The feast was ablaze with candlelight and music, the companions could hear the songs and smell the smoke long before they reached the hall. Something about the plucking of the lute was familiar, the musicians fingers were sensitive and passionate. Like music risen from a dream. Then a voice came out from the delicate calamity of instruments, a shudder passed through Lily. Her skin prickled with tension and delight. It couldn't be.
The group passed through into the ballroom and Lily's heart stopped, there he was, like some glistening symbol of devotion. Katherine gripped Lily's arm, she saw him too. Gustavo.
The heavenly singing stopped. Gustavo had seen Lily also, the remainder of the band continued to play, without the lute and his soaring voice they sounded shallow and flat. He stumbled forwards, Lily was all that he could see. All those months of pining and scrawling pathetic love notes upon trees were remedied by a smile. Gustavo cared not for courtly displays of restraint and decorum, he gripped Lily's dainty face and kissed her. Fire consumed their chests, it was as if they had been struck by lightning; the electricity made its way down to their roots. They were no longer in that ballroom, or that city, or even that world. There was nothing, simply nothing, but the other person and that place where their lips collided like ships of war.
The sound of a glass shattering from the other side of the room was deafening, every noble and servant alike was gawping at the spectacle. Katherines fair cheeks blushed deep pink as all eyes took her and her humiliation in. Thea beat her black lace fan against Lily's back in an attempt to cease their embarrassment but Lily was oblivious to all but Gustavo. Eventually the young couple came up for air.
Queen Thea dug her fingers into Lily's collarbone, it pained her but Lily stayed composed; suddenly remembering where she was.
"Away boy, you can have Lily later." Thea hissed at Gustavo, she was four inches taller than him, and her gaze was cold and lethal. Gustavo made a quick display of kissing Lily's hand, then bowed his head to the intimidating woman and disappeared back to his bandstand. The bard knew not who Thea was but could sense she was formidable. Thea's steely grip on Lily remained. Court was no place for romance. The ballroom slowly began to resume its movement and chatter, the fierce blunder of young love was easily forgotten.
"Lily, you go sit with my handmaids. I'm going to introduce Katherine to some important nobles." Lily bowed her head to Thea, glad to get a moment to recompose herself; though slightly irked at being sidelined. The Queen's handmaids moved in a group towards an empty side table and the lively jig resumed playing. Thea laced her left arm through Katherine's right one and then began to take a turn about the room.
"Try not to look anyone in the eye," Queen Thea whispered into Katherine's ear, "not till I've introduced you anyway." The feasting hall was illuminated by candlelight and the light of the hearth, the walls were decorated with colourful tapestries of orange and turquoise, as well as the skulls of animals found dead beyond the city walls. Rams, antelopes and elephants. The tables were crudely carved from dark wood. Lionesses prowled the rooms edges.
"How do you think they tamed the lionesses?" Thea muttered to Katherine as they watched a big cat stretch before the fire. The flower of the mountain shook her head and shrugged her shoulders.
"The men of this court will tell you some great legend about gaining the lionesses favour through courage in battle, but Ixia told me the truth. The cats realised a long time ago that it is better to be in man's thrall than to starve and die out in the desert. You are a lioness now princess." Thea let her fable hang in the air for a moment before moving onto the next important issue. "Come, I see Solomon."
Katherine's throat constricted as they approached the high table, there Solomon sat upon his wooden throne. He was muscular and hairy, older than Katherine but by no more than seven years; his face sported a curly black beard and obsidian eyes.
"Your majesties," Thea curtsied before the King and the prince, Katherine did the same. "May I introduce to you the beautiful Princess Katherine of the mountain." Solomon's expression shifted, his jaw tightened and his eyes seemed to darken.
"It's a pleasure to welcome you to my halls Princess." The desert King stood and bowed, though he had met Katherine before. The King nudged Solomon who was doing his best to avoid meeting Katherine's gaze; he had been dreading that day since Katherine's birth. With his fathers prompt he stood and kissed the back of Katherine's hand, his lips were dry and his beard was scratchy. They both wanted to run from each other and hide.
To him Katherine was barely more than a child, so frail and pale, she represented a world of uptight nobility he despised. Solomon valued his freedom above all else, he spent his days roaming the desert and hunting for antelope with his fierce warrior woman. He bathed in harsh sunlight and powerful love.
"Come, sit beside me princess." Solomon stiffly recited lines he had been fed. Before Katherine could move to the other side of the long table Thea gripped her arm and imparted some last whispers of advice,
"This is where I leave you Katherine, talk with him, be his friend; make him like you. Push for nothing more." The Queen of sunlight released her student and curtsied again to the King and the prince before fading into the shadows.
The flower of the mountain was lost, she new naught of her suitor and him nothing of her. She knew how he saw her, how he underestimated her. If only he could have seen the journey she had just embarked upon. They sat together in silence and stared forward, the quiet was heavy and expectant. The King cleared his throat and nudged Solomon's arm again, the drink had made him less subtle than he had hoped.
"How was your journey?" Prince Solomon asked in the driest, most uninterested tone he could muster. All the while he was glancing at a female guard; she surpassed his strength, and his fierceness. To him she was the sun. Katherine was determined to win him over, as per Queen Thea's advice.
"Long and difficult." Responded Katherine, wondering which anecdote would most delight his ears. "We passed through the forest of shadows, and saw the dwarf armies fighting in the wasteland." Katherine spoke into Solomon's ear, hoping to crack his hard exterior. Solomon pursed his lips and squinted at the dancers and their bright silks.
"I did not know the dwarves were at war. Who are they fighting?" Solomon still did not look at Katherine but at least she had piqued his interest.
"Queen Isolde, she captured us in her castle for almost a week." Solomon turned to face Katherine then, he searched her face for a lie but could find none. The intensity in his black eyes startled her.
"You met Queen Isolde?" Solomon's tone seemed mocking. Katherine nodded, her expression seemed earnest.
"What was she like? I've only heard stories from liars." It had not taken long for Katherine to snare him on her hook. Solomon looked back to the middle of the room again.
"Terrifying, beautiful, insane." The desert prince nodded,
"Yes, that's what I've heard. How did you escape her? I've heard she's ruthless." Solomon drank his ale.
"She is. But she does have her weaknesses. One of her servants freed us, and helped us into the mines, which we followed to the moors." The prince stroked his beard.
"Why would her servants turn against her?" Solomon had great interest in the politics of the world, and he saw the madness of Queen Isolde as a threat to peace. Everything he could learn about her was vital if he was to be King.
"They are slaves." Katherine replied, "Isolde is addicted to some kind of drug, she gets her servants hooked so that they work for it."
"That's awful." Solomon spoke absentmindedly, he found himself too wrapped up in the excitement of fresh information about an enemy.
"She is." Katherine confirmed.
"What else did you learn about her? Tell me everything." Solomon did not care for using elaborate titles or regal poise and it refreshed Katherine.
"She..." Katherine paused while she thought. "Is immensely wealthy, the mines are filled with both jewels and that drug she covets. She has a vast army of mercenaries and addicts. The rest is only rumour and servant gossip."
"Tell me."
"Some say she's a scorned elf, with her ears cut. Some say she used to be married, but murdered her husband for wealth and power." Katherine relayed what Josie had told her and Lily.
"What do you think?" Solomon asked.
"I don't know, she could be both. Or just a witch that got lucky." Solomon made a grunting sound, he seemed pleased with what Katherine had offered him but was unwilling to allow them to connect further. From the corner of the feast Queen Thea was staring at Katherine and Solomon's exchange; she could not work out what was being said. Katherine saw that Solomon had his feet firmly on the ground, he embodied the earth in every way; from the depth of his voice to the strength of his form. Katherine was water, empathetic, adaptable, intuitive. The forces of water can carve away at even the hardest of stone. Katherine took a risk.
"I know you do not wish to marry me." Solomon looked down at the princess in shock, but his expression was unchanged. "I don't want to marry you either, but we have no choice. So let us at least be friends." Something shifted behind Solomon's eyes, he looked at the wisdom in the young princesses face and exhaled. The desert prince nodded.
"So be it."