The Non Royal Princess

The Non Royal Princess

A fantasy

1. Princess Jarolyn

"He’s a pig, not a Prince!" the furious girl exploded as she burst through the heavy oak door of her outer chambers, wherein she burst into tears.

Bringing up the rear, I quietly closed the door so that others couldn’t eavesdrop on her distress.

"Come, Your Highness, sit by the fire and calm down," I urged, a gentle hand between the girl’s delicate shoulder blades, firmly guiding her to her favourite chair in front of the roaring fire at the end of the chamber that I’d lit earlier.

She moved as directed and took seat. Her long, delicate, sleeveless silk dress was stylish and perfect for active social dancing. However, spending the whole of a tedious morning standing and formally entertaining visiting provincial princes and their large and mainly uncivilised entourage in our draughty halls of court, wasn’t very comforting for an adolescent princess.

I draped a warm woollen robe over her shoulders. She smiled through tears for just a moment in thanks before her anger bubbled over again.

"You were there, Tomas, discrete as usual but near enough to hear what he told me, that, that … pile of … dragon poop!"

A small smile momentarily creased my otherwise neutral but edging towards concerned countenance.

"I was, my lady, but Prince Qinocci hales from one of the Six Minor Kingdoms of Exonibia. They are coarser than we subjects of the more enlightened society in the Queendom of Shanija. Remember your political lessons, Princess Jarolyn, that the Minor Kingdoms are traditionally friendly buffer states between us and the mighty mountain-based Republic of Zenobia. The Republic’s income, from mines and minerals, gives them wealth and power and we know they regard our fertile plains and forests teeming with game with covetous eyes. Indeed, they have tested our border security for years seeking weaknesses to exploit. The Minor Kingdoms are states we need strong relationships with and, where greed and power exists, the bond of family is a stronger glue than simple friendship."

"I know Momma wants this alliance, I do understand, Tomas. Her grandfather was a second cousin to Qinocci’s grandmother, and closer ties with younger royals could be valuable alliances, but tomorrow is my 17th birthday and I won’t consent to marry that conceited oaf a year on from tomorrow."

"Her Majesty is unmoved by your protests," I gently reminded her, handing her a cloth peeled from several folded together, drawn from my belt pouch. "Her hands are tied, my lady. Being the eldest of four princesses and, as your commoner father’s daughter and Queen Sharma’s step-daughter, by our laws of succession you cannot be queen. The queendom needs alliances to survive. We have no Prince and, since your father died last year and the Queen’s age precludes it, there will be no crown princes from Shanija until your young half-sisters, marry and produce heirs. That happy day will not be for at least ten and twelve years respectively, when Crown Princess Lakole and Princess Sheryne come of age."

"I know, I know," she agreed in sighing despair, dabbing her wet cheeks with the soft linen cloth, "my sister Marija’s only 15 and I suppose I did agree to meet this prince weeks ago and … well, I hoped he would be the prince of fairy tales… but that pig … it is sooo unfair that I cannot marry for love!"

"It is indeed, my lady," I did agree, "Qinocci is an arrogant loose-mouthed fool and completely unworthy of the sweet-natured and sophisticated Princess —”

"—but you heard—”

"I did, he called you a ‘desperate non-royal princess’ and unnecessarily boasted that he would maintain his harem and only ‘bother’ you sufficiently to birth around six princes. He even showed you how greedy he is. Telling you that his father, Minor King Hymor, handsomely pays from his treasury a golden bounty for every Prince grandchild his seven sons produce was crass. To add that his father spares not a copper farthing for any of his princesses, be they daughters or granddaughters, is enough to show how uncouth his society is. Very undiplomatic and stupid of the prince to say what he said, when he is but his father's youngest of seven sons. Qinocci will never be king. I’ve heard he neglected his school lessons in favour of archery and debauchery, so I fear he’ll ne’er amount to anything. However, he is the only eligible Minor Kingdom prince unclaimed by any bride. Even his eldest sister and advisor, the Duchess Philoma, overheard and was much embarrassed by the pup Prince’s silly speech."

"What am I to do, Tomas? I’ve known you forever, you’re my teacher, my protector, my advisor, my friend."

"I am sorry, Your Highness, you have little choice. I’ve dreaded today since your dear father, Queen’s Consort Morkyn died. He may have been born a humble cobbler but, by killing the Dragon that almost destroyed the Queen and all the royal party, including me, 13 years ago, he fulfilled a prophecy that indeed led as foretold, to your father and Queen Sharma being the most loving and happily married couple I’ve ever known. But, without a royal male-child we’re back to where we were 13 years ago when the Queen ruled alone with no heir apparent."

"Yes, my father and Queen Sharma, who I’m proud has become my constant and loving mother, were so happy, we were all happy," the Princess agreed, “and there’s no new prophecy when one is needed to save the day!"

"I know, the soothsayers have been far too quiet, my lady."

"Oh, Momma has her hands tied," she sighed in resignation. "Alliances are needed and I have to do my duty as the eldest princess … but I don’t have to be happy about it.”

“I could come with you, my lady, if you wish, and the Queen permits me to join you in Exonibia.”

“Would you? I know Caroleen, my maid, would come, she swears so all the time. You’d be a comfort Tomas, you’ve always been with us and, when Marija and I undertook too many separate activities for you to protect us both, I’m glad that you chose me.”

“Well, after your father killed the Dragon, and my knight had been burnt to a crisp, I was completely out of a job as knight’s squire. I’m grateful that your father insisted on my new role as minder of the princesses in the Palace. I was only 14, you were 4 and blessed with a personality that was pleasurable to serve, while Princess Marija was as troublesome as a two-year-old as she was at 13, when I was asked to make a choice, so choosing you was an easy decision.”

“Well, I’m grateful, Tomas. Now, what about you becoming a knight, surely you have served us as protector long enough to be given your spurs by now?”

“Not as a squire trained to be a knight, my lady, such a knighthood has to be learned and earned. I had served as squire to my knight for less than twelve-months when Sir Dhaniz perished in defending the Queen from that Dragon. At the ripe old age of almost 28 I am far too old to take up the remainder of my seven-year indenture. Your father told me once that even he was unable to make me a knight and he was Queen’s Consort. I will forever be a servant or man-at-arms in time of war but I told him I was content to serve my Queen and Princess in either capacity. Mind you, my lady, Princess Marija hasn’t talked to me once since the choice had to be made two years ago, she was very upset that I chose you.”

“That girl can sometimes hold a grudge longer than is healthy; I’ll have a quiet word with her tomorrow at breakfast and clear the air between you. But thank you Tomas for your offer to serve me after my marriage. I feel comforted knowing I’ll have a dear friend in the wasteland of the Minors. Now, please can we go out for our daily ride? I really missed my morning exercise because of this visiting Prince and I want to get out of this finery, into my everyday riding wear, loosen my tresses, gallop freely to feel the wind in my hair and enjoy the freedom while I am still a girl and not yet a married woman!”

Within the hour we had ridden half a league from the Royal Castle, the horses had worked up a warm sweat and we were happily free of the confines of Court life, even if only for an hour or two.

It was as we topped the deserted open moor only a few hundred yards short of our intended destination, the collection of forest rides, that my mount threw a shoe, immediately stepped on a sharp stone and badly split his front right hoof. He was reduced to hobbling with a jarred knee.

I dismounted and examined my horse’s leg. He was a game animal and an enjoyable ride and wanted him seen to and made comfortable as soon as possible. “I’m afraid I’ll have to walk Blackie back to the stable farrier, my lady.”

“Well, I am still keen to ride on and gallop up and down the King’s Ride for twenty minutes or so or I’ll be too wound up to sleep tonight. I’ll not stray, Tomas, and will gallop past you waving farewell some three-quarters of the way through your homeward trek.”

“I really shouldn’t let you out of my sight, Your Highness.” I always addressed her formally when in mixed company or I had sound advice to give, advice that she should take, even though I knew the headstrong girl would do what she wanted in this situation. She always knew what she wanted and said what was on her mind. I loved her honesty.

“Oh Tomas, we are still within the Royal Palace Grounds, what could possibly happen?”

“You could fall and lie on the gallops unconscious for wolves or bears to eat their fill, although they’d regard you naught but a light delicacy between proper meals.”

“Tosh! There are no wolves or bears within the Palace Grounds, Tomas!” she laughed. “I’ll see you soon, once I’ve chased away my melancholy at losing my independence before even becoming a fully growed woman.”

“I’ll keep an anxious eye on the road for your return, Your Highness,” I bowed.

I did watch out for the Princess but she didn’t pass me.

After walking more than three-quarters of the way home and not seeing her approaching in the distance, I became increasingly concerned. I abandoned Blackie to make his own way back to the stables for his evening oats and the farrier’s attention. I ran all the way to the Palace to raise the hue and cry in searching for the Princess.

Although we searched high and low for many weeks and months, with proclamations read out in every town and hamlet in the Queendom, Princess Jarolyn could not be found.

***

2. Seven Years Later

For the past six years of constant war I have served as my General’s Sergeant-at-Arms using my surname Argun, knowing that my given name Tomas had become unwise to bandy about. Even after today's victorious battle my euphoria in ending the campaign was already beginning to ebb away.

I glanced at the women and children we'd just released from the Bandits’ whorehouse in the northern Badlands, where the outlaws had grown powerful during the power vacuum which the Queendom was only now cleaning up.

Firstly we fought a wearying three-year war before finally driving the Republic of Zenobia from the occupied Eastern Provinces. Then the battle-honed army spent these last three years clawing back other territories that had been lost to adventurers sensing Shanija’s potential collapse, or had fallen out of Royal control. This campaign in the outlaw regions of the north was the last bastion of the Bandits to fall.

The women and children waited silently, sullenly, for the promised hot food, fresh water and administrative processing to either return them from whence taken, or to somewhere they could pick up their lives in freedom again.

Realising what these women and children had gone through during our hard six-month siege, took away all my pleasure of hard won victory.

I could see that most of the whores had been marked by dagger scars of initial runes on their faces to denote their bandit ownership, some unfortunates marked by a succession of owners.

All were seriously malnourished. It was clear that before the Bandit inner stronghold fell to the final assault with victory in favour of the Queen’s Regency of Shanija, that the Bandits had fed their fighting men first from their stocks before allowing their womenfolk and children to scavenge for leftovers.

Some children and women showed the distended bellies of those who suffered the most serious deprivation; some, I knew, were too far gone to be saved, even with soups and stews that the Queen’s Army field kitchens were hastily preparing to supplement the fresh water, bread and sweet biscuits already brought into the pulverised stronghold by cart.

As I ran my eyes ran over the huddled creatures, mostly women and girls, as even the young boys over ten years old were drafted into the fighting, I heard a sharp gasp from one of the otherwise silent ranks of women.

Being a keen hunter, my skills honed by years of conflict in the service of the Queendom, I narrowed down where I thought the exclamation had came from … to a crouched down woman whose back was turned towards me, while she clasped desperately a young boy and three younger babies in her arms. The boy stood looking over his mother’s shoulder and regarded me with a defiant, hostile, look.

"Hey you," I commanded across the dozen or so unwashed bodies betwixt me and the woman, "you, the woman with four young children, turn and face me … now!"

The woman’s shoulders slumped, releasing the tension of tightly holding her children to her bosom. She turned slowly to face me. As her left cheek came into view, I saw an old but angry looking scar of a gash running diagonally across her cheek from upper lip to the top of her ear. As her full though rather emaciated face emerged below her close cropped blond hair, her eyes lifted to look at me. A wan smile appeared as her lips curled up fractionally at the corners.

"Hail, Tomas," she said quietly but steadily, as defiantly as her son’s look, "You appear well, considering the passage of time and circumstance."

"You!" I was shocked both to recognise her and her appearance so different to the beautiful adolescent girl she was when I saw her last. "My lady, I had not expected to see you today, nor to see you again, after you ran away from me."

"Nor I the same," she smiled back sadly, "though I did not run away from you or my duties, Tomas, I was taken. You could’ve done nothing except die in vain, they were too many waiting for me upon the forest Rides."

"Is there anyone else here in your party?"

"No, just the five of us."

"Ja’rild," I turned and spoke to the nearest guard, a young man still in his teens but I regarded him as a good and reliable soldier, "Escort this woman and her four children to Number Three interrogation tent. Stay with her until I relieve you, do not allow her to be interrogated by anyone bar me and see that no harm befall any one of them. I’ll organise hot food to be sent there directly. Do not let them out of your sight."

"Aye, Sergeant Argun," Ja’rild snapped smartly back, eyeing the woman and her encumbrances as I hurried away.

"Jakko," I heard Ja’rild call to another guard within easy earshot who had also heard my orders, "lend a hand and help with one baby and I’ll porter another. Ma’am, if you would, please."

I glanced back as I turned the corner. The woman rose stiffly and handed the older girl over to Ja’rild and the second youngest to Jakko. Neither child protested much, being too tired and weary to care what happened any more.

Jakko was used to carrying a child, I remembered he had children of his own, and he comfortably placed the child on his non-sword hip, stroked her dirty face with light fingertips and cooed to her gently to spark in her a little response. Ja’rild was less comfortable with the child he first held almost at arm’s length until he copied Jakko’s hold. The party moved off towards the interrogation tents and I marched to the General's tent in the opposite direction among the siege engines.

***

"Sergeant-at-Arms Argun to see you Sire," the Lord’s servant announced.

"Aye, leave him enter now, I’m almost finished here." Lord Alderlea smiled at his servant, before passing several curt instructions to two of his Captains and dismissing them just as I entered his tent.

"Tom, what can I do for you, my boy?" the Lord smiled at me. I had known and admired my Lord Alderlea, when he was the Queen's General and now Queen Regent's General, on and off for almost 20 years. "Come sit and try a cup of this fine wine that the late Chieftain Bandit had locked several tuns of away and untouched in his cellar alongside other treasures. Captain D’neale has saved a tun for the officers’ table, when we can finally find the time to sit and relax."

"I would rather keep a clear head, my Lord."

That got the Lord’s attention. He dropped his voice to a whisper. "Come sit close that we’re not overheard, Tom. Although alone, the Queen's Regent has spies with ears and eyes everywhere. Dip your lips in the wine if only to assuage the solicitous nature of our conversation. What do you require?"

I sat close and lifted a cup to my lips caring not if full or empty. I whispered in his ear, "A leave of absence from service and quietly, with five others, a woman and four young children."

"Who have you found?" the Lord asked.

"A girl once known to us, a whore now, her name starts with J," Tomas began, "she has been disfigured and much misused, has four children with her who, by their sizes relative to age, cannot all be her own. She says she was taken in the … in those Grounds we know, by a group too many and too bold to be there other than by arrangement from within."

Lord Alderlea nodded slowly, before turning, calling out, "Scribe! Bring pen and parchment, quickly, man!"

Turning to me, he whispered, "Delay not for dinner, Tom, pack light, take what horses and food you need for three days on the road. Leave long before dark, before the pickets close. Head west-south-west to the coast, the nearest market town of Kliburne. There, show this ring." He removed a ring, with a large blue stone etched with a Dragon’s head, from the middle finger of his left hand. "The keeper of the ‘Rising Sun’ there will give you rooms and board. The inn was mine — my letter will show it is now yours, Tom. While the Scribe writes your passes, my letters to my Manor Steward and a codicil to my Last Will & Testament, fetch the ‘J’ woman here, that I might see her just once, then go my boy, go."

The Lord’s Scribe entered in a bustle with a folding table, cups of quills, ink, dessicant powder and a quire of parchments. He unfolded the table, which included a stool, sat, drew a quill from the cup, dipped it in the ink and, poised, "My Lord?"

***

3. Towards a new home

The road from the Northern Mountains was cold and slippery but largely deserted, the long siege had diverted normal trading traffic to safer passages and the presence of the Queen’s Regent Marija’s resurgent Army was keeping the Queen’s law now in what was until recently Bandit country. It was already dark when the party made their first stop.

As we all ate our warmed up supper and bread in front of a fire, hardly anything was said between any of us, it seemed that the woman was resigned to her fate, though she was free of one type of prison at least.

I had decided that our most convenient transport to commandeer was a two-wheeled cart pulled by one draught horse, but craved a boon from the Quartermaster for a second horse so that they could take the pulling in turns to cover the greatest distance in the shortest time. I also tied my own saddled mount to the back of the cart. We were given generous provisions by the Quartermaster including milk for the baby; I had been a popular Sergeant, in six years of war I was always fair and reasonable with orders, concerned never to waste a life if there was a safer way to ensure victory.

"A clean crate, with pillows and blankets has made a comfortable crib for three-month-old Doadi, straw sacks and woollen blankets are makeshift cots for 18-month-old Cari and two-year-old Balli. All three girls are whorehouse orphans," declared the otherwise closed mouth woman, when the children slept, "The boy Tomi is my own son from the first Bandit chieftain who took me for his own after I was kidnapped."

This much was all I learned after three quiet nights and days on the road.

At the ‘Rising Sun Inn’ in Kliburne, on the coast of Western Province, the Peer’s ring and covering letter guaranteed by Lord Alderlea’s seal, secured what I requested, a single family chamber for two with cots and blankets brought up for the four children and the first hot meal that we hadn’t needed to heat up ourselves.

The landlord told me, “My Lord, I’ll send for the Alderlea Manor Steward at first light, ’tis half an hour’s hard ride away but I suggest that your Lordship’s family stay here for at least two nights, as the Manor House might be in need of cleaning and airing … it has lain shut-up since the day the Lord lost his only son, perished some twenty years since. In his grief, the Lord has devoted his energy to the Queendom, but thee can rest assured that, as the grandson of our Lord, ye’ll be served as if you and your Ladyship were the Lord and Ladyship themselves.”

The exhausted children were soon dozing after their hot meal, the two elder girls even dropping off in my arms for the second night in a row and I carefully laid them into their cots. Then Princess Jarolyn and I sat together on the bed, the chamber dimly lit by a single wax candle.

"What happens to us, all of us, on the morrow, Tomas?" she asked, "when you get to where you are headed?’

"My papers indicate that our good friend Lord Alderlea has adopted me as his grandson, which means very soon, depending on the state of the manor house, we can live a quiet life away from war and royal intrigue in Lord Alderlea’s manor but we will have to take care not to draw too much attention to us from without."

"Does ‘we’ include all of us?"

"Aye. You, me, your child and the other children. You can stay as long as you like or go if and when you wish. You are no longer a slave, my lady, and you are under no obligation here. However, your safety in the country is uncertain, the Queendom is not what it was when you knew it. I … well, I would like all of you to stay."

"I would like to stay, too, Tomas. Lord Alderlea warned me that my identity as Princess had to remain a secret," she said, adding softly, "do you want to know what happened to me now, Tomas?"

"Only if you wish to tell. And you don’t have to until you're ready."

"I do … I want to clear the air … between us," she said, "I want to tell you everything and I want you to tell me what's happening because at the moment I am not at all sure what is going on and why I am still in danger. The Bandits kept us completely in the dark about news from home, any news at all."

“Queen Sharma searched everywhere for you for months, seven years ago. She posted huge rewards but never received any ransom demands or news of sightings, absolutely nothing, you simply disappeared. Your mother was frantic, completely distraught. Prince Qinocci stayed on at the Palace, asked his father’s army to help search the Six Minor Kingdoms for you or word of your whereabouts. A year on, the prince and Princess Marija apparently fell in love, were engaged and the royal party went to Exonibia for the wedding. I am not sure how, but the Minor Kingdoms were invaded by General Drix of the Zenobian Republic. The Six Minor Kingdoms together succumbed in less than a day, the whole of the royal party was taken and ransom demands immediately sent to the Palace.”

“What?!” Jarolyn was shocked, “My Mother, my sisters! What about you? And my maid Caroleen?”

“I was not with the party. Caroleen wanted to stay in service after you disappeared and your mother recognised that when you returned home she would be part of the normal life you remembered, so she was attached to the nurses of the younger princesses, Lakole and Sheryne.”

"Where were you?"

"In the dungeons."

“No! Why?!”

“I lost you. You were under my protection and I left you alone when my horse was lame and it was thought I allowed you to run away. It was my fault you were unaccompanied. I was suspected of involvement in your disappearance, even accused of murder. They dredged every ornamental pond in the Royal Grounds.”

“But, you … I saw the split hoof, your horse in pain … it could not be you anyway, you were with us from the start, when my father killed the Dragon and saved the Queen. We all loved you, Tomas, you would never have wanted for anything.”

“Your Mother was at her wit’s end. Her Council advisors told her that I was the most likely suspect in your murder. I was arrested and tortured, but I could tell them nothing but the truth, so eventually they gave up the interrogation and left me to rot in the dungeons.”

***

4. War

Princess Jarolyn holds both my hands in hers. “I'd never believe that you could ever wish harm to befall me, Tomas. My Mother, all my sisters, they should have trusted you.”

“Those were not normal times. First, you disappeared without trace, then all the royal party disappeared, bar two that … somehow escaped … the rest were never seen again. The ransom demand came as soon as they were taken, General Drix demanded that we allow the Republic to occupy all Six Minor Kingdoms and cede the whole of the Eastern Province, where most of the watermills and the lushest forests were, as part of Drix’s Republic.

"My Lord Alderlea was summonsed back from retirement, remember he retired only months before you disappeared?; strangely I’ve just heard that his Manor House has been empty for 20 years. I wonder where he went? Anyway an army was assembled with the loyal Lord once more at its head as General. He asked for me as soon as he returned, after discovering that I was not listed among the missing in the Royal Wedding Party, and had me released from prison. He even made me his Sergeant-at-Arms, the highest rank a non-knight could be appointed. But, two weeks later, as the Army was still preparing for the march, your sister Princess Marija and the Prince Qinocci arrived at the Palace, having escaped from General Drix.”

“How did they escape?”

“Indirectly I heard it from Lord Alderlea. Princess Marija told the Queen’s Council that the Republican General invited her and her fiancé to supper, during which he offered them the crown of Exonibia, as all of Qinocci’s family had been executed. They were offered this reward if the Princess would ride with a Republican guard escort to plead with the Queen’s Council to agree fully to the terms of the ransom and thus avoid war. Marija said that at the supper, Qinocci snatched up a dining knife and cut the General’s throat with it, before using the General’s own sword to fight off the guards long enough for them to manage their escape.”

“And the Council believed that dragon poop?” Jarolyn shook her head in disbelieve.

“They had no choice. The Queendom has lacked leadership ever since Queen Sharma disappeared.”

“And you believed Marija?”

“His Lordship and I agreed that the whole story smelled of ox dung, Qinocci couldn’t fight off a butterfly. But the Council did cede to the Republic’s demands, surrendering the Eastern Province on a six-months’ programme to allow our people to move out. But no-one from the Royal party was returned and after about six months waiting their release, the Army finally marched on Exonibia.”

“And they found the Queen and my other sisters?”

“No, the Republic put up a token resistance for three years but indeed they were leaderless themselves for some time, so there was truth in part of the story, but of the Queen, the Princesses, the entourage and the Exonibian Royal Family? Nothing, not one single sign. Peace was eventually sued with the Republic after about three years of war driving them from our lands but nothing was truly resolved. Nobody knew anything or were prepared to own up. We, that is the Lord and I, suspect Marija."

"My mother, the baby princesses, Lakole and Sheryne, my maid Caroleen, all lost?"

"Aye, all lost. Princess Marija immediately wanted to assume the crown as Queen, with her husband as King, but the Council refused both requests after long debate. They evoked the old laws, which state that a missing person cannot be declared dead until seven years and a day have passed since they were last seen alive. By Princess Marija’s own testimony, she was with the Queen before she dined with the General and that was a week before they turned up at the Palace, the decision was delayed until, well, it will be seven years in about three months. Until then, the Council conceded that Marija could be Queen’s Regent and Qinocci Queen’s Regent Consort. Even when we won back the ground initially conceded and freed the Minor Kingdoms, we found no evidence that the Queen and her party were ever in Exonibia. During peace negotiations with the Republic we appealed for information. They conceded that once their leader died, confusion reigned and they had no evidence of the Royal party. They say they have no reason to believe they were ever transported to the Republic, in fact their leader died without the taking of the Royals being ever officially recorded, even down to the ransom note sent. Whoever our Queen’s Council were negotiating with in the Exonibian capital, wasn’t them they say and, when we ceded the Eastern Provinces to them, it was a surprise gift horse that they didn’t look too closely in the mouth.

"But, now that you have been discovered, Your Highness, you are two years older than Marija and, although you are both non-royal princesses, in the absence of any better claimants, you could claim the throne yourself … if you want to.”

"That is the last thing I want, Tomas. I am not a queen, nor was I ever even a proper princess. I am the daughter of a cobbler, not even a properly indentured journeyman or master cobbler, he was a travelling tinker who could turn his hand to repairing anything in wood, leather, tin or brass before moving onto a new town before the repairs he bodged started breaking down again. We were nomads. My father was no fighter, so how he managed to kill that huge fearsome dragon with you as the only witness is a complete mystery to me." She smiled. "We are alone, Tomas, would you care to tell me what I have long suspected really happened?"

Tomas sighed. "I was a very minor part of the Queen’s party as she travelled from court to court for attendance at the Spring Assizes. The Dragon attacked without warning and burned virtually everyone in the escort with its very first breath of fire, only the Queen in her carriage, your father and his daughters in your cart, and me sheltering behind my knight, Sir Dhaniz of the North West Province survived. He was mortally wounded, his breast plate glowing red hot from the flames.

"Despite his awful burns, Sir Dhaniz charged the Dragon while the reptile drew in its breath to breathe fire again and Sir Dhaniz stabbed him in the snout with his sword partly going up the left nostril, but the Dragon’s fiery breath rained down and burned the poor brave knight to ash, his trapped sword now glowing white hot with the leather handle vaporised. I hid behind Sir Dhaniz’ fallen mount while the Dragon took another deep breath to summon up from its depths more devastating flames to finish us off."

I paused at that point deciding whether to maintain my promise to her dead father.

"What happened?"

"Your father had carried you and your sister from the burning cart and hid you behind some rocks. He must’ve seen the charge of the brave knight and the superficial blow he’d inflicted on the Dragon’s face. Your father worked out that there were only a few seconds delay while the Dragon drew in his breath. He was too far away to reach, being an older man he knew he’d never make it, but I was only just behind the smoking body of my knight. Your father threw his cobbler’s hammer to me and told me to use it to knock home the hot blade. The hammer landed on the ground between me and the Dragon. We were all doomed unless I was quick and decisive."

"And you were quick?"

"I always was. One blow with that hammer and that white hot sword was driven straight into the Dragon’s brain. It died instantly, its fire with it and dying breath was fortunately exhaled unlit. I gratefully handed the hammer back to your grinning father and he companionably slapped me on the shoulder just as the Queen extricated herself from the burning royal coach, the only survivor from the Royal Escort other than me.

"She asked us, your father and I, who we were, I introduced myself as an insignificant member of the Royal Party, the squire of the brave knight Sir Dhaniz who wounded the Dragon and that it was the cobbler’s hammer that had killed the beast.

"The Queen never questioned that it must therefore have been the cobbler who killed the Dragon. She insisted that we accompany her as we walked to the nearest town. She, the Queen herself, insisted on carrying your snotty-nosed sister while I carried you in my arms. At the first small village we came to she was able to raise or summon a new royal escort and we were taken to the Palace as her guests. We knew nothing about the Prophecy until the Queen read it out in Court and changed all our lives.”

"My father always kept you close, Tomas. He considered you a friend, told us girls to always obey your orders because you were our protector. We all became as good friends as it is possible for the difference in our new roles and the age difference."

"We did, my lady Jarolyn, those were my favourite years." I smiled, then continued, "After you disappeared my fortunes went downhill until Lord Alderlea saved me and took me into his army. He kept me hidden, using a name ‘Argun’ that the Orphanage told me was my late mother’s name. He kept me away from the Queen’s Regent and her Consort. Those two are still in control of the Palace and the country. So, tell me, my Lady, what happened to you?"

***

5. The Whores of Badland

"Oh dear," she sighed, "I did say I would tell you, didn’t I? Well, you now know that I was taken by a large party of about twenty Bandits. They took me on a three-day hard ride north, which I ascertained from the morning and evening sun. Our own ride these last few days reminded me much of it and replaced those old memories with ones a lot more pleasant," she smiled, "I was taken to that Inner Stronghold, they called it, the one you’ve just taken by force. There, the chieftain took me violently the very first night I arrived and," Jarolyn spoke very quietly as the children slept in their cots, "although the chieftain had sex with many girls, only very young girls, he did not mark me as his and gradually he became less brutal, so much so I came to accept his overtures, relaxed enough that I fell pregnant…."

"With Tomi?" Tomas asked.

"Aye. I suppose I’ve given my true feelings away by my son’s name. The names of the children of chieftains, who have the pick of the whores—”

"Whores?"

"To Bandits, all girls or women were simply called whores. We were there to be raped at will and shared with other Bandits, sometimes for favours but often because they simply didn’t care for the girls. Many were murdered on a whim, there was no law. There were no organised families, but … for the first two years that bandit chief refused to share me, although he took his fair share of his men’s girls for his own pleasures. He cared nothing about what name I called my child. My boy’s name, Tomi, made me feel that I might have a hope of freedom, a home one day and family."

"So the scar came later?"

"Yes, it is ugly and unromantic, isn’t it?"

"It is a badge that was imposed upon you, my lady, to further enslave and control you. You are a slave no longer, Jarolyn, it cannot be taken away, but you are still beautiful, so wear it as a badge of your independence, simply a symbol of what you had to endure to survive as you now are in control of your own destiny."

"And is my destiny and the children who are with me, part of your destiny, Tomas?"

"My Lady, and I hope you will be my own lady in truth, I have loved you from knowing you as a delightful child back when I was a child myself and from then on I’ve only grown to love you more as you grew into womanhood. Now, you’ve taken responsibility for and love not only your son but three children who had no mothers, because you cared even whilst within that monstrous hell you lived in. You have continually demonstrated that you care for them before caring for yourself these last few days and even now show concern for their futures and wish to ensure that they share your future. I love you even more, I only wish that I was more worthy of you, Your Highness."

"That title was only a part of me while my adopted mother the Queen loved me and cared for me. When my father died we both missed him terribly and my mother and I grew even closer as I was entering womanhood and needed a mother’s love and advice. Since then I have been … not even an ordinary woman but a whore—”

"A slave," I interrupted and continued calmly, "you had no choice in your circumstances and how you were used or treated, you needed to survive; if you hadn’t adapted you wouldn’t be alive for me to love you now, my lady, my Jarolyn, my love."

"Tomas, you have to understand what I am saying. To start with, yes, rape was painful and demeaning. I hated him and resisted, was severely beaten and I hated everything that was happening to me. I kept asking the chieftain about my ransom but he stalled. saying negotiations were complicated, including pardons for crimes, restoring confiscated estates, trade agreements … but then I started to endure his impositions and later, with my relative independence in the whorehouse it became a job which I took pride in doing well, mostly. The weakness of man gave me back a little of the strength and power I had lost. As for my scar, you may not want to know what happened shortly after I got this."

"I assure you I do. No secrets are worth having in any honest relationship."

"True. Well, Bandit chieftains do not last long, between two and five years, from information I’ve gathered. I belonged to my first chieftain for almost two years and was heavily pregnant when he was challenged, for the third or fourth time that I knew about, and he lost his life, which meant I then belonged to another. The first chieftain never marked me. I think he knew I was the step-daughter of the Queen and might be valuable one day to bargain with.

"The new chieftain decided I was his property and wanted to destroy the baby of the first chieftain inside me, so he beat me until I was unconscious and, while I was out of it, he cut me, left me beaten, half dead and bleeding. I woke in the dead of night. One of my eyes was closed up completely and my hair was drenched in blood from my cut face. I was doubled up in pain from the kicking but I heard the drunken chieftain snoring. By the light of the fireplace embers I could see he was naked abed with two whores asleep beside him. His dagger was on the table where he left it. One of the whores had very long hair; I tied the chieftain’s hands behind his back with her hair. Both were so drunk, so deeply asleep that they didn’t know what was happening. I used the whores’ woollen stockings to tie his feet, the whores’ feet and gag the chieftain. Still he didn’t wake."

"What about guards?" I asked.

"Probably drunk. This was not the Palace, Tomas, they were a disorganised rabble. The new chieftain and his followers had broken into the treasure house and divvied up the treasure and drank all the old chieftain’s wine."

"What did you do?"

"I gelded him with his own knife. Ha! That woke him up! He was angry but terrified as I showed him his bleeding ball sack and his blood-stained dagger. His movements to free his hands woke the girl whose hair tied up his hands. She started to scream. I not too gently poked her with the point of the dagger and told her to be quiet or I would cut off her nose. She went very quiet."

"Would you have?"

"No! She was a slave like me!"

"What about the other girl?"

"She woke earlier, when I first lit the candles, her hands and feet already hog-tied together, she whimpered, and watched my every move with big eyes but stayed quiet. Both girls were very young. I turned my attention to the new chieftain. He was trying to say something through the stocking gag. I assumed he was asking me ‘why?’ I answered, ‘you cut me, I cut you. We’re even. I want my freedom, you want your cock. Want to trade, yes? Promise to set me free, give me passage home and you keep your cock. Do you agree?’ He nodded, so I cut off the gag. The first thing the stupid man said was, ‘I’m going to kill you!’ So I slit his throat, which stopped his scream but that started the two girls screaming. No-one in the Stronghold came to his or the girls’ rescue. So I left the chamber and searched for someone to help me. Of course there were no doctors but the first house I knocked on was the whorehouse and they were used to treating beatings dished out on women and they looked after me."

"Were there recriminations?" I wanted to know.

"Ha! They didn’t know what to do with me. They were leaderless for a day or two before they came back. I had caught a fever and from my sickbed in the whorehouse I told the next chieftain that if he wanted to abuse me, he could but he would only ever fall sleep once. I think my fever made me laugh out loud at him. He looked afraid and so much like the chieftain I had killed, so I laughed even louder and he fled. They left me alone and the whorehouse adopted me. Tomi survived and was born healthily a couple of months later and, when I healed up I willingly worked as a whore to earn my keep. I had a reputation and chieftains and wannabe chieftains came and went from my bed, paying for the privilege. It gave me power, provided me with precarious protection and I could charge my customers a premium. It gave me savings so I could buy food long after everyone was starving from your Lord’s siege. I took on the orphan babies, because I alone could afford to feed them. I never thought I’d ever be freed but always knew that I could survive."

She looked up from our held hands and looked into my eyes.

"When I saw you, Tomas, I felt shame for the first time in four or five years and I hid myself from you. I am sorry, but you should know who I was, I am not a princess. I am a whore who enjoys her work, it provided me with an income, it had become my profession."

I smiled. "I am an orphan, Jarolyn, somehow very recently adopted as grandson to a Lord. Would you adopt me as your only bed companion? I am not sure whether or for how long I can pay you, but here at least you have the freedom to make your choice."

"Once, a long time ago, you chose me, Tomas. Now that it is my turn to choose, I choose you alone above all others."

***

The Manor Steward came to the inn an hour after our new little family had broken fast and were playing together in the courtyard. I was enjoying tickling the giggling baby Doadi. The Steward examined the inn’s hall first, then stepped into the rear courtyard and approached us.

He bowed to both of us and the children, "My Lord, My Lady, I am Jonas, the Alderlea Manor Steward. May we retire to your chambers, Sire, that we may speak freely?"

"Aye, of course," I replied, knowing discretion was necessary. The children were gathered up and within two minutes we were in our chamber.

"Forgive me, my Lord," he whispered to me once the door was securely shut, then turned to Jarolyn, "your Royal Highness, but your identities must remain secret, the Queen’s Regent has spies everywhere. If she learns of your attachment with Lord Alderlea she may track you here or onto the manor. We suggest you travel today to the smaller manor of Dhaniz, where you will be comfortable and safe."

"I know Dhaniz, I was born and lived there all my childhood years," I said, remembering the Orphanage where I was well cared for even though I was never adopted, though other children came and went.

"Of course you were, Sire, you lived in the ‘orphanage’ before you were indentured as a squire by —”

"Sir Dhaniz!" I exclaimed, "So, to disguise our identity we now have to pretend to be Lord and Lady Dhaniz?"

"No need to pretend, Sire, the title of Lord of the Manor of Dhaniz is an honorific title granted to the male heir of Lord Alderlea, it was inherited from the family of Lord Alderlea’s mother, so your Knight was indeed Lord Dhaniz, although he preferred to use his knightly title because he earned it and not simply handed the title by birthright."

"As it seems I have. So, Sir Dhaniz was Lord Alderlea’s eldest son?"

"His only son, Sire, and you are Sir Dhaniz’s only son. The Dhaniz Manor House is a small but comfortable residence that your grandfather has used as his home ever since his son died. It is loyally staffed and maintained and they are now expecting you. We can take your cart part of the way, but most of the road is a rocky track that the cart cannot use."

Within the hour we were on the road, escorted by a dozen men-at-arms who met us half a league outside the town. Although well armed with an assortment of weapons, they were a smiling happy band who Jonas introduced as tenants and farmers on the comfortably prosperous Alderlea estate, not actual men-at-arms. Very soon the babies were off the cart and riding with the cheerful riders in more interesting and pleasurable comfort being fussed over than in the uncomfortable cart. At roughly every league or two along the road, pairs of smiling Alderlea men, posted to ensure the road was clear, also joined the happy band.Very soon the cart was handed over to one of the younger riders to take back to the inn.

***

6. Peace and Prophecy

Dhaniz Manor was manned by a housekeeper and her gardener/handyman husband. She greeted me warmly with an unexpected embrace before crying with joy and embarrassment.

"So sorry, Master Tomas, my Lord, but I was so pleased to see thee!" the cheery woman gushed, "welcome home, we’ve waited long years for this moment."

"I know you, you were the Orphanage keeper, Dame Elrith!" I realised, seeing the woman squirm and biting her lower lip to stop herself from further embarrassment.

"It were no Orphanage," Jonas the Steward explained with a gentle hand on both our shoulders, "you were the only boarder, My Lord, the other children bedded with their folk while you slept alone in your chamber. Your mother died giving birth to you and Lord Dhaniz went mad, left this place to train as a knight, so Lord Alderlea set up the ‘Orphanage’ to care for you as Sir Dhaniz continually refused to accept you at his manor. Your father did return many years later and, to make amends, trained you to be a knight and tried to get to know you again, to find the best moment to confess.

"When Lord Alderlea served as General at the Palace, Sire, for most of the last twenty years, I would visit him quarterly to update him on Manor records and balances, sign or terminate contracts. I was discrete to ensure you didn’t notice me, but I would report news of you to Dame Elly here, but many Manor folk were interested in what you were doing. We are very proud of those achievements and remember, Sire, Queen’s Consort Morkyn and the Lord were great drinking friends so we all know how bravely our Sir Dhaniz died and of your killing a Dragon while you were still naught but a boy, Sire."

***

Later that night, Jarolyn and I retired to our, now private chamber, the children elsewhere in their own chambers watched over by willing maidens from the village that was my birthplace, now our home.

"What about the Prophecy, Tomas?" Jarolyn asked as she rested her head on my chest.

"The Prophecy? Well, you were only four when the Queen declared it and probably remember nothing of it. I remember every word because it changed my life.

"‘When my father was a young king,’ the Queen had said, ‘he was already married to my mother, with me about to be their first born, in fact their only child. My mother was often guided by the advice of a soothsayer at court, while my father took any prophecies made with a pinch of salt. One day an ancient witch asked the King for an audience and my father agreed to see her. She said that our royal soothsayer was a charlatan but she couldn’t say anything before because the Soothsayer Guild forbad criticism among members but she knew that she was about to die and declared she could keep silent no longer. She was granted a private audience with the king and queen and she told them that she had continuously dreamed of a Golden Age. A time, with a Queen at its head, and that the Queen would be a non-royal princess and her Consort not a Prince nor a knight, but he would save her from a Dragon. That they would marry and live happily ever after during which her long reign would be peaceful, prosperous and the Golden Age would last for generations. I never considered this Prophecy would apply to me,' the Queen continued, 'but when I was attacked by a Dragon and almost burned to death, losing all my party bar a brave boy who witnessed my rescue. My saviour was not a knight but a brave cobbler and I was no longer a royal princess but already a queen. I have asked my rescuer, the cobbler Morkyn if he would be my Consort and he has consented. Let the wedding be planned and the union blessed.’"

"Indeed," Jarolyn recalled, "Queen Sharma and Father told that bedtime story often to us, non-royal princesses ourselves, they were so very happy together that our childhood was full of love."

"Aye, your father was a humble man, always asking rather than ordering, and had a way of holding himself with pride but without arrogance, accepting his elevation but not lording it over those who had to serve him. He made us all love him for the man he was. He had always been an independent man, not relying on others and therefore appreciative of help given. I loved him and he was a great friend to Lord Alderlea. the Army General who retired when you were 15, although he returned once the Queen was abducted and the Army raised to bring her back."

"I meant to draw your attention to the Prophecy, my dear Tomas, only that the Prophecy fits you and I better than my father and step-mother; you were never a knight, I was never a real royal princess."

"Let us enjoy life, Jarolyn, enjoy our babies, our homes. Prophecies either happen or not without our control or influence. Our lives together are more important than what Lady Luck might plan for us. What justice Marija might face for what she’s done to gain the throne is beyond our control."

"Aye, Tomas, I agree, let us allow the prophecy to arise or fail as it will, while we will concentrate on living long and happily ever after."

The End, perhaps.