Black Blood

I decide not to ask any more about Novak and Alisha’s acquaintance. If it’s important, I’ll find out, I hope.

The evening passes by slowly. Alisha made a delicious dish for dinner, just like the night before. She is an excellent cook. I feel welcome and at home in her little house. The reason she helped me is still unclear to me and honestly I don’t even know if I want to know. It feels good the way it is. She hasn’t asked me any questions about my origins and I’d like it to stay that way. I don’t know how the elves in the village will react to me, I haven’t left the house yet. I’m lucky I haven’t run into the king yet. The coming meeting is not one that I am looking forward to.

‘You never asked me why I helped you,’ says Alisha as if she can read my thoughts. We sit at her kitchen table with a glass of wine. She has pushed some playing cards into my hands and is now trying to explain to me how you play bullying. I’ve never played a card game before so it doesn’t go very smoothly.

‘That’s right,’ I reply, putting down a three of hearts. I had hoped she would keep her mouth shut about this subject. Why she is bringing this up now, is unclear to me.

‘Why not?’ she asks. She puts a two on my three. By now I understand that I have to take two more cards. Sighing, I take a king and a jack from the deck.

‘Because I don’t want to raise any questions,’ I answer honestly. I take a sip of my wine and put a nine on the two. Her blue eyes shoot from the deck to me and back.

‘Questions about what?’ she asks as if she has no idea about my background. I look at her, sighing. She knows what I am talking about, she knows who and what I am. Everyone knows I am Christiaan’s wife, everyone knows what he is like and everyone knows I am the Crown Princess. She is not a naive person and she is certainly not stupid. She’s only asking because she wants to hear it. She starts laughing and takes a sip of her wine.

‘You are afraid that I will ask about the royal family? That I’ll condemn you and be angry with you because your idiot husband burned down part of our village? We may not have known each other long, but I’d be crazy to ask you what it was like there. I can tell you it wasn’t the nicest place in the world,’ she replies, laughing. I start laughing along with her. When she says it like that, my train of thought is a bit crazy too. I don’t like talking about it, let alone telling the whole story.

‘I’m glad you noticed,’ I reply with a sarcastic undertone. She sighs deeply once and puts her last three cards on the table.

‘Tristan was my brother,’ she says out of the blue. I look at her wide-eyed and am too blown away to say anything. It’s not as if I had even noticed. They don’t look alike, not even a little. Tristan has brown hair, Alisha blonde.

Tristan’s eyes are green, Alisha’s blue. Also, in the few times I’ve seen him, Tristan hasn’t mentioned a sister.

Tristan and I didn’t have the best relationship. We liked each other, don’t get me wrong, but my bond with Nora was much better.

‘It’s a bit complicated. We have the same mother but our father is different. That’s why Tristan doesn’t have an elven share. We spent our childhood together until we were about fourteen. When our parents separated, I stayed in the village and Tristan left with our mother. The only time I saw him was on my birthday when my mother came to visit. Although we may not have had the closest relationship, his death touched me deeply. I could do nothing for him. When I saw you at the flogging, I thought of him. I can’t do anything for him anymore, but I can do it for you.’ Her story makes so many pieces of the puzzle fall into place.

I have barely been able to stop thinking about Tristan’s death, I wasn’t even sure if it was Tristan or Viko. When the king told me the news, I didn’t have a moment to mourn. At the moment, there is not much time or peace to dwell on anything. I almost feel guilty admitting that it affects me less than Nora. My bond with Tristan was not as strong as with Nora and I was there when Nora was shot out of the sky, not so with Tristan.

‘My condolences,’ I wish her. She smiles a little. You can tell from her face that it hurts her a lot. I don’t ask any further, I don’t want to make her cry. This story brings me back to Elien. How would it go with him? Would my father be able to keep his dirty paws off him? My gut feeling tells me that nothing good will happen. However, I do not have any plan at the moment to get him out of there. I push the thoughts aside as quickly as possible.

‘I can only thank you from the bottom of my heart for your help. I don’t think I would have made it if you hadn’t been there,’ I thank her with all sincerity. She smiles slightly.

‘Don’t mention it. As long as you make your father feel what he has done to the world.’ The fire almost spews from her eyes as she utters that sentence. Novak has already made that statement once and I can’t quite place my feelings about it.

I don’t think I am the person to push my father into the grave. He should be punished for all his war crimes, but whether I am the right person, I don’t know. Violence is not in my blood and the most violent man I know is my father. So I wisely keep my mouth shut at Alisha’s statement.

‘Well. Enough depressing stuff. It’s your turn,’ she says, taking her cards back from the table. I nod and put the next card on the pile.