Page 85 of Ruling the Green

I slid off to his side and dropped onto the bed, limbless and satisfied.

“Can we do that again?”

“Right now?” he asked, with a huff of laughter.

“Later?”

“Later, yes. After I’ve gotten some food and fluids back into me,” he said, turning to lean over me and press a kiss to my lips. “You rest up. Study your notebook. I’ll quiz you on it later.”

With that, he moved into the water closet, and I heard the water running as I scooted up the bed and reached for the notepad we’d been working on the night before, studying the letters and short words Jet had worked with me on.

It wasn’t much.

But it was a start to a whole new life.

Because that was what this was. I could feel it in my bones as surely as I felt the lake still there. I belonged here. With Jet. With Nira and Vishen. Helping to build a fairer and kinder kingdom for the people who relied on the king to do what was best for them, not just what he wanted.

So I studied my letters and words, then I bathed and dressed in one of my new dresses.

When Vishen and Jet disappeared to a meeting, I requested Nira and I take a walk to clear our heads.

“How are you?” she asked as we walked into the fresh air behind the castle.

“I think I should be asking you that. My water heals me. You haven’t been so lucky with your head.”

“The headache has passed. I’m just annoyed that it wakes me up when I roll onto it. I’ve had much worse. Okay. Jet told me I need to quiz you on your letters. Name two things out here that start with B.”

“B-uh,” I repeated the sound. “Bird,” I decided, pointing to one perched in a tree, watching us with beady black eyes. “B-b-blue?” I asked, gesturing to the sky.

“Good enough.”

“How did you learn to read?”

“I taught myself when I was young. Even back then, I understood how important a tool it would be for my future. Even if most soldiers don’t bother to learn. Okay. Letter C.”

“Clouds. Clover.”

“How do you know how to speak?” Nira asked. “Sorry. But if you were in the lake with little contact with other actual people, how did you learn the names of everything? How did you learn about The Green, about the Courts, everything?”

“I’m not really sure. I don’t remember learning. It’s just always kind of been there. I guess maybe the lake taught me somehow. Or maybe I was exposed to more speech when I was younger. I have no recollection of being a young child. I suppose I must have had a parent at some point. Perhaps they taught me.”

“Yeah, no one really knows anything about Daughters of the Lake. I think a lot of us just assumed you spawned there.”

“What? From eggs? Like a frog?”

Nira laughed. “I don’t know. Maybe. But, yeah, actual parents make more sense. Even if it’s fucked up to just… abandon your kid.”

That was a tender spot for her, I imagined, being abandoned herself. The difference being that she was left to an unknown fate while whatever parents I had would’ve known that the lake would take care of me, protect, provide, and love me in its own way.

“Okay. D.”

“Dog,” I said, gesturing toward Knight, who was a few yards away, sniffing the ground, but his ears were constantly twitching, like he was listening for threats. “Dirt,” I went on, kicking some with my shoe.

“Douchebags,” Nira said, nodding toward the redcaps who were just around the corner of the palace.

“What is a douchebag?”

“It’s a human word. And you don’t want to know. But it’s an insult. Let’s go this way, so they don’t follow us.”