Page 39 of A Touch of Royalty

“The Mother Provides,” Emryn said, rising and staggering just a little as the weakness hit her. “Would you like some help with him? He will likely sleep quite a bit for the next twelve hours while the shock resolves.”

“We will be fine, thank you healer.” The woman wiped her face and rose with her son in her arms. They wandered off into the crowd that had gathered and Emryn turned to walk back to Cas. Only to nearly run directly into him.

“Oh, hello,” she gave him a wavering smile. “I could never leave well enough alone.”

“I am finding that to be true,” he smiled at her and pulled her into his arms. “Now, shall we go see what all the kerfuffle is about?”

She hadn’t noticed it before, but the streets were hung with buntings and flowers, as though there was a celebration happening. But it was nowhere near one of the celebration days.

“What?”

“Come with me,” he took her by the hand and led her down two streets and over another until they were in the very heart of the city. In the square, where there was a party happening. The people were dancing, there was music and food and in the midst of it all was a large wooden construction where her and the prince sat in effigy.

“Cas?”

“They’re celebrating you, Emryn.” Cas smiled at her. “My people down here in the city have told me that they think you are finally getting the recognition you deserve.”

“That-” she looked around, eyes wide. “That was never why I did what I do.”

“I know,” Cas nodded. “But you are their healer, Emryn. You healed their illnesses, saved their children, and now you are their princess.”

“Join us,” A voice from behind them and Emryn turned to face an elderly man bearing a crown of flowers that he promptly put on Emryn’s head. “Thank you for coming. We were waiting for you.”

“We’re happy to be here,” Cas said, covering for Emryn’s loss of words. “We would have been here earlier, but there was a spot of trouble with a cart.”

The old man laughed, bowing to them both before leading them into the celebration.

Emryn had never danced before, had never had that amount of gratitude thrown at her at once. But she recognized some of the faces. That one had come to her after a bull had gored him through the middle and all the other healers had pronounced him un-mendable.

That one had been a chest infection left far too long. And the woman who offered her a large daisy, tucking it into the end of her braid, was the one whose eyesight she’d saved.

It was all incredibly overwhelming. Healers were the invisible ones, working for the good of the city. But she was also their princess and as such was never going to be invisible again.

The celebration lasted far into the evening, Emryn’s braid slowly growing more and more flowers until she resembled a garden hedge.

But it was lovely, all the dancing and the people.

When the fairy lights came on, the party started breaking up. Most of these people had work the next day and Cas took her back up to the palace.

“Thank you,” she smiled at him at the door of her rooms. “That was very nice.”

“It was,” he took her hand and kissed the back of it. “I am going to go change, and then may I join you?”

“I’d like that.”

26

TUTORS

Cas was going over the lists he’d been gathering. Emryn was at a meeting with his mother and the council to present her findings as to which of the water resources in the lower city were being controlled, and he expected her back soon to change and dress for supper with the court.

And before she came back, he wanted to have a list of tutors for her to interview. He’d promised her that she would have tutors but the more he looked at the idea the less he liked the thought of choosing them for her.

He knew how he liked to learn, but he had no idea how Emryn learned. Cas liked maps, diagrams, he was a very visual person, and from what little he knew about the way healers were trained, they had diagrams and such for the different systems of the body.

But that didn’t mean that Emryn enjoyed learning that way. He really needed to put more effort into getting to know his princess. The issue there was that Emryn didn’t seem to want him to get to know her. When he asked questions, there was fear behind her eyes, like he was going to harm her if he discovered anything.

It was interesting and troubling, and he wasn’t certain how to find a way around it.

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