Page 31 of A Tale of Ice and Ash
Eirwen looked down at the ground. “Regardless of my dislike for him, I wouldn’t want to wake up in a strange place by myself.”
“You’ve a kind soul, lass.”
“Thank you, Mama Gee,” said Eirwen, stooping to kiss her cheek, “I do.”
“Good, then you won’t mind helping me with the chores today. We’re expecting a guest later.”
∞∞∞
The guest turned out to be the Huntsman. A few months after Eirwen followed his advice and left the castle, he had found their homestead and wept with joy at seeing her alive and content. Ever since then, every few months, he stopped by, supposedly to see how she was getting on. For three years, Eirwen had believed this, but in the last two, she noticed that he always stayed after she went to bed, talking with the dwarves late into the night.
It was rude to listen in, but the curiosity expanded with every visit, festering at the back of her mind.
“You look well, Princess,” he said, giving her a clap on the back when she ran over the bridge to greet him. He was the only one who still used that title, all of the dwarves ignored it entirely, partly on Onyx’s orders, ‘there are no titles under this roof!’ he’d barked.
“Thank you,” she said. “How have you been?”
“Oh, you know, nothing much changes in Aberthor!”
Eirwen bit her lip. It was something he’d been saying for years, but something about her run-in with Cole unsettled her. Forhimto want to investigate his own mother, how bad had she become? If he felt the changes, what did the others under her control experience?
“Are you all right?”
“Um…”
She wondered if she should tell him about Cole. She’d kept the Huntsman out of the story she’d told the prince, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t worry. And in any case–
“You’re not our first guest of the day,” said Onyx gruffly. “Our peaceful home has been playing host to royalty, once again.”
The Huntsman frowned. “Royalty?”
“The girl ran into Prince Cole in Under the Mountain the other day, and last night he decided to return with a gift–”
“It wasn’t a gift!” Eirwen insisted. “And Wren did shoot him–”
“I’m sorry, what?” The Huntsman stared. “The Prince? Here? But–”
“It’s all right. He won’t tell his mother.”
“But how can you be sure?”
“I…”
Onyx snorted. “Fool of a girl trusts him, for some reason.”
“It’s not… it’s not that,” Eirwen said, glancing at the floor.
“Oh? Then what is it?”
She sighed. “Let me start at the beginning…”
She told the Huntsman everything as she guided him into the cottage, sitting him down beside the fire as she divulged all the details about Cole’s own doubts about his mother, and his belief that she must be under some kind of curse.
He must have been crushed to find out she wasn’t,she kept to herself. She’d been saddened to discover her own father, kind though he was, had been regarded as a weak king. If she’d found out he was a murderer…
Although Cole still seemed unwilling to believe that part of the tale.
The Huntsman stroked his beard, ignoring the tankard Wren had offered him. “I never thought the prince would doubt his mother. He always seemed to adore her.”
