‘Can I help you?’Father asked.
‘Your daughter offered to introduce me,’ the stranger said.‘I mean her no harm.’
Father combed his eyes over the stranger, taking in his finery piece by piece.The knot of suspicion between his brows loosened, making way for unease.‘Who are you?’
The stranger put an elegant hand on his chest and bowed.‘I am Fürst Raleigh Linford von Rostenburg, the tenth Prince of Rostenburg and Count of Triz.’He spoke like a prince too: polished, perfect.It was a voice you knew you had to obey, though he seemed to take great care in making it sound effortless.‘I’d say it’s a pleasure, but really I am returning to my lands after some time abroad and’— his lip twitched—‘I have found them vandalised.’
Father stiffened, then bowed low.‘Welcome home, Your Serene Highness.I am Juri Wagner—’
‘I know who you are,’ Prince Raleigh interrupted.‘What did you do to the dam?’
‘The … What?’
The prince tilted his head to one side, studying my father closely.‘The dam,’ he repeated.‘There used to be a dam in the mountains south of Orlfen.Why did you destroy it?’
‘There hasn’t been a dam here for hundreds of years,’ Father said.‘Sir,’ he added quickly.
The prince did not respond.He spun slowly, surveying the rest of the townsfolk, as though one of them might reveal an alternative truth.
Father wasn’t lying.The mountains wore scars from a dam that had collapsed centuries ago, but we’d never understood why our ancestors had ever built one.Rain was sparce on this side of the mountains and we relied on the glacial river for everything: drinking, cleaning, irrigation for the farms downstream.To build a dam would cut off our very life source.It would be suicide.
The prince turned back to my father, steepling his fingers, his nails pushing against each other.They were too long to belong tohands accustomed to labour.Too long to belong to anything that didn’t kill to survive.‘Then build a new one,’ he said, his words calm and measured.His smile vanished.‘I cannot access my lands when there’s a river in the way.’
I wondered if Father was cold.I’d never seen him shiver like that before.‘My prince, with all due respect, that’s impossible.We use—’
The prince raised a hand and my father fell silent.He stared at Father for one long, considered moment, then stepped closer, so they were practically nose to nose.‘Who are you to refuse me?’
‘I am only looking out for our people,’ Father said, holding his gaze.‘I live to serve.’
This I knew to be a lie.Father was the only leader most of us had ever known.Orlfen thrived under his guidance, while the rest of Rostenburg suffered under the neglect of a long absent ruler.His loyalty was to Orlfen, not the line of princes who left it to rot.
‘Splendid,’ Prince Raleigh said.‘Kneel for me.’
Father tensed.‘Excuse me?’
‘Kneel.’The prince’s expression was impossible to read.‘Or would you prefer not to?I’m sure there are any number of loyal men here who would be more than happy to take on the title of Mayor.The choice is yours, of course.’
To this day, I’m glad I never saw my father’s face in that moment.The tremble in his shoulders said enough.He sank to one knee and bowed his head.Prince Raleigh bent at the waist and scooped his chin in one hand, forcing my father to look up at him.
‘I own this town,’ he said.‘And everything in it.The crops.The houses.The livestock.’His eyes skimmed the crowd as if daring someone to step forward and contest him.‘When I build a dam to access my land, I expect it to be maintained.You’re the mayor.’He tightened his grip, nails digging into Father’s cheek.‘You are responsible.’
‘It was before our time …’
The prince released him, pushing him back with a flourish.I noticed the way our neighbours averted their eyes, and his humiliation seared through me as if it were my own.
‘Why can’t you use the bridge?’I cried.
There is a kind of silence deeper than silence.When the wind stills and the insects stop chirping and the whole world feels like it’s balancing on the finest of threads.That was the silence my words summoned, though I was too young to understand it.My mother tore me away, a frantic apology falling from her lips, but I jutted out my chin and wriggled out of her arms.
The prince seemed to juggle two decisions in his mind.To this day, I don’t know whether or not to be relieved that he spared me.Surviving was hardly a mercy.
He crouched low so that he could speak to me on my level.It was the sort of patronising thing adults did when they were trying to be respectful, but I had the feeling he knew exactly what he was doing.‘What good is a bridge to me?’
We should have realised what he was then.If we had, we might have acted early enough to save the lives of so many.
Prince Raleigh straightened up without waiting for a response.He moved towards Mother, who stepped backwards so quickly I thought she would stumble on the cobbles.The prince caught her wrist and dipped his head low as if he meant to kiss her hand.When his lips were skimming distance from her flesh, they locked eyes.
‘You don’t have to live like this,’ the prince said.
