Four

I have been lenient with Arius, too lenient. The black eye he spotted was not enough to reduce my anger. I was not going to take trash from his sister! 

“Can you believe that this is the person who is expected to give us new heirs? What a joke.” Vala mumbled into her cup as Arius rubbed his brow but he didn’t say anything to stop her. 

“Yeah, you want to know what a bigger joke is? You going to be someone else wife and mother. What are you going to teach your children, how to leech off their uncles?” I asked, talking into my goblet too. 

At my words, the room went quiet and then exploded into a flurry of activities as Kastav, the brother I am worried about rushed to hold his sister, while his sister shrieked and gripped the table knife and came at me. 

“The next time you grip a knife to face me, I will take you up on that offer.” I stared at her in the face. 

“You think that you are amazing and that you have a right to be here when the truth is that you don’t. You are not one of us...”  

“And I don’t want to be. Not when it means being as awful as you are right now.” 

“You cannot compare your skill to any of our warriors. Or me even if I am not a warrior, that is how inferior you are. I am just stating the truth.” Vala pushed her brother away and came at me again.

“If you raise your hand against my wife, you will be whipped sister.” Arius finally said but his words were not enough to pacify me, I was still seriously tempted to bury my own table knife in her eyes. 

“And you Gwenn, you should know better than try to rise up to the bait, you know that it …” 

“If you continue talking, I will give you a matching black eye.” I threatened and Arius sighed but he kept his mouth shut. 

“Where is Silana?” Another sister asks.

“Who knows where that girl is, she does things in her head and according to her own timetable. She is so odd.” Vastae answered, I know of this one name because she was the second most awful sister after Vala. 

“What about Faye?” The first one who asked about Silana, asked again and this time, the room went silent. Even the maids who were serving froze while serving. Everybody was avoiding my eyes. 

Arius went red in face. 

“Who knows, someone should ask the King, after all. She is his favorite.” Vastae said with relish while looking at me. 

“I cannot bring anybody around you girls. Meal over. The rest of the royal females are to go without food tonight except the queen who will be served in her room and Silana whenever she is ready to eat.” Arius ordered as his sisters started protesting.

“Silence.” He ordered and they kept quiet although their looks were mutinous. 

Meal was over, I stood up to walk back to my room, my mind kept on circling back to the fact that Silana was his sister but who was Faye? She certainly cannot be a sister or that reaction would not have been that intense.

The fact became prominent when I heard Vala add. “You can keep us away from her but you won’t be able to stop the rumors from getting to her as long as she is in the palace.”

“No, I can’t but I will bloody try.” Arius vowed. 

***********

My mind was still thinking what that scene was about when I got to my room, waiting for my meal to be served. I needed to recalculate what I want to achieve because I meant what I said to Themis when I told her that nothing can harm my husband, the only person that has right to do that is me and that is because he is mine. 

The door of my room opened without a knock as two maidens entered my room. We would call them Servants in Dar but here, they are called Nisses. 

I don’t know what Arius was shouting about when it is clear that all I need is to just be around and I would catch up quickly, I mean I have been here for less than a day and I already know a touchy name, Faye. 

“Can I help you?” I asked them. One of them, tried to make her body look small and invisible like she was supposed to do her job effectively and it would be better done if she was not heard or seen. The other was not with any tray, neither did she help the first one whose arms was over flowing with bowls which I knew contain my meal. I moved to help her and she actually looked scandalized over the fact that I wanted to render help to her. 

“Your meal, your majesty.” The girl said softly after dropping everything on the table close to my bed while the other rolled her eyes at the action of the girl. 

“Who are you?” I asked, My eyes was on the girl who was trying to be invisible but my words were directed at the girl who was standing like she owned the space I was in. 

The three of us knew who my words were directed to. 

“I am a Mareikura. The King’s favorite who he calls to attend his needs.” The girl said with relish in her voice, like her words were supposed to have a suggested effect on me. It would have if I knew the meaning of a Mareikura and if I didn’t know that Arius did not have a concubine, he promised be mine and just mine. Themis had the sense to add that to the list of requests for the marriage. 

“What is a Mareikura?” I asked the other in the room. 

“An attendant of the king. I am a Nisse, a normal servant.” The maid bowed. 

“So that means that you are a servant but a fancy title?” I asked the Mareikura who lost her smile at my words. 

“What information does my husband want to pass to me that he sent his attendant?” 

“You think you are so special but you are nothing and you mean nothing to him. You will not remain in your position for long.” She growled as she walked out of my room and shut the door with a bang. 

“Who is she?” I asked the Nisse who looked like she was caught between the devil and the deep sea when she does not know how to swim. “Never mind, forget I said anything.”

She nodded and walked to the door. Getting there she turned to face me. “There will be many thorns opposing to you as the queen of Northshore. She will be one of the most significant ones.” The maid ran out after her words and I paused. 

Enemies are all around me, there is no friendly face around me at all. What kind of new home did I found myself in?

****************

Arius 

“What were you thinking? Why on earth would you show yourself in the presence of my queen, did you mistakenly lose your sense of reasoning?” I growled as I shook Faye with her shoulders. 

“I wanted to see what is so special about your queen?” Faye grumbled out when I stopped shaking her. Her arms went to my waist as she squeezed out some tears. “I am so sorry My All, I want to see who my competition for your affections is. I don’t want share you with anyone, least of all, a foreigner.” Faye spat out the word foreigner like it is the biggest insult she could think of. 

“That will be the last time you try to disrespect my wife in my presence.” I warned her, Faye’s brow pulled down. 

“My King?” She questioned. 

“Whatever I did with you should have never been done and you are aware of this truth. I want you to keep that at the back of your mind when you see Gwenn again. Her temper is volatile and I would do nothing to stop her from punishing you when you deserve it.” I warned Faye. 

Her features was exotic even among us and we were considered an exotic race. I knew for a fact that she had used her face and shapely body to get whatever she wanted from me since I fell victim to her but this time, she went too bloody far. 

I fell into her bed on a lonely night, when the stress of the kingdom and the faceless people who poisoned my father got to me. And since then, I have been weak to succumb to her charms every time she smiled at me. 

It was an open secret that the whole Palace was aware of. Faye was my mistress. She fancies herself as my concubine but I know that Faye will be the death of me. I don’t want a concubine, I just need someone whose loyalty to me is strong and can be proven. 

That was the reason why Gwenn was a valid choice, I have forced my people into accepting me, my marriage with her secured my position, she might be a foreigner but they knew she was the lesser of the two evils in the route I have forced them in, after all a foreigner was still better than tens of thousands of foreigners and that is what it will come to when Gwenn gives a cry that her husband position has been taken from him. 

It is a fantastical dream to think she might love me in the future and I knew I was going to opposite way to enable us live peacefully at least by getting a mistress but I was weak. 

When tears spilled from Faye eyes, I turned my face away from hers. “You should know better than to come to my room when she is around. Leave.” I ordered. 

This time she released a sob as she turned to run out of the room only for her to bump into someone at my door. 

“Prince Kastav.” She gasped as she bowed fully to him before skirting away from him and leaving the room. 

“You are very lucky brother, to have such beautiful women as yours.” He raised an eyebrow at me. “Is it wise for you to be meeting with your mistress when your wife is just two doors away?” 

Not one to admit it when I knew I had made a mistake, I shrugged. “Gwenn is not yet ready for me, she will be when she relocates here, as for now. I had an itch I needed to scratch. No big deal.”  

Kastav nodded and moved into a topic, the topic why he was here, I gave all the necessary replies while hoping that Gwenn will not hear of my replies and draw her own conclusion.