Princess Willowyn's Arc

Chapter 13 of 70

Morning came gray through Willowyn's window. She had not slept. The white minx lay in her lap, warm and still, its soft fur rising with each breath. Kai had given her this small animal before he sailed. Now she held it and thought only of him. She turned away every visitor. A maid knocked twice. Willowyn told her to go. She did not want food. She did not want the day. She wanted the coast, and the vines, and the man who was already gone. She closed her eyes and thought of his lips. They had been soft. She had never kissed anyone before him. In her mind she built a life she would never have. A small house. Children with his dark curly hair. She counted them, three, then four, laughing across some sunlit floor. She smiled at the dream and let it hold her. When she opened her eyes, the light had changed. It was afternoon. She had fallen asleep without meaning to. The minx had shifted to the pillow beside her. Her cheek was wet. She wiped it and sat up. The dream was gone, and the truth stayed. Kai was on the water now. She could not follow him. She had chosen this room, this keep, this duty. Crying in bed would not end a single war. She rose and crossed to the window. Below her the pale stone towers dropped away into moss and trailing flowers. Beyond the walls lay the coast where she had met him. She pressed her hand to the cold glass and made herself look past it, to the far kingdoms she had sworn to help. "I told him I would not wait behind these walls forever," she said aloud. The minx lifted its head. "So I will not sit here and grieve either." She picked up the animal and set it gently on the bed. Then she washed her face in the basin and tied back her long dark red hair. She fixed the moonstone circlet on her head. Her hands still shook, but they moved. She would carry Kai with her. Not as a wound, but as a reason. He had told her to stay and fulfill her purpose. She meant to prove him right. Her water magic could do more than fill troughs for stranded workers. It could reach the places where people fought and thirsted. Willowyn opened her door for the first time all day. A guard stood in the hall, surprised. "Tell the Queen I wish to speak with her," she said. The guard bowed and went. Willowyn looked back once at the minx curled on her bed. The mourning was finished. She had loved Kai, and she had let him sail, and now she chose her work. She stepped into the hall and did not look back again.