Broken But Unburnt

Chapter 7 - Maverick

Chapter 7: Maverick

Palace of the Equinox Throne: Kingdom of Delos

Maverick stood in front of the ornate, golden mirror in his bedchamber, looking over the velvety green suit his mother had procured for him to wear tonight. She would be matching him in dazzling emeralds and shining gold. He ran a finger along the smooth material and frowned. Only the best for his brother's betrothal feast.

"This might be a good thing, you know," Aditya spoke from directly behind him, her slender fingers smoothing his lapel as she reached around his shoulders. "You've been trying to get King Helios to warm up to the idea of magic for ages, trying to make this place a refuge for conjurers of all nations, a safe haven for my people."

"A haven, yes. Not a barracks," Maverick told her with a sigh, letting her spin him around so that they were face to face. She tossed his tie around his neck and began to tie it for him. Maverick met her eyes with a serious gaze. "He doesn't mean to see you live."

She paused but only for a moment before she blinked and resumed tying his tie. He kept his eyes on her expression. Aditya was strong, well guarded, but there were moments, brief though they were, in which he could see her true thoughts as plainly as if they were written upon her face. This was not one of those times.

"Your mother has arranged for you to meet another noblewoman," she said after a moment. Maverick took the change in conversation in stride.

"What does she look like?"

Before his very eyes and with what appeared to be a minimal amount of effort, Aditya shifted her appearance so that she was no longer the fiery-haired, bright-eyed, lithe woman he knew well. Now she was petite, much shorter, with soft brown hair and doe eyes. Maverick shrugged and turned back to the mirror.

"Pretty, at least," he commented as Aditya shifted back to herself.

The door opened then and another Sahir, which King Helios so lovingly referred to as Maverick's Rescues, entered his bedchamber. Zephyr was his name and he was a stout, brutally built warrior who had fled from Karil in the early days of the inquisition. He averted his eyes from Aditya, as he always did in her presence, and turned to the prince.

"They are expecting you," Zephyr spoke simply and Maverick nodded, reaching for a glass of amber liquor he had set nearby and downing the whole thing in one sip. He sputtered and wiped his mouth on his sleeve, earning a low chuckle from Zephyr and a roll of the eyes from Aditya.

"God help me," Maverick cursed, slamming the glass down and storming toward the door. "These zealous Idorians are going to be the death of me."

"Do not speak such a fate aloud," Aditya hissed, joining him on his jaunt toward the grand dining hall. She flanked him on the right while Zephyr remained on his left.

"If it isn't the foolish princess and her scheming father, it will be that powerful conjurer out there calling himself the Chaos," Maverick muttered. "They say he's the most powerful Sahir in centuries, maybe ever."

"Varje människa har sin lika," Zephyr said as the three of them reached the enormous double doors which marked the royal family's entrance to the grand dining hall. Music and conversation and bawdy laughter echoed from within. "It's an old Karilish saying. It means 'every man has his equal'. Let us pray he meets his."

Maverick gave a nod of agreement and Aditya and Zephyr shuffled off toward their own entertainment for the evening. Then the prince faced the doors and took a deep breath before pushing through them with a fake smile and a gallant wave.

He spent the betrothal feast in much the same way that he spent every royal obligation. With a smile on his face and a drink in his hand. Aditya was right about the young woman that his mother had chosen for him. She introduced him herself. Maverick was kind enough for a time but became bored with her when she failed to hold up her end of the conversation, preferring to bat her eyelashes and stare at him wistfully instead. A fine thing for a woman to do if she wasn't one which his mother hoped to secure him in marriage. If a moony eyed distraction was what he wanted, he could find them anywhere. And he did. They flocked to the prince at the feast just as they did at every other party in the palace. And Orion noticed.