Hardly a Lady

V

I imagine the palace to be a similar style to the Red Keep from Game of Thrones, but built on a hill like Minas Tirith from Lord of the Rings, with the city of Samarus below. So imagine the Red Keep, in Minas Tirith, with the sea next to it, and you have my interpretation of Samarus!

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Giselle shuffled nervously in the carriage, rearranging her skirts for what must have been the hundredth time. Sir Lansley had ridden ahead of her with a few men, to alert the royal family that Giselle was arriving.

Giselle stuck her head out of the window and watched as they approached the city of Samarus, each step the horses took adding to her anxiety. They had ridden for almost two weeks and Giselle was tired of being jolted about in a carriage. Still, it was better than what was waiting for her at the end and looming ever closer.

Kendra had fallen asleep somehow in the corner of the carriage, and so Giselle had nobody to speak to. She sighed deeply and returned to shuffling a deck of cards in her hands, pausing as the Queen card appeared on top. I wonder if they will make a deck of cards with my likeness as the Queen, she thought to herself, examining the picture of the current Queen Lahleh and trying to make the Decristo Queen materialise in front of her. The woman on the card had long blonde hair that had been braided and twisted up at the nape of her neck, and intelligent dark eyes that seemed to watch Giselle wherever she moved. Giselle hoped that her real mother-in-law wasn't as critical as her image seemed.

She groaned and push the stack of cards back into the side pocket of the carriage, and rested her chin in her hand as she watched the green fields gradually turn to houses.

Then, there was a low chuckle from the soldier riding alongside the carriage, and with a gasp Giselle recognised him as the man from the other night, and saw that he was even more handsome close up.

"What's so funny?" she asked him curiously. The soldier looked at her and - rather than apologising profusely as many of the others would have - he merely grinned and flashed her a wink. "I'm laughing because it is curious, my lady. I was laughing because you look so infuriated to be put into a position that most girls would kill for."

Giselle frowned and crossed her arms across her chest. "Well I am not most girls..."

"You're a Debault, I know. You must be afraid that you're being taken to the slaughter."

"I'm not afraid," Giselle interjected. The soldier shrugged his shoulders and snorted in amusement. "Regardless, you don't want to be a princess and wear pretty dresses and jewels, I think?"

Giselle quirked an eyebrow at him. "What is your name, soldier?"

The soldier winked and bowed his head. "My mother named me Ashtor, but most people call me Ash."

Giselle smirked at him, before sitting back. "Well, Ash, don't presume to think that you know me."

And with that, she slammed the curtains shut.

It only took Giselle a few moments to regret it however, because she desperately wanted to see Samarus and that was impossible with closed curtains. So she peeped through crack between them, and almost let out a sigh when she saw that Ash had gone.

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"Make way!" the guards shouted at the peasants loitering in the streets. Giselle stared out, marvelling at her surroundings, as the sights and smells of the city attacked her senses, dragging her attention one way one moment and then the other way the next.

For a capital city, the people of Samarus seemed relatively happy and had a decent livelihood. Lord Axel had always told his daughter about how their ancestors had wept for the people of the capital, having left them with the Decristos to govern their lives. He had said that the Decristos were too consumed by their own greed and so snatched all of Samarus' wealth for themselves, leaving the people to starve.