Sunday's Child(25)
Andor touched the air where the saint disappeared completely. One firefly light lingered. “And all the stars look down,” he replied. “Until next year, my friend.”
END
Prologue
My dearest friend,
It’s been long months since I’ve felt the warmth of the sun. Many would envy my position—a queen, and one who will soon bear the heir to a throne. But this place...it is desolate. The baby leeches the strength from me. My consolation is I no longer have to suffer the king’s touch. You know my heart. I want to go home but cannot. I implore you, Castil, travel north. You are the sister of my heart, and now, more than ever, I need you and your laughter. Don’t wait to reply. The last ships leave for Helenrisia at autumn’s waning. I’ve sent coin to speed your journey. I await you with hope.
Kareena
1
The wind spun hard off the sea as the ship neared the jagged coastline, buffeting Castil il Veras as she huddled within her cloak’s meager warmth. In the distance, a small village clung like lichen to the sloping face of the cliffs. Beyond the quays lay the white lands and the fabled fortress of the snow kings. And there Kareena resided, a lonely queen.
Sails flapped hard above Castil’s head, giant wings beating restlessly from the wind gusting off the water. It was much more comfortable in her tiny cabin, but at the first sighting of Helenrisia’s far shores, she tossed her cloak around her shoulders and ran up to the deck. Weeks of endless sailing, its monotony broken only by periodic bouts of sea sickness, had finally come to an end.
Kareena’s letter, tattered at the corners from multiple readings, lay safely within the depths of Castil’s satchel. A messenger had delivered it and a letter of credit to her father, who frowned at the sight of the Helenese royal seal. Castil, fearing the worst, breathed an audible sigh of relief when she saw Kareena’s sweeping scrawl. That relief quickly evaporated as she read the missive, the despair and loneliness in the words. There had been little to mull over. They had been best friends since childhood despite their difference in rank, and Kareena needed her.
Devilos Veras read the letter and turned a troubled a gaze on his daughter. “If you go now, you’ll be trapped there for months, and they say Helenrisia is an inhospitable place in winter.”
She shrugged. “I would stay that long regardless, Father. It’s a long trip, and Kareena will want me with her for more than a few days.”
He said no more about it, only made arrangements with the captain of the Estarta to transport his daughter safely north.
The ship sailed ever closer, and it seemed to Castil as if the lay of the land remained obscured. Shore met sky in an endless expanse of snow-ladened gray, the icy water reflecting the color of a dulled sword blade. No wonder Kareena, always a lover of the long Caskadanian summers, called her new home desolate.
Castil missed her despondent friend, alone in a strange land and bound to a man many considered cursed. The marriage between Kareena il Marcam and Doranis of House Alisdane had been arranged since before Kareena was released from her nanny’s lead strings.
Sons and daughters of the greater boyars were regularly married off to royalty and aristocracy of other countries. Kareena was no exception. Marital ties to the Helenese royal family promised profitable returns in trade as well as political influence in two courts.
Castil recalled the wedding and its subsequent celebrations. Kareena, raised to understand her duty as the only child of a powerful nobleman, had been stoic regarding her fate. Only as the time neared for the wedding and her first meeting with her future husband did she voice any concerns to Castil.
“They say he is cursed. Marked by the Wastelands and their magic.” She shuddered. “What if he is a hideous, misshapen creature? And I will have to bed him.”
Castil patted her arm, offering whatever comfort she could. “No one has seen him, Kareena. You know how rumor starts. And if he is unhandsome but kind, will it be so bad?” The words sounded patronizing to her ears, for it wasn’t she who would soon be sold into the marriage. Yet her words soothed Kareena who smiled weakly and nodded.
“No, not so bad. And I can always close my eyes and imagine that it’s Farnoush Salbata who beds me.”
“Kareena!” Castil laughed and soon they both forgot the upcoming nuptials and the arrival of the mysterious Helenese king.
None of their conjectures prepared them for the reality of Doranis of Helenrisia. When the Caskadanian court assembled to greet the Helenese delegation, no one knew what to expect. The Great Hall settled into a waiting hush as the visitors filed in to stand next to Caskadan’s overlord. The Helenese delegation consisted of men of great height and slim stature, who wore their black hair long and loose. Their dark eyes scrutinized the staring crowd from pale faces showing no emotion.
Castil thought them a handsome people with their refined features and dignified demeanor. While regal in their bearing, none bore the stamp of sovereignty on either their somber clothing or their features.
Her assumption that Doranis had not yet entered the chamber was confirmed when the herald announced his name, and all bowed in respectful greeting. Wedged between her father and the sour-smelling Dame Nibs, Castil wasn’t able to move closer for a better look. What she did see took her breath away, and her eyes widened at the sight of the magus king from the far north.