The Princess and the Courtesan

Chapter 2

Walking from the meeting she had just exited, Aelin lamented all those hours was wasted on sitting prettily and remaining diplomatic while remaining in her place, and by that she meant imitating one of the mute silent assassins in the desert who she had spent some time with when her parents thought it best for the princess to learn how to defend herself.

In truth, Aelin didn't mind being quiet for a little while despite it being uncharacteristic of her because it allowed her some time to reminisce about all the early morning breakfasts and evening wine drinking sessions she had been having with Lysandra lately. When they had eaten breakfast together the day after the ball, it was as though they had known each other for their entire lives, they had talked about anything and everything and from then on they had been inseparable.

She was heading towards the gardens; she always did after meetings and while she would like to make it a regular occurrence every morning there was always something else that demanded her attention. It was a place where she could go and be plagued by the single, inconsequential worry of a patch of flowers withering or there being child-sized footprints indented into the grass but no sooner had she noticed, the gardener would have planted the flowers anew.

Aelin was walking down the steps as she spotted Sartaq standing statuesque at the bottom string expectantly at the doorway. For most people, the stance would come across as awkward or stalker-like but with him, it radiated regality and arrogance. She averted her eyes the second she locked his gaze in an attempt to try ignore him.

"Would you mind if I joined you on your walk?"

"Of course not," Aelin replied with a fake smile plastered across her face.

As she reached the bottom, Sartaq matched her steps and they strolled a couple of paces in companionable silence.

"So is there a reason why you were waiting for me at the bottom of the steps then?" She feigned nonchalance through the casual sweetness in her tone and slightly turned her mask of quizzical interest towards him.

"Well, your parents might have told me that you walk this way everyday, and they may have also suggested that I should wait for you so we could get to know each other better," an amused smile accompanied his words, "and I thought that I might as well since I've been meaning to talk to you about this anyway."

Out of her peripheral vision, Aelin caught a glimpse of her mother peering out of one of the windows, it was gone as soon as she realised her daughter was staring back.

"And what exactly did you wish to talk about? About how you are desperately in love with me and want to bind us in marriage for the rest of our lives?" Her head tilted to the side, she fluttered her eyelashes and her sweetly sarcastic tone reflected the smirk that played around her mouth. As she said it, she recalled times in her childhood when all the rulers met together and the children were left in a separate room to play. She had liked Sartaq then, he was always one of the quietest and made a habit of alternating between looking bemused and attempting to trick everyone into believing that he wasn't related to his siblings whenever they were fighting. They had never got along all that well, at least not as well as she did with Nehemiah, Dorian or Ansel but she liked to think that they were amicable.

He gave her a side glance and a relieved sigh, "I'm glad we're on the same page." It seemed that he was now immune to her sarcasm by now.

"Now, I know why I don't want it but how could you deny this?" Sartaq laughed as Aelin placed her chin on a hand and did her best to imitate Fleetfoot's pleading face.

He was hiding something. He'd stopped laughing like that at her jokes a long time ago when he realised he was under no obligation to do so.

A sigh escaped the prince of the southern continent and he spoke like he'd been waiting a lifetime to let it all out, "there's this girl that I want to be with, a girl that I love but it's complicated. She's with someone else and has no nobility in her bloodline, I'm not even sure if she would leave her life she's built for me."