Chapter 4 The Larissa

Three years have passed since Princess Edwina sailed from Rikia to marry the Prince of Ithaca. The first year was a blur learning to be human again. The second year was learning to survive as an elf. The third year was learning to give up her dream of remembering the princess she once was and accepting the wife and mother she had become now. Queen Bryn married the elf and human on the beach before Edwina gave birth to a boy with a wolf’s face and claws who Ilio named Jaden. There was no marriage contract so it was not official until the contract was agreed upon by both families. Soon an elf girl named Mahalah was born to them. They step on the gangplank to board Ilio’s ship Larissa named after a slave girl he befriended as a boy and who had died from a seizure. Edwina was terrified and exhilarated to be going on such an adventure. The hull packed full of elf, faun, centaur, sprite, and mermaid goods to sell in their first stop at Knossos. Edwina never viewed such a grand stone city. Ilio thought Rikia would be even grander for her to see. A harbor full of ships was offloading their cargoes, ships readying for voyages, merchants stopping at new ships to examine their cargo, docks covered in ladies wearing cosmetics greeting their sailor men, and of course the high guard towers shouldering a large gateway. They walk to the gateway carrying their trunks for their stay at the inn. The Sea god temple and enclosed fish market came first. Further down brothels and taverns sat for sailors. They turned a corner to find merchant homes and more respectable inns. Women walked down the street with clay jugs hanging on a twig balanced on their shoulders. Amazed at the public fountains, Edwina had to pause at the gargoyle spout and laugh. Closer to the grand market place, shops aligned the streets leading to the Temple of Justice.

They settle into their room at the inn and rent a horse to show Edwina the city. They ride by the market place, the theater, public baths, arena, shops further in the city, and known artists. The elves returning on Ilio’s ship and the Dark Mountain elves spoke of these grand cities along with the wealth of some and poverty of the most. Edwina noticed the most between eating at the inn and dining at Ilio’s trade partner’s villa. Sorcha, daughter of Athos, inherited an orchard from her father where her son lives. She used her profits from selling olive oil and wine to buy a vacation villa in the capital. When not in residence, she rented out the rooms to like an inn with her servants acting as managers. She bought more property to rent out as shops and apartments. Ilio met her after trading treasured jasmine perfumes, rosewater, lavender soaps, licorice, mint, sage, rosemary, marsh mellow, and incense from his ship. Sorcha was fascinated by the beautiful glass vessels they were stored in instead of common clay pots. She was delighted to meet his wife and gave her a necklace of Minoan pearls. She gave Ilio a gold arm band. She held a grand banquet with musicians and dancers to welcome the guests into her enclosed garden. The couples conversed the guests and Ilio made a few new trade partners. As usual, his hostess demanded a story of foreign lands. Ilio chose the initiation ceremony to become Lord of Blue Island. Queen Lexie granted him a wedding gift, the lordship on the island she holds her court on after he proved himself worthy of it. She took him away to her court island where he dined with the Blue Island mermaids reciting tales of valor. Edwina adored the Blue Mountains covered in snow that never melts.

While resting in his lodge, the mermaids came to bring him to the queen. They played music and danced along the way. He stood before Lexie as the mermaids stripped off his weapons. Lexie then ordered his linen tunic removed because he must be absolutely vulnerable in this ritual. Barefoot, he was guided through a path of mermaids holding willow branches. Each mermaid tapped his head and shoulders as an anointment gesture. Then Queen Bryn with a deer skull on her head and gourd necklace around her shoulders painted symbols on his chest with dolphin’s blood. He walked up another path to kneel before the Prince Jax and Princess Tara so they could drop handfuls of flower petals over his head. A stony lane came next and at the end was Lexie. She asked the mermaids if this godly elfman should be let inside her court. The mermaids cheered. She walked around reciting prayers to give him strength and gift of strategy to guard the mermaids, all the while hitting him with a linen whip. She presented a shark tooth necklace and then swiped sea snake venom on his forehead. She stressed only beings with magic can resist the poison of the sea snake. The mermaids took him down the sea washing him so he always will smell like the sea. Lexie then came down to give him a tattoo upon his cheekbone of a starfish with a crescent moon to symbolized his service to the North Sea queen. In conclusion, Princess Edwina was given Ladyship of Blue Island. It must be said in this tale that each Mermaid Island has a chief and settlements have lords. Since Queen Lexie is chieftess of her home court island, Ilio is made lord instead of chief. Sorcha enjoyed the story. Edwina pointed out he failed to mention what he had to do to win this gift. Another night, he will recite that tale.

The next day he visited his new contacts to receive their investments into his shipping company. They make the contract on a clay tablet. Ilio’s first mate Ivhar sells the furs, medicines, pearls, mother of pearl, shell beads, and gemstones from Titania. Ilio even had shed dragon skin used in elf armor. When they gathered enough cargo and food to sail to Ithaca, they bid farewell to Sorcha. When they finally arrived in Ithaca, Crown Princess Sarah comes in her chariot to escort them to the palace. They are given robes and baths before attending a feast in the great hall. Edwina looks around at the home that could have been hers, but then she didn’t know if her old self would have liked it or not.

Crown Princess Sarah seems sad in her new home. Just married the month before, she is unsure how to be a wife of an Ithacan prince. South Sea culture is very different from North Sea. Ilio assures her that given time; she will become accustomed to it. Another problem was that the Crown Prince seemed intrigued by every woman he met, except her. She wished to visit the countryside to meet her future subjects. He gave her an escort and used this absence to carry on his affair with his mother’s maid of honor. She asked to be returned home as this prince never touch her, but the king insisted she stay. Ilio came up with a solution to her problem. He lavished attention on Sarah. He got up close and personal teaching her to shoot an arrow so she could hunt with the prince. He played music and recited stories to her delight. During a meal, he danced with Sarah full of confidence the prince was becoming jealous. Then, he suggests a visit to the Nubian queen Chloe. The queen who kept losing her husbands to battle with Blythe and Mermaid Islands, married a palace guard and made him king. More cautious than his predecessors, he has invited royal families to celebrate the birth of his new daughter, future queen of Nubia. Princess Sarah asks her father-in-law the king to represent their family in the festivities. He agrees to allow Ilio’s ship to escort her there. Sarah and Edwina talk a great deal about their childhood dreams and games they played. Ilio feels this connection brings back Edwina’s memory, just a little bit. Where were these connections three years ago?

Queen Chloe was very happy to see Ilio again. Since his last visit four years ago, so many things had occurred. She finished building a new temple and planned chariot races to mark the occasion. Ilio’s family stays in the palace guest rooms. Princess Sarah has bed chambers for her and her maids of honor. Feasts are eaten and games are run as the country celebrates. The king takes Ilio hunting as the women enjoy the gardens. Merchants had come to the palace for the guests to buy their wares without dealing with marketplace riffraff. Ilio buys jewels, feather fans, cloth, perfume, mirrors, and a grand sword. Queen Chloe gives Sarah a hunting dog as a gift and it follows Sarah wherever she goes. Chloe is most disturbed to hear that her daughter Hermione, she had to give up because her father was a foreign elf, is now a mistress of the Crown Prince of Ithaca. Hermione’s uncle Mishca used his noble family status to get her a job as maid of honor for the queen. Mishca owns a shipping company and visits the palace with delicacies not easy to find. They return to Ithaca bringing treasures and a new pet. Sarah becomes quite attached to her puppy and names him after her father. Full of charm towards Sarah, the Crown Prince suddenly begs to sit next her during the next meal. He demands to know if any of the sailors or guards she met caught her eye. She begs to know why he cares, he has his mistresses so why pay attention to the little wife he has not touched since they married. The night before, she spied Hermione leaving the palace with her uncle Mishca. The next morning, Ilio and Edwina sail for Blythe to meet with her family before settling on Blue Island. What they discover later is Sarah stowing away on one of his ships half way to their destination. The ships arrive in Rikia to hear much celebration as two princesses returned home. Queen Andromeda holding King Demetrius’s son welcomes her daughters home. Displeased at breaking the marriage contract, Andromeda sends envoys to Ithaca to negotiate the return of the princess’s dowry. King Demetrius and Prince Lucius are battling Dacians with Lotan king Oskar; they cannot afford a war with Ithaca.

Ilio and Edwina settle into her old bed chamber altered into a nursery for Demetrius’s son Kiernan. Jaden and Mahalah rested upon the feather bed while Ilio and Edwina unpacked their trunks. Sarah was sent to welcome the couriers from Dacia, to make herself useful. King Demetrius demands the same messengers go back and forth to prevent tampering with the dispatches. One courier was King Oskar’s grandson Grand Prince Ragnar. After riding all day, the couriers were guided by Princess Sarah to the drawing room where trays of fruit and nuts were presented to the guests. Andromeda’s chamberlain took the scrolls to her bedchamber as she was dressing for the evening meal in the great hall. Sarah directed servants to prepare the bathing pool, prepare guest rooms, and prepare meal trays to be delivered to the rooms. The Couriers of the King must rest. The Grand Prince is to receive special treatment with his own private bath. Sarah escorts Ragnar to his bedchamber. He is surprised to see her. He thought she left already to marry a Prince of Ithaca. She did. She left her husband when he took up mistresses instead of touching her. If she were pregnant, possibly she would stay. The king and queen were very kind to her. Her puppy Dracon from Queen Chloe was her only reminder of her past. Ragnar could understand the mistresses of an unruly prince and warned many suitors would hesitate courting her now. Few men can handle their wife leaving forever without a chance of reconciliation. She claims she gave plenty of chances and even viewed the mistress Hermione leaving the palace with her uncle. Ragnar wondered what reply the envoys will bring back.

They reached the bed chamber and maidservants are heating the bath in the wash room. Sarah takes Ragnar into Prince Lucius’s closet room. Ragnar admires the jewelry he finds in painted boxes while Sarah searches for robes in painted trunks. Sarah confesses she resents that her brothers and sisters were allowed to marry whom they choose, but she got betrothed to a prince who could never love her. It is most unfair. She then grabs fur slippers and spare clothes for Ragnar and enters the bed chamber. Ragnar sympathizes with her plight and informs her that she should stop trying to be the perfect wife for a prince. Princes like naughty girls. Sarah replies they also fling away these naughty girls when they get pregnant as if they were food scraps. Ragnar agrees that is true also. He takes off his boots to place on the fur slippers and slips a robe over his dirty clothes. He next confesses that he has been riding all day and just wants to lie down in silence while his bath is being prepared. Sarah excuses herself. Ragnar asks her to stay with him. She agrees.

“The Prince of Ithaca never touched you.” speaks Ragnar lying flat on Prince Lucius’s bed with all blankets neatly spread underneath him.

“That is correct,” answered Sarah taking his boots to the wash room for the maidservants to clean and oil.

“Hence, you are unspoiled and have no concept how to pleasure a man.”

“That is correct. I assume you are not unspoiled by the way you smirk at that.” replies Sarah now sitting on a chair.

“I am spoiled to the core by maidens eager to be crowned Queen of Lotan. Yet, do any of them love me if I were not the Crown Prince? You see my position.”

“I cannot say I feel any compassion for you, and I thought you wanted silence.”

“Come lie by me. It is a wonderful sentiment just to be near a woman. Just lie here beside me.”

“Alright, I suppose I can do that much for you after riding all day to deliver a message to my mother.”

“You would let an Ithacan prince you end up leaving spoil you on your wedding night, and yet hesitate towards me.”v

Sarah rests on the bed to have Ragnar wrap his arms around her shoulders. She stiffens and pulls away to have Ragnar pull her back to him with a huge smile. He removed combs from her hair to stroke the tresses down to brushing her cheek. He said nothing, but held her while she stared frozen deep into his eyes. She finally could no longer take in his intense gaze and nestled her face against his shoulder. He caressed her tighter and Sarah just laid still listening to his breathing. The maidservant interrupted to announce the bath was drawn. Sarah began to cry.

“Why could the Prince of Ithaca not do something so simple? She might have stayed if she got any attention from him.” Ragnar got up and walked to the door to the wash room.

“You have to stop trying to be the perfect princess and just be naughty.” then he entered the wash room and shut the door.

Alone, Sarah rose from the bed wiping tears and tried to stifle her cries. She gathered herself enough to open the washroom door to find Ragnar undressing.

“I do not know how to be naughty. I was raised to be a gracious princess and respectable future queen, not a dishonorable maidservant.”

Ragnar spoke no words, but approached Sarah and kissed her lips. He stepped into his bath and relaxed his sore muscles in the warm water. Sarah stood frozen as ever as the shocked of what just transpired soaked into her soul. Unsure what to do, she stared at Ragnar smiling away until he jerked his head, then twitched his fingers in a motion meaning for Sarah to come to him. He handed her a sponge covered in soap and she sat along the rim of the stone tub to wash him. A maidservant came in to collect his clothes and boots for washing. She asked if Sarah needed help getting undressed and Ragnar dismissed her. The servants brought in food trays from the evening meal they were missing in the great hall. Sarah finished rinsing Ragnar’s hair when Princess Edwina came by asking for her sister. Ragnar stepped out of the stone tub and wrapped a clean robe around himself. He told Edwina that Sarah just left down the servant stairs to feed the puppy Dracon. Edwina left assured Ragnar and Sarah had been occupied swapping stories to neglect the evening meal. Edwina left and Sarah came out with a towel. Dried off and dressed in fresh robes, Sarah and Ragnar ate from the trays sharing stories of Ithaca and Dacia. Sarah refused to spend the night with Ragnar to leave for the sitting room where the family gathered before turning into bed. Ilio ran into her in the hall and told Edwina to go on without him. Something was different about Sarah.

He asked if she was enchanted by Ragnar to watch Sarah blush at the sound of his name. He teased her how she must be in love after all this time. She confessed her time with Ragnar and concerned how long Ragnar will be kind to her. No one can tell until they speak to Ragnar. The family knitted, played music and games, and composed letters to Demetrius and Lucius in their heads. Sarah could not stop thinking of Ragnar sleeping by himself, but refused to visit him. The maidservants dressed her in her nightdress and fur slippers. They combed her hair and chattered on about the letters the chamberlain gave to Queen Andromeda. Many soldiers were getting a plague and Prince Lucius was sick with fever. The maidservants left for their own rooms, no doubt with a palace guard waiting for them. She settled into bed with her scroll reading an old story of a goddess falling in love with a mortal and her resulting heartbreak when her brother killed her beloved. Just then Ragnar came in her door. Sarah refused again to sleep in the same bed with him, even if he couldn’t stop dreaming about her. That’s not why he came in. He further explained he would be here for three days when Andromeda would have her replies written out. Could she show him their gardens and visit the seashore? Sarah agreed. Ragnar bid her a good night.

The next morning Ilio reported Sarah’s visit with Ragnar. Edwina was most pleased and encouraged Sarah to join them on a visit to the marketplace. Sarah announced they were going to the seashore after touring the palace gardens. Sarah held Ragnar’s arm as they paced through the flower beds and stone statues. Ilio and Edwina ordered robes, herbs, jewels, and animals to his ship. Ragnar and Edwina continued on the beach because Ragnar grew up and lived in grasslands far from the sea. They collected seashells and found an abandoned mermaid shack. Ragnar insisted on kissing her and she returned the sentiment. She confessed she did not wish him to leave, no matter how important her brothers needed their dispatches. He promised to have the seashells made into a necklace to remember him by. He must also ask permission for a betrothal from his family and hers. The end of the Dacian War was near as Demetrius was staffing Varrick bordering forts instead of concentrating his army in Dacia. That day he gave her the wedding night she should have received in Ithaca. In a moment, she knew she would never see Ithaca again. Hermione can keep the Crown Prince. Ilio spotted the couple first riding in a chariot down Marine Road. He witnessed a very happy Sarah and proud Ragnar. He whispered to his wife that Sarah was spoiled now and would never accept another husband. At the palace, Sarah wrote out a letter to her brother and Ragnar’s mother explaining the request of a betrothal. Ragnar left as scheduled at dawn on the third day with his companions. Sarah leaving everything behind in Ithaca had asked the court jeweler to make something for him to wear in battle. The man created a seashell bead necklace that could be worn with his chain mail. Ragnar was bright and shiny in his sand polished chain mail and new iron helmet. His beaded and fringed leather boots oiled made him look like the grand prince he was.

Sarah watched the couriers ride away and missed Ragnar every moment. She turned away and returned to her bed chamber holding the seashell necklace that was made from the shells they collected on the beach. She prayed inside temples with the other families of soldiers and waited for news of the war from returning veterans too injured to fight anymore. She visited soldiers training in the arena and presented iron swords to departing captains. Ilio and Edwina prepared his ships to sail to Blue Island. Ships full of trade items and sailors to row the oars were repairing sails while Ilio decided when to leave. But, before they could leave Ilio naturally had to tell a story to yet another audience. So many long to hear tales of Titania, Ithaca, Nubia, and the islands in between only sailors get to see. For his final tale to the Blythan royal family and fellow nobles with sons training in the arenas Ilio decides on the Tale of the Ice Queen.