Princess Althea's Arc

Chapter 2 of 2

Althea slept badly. The pendant lay on her pillow all night. In the morning she held it to the window light. The dragon had tiny scales carved into the metal. Its eye was a chip of red stone. It meant nothing to her, and that was the problem. It was her only thread to a mother she barely remembered. She had to find her father again and pull harder. She found King Charles alone in his study. He stood over a map, one gloved hand flat on the table. His fur cloak hung on a chair. He looked older without it, and tired. He did not look up when she entered. "You gave me a riddle, not an answer," Althea said. She set the pendant on the map. "Tell me what it is. Tell me where she came from." He stared at the small dragon. For a long moment he said nothing. "I have carried that question longer than you have," he said. "Your mother wore it the day I met her. She never explained it. She said her people would know it." "Her people." Althea's throat went tight. "So they exist. Where?" "Far. Beyond the mountains, past lands I have never ridden." His jaw worked. "I know only that the pendant was a mark of who your mother was to them." "Then I must find these people," Althea said. Her voice cracked. King Charles finally looked at her. "I know one thing more." He turned the pendant over. On the back, worn thin, was a shape she had missed. A castle. "She drew this once. She called it home. I never learned its name." Althea traced the castle with her fingertip. It was rough under her skin, real, a place that stood somewhere. Her father could not name it. But it was carved, and carved things could be found. "Someone knows it," she said. "A trader. A mapmaker. Someone who has seen this tower." "Althea." He caught her wrist, gently. "You are eighteen now, you are to be finding a husband." She pulled her hand free. "Give me this father just this and when I return I will do as you ask." He let her go. That was answer enough. He had nothing more to give her, and he knew it. Althea took the pendant back and closed her fist around it. Her father had emptied his knowledge onto that table, and it came to two things: a mother's people beyond the mountains, and a castle with no name. It was not enough to reach them. But it was enough to start looking. She left the study with a new goal burning in her chest. She would find someone who knew the castle.