The War of Queens

Chapter 16

Angelique

 A thick fog settled over the landscape surrounding the village of the ashmen. It made the world surrounding them seem so serene and mysterious, as if all sorts of creatures could be hiding between the darks spots of the trees. The river became invisible from afar, and the mist dulled the sound of water running by. Everything was white and grey with shadows. Angelique let her gaze travel upwards along the mountain. In some places, the green trees peaked out through the white and made a beautiful contrast.

 She was not in the village, but somewhere just ouside of it, in a clearing further down the river. Behind some of the trees was Loftur’s cabin. He told her that he liked his privacy, that he liked getting away from the noise of people from time to time. She told him she liked the noise, that she felt alone without it.

 When she said that, he frowned and replied, “You’re never alone. There are spirits in these forests. I hear them every day and night. I like their noise better than that of humans.”

 She could not hear the noise of the spirits, but she could hear the noise of him snoring in his sleep, and that was by far enough human noise. Even if it was not, what came before – and after – more than made up for it.

 When she entered the longhouse, she found Elizabeth and Jamie sitting around the fire. Ishmael was still asleep, it seemed, and the house was very quiet. Her sister greeted her as she joined them by the fire, but everyone seemed reluctant to let go of the silence.

 Finally, Angelique got too impatient. “When are you planning on leaving this place?” she asked.

 Jamie looked up from the cup of soup that he had been looking into. “We would need to leave soon,” he said, as if he had been preparing that statement for a while. “Caterina is waiting across the sea. There is no point in waiting any longer.”

 Even though he was right, Angelique was not sure if she wanted him to be. The ashmen lived a life that was so simple and so perfect for her that she did not want to leave. She had heard that, in Etheron, it was even more frowned upon for a girl not to be a virgin before marriage than it was in Hi’taab, where innocence was just a plus.

 “I agree,” Elizabeth said, and Angelique knew that her sister did not feel at home in the same way just from the way she spoke those two words.

 Jamie drank from his soup, dried his lips with the end of his sleeve and put the cup down. “Perhaps we should try to recruit some more men. These ashmen like to fight, perhaps they would like to fight for us.”

Elizabeth shook her head. “No, I can’t ask them for that. They’ve been such a help for us already, I couldn’t ask for more.”

 “You didn’t ask for their hospitability,” Angelique reminded her. “They gave it to you, freely, because you are a Queen.”

 “I just… I don’t want to be ungrateful.”

 “You’re not ungrateful for asking for more men,” Jamie told her. “You will be the Queen soon. They would be rewarded, if they need any more reward than dying in battle.”

 Elizabeth flinched at his words. “You don’t even want them to live?”

 “Death is the prize you pay for victory, sis,” Angelique said, trying her best to keep her voice calm.

 She stood up abruptly. “Then why would I even want to win? Why would I even want to be Queen if everyone has to die for it?”

 “Not everyone,” Angelique tried to say, but by then Elizabeth was already gone.