The Princess and the Bard (Royals of the Realms #1)

Chapter Five: A Moment of Magical Euphoria

The next morning, Alori shared a private breakfast with her grandmother instead of joining the bards in the dining hall. She wanted Hamoni's opinion on Taelan's reticence, so it was just as well that they keep to themselves. Alori was too close to the situation to make sense of last night herself, so after explaining the fraught conversation she'd had with Taelan on the lighted path, she opened the floor to discussion.

"You scared him, my dear. It's as simple as that," Hamoni said. "You don't know if he's your composer, but I would bet my cane he fancies himself in love with you."

Alori held her teacup between both hands, blowing steam off the rippled surface of the pale green liquid. "Then why continue lying? He can't truly love me. Perhaps I should stop focusing on him."

Hamoni chuckled, rubbing sleep from the corners of her eyes. "Have I not warned you about men? When it comes to women, they have no idea what they're doing, only what they want."

"So you agree that I should set my sights elsewhere?"

"You should set your sights on whomever makes you feel like the world is a more wondrous place when you're together. We have so little time here on Eala, and at the end of the day few things matter more than that, even for a future queen."

Alori sipped her tea and nibbled on a dried moon cherry scone, letting her thoughts wander. "Taelan is the only one who stirs anything meaningful within me. When he looks at me, it's like he's trying to tell me something he can't say out loud." She leaned over the table, resting her jaw in her palm. It was unrefined, but she couldn't be bothered to care. "Why would he think he loves me, Hamoni? Maybe he's crazy."

"Oh, I doubt that."

"But we hadn't met before yesterday morning. How can you love someone you don't know? If anything, he's mistaking infatuation for love, and I'm not looking for someone to idolize me."

Hamoni rose from the table, bending over her cane. "You underestimate the effect you have on people. Those you have helped have long memories. Tales of kindness spread as quickly as tales of woe."

"What tales?" Alori slouched, pressing her elbow into the chair's cushioned armrest. "It's only been five years since I became the Shieldmaker, and I haven't accomplished anything of significance. Before Mother died, I..."

She didn't like talking about her mother's illness or the aftermath of her death. The pain she'd felt while watching sickness steal the life from the once vibrant and powerful queen, month by month and then day by day, until Alori had been left a throne she wasn't ready to ascend to, was still unbearable some nights.

"I was more of a burden than a help while she was alive, and I've not done anything remarkable since. I'm not the queen yet, so how could I have left such an impression on anyone?"

During her mother's final languishing weeks, assemblies had been called at the palace, persisting long into the night. While the queen's advisers had had no choice but to appoint the thirteen year old crown princess to the position of Shieldmaker– because Alori was the only one capable of taking on the responsibility– they'd granted her a temporary reprieve from the more tedious roles of state and diplomacy. Until her twentieth birthday, her father, Bard Prince Renji, would rule as king regent. During the interim, Alori was to sit in on legislative assemblies, attend all public events as the Ville-Realms' new figurehead, endeavor to familiarize herself with the running of a queendom plagued by demons, and perhaps most importantly, choose a consort to replace her father as the next bard prince.

Hamoni ambled up to Alori, squeezing her shoulder. "Try not to be so negative. You were an invaluable asset to your mother while she was ill. And before that, right from the beginning, you were keen to know if the people were happy, and if they weren't you tried to make it right. It was not always so in the Ville-Realms. You know the stories."