The Princess and the Bear - Mette Ivie Harrison [87]
“And what of you? If I do as you suggest, then there will be countless jokes told about you all over the kingdom.”
“And there are not now?” asked Chala with an arched eyebrow.
“At least they are not said in your hearing,” said Richon.
“I think that you can trust me to be formidable enough that that will happen only once,” said Chala.
And so it was.
Richon did not make a public announcement, but he spoke openly of Chala’s years as a hound at his side and of her transformation.
The week after, a lack-witted noblewoman sat at dinner and mentioned casually that she thought that Chala’s teeth were rather large for her face.
Chala opened her mouth very wide and said, “And yet they are perfect for tearing flesh from bones. I always liked the taste of warm blood.”
The noblewoman went very still, then left the dinner table after a few minutes and did not return. She left the palace the following day and was not seen again.
Chala was not sorry for her.
But it stopped the rumors.
CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
Richon
IN THE MONTHS following the wedding, peasants came to Richon from far and wide to ask for his wisdom. Others spoke to him of what reasonable taxes might be for the coming year. And many asked if they could send sons, daughters, or cousins to the palace to work.
This was the pleasant side of being king.
There was a far more unpleasant side.
Richon reserved the extreme penalty of execution for those who spread unmagic. There had been death enough in his kingdom already, but he had to send a clear message about not tolerating unmagic if he were to save the future.
Among the first to die was the man from the village with the alehouse who “trained” animals with unmagic. Chala had described him, and then made a positive identification at trial.
Richon told her repeatedly she need not come to the execution, but she insisted upon it.
“I have seen deaths before,” she told him.
“But not like this,” Richon insisted.
“No? King Helm executed five men while I was his daughter. And he made me come to see each of them. One was a man who did not know he was to be killed. His head was cut off in the midst of a polite conversation about music.” She held her lips tightly together when she was done speaking.
Richon thought perhaps she was right. It was not as if she were a sheltered noblewoman. She had seen many things as a hound, and then again when she had been in the body of a princess. And she had been with him at the battle. He did not think this would be worse.
The animal trainer went to his death quietly, and Richon wondered if he was too well acquainted with it by now to fight it. He seemed as empty of life and vigor as any of his animals.
Chala watched it all without any sign of emotion.
But afterward Richon found her weeping in their bedchamber.
“Can I do anything for you?” he asked.
She stared at him, her eyes red. “I understand now,” she said.
“Understand what?”
“Guilt,” said Chala. “Such a human thing.”
Richon nodded soberly.
“It does no good, for it changes nothing. But it is there all the same, reminding you that you might have done something different.”
“Not you, Chala,” said Richon. “You did all you could.”
Chala stared at him. “Are you trying to take away some of my humanness?” she asked.
Richon blanched. “No,” he said.
“Then leave me with my guilt.”
And he did, but never alone.
What surprised Richon most about being king again was the forest animals that came to consult with him.
A line of them, sometimes as long as the humans who came, would wait and speak to him and wait for him to translate for Chala, for it was her perspective they wished to know. They seemed to see her as their special queen.
Before the wedding and afterward, Richon went out and saw a group of swordsmen practicing in the courtyard. A few of them were soldiers, who used the swords as weapons and thought of death as they wielded them. Others held the swords as if they were artists. All of them were better than he was, so he asked if they would teach him.
He quickly grew stronger. He did not come to like the sword