Chapter 40

Raucous laughter rang from the walls of the Rhinnean great hall, the waves of sound pounding into Annalise’s head. After the relative quiet of the woods, the noise made by the crowd of people was almost oppressive. Compared to her aunt’s court, which was best described as merry, or her father’s, which had been much more reserved—loud noises brought out King Everet’s temper —this court was like a squawking murder of crows. 

She’d chosen to wear her wooden-and-wool half mask for the meal, breathing a silent prayer of thanks to the Goddess for Amelia Lennil. Thanks to her gift, Annalise could eat with minimal fuss while still keeping a barrier between her and the others. 

The ride through Rea had gone fairly well—the most surprising part was the cheers from the crowd. After so many wars and skirmishes between Dovea and Rhinnea, Annalise had been sure that her reception would be less than effusive, but whether it was King Nelan riding at her side, the thought of a royal wedding and continued stability between the two realms, or the handfuls of coins they threw to the masses the result was the same. News of their procession into the city spread faster than their actual progress, and by the time they’d reached the inner portions where the wealthiest guild masters and merchants lived, their column was showered with flowers. 

After they’d entered the castle grounds, King Nelan had dismounted and bowed to Annalise before making his excuses and handing her and her retinue over to the head butler. The king sat beside her now, cutting a fine figure in his crimson tunic and black pants. He’d kept the gold circlet, and up close Annalise could make out the intricate etchings that covered it. 

He caught her looking and leaned towards her. “You are quite fetching tonight, Your Highness, although I believe your mask does you a disservice.” 

She dipped her head. “Thank you, Your Majesty. Wearing the mask is my custom at meal times because I do not wish to risk harming anyone.” 

The king studied her face for a moment with the same expression as if he were assessing the qualities of a broodmare. “Take it off.” 

“Your Majesty—”

“Do as I say or I’ll be rather cross with you. You wouldn’t want to cause a diplomatic incident on your first day in Rea, would you?” 

Annalise did as he asked, untying her mask and setting it to the side of her plate. The heat of the room from four burning hearths, the hall packed to the brim with people seeking to catch a glimpse of the new royal couple, the strong wine, and now the anger at King Nelan dismissing her concerns so easily, all combined in a great rush of blood to her face. 

He apparently took her blush for demureness. “Don’t be shy. As I said, you’re beautiful, and I think you’ll soon realize that we Rhinneans are made of stronger stuff than your countrymen…” his voice trailed off as he tapped a finger against his lips. “Although you do have a point. Perhaps you had the right idea in wearing a mask so others may know who you are at a glance. My ambassadors spoke highly of the skill and craftsmanship of the ivory mask you wore in Dovea. Tomorrow you may wear that one.” 

“I’m afraid that mask was destroyed, Your Majesty, when the bandits captured me during our journey here,” Annalise said after taking a fortifying sip of wine. 

“Was it? A pity. In that case, I will order a new one made for you. Only the best is good enough for my wife, the queen.”

Annalise swallowed her anger and pasted a smile on her face. “Whatever pleases you, Your Majesty.” 

“Thank you, Princess Annalise. Your compliance and biddability are quite appreciated.” King Nelan patted her hand like one would pat the head of a dog before returning his focus to his food. 

After the meal, King Nelan and Annalise opened the festivities for the evening with the first dance of the night. While she started out rather rusty, King Nelan was light on his feet, and by the end of the dance Annalise almost had fun. Her amusement was lessened once she returned to her chair and saw Soren dancing with a Rhinnean lady. Afterwards, he took a break at the side of the room, and Annalise watched him flirt with one of the servant maids before another lady drew him away. His new dance partner was rather busty lady with a low cut dress who seemed all too willing to bat her long eyelashes at Soren and titter at whatever he said, and he smiled at her as if he enjoyed looking at her too-red painted lips and overly large jewelry. Annalise pretended to clap along to the music and enjoy herself, even though on the inside she wanted to curl up into a ball and have a good cry.

That afternoon, after the procession through Rea, Soren had checked on her as she got settled in her chambers. His manner had been overly formal and stiff, and she doubted it was only because of the Rhinnean guard shadowing him wherever he went. He’d stayed for just long enough to ensure she was safe and to inform her that he’d cleared a plan with General Anar that involved assigning a hybrid mix of Dovean and Rhinnean guards to her chambers starting the next morning to ensure her safety in the days leading up to her wedding.

He’d been the utmost professional with her, bordering on dry, and had declined to step foot into her rooms before excusing himself on the grounds of returning to the barracks to make sure his men were playing nicely with their Rhinnean babysitters. 

A pang of jealousy stabbed Annalise in the heart as she watched him dance. She’d never questioned his constancy before, but the Soren from the night before when he’d all but sworn his undying love for her compared to the one dancing with the women of the Rhinnean court without a care in the world gave her quite the case of emotional whiplash. 

She took a measured sip of her wine and turned her attention away from Soren to her betrothed. She reasoned it was good that Soren was moving on, and his example was something that she should follow. Her life, for better or worse, was to be entwined with King Nelan’s, and she would not dishonor herself by lingering on what might have been.  

As King Nelan explained to her in between introductions and well-wishers, there were more nobles than usual at the Rhinnean court. The court’s social season ran over the course of winter and early spring, the highlight of which was traditionally the spring equinox celebration. As such, almost the entire Rhinnean nobility lived either at the castle or at their own personal houses in Rea. Any latecomers who wouldn’t normally be in the capital for the social season would soon make the journey in order to meet the new future queen consort, as well as to prepare for the wedding. 

Annalise had always thought herself good with names and faces, but after an hour of near-constant introductions she felt the cheerful tone of her voice start to slip and the corners of her eyes hurt from her forced smiling. 

After the last minor lord and lady made their bow and curtsy, Annalise sighed loud enough that King Nelan heard her over the din of the dining room. 

“How are you feeling, my princess? Don’t try to disassemble; I know all too well how draining these things can be,” he said, leaning uncomfortably close. 

Annalise shifted in her seat to give herself more space. “Honestly, Your Majesty, I am fatigued. My journey here has been long and fraught with peril, and even with a rest this afternoon I fear I am feeling rather…stretched.” 

“I see.” King Nelan stroked his clean-shaven jaw. “Well, if it helps, you’ve been quite impressive to weather such a marathon. You were even able to get old Lord Cuppents to smile, which is a feat on par with slaying a dragon.” 

“You flatter me, Your Majesty,” she replied demurely. 

His dark gaze pinned her in place. “I fear this is the second time my envoy has misinterpreted your various charms to me. Not only are you as beautiful as a frozen mountain lake on a clear winter’s day, your tact and statesmanship are far beyond what I could have ever dreamt. I hope it doesn’t offend you to hear this, but Ambassador Selveg represented you as akin to a plain wooden cup, when in reality you are a delicate silver goblet decorated with the finest of jewels.” 

“The Rhinnean delegation didn’t have much time in Dovea, and what little they heard of the rumors in my father’s court probably colored their view of me.” Annalise paused to take another sip of wine before rushing on when she remembered what Nelan had said earlier in the day about punishment for misrepresenting her. “But please, King Nelan, don’t punish them on my account. I don’t wish to be the cause of any trouble or misfortune.” 

“You are as sweet as a bowl of spun sugar.” Nelan cut a bite of fruit tart from the display set in front of them and chewed on it thoughtfully. After he swallowed, he shook his head. “But that is a request I cannot accept, as any impugnment of your honor is a mark against mine.” The King raised a hand, and immediately one of his servants was hovering over his shoulder. “Bring me Ambassador Selveg, who led the contingent to Dovea.”

With a deep bow, the servant scurried off, and Annalise tried not to let her discomfort show.

All too soon the ambassador was escorted into the great hall, and the dancers on the floor made room for him and the guards who brought him in. His appearance was abysmal. Annalise couldn’t stifle a gasp at his bloodied and swollen face, or at his shirt, which hung in shreds around him. 

“Ambassador Selveg, do you know why I’ve brought you here?” King Nelan asked, leaning forward in his chair and placing his elbows on the table. 

“No, Your Majesty,” Selveg replied through bleeding lips. Compared to the last time Annalise had seen him, he was missing several teeth.

“You committed the travesty of misrepresenting my future bride to me. You said she hid her homely features behind a mask, that she was no different from any other princess I could wed. Gaze upon her now and tell me that you don’t see a beauty to rival the stars in the winter night sky. Tell me that you don’t recognize her noble bearing, or the cultured way in which she moves. Tell the entire court that when you look into her eyes you don’t observe a soft, feminine spirit and an intelligence that would stand tall next to that of our greatest scholars.” 

Ambassador Selveg hung his head. “My sincerest apologies, Your Majesty and Your Highness. It was not my intention to misrepresent Princess Annalise; I only sought to temper your expectations for fear that if I spoke too highly of her, you would feel displeased and accuse me of attempting to deceive you.” 

“You think you know my mind? You assume I can be managed?” King Nelan slammed his palm on the table. Several of the courtiers jumped, but Annalise was not one of them. She sipped her drink to give her hands something to do and keep them from trembling at King Nelan’s mercurial moods. 

At the sound of his king’s displeasure, Ambassador Selveg’s eyes went wide, and he jerked up his head. “No, Your Majesty, I would never–”

“And now you have lied to me once more. Do not think that it escaped my notice that you refused to look at the princess just now, either. For your impertinence several times over, I decree that your punishment is to have both of your eyes plucked out. If you cannot see the value of the woman sitting in front of you, you do not deserve to see at all.” 

Annalise set her cup down. She knew that speaking up was a risk, especially if he had a temper, but she couldn’t let Ambassador Selveg suffer for such a vain reason if she could help it. “Your Majesty, please spare this man. He didn’t have the chance to speak with me because of my father’s overprotection, and to my knowledge he served you well while in Dovea. Please, I beg of you, do not punish one of your loyal servants.” 

King Nelan paused, his hand raised in the air as if he were in the middle of conducting a symphony. His cold and calculating expression made Annalise feel as though she was staring into the eyes of a snake. 

“If that is your wish, my dear, then I suppose I can make an exception,” he said finally before turning his gaze back to the room. “Princess Annalise has pleaded for mercy for this man. To honor the request of my betrothed, I’ll amend his punishment: He will only lose one eye—so that he may look upon the beauty of my bride and know that if it were not for her kind and gentle spirit, he would never see again, and his right hand—so that the next time he writes a letter, he will remember the cost of writing lies and deceiving his king.”

In Dovea, when servants of the crown were punished, it was done away from prying eyes. There were very few cases in which public examples were made; only once in Annalise’s memory had someone suffered a public punishment, and that was a case of treason in which a disgruntled cook attempted to poison her father, leading to half the court suffering food poisoning.

Apparently, things were very different in Rhinnea.

Sensing King Nelan’s eyes on her, she feigned disinterest as one of the castle guards stepped forward and clawed Ambassador Selveg’s eye from his face. She still hadn’t figured her betrothed out, although she feared he would turn out to be as big a bully as her father, and that his cruelty was much, much worse. If there was anything she’d learned in Dovea, it was that bullies thrived off fear and discomfort from others, and she refused to become a target. 

At a signal from King Nelan, the guard brought the eyeball to the table for inspection as a pair of guards pushed Selveg to the ground and stretched his arm out, pinning it to the floor. The king took the glistening and bloody eye, twisting it back and forth in the candlelight, before holding it out to Annalise. “What do you think, Your Highness? Consider this my third gift to you.”  

She answered his unspoken challenge and gingerly took the eyeball from him, not sure if she should be grateful for the excuse to not watch Selveg lose his hand, or completely horrified at what she had to do instead. She inspected the bloody organ for a moment before handing it off to a servant. “Thank you, Your Majesty, for your restraint and wisdom,” she said with as much composure as she could muster.  

His smile was wolfish, as if he was already plotting and planning his next show of strength and brutality. “You are very welcome, Princess Annalise. I look forward to spending more time with you in the coming days as our nuptials approach. We have much to learn about each other.” 

For once, Annalise wished she was wearing her mask so she could have something to hide behind.

Author note: And thus we move into the final arc of The Masked Princess. Thank you to all of my lovely readers who have kept up with this story! We have 19 chapters left and believe me when I say the fun is only getting started! 💖