The Rugged Edge

Prologue: More Grey than Green

Before the story started
love was in his eyes kindled.
Before her heart was parted
fear and trust there mingled.
In one lone breath he loved her,
and she yearned for him also.
Love settled with a fervor,
and never could it end.

. . . . .

Long ago there was a very small kingdom called Rokenmeine. It was a rich kingdom, adorned with the greenest grass, the tallest crops, and the reddest roses. The people lived in lively villages where the houses were painted with bright colors and the market was alive with the bustling of people, the music of fiddlers, and the colors of the unique objects you could buy there.

But the most beautiful thing in this kingdom was the smooth, stone castle that sat on a lush hill in the north of the kingdom. This castle was known as Rokenfort. Here lived the monarchs of this kingdom: the king and his son, the prince. The Crown Prince. He lived in the elegant rooms and halls of the stone castle where he learned to read, write, fence, and other princely things. His father was rather a wrinkly, old, fidgety man who decided that he might die any day now. The result of this was the forced marriage of this prince and a princess from the neighboring kingdom of Maichendom, since the prince wasn't supposed to rule alone in this culture.

Now most forced marriages don't work out. "Just learn to love them, dearie!" was the theory here. The prince wasn't very happy with the marriage, but he decided to accept it and test the theory - mostly because he didn't have a choice. He soon discovered that the princess wasn't all that disagreeable.

The night he met her was at the pre-wedding ball. He felt a sense of dread, excitement, and delight as the carriage drove up. She stepped out of the horse-drawn mobile and immediately cast light upon the crowd. The prince was enchanted as she slipped her delicate white hand into his and stepped gracefully from the carriage.

Princess Giovanna seemed perfect in every way. Her golden curls of hair framed her face in an elegant and quaint way as she danced with the prince that night, her silky ocean dress twirling around her ankles.

"Your Highness," she said as they danced together. "You must let me dance with another." And she laughed, for the prince had held her in his heart from the instant he had seen her. He had avoided sharing her with another man.

"Nonsense!" he laughed. "Tomorrow we will be married. Why not waltz for joy one night early?"

She giggled enchantingly as he turned her around with the ups and down of the traditional waltz, but the prince could tell she didn't put very much emotion into her words as she said a moment later: "Yes... tomorrow."

Minutes of silence passed while they listened intently to the music.

"Your Highness," she began, pondering. "How do you feel about this marriage?"

"In love," he confided without hesitation.

She gazed intently into his eyes as if she were searching for a lie in his words.

"Good," she said, finally. "I will be giving up my youth and my liberty to one who truly cares for me."

The prince gazed transfixed into her creamy brown eyes. "Do you not wish to marry? Do you not love me back?" He'd quite forgotten that only earlier that day, he'd beheld the situation with the same uncertainty and frustration himself.

"I... must say I don't." Giovanna began. "The culture of this and neighboring lands, including mine, forbid true love and own choice. One must marry for peace between kingdoms. You see, I have dreaded tomorrow since I was seven years old. I have dreaded it - the day on which my last chance for my own deciding who I spend the endless days of my life with is gone - since the day I understood why my parents saw each other so rarely. It was so diverse a life to the beautiful tales I read in my books, where hope was based on more than war and peace; where it was based on love and joy."