She expected regret or at least some degree of shame to follow as soon as the sentance was free from her lips, after all, it was the most unorthodox request she had ever made, but no such feelings followed, instead, she was only made more sure in her decision.
Iolas was dumbstruck.
He blinked slowly several times, certain that what he heard was a mistake. She couldn't possibly have just said that.
"I'm sorry. What?!"
She gulped.
"You heard me."
Her words came out slowly, but the assurance in what she was saying was undeniable.
"Adelaide... What? Have you gone mad?!"
Iolas was slightly panicked, and her incredibly calm, cool demeanor did not help, he was made to feel very uncomfortable and even more confused.
He pulled his hand away from her, every hair on his neck standing straight up; he had heard of sailors driven crazy by the sea, but she had only recently left the docks, there was no way she could have been overtaken by the sea madness so quickly.
"Be calm. I assure you my wits are fully about me."
She reassured, appearing unmoved by his current state of disbelief and semi-duress.
"Then why, pray tell, why would you... YOU say such a thing?!"
He nearly shrieked.
"Because what you just said... I mean, you want me too...." even saying the words outloud made his head spin.
"You want us to... lay together? In the biblical sense?"
It was the most modest way to put it that his scrambled brain could contribute.
"Yes." She answered, voice once again eerily calm and certain.
Iolas let out another noise of frustrated confusion, before running his hands through his deep red hair, pulling at his locks.
"Like here? Right now?"
This time she didn't answer, but after a nervous gulp, she nodded.
"What? In this dirty cell, with the enemy trapsieng around just a few feet above us? Oh God Adelaide, if you are joking please stop."
He pleaded, but she never caved.
After a hitched breath, his next question contained only one word.
"Why?"
"Because..." She sighed, breaking eye contact to stare at the cell floor, shifting her weight slightly.
"We must be realistic, no one knows where we are, no rescue party could even attempt to save us, and now as we sit on this floating prison, sailing closer and closer to the unfortunate and final conquering of Aelford, where I am to be married off to their warlord king, to be used like a brood mare, and you..." She paused for a moment, pushing back the lump in her throat.
"You'll likely be killed as soon as the wedding is over, probably right in front of me as a means to permanently scare me into submission. I think I've figured out how these cruel barbarians work..."
Adelaide breath was ragged as she predicted his future.
"Well, the Captain did threaten that, but then he also promised to put in a good word and try to let me live as a slave..." Iolas interjected, unable to stop himself.
Her face fell further at his words.
"A slave? To be owned like an animal? Forced into a life of beatings and hard labor? To sit by and perhaps even be forced to watch your masters go on to other nation's and destroy the homes and lives of others? Would you really prefer that to death?"
She asked, but didn't wait for an answer, as she already knew it.
"But to answer you, I have had everything taken from me by these monsters, my family, my kingdom, even my very freedom itself."
Adelaide grumbled.
"But in this moment, as of right now, I have one thing left that is still mine, that they have not yet stolen from me, and that is my virtue, and if it's the one thing I have left, well, damn me to hell but I would rather give it away by my own choice, of my own volition, and to whom I choose, before it can be added to the long list of things stolen away by these cretins."
Iolas took in her words and as she calmly spoke, his panic dispersed into the night air and he began to understand where she was coming from.
"I see." He nodded, but his understanding was quickly overshadowed by a sense of unworthiness, and then immediately after, an equally heavy sense of guilt.
"But Adelaide, it's me..."
Iolas wanted to look her in the eyes but couldn't.
"I am not worthy of such a gift. After all I've done to you and your family. How am I any better then one of them? How could you even think of allowing me to..." He couldn't even finish it.
YOU ARE READING
A Thorn In The Ice
Historical Fiction"I fully expected you to say that I was the sort of Prince whose story would involve going into cahoots with the dragon, rather than slaying it." Iolas smiled, but their was a level of seriousness to his statement. "That is where you are wrong, de...
