The Stillness of the Sky (8 page)

Chapter 6

The smell of fresh bread stirred me from slumber, but I was so warm and comfortable, I had little desire to open my eyes. My stomach, however, had other ideas, and let out a loud groan of displeasure at my loafing about in bed.

I frowned and sat up. In bed? I had no memory of moving from the chair, yet there I was on the plushest mattress I’d ever lain upon, covered in light blankets softer than rabbit fur. My boots sat to the side of the bed, clean and polished, though I hadn’t removed those either.

“Good morning,” Prince Aaron said, smiling at me over a tea cup. “Sleep well?”

I rubbed my eyes and tried to get my bearings. “I… Yes, I think so. What happened? What time is it?”

A clock on the far side of the study let out a single chime. “A quarter after nine. You must’ve been very tired after your ordeal. Not that I blame you, of course,” he said. “Hungry?”

My stomach gurgled again. “If it’s not too much trouble.”

He waved it off. “Don’t be silly. Oria just came with bread, cheese, and fruit, and there’s plenty for us both. Tea?”

I slung my legs over the side of the bed, wincing a little at the cold contact with the metal floor, and stood, stretching. “Please. Thank you, Highness.”

“No thanks needed,” he said as I crossed to the table. “Sugar?”

“One lump, thank you, Sire,” I said sitting down across from him.

He poured the steaming brew over the sugar in my cup. “You needn’t bother with the formalities. Aaron will do fine.”

I blanched. “I don’t think I should—”

“I insist,” he said, interrupting me. “I’m not at court, and I’ve no intention of being so again. It’s nearly two years since I’ve been addressed by title, and, to be honest, I don’t miss it. So, if you’d indulge me, I’d appreciate it.”

“If it’s not prying,” I stared into my teacup, wondering how he came by hot water when there was no fire, “why is it that you’re here? I doubt we left our respective homes for the same reasons, so what made you leave?”

As he leaned back in his chair, his gaze drifted over my head, staring at something on the far wall as he spoke. “I left because I’m selfish, and I realized that the people of Litania deserved far better than that. While I’ve never been given to bouts of modesty where my strengths are concerned, I’m not beyond admitting where I fail. The truth of it is, I simply didn’t want to be king. As the eldest of three sons, my father wouldn’t hear of that, naturally. My middle brother, Gustave, has always had the better temperament for ruling. He greatly enjoys his time with the army, and has the patience of a saint when it comes to matters of state. I’d much rather sit and play music all day. My father has cursed my godmother’s gift to me on many, many occasions.”

Brows knitted, trying to comprehend his reasons, I watched him take a nonchalant sip of tea. “So why not just give it up? Couldn’t you…” I paused, unsure if there was a word for such a thing.

“Abdicate?” he said with a chuckle. “It wasn’t that simple. My father refused me when I requested as much, instead informing me that he’d arranged for me to marry some duke’s daughter to secure their loyalty and considerably boost the royal coffers. If the girl had any sense in her head, or was even moderately attractive, I might’ve made do, but not only was she stupid and cruel, she was too wide for any chairs in the palace and couldn’t stand music of any sort. Really, there’s likely been a poorer match in all of recorded history.”

While I didn’t blame him, I didn’t know that I’d have left only for that. However, it was abundantly clear to me how different my own personality was than that of Prince Aaron’s. “But how did you end up here? The same way I did?”

He laughed. “Hardly. I doubt there are many who’d go to the lengths you did. No, I was sent as an emissary to the giants in the eastern regions of Litania. It was on that trip that the Lady Oria heard me play. We…” His words trailed off, his face coloring. “Well, let’s say that my father would never approve of such a relationship.” Adjusting himself in his seat, he focused on me again. “And so we decided to come here. Her parents passed some time ago, leaving her the lands and castle. None ever come here. It’s a lovely arrangement. I play to my heart’s content, which pleases Oria greatly, and my brother becomes king, as he should be.”

Staring at him, it was hard for me to fully appreciate how utterly, undeniably selfish the whole matter was. I was all for fostering love, but walking away from obligation to an entire kingdom? It was beyond horrifying to me. “And the war?”

He shrugged. “I wasn’t there to see it myself, but I suspect he thinks the giants took me prisoner for some reason.”

“What will you do now that you know?”

He popped a piece of cheese into his mouth. “Nothing, I suppose. What can I do? My father started the war, he can end it easily enough.”

My mouth hung open, completely stunned. “Nothing? People have died, are still dying, and plenty more suffer when all you have to do is return and explain it to him.”

At first he looked at me as though I’d spoken a foreign language, but then he shrugged. “Maybe, but likely as not I’d simply end up a miserable wretch the rest of my life. What good would that do anyone? I told you I was selfish and ill-suited to rule. Why are you surprised?”

I pushed back from the table, feeling queasy. “Do you care for no one at all? Why would you allow a war to continue if you could stop it?”

“I don’t know that I can,” he said with a sigh. “My father has far too much pride to ever admit to making a mistake. He’d likely as not continue fighting simply to prove a point.”

“But you won’t even try?”

“I’ve no interest in futile pursuits,” he said, waving off the suggestion.

The door to the study opened with a bang, and the Lady Oria flounced in, sitting in the overstuffed armchair with a great thud. “Good morning, little Bard. Feeling better?”

My frown persisted, though I tried not to look too cross. “Yes, My Lady. Thank you.”

“Is something the matter?” She leaned down and squinted at my face.

“She’s displeased with me,” Prince Aaron said, sipping his tea.

“Displeased?” Oria said as she sat up straighter. “Whatever for?”

He shrugged. “It’s more disappointment that I’ve given up my princely duties, I think.”

“What, about the war?”

He nodded.

She waved it off. “Well, that’s just silly. What could you do?”

“Precisely what I said.”

I stared at them, shifting back and forth from prince to giantess, completely baffled by their apathy. “Do neither of you care in the least? About anything?”

“I care about a great deal of things,” Oria said with a sniff, crossing her arms. “That’s a cruel thing to say.”

“It’s crueler that you sit here, tucked away in a castle while others die for no reason,” I said. “It’s much crueler that you ignore it when others suffer for your selfish acts.” Though I knew I should mind my tongue, as a giant could easily silence me with little effort, I was so appalled that neither of them cared, I couldn’t stop myself from speaking.

“Selfish?” She gaped at me. “How am I selfish? What could I do about this silly war? It’s not my concern.”

Standing, I paced the floor of the cage. There had to be a way to make them see the truth in it. “It’s your concern because it’s your fault, the two of you.” I stopped and looked at Aaron. “Is it worse to take up your birthright and possibly be a less than stellar king, or to run from it and have your father certainly destroy everyone and everything because of it?”

“There’s no possibly to it, Jack.” He scowled at me. “I’d be a terrible king.”

“How would you know?” I asked. “You’ve not even tried. I do things all the time that I don’t want to, most people do. I wouldn’t have known I had a talent for it if you hadn’t made me sing last night. No one knows what they can do until they try, Highness. That’s rather the point of trying and working at a thing.”

“But why try to be king when others are better suited for it?” Oria asked.

I planted a hand on a hip and grimaced. “I’ve not much talent for baking, but without money to buy it elsewhere I had to learn how to make bread. It isn’t always about what we want, it’s about what needs to be done. The challenge is in finding a way to love the things we must do. For example, I took great pleasure in my visits to the mill for flour. If I needed to make bread, it meant I could visit with the miller’s wife, and she always had a spare sweet for me when I would. The rest I might not care for so much, but small things like that made the work worth it.”

With a tired sigh, I sat back down in my chair. “It’s up to us to find happiness within our lives without causing suffering to others. How can you be happy knowing your actions have caused so much pain?”

“To be fair,” Aaron said, “I didn’t know I had until yesterday.”

“All the more reason you should be keen to help now,” I said. “Even if you won’t return, isn’t there something you could try to do? Your father might listen if he knows you won’t be coming home. He might not stop the war at once, but he might step back a little.”

“Spoken as someone who’s never met my father,” he said, then quietly finished his cup of tea. “No, I don’t believe his pride would allow him to do much more than become even angrier.”

“So you refuse to do anything at all?”

“If he leaves to explain, they’ll never let him return,” Oria said. “Worse, the giants will be none too pleased with me either when they learn of this. There are very few ways of getting to the castle, but they certainly exist. I can’t defend if there’s an invasion.”

She set an elbow on the table and rested her chin on her hand, her lower lip extending in an apologetic pout. “So, you can see why I can’t let you leave, then.”

My mouth fell open. “You can’t… What? Why?”

Aaron shrugged. “If you leave, you’d tell people where I am, and we can’t have that. Don’t worry, though, you’ll be very comfortable here, and the food is excellent.”

Heart racing, I tried not to panic. Calm reasoning would see me out of this, I was sure, but it was difficult to think past being told I was now a prisoner.

“It’s not a bad thing, Jack,” Oria said, her wide smile genuine with her belief. “Now you’ll be able to sing and play as long and as often as you like. Wouldn’t that be lovely after enduring so much hardship? I’d say you earned the rest.”

Her words chilled me as the realization sunk in. I wasn’t merely a prisoner.

I was a new pet.

There was no joy in the life Aaron and Oria proceeded to describe for me. She spoke of adding a third cage to the table, allowing me my own little gilded confinement. Talk of soft sheets and downy pillows and custom clothing and endless food did nothing to ease my sorrow from losing the one thing I had for myself. In exchange for pampered living, my freedom was forfeit. Never again would I walk a road, or see the open sky, or know the feel of a warm spring in winter, or hear the words of strangers in a town square. The rest of my days would be contained by gold bars, with only two selfish children for company.

“Oh dear,” Oria said. “She doesn’t seem happy, Aaron. Or are those tears of joy?”

He flashed her a reassuring smile as he slid a handkerchief across the table to me. “You mustn’t worry over it, My Lady. I’m certain they’re grateful tears. Who wouldn’t be glad for a life of leisure?”

Beside myself, I covered my face in my hands, my silent sobs mourning the loss of any good I might ever do in the world, any choices I might ever make, any wonders I might see. To be denied all of those things, I could think of no worse a fate. Even if my end had come with the wolves, it would have been an end in freedom.

I’d wished for peace that day in the clearing. I never dreamed it would be forced on me behind bars.

It took me two days before I spoke to either of them. Lady Oria added the third cage as she said she would, but the plush furnishings did nothing to ease the ache in my heart so long as its door remained locked, which was always but when she brought me food. I dressed as she told me on the third day, unable to hold out any longer against the ripe smell of my clothing. The dress I was given was the blue of the sky before dawn, a thing I thought never to see again, and it nearly reduced me to tears for the first time since my initial imprisonment. The food she brought me went mostly uneaten. I ate enough to sustain myself, but little more.

The only thing I was given that heartened me at all was the silver lute awaiting me the fourth morning. I hadn’t spent much time with a lute even when I was younger, but my fingers itched to touch the strings. Something inside me awoke the evening I sang for them, and it was begging me to take it up again. My voice remained silent, however, words caught on the sorrow I felt every time she turned the key on my cage.

Most would’ve thought me mad to be so overcome by despair. I was surrounded by finery and plenty of delicious things to eat when so few could say they had even enough to fill their bellies once a day. Some might’ve shouted at me for being ungrateful. Some might’ve lectured me for not taking advantage of the security I’d been blessed with.

But there was nothing for me but an empty desire to be in the world again. All I wanted, more than anything, was to feel my feet upon a road.

“You might as well accept it,” Prince Aaron said to me, leaning up against the bars of his cage. “The beanstalk’s been taken down. Even if you could get out, you’ve no way of leaving.”

I hadn’t thought it possible, but my heart sank even further. Of course Oria would get rid of the beanstalk. She couldn’t have anyone else stumbling upon the place.

“I had some trouble with it at first, but I got over it well enough.”

I lifted my eyes from the lute on my lap. “How long did it take you?”

At the sound of my voice, he perked up, immediately interested. “Oh, about a month, maybe less. I fully came to terms with it being better for everyone this way.”

My gaze settled back on my instrument. “And now, you have no regrets?”

“There are some things I miss, but I don’t regret my choice, no.”

“What is it you miss most?”

There was a long pause as he thought, but he came to an answer eventually. “My youngest brother, Willem. Well, I miss both of my brothers, but him especially.”