by S. W. Gunn
“Well it might be hard for me to explain to my mother that I’m married but she cannot meet my bride. It’d sadden her greatly.”
Astir got a solemn look on her face before stating, “Well the Queen never leaves Bygod once she takes the throne.”
Daell was disappointed. He wished he could share his beautiful wife with his family. They deserved no less than to meet her and see how happy he was.
“Perhaps we could have them come here?”
Daell knew that would never happen. His father would never leave Anddyri. Never. He was as traditional as any man could possibly be which Daell told her. He could see her thinking.
After another brief pause she finally spoke, “I need to ask my mother and see if it would be possible for me to leave Bygod. I am the Queen so if I really wanted to leave, I do not see why I should not be able to. Let me ask tomorrow in council and we shall see what happens.”
Joy filled his heart. He missed his family and would love for her to meet them.
He said, “That’s more than I could ever hope for my Queen.”
An evil smile crossed her face as she seductively said to him, “For now my King it is my duty to tend to your minstrations. You have much strength to regain and I intend to assist in that healing.”
She pulled herself even closer to him, slowly slipped her arms around his shoulders and then began kissing him.
* * * * *
Daell awoke the next morning to find himself sleeping naked on the floor next to the bed. Astir was wrapped naked over him with her head resting on his shoulder. At first he could not remember how he ended up on the floor, but then it all came flooding back to him. A wide smile crossed his face. He glanced around the bedroom. Somehow they managed to complely toss the small dining table onto the floor. It was several paces away from it's original position. The bed that they were next to was completely devoid of its sheets. Daell spotted them hanging precariously from the curtain. He remembered tossing them roughly while making love to Astir. Daell could tell it was well past the morning meal. He imagined that they did not actually fall asleep until very late into the night. He could hear her slow and even breathing. She smelled of bubbling soap and sweat. Daell reached his arm that was wrapped around her and then slowly ran his fingers through her soft brown hair. She stirred and then her eyes opened.
“Good morning” She said.
“Good mornin’ to you.”
She slowly shifted her body so that she was on top of him and stared deeply into his eyes.
Daell asked, “Are you ready for the mornin’ meal?”
She shook her head and wickedly stated, “I am not quite done assisting my husband regain his strength.”
Daell laughed. She began to kiss him again.
* * * * *
Later in the morning Daell slowly wrapped his red robe about himself. Astir returned from the restroom where she had just finished bathing.
She sighed heavily and announced, “I guess we should go eat the morning meal. As much as I would love to stay in here with you, I am already terribly late for the first council of my reign.”
He laughed and then slowly wrapped his arms around her. She now wore a soft dark purple robe. Unlike her, he would not have to perform an investigation to find out what her favorite color was.
“We all have duties to attend to my love.” He said to her.
She poked him in his chest and said, “That is right. Someone here has to start his lessons with Fregna.”
“Is she really that bad?”
She nodded as she answered, “But she is a wonderful instructor.”
“That’s good to know I suppose.”
She smiled up at him and proclaimed, “Alright my King, enough dallying about.”
Sashaying to a small table near the bed, she rang the bell that was resting on it. The doors of their room opened and her handmaidens started to enter. They stopped in stunned silence when they caught sight of the room. Daell had to suspect they had never seen such a sight. It took them a moment to recover before they moved quickly to the Queen. First they had her sit and then attacked her hair. He was amazed by their efficiency. Working on her hair, they took the tangled mess that occured during last night’s events and were able to get her hair into a neatly braided style that circled into a bun against the back of her head. All of her hair was braided into that bun except two long curly strands that hung loosely by her temples. Daell had to admit that it was a stunning look. They then had her move to the dressing stand.
This time he was prepared for when they began to dress her. He slowly shifted his position to ensure he had a complete viewing. Even after last night, he still savored everything he saw. Astir saw him move into position and begin to watch as she was being dressed. She smiled cunningly at him. Daell was as impressed with the clothing she wore now as much as he was with what she wore yesterday. It was one complete dark blue dress with a low cut top that exposed a good amount of her chest. The edges of the opened part of the top that dipped across her chest were studded with clear menstones. It had loosely bound and scooped material that fell off of each shoulder and was pinned to the very end of each short sleeve of the dress.The dress fitted tightly from her shoulders to her waist, where it expanded outwards into a flowing dark blue affair that had fabric dark blue flowers sewn on it in an unorganized pattern. The bottom of the dress fell all of the way to the floor. Daell was convinced that it must be difficult to wear such a thing. Astir closed her eyes and the Jordling handmaidens painted her with application. This time it was a blue hue that complimented the dress. Finally the handmaidens gently wrapped a menstone necklace around her neck. It was tight and fit perfectly around her neck. He guessed the width of the necklace was about half a hand. It must have had around fifteen large clear menstones that were each embedded into a small marglod plate and connected together. Daell had seen nothing like it in his life. After the handmaidens finished Astir stepped forward.
“What do you think your Highness?” She asked.
Daell answered, “It’s simply stunnin’ your Majesty. You must be the most beautiful woman to have ever existed in known history.”
She flushed before saying, “Love has blinded you my King, but thank you. I shall see you at the dining hall.”
Daell bowed deeply to her and then said, “As you wish your Majesty.”
She glided out the room. Daell still belived that he was right about her. He smiled widely just thinking about her. He knew that he had to get dressed quickly. As He glanced at the Queen’s handmaidens he saw that they were murmuring to themselves as they surveyed the damage of the room.
“Excuse me my friends, may I have a moment of privacy to dress?” He asked them.
They looked very embarassed and scurried out of the room with several “Yes your Highness.” responses.
The door closed behind them. Daell struggled to even find his clothing. It appeared that somehow all of his clothing had been taken away and the only thing he found was a dresser full of clothing that was his size, but not his own. He could only guess that it was intended for him so he picked through several of them before he finally found a nice purple tunic and a pair of black trousers that he felt Astir would like. After slipping them on he moved to leave the room. He felt wonderful, it was as if the evening with his wife had completely rejuvenated him. As he opened the doors of the room he could hear the nearby handmaidens talking about what they had seen to one of the members of the palace staff. They stopped talking when he walked out. With a broad smile on his face Daell continued on his way, heading directly down the stairs of the palace and towards the dining hall.
After eating the morning meal Astir had to leave him with Viga. He was to start his lessons now, which caused him to be slightly nervous. So much had been said of his instructor that he began to wonder about her. Daell followed Viga as he slowly walked out the back doors of the palace and away from the gardens towards a large building.
Viga said to him, “Daell just make sure
you study hard, you have much to learn and little time to learn it.”
Daell nodded at him. As they approached the large door of the building he realized that the building looked a lot like the palace.
“Viga, it looks like the palace.”
“It is an exact smaller replica. The intent is to help aid in learning everything a future Queen needs to know. Well my friend, I wish you luck.”
Daell was confused so he asked, “You aren’t comin’ with?”
“I think I would rather fall back in the Myrr again, but thank you for offering.”
He turned and walked away quickly. Daell sighed heavily. With all he had faced just to marry Astir, he doubted this could be worse. Reaching out he knocked heavily three times, as Viga had instructed him before. There was a bit of a pause and then slowly the door opened. Standing at the door was an elderly Vindiri woman. She had peppered gray hair that was pinned into a loose bun by two small woooden sticks. Her eyes were dark black. She wore a green tunic and green trousers made of the soft material from Kunnadi, on the tunic was embroidered a small yellow sun that was half covered by a large fluffy cloud.
She spoke, “If you knock on my door one more time like you are the King of something again I will knock you upside the head so hard you will wish you went and lost that Kostir.”
Daell was shocked, apparently she did not hold back her words. He stuttered an apology to her.
“You are right, you are sorry. Look at you. You stand about like some crude blacksmith.”
She slowly walked up to him, with a heavy looking wooden stick in her hands. Daell could not believe the size of the stick. The way his wife described it, he had assumed it was just a small measuring stick. It appeared to almost be a walking cane. She slowly paced around him as he stood.
She grimly said, “Now, if you really are going to be our King, we will start with your posture.”
Poking him with the stick she ordered, “Straighten here. Hold your arms like this.”
After a few moments she made her way back around to face him.
With a deadly tone then she asked, “So where did that crazy Princess find you at anyways? I was expecting one of those fire wielders again.”
“A blacksmithy ma'am.”
After an irritated grunt she then said, “That explains much. I was told I will be spending the next cycle teaching you the basics of being a King, and as much about Heima's economy as I can. Based on how you look to me right now, I can imagine that we have quite a bit of work ahead of us. So get in there, it is the second door on the right, which is the storage closet in the palace.”
Daell slowly walked in. He felt almost as if he was walking into a large pen full of angry uxi, and it was not a pleasant feeling. As he slowly opened the door of the room Fregna described, he had a change of heart. If he could go through all he did to get here, he would focus everything he had into succeeding with this task. He would do everything Fregna told him as best he could. When he entered the room he saw that it was quite small, Daell guessed it was that it was about the size of the area his father had his forge in. It had four desks with chairs facing towards a display board. Setting in front of the display board was a large desk with a matching chair.
“Move aside blacksmith.” A sharp voice behind him commanded.
Daell stepped aside immediately and Fregna passed him.
“Sorry ma'am.”
She just grunted at him before she walked towards the large desk and took a seat.
“Sit down blacksmith. You are about to experience something unique for a man used to working with his hands.”
Fregna pointed at the small table in front of her desk which he responded to by immediately sitting where she had pointed.
“What’s that ma'am?”
“Education,” She replied, “Can you read and write blacksmith?”
Daell nodded. It was something his mother had insisted that all of her children be able to do. While he was nowhere near Hollurn's level, he could read most anything and write well enough.
She grunted once again and commented, “Probably all you can do is scratch out some sort of primitive script. We will have to just work with what you have going for you. Open that drawer attached to your desk and take everything within it out. Lay it out flat.”
He followed her instructions exactly. The drawer consisted of a large collection of scroll paper that was bound on one side. There was a weird device with several beads attached to it. A writing feather and a small vial of writing ink.
“Blacksmith do you know what each of those are?”
“No ma'am, I don’t know what this is.” He replied as he picked up the device.
With a heavy sigh she stated, “It is called a telja, it is for counting.”
She looked very disappointed. Daell know how to count, although looking at the device he assumed it was for counting high numbers. He had no idea what the different colored beads within the device were for. The little metal slats along the top of it clicked as he experimented with them.
She announced, “Well no sense in worrying about it now blacksmith. Put that thing down and pay attention. You know what you know, even if it is only a tiny amount. Let us get started with the lessons.”
Chapter 6
Astir went through all of her meetings and the mid-turn meal without seeing Daell. She was sad when she left the dining hall after the mid-turn meal and he did not arrive for the meal. Before she sat for the evening meal, she found out that Fregna had his mid-turn meal brought to the class room. It was she had claimed that he had much too learn and could not be wasting time walking back and forth to the palace. The evening meal was already resting on the table when Daell finally strolled into the dining hall. He had a massive smile on his face. He stopped as soon as he caught her eye.
Bowing deeply he said, “Good evenin’ your Majesty, it is a true pleasure to have you within my sight.”
Something seemed slightly different about him to Astir.
“Good evening your Highness, it is a pleasure to see you as well.” She replied.
“May I again join you at your end of the dinin’ table your Majesty?”
She smiled and nodded. He strolled confidently towards her and sat down at the table. It was then that she suddenly realized what was different. It was his posture. He actually walked fully upright into the room, and was currently sitting in his chair properly. His lessons were already working and she was almost sad to see a change in him because she hoped that he would not change too much. After all she married him as a blacksmith and would like what made him special to remain within him.
Ofriki then asked, “So your Highness, how was your first turn with Lady Fregna?”
Daell glanced at her and announced, “Lady Ofriki it was wonderful, she knows so much about so many things. I have learned a lot just on my first turn. I anticipate tomorrow eagerly since we have many topics to cover.”
Astir was very confused by his words. Did he say that he liked her? Fregna was a taskmaster during the many harvests that Astir was under her tutelage. She glanced at Ofriki and then Viga. They both looked out of sorts.
Ofriki next asked, “How many whacks with the stick did you get?”
Viga interjected, “She must have hit him hard on his head.”
They all laughed at Viga’s joke.
Daell answered, “I never saw this whackin’ stick that has been mentioned several times. She had a walkin’ stick that she brought out when she first met me. After that, it was just her teachin’ me many things. I learned how to use a telja. She showed me how to write more clearly with a script style of writin’. We went through the basic history of Heima. I asked her and she showed me how to utilize all of these utensils.”
He spread his hands slightly as though he was displaying the utensils for all to see. He looked quite happy with himself. Astir was impressed because apparently he took to learning like a fiskur to water. Her brother did state he would learn quickly, which made her feel even mor
e confident about him. He had a child-like enthusiasm about himself. Even though she was surprised about his opinion of Fregna, she was very happy for him.
“That sounds wonderful Daell. What will be your lessons tomorrow?” She asked with a smile.
“Well,” He took a bite of the food on his plate and after swallowing his food said, “She usually lets me choose from the list of subjects for what I want to learn next, then we just go through as much as we can. I really think that we will start tomorrow by continuin’ with history, we only slightly touched on it and I have many questions that I need answers to.”
Astir just could not believe what she was hearing. Fregna would never deviate from any portion of any lesson. She issued the lesson plan every cycle and expected both her and Ofriki to be fully prepared for every class. She shook her head in disbelief before she glanced at Ofriki and then at her brother, they both were suffering from the same disbelief that she was. She could tell that Ofriki was very put off by his words.
Ofriki asked, “Did someone replace Fregna while we were gone?”
Suddenly a voice near the door spoke, “Perhaps if you ladies took your lessons as seriously as his Highness, you would have recieved flexibility.”
The voice cause Astir to slightly startled. She turned to see Fregna standing at the door.
“Lady Fregna.” Daell said happily as he stood and quickly walked over to her.
He held out his hand to her and said, “Thank you for acceptin’ my invitiation ma'am. I’m honored to have you here with us this evenin’.”
She smiled at him and said, “Thank you for inviting me, your Highness.”
As she took his hand he escorted her to the table and then offered her the seat that was next to where he was sitting.
“Please sit next to us Lady Fregna.” He said and pulled the chair out for her.
He then gently tucked the chair in as she sat. After moving back to his seat, he sat back down. The servants must have seen her entrance because they immediately came out quickly with food for her.