“Some?” Aasimah asked, running her hands through the cool fountain water, enjoying the refreshing coldness.
The prince took a seat next to her, pleased to see that the Aasimah he had come to know and admire was still there, after all.
“I count myself among them, obviously. He is my best friend.”
“He slept outside of my door, the night of... Well, you know.”
“Yes, I know. I told him it wasn't necessary, that his presence might startle you, or make you uncomfortable, but he insisted. He's very stubborn and set in his ways when it comes down to it.”
Aasimah tossed a pebble into the fountain. “Aren't we all?”
“Yes, I suppose so. Perhaps we are all kindred spirits! Anyway, Glanen has told me that the village is coming along. He suggested having you come by to visit, but I felt you would probably want to stay away.”
“Let's go.”
“Eh?” the prince asked, startled. “Could you repeat that?”
Aasimah scooted off of the bench, turning away from him. She was already walking off when she repeated herself, “let's go.”
Adsuni knew he wasn't about to talk her out of it. He followed after her reluctantly.
Glanen hadn't been lying when he'd informed them of the work he'd done. Although many buildings were destroyed beyond repair, although many of the crop fields had been razed so that nothing might ever grow beneath the soil again, and although there had been some casualties in the raid, there had indeed been a great deal of progress for his efforts.
Aasimah and Adsuni could not believe that it had taken only Glanen and the remaining villagers to build the amount of homes that were now standing. Glanen had even put Xanthus to work in plowing a re-purposed pasture so that the inhabitants could begin growing crops again. It would be a long time before they would be able to produce enough to be self-sustaining, let alone any surplus to trade or sell, but it was a start.
Xanthus was not especially thrilled about the work, but the village children pampered him enough to ensure the proud steed's cooperation.
Painful was it was to return to Dre'shii, Aasimah felt her spirits soar as she watched its people work tirelessly to restore it. Her own people were so used to death and destruction that they hadn't even bothered trying to maintain anything resembling a home; whenever one of their settlements fell victim to a raid, the survivors simply packed up and moved on. The people of Dre'shii were stubborn to the bone, and they took great pride in their work and their land. They would not so easily give up on their village.
She and the prince dismounted their horses, handing them off to a young girl that had come to greet them. The girl gasped and nearly dropped the reins of Adsuni's horse when she came to recognize him. An older woman, who had been tending to a rather ill-tempered goat, caught sight of them and hustled over, leaving the angry animal to resume tearing up a garment she had been struggling to retrieve.
“Oh, do forgive her,” the portly woman was saying, shooing the young girl away. “She's not used to seeing you higher class folk around here.”
Me? Higher class? Aasimah could not stifle a laugh at that, drawing an uneasy glance from the prince.
“It's no trouble, good lady,” Adsuni said. “I, myself, have never ventured far from the palace. It's rare that I even get to see the central market. This is a new experience for me, too.”
The young girl hid behind the woman, whom the prince had presumed to be her mother. She peeked around the woman's side, her impossibly huge brown eyes gawking openly at him. The prince flashed her a disarming smile, and she rewarded him with a fierce blush and a little squeal before darting away.
Adsuni pulled out a small coin pouch, offering it to the woman.
“I know this isn't much, but I hope it will help. I am prepared to offer whatever aid I can.”
“Not much? We haven't seen this much coin in all the time we lived here,” she said, “but yer money's not much good here.”
That, Aasimah could understand: The people of Dre'shii were proud folk, they were not interested in handouts.
The prince didn't follow her logic, and did not retract his hand. He merely stared at the woman in puzzlement. “I'm afraid I don't follow you,” he confessed.
“We need good, strong bodies more than anything else,” the woman explained. “And me girl don't sleep well now. Not anymore. Not after them monsters burned our house. They burned it to bits, you know. Nothin' left. Yer knight friend fixed us up, but the memories...”
“I see,” the prince said, nodding. He could not imagine the trauma the little girl had endured, but he had some idea of it, thanks to Aasimah. “What can I do to help?” he asked.
The woman gave him a crooked, toothy smile. “How are ya with a hammer?”
He thought she was joking.
She was not, he soon discovered, when he felt the cool, heavy metal press into his empty hand. He stammered and was about to give her some sort of feeble excuse, when he noticed the young girl peering over at him from the back of the goat.
Aasimah gave him a pat on the back. “Well,” she said, her voice thick with amusement, “Glanen's bound to be around here somewhere.”
It was then that she, too, found herself in the possession of a hammer.
What have I gotten myself into this time? The prince thought to himself as he made a feeble shot at hammering down a nasty, jagged nail. Aasimah had been far more fortunate, for she had been set to fixing up one of the livestock pens, and she had the help of several men.
Of all of the things the people of Dre'shii could have set the prince to work on, putting together a roof was easily the worst – as far as he knew. More than once, he felt the planks beneath him wobble and begin to sink, giving him a most unpleasant mental image of his scrawny self crashing through the roof and plummeting to his demise upon the floor as the little girl and her mother looked on in horror.
Glanen assured him that his fears were unfounded. If his own great weight could be supported by the (so far incomplete) roof, surely the prince, who was much lighter, would do just fine.
Glanen, of course, was accustomed to hard labor. The man pushed himself to such extremes that the prince considered him blessed to be alive at all. How many times had the prince found his friend covered in his own blood, due to some foolish training exercise, or a botched attempt to show off for the ladies?
The prince wanted to give up.
Indeed, he was about to call it quits when he noticed the child's mother looking up at them through the unfinished portion of the roof.
“I'll bring ya some water,” she offered, holding up a waterskin.
The prince was about to ask if they had any ale, because if he was going to fall to his death doing something he didn't have the skill to do, he may was well be drunk out of his mind for it.
He then remembered that this was a family's home that he was working on. He remembered, too, that the woman hadn't accepted his offer of coin. She only wanted her home back, so that she and her daughter could live comfortably.
Glanen spoke for him, as the prince's throat was much too dry to allow him to answer her.
“We would greatly appreciate it!” he called back with a smile. He gave his friend a side glance, taking in his condition. Already, the prince was soaked in sweat, and the sun bared down on him without mercy. He felt guilty for allowing his friend to suffer so, but he wasn't able to talk the prince out of staying earlier in the day, when they'd met up with each other.
“Glanen,” the prince asked suddenly, panting, his voice scratchy and pained. “If this is their home, where have they been sleeping?”
“There,” Glanen said, pointing out at another building, around twice the size of the one they were working on. “That's where they've all been sleeping.”
“All?”
“The ones that don't have homes yet. We've rebuilt a few of them, and some are finished enough that they don't mind sleeping without a whole roof, but little Raisa is sickly. She can't sleep out
in the cold, so she and her mother sleep in that building.”
The prince fell silent. His war-damaged palace was still significantly nicer and larger than any of the buildings in Dre'shii. His own room was larger than the house he and Glanen were building at the moment.
“You can stop,” Glanen said, breaking his train of thought. “Any help is better than nothing, but I understand if you want to leave.”
Adsuni shook his head, giving Glanen's offer absolutely no time for thought. “No, I'll see this through.”
As if to mock him, the planks below him began to creak. The prince shoved the following images out of his mind and went back to work.
***
“And here I thought Glanen looked silly,” Aasimah was saying later that evening. “The prince barely knew which end to hit the nails with!”
She was met with booming guffaws from several of the villagers, who had gathered around for a “feast” of sorts. There wasn't much to go around; roasted venison, which had been a bit overcooked, goat cheese, boiled cabbage, and flagons filled with water and ale. It was nothing like the feasts at the palace, but it was enough to keep everyone going.
“Aye, but ye can't say they don't try!” one of the men said through a full mouth. His wife slapped him on the arm.
“Where are yer manners?” she demanded. “We're in royal company, we are.”
“Hardly,” Aasimah said. “I'm the prince's... servant. I don't count.”
“Ye know, it's hard to believe the other one's a knight, sometimes,” another man said, looking curiously at Aasimah. “Only time we ever see knights, they're comin' here, killin', and leavin' like it's nothin'. Any time they come out to 'help' us, they just leave us with the mess. He was the only one that came down here, and he stayed. Were are the rest of 'em?”
Aasimah was thankful that Glanen and Adsuni hadn't yet joined them, for the conversation was a very uncomfortable one, even for her.
“They're seeing to the other raids,” she lied. “They fear that more villages will be targeted, and they want to smother the fire before it spreads.”
Keep it simple, she told herself.
That seemed to satisfy the second man, who went back to eating without another word. It wasn't long before they were joined by Glanen.
“Where's that prince of yours?” the first man asked.
“He will be coming shortly,” the knight assured him. “This is a wonderful feast you have prepared,” he added, drawing a series of blushes and giggles from several of the women.
That knight could be very smooth and charismatic when he needed to be. Aasimah could easily see why Glanen had become a favorite of the village. She had heard many stories from him throughout the day and the children were utterly enamored with him. It did not escape her attention that the young girl that greeted them earlier seemed to inch her way towards him.
“What did you learn today, Raisa?” Glanen asked the girl.
“I learned how to milk a goat,” she said shyly, before scrunching up her nose in disgust. “It's gross.”
The group laughed, and little Raisa covered her face with her hands, blushing furiously.
“I learned that when a goat wants to eat somethin', there's no stoppin' it,” her mother grumbled, looking cross.
“And I learned that I really am a spoiled brat,” came Adsuni's voice from behind them. The prince had a slight limp in his step, Aasimah noted. He had probably never truly worked a day in his life. She could see, in the firelight, all sorts of little cuts and bruises. His normally clean and bouncy hair had lost much of its luster, slick and matted with sweat as it was. But there was a shine behind his eyes that she had never seen before.
“It's easy for me to feel trapped, and to moan about how unlucky I am when things don't go my way, but after today, I've come to understand how hard life outside my corner of the world truly is. I understand why you didn't want a handout,” Adsuni added, looking over to Raisa's mother. “You take great pride in your work. Each of you worked until you bled to make Dre'shii what it is, and there's a pride in that that you cannot obtain with coin.”
“Ah, sit your poetic arse down and help yourself to some food. Ya earned it,” she said in response, after taking a moment to think over the prince's words.
The prince stuttered a “thank you,” which was lost in the crowd's laughter, before taking his place next to Glanen, who had scooted over on the log he and Aasimah were sitting on.
“I'm surprised you're not more sore,” he said, looking to Aasimah, who was on his left.
“I'm used to hard work,” she answered. “Hammering nails? Not so much, maybe, but I certainly wasn't sheltered in my youth.”
“You two gonna be back here tomorrow?” one of the men asked.
“I will,” Aasimah said without hesitation.
The prince seemed to shrink before the crowd as all eyes fell upon him. “I'm not sure,” he said honestly. “There are certain... responsibilities that I must attend to, and I have no control over what free time I have. But,” he added, noticing their disappointment, “I will be here as often as I can, I promise you that.”
“Can I come to your castle?” Raisa asked sheepishly, ending the tense silence singlehandedly as everyone burst out into laughter.
Adsuni didn't have the heart to tell her the truth about the dilapidated palace.
“Someday, perhaps, but I assure you that your own kingdom is much nicer than mine!”
“What kingdom?” the child asked curiously.
“Why, this,” Adsuni said, sweeping his arms out, nearly knocking Glanen and Aasimah over their heads with his grand movements. “All of this is your domain, Princess...?”
“Raisa,” Glanen whispered in his ear.
“Princess Raisa,” Adsuni finished.
Aasimah wanted to bury her head in her hands, having experienced such extreme secondhand embarrassment for the prince. He was trying much too hard, but the child was undoubtedly won over.
“Me, a princess?” the girl gasped.
“Please, stop,” Aasimah grumbled, but Adsuni ignored her.
“Of course, and this is your domain!”
Even Glanen seemed to think it was a bit too much. He pulled the prince to his feet and bade Aasimah to stand.
“I think we'd best be on our way, or we'll never hear the end of it from our fathers. Thank you, your hospitality warms our hearts.”
“Aw, so soon?” the first man said. “Well, I s'pose I can't blame ya. We'll bring your horses around.”
Before they went on their way, little Raisa timidly approached them.
“I hope I'll be a good princess,” she said, staring up at Adsuni in awe. Aasimah shook her head and joined Glanen, who was standing by the horses.
“I know you will be!” he said, giving the girl a polite half-bow before joining his friends, who would most assuredly tease him without mercy for the rest of the night. They all watched as the prince's newest fan skipped over to her mother, who proceeded to herd her into their newly built home which was small, but charming, and the prince himself had “aided” Glanen in finishing the roof.
It was still fairly early in the evening, or at least, the prince assumed so, though he feared he would be reprimanded by his father when he returned. Adsuni had not asked for permission to visit Dre'shii, and had instead followed Aasimah entirely of his own free will. Ever since the passing of his mother, the King kept a close eye on his one and only child. He suspected that the only reason there had been no guards sent after him was that he was in the company of Glanen.
And Aasimah, he noted, when she handed him the reins of his horse. The King might not value her a great deal, but Adsuni felt strangely safe with her by his side. Or, more accurately in this case, by her side, for she had been the one to bring him out to the village. The prince supposed he should have been more cautious.
What if she had brought him to Dre'shii with the intent of betraying him? He did bring her to the palace without so much as a thought ab
out what she might have wanted. It occurred to the prince that the decision to follow her to Dre'shii was foolish for many reasons, the least of which being the potential scolding he would receive from his father.
But he trusted her, Glanen trusted her, and he trusted Glanen above all.
Seeing the smile on the little girl's face, and the hope radiating from the crowd as they saw their village progress, the prince knew he'd made the right call.
Part 3:
Chaos Sown
Chapter 13
For the Good of Dinavhek
∞∞∞
Another few months passed and Dre'shii was beginning to resemble an independent village once more. The Knighthood pulled Glanen back to the Academy, insisting that there were more pressing matters for the young man to attend to, but Glanen continued to visit as often as he could to keep up with the latest progress.
Even Hymuse, who has recently returned from a rather long diplomatic mission, stopped by to visit Dre'shii. Breaking the news of the raid to him hadn't been easy, but Adsuni was relieved to have him back. With Hymuse now personally involved in the recovery efforts, the prince was sure that Dre'shii would be good as new in no time.
Every now and then, Glanen had a message for the prince, and more often than not, it came from the children. Raisa was beginning to learn how to read and write, much to their enjoyment, and the prince himself would respond in kind, with letters of encouragement.
Aasimah too had returned to her duties as a servant of the royal family. She worked alongside Itholera, and it warmed Adsuni's heart to see them becoming friendly with each other again.
Even the border skirmishes had lessened in both number and severity. Adsuni knew better than to get comfortable, however; the King had stationed so many more guards in all of the major outposts that the main city was now desperate for recruits. As was the Knighthood.
Adsuni attempted to persuade his father in allowing him to join Glanen in his weekly visits to Dre'shii, but the King would not oblige. His normally cheerful demeanor had turned rather abrupt, almost stern, since returning from a trip of his own.
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