Drink Deep

Ch15: Repeat Smetikakat

The trip back to the capital was quiet and understated, as the king requested. It was to keep the Queen's last hours with family instead of making it a state affair. To honor his request, she told the statue to make himself scarce unless needed.

Leena made it in long enough to share a brief hug with her mother, and both shed tears about years lost. Then the queen relaxed enough to pass, knowing that her family had been reunited.

What there hadn't been was time to find out what her mother had written her over the years. That would be lost in death.

Andrej wasn't as golden. His hair had thinned some, but not enough to call him bald. In his grief, he gathered his wife into his arms and sat silently on their bed, weeping. Their private physician hovered nearby.

Laszlo was tall and thin, much like Leena was. He didn't stay still long enough for her to take his changes in, like father did. He dropped his pitch to not disturb the king. "Why haven't you written us?"

"I had an interfering servant who kept conveniently misplacing correspondence." Leena didn't see the point in hiding all the history of Iva, as the truth was more convenient. But years of being half-starved, how she won in the end? Those were her own worries to keep between her and her betrothed. Probably half his camp suspected. They weren't here, spreading whispers of demons and madness to the king.

"Well, I hope she was discharged from her duties." Laszlo ruffled his sister's hair. "Let's step out and see that fiancé of yours, leave dad alone for a bit."

Leena nodded, still sniffling. Knowing her betrothed, he waited in the halls, as he was both family and stranger alike. After years of helping lords on the northern borders, she knew that they would start clamoring for dominance soon. Queen Nadia's burial wouldn't stop them. The only reason she wasn't an easy card to play in their gambles was due to one very incompetent husband to be.

Unless she let the statue free.

It was tempting, for her to run away and do everything for herself.

So Laszlo and Andrik spoke of the years that passed, while Leena studied both of them. They loitered until the physician called the duke into their mother's chambers.

Leena let her brother lead her to his favorite hiding place, one he had discovered since she left home.

It was a small, secret room that overlooked what was usually called The Lord's Hall. That is, a petition room, where servants waited on those who had status but couldn't barge into the King's presence.

"Well, this is unexpected," Laszlo whispered.

One loud boor's voice (perhaps Juzny-Vietor) boomed above the grumbling. "Why are you still setting out to petition King Andrej to take on a new wife? Nadia is dying, but he's been stubborn about additional women since his father's murderous ways. It's saved your daughter's lives that he ignored them."

She noticed that he had dropped Mother's honorific, showing his disdain for her heritage.

"Then what do you suggest? We can't wait for the son to grow into a man. Who would marry off a boy barely in his teens to a grown woman more suited for Andrej himself?"

"The daughter..."

"Is the same age."

"Your wife was 13 when you married her!"

"Aye, and she died in childbirth because she was too young! I do not want my sons to endure a child!"

"It's all hopeless. She's betrothed to that young fool, Andrik Vrchovina."

"A lord of no lands. If my informant is correct, the man has no interest in the girl. Perhaps he'd even let a worthy man abduct her."

"You're speaking treason!"