9
Prima
After finishing my morning meal and then bathing and dressing, I spent the day exploring the castle. I noticed that although everyone was friendly enough, they all kept a wide berth from me. I wondered if they were afraid to interact with me because of who and what I was now.
Or because I was Fenrir the Destroyer’s wife.
Their queen by right.
Gods, that sounded unreal to even think about.
I was curious if they knew Fen the way I was starting to know him, or if they were still under the impression he was this animal in a man’s body.
Maybe he is to everyone but you? Maybe this is all an act so he gains your trust?
But even as those words moved through my mind, I rejected them. He certainly was frightening to behold, but I thought of every winter when he made sure the village had extra food and furs so everyone had what they needed during the harsh season.
Someone who was truly evil wouldn’t care.
And he does.
I found myself winding my way through the many corridors. Some were plain in appearance, others elaborate with furs covering the stone flooring and gold-leaf detailing. I made my way into what was a library, the shelving from the floor to the beamed roof, the leather-bound books filling every available shelf. I’d only ever seen a couple of books in my life, because most of the villagers were laborers and not educated scholars to afford such luxuries.
I was in awe right now.
I stayed in the library for long moments, running my fingers along the books, even pulling a few of them off the shelving and flipping through the thick parchment pages.
Some of them were written in our official language of Kaldarian, but others were in languages I couldn’t decipher. Did Fen understand these? I had a feeling he was far more intelligent than he let on, than anyone gave him credit for.
Sure, he was a ruler, and he’d have to be smart in order to hold a kingdom, but I could tell he was more of a warrior than anything else. It was the way he held himself, that silent, brutal demeanor that surrounded him.
But I had a feeling Fen had both strength and intelligence in abundance.
I felt that warm ache settle between my legs again at the very thought that he was mine.
I slipped the book I held back onto the shelf and looked around the room. There was a large hearth, some fire-scorched wood stacked inside now long cold. A pallet of furs and pillows sat in front of that, and I could see a book opened up and flipped over as it marked the page for whoever had been reading it.
I made my way over to it, picked it up, and once again ran my fingers over the thick paper. It was a book of poems, and as I read those words, feeling the passion within each line resonate within me, I felt a smile curve my mouth.
I may not have had a lot of experience with books, but I did have an incredible friend, an elderly village woman who’d been taught by her mother how to read, and then had bestowed that gift on me.
They spoke of gods and goddesses and talked about the creatures that lived in the great oceans.
They were ones of love and hatred, of sadness and loss.
And each one had so much emotion and passion in it that you couldn’t help but feel as if they were written just for you, a personal declaration of every feeling that every being had ever experienced in their entire existence.
I set the book down, keeping it open to where the page had been when I’d picked it up. I left the room, wanting to feel the sun and fresh air on my face, and knew the perfect place to go to experience that. The castle gardens.
Even though I’d told Fenrir that I preferred to bathe alone, Lila and Greta had helped me once again this morning. That would have to change, though. I was capable of doing things myself, no matter what my stature was now.
And although I didn’t know where the gardens were, I didn’t mind wandering around. It let me acclimate and familiarize myself with my surroundings. It allowed me to stop and look at the paintings on the stone walls that depicted nobility and the wonder and beauty of the wilderness around the kingdom.
I stopped at one just now, and was lost in my thoughts as I stared at the particularly beautiful painting, one showing the monsters of the Kaldir Mountains you could see just outside the castle walls. It showed the great ocean and just beneath it, the waves frozen in time as they slapped against the rocky shore.
I shook my head and continued to make my way down the long corridor, the space broken up by statues on pedestals. The sound of the soft soles of my shoes padding along the stone floor with each step I took seemed especially loud to my ears.