THE DINNER TABLE is silent. King Charles has made about
twenty awfully awkward attempts to provoke conversation among
all the royals in the room, but there’s something off in the air.
Prince Henry still isn’t smiling much. He’s not talking much. He’s
eating –granted, slowly- and he’s staring at the fork he’s using to
poke at the piece of steak on his plate.
When Prince Rowan had greeted him earlier, Prince Henry had
only nodded and offered him another closed-mouth smile. He
didn’t say much. He doesn’t seem very comfortable being here
and if he is, he doesn’t seem very sociable.
The other Royals in the room aren’t entirely sure how to
entertain him. They all suspect –especially Ericia- that somehow
Prince Henry had ended up here by force. Perhaps he didn’t want
to come to Vynier. Perhaps he didn’t want to create the alliance.
Perhaps this was all his father’s desires, and he was just a puppet.
45
God, Ericia thinks, and wouldn’t I just happen to know all about
puppets...
“So in terms of the alliance,” King Charles says, chewing a large
chunk of steak, “have you decided on whether you want to have
the official signing after the training of the army, or before?”
Prince Henry stops, cold. He stares at the fork in his hand that
now isn’t moving. King Charles keeps a smile on his face, hoping
to remain polite.
Henry clears his throat. “My father has decided that he would
like the official ceremony to happen after the training. It would be
nice to have the trained armies standing together. Of course,
training could go on for quite some time, so even I’m not really
sure when this ceremony will actually happen. If it’s alright with
you, Your Majesty, I’d like to explain my plan for the training.”
“Do go on,” King Charles says, forking another chunk of meat
and bringing it to his mouth.
Prince Henry drops his fork, finally seeming interested in a topic
for conversation. He turns to the King. “I will be in charge of the
training, as you already know. I’m hoping to have at least three
months of training done –anyone who is eligible to join the army
between the ages of eighteen to twenty-five may enter, granted
they have no criminal record or undesirable reputation. They
must be of well-equip families –or in the very least, capable of
becoming well-equip with the right traits. The training will
involve intensive exercise and practice of defensive arts but I will
make it my mission to teach of the morals and discipline involved
46
in matters as this as well. I will allow time off during weekends,
but I will make the trainees aware that it is important to exercise
and practice every single day.”
King Charles lets out a low laugh as Prince Henry stops talking.
“You truly are quite the heir,” he says. “I have no doubt that you
will take care of my men.”
Prince Henry almost wants to laugh, but he smiles another
closed-mouth smile for only a few seconds. “Only the strongest
will survive the training,” he says, looking down at his fork again.
“And I do not mean the strongest physically. As I’m sure you are
aware, Your Majesty, all show isn’t all go. It’s easier for the
bigger peaks to fall than for the small.”
Henry sends King Charles a look that’s almost untrusting. King
Charles raises his wine glass. “A toast,” he says, “To an Heir of
Honour.”
Ericia sips her wine, Prince Henry glancing over at her briefly.
When Ericia looks up, Prince Henry is sipping his wine, looking
down at the uneaten steak on his plate. Ericia thinks that the
Prince hasn’t looked at her ever since he had arrived. When he
had been approached by King Charles and introduced to the
Queen and Prince Rowan –whom he already knew- he was
introduced lastly to Princess Ericia, who had bowed politely and
offered him a smile. He only stared at her for a brief moment
then, before turning to the King who proceeded to blabber about
the pleasure of having him in Vynier and all the boring things he
had often heard on his trips to other lands.
47
By the end of dinner, Prince Henry leaves first, excusing himself
and offering gratitude for the meal and for the opportunity to stay
at the palace.
He says nothing less. He says nothing more.
***
Ericia yawns, turning and falling off her bed. She doesn’t fall onher back, thankfully, but it doesn’t stop the aching throb in her
head.
“Ouch,” she utters, resting her palm on her forehead.
She sits up on the floor, staring out. The sun isn’t up yet, but
Ericia is sure that her maids will appear behind her door soon,
knocking and rushing in to prepare everything for her.
She summons enough energy to stand and walk over to her
balcony. She opens the door. She walks outside. A blast of cold
wind fills the surface of her bare skin, her bare legs exposed by
her pajama shorts, shivering for a few moments before adjusting
to the temperature.
She walks towards the concrete barrier and leans against it. The
birds aren’t chirping yet. She looks out at Aeriston, spotting only
a few dim lights from a few small buildings. Even now, she could
see the hard workers who have woken up to get their bits for the
day done.
Ericia’s eyes trail along the road that’s leading from the city to
the palace. Her eyes then reach the garden below her.
48
And then she sees him. She sees him, and he sees her.
Prince Henry stands at the edge of the garden, looking up at her
on the balcony. Ericia rubs her eye and then rubs the other, but
she doesn’t take at least one eye off of him.
Ericia then realises something. She had woken up this morning
not from the anxiety that usually fills her after having a nightmare,
but from falling off of the bed after an unusually restful sleep.
Prince Henry doesn’t take his eyes off of the Princess. Ericia is
wondering if he’s only now getting a good look at her face since
he hadn’t seemed to bother turning in her direction much before.
The look on his face is undecipherable. She nods at him, hoping to
get a response, but he turns to look back at the view of Vynier,
completely ignoring her.
Ericia stands, frowning, puzzled. Why didn’t he acknowledge me –
even after looking right at me?
“Someone’s up early,” she hears a voice say. It’s Rowan, and he
appears from under the balcony, walking towards Henry.
“I didn’t know you were this much of an early riser, Henry,
even after having you stay at Lystotia so many times.”
Ericia, slowing her way back into her room, doesn’t hear what
Prince Henry replies to Prince Rowan by saying. He speaks so
softly that the conversation withers as she disappears into her
room and shuts the door silently once more.
49
She leans against the door, feeling her heartbeat. What’s going on
with me? She wonders. She pats the place over her heart and tries
to control her now heavy breathing. Oh heart of mine, be still. Heart
of mine, be still. Be still. Be sti-
-Three knocks at her door appear and startle her, along with the
habitual “Your Highness? It’s time to wake up,” from her maids.
“I’ll- I mean, Come in,” she says, blinking and walking over to
her dresser to pretend she’d just been scratching her scalp and
fixing her rumpled sweater.
***
“I hope you don’t mind,” Prince Rowan says, revealing a smallbouquet of flowers he had picked from Ericia’s own palace
garden. There are roses and lilies in it, wrapped in hot pink
cellophane and tied with a thin purple paper bow. Ericia takes it,
smiling. “I thought about getting you one from the city, but I think
that if I’m going to actually go there, I’d like it if you went with
me.”
Ericia smells the flowers, appreciative of the effort he had made.
“I’d love to go with you,” she says. “The truth is, I honestly
haven’t been to the city for a while, myself. I miss seeing the
people up close. I miss talking to them, interacting and
understanding them.”
“You haven’t been there for a while?” Prince Rowan asks,
surprised. “But don’t you know what they say about you?”
50
Ericia suddenly stops smiling. She looks at the prince, her face
blank. “They... probably despise me, don’t they?”
Prince Rowan looks at her, utterly confused. “What? Why in the
Heavens would they despise you, Ericia?”
“Because I-” she almost chokes at the thought of saying it out
loud, “I haven’t been there for them.”
“Do you even know that they say?” he asks, rubbing his
forehead in frustration.
“They probably say I’m faceless. They probably think I don’t
care about them because I’m not able to visit or attend events.
They probably think I’m selfish and don’t listen to my people.
They probably think I’m the egotistic type.”
“Oh no,” Prince Rowan says, shaking his head and laughing at
Ericia’s pitiful expression. “You’ve been deceived, Princess.”
“What?” She asks, looking up at him again. “What do you
mean?”
Prince Rowan takes her in his arms and hugs her. “When I was
on my way here, do you know what I heard the village children
singing?”
“No,” she says, “how would I have heard?”
Prince Rowan bites his lip, smiling. “When the Princess is
smiling, she is as bright as sunlight,” he sings, though his voice is a
bit coarse, “when the Princess is singing, she is as gentle as the
51
breeze, when the Princess is walking, she is as graceful as a flower
flowing in the wind, so don’t you ever ever ever! talk bad about
my wonderful princess -Ericia!- ever again!”
“What was that?” Ericia asks, amused. She pulls away from
Rowan to look at his smililng face.
“When I was on my way to the palace, we stopped off to buy
some snacks at a market. There was a group of young kids there,
all standing in a circle and singing that song, or rather, singing and
shouting. They sang the same thing over and over, singing it
quicker and louder each time. It started so slowly, and then got
quicker and quicker, and every time someone couldn’t keep up,
they were out of the circle. It was like a little game, but even as a
game, it was clear to me that they had appreciated you enough to
sing about you. It gave me the impression that your people must
love you a lot.”
Ericia’s eyes fill with tears. “I... I don’t know what to say... I
don’t know what to think. What did I ever do to deserve their
love? I haven’t been there for them.”
“Ericia,” Rowan says, focusing her glace gaze on him. “If you
have the strength to cry over this, it means that you care. Perhaps
you’re not doing as much as you should, but you care. You care
and love your people, and one day, you’ll be ruling a kingdom full
of citizens who love you. I’m sure that it was possibly the parents
who had encouraged their children to sing such songs –which
means that adults look up to you. They believe in you. They want
you to be the best Queen you can possibly be in the future, and
they want you to be the best Princess you can be now. The people
52
are doing the right thing, Ericia, they’re being an encouragement
when you can’t encourage yourself.”
Ericia, now crying, hugs Rowan, hoping that he would stop
talking. Stop, she pleads internally. Stop before I break down more.
Stop, because there’s nothing I can do as long as I’m under my father’s
control. Stop, because the more you comfort me, the more I hear that they
support me, the more I’ll want to try. Stop, because the more I want to try,
the more I will, and if I do, I’ll die. There’s no doubt about it. I’ll die.
Rowan caresses her back as she cries silently into him. She
squeezes him tightly and then tighter yet, but he doesn’t seem to
mind.
I’m not the ruler I should be, she thinks to herself. I’m not the ruler I
can be.
***
Ericia handles her sword, flipping through the pages of a bookon Fencing as she practices in the silence of her bedroom.
En Garde, she says to herself, the stance coming naturally, Lunge,
Parry.
There’s a knock at her door, and she panics. She drops the
sword unto a rug so as to refrain from making any noise, and
shoves it under the bed. She closes the book on fencing.
“Ericia?” says Rowan, from behind the door. “It’s me.”
“Oh, Rowan,” she says, casually, “I’ll be right out.”
53
She glances around her room, having forgotten where she had
tossed her bolero. Yes, she was practicing fencing in a sun dress. She’s
that type of girl. She finds it under the pillow on her messy bed.
She puts it on and loosens her braid, checking herself in the
standing mirror to make sure she’s looking presentable.
She walks over to the door and opens it to find Rowan, leaning
against the wall just opposite to the door of her room, his hands in
his pockets. He stands properly when he sees her, smiling as
brightly as ever.
“Hello,” Ericia says to him, smugly. “You appear to be quite
determined, standing at the door of my room to get me yourself
today.”
“I have to be as genuine as possible, no?” he replies, winking. “I
was hoping you’d join me for some fresh air. It’s quite stuffy in
here somehow.”
“Are you implying that my home is uncomfortable?” Ericia
asks, raising a brow.
“Not at all,” Rowan says seriously, though he knows Ericia is
joking. “But fresh air makes me feel more alive, somehow.”
Ericia nods. “Do you plan on strolling through the gardens
again? Or will you take me to the pool?”
“Speaking of which,” Prince Rowan says, “I haven’t had a swim
there yet. Will it be okay to do so?”
54
“By all means, Prince Rowan, make yourself at home. You’ve
been here for a little while already. If you’re going to be our
guest, at least act like one,” says the Princess, laughing.
Prince Rowan laughs, amused by the cuteness of her face and
voice as she said that to him.
“Shall we?” he asks, extending a hand. “Perhaps we’ll take a
swim together and have lunch and a few snacks.”
Ericia takes his hand. “Sounds delightful.”
***
Ericia tries not to act phased by the defined muscles exposed bythe prince in the water. She’s sitting with her feet inside the pool,
watching him swim from end to end, but she doesn’t plan on
getting completely wet. Somehow, swimming with her betrothed
seems beyond her yet.
Ericia quickly realises that when she doesn’t feel like doing
something, all she has to do is deny the offer and Rowan would let
her be. She also realises how foolish and inconsiderate and selfish
and ignorant that would be, seeing as he came all the way here to
spend time with her. She also knows that if she doesn’t say yes to
probably everything Rowan wants to do with her, her father will
force her to do it, or he’ll punish her for having not done it.
“There you go again,” Rowan says to her.
“Huh?” she says, snapping out of thought.
55
“You’re looking distant –absentminded,” Rowan says.
Ericia only now realises that Rowan is standing in the water in
front of her, looking at her with curious, concerned eyes.
“Are you okay?” he asks.
Every time Ericia has heard him ask her that, she’s wanted to
collapse. The question alone makes her heart drop into her feet.
The question alone makes her heart ache. The question alone
makes her feel sick.
No, she thinks. I am not okay.
“Yes,” she lies. I have to be.
***
“Has he spoken to you yet?” Avie asks Ericia as she applieseyeliner to the Princess’ eye lids.
“Who?” Ericia asks, oblivious.
“Prince Henry,” Avie says. “The last time you told me he was
ignoring you.”
“He’s still ignoring me. He must not have heard very much
about me, and based on what he probably knows, I mustn’t be a
very nice person.”
“It’s not my place to say it, Ericia, but that’s quite vacuous,”
Avie says, rolling her eyes and scoffing. “It’s pathetic. He’s the
56
Prince of Phillimont, he should at least have the courtesy to
entertain you in one reasonable conversation.”
“The way I see it, Avie, he’s only here because of his duties. He
doesn’t seem to have the passion for it as rulers who truly want to
improve things do, so my theory is that he’s only here because it’s
his father’s will.”
“That is quite ignorant, too, especially seeing as he’s the Heir
to a kingdom like Phillimont,” Avie says. “I don’t mean to sound
harsh in saying this, Ericia, but I’m so happy I wasn’t born a
Royal. The Politics of it all drives me up a wall and I only hear the
trickling drops of it from you. It must be terrible.”
“You’re quite blessed not having this entitlement. You’re also
quite blessed to be the best friend of a future Queen, probably. I
wouldn’t know, I’m not on your side of the spectrum.”
“I feel quite fortunate, yes, but I think that you should be a
little more straightforward. As your friend, I feel from the way
things are now, you’re heading for the position of a rather... quiet
Queen.”
“Quiet?” Ericia asks. “Why that choice of the word?”
Prince Henry and Phillimont suddenly cross her mind.
Phillimont is a quiet kingdom. Prince Henry is a quiet prince.
Would being a quiet queen truly be that great?
“You’re reserved, generally,” Avie says, finishing up on Ericia’s
eye makeup. “I say quiet, but I don’t mean it in a negative way.
You know that.”
57
“I know,” Ericia says. “I know.”
***
“Your Highness?” the maids call. Ericia turns on her bed, notwanting to wake up. “Your Highness, it’s really late. Everyone is
already up.”
“What is it?” Ericia asks, grumpily.
“Today is the first day of the army’s training, Your Highness,”
says her maid from outside.
Ericia’s eyes open widely and she practically jumps off of her
bed, causing her back to ache.
“Oh no, no no no no no!” she panics. “Come in, all of you. Get
to work. I’m so late.” She looks out to see that the sun is already
up. “I’m so late, I’m so late,” she repeats as the maids rush in. “I
am so late. My father is going to behead me.”
“It’s not too late yet, Your Highness,” says one of her maids,
trying to calm her down as she takes her into the bathroom. “It’s
only after seven. His Majesty, as well as Her Majesty and the
Princes won’t be gathered with the troops until ten o’clock.
Ericia breathes a huge sigh of relief, feeling her speedy
heartbeat. “Oh, thank you God. Where is Avie?”
“Avie is preparing refreshments for the troops. There are so
many soldiers to keep up with, Your Highness,” says the maid,
sounding terribly weary.
58
“I know,” Ericia says, sorrowfully. “It must be incredibly hard
for all of you. I’m so sorry.”
The maid prepares Ericia’s bath and leaves the room.
Ericia bathes and gets dressed, her maids working their magic
with her makeup and hair. Finally all dressed, Ericia walks into the
ceremony in the courtyard with a silver sun dress, her golden
blonde hair flowing freely in waves and a silver crown atop her
head. She’s wearing silver heels that hurt a little, but she doesn’t
really care about them when she spots her father at the front.
Prince Henry is sitting besides Rowan, who is sitting beside an
empty throne –her empty throne- which is beside her mother’s.
When Ericia makes it to the front and takes her seat, Rowan
leans over to whisper to her. “You look stunning, Ericia,” he says.
“Thank you,” she replies, smiling.
The troops are gathered in the large field beside the courtyard.
The court members are seated in front of them, and the Royals
lead the ceremony.
King Charles clears his throat, silences the crowd and speaks.
“Today will begin perhaps the greatest improvement in Vynierian
history. Today, the army of our wonderful kingdom will begin
their training with the troops of Phillimont. During the week,
Vynier has had the opportunity to nominate eligible young men
who would join the army and today the ones who have been
accepted stand beside members of the Royal army of Vynier, as
well as the troops of Phillimont.”
59
King Charles then goes into the importance of training, and how
the Phillimont army will strengthen the Vynierian one, as well as
how the alliance will positively affect the kingdoms.
“Prince Henry Darwin,” King Charles says, gesturing over to
the Prince, “will now speak on behalf of his father, his people and
himself.”
Ericia, at the mention of his name, turns towards him. Prince
Henry stands, looking out at the troops. He sighs.