Without love no man is a king

9.

The next morning the prince woke on the floor, his bride asleep in the bed of stuffed feathers. He looked down at his bare chest covered in blood and coloured dust from the celebrations the previous evening realising it wasn't a horrible dream he'd woken from.
"Son, he's on his way." The king smiled sadly "I am proud of you in more ways than one."
"Let us hope it is worth it." The prince stood up "did you get what I asked?"
"Here" he handed him a hessian package. "How was she last night?"
"Quiet. Petrified of me." The prince shook his head "she went to undress and I stopped her. Her hands were shaking and silent tears falling from her eyes. I placed her in the bed, covering her over. I slept on the floor....Inara, wake up." He lightly shook her "leave us father. It's alright. I promise you."
"Do what needs be. It is fine, god will look on this as you protecting your future wife, he will not punish you for it or anything else you have to do to keep her safe and get her away from this hell on Earth. She's a good girl, I can tell."

"Inara...your father....Cedmond is on his way, do you understand?"
"Inara..... wife....Inara....Roland...." she rambled in a panic "Roland no like?"
"No. No. I like. You are very beautiful" he nodded, rubbing her cheek reassuringly "wife in my kingdom first" he tried to explain. He eventually managed somehow to explain his plan to her, squeezing the pigs heart on the bed and a little on her thighs and himself, removing his clothes and crawling in the bed with her, looking away while she undressed, covering over with the animal hide. He pulled her gently towards him, gesturing for her to pretend to be asleep. Cedmond barged in uninvited, the king following him complaining at the intrusion. Cedmond threw back the animal hide without warning.
"Out!" The prince grabbed it, covering over his wife while trying not to look at the sight of her naked body, shouting angrily as he did "out!" He pointed aggressively "mine now. Understand! Inara mine. Out!" Cedmond went to take another look, the prince growling at him "do not touch her, out!" He waited until they had left, Turning to a quivering Inara "it's alright, he's gone. We fooled him. He saw what he needed to, my father will not permit any closer look at you than he had." he stroked her head, she tussled away from him in disgust and fear "safe. Roland and Inara. I will not harm you. I gave your...friend my word."

"Peace" she grumbled at him, clutching the horse hide blanket to her chest.
"It does not mean we can not be civil or even form a friendship....or more...over time we may come to love each other. Love comes with time." He looked down at her "you look very Drecontonian this morning, with your wild hair and blood smeared cheeks, the coloured dust..." he chuckled fiddling with her hair, then dusting his own off playfully over her in a colourful dust cloud, making her giggle. He reached for their discarded foliage crowns, placing them on their heads "understand? Prince, princess, together" he pointed between them, holding her hand firmly, entwining their fingers. She squirmed covering herself more "no, no, not that. Not yet." He held his hand out, shaking his head, she looked at him like he was insane. "From what I saw and heard last night you are not used to men being gentle in their beds with their women. I am not as gentle as you think, as you saw for yourself last night. I won that fight bare handed and saw off those wolves...."
"Wolf" she hesitatingly touched his bandaged arm, he winced and hissed
"It is fine. It is only slightly painful, I will live."

Inara picked up her dress from the ground pulling it over her head, the prince trying to help her without looking, she got out of bed and left. The prince sat up, rubbing his chin thinking of how on earth he was to pull off a happy marriage with this savage woman who he could not even communicate efficiently with.
"Get dressed son....you did well, he believed your stunt. In their culture she is yours now and there is nothing he can do about it bar kill you. So unless she tells him...."
"She wants peace. She has lost friends to our army. She knows her father is brutal in nature and does not altogether approve, I am sure of it. She will play along." The prince went to pull his shirt on, pausing when Inara walked back in with a wooden pail of water and cloths, kneeling at his feet, beginning to wash the blood, coloured dust and dirt off of him.

"A tradition?" The prince asked. Receiving no reply or acknowledgment. "You are my wife not my servant." He picked up another cloth, dipping it, washing the blood off her face gently "like this?" He asked "is this what you want?"
"Come, ask her what it is she wants from him, we can not understand her."
"She is saying he is a great warrior.....that she will clean his wound and bind it properly so it does not get infected.....the Dracontonian way. As your wife it is her duty to care for you."
"They use ointments I believe" Beric stuck his head in interested "she will be washing off the blood of her friend. As a Mark of respect for him. I believe he is being prepared for burial."
"She says she wishes to attend her friends burial tonight before we leave." the linguist chipped in "she is asking your permission."
"Tell her of course. We leave straight after. I think we should leave this place father before we run into more trouble. Travel over night. I know we will be travelling through their territory but if his word is good we have his daughter travelling with us which should see us safely across the border."
"I agree" the king nodded "ready to leave tonight."

"Wait can you ask her....ask her his name? The boy I killed."
"Quimby" Inara replied to the linguist without looking up from her cleaning
"Ask her....who he was to her."
"She says her childhood friend. From birth. They have the same day of birth. Born with in moments of each other. They were raised side by side. Their mothers were also childhood friends. He sought her hand a year ago ready for when they came of age and gained it. As you did. In a fight against another man. At least she thought he had, as did he. She suspects her father was approached by many offering things he wanted. That her father would do anything to gain more power. Including double crossing the boy that has loved her her whole life and sending her away to be his enemies .....whore."

"Did you love him in return?" The prince asked "he clearly had love for you. He sacrificed himself to save you."
"Their laws state she only has eyes and a heart for you" the linguist shyly interpreted. "She says you ask too many dangerous questions. That you could get both of you killed. She thinks you are calling her honour into disrepute."
"No. No. Of course not."
"She says she is for her husband only. Which is now you. That you are now bound to be loyal to each other."
"I understand" he nodded, pulling her face up to look at him, then at the blood stained bed, she pointed at it then shook her head at him "I know. I can tell." he laughed
"She says many men battle like you did for her love, her friend was kind to her and a better choice. A choice for peace not war. That she hoped to gain the throne with Quimby, over her brother, he is even more brutal and blood thirsty than her father. Herself and Quimby wished to stop his plans for further war."

"Do you see me as your enemy?" The prince asked
"You slaughter my people, pillage the women and burn our land. I want peace not friendship." The linguist sighed "she is angry at both kings that think power is of greater importance than life. She believes all life is of equal importance. From the crawling ant to the bravest of men. She says her kingdom and yours are both full of violent angry men and she has equal disdain for you all. Roughly translated your highness. She is saying you call her savage and a barbarian but you also spill blood needlessly. She says riches that are of importance do not come in the form of gold, or possession of land or grand castles. that you speak of your god as mighty and great and loving, yet he creates men in the form of monsters. She says you hide behind your god to get what you want the way her father hides behind the belief that the Dracontonian way is the only way. That her people were once peaceful until your men took land from them. Slaughtered many and left children without fathers, growing in the bellies of the women they tormented and left for dead. She says it is her belief that we are the savages not her. That we are a plague on the mother earth that they worshiped long before our so called God existed. She says her father has strayed from their old peaceful ways which she hoped to restore and now has no hope of doing so, that all she can hope for is peace between our people and hope that her father does not quench his thirst for blood somewhere else."

"Tell her enough" the prince said impatiently "I get the idea. You are my wife now in your people's eyes so I am not your enemy. I did not start this war between our people and neither did my father. It has been raging for many generations. We will find a way to make this work between us and bring peace to our people. I will try to make you happy...ow!" He complained at the tight knot tied in his fresh bandage. Inara storming out angrily "what did she say?"
"Never happy. Fate condemned us both to misery. I am not your friend or lover nor will I ever be. Cross me and you will regret it. I am no timid flower. You have my loyalty do not question it."
"Give her time son. Keep working your charm on her. It was working until last night. She is upset over her fathers actions and the loss of her friend."