King's Conquest

"No! That cannot be! Not another one! And a prince at that! I will kill him. I will not allow anyone to separate me from my king. The prince will have to go away."


* * * *


I felt the blood drain from my face as I watched the polished little cloud of magic that showed the speaking face of the king. My councilors surrounded me in the deadly silence, but of course they had probably already known what the king would demand as the price of peace. They were the ones who spoke to him, and I was nothing but an uneducated, out-of-the-blue heir.


"This isn't happening." I wallowed in denial because my brain just couldn't accept it.


"My Prince," Har, the kingdom's head advisor, spoke. "It is only common practice for the king to demand a reward."


I turned to look at him with what I'm sure was painful betrayal etched on my face. "But does it have to be me?"


"Our Lord King is dead, my Prince. You're next in the line for the throne," Ske said from my left.


"My father is barely in the ground and already I have to set his mistakes right. Isn't there another way?" I pleaded at the faces around me.


"My Prince, the king didn't even want to hear of it."


I bowed my head in defeat. There wasn't anyone else. Not from the direct line. But even if there was, I could never have saved my own life at the price of someone else's. "When does he want me there?"


"By sun fall, my Prince," Har supplied while I only gasped.


"But that means I have to leave right away!"


"Yes, my Prince."


"Am I allowed to bring anything?"


"Only personal items. Once the territories merge again, we will fall back to the old ways. Your robes will be two-colored. At Jede Court you will not be allowed to wear the colors of Kari. The king ordered anything orange you might bring to be destroyed." I gasped again, not believing my ears. The boar was turning me into a prisoner.


"We must go, my Prince. The king has made his demand public. If you do not comply, he will declare war upon us again," Ske prompted.


"I do not even know what an uralain does," I mumbled, eliciting shocked gasps from the councilors around me. It prompted me to look up and all the widened eyes I saw made me scared. "What?" I asked.


"You do not know your duties?"


"I don't know anything. My father had all but forbade me to breathe, and now that he is dead, I am ushered into a whole new and unknown world where surely some horrors are expected of me."


They actually looked stricken, and that didn't help matters. "Come, we must go. I will explain on the way," Har said, as he came to me, waited until I moved, then followed.


"You do know about coupling?" he asked, making me blush.


"Yes. But only between a male and a female. My father told me that I would never lie with a man and that such knowledge wasn't necessary. I only know not to let seed near my markings."


"That is most unfortunate," Har said worriedly. "But I will acquire a book for you. A manual, if you will. It will do good to study it before you are alone with the king."


So much for that help, I thought to myself. All of them were forthcoming when they were afraid that I might cause a scandal or go against their advice. Not that I ever did, but they were cautious and considerate. But be it that I needed comfort, advice, or just some company, who had been there for me? Certainly no one from that group.


"Wait!" I said, grabbing his hand. "Am I supposed to be at his disposal?"


Har suddenly looked worried and uncomfortable. "Yes."


"I'm going there to be his whore?" I screamed, not believing what I was hearing. Obviously I had been under the illusion that the king wanted me as a prize and not a bed-toy.


"Uralains are not whores. They provide service to their king. It's an honor."


"Honor? Really? Why don't you do it then?" I asked, as I crossed my arms in front of my chest.


Har was appalled. I could see it clearly on his face. It was easy to thrust me into disgrace, but mention it to someone else from the council or to the nobles from the court, and you were lucky to escape a duel.


"You won't be alone. The king has many. He probably won't even ask for you after the first night," Har rushed to explain.


But my jaw just dropped. Not only were they whoring me, they were expecting me to be one of his harem. "I'm not doing it."


"But my Prince, he will bring war upon us." Har laid his palms against my hands and almost begged.


"I do not care. What kind of a prince am I if I leave my kingdom to become a whore? I have conditions. Your job is to make them happen. If not, we'll have ourselves another war." I announced this firmly with a conviction I certainly didn't feel.


"What conditions?" Har straightened his spine.


"I want fidelity. A written contract saying he is not allowed to sleep with anyone else except me. I certainly won't be a common whore at his court. How will people look at me? I won't be able to look at myself in the mirror." I shivered. "No. I want a legal obligation and I want a ceremony making our commitment valid."


"But, my Prince, the king has superior army and a richer kingdom. He will never agree for you to rule with him." Har was pale and panicked now, and I would have felt sorry for him if I wasn't close to a heart attack myself.


"I don't care about ruling. I don't know the first thing about it. He can even write it down in the contract that I have no say when it comes to the matters of the kingdom. My father made sure that I would be completely incompetent when the time came," I said with a certain dose of bitterness. After all, I was a bargaining chip. "I just want to have a secure future. I want to be married and not some common whore he could sell in a year's time."


"The king will want an heir," Har tried again, thinking how I would change my mind out of fear. But he didn't realize that death seemed almost sweet when compared to the uncertainty of being traded away like a piece of coal.


"I am perfectly capable of bringing life to this world. If by some chance I do not by a certain time, he can nullify the agreement. Write it all down. I'm not going anywhere before I get a signature on that." I shut up before my voice started to shake.


"My Prince, it is dangerous!"


"No more dangerous than what you lot had in mind for my future." I ended the conversation and turned in the direction of my chambers.


I was sick to my stomach, and wished for the capability to wield sighting magic, just so that I could see what I was in for. For the life of me, I couldn't grasp the idea behind men coupling. My father was an idiot for denying me knowledge.


In my room I walked up to the basin, knelt in front of it, and threw up everything I'd eaten that day.