Prince Aethelbald did not return for days. During that time, Felix and Una saw very little of their father but stayed together in peaceful company with Monster purring in their laps. Una found she did not wish to tell her brother of her adventures after fleeing Oriana Palace, did not wish to remember them at all.
Felix, as he sat and stroked the orange cat, frowned a good deal, for every time he opened his mouth to tell his sister all that had happened to him since their parting, the words would not come. His memory clouded and his tongue muddled, and he found he could not discern which of his adventures were real and which were dreamed.
So they spoke very little, each simply enjoying the presence of the other.
“Are you going to marry Aethelbald?” Felix asked four days after their coming to Glencrocus as they sat in Una’s chambers beside the empty fireplace. Though the weather was somewhat cold, Una discovered that she did not like to order a fire in her rooms but preferred to wrap up in blankets. Felix and Monster complained noisily at this, but she was immoveable.
“Marry Aethelbald?” Una said with something like a smile. “I don’t know.”
Felix snorted.
“Don’t snort at me, Felix. It’s not seemly.”
“You’re going to marry him, aren’t you?”
“Perhaps. None of your business if I do.”
“Is so my business! Do you have any idea what kind of getup they’ll stuff me into for your wedding if you get married?” He sighed. “They’ll bejewel me – that’s what they’ll do. All the more after what’s happened. Must you get married, Una?”
Una smiled again and did not answer.
“Why is this fool cat sitting in my lap and not yours?” Felix pushed Monster from his knee, crossed his legs, and folded his arms across his chest. Monster meowed irritably and started grooming a paw.
“Una,” Felix said without bothering to soften the scowl on his face.
“Yes?”
“I’ll miss you when you’re gone. A little.”
Una reached across and took her brother’s hand, squeezing gently and smiling at his refusal to meet her gaze. “I love you too, Felix.”
–––––––
When Aethelbald returned the following day, he did not come alone. He came in company with his remaining knights, Sir Oeric and Sir Imoo, and the surviving host from the Northern Fortress – including, to King Fidel’s delight, General Argus, who, though wounded, was still very much alive. The king embraced his general with great joy and was almost too distracted to pay attention to what else the Prince of Farthestshore brought with him.
The treasures of Oriana Palace, which had been scattered about the courtyard the night of the Dragon’s last fire, were not all destroyed. In fact, Aethelbald and his servants bore to Glencrocus the bulk of it unscathed, and the royal treasure stores were regained. Thus Fidel was assured that, though weakened, he would have the strength and resources to reestablish his kingdom to its former glory.
But some things were never restored. The palace on Goldstone Hill, filled with dragon smoke and burned with dragon fire, was left to crumble in ruins, never to be rebuilt. And the ruins along Sondhold Harbor, though one day at last built back up as a prosperous fishing village, were never restored to the former prestige of Parumvir’s capital city.
Una sat beside her father when he received Prince Aethelbald and the gifts he brought. After showing King Fidel the treasures, Aethelbald turned to the princess and bowed before her. Then he said, “I found something else as well, my lady. Cup your hands.” She did as he asked, and he dropped something into her grasp.
It was an opal ring, gleaming with its own fire.
She looked up at him, and he smiled. “Courtesy of Farthestshore,” he said.
“Prince Aethelbald.” She dropped her gaze, cursing the red blotches as they exploded across her nose but forcing herself to speak anyway. “I would be . . . I think I should like you to keep it. If you would.”
He knelt before her, and she pressed the ring back into his hands.
Still unable to look at him, Una whispered, “Will you be leaving soon?
Returning to Farthestshore, that is?”
“Yes,” he said. Then suddenly he squeezed her hands tight, and she could feel every eye in the whole assembly pinned on her and the Prince, and she just knew they were counting the blotches, every last one. Aethelbald said, “But if you will marry me, Princess Una, I will take you with me.”
She met his gaze then and smiled at him, and red blotches aside, those who watched the scene thought they had never seen their princess more beautiful.
“I’ll have to think about it,” she said.
Felix snorted and rolled his eyes. “Applebald!” he muttered, and all the courtiers gathered in that room sent a gale of gossip flying back and forth.
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