“So, what shall we do with this Faodarian princess, who is pledged to your youngest brother?” King Marrkul asks. His troubled eyes meet mine.
Yerengul, still intent on my shoulder, says, “We fight for her.” When no one answers, he looks up at his brothers’ solemn faces.
Ingvar draws his sword and holds it forward, blade centered above my heart and pointed toward the ceiling. “Agreed,” he says. Yerengul firms his shoulders and stands. With a hand stained red by my blood, he draws his sword and holds it beside his brother’s. Steel hisses all around me as every man, even Enzio, draws his sword and holds it above my prostrate body. Last of all, King Marrkul adds his well-worn sword to the others and smiles a grim smile.
“It is agreed upon, then,” King Marrkul says. “Princess Sorrowlynn of Faodara, we pledge to thee our lives, our protection, and our kinship. We will fight for you. We will keep you safe until Golmarr finds his way back to you.”
Despite the horrors of the day, a tiny smile tugs at my mouth, and my throat constricts with the desire to cry.
All of the men gathered around me repeat the words three times: “We pledge to thee our lives, our protection, and our kinship.” As the room grows silent, I can feel their pledges bind to me, and my eyes fill with tears yet again. King Marrkul leans forward and presses his lips to my forehead. Ingvar does the same. And then Jessen and Olenn. One by one, all of Golmarr’s brothers kiss my forehead before leaving the kitchen. When they have gone and only the king, Yerengul, and Enzio remain, I peer at my stitched, swollen shoulder and cringe.
“You know, Princess, in Anthar, scars are a badge of honor,” Yerengul says as he wraps my shoulder with clean, dry rags. He sounds just like Golmarr. “They are proof that you’ve experienced pain and overcome it.” His words, so like his brother’s, hurt so much that I start to sob. He puts his hand on my hair. “You’ll overcome this, too.”
I press my hands to my eyes as I gasp giant breaths of air and shake with the power of emotions wracking my body. Warm, gentle hands lift me off the table and I am cradled against a massive chest.
“There now, child,” King Marrkul whispers as he carries me up a flight of stairs. “Things will turn out all right. They always do. Have faith. Have hope. One day you will look back at this moment and see that you have grown far more than you did when things were easy. And then, when you get so many of these hard and trying days, these days that test you to your core, they will refine you, beat out your weaknesses, and turn you into the best version of yourself that there is.” He lowers me onto Golmarr’s bed and pulls the blanket up to my chin. “Sleep now, and when you wake, things will be easier to face.”
He walks out of the room and shuts the door, so I am alone in the dark, and all I can hear are the sound of his receding steps and the sound of my breathing. After a moment, the darkness recedes as my door is opened again. Enzio, carrying a candle, steps inside and shuts the door. He reaches under his leather vest and pulls out a folded piece of paper. “This is from Golmarr,” he says. “He told me to give it to you if things turned out this way. I will be sleeping in the hall outside your door, so if you need anything, just call.” He places the candle and the paper on the bedside table.
“Thank you,” I whisper as he leaves the room. Taking the paper, I open it and stare at Golmarr’s handwriting. It is polished and precise, just like everything else about him. By the light of the flickering candle, I read his words and fresh tears fill my eyes.
Dear Sorrowlynn,
If Enzio gave you this letter, it means I have killed the glass dragon and we both survived. It means that our plan didn’t work and I was unable to simply wound the beast. Thus, I made the choice to save your life in spite of the consequences that have obviously followed. Please believe me, if I could have defeated the dragon without killing it, I would have. Now my only consolation is that you are alive, and I am alive. That is the least I could hope for.
You need to know that I have been thinking about this day since the time we were sitting in Edemond’s wagon eating porridge, and you told me what the dragon’s treasure was. Every single time I looked at you from that moment on, I drank in the sight of you. Every time I touched you, I savored it like it might be the last. Every word you spoke, I memorized for when we would be apart.
I chose hating you over watching you die. That was the less painful of the two outcomes. If you’d died, it would have been the end of us. At least now there is hope that one day I will learn how to overcome the dragon’s treasure and we will be together again. There are myths about an Infinite Vessel that holds all the history of the dragons. As surely as you are reading these words, know that I am, at this very moment, on a quest to discover the Infinite Vessel. I will find out how to beat this. Until that day, know that I will always love you. Even while I hate you, I will still love you.
Golmarr