The Shadow, the Orc, & the Princess: Part Four (special preview)

During dinner I was quiet, but that’s not unusual. Ever since Arda the First gave me the news, I hadn’t exactly been up to talking about anything. The long table was dotted with relatives, some I knew and lots I didn’t.  All of them were in their own little worlds, mumbling to the one beside them or just into their soup.

Arda the First sat at the head of the table, sipping her wine and watching all of us laid out before her. Her dog stood at her side, watching us just as closely as she did. After a tap on the head the dog rose and came to stand beside me.

“She wants you to sit with her,” a distant cousin told me. He raised his head from his plate long enough to tell me that, and for me to see he wore an eyepatch.

“Can you understand the dog?” I asked as a joke.

He just started and me and turned back to his food.

I carried my plate and cup down to the head of the table, sitting at Arda the First’s left where the dog led me.

“Thank you for joining me, Leopoldine. I feel you’ve been quite distant since you arrived.” She filled my glass with wine even though there was water already in it.

“I’ve been trying to let it all sink in.” I looked into my glass then back at her. “I’m not sure what to think or who to trust.”

Her smile grows and she leans in closer to me. “I understand.” She coils her hand around mine and holds it towards her. “You can take all the time you need here. I would love to have you around.”

People around me shift in their chairs and I hear some chuckling.

“Thank you, Arda-”

“Buh buh buh,” she pats my cheek. “Grandmother, Leopoldine. Call me grandmother. I insist.”

“Grandmother,” I mumbled reluctantly. The name didn’t suit her in the slightest; it was weird and forced when I said it out loud.

He chuckled and pushed my glass to me. “Do you drink wine back home?”

“Sometimes,” I murmured. “I don’t really like it that much.”

“But it’s good for you! Wine keeps the skin healthy and young. It’ll help heal those scars you have the more you drink.” She topped off my glass even though I hadn’t drank anything. “A girl like you needs wine.”

I frowned a bit, sipping the glass with caution. Even with water in it, the wine tasted too strong and bitter for me.

Grandmother smiled. “I want to keep your safe and healthy, Leopoldine. I don’t want to see what happened to your father happen to you. After all, you and your brother have very similar circumstances.”

I was shoving food into my mouth to get rid of the flavor of the wine. “What do you mean?”

She sighed, touching her fingers to her lips while concern painted itself across her face. “I just mean it’s very similar. You’re the heir right? Or at least, I’m sure it’s been promised to you all this time. At least, before your brother was born. Which, if I remember this correctly, is the same age Julainw as when Falko was born.”

She was correct, this I knew because it had been at the forefront of my mind since Bronn was born.

“Although, by now Julian was king,” she chuckled. “Your grandfather knew when to step down. But Falko? I am not so certain.”