Princess Elodi's Arc

Chapter 18 of 55

Damon took Elodi's hand. "Come. She'll want to see us before word travels." He led her past the servants and children, up the wide stone steps. Vines heavy with pink blossoms framed the great doors. Elodi's heart pounded. She had crossed a sea to reach these steps, and now everything rested on what one woman would say. At the top waited a woman in a blue gown, a crown set in her dark bun. Her pale eyes found Damon, and her whole face opened. She threw her arms wide and pulled him against her. "My boy has returned," she said. "We have missed your face." Damon laughed into her shoulder. When he stepped back, he kept Elodi's hand and drew her forward. "Mother, this is Princess Elodi. She came with me across the sea." Queen Diana turned. Elodi braced for the questions she had feared all night. Whose daughter are you. Who is chasing you. What have you brought to our door. She lifted her chin and prepared to answer for herself. The questions did not come. Diana's eyes moved over Elodi's tired face, her wind-tangled braid, the otter on her shoulder. Something softened. "A princess," Diana said quietly. "And you flew half the night to get here." She reached out and took both of Elodi's hands in hers. Her grip was warm. "You are shaking, child." "I didn't know if I would be welcome," Elodi said. Her voice came out smaller than she meant. Diana studied her a moment longer. "Damon does not bring strangers home. If he brought you, there is a reason." She looked at her son. "Tell me true. Is she running from someone?" "From a mother who caged her," Damon said. "Not from any wrong she did." Diana's mouth tightened, but not at Elodi. She squeezed Elodi's hands. "Then you are safe here. In this castle no one is locked in, and no one is turned out." She glanced at the open gates below. "My husband built it that way. You may stay as long as you wish, and leave the same hour you choose." Elodi felt her knees go loose. Weeks of fear drained out of her at once. She had a place now that no rider could take from her. "Thank you," she managed. "Truly." "Rest first. Explain later." Diana looped an arm around each of them and steered them through the doors. "You will meet the King at supper. He will want to hear how a princess learned to ride a griffin." Inside, warm light fell across polished floors. A servant led Elodi toward a room of her own. At the door she paused and looked back at the open gates, the children still running through them into the sun. For the first time she stood safe inside walls she was free to leave. But Diana's words stayed with her. You will meet the King at supper. One ruler had welcomed her. The other had not yet spoken.