Princess Elowyn's Arc

Chapter 3 of 7

For a week the suitors stayed at the castle. Each morning Elowyn walked the halls and met a new one. Each man pressed a gift into her hands and waited for thanks. None asked her a single question. Today she went to find the one man she had beaten once already. King Everest had ridden two weeks to buy her hand with a chest of gold, and she had forced him to court her instead. He had not forgiven it. She found him on the balcony, alone. His black cloak with gold trim moved in the wind. He stood with his back to her, watching the grounds below. Elowyn stepped out and curtsied, then bowed her head. He did not turn. She waited. The silence stretched long enough that she thought he meant to ignore her. Then he spoke. "Each suitor brings you gowns and jewels." His voice was flat. "I have watched from this balcony. You take them. You smile. But you are never happy." Elowyn moved to the balcony wall and looked over the edge. The gardens spread far below. She did not answer him with a lie. "They give me things," she said. "They don't even know what it is I like." Everest turned at last. His blue eyes studied her, not the way the others did. He was not weighing her worth. He looked as if he were solving a problem he had gotten wrong. "Then tell me," he said. "What do you like?" The question stopped her. No one had asked it. Not her father, not one suitor in seven days. She kept her eyes on the gardens while she thought. "I like the hour before the castle wakes," she said. "When the halls are empty and no one wants anything from me. I like rain on the windows. I like being asked what I think." She turned to face him. "None of that fits in a chest." Everest was quiet. Something in his face shifted. The cold left it for a moment. "I bought your father's attention with gold," he said. "I never once tried to buy yours the right way." He looked almost surprised to hear himself say it. Elowyn felt the ground move under her. She had come expecting an enemy. She had prepared for cold words and threats. This she had not prepared for. "Why does it matter to you now?" she asked. "Because I do not like to lose," he said. "And I am beginning to think I have been playing the wrong game." Elowyn left the balcony changed. She had come to face a man who wanted to own her. She had found one who might learn to know her instead. It frightened her more than his anger ever had. For the first time, a suitor had asked the right question, and the wrong man had asked it. Elowyn and Everest talked for hours on the balcony, Elowyn smiled and told Everest more about herself, “I love to read, and I love animals.” She said pointing to a stable full of horses. Everest smiled back at Elowyn finally feeling like he had gotten a glimpse at the woman she was.