Page 18 of Prize for the King
I nod despondently, because don’t I know it? Clear rules, that was my father’s principle. Yet with me, he always blurred the lines until I didn’t know right from wrong. Complicated is a good word for that.
“So… It happened in every kingdom you conquered? The princesses were murdered?”
Khay sighs, leaning back until he balances on two chair legs,rocking back and forth.
“Yes. They knew Magnar wanted to marry, so they made that impossible. You see, before we went to war, Magnar’s father tried to join the Eleven Kingdoms peacefully and make Roharra the twelfth. They wouldn’t hear of it. Time and again he traveled to make his case before the Table of Kings, only to be rejected each time with more and more contempt.
“Finally someone said he should just marry into one of the dynasties, so for years, he sent emissaries to each and every of the Eleven Kings, trying to broker a marriage between Magnar and a human princess. No king would hear of it. Many were quite rude, because, as you know, marrying an Agnidari is such a humiliation for a woman of royal blood. Right, my queen?”
I don’t reply, considering his words. If everything I was told about their race were true, any human approached with an offer of marriage would find it repulsive and insulting.
But it isn’t true, is it? If I look at what I know for certain—that Magnar is a victorious conqueror with a large, disciplined army, who currently controls four of the Eleven Kingdoms as well as his own domain—I have to admit he sounds very attractive, if only from a political point of view.
Khay leans back with a sigh.
“Look, Roharra is different from here. Most of our kingdom is a desert. The Eleven are fed by the largest rivers on the continent, and have access to the sea. You trade with every country on the other side of the Amber Sea, getting rich off foreign wealth. The Eleven have fertile lands, beneficial trade agreements between each other, timber, coal, and valuable metals. You have all the advantages, while we in Roharra have had to work very hard to keep up.”
I listen with bated breath, his perspective so different from what I was taught. I’ve always known we were blessed, but I neverconsidered there are kingdoms out there that lack the blessings I took for granted.
“Every time King Hrognar went to plead to be included in the Eleven’s trade treaties, they let him know he had nothing to offer them. But apparently, that was wrong. Because humans from our neighboring kingdoms do appreciate one Agnidari specialty—our women. Before Magnar took over, they raided us often, taking the prettiest girls to make them work in brothels. The peasants living in villages near our borders are no fighters. They couldn’t protect their women.”
“What? No, that’s impossible,” I exclaim, horrified by what he’s saying.
Khay’s laughter is cold and contemptuous. “There was an establishment full of Agnidari women in this very city. It was the first place Magnar raided after we stormed the gates. If you saw how those women looked, what state they were in…”
He breaks off, breathing loudly as he tries to control himself. My heart tightens, pain and guilt warring with disbelief.
“What I mean to say, little diamond,” Khay says after a moment, his voice rigidly controlled, “is that you should appreciate Magnar for stopping the rapes when you asked. Many of us had relatives taken and never saw them again.”
I swallow, not knowing whether to believe him or not. On the one hand, I learned today that I was lied to by my governess and other teachers. On the other—humans hate the Agnidari. Why would they want to take their women? It’s baffling.
“Does… Does it still happen? Do humans capture your people?”
“No,” Khay snorts, rocking faster in agitation. “Magnar conquered the worst offenders. The other kingdoms are too far away from our borders, though we suspect they imported women from Troos and Zanvar. Humans stopped raiding us years ago, ever since Magnarwent to war. His father accepted only peaceful solutions, you know? But Magnar was born with fire in his veins. He’s all about vengeance. Rape for rape. Humiliation for humiliation.”
I nod slowly. Now it makes a twisted sort of sense, though I still find it horrifying.
“But you… Well, I heard you rape human women to get them pregnant.”
Khay nods, his face hidden in shadow. “Yes. That’s what was done to our women, too. Do you know how old the youngest slave serving clients in the Farneer’s capital brothel was? Seven. She was half-human, conceived and born in the brothel.”
Tears flow down my face, my heart wrenching. I cannot help but weep for that young, innocent girl forced to do unspeakable things by my people. I drop all my doubts and choose to believe Khay, and my heart breaks under the burden of that knowledge.
“I didn’t know,” I sob, swallowing tears. “If I knew, I would have done something! I was the princess. I could have gone there, gotten it shut down…”
“Of course you didn’t know,” Khay says, all traces of vengeful fury gone from his voice. “You would have never known if we hadn’t invaded your home. Human women are sheltered. That’s why your men need our sisters, daughters, and wives—to do to them what they don’t dare do to you.”
I fumble for a handkerchief among my pillows, blowing my nose loudly until my weeping is under control. I swallow the urge to cry some more and compose myself, as I was taught.
A princess must remain calm in times of distress.
“You don’t shelter me,” I say, my voice still wet, throat swollen. “You told me all of that, even though it’s horrible. Why?”
“You asked. We believe that people who ask questions are ready to hear honest answers.”
That is such a different approach from the way I was brought up. From my earliest days, I was told not to ask questions. Knowledge was dispensed to me according to an elaborate system, never too much, never too early. My father told me a lot about politics and strategy during those long afternoons when he made me sit in his lap, but my teachers and governesses only cared about ladylike comportment, manners, calligraphy, embroidery, and a million other things I had lukewarm interest in.
If I asked the wrong questions, or too many right ones, I was punished. Good thing no one forbade me from visiting the castle’s library, or I would be even more clueless.
