoke in ways that felt as harsh as the lash of a whip only to be lulled by a tongue as sweet as honey. Deep down Uonata wanted more than a life of motherhood and silence. Sadly in her fathers world such dreams were unattainable.
“Raxsies, I don’t wish to marry this man. I wish to run away from Morgeideign with you. Your skills in battle and dragon riding could easily protect us.”
“What would you have me do? Slay our father and be forever branded by the title Prince of Patricide. No one would back my claim to the throne even being the firstborn heir. The court and our people would see us killed and Exsidious anointed with the crown. What life would we have without this kingdom? We would be nothing,” Uonata sat up and bit her lower lip. Her eyes fell to his lap, something he taught her to do when asking permission to converse on the matters of men. “Speak my love and see your thoughts considered.”
“We may not be rich, or even remain royals of note, but we would have each other. That is all that matters. To have you at my side to cherish and guide me. To have those things is to be wealthy in my eyes.”
A scoff passed the prince’s lips. “You are so credulous. Though such a personality is to be expected of women. We keep you that way to shield you from the grotesque nature of the world. I was born to rule Morgeideign when father dies. It is my birthright, one that I will not surrender for you or any other woman. Upon my coronation I would present you as my wife. I would rewrite the laws to have it so. The opinions of those beneath us would no longer matter when met with the might that stirs beneath our castle. All you need is a bit of patience.”
“Your words weigh heavy on the heart brother. How do I know that after my wedding you will not see me replaced with another more favorable?”
“You worry over the smallest things Uonata. Have you not yet learned that I chose you. You belong to me and will until you take your last breath. I have made it so and will see such burned back into your mind this night.”
The prince laid her back into the fabrics, pulling the veils around her bed closed. One breath blew the candle near her bed out, leaving the pair to share the darkness of night for what seemed like a final time.
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