My Beloved Queen

CHAPTER ONE

i. the princess

daughter
// light are her footsteps, and feathery is her voice. her feet make hardly an imprint in the sand, and her words leave less than a dent in one's mind.

————

There was no dust in the king's study. The servants kept it nice and clean—free of dirt and disarray. All the books were alphabetized and stacked away neatly on the oaken shelves, and the set of swords your father kept mounted above the mantel had been polished.

You could see your reflection in the metal blades—warped and distorted, poking out from behind your father and the stranger standing at his side. An eloquent stranger, whose narrowed, calculating eyes had latched themselves upon your face the moment you had stepped inside your father's study. They sized you up, those eyes. They cut you down—tried to divest you of your barriers, your mask, so they could see you for what you really were.

They were unkind, those eyes. Horribly, horribly unkind.

"You called for me, father?" You tried not to look at the unkind stranger, or at his clothes. The style was foreign but familiar; you knew the kingdom it hailed from. You heard stories of it—of the king who ruled it. Terrible, terrible stories.

The king's gaze lifted from the papers laid out atop his desk and met yours with hesitance. "Yes, I did—I did." Your father moved, flattening his silk clothes with a careful, nervous hand. Something swam in his weary, somber eyes—something like guilt. Or was it relief? "[Name], this is Ambassador Nivai, from the Ceorid Kingdom. He's come with a...peace proposal, from King Orelus." Your father gestured to the stranger with unkind eyes and then, with a little smile, swallowed. "He expressed a desire to meet you before making the agreement."

"Indeed I did," the man with unkind eyes spoke up. His voice was just like you might've imagined—cool and clipped, with an acridness that reminded you of snake venom. Violent and stinging and clean. This was a man who used silk to wipe the blood off of his blades. "A pleasure to meet you, Princess [Name]."

The man bowed to you, and you watched as his dark brown hair fell forward, shadowing his movements. Your father's eyes widened at Ambassador Nivai's actions, and, quickly, he gestured at you. You hurried to decipher, and then follow, his commands, and without putting much thought into what you were doing (besides hoping to please your father), you moved closer to the ambassador.

Nivai grabbed your hand when it was within reach, and then he lifted it up to his lips before standing back at his full height. He was a tall man. A tall man with vibrant, unkind eyes. He stood above your father and yourself, and the added height did nothing to help the feeling that he was peering down at you, scrutinizing you like an insect.

Like a stain on his silken clothes.

"Hmn—so your face does live up to your father's boasts," Nivai commented offhandedly. "How nice. It's rather hard to find that kind of honesty nowadays."

A flush rose to your father's face at Ambassador Nivai's words, but Nivai himself looked unperturbed, undisturbed by his blunt comment.

"Yes, I, uh, guess it is," your father replied. He patted his chest nervously again, anxiously fingering the buttons on his shirt.

"Especially when you're trying to secure marriage contracts," Ambassador Nivai added, continuing like your father hadn't spoken. His voice cut through the air like a sharp, well-thrown knife, and the more you heard it, the harder it became to keep your expression neutral. "No one shuts up about how beautiful their daughters are then."