The Salamander Prince Read online

  “I can’t count the number of times that someone attacked me and claimed my brother was at fault. There were even gangs of thugs hired to beat me nearly to death, all done with my brother’s supposed endorsement. And my brother had the same happen to him. It made us… distrustful of others. I hope you understand that I don’t mean anything by it, but I have to ask, why are you taking this so well? Our marriage and being chased and forced to not use your magic.”

  Looking him in the eye, it was obvious that this was a very important question for him to ask. More important than probably any other he’d asked. Talking about my past so freely had let him relax enough to be as honest as he could. It made me happy to know that he cared so much.

  “Relationships take work and trust. You haven’t done anything to hurt me and you had ample opportunities to wield those objects as weapons. I can read the enchantments. I know that they take your temperament and desires into consideration and that there is a clause that allows for the creation of a slave instead of a spouse. You have to make a conscious choice to not engage that. Then, you go around and do your best to make me comfortable and protected in small ways. Even sneaking into my bunk last night showed the same care and concern. You didn’t take advantage and you slept on the side closest to the door, ready for any eventuality.

  “In short, you are kind, giving, and brave to travel the world in search of an unknown wife to tie yourself to. I have been around enough bad people to know when I’ve found a good one.”

  I sighed and scrambled to try and make my point clearer. “Marriage is work, and you have to start as you mean to go on. I will trust you until you give me reason not to. I will consider this to be a real marriage until you make me doubt that fact.”

  He smiled sadly and picked my hand up before kissing the back of it. “Then shall we go to bed, love? Shall we start this right, with commitments for the future and to caring for one another?”

  I considered for a moment, knowing what he was asking and what it would mean. Then I leaned in and kissed him. “Yes, let’s.”

  ~

  The rest of the trip to Lettelach was relatively peaceful. No more storms passed through. No more stops were made and no gangs of probable military origin had appeared on the river to cause trouble. Instead, we used the time to get to know each other.

  I wasn’t naïve, despite what most might think, hearing this story or meeting me in a casual situation. I acted silly most of the time because it threw people off and was fun. I’d had to be serious for far too many years and the safety I’d found in my magic and my little cottage set me free from the worries that kept me grounded for so many years. I was away from both things that made me comfortable at that moment, but I’d discovered that Jeshu made me feel just as safe.

  We used the trip to get to know each other better. It was our honeymoon, after all. In between asking his favorite color (flame blue) and his favorite activities (dancing, with and without a sword) I was able to glean more insight into the man I’d married.

  He was strong. Not just physically, although all the sword work had seen to that. No, he was strong in spirit and mind. He was very well educated and used that education to carefully consider problems before responding to them. He could react quickly, but he preferred all the facts first and to figure out how he was being manipulated before choosing a course of action. He never let the manipulation get to him though. He just gave them enough rope to hang themselves. He never let their decisions become a weight on his shoulders.

  It also helped me understand the reason I had been allowed into his life and why he chose to trust me so quickly. He gave me a long and convoluted explanation full of ‘I can’t say more, but’s. In the end, the bottom line was I had no reason to betray him.

  “Also, the arrow and orb would never connect me to a woman who would purposefully hurt me. The magic has been perfect for generations. There’s no reason to believe that it would fail me.”

  So, I let it pass and just let myself enjoy having his respect and care.

  Jeshu was also unfailingly kind. He was unafraid to be seen as weak or unmanly by helping me with various, sometimes odd or disgusting, tasks. His chivalry never changed or faltered. He was just a gentle presence, always there to lend a hand or hold me when the nightmares began.

  In the back of our minds, there was a clock ticking though. We both knew that we would soon be joining up with his brother and our time alone would be short. Still, as honeymoons go, a week sailing down the river and no interruptions (except a shape shifting husband) is pretty ideal. Well, also the knowledge that magic had ensured I was pregnant. That was something I would think about later, though.

  Soon enough we were at the border.

  Time was up.

  Chapter 5: Family Defends. Always.

  Lettelach is an odd country. Like most of the countries on the continent, it was named using the ancient tongue of the Fey. The country’s name literally means ‘land of many small lakes’. I personally thought that Alenia’s ‘sea of grass’ sounded prettier, but it wasn’t my choice. Either way, both names were very accurate.

  Lettelach, as it’s name suggested, was full of lakes and ponds. Luckily the one we headed for was connected to a river. It made getting there much easier and meant we didn’t have to leave my ship anywhere (or use magic to make it into a carriage. The spell still hadn’t been perfected and I was worried about losing supplies in the process). The trip upriver when we reached the convergence was relatively short and very easy because of my enchantments. No rowing necessary!

  That river connected to a medium-sized lake with thriving villages on both sides. Something one must remember when traveling to Lettelach is that the lake people are very… blunt. And borderline rude about it. Subtlety is not an appreciated quality as it comes too close to lying. I’d been there once or twice over the years and I always found it refreshing and vastly entertaining when I was with someone who hadn’t been there before. Like Jeshu.

  We had just docked and stepped off my boat when he got his first taste of the interesting people group.

  “What’s with the salamander? You’re pretty, but that thing around your neck is creepy,” a fisherman told me as I walked past.

  I just smiled.

  Jeshu, on the other hand, was not pleased. “What did he mean by that?” he asked, loosing a puff of smoke at the same time.

  “Relax. It’s their way. Nothing to get offended by. You’ll see.”

  And he did. I was stopped at least four times before getting off the dock, only to be told some variation of the same thing: it was weird that I had a salamander around my neck.

  “What is wrong with these people?”

  I laughed. “Nothing. They just have a different life philosophy than you. They see no reason to spare feelings or lie about pretty much anything. They find politics tiring and petty. Instead, they say just about anything that pops into their heads. Makes the country unpopular with ambassadors and foreign merchants, but they aren’t trying to make anyone mad. They just want to live an honest life.” I didn’t mention how much I loved that culture. I was used to my mother’s constant bending of the truth, so I found such a blunt people group quite pleasant. Their sense of family honor and loyalty also endeared them to my heart.

  Jeshu shook his head, but let it go, instead guiding me toward his brother. He didn’t tell me how he knew and I didn’t ask. He was still unaware that I knew they shared a soul, but it might have triggered the other spells on him if I mentioned it, so I was going to hold my tongue. It didn’t matter that much to me anyway.

  “Up ahead, I think,” he said after about a ten-minute walk through the village. “There! I can see Yew!” he exclaimed.

  And, sure enough, there stood the silver-haired giant, outside a slightly run down farmhouse on the outskirts of the village. From within came the sound of a woman screaming. It was the type of sound that combined fear and anger to create one incredibly dangerous individual.

  “Leave me alone!
” the woman shrieked.

  “That doesn’t sound good,” Jeshu muttered as we walked up to Yew. “What’s going on in there? Where’s Stone?”

  Yew smirked. “He’s attempting to woo his bride. It isn’t going well.” At which point we heard a pan crash against the front door.

  I pursed my lips, not wanting to laugh but having trouble fighting the urge. When I was finally under control, I knocked loudly on the door.

  A gasp and sudden silence followed, so I knocked again. After a minute, the door was slowly opened to reveal the home’s occupant.

  She was a lovely, sweet looking girl, not more than twenty years old. Her curly brown hair had been hastily put up, leaving a few strands loose near the back of her neck. Her face was still flushed from her tantrum and her periwinkle blue eyes sparked with barely contained emotion. The only thing that didn’t fit her fresh-face look was the ugly scar on her neck. It was the type that came from narrowly escaping having the neck slit completely open.

  The girl eyed me nervously, particularly my ‘necklace’. “Yes? How can I help you?”

  “We’re looking for Stone,” I said, using the name Jeshu gave moments before. “Is he here?”

  Her eyes bugged out but she moved out of the way and let us in, albeit slowly.

  That’s when I saw it. The biggest bull frog I’d ever even heard of squatted on the girl’s kitchen table, looking at the door curiously, completely unperturbed by the mess of thrown objects around him.

  When he saw me, he croaked out “Fire! You’re finally here! It took you long enough.”

  ~

  I was sitting at the kitchen table sipping a cup of tea while the amphibian brothers caught up. It seemed that one of the other things Jeshu couldn’t tell me was that his brother had been sent on the same quest for a bride. It was an… interesting development.

  Also, Stone’s bride was terrified of frogs.

  “I have four brothers,” Thyme confided in me while my husband caught up with his brother across the room. “All of them are older. They would sneak frogs into my lunch pail for school, my bed, my wardrobe, the outhouse, and even the washbasin and my bath. I probably would have gotten over my fear of them, but they just kept showing up and surprising me. Then I pick up a weird ball and arrow and suddenly this giant frog starts talking to me. So I ran.”

  “What happened then?” I asked, fascinated.

  “He met one of my brothers and told Tom that I was his bride. Tom thought it was hilarious and invited him to stay at our house for a while so he could convince me. He’s been here for nearly two weeks! I got so angry today that I sort of lost it. But you have to understand, he is everywhere! He follows me constantly, asking to sit by me at dinner and keep watch in my room for any trouble when I sleep. My brothers just make things harder, telling me to feed him from my plate and let him sleep on my pillow… And then some other guy shows up a week later saying he’s there to perform the wedding ceremony! I don’t want to marry a frog. I don’t care what they say!”

  I laughed. “I don’t blame you. Does it help to know that by marrying him you break the curse partially? He’ll be able to be human as soon as the sun sets every day and if he is anything like my husband, he will be unfailingly kind to you.” I was getting the impression that she wasn’t exactly comfortable around most men, so I thought a word or two might calm her down a tad.

  She looked at me shyly. “Really? He’s kind?”

  “Kinder than anyone I know. And very gentle with me, even when I start getting sarcastic with him. He isn’t perfect by any means, but he is better than the other options by miles.” I shuddered as I thought back over some of the men my mother had offered me to. One in particular stood out. He had been attractive enough, but the things he’d whispered in my ear had given me nightmares for a week.

  The girl sighed. “It’s that way for me too. No one in town is right for me and the only one who has offered is… he’s a foreign merchant who likes to possess things. He will go after whatever anyone else finds valuable, just so he can own it and then gets tired of it. He bought a valuable horse once and nearly killed it when he got tired of trying to train it. I was trying to figure out how to escape before Stone showed up but now the merchant has become more insistent. He heard rumors that I may be engaged and he is demanding first rights.”

  I grimaced. ‘First rights’ was an archaic law that was popular with the wealthy in the kingdom of Crechel. It basically stated that the first person to propose would be given up to a year to plead their case with no outside interference. Many Crechelan nobles had decided that it meant they could hold the poor woman captive in their manors while she considered their suit. Honorable men did not demand it often, and usually to prevent another from trying to force the woman’s choice. Unfortunately, it was rarely used for it’s intended purposes: to pry a girl away from her mother’s harsh opinions or her father’s demands that she marry another, allowing her to marry her sweetheart if she so chose.

  “That’s not good. Don’t worry, married or not, you can travel with us.”

  She shook her head. “My brothers promised my father when I was born that the only way I would leave this home was married or dead.”

  I studied her carefully, thinking up the best way to ask, before remembering where I was. Blunt was best. “Besides being a frog, is there anything else wrong with him?”

  Thyme looked at her hands before mumbling, “No. He really has been a gentleman, even putting up with my throwing things. And him. I’ve thrown him a few times now.”

  “Well, there you go. Those things you picked up were designed to find the perfect mate for Stone and you are it. Which means he is the right man for you. Quit wasting time!”

  Her head popped up and she stared at me in awe. Clearly the thought hadn’t occurred to her. The lake people appreciated magic in a way that few other nations did. If magic declared they were right for each other, then it was probably true. “You’re right! I am wasting time! I’ll do it! There’s no reason not to as long as he isn’t a frog forever.” She smiled brilliantly at me before looking around. “Stone! I’ll marry you.”

  “You will? Really?” he asked, hopping over.

  “Really, but on two conditions.”

  “Name them.” There was no hesitation in his voice. The man would do anything for Thyme.

  “I want my brothers there and I want to leave immediately after.” Her confidence was interesting. I’d wondered if she had it in her to stand up for herself, and it appeared that she didn’t when she finally got over her trepidation.

  “Then, let’s go grab your brothers and have a wedding!”

  ~

  It wasn’t that simple, of course. First we had to find them. Apparently they had decided to work different parts of the farm that day. In exact opposite directions. And then we had to explain exactly what was going on. That took a while.

  First, Tomcat, who did not seem to realize that his name had other connotations in other countries, argued that there should be a party. Thyme spent her time arguing that there wasn’t any time. And yes, I am aware of how strange that sounds.

  Next, Leaf complained that he needed to finish his work before he could leave the fields. He agreed to meet us at the house at the end of the day though. Pond did little more than grunt, making it hard to tell if he had agreed or didn’t feel the need to do more than acknowledge our presence.

  Finally, we found Spring, the oldest, on his way back to the house. He was more than happy to follow us back and explained the names of his family members. All lake people have reasons for the names they were given. Spring was the oldest, thus given the name of the first season. Pond was next, and was named pond because his mother went into labor near the farm’s pond. Tomcat was so named because one saved him from a rat in his cradle when he was only an hour old. Leaf was born in autumn and the leaves that year were especially beautiful.

  Finally, Thyme was named after the herb because their father would bring bouquets of herbs to
their mother instead of flowers. He thought it was more practical because she could use them. Thyme was her favorite and thus it was chosen for their only daughter.

  Jeshu found the practice odd, but I thought it was a lot of fun. My own family tended to name their children after virtues. My sister had missed that because mother named her. My father had chosen my name to continue his family’s tradition and my sister had done the same with her daughters, although Portia went by her middle name instead.

  By the time we returned, everyone was there and waiting. Thyme had a carpetbag filled to the brim and two of her brothers had her hope chest held between them.

  Yew moved forward and grinned at me. “We decided to perform the ceremony on the ship. That way we can leave immediately after and no one will interfere.” His phrasing left no question that he knew my boat was more than it seemed and he wanted to enjoy the other people’s confusion.

  I blinked and looked down at my husband. “This will be interesting.”

  And it was. By the time we reached the dock, we’d collected quite the procession. Every villager wanted to send their best wishes and they formed a blockade to prevent the Crechelan merchant from getting close to the girl. I know because I could hear his squawked threats and the phrase ‘first rights’ echoing from behind the mass of people.

  When we reached my ship, Thyme and her brothers stopped and stared. Yew smirked at their expressions.

  “She can’t sail off in that! It will fall apart as soon as she steps on,” Spring declared.

  “Just wait,” I said, stepping aboard and moving aside. Their faces were priceless as they stepped aboard and saw the real ship.

  Jeshu snickered from below my chin. “Now I know why you seemed so happy to show it off to me. Their faces are fantastic.”

  “I know, right?” I asked just before stepping forward to direct the movement of Thyme’s things to her cabin.