The Ice Dragon King & The Slave-Queen

Chapter 8 - A New Emotion

Three days. It had been three days since Taryn last saw King Einar. A part of her was confused as to why the king disappeared without at least telling her what was going on, but another part of her was also glad. None of his men or the womenfolk helping in the castle even address her, let alone share any information about the king's whereabouts. Taryn was not only left in the dark, she was also left to fend things off by herself, most of the time. Taryn assumed the language barrier was one of the reasons.

On the first day after King Einar's “disappearance” — the morning after Taryn waited for the king for hours in his bedroom alone — she decided she would walk around the castle's compound to calm her thoughts. There were too many things running through her head the night before, giving her negative thoughts, sad thoughts, and making her question herself if coming to the Varangian kingdom was the right thing to do — “for king and country”, the bishop had said. Taryn wondered if she would always have to live like this, like a piece of discarded property, unwanted, left without reason.

She was walking around the castle's compound with her head bowed, her eyes sad, when King Einar's General and First Commander, General Stig, came up next to her and said quietly, “Your Grace, shall I accompany you on your walk?”

The General's booming voice startled her, but he didn't realize how his question had impacted her, lifting up her mood when she had been entertaining melancholy thoughts the night before and all throughout that morning. General Stig had been kind, entertaining her questions even though it would take a while for him to answer her, as he was not as well-versed with the Gaelic language as King Einar.

General Stig showed her around the castle, including the verandah located at the south corner of the castle. In this slightly hidden and secluded place she saw many types of flowers hanging from the trellises, comfortable cushioned seats and a small fountain only a few steps away from the seats. According to the General, this verandah was sometimes used by King Einar when he needed to think as he fed the birds and watched them bathe in the bird bath. Taryn could imagine the king sitting there, relaxing, collecting his thoughts after a day of training, discussing peace treaties and even planning about the future of his kingdom. Taryn wanted to ask the General where the king was, but she thought maybe it wasn't her place to demand answers, even if it was from one of the king's most trusted men.

On the second day, King Einar was still not back at the castle. The only person who greeted her as she sat to eat by herself in the dining room was General Stig, asking if she would like him to accompany her again that day.

“Yes, please, General. I would like that very much,” Taryn answered, her face lit up at the General's suggestion, smiling as she asked the General to sit with her at the dining table and have something to eat as well.

The General turned down her offer of food, but he was friendlier to her that morning. General Stig accompanied her away from the castle grounds to where the hill slopes down to a flat land. As Taryn ventured further from the castle, toward the flatlands, she watched many regular Varangian folks go about with their daily tasks in the fields and outside their homes. The General was cordial to her, trying to answer her questions as best he could, even though he took a while to process her Gaelic.

On the third day, when King Einar still hadn't returned to the castle, Taryn was more than just worried. She began to wonder if the king had found something major in relation to his warship being burned. At the back of her head she couldn't deny that she was also wondering if the king had a secret lover, but she knew she couldn't actually ask the second question to just about any of his men. She was sure his men would keep the king's secrets for him, if there ever were a secret lover.

Taryn tried to push the thoughts out of her head the best she could as General Stig took her down a path that allowed her to see the view of the bay much better. He told her that this was one of the king's favorite places to go to when he was a young boy. Taryn couldn't deny that the view was beautiful and calming but it didn't help calm her thoughts very much. So, even though she was reprimanding herself internally for being nosey about the king's affairs, she decided to at least ask about the king's whereabouts from General Stig so that she could let her mind rest.

“General?” Taryn called to the king’s general after a while.

“Your Grace,” Stig answered, turning to look at her and bowing his head a little.

“My mind had been boggled for days. I think I should ask you the question that had been repeating in my head before it drives me mad,” Taryn said, her eyes still focused at the horizon and the vast ocean in front of her.

“Yes, of course, Your Grace. Anything you would like to know?” General Stig tried to accommodate her.

“I haven’t seen the king for three days now, General. I don't know why, but I have a nagging feeling at the back of my mind about his safety. I assume, as his General, you would know if he is all right. So, would you mind telling me if he was?” Taryn asked, her eyes still focused on the wide ocean ahead, but General Stig could see a shy blush creeping up on her cheeks.

It took a while for General Stig to come up with the right words in Gaelic to answer Taryn's question. Although his words came slightly jumbled up, he seemed like he genuinely wanted to help ease Taryn's worries regarding the king. “His Grace is doing well, Your Grace. He had been caught up with one major issue that came up a few days ago in relation to the kingdom’s safety,” General Stig answered.

Taryn wondered if her next question was appropriate, but out of curiosity, she continued, “Did it have something to do with the burning of the king’s warship?”

General Stig turned to look at Taryn swiftly. His face registered shock. It was known to all in the kingdom that King Einar was a very secretive man. He does not let slip sensitive information such as this to just about anybody — and especially not to someone he has only met. King Einar had even reminded his men not to share the news of his Skadi burning with his own people, worrying if there might be a mole amongst them. And yet, he told the Celtic princess? When?

“Forgive me, Your Grace. But firstly, may I ask how you knew?” General Stig asked.

“The king himself told me on the same night he was about to leave the bedroom after you called for him. It was only in passing, however,” she answered simply.

To say that General Stig was surprised was an understatement. He had known King Einar since they were children and could safely say that he knew the man very well. He also knows what type of man the king was. For King Einar to let slip such important information to the same young woman whose father might be involved with the destruction of the king's warship was so out of the norm that it shocked the General.

Right now, General Stig and a few of the king's closest and most trusted men have yet to find out if the prisoners did have any involvement with the Celtic king or not. The only information they thought they had in relation to the Celtic king and the prisoners was that two of their warriors heard one or both of the prisoners say the name ‘King Náel Sechnail’. Since there was nobody else to confirm this and none of the other commanders had been able to retrieve any possible information from either of the prisoners, they still didn't know who the prisoners were and if they truly were involved with the Celtic king. The prisoners had been with them for four days and they were still stuck at a dead end.

To General Stig's knowledge, King Einar had only returned to the interrogation hole one time in the last four days. He had taken the white-skinned prisoner with him but nobody knew where he was going. King Einar had told his commanders that he would be taking the prisoner somewhere by himself, away from others for interrogation. His commanders did not question him. They have heard of his unique interrogation methods before but none of them had ever seen him do it. So, they helped the king cover the prisoner's face with a small barley sack and make sure the prisoner was not able to see where the king was taking him.

However, before King Einar left, he looked at the dark-skinned prisoner that was still lying on his cell floor and instructed his men to be on high alert when it came to that prisoner. The king's commanders relayed to General Stig that the king stared at the dark-skinned prisoner for a long time before informing them, that if by any chance the prisoner misbehaved, he would allow them to break the prisoner's legs, as long as they did not kill him. The king also spoke in a foreign language, receiving a small reaction from the prisoner. Then, the king left with the white-skinned prisoner and had yet to return.

General Stig was sure that the king was fine. He believed it to his bone. It was not the first time, nor the last, that the king had been gone for a few days without informing anyone of his whereabouts. Even though King Einar was his best friend, he did not share his plans in detail, until he was absolutely sure there would be a positive outcome from it. So, General Stig knew the king already had solid plans when he took the white-skinned prisoner away, even if he did not know in detail what those plans were.

General Stig watched Taryn with renewed interest. He didn’t seem to care for Taryn that much before, especially after Ambassador Canute brought back many crummy reports about the Celtic princess and her family. None of the Varangian councilmen who listened to Ambassador Canute relaying his reports at the Oval Table were impressed with the Celtic princess, including Geneeral Stig. But for the past three days, as he took it upon himself to accompany King Einar’s new wife wherever she went — even without the express command from his king — his opinions of her had begun to waver. Although his initial intention in accompanying her was to prevent any unwanted scenarios, especially if there were connections between the Celtics and the burning of King Einar’s warship, he had found himself liking her at the same time.

“I can not speak of the issues of this kingdom, Your Grace. It is not my place to say. But I can assure you that the king is fine and, hopefully, he will return to the castle soon,” General Stig said, giving Taryn a reassuring smile.

Taryn thanked General Stig with a huge, warm smile and said, "If this is your belief, then I trust in your judgment entirely."

Taryn didn’t know why, but she had been thinking about King Einar constantly since their last encounter. For the past three nights, she had slept in her own bedroom but she found herself sneaking into his room in the middle of the night through their adjoining door, trying to capture his scent, inhaling deep, realizing that with each passing day, his scent was beginning to disappear. She didn’t like this side of her, one she thought was too vulnerable, especially when she is already in a vulnerable position. But what can she do?

“Your Grace, maybe we should return to the castle. Looks like the wind is starting to pick up. It will get cold soon,” General Stig suggested, as he saw Taryn burying her face into her thick ermine cape.

“Yes, of course,” she replied kindly, walking next to the large man.

When Taryn first arrived in this kingdom, nobody wanted to talk to her. When she first saw General Stig on the day of her wedding, escorting her and Lady Riona to the wedding venue, she thought how scary the General looked and how fearsome he must be in battle. Right now as she walked next to him, the top of her head only slightly above his elbow, she thought, even though he looked scary, especially with the scar on his face and his booming voice, he was also a kind man and, on a few occasions, had been gentle with her.

As they walked toward the castle, they saw in the distance a man that looked like King Einar. The king was only a few feet away from arriving at the castle door. Taryn’s mood instantly perked up at the sight of the king and the immediate change in her was not lost to the General. General Stig tried to hide his smile. Understanding dawned on him on why she was worried of the king's whereabouts. However, just a moment later, a woman with dark brown hair appeared next to the king and linked her fingers through his. Taryn stopped in her tracks. She couldn’t believe it when she saw the woman leaning on to the king, running her index finger along his jawline, and even trying to kiss him.

The king, his appearance not as neat as usual, turned to look at the woman. From Taryn's point of view, Taryn thought she saw the king say something to the woman, a word or two, and it made the woman stop in her tracks and step back. The woman's smile froze on her face. She didn’t move when King Einar unlinked her fingers from his and walked away. Commander Vali, the king’s second commander, was waiting for the king behind the castle door. After the king passed through the door, the Commander stepped in front of the woman to stop her from walking into the castle as well. Taryn saw the woman reaching up to her toes, calling out to the king but Commander Vali blocked her view as well as her point of entry.

“Who-,” Taryn stopped. Her voice was too thick in her throat and she didn't want the General to hear it.

General Stig looked at Taryn, his eyes knowing, but he didn’t answer the question he knew she was going to ask. That was King Einar’s business with his wife, not his. Slowly, however, General Stig thought he saw Taryn’s eyes starting to change colour. Her light blue eyes, which were so calming to look upon, quickly turned sharp. The intensity of her look, the storm lurking behind those irises was targeting the back of the woman’s head, the same woman who had just tried to kiss her husband a few moments ago. General Stig's eyes widened in disbelief at what he saw.

Taryn had never felt like this before. It was the first time she felt a fit of dark, ugly jealousy rearing its head inside her. She never knew she had the ability to even feel jealous of another woman. She had always accepted her station and fate since she was a young child. Oftentimes she would feel grateful for the things she had — especially since she had always had her grandmother around — instead of letting her mind think about things that she never had. But now, now she’s thinking about the woman who might have had her husband before her, and that made her so jealous, it felt like something was burning inside her stomach.

General Stig thought he could smell rain and he looked up into the sky. He frowned. The clouds that were clear only a few minutes ago had gathered above them, becoming heavy and dark. Not only that, General Stig saw that the dark clouds were only gathering above the castle grounds, whereas the sky on the horizon above the sea was clear, and the sun that was setting in the west was still clear for the eyes to see.

Stig turned to look at Taryn. His mouth fell open.

“Your Grace,” General Stig whispered, his voice was still quite loud, since he could never whisper, but Taryn didn't hear him.

The General tried once more. “Your Grace,” he called Taryn, not brave enough to touch her.

The wind started to pick up speed and the temperature dropped drastically but Taryn seemed not to notice. General Stig stood rooted to the ground, either from fear of what he saw in Taryn's eyes or from the cold, he wasn't sure. The General pulled his short cape closer to his large body as the temperature quickly dropped.

Commander Vali, who was still barricading the woman from entering the castle, finally held up one of his hands in front of the woman to make her stop talking.

"Stop, woman. You should know your place. The king does not want you to enter," Commander Vali said.

Commander Vali noticed that it was getting cold very quickly and pulled his cape around him.

"Go home, woman. The king is now a married man. He told you to let the past be in the past. So go home. He would not want his new wife to see you here," the Commander said to the woman, which made her lower her head and her shoulders drooped forward. She turned around.

This was when she saw Taryn standing in the distance, next to the king’s General and First Commander, Stig. Taryn didn’t know what made her legs move but at the sight of the woman watching her, she started walking to the castle doors. Although the wind was tousling her hair, Taryn still managed to walk with her head held high, like the regal princess that she was made to play. Taryn's lips were set in a thin straight line, and her eyes kept forward. General Stig followed closely behind her, the feelings inside him were a mixture of fear and awe.

When Taryn almost arrived at the castle’s large front door, her eyes clashed with the woman with the dark brown hair who had continued standing there like a statue. The woman curtseyed at Taryn but instead of looking down like she was supposed to when near a princess of royal blood, she looked straight into Taryn’s eyes. And that was her mistake. Because when she saw the storm brewing behind Taryn’s eyes, she was so shocked she almost stumbled on the pebbled ground.

Taryn walked ahead but as she was about to pass the woman, she whispered, “Shameless.”

***

General Stig was standing outside the king’s bedroom door, not quite sure himself why he was out there, especially when his thoughts were with the young queen that his king had married less than a week ago instead. Stig had never seen magic before, or anything even close to magic. The only magical thing he knew came from the lore and the myths of the Varangians, things that the elders shared with him when he was a young boy. He had heard of magic, of course, but none of them were as real and instant as what happened outside only a while ago.

Was it just my imagination, General Stig wondered. Is the Celtic princess a witch?

The General stood outside King Einar’s bedroom a while longer before he turned on his heel and decided he should just walk home and sleep it off. He was trying to blame whatever he thought he saw earlier on his own active imagination and the lack of sleep. He tried to convince himself that the pressure of keeping the prisoners without getting any information from them was what made him see things that could not be explained by the logical mind.

So, maybe he needed sleep. Yes, he should go home and go to sleep. That is, after he drinks a whole bottle of hard liquor. Then yes, he should take a long, deep sleep and forget what he saw.

***

Taryn paced her room. She didn’t know what had gotten into her. She had never had a dark thought in her head her entire life before, but seeing the woman being so familiar with the man she married — even if she wasn’t the real princess — had made her so angry that she imagined the wind would carry the woman off like a giant bird with great talons and drop her into the middle of the sea. It was a dark thought, for she had never wished death on anyone, not even when she was tortured or beaten in the past.

Taryn couldn’t remember much about what happened from the moment she saw the woman trying to kiss the king until she was pacing in her bedroom now. She barely recalled General Stig escorting her right up to her bedroom door. She did remember Eve helping her out of her clothes and helping her wash as she stood near the burning hearth, however. She thinks she picked out a nightgown to wear tonight from one of Eve’s outstretched hands and might have heard Lady Riona wish her goodnight but she didn’t remember much of anything else.

The only thing Taryn could think of since she saw the little scene outside the castle door was that she needed to know who the woman was. She wanted to hurt the woman, to burn the hand that touched the king's skin and the thought made her scared. Why was she thinking all these things? She was not a violent person and never had been.

However, she didn’t think she had the right to just pounce on the king’s door and ask him about the woman straight up. She needed to calm the turbulence in her mind down. She needed to take a deep breath and wait until her anger subsided. If she barged through his door like this, she might do things she would later regret. She knows the king has many other things to think about right now and the last thing he needs is a jealous wife accusing him of things.

Taryn could hear the sound of thunder above her head and then the pouring of rain. She could hear the king moving around in his bedroom too, although she wasn’t quite sure what he was doing. As the clashes of thunder continued above her head, she thought to herself that she could not wait any longer and decided she should just confront the king right now.

She walked to the door that connected her bedroom to his. She took a deep breath and raised her hand on the door, her knuckles ready to rap on the thick, carved wood.

***

King Einar walked toward the door that connected his bedroom and his new wife’s room. He didn’t know why, but for the last three days, he had been restless. Although he was happy and very energetic when he was near his Draki, there was a part of him that kept thinking of home — or more precisely, the new woman in his home.

King Einar’s mind had been extremely occupied the past few days, worrying about the safety of his people since they first caught the two floaters and brought them in as prisoners. Since there was no progress from the initial interrogation, he had to move on to his next level of interrogation.

With the help of his beloved ice dragon, he managed to retrieve more than a handful of information from the white-skinned prisoner, whom he soon found out was called Tar’mach. King Einar couldn’t care less about the prisoner now, since he had extracted as much information as he needed from him. He assumed Tar’mach had been fully digested by Draki by now, anyway. King Einar was annoyed with the prisoner, one who was too stubborn to talk and had too much pride in the way he looked at King Einar. Only after Draki made his presence known that Tar’mach finally found his voice, although he did lose his ability to hold his bowels right after that.

King Einar still held the dark-skinned prisoner in the interrogation cell. He wasn't quite sure what to do with the dark-skinned prisoner yet. His gut told him that he should keep the prisoner because there were many things that he could learn from the man. King Einar had never discarded a gut feeling and that was what he would do.

The only thing he wanted to do after getting all the information he wanted from Tar’mach was to go home and see his beautiful wife. Although he didn’t know how it was possible as he sat in the cold and bare ice cave, his mind kept reminding him of her scent, the titillating scent of wild lilies. Even when he was swimming with Draki in the deep, cold lake of the ice cave, he could still smell her, he could imagine touching her and his blood would start to heat up again.

But first, he needed to question her about some things. *knock knock*