The Beginning of Everything by Kristen Ashley Page 0,28
and further prosperity. It is done.”
“So our exile is done?” I asked, my voice shocked, as it would be.
He was a ruler like his father, trained by his father to be fierce, but just.
It was still my blood and my mother’s husband who killed the king.
He held my gaze and I noted he did not look at my mama.
“Not exactly,” he answered.
Oh dear.
My mother spoke up.
“Mars, truly, with respect, my son, it’s been two weeks. We’ve been most anxious. And—”
“Farah marries,” Mars told her.
I did?
“She marries who?” Mama asked.
“The heir to the throne of Wodell. Prince True,” Mars answered.
I blinked.
I then started when my mother clapped her hands and pretended to spit on the multitude of colorful rugs overlapping the floor before her.
“Wodell!” she cried in disgust.
“Little mother,” Mars murmured, his lips twitching.
It was this I did not find funny.
I married a Wodell?
“They are weak,” Mama snapped. “A Firenz woman does not open her legs for a Wodell.”
“True is not like his father,” Mars assured.
My mother sniffed and lifted her chin. “I can believe that. I can believe he’s not even of his father. For that king has no balls and it would surprise me he even has a cock.”
Mars chuckled.
I whispered, “Mama!”
My mother’s head whipped to me. “We hear the stories, even in our banishment. Many of his men fall and fall and fall as he tries to steal our saffron, our tar, our rubies. We have been warring unnecessarily with Wodell for decades. Centuries.”
“The Firenz did steal that tract of land from the Dellish many years ago,” Mars pointed out genially.
“Yes, and we have managed to keep it,” Mama hissed at Mars. “But it was ours first.”
Mars chuckled again.
I sighed.
“I obviously have no power in this room, in this land, and definitely not sitting in front of my beloved king, a man I helped raise side by side with my sister-friend Queen Elpis,” Mama began grandly. “But I can tell you, that ruby mine builds our armies and widens our roads. I know, Mars, like your father before you, you ceased taking the proceeds of royal holdings into your own personal treasury and added it to the treasury of the people. It is a blessing and the people know it, feeling of you like they did your father. That you are noble, adored and our true ruler. The tar has always been of Firenze and only of Firenze. And those saffron fields are owned by our king.”
“I do know this, Sofia, as I am that king,” Mars muttered with amusement.
“And he dares?” she demanded.
“They are not as rich a nation as we,” Mars explained.
“So…so…so…make more sheep!” she exclaimed. “That can’t be hard. They rut. Another one comes. Even I covet Dellish wool.”
Mars looked to me. “I forgot, as well, your mother’s spirit.”
“It’s not spirit, it’s loyalty,” I returned.
“I did not forget that,” he whispered, and I felt my throat close.
Instantly gone was her blustering affront, Mama emitted another sobbing peep.
Mars gave her a soft look before returning his gaze to me.
“This marriage is arranged, Farah, and there is no changing it. True rides here as we speak for parades and betrothal celebrations before you ride there for the ceremony.” His voice dropped. “It’s a good match, my sister. He is so not of his father, I would call him a changeling. At his last surrender, when his father again sent his son to command too few soldiers in an effort of folly, he knew it was lost before it had begun, and I could feel his frustration. He and his men fought with cunning and valor, regardless. His soldiers’ loyalty to him is so strong, it scents the air. This match will mean an alliance between our countries. And I cannot say I do not feel some relief for it also means I do not have to defeat such a valiant soldier again.”
One could not say I was overjoyed at the news that I would take to husband, a Wodell, prince or not.
What one could say was that I was being called to be in service to my people, and really, there was naught else that needed to be said.
“I will marry this prince, my king,” I told him simply so he would know I would do it willingly, because as king, he did not need my assent.
But as the Mars I’d grown up alongside, he would desire it.
“And when you do, you will drip the finery of our great nation, my little sister,” he replied.