Page 2 of Betraying Korth

We had the desire to overthrow him. What we needed now was muscle and funding to back up our movement. No matter how worthy the cause, I couldn’t ask the people of Ebora to rise up against their oppressor until we could provide hope.

On my way to the king’s throne room, I passed a window and spotted the bread line that stretched out of the gates. Commoners, all dressed in ragged clothing with dirt streaked across their faces, waited until their family name was recorded by a scribe so they could be handed a hard loaf of rye bread.

“Dahlia! Come in,” the king called. I approached, a false smile on my face as I eyed the man I loathed more than any other. He had tried in vain to hide his receding hair by combing it over his balding spot and insisted on dying his oily hair and mustache to deepest black in an attempt to conceal the grey hair that was speckled throughout. He was also the only man I knew who wore a girdle, as it was easier to have his attending servants strap him into a man’s girdle to hide his slightly paunchy belly rather than to trim his liking for heavy foods.

“My daughter’s handmaiden,” he explained to the man at his left as I entered. “Did you know her family has been in the employ of the royal family for several generations now? Hergrandmother was the nursemaid to my younger brother, may he rest in peace, and her father is one of our men-at-arms. Isn’t that right, Dahlia?”

“It is, Your Majesty.” I curtsied to everyone and kept my eyes fixed on the expensive rug where all the noblemen were rubbing their dirt-covered shoes. Securing me my position as personal handmaiden to the princess had taken my family four generations of infiltrating the castle’s ranks. “Her Highness Princess Odette has just received a correspondence from Haven Harbor.” I held the parchment out. One of the page boys on duty leapt to take the letter from me and pass it over. “Prince Korth is prepared to receive her and begin preparations for their wedding.”

King Raquel took it and scanned it, lips puckered as he read. Finally, a broad smile spread over his face. “Very well, Dahlia, prepare her things for the voyage. You and Odette and any other servants she wishes to take with her can set sail as early as next week.”

As I bowed my head and curtsied my way out of the room, I overheard one of the military officials say, “A union with Haven Harbor is the perfect additional security we’ve been seeking, Your Highness. We must discourage any more civil unrest like we experienced over the winter.”

“Yes, Haven Harbor’s naval fleet single-handedly solved that siren crisis,” mused Raquel. “It will be particularly advantageous to have their military—” The rest of his words were cut off as the heavy door thudded shut.

I could barely breathe as I made my way back to Odette’s suite. Of course Raquel’s first thought was about strengthening their military position when he already had an iron grip on all the resources in the kingdom. What else could he take away from us?

Curdy, who was busy polishing one of the silver vases in a recessed alcove, spotted me and winked. “Midnight?” After being continually assigned to a wide variety of tasks, he had become a jack-of-all-trades, and most fortunately, he was well-liked by the king and often given special privileges. The sandy-haired young man had only recently joined our rebellion and showed great promise for furthering our cause.

I looked around in a panic and pitched my voice low. “You can’t ask me that. Anyone could hear.”

He rolled his eyes. “They will assume we are meeting up for a secret tryst or something.” Then he grinned wickedly. “Which I’m open to if you are, but?—”

“Shh!” I clapped a hand over his mouth. “Use the signal next time, but yes. Midnight.”

He pulled my hand off his mouth and pressed a kiss to the back of my knuckles. “See you later then, you little minx, you!”

I sighed in exasperation. Perhaps having Curdy join the rebellion had not been such a great idea after all. He and his big mouth were going to get us into trouble.

Night was falling in earnest by the time I re-entered Odette’s quarters.

“Your father said?—”

“Bring me my figs,” Odette interrupted, her voice snippy and lips pouted out. “They arrived nearly a quarter of an hour ago and it’s getting dark. Light the lamps. I ought to have the staff whipped for not sending them earlier.”

Obediently, I crossed to the dumbwaiter, opened the flaps and withdrew the covered silver dish. It would have been easy for Odette to get it herself, but no, she would rather wait in the growing darkness until someone else could fetch things for her and perform even the simplest of tasks, and now was considering having innocent kitchen maids whipped for her own laziness.

“See them?” Odette pointed her finger out the window at where the tail end of the bread line was still wrapped around the castle. “They are likely to be fed before I am, and yet they continue to complain, complain, complain.” She yawned. “Papa is right; they’re too stupid to educate and too lazy to care about finding real work.”

It wasn’t until she was well supplied with her figs and I had lit her fireplace that I broached the subject of her engagement again. “Your father said you can set sail for Haven Harbor next week.”

Odette pulled the scrap of fabric she always carried with her out of her pocket and fiddled with it. I spotted her tracing a finger along the three dark spots that stained the cloth that she refused to have washed. Why she had such a sentimental attachment to something so dirty when she otherwise scorned dirt was beyond me. But I supposed that when one was born to royalty, it was permissible to be contradictory and hypocritical and never be called out for it.

“Prince Korth seems to be wealthy,” I probed, playing to Odette’s love of luxury as I lit the oil lamps on each surface. “And your father said his kingdom’s navy is the best there is.”

Odette yawned. “I’m tired,” she pouted. “Bring me my nightdress.”

“Of course, Your Highness.” I helped her into her night clothes, pulled out all the pins that had secured her blonde hair into place during the day, and plaited it down her back.

“Your hair is the same color as mine,” Odette noted, still fiddling with her scrap of fabric as she stared at our reflections in her vanity’s mirror.

“It is,” I agreed demurely, glancing up. Her nose upturned at a sharper angle than my own, and her lips were thinner, but otherwise we looked surprisingly similar, with slim figures and nearly identical heights.

“Do you think yourself as attractive as I am?” Her eyes narrowed suspiciously.

“Of course not, Your Highness. You’re much prettier than anyone I know,” I answered mechanically.

Odette smiled smugly. “I know. Korth will be pleased when he meets me.”

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