Starsinger

Exile

King Edmund stared at the report, knuckles clenched white around the pages. He read the carefully-penned words a third time over. "You are positive?"

Commander Vance's mouth was a short, grim line. Several of the other Generals sat silently arrayed around the great carved table of the First Office. "Quite, Your Grace."

Edmund flung the report down and shoved back from the table. "Handle it quietly. I leave the matter to your discretion. I must speak with my queen."

"Your Grace, is that wise?" Vance began, but the King had already risen and the other Generals were scrambling to their feet in their hurry to bow.

Edmund strode out the door and up the sphalerite steps that led out of the undercastle. His knees creaked slightly under the strain. Not as young as I used to be, that's for certain. But young or old, a king had to move with a king's grace.

She would be in her library now, receiving her advisors and noble guests. Edmund set his course for the queen's chambers, nodding briskly at each courtier and servant who bowed at his passing. It was habit only. His mind was focused entirely on his queen.

Edmund's marriage to Lady Tatiana Firesly had been a calculated political maneuver. His father had just managed to put down a rebellion by one of Zareyma's wealthiest noble families, and was holding on to power by the skin of his teeth. The commonfolk were still aflutter, whispering about whether a dynasty of Piscali foreigners was fit to rule a Vlynnish realm. Tatiana came from old Vlynnish stock, an ancient, powerful, respected family – a perfect alliance for the new crown prince, Edmund Ko.

He had been prepared to do his duty. He had not expected to fall in love. But then Tatiana had swept into Ellanoi with her smoky grey eyes and a smirk that cut your legs right out from under you. She was younger than him, not much more than a girl, but she was sharp, and fiery, and beautiful. She would tease him for his seriousness, then stay up half the night debating politics and history, running circles around him. Edmund loved talking to her. He shared everything he could think of with her, laying his soul bare just to hear her say, I hear you, I see you, I see you as you are. He had never felt that before. When they were alone they were of one mind, but in public they would each play their political roles to perfection. They were masterful partners in the interminable games of the royal court. Together they won every round.

Edmund's chest tightened at the memory. The night they made Raelyn, he would never forget. But when their daughter was born, a change began in Tatiana. For weeks at a time his wife would grow distant, almost secretive. When he asked her what was wrong, she would lie or leave him with nothing but cryptic words about ancient prophecies and darkness rising. She stopped consulting him on her political strategies and spent more and more time at the Conservatory. Everything was for Raelyn – furthering her education, building her character – but even so, Tatiana hardly spent any time with the child. It was Edmund who helped Raelyn through her first steps, Edmund who wiped her tears when she fell, Edmund who sang her to sleep at night. The king and a team of cooing servants who were not his wife. They fought about it once, violently. Edmund had never figured out how to cross the rift it tore between them.

But there was still Rae, his wide-eyed, curious, painfully clever girl. Edmund loved her in a way there were no words for. And now she was out there in the Wood, practically alone, and his queen was moving against him. 

"...had no reports from Opham Conservatory since last month, regarding your request. The High Scholars promise to continue their work on the old texts that reference moonstone, though as you know these present some difficulties in translation—"