King Nicolas made no comment, his face cold and detached. Until Queen Ruby appeared at the top of the stairs. Dominic’s shame returned at the sight of his mother’s ashen face, and the way she met his eyes only to quickly look away. His mother would have at least tried to intervene. He knew it. She did not believe the people lived to serve them.
A spasm passed over the king’s expression. I could not have guessed at its meaning, but the young Dominic interpreted it as a sign of the king’s emotions for his wife. Of his love. Except that over the top of that sensation, I could feel Dominic’s current opinion. It had not been love. His father had not known how to love. He had valued his wife because she was beautiful, and because at times the people’s love for her had been useful. But he did not love her.
What have you done? asked the queen in Dominic’s memory. Tell me it isn’t true. It cannot be true!
They defied me. All of them. They got only what they deserved. The king attempted to brush past his wife, but she clutched at his sleeve.
Even the babies? she whispered, horror in her eyes.
King Nicolas turned on her, anger transforming his features. How dare you question me? He raised his hand and hit her, hard, across the face. She fell backwards, losing her footing and tumbling down the long flight of marble stairs.
A young girl whose presence Dominic had not even noticed, ran forward and grabbed blindly at her father’s jacket, attempting to shake him, despite his solid bulk and her slender frame. How could you? she screamed.
Her father, for it was Princess Adelaide, raised his hand as if to strike her, too. But, quick as a flash, Dominic interposed himself between them, catching his father’s wrist. For a moment, the two men stood facing one another, both of their chests heaving. And then all three of them looked down to the bottom of the stairs. The queen lay completely still, and Dominic’s certainty of her death washed over me.
I gave a gasping sob, overwhelmed with the horror of his memories. But they did not stop.
I felt the young Dominic’s determination to push his father down after his mother. But before he could do so, a flash of light blinded him. When his sight slowly returned, a figure he had never seen before stood at the top of the stairs. All three royals stared at the woman I recognized as a godmother. And yet, despite similar features, including the gray hair, the woman looked nothing like the godmothers I had seen. Instead of a humorous affection, almost grandmotherly in nature, this being radiated wrath and power.
Dominic and Adelaide drew back, the princess clinging to her brother, but their father stood his ground. A thunderous rage built in his face as he listened to her words.
The godmother rebuked him for his actions and for the evil he had brought to his kingdom. Young Dominic’s confusion made me wonder what royals were taught about the godmothers in these lands. Didn’t he know that the rulers were responsible for the prosperity of their kingdoms? Why else would the godmothers go to such lengths to ensure true love ruled?
King Nicolas had just demonstrated that no love remained in his heart. Dominic should not have been surprised to find a godmother intervening before he brought about the complete destruction of his kingdom.
She explained the protection that had been placed on the people of Palinar, and the conditions for it to be lifted.
How dare you seek to work against me? the king raged at her in the memory. And then he actually lunged forward to strike the godmother as he had just done to his wife.
The godmother, sadness on her face, stepped back to avoid him. And it seemed, in his anger, the king had forgotten who he dealt with. The winged woman’s steps took her from the top of the steps into the air, and the king’s momentum caused him to lunge head first down the stairs. Within seconds, his broken body lay motionless next to the queen’s.
Dominic and Adelaide retreated another step, their eyes now on the hovering godmother. She looked at them both and sighed. There was always hope, she said, although I did not entertain much. And now the burden of freeing your people will fall on you, young prince. I hope you will prove a more worthy student of love than your father. And she was gone.
But the younger Dominic knew only the pride his position had taught him and the anger toward his father which had been whipped now into a rage so burning hot that there was room for nothing else.
I did not know what love meant, though my mother had tried to model it to me, Dominic whispered in my mind. My exile at the castle calmed me somewhat, but it was only in watching you, that I began to remember the lessons of my mother, so different from those of my father.
My heart ached for him. I could not imagine growing up without my father’s love. It had been an anchor for Lily and me during the years that our mother had been distant from us.
A succession of short memories flashed through my mind. An angry Dominic, eaten up by guilt and shame and grief, roamed the castle, rejecting his sister’s attempts to speak with him. It wasn’t until a week after their parents’ death that he realized he hadn’t even seen her in days. He searched the castle for her, but could find no sign of the thirteen-year-old. Fear gripped him, and he called on the godmother he had so recently seen for the first time.
To his surprise, and mine, she actually came. This time she looked more like the godmothers I had met, her no-nonsense air obscuring an underlying vein of sympathy. Princess Adelaide is gone from here. She is no longer your concern.
He pressed her for more information, and she placed her hands on her hips, narrowing her eyes. You have a whole kingdom of people who are your responsibility, young prince. What thought have you given to them? I had hoped that you might take my words to heart, and yet so far you have shown too much selfishness even to consider your own sister.
What consideration—or love—can I show to my people when they have all of them disappeared to a place where I can neither see nor hear them? he asked, angered by her rebuke.
She sighed. You are not your father, and you have not yet committed his crimes, though you bear the responsibility for correcting them. I can give you some assistance, but it will come at a price.
A price? I could feel the injured pride in his memory, that this unknown woman should dictate such terms to a prince of Palinar. Why should I pay a price?
For a moment, the wrath she had shown toward King Nicolas reflected from her eyes. Inside you are in danger of becoming more beast than man, young prince. As your father was before you. Perhaps if you see this reality always before your eyes, you will be spurred to consider your responsibilities toward those in your care.
As for my offered assistance, you will now find yourself able to see your subjects. But the only ones you will be able to hear are your own personal servants.
But my servants all reside at my castle.