Lucia novel · Chapter 2 of 24

Chapter 2: The Prince Who Never Looks Up

Prince Corradin insults her and the captain before the court and the king demands she withdraw the Naming; the chancellor sets a seven-night rule and Tobin says they marry before sunset; in the chapel Corradin says he objects.

Prince Corradin walked the length of the hall without hurrying.

His boots made no noise on the stone, and his eyes stayed on the paper in his hand.

My father came down from the throne to meet him.

"Your Highness," the king said, and his voice shook with the effort to sound calm. "You are early."

"The roads were dry," the prince said, still reading.

He turned a page.

"I was told the princess was quiet and easy," he said to the paper. "Which of these is she?"

"I am Lucia," I said.

He lifted his head.

For one breath his grey eyes landed on my face, and something in them went flat and shut.

Then he looked past me, at the captain's muddy boots.

"This is the husband I heard about at the gate?" he said. "A boot-soldier with a cart wheel?"

A few of the lords laughed.

"Captain Garrick of Greywatch," Tobin said evenly. "And I'd thank you to keep the boots out of it."

"Greywatch." The prince tasted the word. "The fort that cannot feed its own dogs."

"We eat the dogs last," Tobin said. "First is the horses."

Somebody at the back actually snorted.

The prince did not smile.

He held up the paper so the whole court could see the black wax seal.

"The treaty names the king's only daughter as my wife by Midsummer," he said. "Not a captain's. Mine."

"The Naming is the law of this land," I said.

"Your law," he said. "Not ours."

"Then your father should have read the law of the land he signed a treaty with."

His eyes came back to me, cold as river water.

"You are as loud as I was warned," he said. "I do not marry loud women."

"Good," I said. "Then we agree on something."

My father's face went dark red.

"Lucia," the king said. "You will withdraw the Naming. Now."

"No."

"I am your king."

"You are my father," I said. "And I am a grown woman, and I made my choice in front of everyone."

"You made it in a rage."

"I made it in my right mind."

"Your Majesty," Montalban said softly.

He had come up on my father's other side with his hands folded.

I had never liked how gentle his voice was.

"The Naming is lawful," the Chancellor said. "That is not in dispute. But the old book has one more line."

"Read it," my father said.

"A Naming stands only if the couple wed at once," Montalban said. "And the marriage must be made true within seven nights."

His eyes slid to me and away again.

"A marriage never made true may be set aside by the king."

"Made true," Tobin repeated.

"The wedding bed, Captain," Montalban said with a little smile. "The oldest sort of proof."

The heat rushed up my neck.

I did not look at Tobin.

I could feel that he was not looking at me either.

"That means seven nights to prove it," the prince said. "And if they fail, the princess comes north as the treaty says."

"It does," Montalban said.

"Then I will wait," the prince said. "I have time."

"You cannot do this," I said to the room. "Both of you are talking about me as if I am a field."

"You are a treaty," the prince said.

"I am a person."

"You are a loud one."

My father lifted his hand.

Every word seemed to cost him.

"The Naming stands for now," he said. "Let the seven nights run. If it is not made true, Lucia goes north."

"They will be made true," I said.

Tobin cleared his throat beside me.

"Highness," he said quietly, low enough that only I could hear. "You don't have to do it just because they say it."

"I know."

"I mean it. If you've changed your mind about a stranger with a bad coat, I'll walk out that door and not look back."

I turned to look at him.

His face was serious, and a little tired, and kind.

He had said it the way a man says a thing when he fully expects to be the one who loses.

"I haven't changed my mind," I said.

"Then I haven't either."

He looked down the hall at the prince, then at the king, then at the Chancellor.

"Then we marry before sunset," he said, loud enough for them all to hear.

"No sense giving anybody seven nights to talk her out of it."

"Sunset," my father said, as if the word had a bad taste.

"Sunset," I said.

Behind me, Pia made a small happy noise she tried to hide as a cough.

The chapel at Vellora was cold and smelled of candle smoke.

Only twelve people had come, and my father had refused to be one of them.

Pia stood at my left with her curls pinned up and her hands gripping a bunch of white wildflowers she had picked from the yard.

The priest was old and tired and had never heard of the Naming until that afternoon.

"Do you, Lucia Aurelan, take this man?" he began.

The chapel door opened behind us.

Soft boots, a long coat.

Prince Corradin sat down in the last pew with his hands on his knees and watched me with those grey, empty eyes.

Tobin's fingers tightened around mine.

"If anyone objects to this marriage," the priest said, "let him speak now."

The quiet stretched.

"I object," said the prince.

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