Once a Princess by Sherwood Smith

Author:Sherwood Smith
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Samhain Publishing, Ltd.
Published: 2008-06-17T04:00:00+00:00

That night, Atanial awoke abruptly, aware someone was in her room.

If that’s Canary, I will scream so loud they’ll hear me in Sartor. She sat bolt upright in bed and yanked the covers to her neck.

A shape passed before the faint starlight glowing in her window, a female shape. Stout, with an ill-confined cloud of frizzy hair.

“Ananda?” she whispered, astonished.

“Yes,” came the queen’s soft voice. “No, do not light a candle. I am believed to be sleepwalking. It’s part of my madness.”

Atanial gave her eyes a vigorous rub, then she patted the bed, which was large enough to sleep a family comfortably. “Come. Talk to me. I’m glad you’re still alive.”

“Oh, he would never dare touch me,” Queen Ananda said dryly. “After all, it’s my name that brought him the crown, even if he put his Merindar chalice on all the shields and carriages. He’s no Zhavalieshin. Neither is his boy. Though I wouldn’t mind if Jehan were,” she added in a reflective voice.

“Jehan?” Atanial prompted as the bed shifted and the queen settled, hands clasped around her knees. “Tell me about him.”

The two women regarded one another in the pale starlight. The queen knew she was unprepossessing, but then she’d always been unprepossessing: short, plump, her hands broad, her nose a hawk beak, her hair an uncontrollable frizzy mat of yellow. Her brother Mathias was the tall, well-made version of frizz and nose who’d gone away and come back with this stunning beauty from another world.

“I know him little. What I do know, I shall tell you anon.”

Atanial heard the hesitation in her voice and misconstrued the reason. She exclaimed impulsively, “First I want to say this. I never saw you after your father’s memorial. This is twenty years of your time too late, but I apologize if I ever made you suffer.”

“No,” the queen murmured. “You didn’t. I knew what Canardan was after when he flirted with you. I only fooled myself once, when I believed his blandishments during our courtship. But I didn’t know what real love was until I saw you with Math.”

Atanial bowed her head until her brow rested on her knees, which she’d brought up under the covers. Her voice was muffled. “Then my flirtation with Canary must have looked doubly bad to you.”

“I could see you keeping it light and merry.”

“Yes. And no. He is amazingly attractive, or at least was.” Atanial sighed. “So flirting with him was fun. Dancing close to the fire. I thought you didn’t care, I thought you didn’t notice, I thought I could in some way help Math. And oh, I have to admit I liked the danger. But he burned me good, right along with Math.”

The queen nodded. “I know that, and I have my own confession to make. I believe it is my fault that you and Math had to run. You see, I told Canardan the night my father died that I was going to renounce the crown in favor of Math.”

“You did? We never heard that!”

“Of course not.

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