Walking down the elven road

Chapter 17

"What?" the King and Queen exclaim simultaneously.
"I'm serious, Father," Kithan says, "I want to marry Melya. Or Fatyla, whatever you like best."
"Fatyla doesn't exist anymore," Múralin grumbles.
"Do I get to have a say in this?" Melya finally asks.
"No, shut up," the Queen says, "You will never marry the heir to this Kingdom."
"Then go find yourselves another heir," Kithan states.
"The elven realm also won't have an exiled woman as its Queen," Múralin adds, "It is unprecedented."
"Then I will be the first to do it."
"Stop this nonsense!" the King yells, "I will talk to my son, and the exile. Privately." His decision meets with a certain resistance. "Leave us!" The Queen is the first to obey his words.
"If hour honored guests would follow me, I could show you oud gardens while my lord husband solves this unfortunate matter." The envoy has no choice but to follow of they don't want to grievously insult the Queen.

The large, birch-wooden doors are slowly closed by the guards. Melya looks at the King, who doesn't show any emotions now that the envoy and his wife have removed themselves from the room. Even Kithan seems slightly nervous, not sure what to expect. No-one breaks the nerve-wrecking silence for a long time. Suddenly, the King sighs and says: "I hope you chose a better woman than I did, son."
"What?" Kithan asks, "You approve of this?"
"I don't exactly approve, but if you're the tiniest bit like me, I won't be able to change your mind. Or stop you, for that matter."
"Do I get to have a say in this?" Melya repeats.
"For you, it's a choice between death and a life with him," the Kings says, "For him, his future and the Kingdom's could be influenced for the worse by marrying you."
"B-but... I already have someone," Melya stutters.
"Are you engaged?"
"No."
"Good. End your relationship."
"I'm not going to do that."
"Die then," the King says harshly. To soften his words, he adds: "If that other man really loves you, he'd rather see you by Kithan's side, safe and protected, than having your head on a spike. The law is the law."
"Melya..." Kithan says softly, "Please don't condemn yourself to die."
Wow, Melya thinks, he even starts behaving maturely. He's serious about this.
"Why would you want to marry me?"
"Why does it rain?"
"Because the sun vaporises water and after a while it falls down."
"You know what I mean. I really, really like you. Besides, the highborn girls at court are cravens and halfwits all. A queen should be brave, smart and strong."
"And the Kingdom? The families of these 'halfwits', as you so eloquently call them, won't be happy with you. They, and a lot of common folk, will have problems with you marrying a servant, let alone an exile. The elven realm will try to kill me and provide you with a proper elven woman to marry."
"Does it look like I care?"
"All right. I think I've heard enough of this. Girl, do you want to marry my son?" the King interrupts them.
"I think so... It doesn't seem I really have another option."
"Great. Go find and talk to your griend. Explain that you're a woman engaged to his Crown prince are now, the next queen. I'll taken care of the matter of your status."

If she looks back, she simply fled from the room. She almost forgot to wrap her scarf around her head. It is worse enough as it is, with all three Royals knowing her secret and her father in the palace. Unbelievable how fast everything happened. One moment, she was a servant to the Crown prince and the next his betrothed.
At the moment she's sitting on the old fountain, the one Xoriah had liked so much. Odd, that she doesn't seem to be able to escape the damned woman's influence. It's everywhere! Now that she knows an elven woman lived here, she can clearly see a subtle elven influence in each and every detail of the palace gardens, halls, chambers, galleries and decorations.
She had sent one of Kithan's maids to bring Arion here. It's not a conversation she's looking forward to. She knows she'll hurt him, but she does want to stay alive. Plus, she really wants to see Xoriah's face when she sees her son and heir when she has to attend their wedding and finds out her merchant's exile daughter is marrying him. She doesn't have any other children, so she can't disown him for this. That will definitely be fun. Melya only has to watch out for hidden blades and stray arrows which just happen to get in her way.
Finally, Arion arrives. He smiles when he sees her. He takes her into his arms and to kiss her. She puts her index finger on his lips and shakes her head. He gives her some room to move freely and sits the both of them down.
"What's wrong, my tiny assassin?" he asks. She smiles a little at that nickname.
"Where do I start? Things just went horribly wrong."
"You're still alive so it can't be that bad. What did you do? Insult that fat one from the envoy? That would be funny."
"I guess I insulted the entire envoy. And the King. And the Queen." Now Arion looks really worried.
"It actually started about two weeks ago. I made a mistake and Kithan found out I'm an elf."
"Really? Why didn't he tell anyone?"
"I don't know. His mother turns out to be the Queen of elves."
"The b*tch who banished you?"
"Yes, that one. So this wasn't that much of a problem. This morning he had breakfast with his parents and the envoy. After a while, I came in because Zaran had asked me to go get Zaran. Unfortunately, my father was in the envoy and he blew my cover."
"And what happened next?"
"Everyone started arguing about how I should die and what kind of an assassin I would be."
"So it went like I expected."
"Yeah. Except for one thing."
"What?"
"Kithan asked me to marry him."
"What does that brat think he's doing!? What did you say?"
"That I would marry him."
A single tear rolled down his cheek.