“Lady Amara is visiting us from the Wind Kingdom,” the Queen announced, “and is honouring us with her presence at dinner tonight.”
Great, the one night I get to come home and I need to play the prince.“We are delighted to have you, Lady Amara,” I announced instead and extended my arm for the beautiful female to take. She smiled, delighted, and immediately sprang into action, squeezing my biceps with a broad smile and walking proudly alongside me, her head high. I barely managed to extend my other arm to Mother, who swiftly seized it and hurried the pace to catch up with us. With the Queen on my left arm, I looked at her and an internal sigh transmitted through my gaze, to which she puckered her lips to contain a grin. Royal duty first, that had always been the understanding the entire family had accepted and followed throughout their lives.
It was an unspoken agreement that I followed since childhood, with little exceptions when breaking the rules had either been a trap set by my brothers or a demand of the heart. I adopted my princely demeanour, standing higher, stretching my back and neck and smiled at the lady clutched to my right arm. I swallowed and prepared my tongue and mind-set for what was to come and started conversing with the lady, telling her about the history of the forest, showing her some of the main monuments and landmarks of the Sylvan Regnum along the way, making sure to keep the stories light and entertaining.
When we reached the town square, the Queen excused herself, explaining that she had to make the final arrangements for dinner and kissed my cheek as she let the words sound only into my ear, “She is the Queen’s niece,” and threw me a very suggestivedon’t screw this uplook before she made her way through the crowd, smiling and waving at her people.
Fuck. I knew what this meant: a mating instigation. How convenient that the Wind Queen’s niece happened to wander around our kingdom just when I came home and what an unexpected turn of events that she was young and beautiful and her aunt had always hinted to an alliance between our territories.
The Wind Kingdom had been forced to abandon part of their armies a few centuries back and had not been able to recuperate from the loss. The newest solution of the Queen it seemed, was to find ties to the stronger kingdoms by way of a marriage alliance. Unfortunately, I was the only eligible candidate to make this happen and judging the way the lady caressed my arm, grabbing my muscles up and down and ‘accidentally’ placing her head on my shoulder from time to time while admiring some of the monuments, she was open to the possibility.
The Wind Kingdom was seen as the weakest of the remaining three, with the exception of the firelings that had been trapped along with their god. The Water and Earth Kingdoms remained the dominating ones that, after a few wars and decrees, had decided to help and sustain each other in times of need, as long as each remained free.
“Lady Amara, if I may ask, what fortune brings you to honour us with your visit?” I decided to investigate, taking the opportunity since we were alone and unsupervised.
“My aunt wanted me to visit all the regnums, enhance my view of our magical world,” she replied with a rehearsed precision, her honeyed voice caressing my eardrums.
She was very beautiful. Tall and slim, with elongated features and a precise beauty, a sharp chin and gorgeous long hair, she shone like a ray of moonlight, her light skin igniting against my tan and her posture so mild that a breeze could effortlessly fly her away.
“My prince?” she claimed back my attention. I turned to her and found her smiling, fully aware she had been admired.
“It is a beautiful kingdom, indeed,” I said something that would partly fit whatever ideas she might have expressed.
The windling smiled again, lowering her head and caressing a strand of hair with her long fingers, then setting it back into place so her hairstyle remained perfect and glamourous. Her lips pursed for a second. She wanted to say something, then decided against it and turned, continuing to walk in the town square. As we made our way through the alleys, some of the shopkeepers spotted me and started to invite us into their shops or offered gifts for ‘his highness’ companion’. I wanted to wave them off at first and clarify, then thought better of it and allowed Lady Amara to receive flowers, chocolates and sweets, much to her delight.
It was the wrong thing to do, let myself to focus on her features and imprint her image into memory, willingly replacing the one that troubled me.
Why not Lady Amara? She was trained to be a princess and act like royalty and it would benefit the kingdom greatly. The only thing I needed to do was learn to love her and judging by the sweetness with which she shook hands with the people and smiled at the children who formed a circle around us, pointing at her long dress and hair, it could become a possibility.
After passing through a few more alleys, the gifts piled up so much that I had to carry about thirty bags of chocolate and Lady Amara was barely able to hold the enormous bouquet of flowers, we decided to return to the palace as the time for dinner approached. When we arrived, I passed the gifts to the lady’s helpers and kissed her hand again, announcing my pleasure in seeing her at dinner. In just a few hours, she made a strong impression, her smile and sweetness making me forget the royal duties and actually enjoying the walk and informal chat with a female.
When I reached my chambers, my brothers stood from the bed.
“So?” Damaris asked as he approached to welcome me with a short hug.
“You bastards! You knew and didn’t tell me!” I complained and shoved him away, making Damaris slide into a wall. Ignoring Vikram, who occupied his position on the bed again, I went into the bathroom and ran the shower.
I lingered under the hot stream for a long time, trying to piece together the events and make the best decision under the given circumstances. It was not as if the lady suddenly decided to visit the kingdom, she had been invited by someone in the family, which meant that my parents were already in favour and had brought the best candidate forth without feeling the need to discuss things first with their son. I had expected my brothers to notify me, until I remembered confessing to passionate feelings towards a human, so deep they had initially thought I had found my mate.
Amara was a classical beauty, one that painters across the ages would sell their soul to just to be able to recreate her features on the easel. The least I could do was give the evening a chance and see how it developed. She had already made a surprisingly pleasing first impression as we walked the alleys and had proved that she could be kind and generous to the people. If I managed to fall in love with her and mate, it would do wonders for both kingdoms, securing a strong alliance and maintaining our leadership position.
Many other thoughts crossed my mind as I carefully scrubbed myself immaculately clean and after I dried with a towel, I took the time to make myself look presentable. I arranged my hair half up in a braid, allowing the rest to flow freely on my shoulders and chose a light green tunic with a grey shirt underneath, to enhance the colour of my eyes. After all, Amara was not the only one that could be rejected. If the lady did not like me after tonight, she could easily refuse a second meeting. All females had the possibility to do this during the mating process. The males were the ones doing the courting, but in the end, females had the power and could very well choose to refuse a male until their thirty third gathering, as the law dictated.
When I stepped out of the bathing chamber, finding my brothers still in the room, both their jaws almost dropped at the sight of me, eyes wide with surprise.
“You...brushed your hair,” Vikram breathed out.
“And your clothes shine. Are you wearing a tunic?” Damaris exclaimed.
“And your scent is really strong,” Vikram added, waving a hand around his nose for emphasis. “Are you planning to court her, brother?”
“Isn’t that what I am expected to do?” I replied dryly, irritation making its way back onto my face, remembering the lack of messages and warning received from them.
They sensed it and immediately started to defend themselves. I found out that the lady arrived only two days before I did, without a letter of invitation and with a message from the Wind Queen, announcing her niece’s travels across the land and asking for the Earth Kingdom’s hospitality. The Queen has been beyond excited with the arrival and treated Amara almost like a daughter in law, telling her everything there was to know about me and bragging about everything I ever did in life.
“She talked about you so much, that windling could write an encyclopaedia about your favourite foods,” Vikram mocked.
“Why is Mother so keen on this?” I asked and searched for some adequate shoes.
