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Still the hetaireias and guardswomen fell in step behind the two sisters and they left me with the musicians, whom I dismissed before I returned to my own apartments.
Oh, the clamor I returned to.
"And counterstroke across the body," Kemptrux called out while standing atop the table as Vostiv swung a broom at her and Imogen and Miriam looked on in mirth. Everyone's eyes trained on me in guilty shock at my arrival.
I'd somehow gained a household full of teens. Well one preteen. A valet really was needed to keep order among them. Among us really, because I mostly wanted to take up a broom and join in.
Instead, I took a moderate and responsible route, "We're all guests here and need to not abuse the furnishings, so get down and no horseplay indoors," I sternly admonished, "Also, Kemptrux and Vostiv, only practice with weighted weapons. Otherwise your muscle memory won't serve you."
"Sorry, ma'am," Kemptrux sheepishly answered for the lot of them as she stepped down off the table and Vostiv put the broom back in its cupboard. The sisters miraculously found tasks in another room.
"It's alright. Let's head down to the training yard and burn off some of that excess energy." We set up targets for lance, kopis, and mace practice.
Again some guardswomen joined in, more that time. Having at least a couple dozen was important. Learning to fight en bloc is far more valuable than learning to attack targets mano-a-mano. Between the fifty or so of us in the saddle, the group training session really helped several of the individual guardswomen learn to form, charge, and reform.
I definitely saw Caeli between the merlons and waved. She waved back shyly and kept watching.
Her presence changed nothing in the training session itself, but did influence me to take my time in brushing down Savaran out in the open courtyard afterward.
I kept brushing my delighted warhorse long after Kemptrux and Vostiv returned inside. Deep into the night, torchlight and moonlight shimmered on Savaran's grey coat as I cared for my beloved warhorse and felt my intended's eyes on us.
"Hello, Taiglox," Heoldax stepped in the courtyard and greeted me evenly, "You and Caeli are going hunting with us tomorrow."
"Yes, Your Highness," I answered apprehensively. That was not sufficient reason for the Crown Princess to seek me out. Certainly not at such a late hour.
"That's convenient. Jelvix, Yonjax, and I will be trading off chaperoning duties between us." The other two warrior princesses - younger than Jelvix and older than Yonjax - were engaged outside the fortress somewhere. "Since my day technically started at midnight, I thought we might chat a bit."
"Okay," I honestly still didn't know what she was driving at, but you listen respectfully and attentively whenever the second most powerful woman alive speaks to you.
"This," she began sternly and pointed to Caeli, who stepped contritely back behind a merlon to be less conspicuous, "benign voyeuristic flirtation is fine, but you will limit yourself to being watched from afar - when not with one of your three approved chaperones - until you are officially wed. You will make no attempt to be alone with her."
"I understand."
"You may, but I want to be crystal clear. Should you take her virtue, consensually or not, it will be declared a rape and you will be drawn and quartered."
At this point, the death threats were becoming close to redundant. Numbing too, as they all seemed designed to keep me from dishonorable acts which I'd never commit.
"I would never sully her honor in such a way," It would be a lie to say that sneaking off to talk with her alone and maybe steal a few kisses hadn't occurred to me, but I wouldn't shame my own bride. Though the custom of virginity (or perceived virginity) in the upper nobility prior to marriage mystified me, I'd not rob her of her chastity when she'd been raised to believe that her maidenhead was essential to her goodness so long as she remained a maid.
Heoldax softened a touch, "I'm not really so much worried about you, so long as expectations and consequences are understood."
"Caeli, then?" I asked. My right hand unconsciously moved toward where my mace should have hung. That such a statement should simultaneously compliment me and insult my intended was also baffling. Again though, custom.
"She's understandably eager for romance and adventure," Heoldax conciliated, "Caeli should have been married years ago and it must be frustrating to finally have an object for her affections, but have to wait to... bestow those affections."
I nodded and untensed, since the more delicate terms for the same issue were more palatable.
The Crown Princess continued, "She attempted to sneak off three times this afternoon. To have a fully innocent tryst, I'm sure, but even the perception of impropriety on the part of the Queen's daughter must be avoided."
"I'd cut off my right hand before I'd offend the Queen," I answered honestly, "I'll remain in my rooms or the training yard while within the palace and I'll send Caeli back to her apartments in the custody of her cousin, Vostiv, should she reach me."
"Good, good," Heoldax approved. She pointed to Caeli and then to Caeli's rooms so my bride scampered away back inside, "I should be getting back to my own wife then. Wouldn't want her to think I was off on a less than innocent tryst myself." The Crown Princess smiled stiffly at the humorless joke and returned to her own place.
As I retired Savaran for the night, I mused over how far off Yonjax's suggestion of my potential aspirations to the throne were. Although I'd much prefer Caeli to be my wife quietly at my aunt's provincial estate, I had happily accepted my pouncy knighthood, household to manage, ridiculous clothes, and frequent attendance at stuffy ceremonies to be with her.
But only to be with her. I don't want royal authority for myself and I certainly wouldn't want the pressure and isolation that the crown gave queens and future queens.
Glad to only be fated to become a Princess-Consort and determining that my modest household was abed, I turned in myself.
I woke early and made Kemptrux and Vostiv eat a quick breakfast with me before we headed to the stables. Kemptrux and I wore my house colors of deep azure trimmed with bright cendrée while Vostiv wore her house colors of carob trimmed with hunter green, but all in the form of sharp tunics and tight leggings.
We left off armor, since riding for speed mattered so much more than personal protection and since the hunting horses we'd ride were light coursers who weren't suited to carry riders wearing heavy armor.
The stablehands (who doubled as huntswomen) had the coursers for the whole hunting party saddled and ready with bows, quivers, and hunting knives attached. Here we had to part company, with Vostiv riding with the squires and Kemptrux riding with the guardswomen. I took my place up front with the royal family.
Though we were officially chaperoned by Heoldax, she had to ride at the very front at the Queen's right. I found myself further down in the front row, between Jelvix and Caeli.
"Hi," I greeted my intended as she came abreast of me.
Caeli wore her dark hair plaited in a different way, but still with golden pins and ties. (I longed to see her pretty hair loose and to stroke my fingers through her glinting tresses.) Her flowing violet skirts were artfully draped over the back of her extremely patient horse and her tooled bodice of eminence purple was girded and trimmed in gold.
"Hi," she answered demurely, partially concentrating on keeping her horse in check and partially checking me out in my fitted riding tunic with my arms bared to the shoulders.
"Hi," I repeated, then meant to say more.
"Hey," Jelvix interrupted me. She wore one of the impractical slitless riding cloaks popular at the palace, also of eminence purple and accessorized with gleaming gold. "Yonjax warned me about this. Just because Heoldax dumped the responsibility of monitoring you two on me, it does not mean I have to listen to your inanities. Why don't you talk about something useful? What's your plan for integrating your two households once you're married?"
"Ah, I hadn't thought of that," I turned to Caeli, "I'll just have a squire, a guardswoman, and two servant girls."
"Oh," she looked a little embarrassed, "I have a majordoma, a nurse, two seamstresses, three cooks, and fifteen servant girls. I'll also need to fill a few more positions as a married woman."
"Wow," That's quite a big household to integrate, "That's good though. I love my household, but they're young and could use direction. The girls especially might learn to be seamstresses or cooks. With you having so many more people though, maybe we should move into your apartments?"
"Actually, I already asked for us to be moved to the inner wide keep," she admitted with a blush, "I hope you don't mind."
"Overlooking the training yard?" I guessed at the reason, flattered.
"Yes," she pushed on quickly, "but there's plenty of room for both our households to combine and it's near enough to the throne room to be okay with the Queen."
"Sounds excellent," I agreed readily, glad she'd thought of domestic requirements that never occurred to me.
"You'll need to get livery for the bulk of them in your house colors," Jelvix added practically.
"Don't worry. I can go into the city and get some dyed fabrics," I assured Caeli.
"Send your valet," Jelvix chastised me, "You can't just go shop like a common soldier now."
"No valet, but I have a couple servant girls."
"You can't send them by themselves. They've probably never been outside a castle alone. They'll be robbed blind," Jelvix warned.
"I can send Corporal Kemptrux and my squire along with them, but I'd like to head to the smiths, bowyers, armorers, and horsetraders with them myself anyway."
"Whatever for?"
"I'm kitting them out."
Jelvix harrumphed.
"I think it's sweet," Caeli complimented me.
"So do I," Jelvix disapproved.
I shrugged and explained neutrally, "I take care of my own."
"Can I come too?" Caeli asked hopefully.
"I don't know why not, if-" I started to invite her along.
Jelvix interrupted again, "No. And you know you can't, so you shouldn't ask."
With the number of death threats I'd received in the past few days, I wasn't in a position to argue back. Still, the market square was only a couple miles from the castle gate, well within the walls of the city, so there'd be little or no danger with Kemptrux, Vostiv, and I with her, plus the retinue and guardswomen a princess would surely bring. "Why can't she?"
"She's required to stay within the palace grounds until she's married," Jelvix explained.
Caeli bowed her head. Obviously her cage was gilded, but it was a cage nonetheless.
"Ah, well, that's alright then," I cheered my expectant bride, "We'll be married soon and then I can take you out to see some more of the world."
Caeli smiled brightly back at me, "That'll be fun. Where have you been out in the world?"
I told her of forced marches through northern snows and southern deserts, of the high winds of the Hyroshian Pass and the swift waters of the Ciaharran River, of the beautiful statuary in the ancient city of Phonique and the massive mausoleum overlooking Aicarsus, and of the feral horses racing across the Eflusic Plains and the spotted dolphins leaping out of the warm ocean along the Qunari Coast.
As I described the Waimangu Geyser shooting sulfuric waters hundreds of feet into the air, the current pursuit of game took our attention.
"Deer!" the spotter called. I nocked an arrow without thinking and drew back the bowstring.
"Hold," Jelvix called out less loudly from beside me. My arm locked at the order, also without my thinking, "The Crown Princess always shoots first at all the deer throughout the royal hunts."
I returned my arrow to its quiver, grateful a faux pas was avoided. "Thanks. What's the point of bringing 75 people on a hunt where only one fires a shot?"
"Proving who's important," the secondborn princess answered bitterly.
"If you think of it as going out for a morning ride, it's actually quite lovely," Caeli suggested optimistically.
"That's a nice way to see the day," I applauded her continuing sunny outlook.
"You two really are hopeless," Jelvix pronounced and largely ignored us for the rest of the morning.
We enjoyed the leisurely ride through the sparse forest. Sunlight dappled Caeli's thick hair, creamy skin, and textured dress. I watched intently as her delicate hands deftly handled her leather reins, as her knees occasionally lifted her skirts slightly as she squeezed her courser, and as her back and shoulders stayed straight as a pin with perfect riding form.
"I'm looking forward to your knighting tomorrow," she noted sweetly.
Fresh tidings to me that my knighting would be the next day, but I'd been rolling with the punches since I'd arrived. "Thanks, Caeli. Me, too," I fibbed loyally.
"I had hoped, if you wanted to, that maybe, again only if you wanted to, maybe you'd wear this?" she shyly offered a length of violet fabric with gold lace trimming, "As a token of favor?"
"Of course," I spurred my horse forward and nearer hers and extended my right arm, "I'd be honored."
Jelvix glanced over at us, shook her head, and returned to her own thoughts. I grinned broadly at my wife to be, boundlessly happy to receive her favor. And I also flexed as she tied the material around my bicep.
Shoulders back, chest out, and head high, I rode beside her proudly.
Our hunting party returned late in the morning, a few deer brought back with them as prizes for the evening's dinner table.
Caeli and I remained mounted as long as we could within the social confines of the event, knowing implicitly that as soon as we dismounted with everyone else...
"Alright, then," Jelvix broke our conversation off impatiently as she gestured for a steward to help her sister to dismount, "Caeli, come along. Taiglox, your knighting is tomorrow at 7 bells. Don full armor, helm in arm. I'll be around to collect you as apparently I'm chaperoning on my days too."
I dismounted as well and we said our goodbyes as Kemptrux and Vostiv flanked me.
"Are we riding maneuvers this morning, ma'am?" my corporal asked.
"I think this morning's hunt was probably sufficient."
"Can we though?" my page requested hopefully.
"Yes," I conceded indulgently and we spent the next two hours in the saddle, working on riding with knees and leans as our warhorses galloped and wheeled at full speed.
At the dinner table in my quarters, we laughed and joked as comrades. Until I brought up my impending "pouncy" knighthood.
"Ma'am," Vostiv spoke hesitantly, "I...wish, wish that you wouldn't deride the knighthood. My mother, aunts, sisters, and cousins are knights."
"I apologize, Vostiv," I immediately chastised myself, "I meant no offense to your house."
"It's not only that, ma'am," she continued more confidently, "the knighthood is an important symbol of national pride. It's one of the few opportunities for common people to gain confidence in the valor of their nobility, and tournaments are one of the few honorable forms of combat in which we're allowed to prove ourselves in individual prowess."
I'd honestly never viewed the knighthood in such a way. The ingrained prejudice in which I'd been trained was that we soldiers won wars while the highest born styled themselves as knights, preening in ceremonial armor and playing at battle to stroke their own egos but not to any valuable purpose.
"I hadn't considered that, Vostiv." The reasoning of a twelve year old chastised me too. "I won't deride the knighthood again."
"Thank you, ma'am," she sighed, clearly uncomfortable at having to disagree with me as my prospective squire.
"No thanks required. I'm obviously ignorant in such matters. Instead of our reading on tactics today, why don't you teach Kemptrux and me the basic customs and history of the knighthood?"
After a few hours of study, we returned to the yard and spent hours in weapons training. Caeli again watched us shyly from above and, smilingly, I saluted my intended. Briefly, I considered that ours must be quite a peculiar courtship.
Jelvix arrived with a half dozen hetaireias to escort me to my knighting early the next morning. I'd dressed and armored, but apparently not sufficiently or correctly.
"Where is your cloak?" she demanded in lieu of a greeting.
"In my wardrobe," I answered just as bluntly.
"Well put it the fuck on," she ordered in irritation, "and assume you need wear it in all ceremonies. Such a provincial."
She briefly explained the simple ceremony en route to the throne room as I clasped on my impractical and pointless cloak. (I'd already tied Caeli's favor on my left arm and my rank and house were woven into the lamellar armor on my right arm.) On arrival, we waited for the Queen's current business to be concluded before we were ushered in and announced to the court.
Arrayed behind the Queen stood twelve fiercesome looking hetaireias, each armed with falcata and hammer on their belts and each holding a menaulion in her right hand. All were nobles, but only two sets wore the same colors.
Behind the throne to the Queen's left was a warrior that looked to be 250lbs of sheer muscle in her early 50s, wearing the goldenrod and ebony of House Chrerandya. To the Queen's right stood a stunning raven-haired hetaireia a couple years my junior and wearing the cordovan and onyx of House Chilandya.
I walked in proudly, glancing about as subtly as I could to find the happy face of my princess among the noble ladies in the gallery and then kneeling before the seated Queen.
"Lieutenant Taiglox, thirdborn of Trijox of House Laerdya, do you reaffirm your fealty to the Crown, to on your life and your honor provide victory over our enemies and guardianship over our people? Do you swear to act with righteousness and ferociousness in the face of all dangers and temptations? Do you commit your arm, your mind, and your heart to the Queen's service and the Queen's justice in all matters great and small?" Her Majesty asked in a commandingly serious tone.
"I so reaffirm, so swear, and so commit, Your Majesty."
The Queen stood above me and touched a ceremonial sword to each of my shoulders, "Arise, Ser Taiglox, thirdborn of Trijox of House Laerdya, Knight of the Order Royal Indomitable."
I stood, the gravity of the oath given and honor conferred moving me more than I'd anticipated.
The Queen patted my shoulder warmly, "Welcome, Ser Taiglox. And dismissed."
I returned to my rooms, took off my silly cloak, and sewed my new badge into my armor above my rank and house. Then I carefully polished my armor and restored it to its stand.
My little household breakfasted again before Vostiv left for her page training. We were all back well before lunching together. And later, we both rode maneuvers and practiced with weapons, Kemptrux and Vostiv notably improving even after only a few days of regular training.
After we supped together, Yonjax strolled in, carrying a few books and accompanied by a grizzled hetaireia from Heodax's retinue in addition to her own hetaireias. I set down my copy of Narkex's Weather and War and stood.
"Congratulations, Ser Taiglox," she lauded me briefly, but comradely, "Where's my cousin? Vos, get out here!"
"Here, Yon!" My page came running out. (Kemptrux and Imogen were conspicuously absent.)
"Alright, since no one ranking you from your house is here, I hereby formally commend you into the service of Ser Taiglox for training for the knighthood as her squire," Yonjax announced rather informally.
"Thank you!" Vostiv wasn't surprised, but her exuberance was boundless.
