Chapter 14
-– Part 1 —
Elfreda’s eyelids fluttered open before Marchioness Magnum could arrive for the morning wake-up call. A lingering haze of sleep clouded her mind, but it cleared the instant she recalled the previous night. She had fallen asleep in the King’s arms.
Her gaze drifted hopefully to the spot beside her, but the sheets were undisturbed. A sense of dejection tuged at her features. When she reached out to touch the fabric, the surface felt cold, as if it had been abandoned hours ago. Her spirit sank.
She wondered at what hour he had slipped away.
He was a man burdened by the crown, and she knew his promise to rest had been a fleeting concession. He had remained by her side until her consciousness faded, but their conversation regarding Serena had been brief before exhaustion claimed her.
There was a small mercy in having missed his departure; she didn’t have to watch him walk away. Elfreda was rising from the mattress just as the Marchioness stepped into the room.
“A pleasant morning to you, Marchioness Magnum.”
Elfreda offered a gentle greeting, but she was met with a gaze of icy steel. The Marchioness appeared even more irritable than the previous day, a mood mirrored by the accompanying attendants. Elfreda surmised their hostility was a direct reaction to Ejnar’s nighttime visit.
It was a pattern she had noticed: whenever Ejnar stayed away from her chambers, the palace staff were noticeably more cheerful.
Faint murmurs drifted through the halls, carrying the predictable sentiment that his interest was a temporary whim.
Elfreda refused to let the gossip wound her. Given the weight of his responsibilities, she felt a quiet gratitude that he had sought her out two nights running. Even if she felt a pang of loneliness, she lacked the standing to complain. As the granddaughter of their sworn enemy, she could hardly justify seeking him out of her own volition.
Her only path was to remain diligent in her royal obligations. Since Ejnar viewed her existence with such disdain, the least she could do was perform her role without fault.
But just as she resolved to be useful, a disaster unfolded.
* * *
“A soldier from the Makaeri envoy has murdered a citizen of Machi.”
This news broke only twenty-four hours before Serena’s scheduled departure.
The quill slipped from Elfreda’s fingers and clattered onto her desk as the Marchioness delivered the report. Stunned, Elfreda turned to find the older woman watching her with a look as frozen as her tone.
The Marchioness added a chilling detail.
“The death toll is three.”
A sharp pain throbbed behind Elfreda’s eyes. “Where is the Princess?”
“She is confined to the guest quarters.”
Elfreda bolted upright. As she hurried toward the guest palace, the Emperor’s grim warning replayed in her mind like a funeral dirge.
He had told her never to provide a reason for war. Now, Serena had handed Machi a perfect justification for conflict. Elfreda felt a hollow weight in her chest as she reached the residence.
“Is Princess Serena within?”
The servant at the entrance didn’t bother to mask her contempt. Her look suggested she saw both Elfreda and the Princess as nothing more than savages. When the girl remained stubbornly silent, Elfreda pushed past her and entered.
Serena was lounging deep within a luxurious, fur-lined settee, looking thoroughly annoyed. Elfreda felt a surge of fury at the Princess’s casual posture, but she forced her voice to remain level as she approached.
“Can you explain the meaning of this?”
“It was a matter of honor,” Serena snapped back.
“The people here had the audacity to mock the glory of Makaeri!”
Serena launched into a defense, claiming that while she had ignored the glares of the townspeople during her walks, she would not suffer their tongues. Her guards had kept the crowds at bay with their intimidating presence, but today, a few locals had failed to realize who she was. They had shouted insults at the Empire, and her soldiers, unable to endure the slight, had turned violent.
The surrounding crowd had been too terrified to stop the slaughter.
Serena had watched and allowed it to happen.
Like most of her kin, the Princess possessed a volatile pride in her heritage. While she might have shown restraint initially, she had eventually snapped. Elfreda rubbed her temples, the headache intensifying.
“Words do not justify the taking of lives, Serena. This is an atrocity.”
“Are you suggesting I should have just sat there and taken it?”
Serena surged to her feet, her temper boiling over as she closed the distance between them.
“Do you expect me to endure humiliation like a dog, just because you do?”
The Princess’s face was flushed with a self-righteous rage. She looked as though she believed herself the true victim of the encounter.
Watching her, Elfreda felt a suffocating pressure in her lungs.
-– Part 2 —
The memory of her arrival at the palace remained a jagged scar. She lived in constant fear that her own servants might unlock her doors for murderers. Every night, she went to sleep whispering prayers for her own survival.
Elfreda bit her lip, fighting back a retort before she spoke again.
“Did the Emperor offer you no counsel before you traveled here?”
“He told me to ensure you didn’t embarrass us,” Serena sneered.
“So, I am the only one expected to maintain appearances?”
“What are you implying?”
“Tell the Emperor that he needn’t fret,” Elfreda said, her voice tight. “In this court, I have to act as though I am already in my grave just to keep my head on my shoulders.”
“Are you mocking me?”
Elfreda turned her back, finished with the conversation. It was clear that no amount of logic or pleading would make Serena grasp the danger they were in.
Suddenly, a sharp cry was ripped from Elfreda’s throat.
Serena, consumed by a feral rage, lunged forward and grabbed Elfreda by the hair, throwing her violently toward the floor.
“You have no right to lecture me!”
Elfreda’s shoulder slammed into a side table before she hit the ground. Dazed and disheveled, she looked up at the Princess in shock. Serena wasn’t finished; she stepped into Elfreda’s space and delivered a stinging slap across her cheek.
The crack echoed in the room.
Serena looked down at her with a smirk of pure satisfaction.
“This is better. This is how you should look.”
Elfreda remained silent.
“Do you truly believe that gold circle on your head changed who you are? Has the title of ‘Queen’ made you forget your place?”
Serena tapped Elfreda’s forehead with a mocking, condescending finger.
“Makaeri could crush this pathetic kingdom by dawn if we chose. Don’t get ahead of yourself. You are only here because we need your womb to secure our claim. Don’t you dare think you’re my equal.”
Elfreda’s head was spinning, and her shoulder burned with pain. She took a long, shaky breath to steady her nerves, then reached out to retrieve her fallen tiara. There was no point in staying here.
However, she realized she couldn’t simply walk away.
She brushed the dust from her skirts and stood up, moving until she was inches from Serena.
Ejnar’s voice rang in her memory—his reminder that she was the Queen of Machi and that her dignity was tied to his. If she crawled back to him now, broken and defeated, she would never be able to face him again. She refused to give herself another reason to feel small in his presence.
“What, are you coming back for—”
Before Serena could finish, Elfreda’s hand shot out. She grabbed the Princess’s hair with a fierce grip. A shriek of pain filled the air.
Elfreda swung her hand and struck Serena across the face with everything she had.
The force of the blow snapped Serena’s head to the side. The shocked handmaids rushed forward to intervene, but Elfreda turned on them with a look of such sheer authority that they faltered.
“Don’t you dare touch me!”
The sudden steel in Elfreda’s voice paralyzed the servants. Serena clutched her throbbing cheek, her eyes wide with disbelief and growing fury.
“You… you miserable girl!”
“Think about how this will look if I walk out of here looking like this while you remain untouched,” Elfreda said, her voice trembling between a sob and a cold laugh.
“If you want to avoid making this situation even worse by reminding everyone of where we come from, I suggest you stay quiet about a single slap, Princess.”
With that final word, Elfreda turned and walked out.
She pulled the remaining pins from her tangled hair, letting the locks fall loose to hide some of the mess, and settled the tiara back onto her head. She ignored the stunned expressions of the palace staff as she navigated the corridors.
Her shoulder was throbbing, though she suspected it was merely a bruise rather than a break. Every time a passerby looked her way, she felt a wave of mortification so strong she wanted to vanish.
Still, she tried to reassure herself. She had done the right thing.
By striking back, she could frame the entire incident as a sisterly spat. It was an undignified excuse, but people would likely dismiss it as the expected behavior of ‘barbaric’ Makaeri women. It was a bitter irony that her heritage provided a convenient cover.
Just as a grim smile touched her lips at that thought, she spotted a figure in the distance.
Her heart stopped. The smile died instantly.
Standing there was Ejnar.
