The Kept

The Captive

Nerys groaned and reached up to touch the smarting spot on her head. Both of her hands rose as one and she forced her heavy eyelids up so she could examine her fettered wrists. A small face leaned in over hers. It belonged to a little girl with straight black hair that stopped neatly at her elbows, round, rosy cheeks, and large, dark, crescent moon eyes. They were in the main room of a cottage not unlike the one Nerys had grown up in, but much smaller. 

The girl raised her head and hollered, sending darts of pain racing back and forth through Nerys's head.

"Mama! The princess woke up! She didn't even have to get kissed by the prince!"

She leaned back into Nerys's face, beaming.

"You get to live in the trees with us until the prince wins, and you get married and live happily ever after."

A woman, the girl's mother judging by her nearly identical features, poked her head out of a door on the opposite side of the tiny room.

"Amparo, go find the prince and bring him here."

Amparo hopped up and bolted for the door.

"My daughter loves fairy-tales, and I'm afraid Prince Dadien is all too happy to make them up for her," woman said. "Can I get you anything while you wait for him?"

Nerys shook her head, and groaned again as the room sloshed back and forth with the movement.

"Let's start you with water," she said, and disappeared back through the door. There was a loud thud from the next room, followed by a stream of not-very-motherly exclamations.

When Amparo returned, the man she dragged behind her was no longer in the white costume from the ball. Without his mask, Nerys could see that they weren't identical. His resemblance to Gereon was uncanny, but Prince Dadien's eyes were, indeed, Queen Calliste's shade of blue.

"See, I told you she was awake and you didn't even kiss her yet!" Amparo said.

"His kiss is what put me to sleep in the first place," Nerys mumbled.

Her mouth was dry, and her words felt thick and slow. Amparo's eyes widened and she looked at her hero prince with all the condemnation capable of a four year old face. Prince Dadien shrank under the child's scowl.

"Amparo, can you go help your mama? The Princess and I need to have a grown up talk," Dadien said.

"I didn't get to talk to her that much!" the little girl whined as she shuffled to her mother, who had just reentered with the cup of water.

"Don't kiss her, again!" Amparo commanded before they retreated to what Nerys supposed was the kitchen with cup that was, to Nerys, now the most precious item in the world.

"Is it a tradition in your family to knock women unconscious and take them captive?" Nerys said.

"I hadn't realized that you were so intimate with my brother as to have formed such a strong opinion of his scent. Frankly, I was quite enjoying where things were going, but any more of your observations might have blown my disguise and ruined more than our evening."

He, too, shared the devious smile that was certainly a signature family trait.

"What do you want with me?"

"That depends." Dadien became serious again. "Do you love him?"

Heat rose from Nerys's collar to her ears, and her nose tickled as though she were going to sneeze.

"That doesn't matter," she said.

"You seemed happy to allow me certain... liberties when you thought I was Gereon. It is a valid question."