From A Kingdom's Shadow

CHAPTER TWELVE

Apondra woke with a start in the early hours of the morning, dusk just lighting up the darkness of the night sky, illuminating the bunkhouse windows in a dim light. She sighed and pushed off the thin blanket that she had spent much of the night shivering against and took this quiet moment to check her bunk. The clothing she had stashed under her bed was untouched so she quietly got dressed as the others slept soundly. A simple cotton dress of tan brown, black knee high stockings and her boots. When she went to slip her boot on she frowned at something that squelched under her foot, seeping through her stocking. Apondra removed her boot and stockings and went out of the bunkhouse barefoot.

She sighed and begrudgingly pulled out a fistful of horse dung from each of her boots. Not the type of greeting she had expected, but she would not let this get her down. She glanced around the quiet grounds, everyone still asleep in their beds, and went in search of water to clean herself and her soiled boots.

Apondra frowned as she wandered the Etecian castle grounds, hoping for any amount of freshwater closeby to no avail. She noted the guards at the gates and inquired with them where she might go to get herself cleaned up. One of them graciously directed her to the courtyard fountain on the eastern side of the castle and left her to her business with a kind morning greeting. She reflected the greeting and went through the delicate iron gate that marked the entrance to the large courtyard.

Whatever anger she felt melted away at the smell that caressed her nose. The gentle aroma of lilac flowers and daisies, the earthiness of the dew-laden grass, and the intoxicating scents of roses that were scattered in beautiful groupings along the stone paths that snaked through the courtyard. Statues of what Apondra assumed were previous kings and queens were sprinkled here and there in the courtyard, no less than 5 generations of them by the look of them as she stopped to peer at an older statue of moss-covered stones that were darkened with dirt and aging. Apondra noted a fountain flowing with freshwater at the center of the courtyard and quietly went to it, using one of her boots as a vessel she began carefully cleaning her hands and feet, letting the filthy water flow into the flowerbeds that grew nearby.

As she finished she took a seat at the edge of the fountain, admiring the delicate swirling patterns of the carvings in the stone. She sighed and closed her eyes, letting the smells and sounds invade her mind, soothing away her annoyance and mild anger of the morning. Then something else came, that intoxicating scent.

The prince's wounds still bled beneath the bindings on his arms, sending the scent of his blood wafting into the courtyard.

Apondra did not turn right away to face the prince, but stood and faced one of the newer looking statues of a young elf woman in a flowing gown with a thin train falling behind her. The details of her face were as if she was looking at a person encased in stone, not a statue carved by men. The healthy roundness of her cheeks and chin, small delicate nose, the gentle point of her ears and fullness of her lips were astounding. But what kept Apondra's eye were her eyes, carved out so masterfully, with inserts of dark blue sapphire for their color.

"Her name was Adeena," Elwe came next to Apondra, admiring the statue with sad eyes, "On the day of my Ascension my father had arranged marriage between us," Apondra did not hear of an arranged wedding in Etecia, though the prince was older than her, she may have been just a child when this happened. His pause suggested this was a hard thing to talk about, so Apondra waited patiently for him to continue, and he did, "She was with child, the baby was lost before it would have lived, and my Adeena..." the prince paused to take a steadying breath, Apondra noticed his hands were shaking at retelling this, "she lost her life not a day later from infection,"

Apondra did not know what to say, loss of a child was fairly commonplace without the help of a healer, especially while the mother was still childbearing. But to lose her to infection so quickly, even with a healer's help. She took a step closer to him and wrapped an arm around his side, his body still shaking with the trauma of it, "I am deeply sorry that nothing was to be done for her," she decided to not dwell on it too long, for fear of breaking the man's heart for his first love any further, "What would you have named them?" Apondra asked, leading the prince to sit on one of the stone benches nearby.