Seven

History like a Fairytale

"Your uncles." Natalie repeated, disbelieving. 

Nathaniel shrugged, somewhat embarrassed. "Yes, and believe me that's not the craziest part of all this."

"So the fact that you have uncles who died in very... medieval ways and are now ghosts is not the strangest thing I'm going to hear today?"

"Ah, no, unfortunately. To be fair I don't really expect you to believe most of this." 

Natalie put her hands on her hips. "I'm ready to believe pretty much anything at this point."

Nathaniel smiled, then veered abruptly into the woods, onto a narrow hiking trail Natalie would have missed, even if she walked the drive a dozen times.

He took a deep breath. "Okay then. Please do me a favor and save the rest of your questions for the end, I just have to get through the whole think in one shot."

"Sure."

"Everything started when the king died." He began.

Natalie opened her mouth but quickly snapped it shut. She was going to let him finish even if she had physically restrain herself.

"The king had fourteen children, seven sons and seven daughters. Not all from the same mother mind you. Two of the three queens died in childbirth. Anyway, the daughters were not allowed at his deathbed, only his remaining sons. The king was sorely disappointed in the four men that stood around him, he had succeeded in killing all of his brothers for the throne years before his father passed, and yet he had not produced a son as capable. 

The Princes expected their father to name one of them king then and there, as there was no law in their kingdom that gave it to the eldest son, rather the most capable–or more often, the last one standing. 

But the dying man wasn't about to go easy on them. With the last of his strength, he flung his crown out the window. The brothers ran to the ledge and watch the one thing they wanted fly out into the night. Yes fly, not fall. 

The dying king then told them that the first person to wear the crown would succeed him, and that the queen would rule until one of them had done so. 

The idea of a woman ruling on her own was unorthodox, but the King had not expected his sons to take very long at his task.

The brothers traveled across the kingdom, the kingdoms that bordered, and the kingdoms beyond those, but they couldn't find the crown. One by one they killed each other off until only the eldest and the youngest remained. When they encountered each other at an inn on the edge of their homeland the pair began a duel to the death. The eldest killed his brother, but as he feasted to his triumph later that night, the younger brother's wife slit his throat, a glass of ale halfway to his lips.

Now it is law in this kingdom that only a male blood relative of the king may take the throne. So although all seven sisters were still alive their husbands weren't eligible. Their children, however, were. The first of their sons to find to find the crown would be the next king. 

Then began the race between the sisters, to have as many children as possible, pushing their sons the grown up as fast as possible and hunting with them. Of course, this then made the young boys and their mothers each other's targets, just as the princes had targeted each other.

Princesses and their sons were killed, infants suffocated while their mothers slept beside them. Even their husbands and lovers were killed off to prevent further procreation. 

So it came to be that only three of the princess remained. The second, the fifth, and the youngest who was scarcely more than a teenager, only 13 when her father the king had passed.