Wicked Stepmother

"A wife to be my queen"

I had thought that I had no voice anymore to call out or to argue. I had thought all decisions, all action was impossible for me. But when I saw Seagull, with an unmistakably slim, fair-haired figure upon her riding with a confidence I had only ever seen in one horsewoman I sat up and called out her name.

In response she rode faster, but my gaolers also increased their pace. I wished I had magic then, I began to wonder whether I would survive a leap from the litter, when one of my horses tumbled and I would have to act fast to stay safely on the litter. Instead I shifted my weight into the fall, tumbled head over heels and at the last moment caught one of the horses that was carrying the now askew litter. I managed to stay on its back.

In the fall, the last of the poison that I had been saving in my bodice to take on my wedding night, fell out and rolled away. Now I was desperate to escape.

"My love" called that charlatan Topaz, wheeling around.

"Your dagger please" I said, "or this litter will unhorse me". He handed me his dagger carefully like a gentleman, but swiftly too- seeing the truth of my words and knowing my best chance of survival was staying on the horse. Perhaps he erroneously thought I would ride with him to escape "the witch. I cut my horse free from the litter. Both horses reared in panic at everything that was happening but I managed to wheel mine around and calm it enough for control. I pelted back toward Kiora.

"She has my princess under an evil spell" Topaz called also turning. despite the situation I grinned slightly because it was not entirely untrue. Topaz's men were all confused by the rearing horse and it's wreckage and so only the prince himself was keeping abreast of me. I did not want a duel to the death between him and his rapier and the unarmed Kiora that probably did not have black magic at her disposal as they thought (although who can be sure). I stopped.

"Topaz" I said, "I cannot marry you. I love Kiora." I was not able to think fast enough for a plausible lie, so I gave him the truth.

"Love her in terms of...?" he began to ask but his man Gilbert but a hand on his thigh

"I believe them" he said quietly. Topaz's gaze at Gilbert was fond and steady.

"Like us?" he asked him. I kept my mouth shut for once and Kiora rode up and stopped, also in silence.

"Can you doubt it?" asked Gilbert, "and would you not ride after me just as the witch has done?"

"Then the witch shall come and live with us. Our marriage shall be only a matter of politic, but..."

"Yes, we will do that. Yes Kiora!" I turned to her ecstatically. The thought of being able to live together as lovers with less secrecy!

"You think I would leave Orion?" she asked me, her eyes stone hard. Always that little slug.

"I need a wife to be my queen" said Topaz

"Clovis is not wife material" Kiora said coldly. I notice she said nothing about "queen material" and I was glad of that.

"Why not...in the political sense?" Topaz asked

"She is infertile" Kiora said in a clinical voice.

"Am I?" I asked, wondering if the evil-smelling potion had made me safe from conceiving ever again.

She looked at me with a steady gaze. "Yes" she said. I could tell she was lying.

"Well her father said nothing about that" Topaz blustered

"Can you wonder that he did not?" Kiora asked, "It makes her unfit for marriage really. He did tell you she has had a lengthy convalescence did he not?" The look on the men's faces showed they were following her.

"Her illness has ravaged her. She will make a full recovery save for her womb. It does not matter to me. She is still everything she ever was to my purposes. But in terms of anyone wanting heirs out of her...."

"Thank you for telling us this" Topaz bowed, "before I made a terrible mistake"

"Don't tell anybody about the nature of...about...well people know we are friends but don't make it seem like a queer thing" Gilbert stammered, "His Highness will be head of state."

"I pity your wife, Your Highness" Kiora said quietly and with genuine feeling behind it.

"I will make a more careful choice" Topaz told her, "and ensure she understands the situation and accepts it. But what of whatever poor fool marries Clovis?"

"Clovis ought never to marry" Kiora said carefully, "she is needed back at home to ready herself to inherit a kingdom one day. She has much to learn and would not learn it if she wasted time with a husband."

"A spinster queen?" Gilbert said skeptically

"A spinster, but not friendless" Kiora reminded him.

"I am sick of people talking about me" I burst out, "The dwarves thought I was a stupid little child and then Father did too and did his 'I am so disappointed' voice. Noone ever asks me what I want or what I think and then you all blame me for being shallow and wilful. If I am to be a queen then it is about time I was allowed to make my own decisions."

Kiora turned very pale.

"I apologise Your Highness" she whispered, although she had never before used my title.

"Do you wish to go with Topaz and..."

"I don't need an infertile wife" he said quickly, "though you are very beautiful" he added tactfully, I really did mean that." But I knew I wasn't infertile and Kiora looked at me knowing that I could give lie to the statement and go marry a King and then be free to take lovers as I chose so long as I bore him a brace of heirs. The irony was this was what her fortune telling had predicted for me.

"I will come home with you." I told her, "and you will stop freezing me out..."

"You may be the crown princess but I am still the queen and don't take bossing from you." she groused but her rigid shoulders relaxed slightly in relief. Topaz pried a large jewel from the pommel of his saddle.

"From our Kingdom to yours. In friendship"

"Sire, I come unprepared for an exchange of gifts." I protested, forestalling Kiora who was about to speak as usual.

"Then you must pledge your friendship with all the more honesty" he grinned. I still didn't want to marry the boy.

But I liked him.