Claiming Crystal III by Kayleen Knight

Author:Kayleen Knight [Knight, Kayleen]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Published: 2013-11-20T05:00:00+00:00

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Crystal’s mother was a beautiful woman, and as she aged into her forties the men of the kingdom began to whisper that she maintained her beauty through sacrifices of the young. There were stories about blood orgies in which she drank from the cups of murdered youths, or wiped herself in lotions made from the fats of burned criminals, but the truth of the matter was that Crystal’s mother was strong, and that strength had ratified her body against the weakness of wrinkles and age that most people succumbed to once their souls tired of living through the hardships of their mortal instruments.

She was in her gardens watching the stars when several of her spies approached her with word of conspiracy they had heard Crystal speak inside of her bedroom. She had many such people positioned throughout the kingdom, and had already heard of her husband’s plan to release her daughter’s poorly chosen suitor to her as a gift in the hopes that it might quench her appetites, ambitions, or whatever else the lord thought was leading her to continue to misbehave in these ways.

‘Is something the matter?’ she asked churlishly.

The spies paused. It seemed they were unsure.

‘Out with it,’ she ordered.

Crystal’s mother had always overcome her hardships. Even when she had been wed to the lord of this kingdom and used to sire many of his line from the tender age of sixteen, she had learned to find the silver linings of her circumstances. She had quickly proved her worth by the king’s side, listening keenly to the kingdom politics and commenting on them in ways that were often sharper than even the king’s official advisors. She had instructed one of her literate maids to read military books from the library and educate her on the history of the kingdom, so that she might better advise her husband on his many matters and responsibilities.

Her devotion had been rewarded, and her husband had soon learned to respect her, and allow her the space to pursue her own interests and talents. She had begun the garden that now flourished throughout the kingdom when she was eighteen, learning by trial and error, since there were no gardeners employed within the kingdom staff at all.

She found her own supplies and taught herself from experience, and now her plants were considered some of the most beautiful in the land. Other royal families visited annually to marvel over the blooming of seasonal plants, and Crystal’s mother began to become prized in her own way that was removed from the status her husband granted her.

She had borne him ten children, all of them healthy and fit and mentally competent, and she had not died even when she had her first child a year after marrying her husband. She had withstood the childbearing as she had withstood her circumstances, and although she had been distant with her children, as royal behaviors dictated for kings and queens with more important occupations than child rearing, but she had carefully

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