Alliance by Marriage

Chapter 11

It's early morning when a single horn blast sounds over the ship. I sit up on my bed and listen to the distant cheerful cries coming from somewhere up on the deck. Then, I smile.

After weeks at sea, we have finally reached our destination.

I get dressed and leave the room. The guards follow me to the main deck, where a few dozen sailors and soldiers have already assembled, gazing at the outlines of the island in the distance, the green of its forests and the black of its mountains still blurred by the morning fog. It will clear up in a few hours, and then the city will become visible as well.

I head to the forecastle deck and find Sagaristio and Messenio there. They nod at me before turning back to the growing land in the distance.

It's a relief, seeing our native shores. With the Choret sea, nothing can be taken for granted, and we have been lucky to not encounter a single storm on our way back. I look right and left, surveying the ships of my armada heading to the shore—majestic, unscarred, heavy with the goods and the men who have obtained them.

Noticing a movement by my side, I glance to find that Emilio has joined us. He's clutching the railing with both hands, looking into the distance. He's spent most of our long trip in a self-imposed imprisonment in his cabin, only venturing to the upper deck a few times, clearly uncomfortable with the stares of the sailors and the jokes of Messenio. He avoided me as well, and only spoke when addressed.

For the most part, I left him alone, ordering for his food to be brought to his room. I have also ordered for the captive woman to be assigned as his personal servant, both for his convenience and in hopes that putting them together would eventually reveal how the two are connected.

"Really?" he said when I announced my decision to him. He eyed the woman, then me as I stood in the doorway of his cabin. "Having a servant would be nice. What will that cost me?"

"Just don't fuck her," I said, and he frowned, as if appalled by the suggestion. "The fact that I'm not touching you doesn't mean anyone else can."

He rolled his eyes and that was the end of it.

Now, he stands a safe distance from me, the morning breeze blowing his long hair out of his face. He looks even paler than when he first stepped onto the ship, the weeks spent in his cabin without any sunlight having taken their toll. Even in the beginning his pale and tender skin puzzled me. It was more suitable for a lady of the court, spending most of her time indoors, knitting, reading and gossiping. A young prince should have been riding, training, fighting and generally wreaking havoc out there with his friends, which usually comes with tan. At least that's how my youth has been spent—but perhaps he's less of an outdoors person.

The woman now stands a few steps behind him, her hands folded at her front, her eyes cast down. He must have taught her some manners, because she's not meeting my eye anymore, in contrast to her brazen staring from before. Now she looks tidy and tamed, a good servant girl, although the greying streaks in her hair testify that she's not much of a girl, and her stubbornly set chin—that she's not all that tamed.

I return my eyes to the island slowly growing in the distance.

"So," Emilio says after a while. "These are the great Midworld Islands?"

I don't like the mocking stress he puts on the word 'great' so I continue ignoring him.

"They don't look so great from here," he says. "The mountains of Atister are way higher than those." He points at the mountain range growing in the distance. "The peninsula of Theslam is wider than this one here, I'm sure."

"Your puppy is yappy today," remarks Messenio, who's standing to my left. I give him a strict look and turn to Emilio.

"The people of Atister and the people of Theslam are paying us taxes, just like the other kingdoms surrounding the Choret sea—including your own. It's not our size that makes us great. It's our strength."

"It's never the size," comments Messenio, and Sagaristio chuckles.

Emilio shrugs, still looking away. "It's a mystery to me why can't they all just rise against you."

"Well, they'd need a fleet for that, and you saw what happened when your father tried to build one." I gesture at him. "Your being here is one of the least bloody outcomes of it."

He sighs, leaning with his elbows on the railing and looking down.

"What's going to happen when we get there?" he says.

"Well, I have a kingdom to rule," I say. "It's going to be a few busy days, catching up with everything. So, I'm afraid I won't be able to give you much attention. I'm sure it upsets you immensely." He chuckles, and I continue: "But you will have enough company in my harem, so I'm sure you won't feel lonely."

He glances sideways. "Harem?"

"You knew I have a few wives, didn't you?"

"Yes, but I mean...do they all live together?"

"Yes," I say. "Like a big happy family." A big hair-pulling, face scratching, jealous family, but there's not need to say that out loud. He'll learn in his time.

"Won't I have a...place of my own?" He frowns.

"No," I say. "Sometimes I pick a favorite and she gets to live in a room adjacent to my chambers, but the others live together." I smile at his confusion. "Don't worry, you'll fit in perfectly."

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