*Of Readiness*
Soon enough, Elodie found her wedding day upon her. It dawned, not sunny, but cool and still, and Elodie woke with a feeling of dread deep-seated in her stomach, partnered with a new determination. One day, and she could begin the next chapter of her life–that of a revolutionary, a conqueror, a usurper, a wife.
It was that last word that fueled her dread. That night, she would have to lie with Alex, and she feared it more than anything. The last time, her father had nearly killed her, and she'd ached for days down there. And, though her friends claimed it wouldn't always feel that way, she still feared it.
She rose at dawn and sat by her window, looking out upon the fog-shrouded walled garden beyond. Her things had been moved, the night before, to Alex's suite, so she had only a robe to wear over her nightdress, and a pair of slippers to keep her feet warm. She tucked her feet beneath the hem of her skirt and reached up to open the heavy pane, letting in the dewy morning air.
A slight breeze fluttered the little hairs around her temple, and she shivered. She retreated into the depths of the chair's wings and slipped into her thoughts. She couldn't imagine Alex hurting her deliberately, but perhaps it was something that a man couldn't control, the pain a woman felt. Well, then she would just have to bear it, for Alex.
And what would happen once her father had been deposed? Well, that was easy to answer. She and Alex would rule and rebuild the kingdom. She knew that it wouldn't be as easy as that, but she thought she was ready. She had lived, now, in three different castes of society. She had been a country girl, a peasant. She had been a performer, well respected and neither wealthy nor poor. She had been a princess, first, and a prince's mistress, later. She understood, now, where people's complaints came from. She had not lived through everything, but she had lived through a lot.
She hoped she would be a good queen.
As she thought, something strange invaded her senses, a feeling that she was at once seated in the chair, chin resting on her hand, and also somewhere above, looking down on that frightened girl, that injured shadow of a princess.
She stood, and, in a daze, made her way out of her room and into the garden. Her slippers stuck in the damp earth, so she kicked them off. Her braided hair thumped against her back in the wind, so she undid it, letting its wavy strands tangle around her neck. She let herself out of the gate of the walled garden, careful to muffle the sound of the latch falling so as not to wake anyone.
Barefoot, her shoes in her hands, she wandered over to the creek that ran through the palace gardens. It was picturesque, barely deep enough for a flat-bottomed boat to be poled along, and criss-crossed with delicate bridges. During the heat of the day, it was popular with the court's nobles as a spot for a picnic or a birdwatching day. But now, as the sun began to peek over the top of the horizon, there wasn't another soul in sight.
Elodie waded into the water, ignoring the bridges, her skirt held up above the waterline. Out where the current strengthened from almost nothing to something that would carry a paper boat slowly downstream a bollard had been dug into the stream's silt for no particular reason, too far from shore to serve as a mooring, and too far out to be used as a stepping stone. Elodie settled herself on it, her feet in the water, and cast her slippers back to the shore.
A fine mist lingered upon the surface of the water, as well as the shroud of fog in the air, and Elodie took in the silvery world around her, so beautiful and calm. A linnet bird warbled from the branches of a tall aspen tree.
She didn't heard Gabriel approach until he spoke from the shore. "It seems there's a new kind ofwaterbird hanging about," he called teasingly. "Maybe I can tempt her to shore, hm?"
YOU ARE READING
Donkeyskin - ON HOLD
FantasyA retelling of Charles Perault's fairytale Peau d'Ane, or Donkeyskin. Ten years before the start of our story, a young king married the most beautiful woman in the world. Nine years ago, the princess Elodie was born of their union, a girl small and...