Page 13

“Especially from the king,” said the man behind me in a flat voice, holding the reins of the horse on which we had travelled.

If that was supposed to reassure me, Dovah would certainly achieve the opposite effect with such words! Besides, what kind of logic was that? Why would the hand of justice need to protect his wife from his king? Wasn’t Elendur supposed to be the man behind our nuptials?

Dovah was the first to dismount from Vulcan.

I watched him advance with a confident gait, that of a conqueror emanating undeniable raw strength.

Was this mysterious man attractive? Of course he was.

With a fierce beauty that made my heart ache every time my eyes fell on him.

I didn’t want to find him handsome. I didn’t want to find him funny, much less endearing.

Part of me still saw him as the enemy, but I could feel that part weakening as the days slipped by on the scale of time. Which made me panic.

And scared me, too. I felt different in his presence.

It was difficult to define or put a word to it, but still, it was pleasant, even making me slightly euphoric at times.

I closed my eyes for a moment. One God, help me to be normal again.

The further I get from Muvaria, the more I feel I’m losing myself , I prayed silently.

I then watched as Dovah knelt before his king, the notorious Elendur of Osacan, the one who got me into this mess in the first place.

The one who had ordered the attack on my pacifist country.

He seemed rather tall. It was hard to estimate his height as he sat on his throne, though.

Speaking of which, his throne was dark in style.

Carved entirely from stone, above the Osacan king’s head was the head of a dragon, whose open mouth seemed intent on devouring you alive.

On the beast’s forehead, with its terrible grimace, I could make out some sort of slightly glowing red stone .

.. The armrests were shaped like sharp claws and reminded me of Dovah’s armour.

At either side, before the steps leading to the courtyard, were two gigantic basins, or braziers, in which huge fires blazed. Nearby, two large statues of helmeted eagles seemed to flap their wings.

Elendur’s outfit was quite similar to Dovah’s, albeit in a more sumptuous material and with a dazzling whiteness enlivened by the presence of precious stones.

I noticed that the woman standing behind him next to the throne had a slender figure, with a rare elegance despite her somewhat extravagant outfit.

Well, extravagant in the sense that her dress looked more like an accumulation of sheers than fabric per se.

A very different cut from mine, indeed, and surely more suited to the local temperature.

This infernal humidity was going to be the death of me, in every sense of the word.

How could anyone live peacefully in such heat?

How I longed for the fresh air of Muvaria.

Its enchanting greenery. Its lakes ...

Everything in Osacan was sand, sun, and stone.

I was too far away to hear what the king and his hand of justice were discussing, yet Dovah remained in exactly the same position, full of deference.

I smiled inwardly at the thought that only a lord of Elendur’s stature could make a man like the Black Demon bend the knee.

Come to think of it, that said a lot about his character.

Suddenly, Dovah stood up and turned around. When I realized he was coming back in my direction, my heart started pounding in my chest. He was going to introduce me to His Majesty!

I couldn’t avoid it, I was perfectly aware of it, but in my current state?

I was representing Muvaria! True, my country had suffered because of this illustrious man, and he deserved a sword in the heart more than a reverence, but all I had left was my honour as a Muvarian .

.. and I must have looked like a dishevelled, wild woman.

I’d been travelling for several days without being able to take a real bath, apart from the one at the inn, as we’d taken the mountain route to reach the border quickly.

Then, once we’d reached Osacan, everything had been a vast desert dotted with a few watering holes.

I smoothed my dust-covered dress mechanically, and when my fingers felt my hair, I noticed in horror that it was no longer held in place by my pins.

I glared at Dovah. He was to blame! The pin thief! Throughout the journey, he’d been taking them from me, one by one, slyly, in addition to my bonnets. Now I was reduced to playing the rebellious adolescent with my thick, curly red mane falling freely over my shoulders!

“My lady,” he invited, holding out a hand.

“You stole my pins!” I accused him immediately.

He raised a surprised eyebrow, then an amused smirk tugged at the corner of his mouth.

“I really don’t know what you’re talking about, my wife. You must have lost them along the way, I imagine.”

I narrowed my eyes as I accepted his help to climb down from Vulcan.

“Because of you, I must look like a complete savage,” I whispered.

The men around us were taking an interest in our conversation, and I didn’t particularly want to cause a scene just a few yards from the King of Osacan.

He slowly slid me against him, so much so, in fact, that it was now hard for me to ignore how muscular his body was.

My eyes widened in confusion as he stared at me intently.

“I think you’re sublime. If it were up to me, we’d head back in the opposite direction right now, find a cabin in the woods, and fully live out our wedding night, and all the nights to follow, with the same intensity.

I’d love to prove to you how beautiful you are.

Only, I made you a promise. I will wait until you accept me, until you desire me.

Not to mention that my king is very curious about you.

Let’s resign ourselves, my lady. Me, for my wedding night, and you, for your pins,” he finished in a breath and with a smile to die for.

I had just realized that he was holding me by the waist and still against him. My rapid breathing echoed his.

“Good,” I said hoarsely.

He raised another eyebrow. What could I possibly say to his declaration? A soldier cleared his throat, as if to signal Dovah to move away from me.

“Let’s go,” he urged simply.

The King of Osacan was a handsome man. There was no doubt about it, and he knew it.

It exuded from him, in his aura as the monarch of a powerful country.

My gaze met his, and I noticed his curious yellow eyes.

It was an intrigued look, almost admiring.

I bowed deeply, my heart crushed by anger.

I’d imagined him to possess the same ugliness as his deeds, but there was nothing in this richly dressed individual, with fine features and sun-kissed blond hair, that exuded the cruelty he’d shown Muvaria.

“Your Majesty, I present to you my wife, Lady Ashana Carlion of Muvaria,” declared Dovah in my native tongue.

I stood up slowly, my legs trembling. I hadn’t expected this reaction from my body. It betrayed my anger better than my mind did.

“Your Majesty,” I greeted him in a controlled voice.

Praise the one and only God! I had managed to maintain some composure.

“Well, if anyone had told me that the women of Muvaria were so beautiful, I wouldn’t have given you this one for a wife, Dovah. I would have led myself to the altar on her arm as her future husband,” said King Elendur. “Lady Ashana, I’m delighted to meet you at last.”

Though his smile was perfectly affable, what wandered in his strangely coloured eyes was more calculating and cold.

Dovah leaned slightly towards me to whisper in my ear:

“There is one more person I’d like you to meet.”

I truly noticed her as she stepped forward to meet us. She was the feminine version of King Elendur. Her beauty was breathtaking. As frumpy as I was, I suddenly felt insignificant in front of this woman. Unlike her brother, her eyes were the same azure blue as the Osacan sky.

“Ashana, this is the Isamane of the king, his twin sister, Nadrisse Silh of Osacan. Isamane, this is my wife, Lady Ashana.”

In Osacan, the terms Isaman, for a man, and Isamane, for a woman, were designated to the royal siblings.

Nadrisse rushed over to give me a hug.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, dear Ashana. You have beautiful hair! I hope we can be friends!”

Something bothered me about the syrupy tone of her voice. It was as if she was overacting a supposedly friendly gesture. It was shaky and insincere. Did Dovah realize it?

“Thank you, Isamane Nadrisse,” I replied nonetheless, at the height of my diplomacy.

As the king’s sister struggled to let go of me, my eyes met those of my husband.

There was such love, such devotion in his gaze, that my heart stopped beating for a brief moment.

Then I realized, with a heavy pang in my chest, that this intense affection was not intended for me, but for the woman who continued to embrace me forcefully.

When Nadrisse finally stepped aside, I dreaded what I had guessed in spite of myself.

Dovah was in love with the king’s sister.

You couldn’t show that kind of expression without feeling a real inclination.

What was I supposed to do with this information?

It had been a long, exhausting day. I was far from Muvaria and my family, thrust into a country whose rulers reeked of hypocrisy and pretense .

.. And my husband, strong as he was, now seemed to me to have a certain credulity regarding the fairer sex.

I tried to keep my mask of decorum in place as everything inside me was shaken. I hated these Osacanians for destroying my country on a whim, forcing me to marry a man who was obviously madly in love with someone else! The sky of my existence seemed very dark to me now.

“Is something wrong?”