The Empty Ones (Fantasy Romance)

46. Insolent

One is walking confidently towards my husband while the other doesn't walk at all.

He doesn't walk at all!

I try to advert my gaze so I don't stare.

But I have never seen something like this before. He is sitting in a chair with wheels and he is missing both legs from the knee down.

I seem to be the only one trying to look away; everyone else is blatantly staring. I elbow Milé and whisper, "Don't look at him like that."

She turns to me, and looks as if she is grossed out of me touching her.

"I have never seen something like this before," she whispers back, a bit too loud.

Clearly.

"It doesn't matter. It's rude. Look away."

"But like why didn't they get him a healer. They are rich," she says and lets out a bit of nervous laughter. I feel like slapping her.

My gaze shows I am more than appalled. My new sister-wife is... Dumb. Not that it matters now.

"Because you cannot heal sometimes that was never there, you idiot," I say and see how the look on her face changes to outrage.

Now I feel his gaze on me and raise my eyes. Hopefully he didn't hear. I observe the smile on his face and feel it is for me. Then the rest of him, his strawberry blond hair, shining on red, that reaches his shoulders and his pale blue eyes, the color of a sky on days without sun.

Unlike his brother, it feels like the colors have been drained out of him, only to make his counterpart shine more with his hair, the color of flames, as red as Mairi's and his eyes the deep shade of expensive sapphires and a sky before a storm.

Both have a light sheen of freckles on their faces, just like Mairi. And damn it, the standing brother really resembles her a lot, so much that I stare at him, most of all now when he smirks.

"Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for the brief moment of prominence," he says. He speaks maneé, very well, with only a trace of an accent and he seems very confident in this very strange situation.

"Indeed," says the other brother and they share an accomplice smirk. "Please remember, in life, if you are born a cripple, better be born a rich cripple."

The corners of my mouth raise. Everybody else is silent and still.

I try to contain my expression but he looks at me and gives me a smile and a shrug.

The Emperor cleared his throught, very visibly irritated.

"We welcome you. It's a shame you couldn't attend the wedding. That you reached Miayatma only the day after."

He is annoyed with them for whatever reason.

"Yes, of course. It's a shame. It's one of the reasons for our journey. I am sure it was a most interesting event. But my brother wasn't feeling like traveling. You understand," he says, making a gesture with his hands. "We will make sure to attend the next one," he says and smirks in his face.

I think this is the first man who doesn't seem afraid of my husband at all. What an utter idiot.

"In five days time, the two maidens from Tajir will arrive. Just in time for the Ceremony of the Choosing. His Royal Highness the prince is certainly waiting anxiously for it, are you not?" says Lysander, looking intensely at the price with a hint of a mockery on the tip of his lips. Maybe it wasn't mocking though, maybe it was only my perception.

Prince Dair seems taken totally off guard. He looks for an instant at his guard Olmos, then back at Lysander and mutters an almost inaudible,"Of course."