Page 9 of The Kingdom of Eternal Ice
My face instantly falls.
“What’s wrong?” she blinks.
“It’s just that… Father wants me to marry into the Kingdom of Eternal Ice,” I tell her. “He told me, it’s for me to finally show my worth.”
“He doesn’t have any power over you there,” Simin protests.
“He gifted me to the king,” I point out. “I’m being traded to underline their peace treaty.”
“But you don’t know what King Gillean truly wants from you. I’ve never heard of the Kingdom of Eternal Ice holding slaves,” she says. “You are powerful and literate, maybe he wants you to share your gift and intelligence with them.”
“Most people are afraid of me though,” I point out.
Simin is one of the very few here not scared of me, and it means more than anything else to have someone so kind and fun as my friend, someone who genuinely cares for me. The people in my country aren’t bad, they don’t treat me badly, but no one talks to me or even dares to look at me. They say I was born with the gift, whatever that means. I’ve read about it, but I don’t quite understand it myself. Shayan explained to me that it’s not hatred that pulls them away, it’s fear, ignorance and a lack of education.
“I’m just saying that this could also be a chance for you to finally be free from your family.”
I look at her skeptically. “Do you truly think that? All I’ve heard is that the werewolves are barbarians.”
“I don’t know about that,” Simin says quietly. “All I know is that it wasn’t the wolves that hurt me, it was our fellow humans.”
I look at her for a long while, pondering about what she just said. “You are right,” I concede. “Maybe I should wait and see before judging them.” I pause. “But it doesn’t hurt being cautious.”
To occupy our minds Simin offers to do my hair, which proves to be a challenge while sitting in the moving carriage. I smile slightly when she falls off her seat over and over again, and she just flashes me a grin. She manages to put my hair into two beautiful thick double braids that start at the top of my head and go to my neck, looking like a natural crown, the rest of my hair falling down in a long ponytail. “Your hair is amazing, Azadeh,” Simin proclaims. “I’m so envious. It’s thick, long and healthy. Mine is just flat, but yours… those slight curls make it look so full.”
“It’s really thick though,” I sigh. “It's a pain to wash and dry it.” I smile at her. “We are never content with what we have, right? And for the record I find your silky hair beautiful.”
She laughs. “In the Kingdom of Eternal Ice, I will get new inspirations, I promise. I will turn the both of us into ice princesses.”
“Are you hoping to find yourself a husband?” I ask curiously.
“You are there to stay,” Simin says, like it’s actually happy news. “So am I.”
We both fall into comfortable silence, while I shift the curtain aside a sliver to look outside. It’s a long ride, and for the first hours everything looks familiar; vast deserts, oases, here and there little towns; everything is part of my father’s kingdom. Then the terrain gets more and more difficult to pass, the road becomes rocky and we are approaching some mountains.
“Let’s take a break and rest here for the night,” Shayan says.
I wait for the carriage to halt before making my way out of it. The warriors work fast to put up a tent for me. They don’t talk much though, most of them don’t even dare to look at me. I feel the usual ache when I see them avoiding me.
“Ignorance,” Shayan tells me quietly. “They don’t mean anything bad.”
I look at him, before allowing my gaze to return to the warriors working. “Does it matter?” I ask him.
He tilts his head. “I guess it doesn’t,” he admits.
I open my hands to look at my palm. “I don’t understand it, Shayan. I can’t do magic. It’s just the oracle that claims I was born with the gift.”
Aside from me only one other of my sisters was said to be born with the gift. She is a cute, shy girl who won the heart of an elderly minister of my father, and married him. It massively improved her social standing. And she never actually did anything to scare our people off, unlike me.
With me it’s different. They treat me like I have the plague, like even talking to me would curse them.
“It’s the incident when you were a child,” Shayan explains. “When a sandstorm was approaching, and you saved these little children.” He pauses. “You probably don’t remember it well, because you were a little child yourself. But the storm approached, passed, and amidst it were you, holding these three kids and protecting them, with this confident strong expression in your eyes.”
“To me this makes you a hero,” Simin claims as she approaches us, bringing some dry fruits and nuts. “The warriors are going on a hunt soon,” she tells Shayan, who looks at the fruits with a frown. Simin turns her attention back to me. “You were just a child and you protected them, sounds pretty heroic to me.”
“That’s because it was.” Shayan’s serious face lights up with a smile. “It made me so proud to be your guardian.”
“Why do they hate me, then?” I shrug.
