Dark & Cold (FREE TRIAL!) [YA Fiction/Royalty/Romance] (D&C Series Book #1)

Chapter Three: The Guest From Phillimont

   ERICIA STARES OUT at Aeriston, the largest city of Vynier, from her room's balcony. It's late in the evening, and the beautiful popping colours of the sunset are spreading across the sky. Ericia undoes her braid –a long French braid ending with a red cloth tied in a bow to keep it in place. Her curly locks fly freely, catching the wind. She shuts her eyes.

She can still hear birds chirping though they're making their ways home. She can hear people talking loudly in the distance, some shouting, the sound of horses in the stables, sheep in the nearby pastures, cows, and crickets hiding in the grass of the palace garden below her.

"Ericia," Avie says, fixing her hair in the mirror of Ericia's dresser. "How long do you think the messenger will take to return from Phillimont?"

"I don't know," Ericia says, absentmindedly, "time is always an inefficiently calculated thing. Perhaps a week. Phillimont is quite a distance, after all."

"Who do you think they'll send to stay for the duration of the organisation and training period?"

This has been one of the many things on Ericia's mind ever since the conditions had been made and the messenger left.

Who will Phillimont's King send to stay at her home?

"It's been three days," Ericia says, "I suppose we'll just have to wait and see. I doubt very much that they'd send a commander, though that would be great."

Avie has finished fixing her hair, and now she's fidgeting with her dangling earrings. She shakes her head, "Ugh, I don't even want to think about it anymore, but it can't seem to leave my mind. A change of topic; how are things with Rowan?"

Avie does that a lot. She changes a topic suddenly, and then changes it again. The fact that this alliance between Vynier and Phillimont is beginning and shaking her up inside isn't something strange for Ericia to understand. It happens a lot –Avie tends to dwell on things.

Ericia is different. She has learnt that she has to be. She can't afford to dwell on things for too long. She'll destroy herself, and she knows that she can't afford to destroy more than her father already has.

It's a tragedy, Ericia knows. Her father is a great man and king as the rest of Vynier and probably the world sees him, but to Ericia and her mother, he is the epitome of terror.

Ericia releases a weary chuckle. "Every time I bump into Rowan he's busy doing something. He wakes early in the morning and by the time it's six and I wake up to take a stroll through the courtyard, he's sweating like a pig –mind the tone. If he's not fencing at six in the morning, he's exercising, but either way he's sweating." Ericia's brows become furrowed in intrigue. "I can't seem to understand it. How can someone sweat so much and still smell so strongly of cologne? Does Lystotia produce fine fragrances, too? I must not have known. Usually, I'm able to smell the spices of this kingdom strongly enough, but when I'm around him, they all disappear under his smell."

Avie laughs, and there's a short, comfortable silence.

"You know, Ericia," Avie says, though she's sounding resentful towards beginning her statement, "there's something I've been meaning to ask."

Curious, Ericia turns from her view of the world to look at her friend, attentive. "What is it?"

"Why..." Avie asks, "Why is it that you don't attend meetings or events as much? You're the heir to this kingdom, I mean it's not my position to say something like this, but as your friend, I feel entitled to. It leaves an impression on the people, Ericia. They want to see you. They want to know you. They want to be able to feel your commanding presence. How will this kingdom belong to you if you don't take authority?"