Princess Phillipi's Arc

Chapter 1 of 5

Princess Phillipi stood at the council chamber window and watched the small blue birds circle the tower, purple flame trailing from their beaks. Below her, twelve lords argued over which timid noble would marry her by month's end. She pressed her palm to the glass and left a white bloom of frost. That was the trouble. Every man they had paraded before her had flinched when she offered her hand, and the last one wept when his fingers turned blue. She did not want a husband who feared her. She wanted one who could hold her without breaking. The eldest councilor rose and named the choice: a soft-spoken lord from the eastern marches, a man known to faint at loud noises. Phillipi opened her mouth to refuse. Before she could speak, a knight pushed off the far wall and stepped into the ring of chairs. Sir Alaric Thorne bowed once, quick and sharp. He said he would fight to the death for the right to court her, and he named the trial himself. There was a dragon nesting in the northern crags. He would bring back its head, and then he would take her hand. The council laughed until Phillipi said yes. She walked with him to the armory and watched him lift a pale sword from its stand, a blade edged in ridges of blue ice, runes cut down the fuller. He tested the grip. His knuckles did not whiten. They rode out that afternoon. She waited on the ridge while he climbed the crag alone. She heard the dragon before she saw it, a low grinding roar that shook loose stones down the slope. Then she saw fire, and then she saw him coming back down the path with blood on his greaves and the beast's head roped to his saddle. He stopped in front of her and dropped to one knee. He pulled off his gauntlet. Phillipi hesitated, then set her fingers against his bare palm. His skin stayed warm. No frost climbed his wrist. No blue crept under his nails. He closed his hand around hers and did not let go. He asked her to marry him there on the ridge, with the dragon's blood still drying on his armor. She said yes before she remembered the council, the eastern lord, the contract already half-drawn in the chamber below. She had chosen her husband. Now she would have to tell a kingdom that had already chosen for her.