Stay True

Chapter 10

Today is the day that I shall be introduced to ruling the kingdom, Clara thought when she awoke.

Just then, Eve floated into her chambers. "Today's the day!" she trilled.

Clara managed a half-hearted "huzzah," in response.

Eve tutted at her reproachfully, then prodded her until she got out of bed and stumbled her way to the screen so she could get dressed.

One hour later, Clara was sitting on the throne, back ramrod straight, longing to slump and put her head in her hands.

How does the King do it every day? This is mind-numbing torture! she thought. Since that day was open council day, everyone in the kingdom with a problem came to wait in a seemingly never-ending line and have the monarch help them with their woes.

The next person in line was a knight ambassador from Mescia, the kingdom east of Theorden and their main allies in the ongoing war. He prattled on and on about how honored he was to be there, how excited he was to meet the other knights, how lovely the castle, food, and servants were, and... Well, he took a very long time about it.

He finally stated that his fellow knights would love to help the Theordenian knights in the coming battle against one of the other neighboring kingdoms - Dilaea.

"My knights are honored to die beside your knights," the ambassador said, giving Clara the traditional salute: a hand making a fist against his breastplate, making a cacophonous clanking sound.

Clara lifted her cramped hands from their positions on the armrests of the throne and raised them while curling her fingers in the way that one might when confronted with something much to their distaste, with confusion and mild disgust that surely showed on her face. "Er...that's, um, nice...? If a bit...disturbing..." Clara said, breaking up her words and attempting to speak quietly, asking James for help, since she had no idea how to respond to that.

To the side, behind the knights who stood and watched, Clara saw one of them smack his hand into his forehead and hold it there as he shook his head sadly at her. He had somehow heard what she said. Clara must have been louder than she thought. She cringed, wanting to mouth an apology for embarrassing them, and then slid her eyes to the left.

James was shaking his head, almost imperceptibly, but Clara saw it. When he saw her look at him, he mouthed, say thank you. When she hesitated, he jerked his chin towards the foreign knight.

Oh, right! Clara remembered. Then she saluted him back. In order to do so, she had to stand, and her legs ached from being seated for so long. Clara smiled and said, "I mean, thank you."

Then she attempted to bow to him in the Theordenian fashion-one leg behind the other, bend knees, grasp edge of skirt on the side of the leg behind the front, lift skirt as wide as possible without showing ankles, and finally, sweep the hand that is not holding the skirt backwards.

Clara managed to do most of this properly, and although her knees were twisted in such a way that was very uncomfortable, the real problem came with the last step.

She thought she had swung her hand straight backwards, and was very proud of herself for completing the complicated curtsy, but in reality, her hand arced to the left – right into her brother.

When her hand encountered something warm and soft, Clara immediately untangled herself from her distinctly uncomfortable position and spun around frantically to discover the source of what she had quite accidentally found.

As soon as she saw what she had done, Clara's hands flew to her mouth. "Oh, James! I'm so sorry!"

Clara had slapped him in the face. Being on the throne's raised dais, Clara had been raised to about the same height as James. When her arm swung into James, it had barely missed the edge of the throne and had instead hit him.