Nights of Villjamur - Mark Charan Newton [109]
Easy to understand why her father had eventually become insane.
“Rika, are you awake? It’s Eir.”
“Just a moment.” Rika rose to let her sister enter, pleased it was not another stranger.
Eir marched to the center of the room, a heady waft of perfume following. She was wearing an outrageously fashionable red gown, high collar, black sleeves, her hair slick with oil, her face made up like nothing Rika had ever seen before. A fake red tundra rose nestled on her breast.
“You’re not even dressed,” Eir observed.
“No, I’m not,” Rika sighed. “I was watching the snow and just thinking.”
“You’ll have plenty of time for that,” Eir said. “We’ve got decades yet to go blind from the whiteness of it all, they say. The Night Guard and Council are assembling, as are all the major families.”
“I’ve got a little while yet before I need to get there,” Rika said. “I’m not sure how I’ll cope here, with all the fuss they make. How does one get anything done with so many other people interfering?”
“I simply don’t know,” Eir confessed, now sprawling across the windowsill. “It’s kind of fun to have such a bother made of us from time to time.”
Rika smiled. “You’ve become such a spoiled little brat.”
“Don’t … you’re sounding like Randur.”
“Who’s Randur?” Rika demanded.
“No one.” Eir clenched her hands in a nervous manner.
“Indeed.” Rika took a step closer. “He wouldn’t be that young braggart strutting about these halls flirting wildly with every woman he meets, would he? I have certainly noticed him. Don’t tell me you’re predictably falling for his charms too?”
Eir laughed. “You’ve hardly been here so how could you even think that. No, I can barely stand having to dance with him.”
“So you’re close to him, are you? Is this a frequent occurrence?” Rika folded her arms.
“He’s only my instructor.”
“Is he at least any good?” Rika inquired.
“He seems to think so, at least.”
“He’s certainly a pretty man,” Rika conceded, inviting her sister to open up to her obvious infatuation.
“Don’t let him hear you say that. He’d not let you forget about it in a hurry. Anyway, I don’t want to discuss him.” Eir stood up. “Now how soon can we expect you to bless us with your presence?”
“Just give me a few minutes. I’ll be down.”
Eir kissed her sister on the cheek, went to leave.
“One moment,” Rika said.
So many years had passed, and she now considered how her little sister had developed into an attractive young woman. Rika walked over to her, grasped her hands. It felt easy to be open with her. “Eir, I’m scared, at times, that I don’t think I can ever be an Empress. I’m not strong enough to do this. I just don’t have the experience—”
“Rika, you’re the bravest most sensible woman I know. You left this city to spend your life on a fringe island with nothing more than a few peasant farms and Jorsalir structures for company—that in itself takes quite some strength of purpose. You have spent time studying religion, so you possess a moral code that frames your thoughts. And, besides, now that father’s gone, it may be fun because everyone will want to impress you.”
After a brief silence, Rika said, “Are you sad? I mean, that he’s gone?”
Slowly, Eir put her arms around her shoulders, and Rika enjoyed the warm embrace. To be able to be close to her sister again moved her. They held each other for a minute. Eir whispered, “I only feel upset because of the relief he’s gone, and because now I might have to start growing up and taking responsibility.”
To Rika’s surprise, hundreds of people turned to face her as she stood at the top of the stairway leading down from the balcony, and the noise they made was alarming. It wasn’t as though this would be quiet, the death of the only person in the city that had been known to everyone.
Those who weren’t military wore vivacious dress, like her sister, that strange tradition in Villjamur to wear the brightest colors to see