Chapter 2: Born to give birth

Chapter 2:

I hear the clung of the metal, echoing through the walls of the palace, and my tiny eyes shoot up in excitement. Sherlin holds onto my hair braiding them, making me all prim and proper.  I swat her hands pumping my small feet to make a run through the palace to the training ground.

I see my dad -King Adrian, fight with a soldier twice his size, all unfazed by the size of the person in front of him. His eyes are fierce, they seep with energy that can mesmerize you on the battlefield rendering you weak in the knees. His gaze zeroes on the soldier, and the soldier whimpers. His eyes look all hazy in contemplation of how he could hit the king.

“Don't go easy because it’s a training ground, or because I am the king”, dad’s voice echoes through the ground.

The soldier nods his head charging at him. I prop my elbows on my knees sitting on the haystack against the ring of the training ground staring at them in awe.

“The king has gone mad, he won't be able to beat him.”, two soldiers whisper, their laughs piercing right next to me. They look at me weird and I revert my gaze as fear creeps me at the sight. Their stares don't leave me, my skin sprinkles with goosebumps, and I want to hide behind the haystack from their gaze. Dipping my hands on both sides, I attempt to run, but a familiar voice calms my nerves. Evander runs to me, his sword bobbing against his armor, and I feel safe.

“Princess Adria, I told you not to go alone anywhere. It is dangerous.”, my eyelids flutter as I look at him with a pout on my lips. I don't understand what can be dangerous in your own house. Yet, I am relieved now, I don't have to run, Evander will protect me.

My eyes rise under my lashes the soldiers visible in the periphery of my vision. Their eyes are now filled with fear as they see E.

He is strong, they should fear him.

A smile adorns my lips, I hear the swords hit each other, the voice sending shivers down me. The sight in the front is breathtaking, dad slashes and swings the sword in the air, attacking, defending, doing flips. He dodges the attacks in quick moments, his body folding in half even in the air. The air slashes with thunder, a final blow, and the muscled man rise through the air meeting the ground.

I get up from my place hooting, cheering, clapping my tiny hands, the eyes of the entire crowd zoned on me. Dad sees me and he trudges my way.

“Adria, what are you doing here”, he says with a small smile ruffling my hair.

“I wanted to see you fight.”, he laughs at the excitement I show.

“Dad, can I also fight”, I say. My eyes travel to the sword in his hand. Sharp, beautiful.

He settles on the haystack, making me sit with him caressing the locks on my head.

“And why does my princess want to fight. You are a princess, let your dad protect you, and when you grow up you will have a strong husband that will protect you. You don't have to learn to fight.”, he says and my pout deepens.

My shoulder slump and I raise my finger pointing to the soldiers around me “But dad… I want to be strong. Like you. Like E, I want them all to respect me.”.

“Come on Adria. Princesses are elegant, beautiful, and learn how to make a family. That will be your strength. They all”, he points to the same soldiers, “will respect you. You are the princess after all.”

“Please, dad. I want to learn how to fight.”, I say taking his palm in my hands and shaking it from side to side.

“Ok, fine. Fine. Evander will teach you how to fight”, he looks at E, to only receive a nod from him.

“My sword”, I say. “I want it made like yours”. Our family had a tradition to create a sword for the soldiers according to their needs.

“Come on princess. You are only 10. I promise we will make you a sword when you learn to fight. Till then, you can use your grandpa’s sword.”

“Princess Adria”, I hear Max’s voice. “The Queen is expecting you at the dining table.”

“Sherlin, can you wait outside”, I say eyeing her with a command. She nods.

I open my eyes to look at him - his mask of the perfect guard all shed. I sigh, not wanting to go there.

“Cant I skip it Max”, I say closing my eyes again.

“Adria, you know you can’t”, he says as he scoots near the tub settling himself on the platform besides.

“I don't want to get married Max, not now. Maybe Never.”, his hands rub my temple. His warm hands smoothen the pinch between my eyebrows. They rub the spot in a gentle circle, my body nuzzling against his skin.

“Then don't! You have to go there, listen to them, and reject whoever comes to you. Simple!”, he says as if he doesn't understand the sincerity of the situation. I stare at him, and he laughs. I roll my eyes.

“Whatever. ”, I splash my hands in the water and get up from the warm bath. Max covers me with a clean cloth letting me out of the bath.

Sherlin runs her way to reach me, drying me up with the steam rising from all the essential herbs she put in the earthen vessels.

“Tell them I will be there in an hour,” I say eyeing Max, he bows down leaving the chambers.

I sit in front of the giant mirror taking in my reflection.

My skin has a hue of red spread across it, Sherlin slides the cloth steaming my entire body with the heat running down from the earthen vessel. I meet my eyes in the reflection - brown, almond-shaped. Men who come to ask for my hand, say they like them, but they never look at them. Their eyes always trail below my face - to the full breasts peeking through my gown, or the slim waist covered with sheer cloth. They never look at my face, they look at my body.

I snort looking at myself. Perfect. They call me a perfect wife, just through the beauty.

Sherlin looks at me through the mirror asking, “What are you thinking princess Adria?”. I look at her holding a full-length gown. I slip into it looking myself in the mirror.

“Why does every dress have a sinched sheer waistline, and a neck that barely hides what’s underneath?”, I ask Sherlin taking in the design of the millionth dress I have owned with the same concept.

“It helps to show the beauty. A slim waist and good full breasts represent the beauty of a woman. It also helps to keep a man satisfied.”, she says explaining atrocious facts right in my face. I laugh looking at her. How naive is she to not understand it isn’t about beauty, it’s all about lust? I shake my head as she finishes adorning me with all the jewels, lathering the scented concoction on my body.

The doors to my chamber slide open, my feet trudging to the edge of the door when I see Max stationed in his position. My back rests as a view to his eyes, they burning along the small of my neck, and I twist on my to hold them in me,

“Arrange me two men for tonight. You know my preference.”, his eyes turn a dark shade of green, not approving my decisions. The distant beat of my heart now drums through my ears, but I make every attempt to not seem fazed at his attention.

“Oh come on don't show me that face. It's gonna be a bitter day at the table, so a long night will do the compensation.”, I wink at him grinning my way into the dining hall.

There sits the queen. Her voice echoes through the dining hall, as she commands every person to do the job, they have been doing for the past, I don't know… past eighteen years or even more. The lady in a white dress covered in a neatly folded apron scowls as she turns her back to my mother.

My mother isn’t the calm, poised queen you expect her to be - except when she is in front of the council. She is fierce and loves to throw her status in the face of the people who can never answer her back. Which is particularly everyone in the kingdom.

She is the exact opposite of dad. He is calm, contemplating his every move, wicked in his ways. He believes refusal builds rebels, so the best way to tackle anything is acceptance in the hardest way. It makes a person give up, and when you give up, he gets his way.

He did the same to me when I was ten, he gave me the heaviest, most unused, and rusted sword any person has ever seen. It was my grandfather’s sword, a sword that fought for generations to pack the wealth. It wasn’t preserved, because grandfather was stabbed with the same sword.

The sword was heavy, and ten years old I could barely lift it above my head, but I didn't give up. If my father was stubborn, I was his daughter. So, I learned to fight with it. Evander helped me a lot, he helped me clean the sword. I used to brush it every day with oil, and copper until my tiny hands had blisters, but the beauty that came out of the sword was ethereal. It was nothing compared to all the melange steel, it was pure. The purest sword you could ever find in ten kingdoms.

I dip my head up, my chin pointed to the sky-high chandelier, I miss E.  He was the strongest and the purest man I ever met, but he died. Last year he disappeared into nothing, and all I know when Max replaced him is he died.

A clutter spreads across the room, and the chip of the smashed plate lands near my feet. My mom rises from her seat with a fierce look, her gaze pinned on the lady.

“Mom”, I say distracting her.

I walk towards her avoiding the shards. There will be enough in her words today.

“Princess Adria,  have a seat.”, she says her eyes softening for a second then turning stern looking at my back.

“Mom you wanted to talk to me”, I say pulling her into the conversation.

“Princess Adria, I wanted to tell you that you will be meeting the king of the north tomorrow. He is a great person, and a perfect match for you.”, she says placing her hand on mine.

“Mom…”, but before I could finish a sentence she silenced me.

“Adria, dad is not getting any better. He needs to see his daughter getting married to someone good.”, she says. Moisture seeps through the corner of her eyes. The tears are undefeatable, and so I nod my head in agreement.

“I’ll meet him.”, I say brushing the tears away from her cheeks. She smiles instantly at my approval, settling in her chair. She props the wine glass to her lips sipping the content, and she dips her head back, closing her eyes.

Her skin feels pale, the lines around her eyes running in deep circles across her face. The eyebrows pinch in the center of her forehead, she has grown more tired than the last time I saw her.

Dad got bedridden six months ago. He returned from a war a year back when my mom got pregnant after a long time. She happily announced the news to the entire kingdom, but all I know is she failed to give birth. The child died in her womb, and she went hysteric - so was the entire kingdom.

Six months later, dad began losing weight. His energy dipped, as bones began to peek through his muscles, and he kept getting worse every day, until today when he can't even leave his bed. The healer doesn't know what happened, and even if he does he never told me.

It’s like I don't know my family. Every news I get passes through the people working for us. No one knows what goes inside the palace - at least not the actual owners.

“I saw you fighting in the garden today”, my mom says her eyes closed, her elbow resting on the table. “I told you, princesses don't fight. You should stop it.”

“I don’t want to stop it.”, I whisper. I knew this was going to come up. It's like every imaginable dinner conversation my mother ever comes up with.

“Princess Adria, you are supposed to be poised, elegant. Not fight with men. ”, her voice raises a pitch higher, before toning back.

“I want you to take the stitching lessons, tomorrow. You would need to knit them for your kids. Probably the hire to the kingdom of the North, even the east. You know you are our only child, and you have the responsibility to give birth to a boy to rule the kingdom after your father.”.

I sigh.

The entire content of her speech is etched in my memory. The only change is the change in the direction of the kingdom. I nod my head not wanting to fight with her - it always falls on deaf ears.

I stab at the food on the plate plopping a cherry tomato in my mouth. All I have learned since I was fifteen was, that I was born to make a hire. They never told me that I am the only child of King Adrian and that I would rule the kingdom. It was always about growing up, getting the perfect husband, and spending all my life in his arms. Even if he has concubines -like my father. My mother - the queen was never truly respected, it was only the status that brought the power with it. Else, all the men in the town sexualized her, even today; for the good looks, she carried from the western kingdom. They bowed to her, only to fantasize about what was underneath her skirt.

I don't want to be such a queen, to any north kingdom. I am powerful, and I will make sure everyone knows it - knows the respect I deserve.