Light Shadows

Chapter 6~The Prince

A letter arrives to my rooms from the queen herself. Now that was more of how you would treat a future ruler. Although my temper flares when i see that the queen addressed me by my first name.

Scarlet,

It is such a pleasure housing you in the Castle of Skye. I hope you find you stay here joyous. I look forward to meeting you tonight at dinner. I will personally send my son, the Prince, to escort you. I have also taken the personal liberty to send a dress to your rooms which will arrive shortly after this letter. Until we meet,

                                                                                                              Queen Lanelle

The queen of the Forelands had scrawled her signature at the end: a sprawling mass of unreadable letters written in cursive. My shadowhorse could have written better than that. I walk over to the fireplace in the middle of one wall. I hold the paper over it for a second, crumpling the queen's words in my clenched fist, before letting the piece of paper slip between my fingers and fall into the reaching flames. It does not take long for the fire to eat away at the entirety of the paper, leaving nothing but some ashes in its wake.

I turn from the fireplace abruptly and take a seat in the chair farthest from the windows. I hated all of this dreadful light. When i had first arrived in the room, i had closed all of the silk curtains over all three of the huge windows but it did nothing to dim the light that continued to stream through. I had them spread a little of my shadows over the large windows but stopped shortly thereafter because i did not want to waste all of my energy. I had to save my strength for when i met the queen. I could not be shaking with exhaustion no matter how uncomfortable the light in this room was. I plop down in the chair, bundle my arms beneath my head, and try to pretend that i am back home, in the Backlands, reading in my favorite window seat with the constant but dim light of the lantern hanging over my shoulder. Soon, i eventually fall asleep.

A hurried pounding on the door wakes me. I jump out of the chair, not even taking a second to stretch out my still sleeping limbs. I take a quick look in the mirror to make sure my hair is under control and in order before i swing the door open. It does not make a sound as i jerk the door to a stop; halfway open and halfway closed. A servant is standing in my doorway, refusing to meet my eyes. She might have been expecting for me to let her in but i stand firm, waiting for here to dare to say anything about it. She holds out a box to me. I hesitate to take it but then realize it is probably the dress that the Foreland queen said she would send to my rooms in her short letter to me. I pull the box from the servant's hands. The servant flinches at my movement. The servant bows then and walks away, her steps hurried. Good, she should be afraid. I did not tolerate lingering lightly.

I scowl down at the dress. I had thought the queen would have had a better sense of what color i prefered to wear. Most of the dress was black. Most of it but not all. The hem was a shining gold color and there were bits of streaming gold ribbons woven through the dress from the gold hems. Was i really supposed to wear this? I knew the answer before i even finished thinking the full question. I had to. I could not upset the queen no matter how much i disagreed with her and her ways. However, i did not have to make it obvious that i was doing exactly what the Forelander queen wanted me to do. I let the dress fall back into the box and instead go to my wardrobe. I pick out one of my own dresses, all black except for a single gray ribbon going in and out of the dress decorating the bottom of the hem of the dress.

I leave my hair down after brushing it out. My hair is totally straight, no matter what i do to it. However, it works well with my piercing dark blue eyes. Most people here will now take one look at me and know exactly who i am and what will happen if they upset me or get in my way. Father's words come back to me "...go into the Forelands...", "...discover their plans...". Father never said that i had to do what the queen wanted. I just had to win some of her trust in order so that i can investigate further to find her ultimate plans.