Glass Kingdom

Chapter 2

Chapter Two

Dell’s life had never been a fairytale, but there was a time when he didn’t dread going home. A time when he’d run through the front door, skid to a halt in front of the table, and steal whatever his mother had spent the day baking.

She’d scold him, but never without a smile on her face. Then she’d ruffle his hair.

Until the day she no longer stood before him. The day they carted him off to live with a father he’d never met and half-brothers he knew nothing about.

He’d been a sad boy with pretty dreams of being welcomed into a family when he’d lost the only one he’d known. But he’d soon learned fantasy only lived to tease you with what you could never have.

His father had been kind, happy to bring Dell into the family. The first few weeks soothed his boyhood mind and made him imagine many years of such contentment. Then his father took ship on a trading mission, hitting the rough seas around the point of Cana in the middle of a storm. He never returned and Dell went from newfound son, to unwelcome houseguest, to stable boy in a matter of a month.

He rolled over on the small cot in Mari and Corban’s shop. They’d left it closed for a few days while he was there. It couldn’t be said that the son of the great Lady Tenyson was frequenting a healer’s shop on the eastern side of the city. If any even knew he belonged to the Tenyson household. His parentage was a well-kept secret in Madra with his family not claiming any connection other than that of master and servant.

The Tenyson’s were the current peak of the spiral. Each merchant family in Madra had a rank. Wealth and success affected rank as well as the king’s favor and one’s position on the council. Dell’s father had worked tirelessly to get the family where it was and Dell’s step-mother kept them there through nefarious means.

The hierarchy in Madran society was a spiral with each family one step below the prior one. The rise was a struggle, and the fall was great.

The door opened and Mari appeared. She smiled kindly. She’d taken a liking to the man in constant need of Corban’s healing.

“How are you feeling, dear?” she asked.

He struggled to sit up, his muscles aching. It was the first time he’d been truly awake since the fight. “You wouldn’t happen to have any ale, would you?”

She raised an eyebrow. “Afraid not. Is that what got you into this predicament?”

“No.”

She narrowed her eyes in disbelief. He didn’t blame her. He was lying after all.

“I’ve known you since you first arrived in the city.” She crossed her arms. “You can’t lie to me.”

She was right. He’d found comfort in sneaking away to Mari’s shop since he was a broken child in need of a friend. He rubbed his hands together, his leather boxing straps still sticky with blood. Not taking his eyes from her, he unwound the leather and released a sigh as cool air touched his bruised knuckles.

“I work hard, Mari.” He tried to infuse more age than he had into his voice. “Yesterday morning, I was sent to help unload a shipment at the docks.”

She nodded for him to go on.

“I went for a midday bite at the Cooked Goose and who happens by?”

“I can only guess.” She twisted around and slammed her palm against the wall. “Catjsa. That woman…” Shaking her head, she turned back to Dell. “You’re lucky Orlo didn’t kill you for whatever you did with his wife—”

He threw his hands up. “I didn’t do anything! I can’t help it if she can’t keep her hands off me.”

Mari advanced. “Dell, you’re a sweet boy, but sometimes I think all this fighting has scrambled your brains.” She bent down and gripped his chin. “This face, that b****y smile of yours, they’re weapons and they will be turned on you time and again.”

“Aw, Mari, you trying to tell me you think I’m beautiful?”

She released him and stepped back with a huff. “Do you take anything seriously? You’re a Tenyson, Dell.” She placed a palm over her heart. “The only one with anything in here since your dear father passed. I don’t want you to be taken advantage of by those wanting to start trouble.” Mari and Corban knew who he was even though Edmund did not. He couldn’t help that. She’d seen the Tenyson crest his brother burned into his foot when he was eleven years old.

He climbed from the bed and stood, his tall frame towering over her. Putting a hand on each of her shoulders, he bent to look her in the eye. “Don’t worry about me.”

She gripped his wrists and sighed. “I’ll always worry as if you were my own son. I’m not the only one either.”

He released her and ran a hand through his sweaty hair. “I don’t know why Edmund bothers. He’s not even Madran. He—”

She interrupted him. “You don’t know the kind of things that man has accomplished. If he sees something in you, it’s because you’re meant for more than scrubbing decks and cleaning stalls.”

There’d been a time when he wanted more. A family. A piece of land to farm. His life with his mother had been simple. They lived in the countryside near a small village. They never had much, but it was a good life.

He shook his head to clear it of those thoughts. “I need to wash this grime off my skin. Mind if I head out back.”

“Make sure you aren’t seen.”

He walked from the back room to a separate part of the building where a door led to an alley. The stiff reek of urine hit him as soon as the wind shifted, but he probably smelled just as bad.

He glanced behind him to make sure no one followed and ducked around back behind the row of shops. They were near the docks where boats left to sail up the river and out into the sea. The river narrowed as it bent around to run along the city. A busy street stood between the alley and a row of trees that blocked the water from view.

Dell took a quick glance each way before sprinting between carts ambling along the road and crashing into the tree cover on the other side. The river sparkled where the sun broke through the branches. It flowed slowly as if enjoying the nice day. Large boulders lined the edge of the water and Dell wasted no time stepping onto one and peeling off his shirt before dropping it on the ground. He kicked off his boots and slipped out of his trousers.

Even as a member of one of the wealthiest families in Madra, he kept his dress simple. Okay, it wasn’t his choice to make. When he’d first arrived, he’d worn his brothers’ old clothing. But with the years of hard labor he’d outgrown them.

A hiss left his lips as he sank into the icy water. His muscles pulled and screamed as he kicked toward the far bank and back again. As soon as his body loosened, he scrubbed the blood and sweat from his skin.

He dipped below the water, the fight still strong in his mind.

Orlo had beaten him. That was a first. In a rematch, Dell could take him down. He was a fighter. He was good. He was strong.

He almost laughed to himself, but he was still under the water.

Who was he kidding? Orlo was a monster of a man.

He looked up and saw a shadow on the far bank. All he could make out through the distortion of water was a pair of trousers. Edmund checking up on him no doubt.

Dell prepared to lunge, a plan forming in his mind. He burst from the water with a roar, water splashing his audience. He twisted to see Edmund’s reaction as his feet gained traction on the muddy bottom. The water barely reached his waist now. Rivulets of water streamed down his heaving torso, and his jaw dropped open as he took in the woman who was wringing a cap in her hands.

He froze as she examined her sopping clothes, taking no note of him. When she finally lifted her head, red flooded her cheeks.

She didn’t take her eyes away.

Dell, gaining some sense, stepped forward.

“Stop!” she screamed.

He glanced down to see the water no longer covered him. His hands flew down, but he took another step forward.

“I told you to stop right there.”

“I don’t know you, miss, so I’d take it kindly if you refrained from giving me orders.”

“But you… you—”

He climbed from the water completely, no longer bothering to cover himself as he stopped at her side. “I what?”

She turned away abruptly.

He chuckled. “It’s okay, miss. I like Edmund. I won’t try anything with his…” His eyes scanned her body. “Woman.”

The girl hugged her arms across her body.

Dell laughed again as he bent to retrieve his trousers and stepped into them. “Do I make you uncomfortable?”

“Yes.” She refused to look at him and amusement warmed Dell against the chilly breeze.

He slid his shirt over his head, shrinking back at the smell. It would have to do.

“Why are you here?” He bent to tie his boots as he waited for her answer. And for that matter, why was she dressed as a boy again? What was Edmund hiding?

She clicked her tongue. “I couldn’t stop thinking about that fight the other day.” Her voice dropped. “I needed to see if you were okay.”

He grinned and looked up at her. “Translation, the Madran girl was curious about the healing Corban did on me and wanted to see if it really worked or if she’d imagined it.”

“That’s not what I said.”

He straightened. “You didn’t have to. You’ve probably never met anyone with magic before that night–Edmund excluded—and the only stories you’ve heard have come from drunken soldiers who returned from the wars in Bela with tales of magnificent things.”

“Even if all that is true,” she started stubbornly. “It isn’t why I came into the city.”

“Ah, so you don’t live here.” He tapped his nose. “Careful, miss, or I will learn all your secrets.”

He turned and walked back toward the road. The girl ran after him. “Where are you going?”

He didn’t owe her an explanation, but he found himself in a giving mood. “I can’t be seen in this part of the city. Mari will disguise me.”

“How?”

He shook his head. “Don’t ask questions you won’t believe the answers to.”

Mari awaited them in her shop, but she wasn’t alone. The crown prince of Madra loomed over her, his stern face scanning the room. Two guards stood on either side of the front door.

Estevan Rhodipus turned toward them as they entered, his scowl deepening.

What business did a prince have with Mari?

The raven-haired girl behind Dell ran a hand down her still-wet clothing and sighed. “Stev—your Highness,” she mumbled, stumbling into a curtsy.

Dell bowed dutifully, the act clenching something inside him. The Rhodipus line was leading their people into nothing but destruction.

The prince ignored him and fixed his icy eyes on the girl trying to masquerade as a boy. She obviously hadn’t fooled many people with her delicate features and sparkling eyes.

“He-” Prince Estevan started before seeming to catch himself. “Hello, Len.”

Was that her name?

His eyes bore into hers as if speaking some secret language.

“Yes, your Highness?” She stared right back, defiance in her gaze.

She’d called him ‘Stev’. Something didn’t add up.

The prince finally turned to Mari. “Len has duties at the palace that she has evaded. She’s a… servant there. One of my mother’s girls. The queen has asked me to bring her right away.”

Right. The queen wouldn’t send the prince to fetch a servant.

Dell’s eyes flicked between them, his mind putting the pieces together. Edmund hadn’t been protecting her for himself. She wasn’t his mistress, she belonged to the prince.

If the prince knew how much she’d seen of Dell… her rosy cheeks came back into his mind. It didn’t fit. She didn’t seem the type to give herself to the prince. Dell barely knew her, but had thought she was more bull-headed than to be led as the prince was leading her now toward the door, his hands like shackles around her wrists.

“Stev,” she said so softly it was as if she thought Dell and Mari wouldn’t hear. “Please don’t tell him. I—”

He released her and turned to face her. She seemed to shrink into herself. “I won’t tell him. You will.”

Her eyes widened. “No—”

“Come.” He took her by the arm roughly.

“No.”

“You don’t have a choice.”

Dell knew he’d regret his next actions, but everything inside him screamed to protect this girl, this Len.

“The lady said she doesn’t wish to return with you.” He strode forward.

The prince stopped and turned toward him. “This is no business of yours, commoner.”

What would his highness think if he knew Dell was a Tenyson? That he’d just insulted the tip of the spiral. If the Tenyson’s no longer supported the royal family, Madra would be thrown into civil war.

But he kept his mouth shut. The prince narrowed his eyes, taking in Dell’s filthy clothes, the disgust plain on his face.

“I said, Len stays.”

The prince barked out a sharp laugh. “Not on your life, boy.”

Dell sighed. He hadn’t wanted it to come to this. He pulled a knife from a hidden pocket within his cloak.

The prince flicked his eyes from the short blade to Dell’s face and a grin stretched his thin lips. “Pulling a weapon on a member of the royal family is punishable by death.” He took a step forward. “But I’m not sure that can qualify as a weapon.”

Dell felt the tip with his finger. “It has a pointy end.”

The prince laughed again and relaxed his stance. “Pointy end? You’ve obviously spent no time with the army, boy. I could split you open from nose to navel. You a fighter?”

Len chose that moment to be helpful. “He boxes.”

The prince raised an eyebrow. “Put that knife away, kid. I’m not going to hurt the girl. She belongs with me, not here—”

“Among your people?”

“Dell,” Len warned. “Really. I’m okay.”

He didn’t even know her. Why didn’t he want to let her go? Prince Estevan, for all his faults, didn’t have a reputation of debauchery like the bastard princes. He was serious, hard, and had views on the world that would turn Madra to ash, but he wasn’t evil. Only misguided.

He spared Dell one more glance before putting his hand on Len’s back and ushering her out.

Mari stepped up to Dell’s side. Her words held a teasing lilt. “What were you going to do? Fight him with your carving knife? He isn’t made of wood.”

He studied the knife in his hand. There was little in his life he did for pure enjoyment, but wood carving gave him a sense of peace. He ran his thumb over the family crest on the handle. Not the Tenyson crest. This one belonged to his mother. She’d taught him to create beauty amid the chaos in his life. Amid the pain and the hardship.

He slid the knife back into his shirt pocket and held it against his chest. “I have to go. I’ve already missed too much work and my step-mother’s punishment will only get worse.”

Mari clucked her tongue. “Well, you can’t be seen in this part of town.” She touched his shoulder and warmth flooded him for only a moment before it disappeared.

He’d never get used to her magic. He ran his hands down the front of his shirt. “I don’t ever feel as if your magic is working. When I see myself, I don’t notice a change.”

She smiled. “Because you don’t understand how my power works. I don’t alter your appearance. I change other’s visual perception of you. But it only ever lasts a few hours.”

Dell bent to kiss Mari on the cheek. “Thanks, love.” He left through the front door, calling back over his shoulder, “I appreciate you!”