I had heard the marriage banns go out, announcing Prince Xander’s engagement to Yasmin, and all of my sisters began to discuss who the lucky lady could be.
“I bet she’s beautiful,” Aura said with a sigh.
“No, she’ll be shallow,” Maeve answered. “All of the pretty ones are. Probably doesn’t have a lick of sense to her.”
“That’s rude,” Aura said.
“Not if it’s the truth,” Meri countered.
Lady Eville had read the wedding announcement aloud, then crumpled up the paper and tossed it into the fire. She patted her dark hair in place, straightened her shoulders and looked among her seven daughters carefully, her piercing green eyes finally resting upon me. “Come, Rosalie. Pack your trunk.”
“Where are we going?” I asked, confused.
“You’re going to meet your future husband.”
The room erupted into squeals of delight from my sisters as they all began to talk at once and ponder who the lucky lad could be. Me, my hands trembled as I walked up the narrow and uneven steps to the top floor of the tower and began to pack my few belongings.
A husband.
I had never in a million years dreamed I would marry, and so suddenly too. Once the fear and trepidation faded, excitement took its place. Opening my wardrobe, I assessed my best clothes, or lack thereof. Nothing that would do for marrying, but maybe I could alter one of my newer dresses and it would be good enough. I carefully folded my three least-worn dresses and laid them inside.
Next, I moved to pull out my sewing kit from under my bed, along with my bag of medicines. Under my slightly sloping bed, I had quite the collection of books on charms, spells, dead languages, herbology and, of course, a fey tale or too, but I couldn’t take them all. What if my future husband didn’t want a wife who could read? Running my fingers over the leather-bound beauties, I picked out my herbology text and left the others, although it pained me to do so. I felt like I was saying goodbye to my children. Who knew after I was gone if my sisters would care for them the way I did? Probably not, for none loved to read as much as I did, and none loved flowers like me.
When I had finished packing my trunk and changed into a traveling outfit with skirt and cloak, I cast a charm to make my trunk lighter. It floated down the stairs after me like a kite on a string. I was ready. Mother had sent for a carriage, and her trunk was already loaded. She had only packed one traveling bag, which meant she wasn’t planning on staying long, wherever we were going.
After my trunk was secured, I turned to say goodbye to my sisters. The departure felt sudden and unnatural, more like a dream. I would wake up and everything would have been a mistake.
“Where are you going, Rosalie?” Aura asked.
“I’m not sure, but don’t you worry. I can take care of myself.”
“Who will take care of us?”
“You will, of course,” I chastised.
Aura pouted, her bottom lip sticking out. “Ugh, that’s too much work.” But her pout wasn’t real and was followed by a wink. “What if you marry an ugly man?”
“Then I pray he has a beautiful heart,” I said.
“What if he has a beastly heart?”
“Then I pray he is handsome on the outside.” I pinched her in response. “’Cause I’m not sure anyone could ever really love a beast.”
I hugged each of my sisters goodbye, and though tears fell from their eyes, none fell from mine. I was cold inside, not one to let my feelings show, other than my anger.
I sat silently next to Lady Eville as we sped along the dirt road. The streets of Nihill weren’t cobbled or paved, and there were a few potholes big enough to swallow a small child and injure horses. I used to sneak out in the middle of the night and use my power to fill the holes back in so no one would be injured. I wondered if anyone would do it once I was gone.
After an hour on the road, I gathered enough courage to ask her, “Where are we traveling to?” I knew better than to ask who my future husband was.
“Baist” came her curt reply.
One of the seven kingdoms that had scorned her years ago. I knew then that this had nothing to do with a marriage of convenience and everything to do with her revenge. My heart sank a little at the thought, but I quickly pushed it aside and wondered how my marriage could possibly affect the kingdom.
Baist, from what I remembered of my studies with Lorn, our fey tutor, was antiquated in their views and behind the other kingdoms in magic use and scientific advancements. They had driven out much of what they didn’t understand, or shunned what scared them. The streets were not lit by mage lights but by oil, and their crops were grown by the sun and rain, not magically modified. Their produce was highly sought after by those who had developed reactions to the other six kingdoms’ MMPs—magically modified produce.
There were a few healers in the land—after all, the royal family needed to be protected—but medicine was outlandish. Magic mirrors, steam engines, and moving picture boxes were unheard of, and foreigners were unwelcome. The whole country was pure in its views, untainted by outside influences of magic, for magic was bad, used for manipulation and deceit, and nothing good could come of it.
“It’s essentially trapped within the past.” Lorn had drawn a circle around the country of Baist, and I shivered at the thought of having to live in a country without magical necessities.
“Why is that so?” Aura had asked.
“Because there are no key ley lines of power under the country.” Lorn had pulled down an enchanted map of the seven kingdoms. Glowing lines spread out along the different kingdoms, except none passed through Baist. This meant magic would be harder to use, with nothing to tap into or draw from but nature and ourselves; whereas in some kingdoms, whole cities were built around a cross section of ley lines and they flourished. Even the weakest of those in magic could call flame, water, or air, for ley lines amplified their gifts.
“Who in their right mind would even consider living there?” Maeve had huffed. “Do you realize how strong a magic user would need to be to even cast the simplest of spells?”
Lorn had ignored Maeve and looked right at me. “Only the strongest of you could survive there.”
And now here I was. Had he known this was my destiny? That pulling off what I did in this forsaken kingdom took more energy and toll on myself than I was used to? He must have known.
I smiled as I thought of Lorn, our handsome tutor. Each one of us, at one time or another, had a crush on the ageless elf, who more than likely viewed us as children. Our years, all less than twenty-two, would be mere babes to his two hundred. His hair was long, black as coal, his eyes as gray as ash, and his ears pointed, the only real giveaway to his fey heritage—that and his magic.
He was the one who evaluated each of Lady Eville’s daughters and chose our course of study. He would show up on the very first day of winter and leave once the first flower bloomed in spring. Where he traveled the rest of the year was a secret, one we had tried to wrench from him, but he always smiled mysteriously and gave us a vague answer.
“I must go travel the ley lines and keep watch over the kingdoms,” Lorn would say. Why or how the handsome fey came to be included in our reclusive family, I wasn’t sure I would ever know.
I knew my mother had placed a traveling charm on the road, for Baist was more than a three-day trip but we made it in one. When we came to the city, I was enthralled with the quaint and beautiful scenery. Unlike Nihill, the town’s shops and cottages were decorated with brightly painted windows and trellises with wildflowers. A sweet aroma of baked goods hung in the air, and I leaned out of the carriage and breathed in the fragrant scent. A sigh escaped my lips as I fell in love with the city. Even the girls selling their wares in the streets had ribbons wound through their braids and stitched into their aprons and skirts. Such a simple design but present on every door, window, building, and article of clothing.