“It is you,” the Queen breathes as she begins to weep and drags Andromeda in for a bone-crushing embrace. “Oh my darling girl, I feared I would never see you again.”
Andromeda mewls in pain and Daegan clears his throat, “Your Majesty, the princess has suffered severe injuries at the hands of her captors. I believe you are crushing her already broken ribs.”
The Queen draws back, studying Andromeda closer and noticing for the first time the raised scars that cover her face. “What have they done to you?” She whispers in horror. Turning toward the guards Andromeda failed to notice when she entered the throne room with Daegan, the Queen’s tone changes to one of steel and urgency, “Summon the physick. Immediately.”
❖
In a whirlwind Andromeda finds herself carried off by the man in black, her supposed father it turns out, to the palace infirmary where she finds herself being fussed over by the palace physick and a team of robed women the physick proclaims nurses.
The Queen sits at Andromeda’s bedside gripping her hand tightly in hers as the physick examines her. He confirms that Andromeda’s ribs are broken in addition to a bruised kidney and punctured lungs that were repaired by a member of Daegan’s crew while she was unconscious. The physick tells the Queen that Andromeda’s ribs will heal with time and delegates one of his nurses to create a poultice that must be applied twice daily to speed up the healing process.
Looking down at Andromeda with pity he says, “I’m sorry Highness, the scars on your face will never fade.”
“It just makes you more beautiful, darling,” the Queen reassures her as she brushes Andromeda’s hair from her forehead. Her husband squeezes her shoulder supportively as he watches Andromeda closely, still unsure what to make of her. The feeling is mutual.
Andromeda leans back against the feathered pillow as the Queen peppers the physick with questions. She looks extremely out of place in the sterile white room in her flowing green gown, the bodice of which is loaded down with so many pearls Andromeda could never give an accurate count. Pink, white, and purple shells cap the sleeves of her gown and the side of her face is painted in metallic green and teal scales.
Once the physick is through with his examination he leaves Andromeda alone with her “parents.” The Queen’s husband excuses himself to deal with Daegan, who was not allowed to join them in the infirmary.
“Forgive me, daughter,” the Queen turns her attention back to Andromeda. “I have not yet asked you a thing about yourself and how you came to be returned to us.”
Andromeda doesn’t answer at first as she tries to organize her memories and all of the holes poked into the things she thought she knew before her torture by the Warriors, her passage on Daegan’s ship, and her meeting with the Queen of the Mistborn. Instead, Andromeda pours herself a cup of water from the pewter water jug at her bedside with shaking hands and takes a long sip, appeasing her parched throat as water dribbles down her chin.
“I was raised in the mountains,” Andromeda begins after a while. “My mother was not very kind and the people in the village gossiped about my strange appearance wherever I went.”
“Because you looked nothing like the family who raised you,” the queen nods in understanding.
“Yes, partly because of that and partly because my mother had a reputation for straying from my father.” Andromeda rubs the sea-netting blanket between her fingers. “She finally left us when I was five, I think. I didn’t see her again until recently, my sister and I had no idea what had become of her. Now I know.”
“Oh?” the queen asks.
“She married the king of Vacantia, my homeland.” Andromeda slowly meet the queen’s curious gaze.
“And the man that raised you?” the queen prompts.
Andromeda smiles as she thinks of her father. “My father was a merchant when I was very young so he traveled a lot. He always doted on me though, it was as if he wanted to make up for the cruel, indifferent way my mother treated me. After she left us, Father moved us to the coastline and became a fisherman. Our lifestyle changed of course, but I never complained. Those years together growing up in our small cottage were happier than any of the years my mother had been with us. Then my sister married and started a family and things changed again.”
“It sounds like you love the man that raised you very much,” the queen comments quietly.
“I do,” Andromeda’s voice breaks as tears fill her eyes.
The queen wraps Andromeda in a gentle hug, careful of her ribs, and rubs her back soothingly.
“My nephew was stolen in the night, taken by the Mistborn, which is how I fell in with the Watierai Warriors. I was searching the coast for my nephew when the Warriors came upon the search party and found me in possession of an aquaswift sword, a weapon sacred to the Warriors as it incapsulates a sliver of the owner’s soul in its blade. I was accused of theft and taken to the capital city for the King to decide my fate. It was there that I saw my mother again, sitting upon the throne next to the king looking unhappy to see me again.”
“I am sorry about your nephew,” the queen looks pained.
“What has happened to him?” Andromeda asks as she tries to sit up. “What has happened to any of the children taken over the years? What did you want with them? Most were only babies.”
“It was all for you, darling,” the queen tries to stroke Andromeda’s hair but she moves out of the queen’s reach. The queen tries to look unaffected by Andromeda’s dismissal but she sees her flinch anyway. “After you were taken from me, I was a wreck. My mother, your grandmother, was still Queen of Perscesia at that time — that is what we call ourselves, never Mistborn - and when she saw how destroyed Ajax and I were by your loss she beckoned her most faithful handmaid forth and gave her orders to go upon land in the Kingdom of Vacantia, walk into a coastal village, and take a babe from its bed and bring him back to the sea so the Vacantians would understand my immeasurable loss. Each year, on the anniversary of your disappearance this process would be repeated. This went on for ten years initially, and a Landborn boy or girl would arrive at the palace.”
“What happened to the children then?” Andromeda asks, holding her breath.
The queen shrugs, “The children were given a potion to alter their beings so they might live among the Perscesian people. They were given to young couples who had trouble conceiving on their own. They grew, they thrived, they still live among us.”
“Why did the takings stop after ten years? In fact, why did they start again?” Andromeda presses as she crosses her arms over her chest, instantly regretting the motion as pain surges through her chest.
“My mother died ten years ago and I became queen. I put an end to the takings because I no longer thought it was right. It certainly was not helping me any and by that time Ajax and I had welcomed three more daughters and were expecting another.” Andromeda waits for the queen to answer her other question, about why the takings began again and her nephew was stolen in the night. “I never asked for the takings to begin anew. Your sister Ceti, next to you in age, disappeared late one night. It was not unusual, she loves to tease and flirt with the guards and often spends the night in the barracks passed out from drink and gambling. When she returned the next morning she had a bundle in her arms. A squirming, healthy baby boy who she presented to me proudly and told me it was time to continue my mother’s curse upon the Landborn. I ordered her to return the child to his rightful parents but she told me she could not, she had already given the child the changing tonic. Once a child is given the changing tonic, transforming them from Landborn to Perscesian, they can no longer survive for long periods of time out of the sea, unlike bloodborn Perscesians. He would have perished if he’d been returned.”
Tears once more prick Andromeda’s eyes and her throat feels raw, “May I see him?”
“Of course,” the queen nods, “I shall have him brought to you as soon as you feel up to it.”
“Thank you,” Andromeda murmurs as she closes her eyes
and banishes her tears.
“May I ask,” the queen begins but her voice falters, “what I mean to say is, would you tell me how you came by these injuries you have sustained?”
Andromeda swallows hard as her hands curl into fists, gripping the blanket tightly. “After the Warriors took me captive and brought me to the capital city, my connection to the Queen consort was realized and instead of death King Pavo took mercy on me and sent me to train with the Watierai Warriors. My arrival was not taken well. On my first night there I was dragged from my hut and dragged to the shoreline where I was chained to a rock and left for dead. The Chief General of the Warriors found me and punished the men who had assaulted me but that made me even less popular around the encampment. The General was called away to Vanyia, the capital city, and while he was away I was to train with his second in command. As we sparred with the aquaswift swords he nicked me which set off a series of events that ultimately led to my imprisonment and torture.”
The queen makes to stroke Andromeda’s hair again and this time she let her, “The Landborn have never been kind to our people, even before you were taken or any of the other children were stolen to right a wrong. I’m so sorry, darling.”
“How can you be so sure that I am your lost daughter?” Andromeda asks suddenly.
“I can feel it. Your blood sings to my blood,” the queen explains sadly. “Your bloodsong was nearly deafening when you entered the throne room, but I only had to lay eyes on you to know for sure. You look so much like your grandmother did in her youth. Even with the scars, you are so beautiful. For years, I wondered if you were alive, what you would look like, if you would look like me or take after your father’s line but seeing you in the flesh, you exceed all of my dreams and expectations. I can tell just by looking at you that you are kind and brave, that you would go to any length to protect those that you love. I’m proud to welcome you home, my daughter. And if you don’t feel comfortable thinking of me as your mother just yet, you may call me Carina.”
“What was the name you gave me when I was born?” Andromeda asks quietly.
“I named you Sarafina,” Queen Carina blots at her eyes with the sleeve of her gown. “But I do not expect you to answer to your birth name. After all, you’ve gone by another name for eighteen years, you are a completely different person, have taken a different path and become someone wholly unique from the child I bestowed the name Sarafina on.”
“Andromeda.” She whispers, “My name is Andromeda.”
❖
Daegan
Daegan waited, pacing from one end of the throne room to the other for what felt like hours. Queen Carina had barred him from trailing the physick and Andromeda to the infirmary even though Andromeda’s eyes had begged him not to leave her.
Daegan supposed someone would return at some point to give him further instruction, either a guard or a valet or something. He’d instructed Serpane and Sithryn to return to the ship after they left him and Andromeda off at the palace gates. Daegan hadn’t let Andromeda see it, but it was sheer luck that one of the guards had listened to him at all and appealed to Queen Carina to let them in.
The royal family still did not take Daegan seriously, preferring to ask for his father or one of his uncles even though he had turned nineteen last reaping season and had finished his apprenticeship under his father during the ripening season.
Daegan took another loop around the throne room, pausing momentarily to admire the queen’s gardens through the windows. As he stood there with his mind drifting off to mundane things he failed to notice the sound of footsteps echoing across the tile floor. Someone cleared their throat rather loudly and his trance was broken as he swiveled sheepishly and came face to face with the queen’s consort, Ajax.
Ajax had once been the general of Carina’s mother’s guard which explained why Daegan didn’t hear his entrance. Ajax was known for stealth, some said he was more mist than solid being because you never knew he was coming until the blood began gushing from the cut he’d slit in your throat. Queen Carina had fallen for the somewhat older guard when she was barely seventeen and Ajax was nearing his thirtieth year, their romance setting precedence throughout the kingdom for defying the lines of social classes. Carina’s mother, the queen at that time, had been furious.
Ajax looked like he hadn’t aged a day in the eighteen years since he’d married Carina. His long straight hair was still as silver as a full moon’s glow and his face was still as smooth and wrinkle-free as if he had been preserved in his youth. His peculiar faded golden eyes regarded Daegan frankly. Some said there was something mystical about Ajax’s eyes. That he could peer into the eyes of another and see their entire future in a single glance. Daegan wondered what Ajax saw when he looked at him.
“Queen Carina and I offer you our sincerest gratitude for finding our daughter and bringing her home.” Ajax’s voice startled Daegan. Of all the years Daegan spent visiting the palace as his father’s apprentice Daegan never heard the man speak. Not once in so many years.
Daegan bows his head slightly, “I’m glad that I could finally be of service. I just wish I could have gotten to her sooner, before the damage had been inflicted upon her.”
“Yes, well,” Ajax clears his throat again and looks away, “the physick is the best in all the kingdoms. He’ll have my daughter back in fighting shape soon enough.”
Daegan frowns at Ajax’s strange turn of phrase. He couldn’t possibly know that Andromeda was training with the Watierai Warriors when Daegan found her, could he? “What do you mean, fighting shape?”
“How else do you think my girl survived at the hands of her captors?” Ajax raises his eyebrows, “She’s a fighter, just like her mother and her grandmother before her. She was born with fire and steel in her bones.” Ajax looks proud. “I can tell already she will make a strong queen someday.”
“I have no doubt,” Daegan nods his head and stares at his feet. “So what happens now?”
“We all return to our normal lives,” Ajax sighs and chuckles, “whatever that means. Your family’s status as the Royal Hunters will be restored and you may move back into the Hunter’s Quarters in the city proper if you wish.”
“Thank you, Your Highness,” Daegan bows to his waist.
“Queen Carina and I have a new assignment for you,” Ajax continues as if Daegan has not spoken. “We want you and your crew to find the woman who stole our daughter and learn everything you can about her and report back.”
“Yes, Your Highness,” Daegan replies as he straightens and places his hands behind his back respectfully.
“A page will deliver all you will need to find the woman we seek and infiltrate her life to your ship at nightfall.” Ajax explains dismissively.
“My crew will be ready and waiting, Highness,” Daegan promises as the ferryman appears in his gondola to take him back to the palace doors. From there a guard will hail Daegan a seaskipper.
Daegan feels Ajax’s eyes on the back of his head as he climbs into the gondola and when he turns around he finds Ajax watching him with a peculiar look on his face, like he’s lost in a memory. Daegan turns away quickly, feeling uneasy around the queen’s consort.
The gondolier is quiet during the duration of Daegan’s passage to the palace doors. He heard a rumor as a boy that all the royal gondoliers had had their tongues cut out to keep from gossiping about the comings and goings from the palace. The story went that way back before Daegan’s grandfather was born, a gondolier told his wife about the queen at that time sneaking out of the palace and having affairs with various men in the capital city. The gondolier’s wife told a friend, who told a friend, and pretty soon everyone in the capital city knew all the salacious details. When the queen found out that everyone knew her secret she executed the gondolier’s wife in front of the palace gates and ordered all royal gondoliers to have their tongues severed — and the punishment became a tradition that remains in place today.
Daegan shudders at the thought, grateful that
his family line has been honored as the Royal Hunters for centuries and not cursed to be gondoliers. Daegan would never have allowed anyone to remove his tongue so that he could follow his father’s profession.
When they reach the palace doors Daegan stands and hops from the gondola to the tile floor and walks to the door without sparing a second glance at the gondolier.
History of Esternwhorl #10
The Warrior King and the Slave Princess
The sagas that will be written about King Pavo in his youth will be full of tales of his victory in battle. Before he ascended the throne, when he was a lad of seventeen, he earned his military commission leading his men against a group of rebels in the East who wished to overthrow the monarchy. The rebels were cave-dwellers, fearsome men who fought with inhuman strength and vicious methods of torture. But Pavo defeated the fifty or so men with a squad of only eleven soldiers — and not a single of his men perished.
The rest of his military career is just as impressive and more. But when his father, King Arolen, died when Pavo was nearing his thirtieth year he found himself on the throne without a consort or heir.
His father’s council paraded an array of beautiful noble women from Vacantia and Shroudania before him but he found one excuse or another to dismiss them all.
Meanwhile, in Lostero, King Dao was in great risk of losing his kingdom to Shroudania. Dao’s only son and eldest heir had been slaughtered by Shroudanian invaders the year before and his only hope of saving his country and people was to try to forge an alliance with Vacantia by offering his only daughter, Princess Sapphira, in marriage to young King Pavo.
Monsters & Mist Page 13