Elisset The Gold

Chapter 1

"Two-hundred days! Two-hundred days we've been here, surely time enough has passed?" Elisset pleaded with her aunt.

"Time enough for what? Do you think you can return to Forkort, to the palace? That you will be welcomed back with fanfare and flowers? No, you know you will not, you know we cannot go back there."

"But what if they have gone? What if my people are there, waiting for me to return and lead them?"

"Where would they have gone? Do you think the King of Keriadan would just give up and walk away? He has your brother, the prince regent, in his hand and he is using him to rule. What would cause him to turn back north and march away? There are no more soldiers, no more knights to come to your aid. The sooner you come to accept that, the sooner you get that into your silly little hea..."

"Do not call me silly! I am not a child!" Elisset fumed at her aunt.

"Then stop acting like one. This is not a trip to a pleasure palace, we are in hiding."

"You think I confuse this place for a pleasure palace? This cold and damp shit-hole?"

"You will not speak like a common whore to me. Mallion has been a bad influence on you."

"I speak like a commoner while you sleep with one, do not think to talk down to me. He has had far more influence on you than he has on me."

Her aunt was silent, turning back to darning Elisset's riding trousers.

"I am sorry, aunty." Elisset sat down next to her aunt, and dipped her head. "I am just bored here, I have little to keep me occupied."

"There is plenty to do, food to be gathered, meals to be cooked, logs to be split, clothes to be cleaned." Her aunt spoke in a quiet but firm tone.

"Yes, there are those things, but they do not occupy my thoughts. I cannot help but think of home."

"This is home now." Her aunt put down her work, and took hold of Elisset's face. "Look at me, my love, you need to forget that life before. It is done now. Do you understand?"

Elisset met her aunt's eye for a moment, before looking away.

"Yes, aunty, I know, I do. It just fills me with sadness."

"I know, my love, I know." Her aunt brushed her hair behind her ear. "Go now, pick some apples, Mallion will be bringing back boar soon. You know you like roasted apples with it."

*****

Elisset sliced off a thick chunk of her boar steak and chewed on it slowly, relishing the charred-sweet fat against the rich nutty flavour of the flesh as she did so. She swallowed and looked across the fire that burned in the mouth of the cave at her aunt and the hunter.

"Mallion, I want you to teach me how to hunt." She stated.

"Elisset, no, you are a princess-"

"I am a queen. My mother died, remember? I am of age since the last full moon. I am Queen." Elisset interrupted her aunt firmly, before looking again at the hunter.

"You will teach me how to hunt, Mallion. We will start tomorrow."

The hunter glanced across at her aunt, before swallowing his mouthful of food, which he had been slowly chewing on as the two women spoke.

"Of course, your highness. I will teach you to shoot a bow first-."

"I have had bow training. I had a master swordsman teach me how to strike and parry since I was tall enough to wield a sword. I want to hunt boar, like you. Teach me to hunt with a spear."

"Elisset, that is too dangerous, you are too young to handle a spear." Her aunt interrupted once more.

"I am not too young, I am sixteen winters old. Old enough to rule a queendom. If I am old enough to rule, I am old enough to hunt. I need to learn if I am going to be living in this cave for the rest of my life. What if Mallion dies? What if you die?" She looked back at the hunter. "You will teach me how to hunt." She repeated, remembering the guidance of her mother; her voice calm but firm, her gaze set upon those she was addressing, her lips closed but not pinched. She wanted to be implacable, unemotional, commanding. She hoped it showed.

Mallion spoke after a moment's silence.

"Very well, your highness. I will teach you. But I insist you must listen to my every word. I am your servant, but also it is my duty to protect you. If I say run, you run. If I say hold, you hold. Otherwise I cannot uphold my vow to your aunt."

"So it will be. I will listen and learn from you. I will not make a vow-breaker of you." Elisset agreed. She smiled a small smile, and sliced again at her boar.