Prince
Erik had been told that they were bringing him a bride. This didn’t
particularly please him. He was quite happy living in his cousin’s big castle
and walking briskly through the surrounding upland meadows. In the spring they
were covered with the most amazing carpet of wild flowers. He was delighted to
see that most of the plants were species which he had never seen growing
before. There were so few interesting plants in and around the dark heavy
forests where he had lived before, with his father, King Albert, in the capital
Breggen. This was a much bigger and far
more interesting castle.
Cousin Helmut, the Baron, had called him in
for a man-to-man chat in his study, which was unusual and probably meant that
something interesting was going on. Helmut was an influential man; he knew
that, he’d heard people say that he was even more important than his father.
Erik didn’t care much either way, so long as he was left alone to collect,
catalogue and curate his collections.
They had given him several rooms to amass his prizes – rocks,
butterflies, stuffed game animals and, of course, his beloved herbarium. And he
had a library, with books from as far away as Eth City. He was very proud of
his rooms, but would blush and stammer when anyone suggested that they
represented a museum. They were nowhere near that yet – oh no – but maybe one
day.
At the meeting, his cousin had explained that
a princess was coming to stay and that it was important that he was nice to
her. She was very young, but in a few months she would be sixteen years old and
therefore legally marriageable in Formor. He was then gently ordered to woo and
marry her as soon as possible.
Erik had said nothing at the time, but
reflecting on it afterward he realised that he’d never been interested in
girls, and given that, he was even less certain that he was interested in
getting married. He wasn’t quite sure whether that was because he’d never known
any girls, and so meeting one held a vague interest for him. For the eighteen
years of his life so far he had been shuffled around male institutions –
schools, academies, monasteries, until the general consensus grew that he was useless
for any of those professions. He was too dull to be taught, too weak to fight
and too literal to be spiritual. It was at that point that Helmut, Baron von
Eisen, had taken him under his wing. No-one cared: he was the fourth son of the king and so had value
except as the most peripheral of spare parts.
His main thought was that the princess would
be someone to talk to and show off his collections. It never occurred to him
that the princess might not like him or that she might not be interested in
natural history. He also didn’t ask how she had come to the castle: in his
world things just happened sometimes, and he learned not to question them.
***
Gerard
had the coach driver take the coach all the way into the main courtyard of the
castle’s keep. This meant passing through several narrow cobbled street and
passageways. The passengers were buffeted back and forth and he kept
apologising. He just wanted to make sure, he explained, there could be no slip
ups at the last moment.
The coach driver was grateful to get down
from his perch and open the doors. Gerard sprang out and Lily and Victoria
heard a brief conversation that they didn’t fully catch. They could tell that
there were at least two men waiting to greet them. A few seconds later Gerard
reappeared and helped them out of the coach.
‘The welcoming party is here’ he said,
‘they’ll be very pleased to see you’
They stepped out into the cold, late-autumn
afternoon. The sun was already setting, but the view above them was
astonishing. They were in a cleft made by a vast mountain, which towered above
them as an endless wall. Slotted into this crevice was Castle Uberwald, made of
the same stone as the mountain, and seeming to have grown from it like a vast
gnarled oak. The cliff was festooned with turrets, crenulations and towers, all
linked together by long straight walls. They stood in the middle of this
complex of fortifications and realised that from here there would be no easy
escape.
A tall, straight backed, dark haired knight
approached them, breaking away from a group of men who Victoria could not see
very clearly. He was dressed in a uniform that she had never seen before, a
deep red tunic and black cloak, and darker red trousers. She looked up over the
keep to see if there was a flag flying and there it was – the ancient flag of
the Knights of the Crimson Flame: a stylised red flame dancing on a black
background. She’d seen this flag in popular history books, but she never
imagined she’d see it flying over the most impregnable castle in the world. The
Formorian flag, a black sword on a red background flew rather forlornly below
it. It was half the size of the knights’ flag.
The knight approached them and then bowed
extravagantly, sweeping his cloak in front of him with an expert flourish.
‘Greeting, your highness’ he said, looking
straight at Lily, ‘you are very welcome in our demesne. This is Castle Uberwald
and I am Baron von Eisen, Grandmaster of the Knights of the Crimson Flame,
Servant of the Emperor in Visnea, and dedicated heart and soul to The Revival’
Lily was too terrified to speak. She clung on
to Victoria, sobbing gently but trying very hard to be brave. Victoria stared
at this strange apparition from the past and shook her head very slightly.
‘The Princess is very tired and upset’, she
said, in measured tones, ‘I’m certain that she won’t take all of that in. You
need to give us somewhere to rest and, then, we need an explanation of your
behaviour.
‘This is the governess?’ von Eisen asked,
looking over at Gerard, ‘that is good’
At no point did von Eisen look at Victoria.
His only interest was in Lily’s state and he seemed satisfied that Victoria was
preventing Lily from collapsing completely.
Finally he briefly turned to Victoria.
‘We will need a female to look after the
princess – we are an entirely male order,’ he explained.
‘Gerard – you will deal with recompense for
the governess, yes?’
Gerard nodded. Victoria was certain that
Gerard looked uncomfortable and she wondered why. Perhaps dealing with her
would seem demeaning to him too. She wasn’t too interested in his exact state
of mind, now she had to try and work out what would be best for Lily.
‘My lady’ said von Eisen, looking behind, ‘I
appreciate your need for rest, but let me introduce you to just two more people
who are sure to become important in your life here’
A somewhat older, silver haired, man stepped
forward. He bowed low, but he was much less practiced and assertive than von
Eisen. He smiled at both of them, ensuring that he made eye contact.
‘This is Lord Balliwick, he is an adviser
from Eth’ announced von Eisen, ‘he is my mentor and, I am proud and honoured to
be able to say, my closest friend in the world. Without him none of this would
have been possible’
Balliwick laughed, a deep warm, unaffected
laugh, which seemed for a short moment to break the tension. He turned to von
Eisen and nodded politely.
‘If that is so, then I have done nothing to
deserve it. I am merely at the order’s disposal because I believe so strongly
in its aims’
He turned back to Lily and Victoria.
‘This must all be very difficult for you
both. However, no harm will come to you - I assure you that the Baron is a very
honest and chivalrous man’
What
about you? thought Victoria, what sort
of man are you?
Lily rallied a little and managed a response.
It was half a sob and half a threat.
‘He better be honest and chivalrous – my
father is a very important man’
For a second both Balliwick and von Eisen
were surprised. Then they looked at each other and laughed.
‘No, he isn’t at all’ said von Eisen, ‘but he
is a useful man – at the moment’
Victoria noticed that a young man had
separated from the group waiting in the courtyard. He was very thin and very
pale, with white blonde hair. He shuffled forward, clearly eager to have a look
at them. Von Eisen saw him approaching and frowned. He gestured to the youth to
join them, nodding mechanically as he came forward.
‘And this is my cousin, Prince Erik, the
youngest son of King Albert’ said the Baron, ‘he has been looking forward to
meeting you greatly, my lady…’
Von Eisen hesitated, and seemed to have
trouble finding the right words.
‘…and getting to know you better’
A penny dropped immediately in Victoria’s
mind.
No
way, she thought, over my dead
body!
Somehow she managed to keep quiet. Erik held
up a straggly plant that he’d just picked off the castle wall, it had small asymmetric
purple pink flowers.
‘Oh hello’ he said, forcing himself to look
down at Lily ‘I just found this on the castle walls. Do you know what it is?’
Lily shook her head. Everyone else wondered
what to say.
‘It’s cinnabar toadflax’ he said, clearly disappointed
by the general response, ‘I’ve never seen in growing up so high…’
Lily glanced up at Victoria, who shrugged.
Erik stared at Lily, trying to think of something else to say. Victoria worried for a second that he might
be going to weep.
‘Oh no’ he said, after a long pause, ‘I
thought that girls like flowers…’
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