"As beautiful as your empire is, Your Majesty, unfortunately I am not used to this cool climate. Just see how blue and stiff my fingers are already." She passed her hands to him through the grating and
he looked at her briefly, unaffected. "And if your fingers would fall off because of the cold," he
came closer to the bars, "I couldn't care less." He turned around and Lyana thought he would leave
again and actually let her die. But then he made a gesture and the guard unlocked the door to the
cell.
King Ulric took off his cloak and threw it at her feet. "It's too bad, but as I said before, for me you
are worth more when you are alive." With that he left and the cell was locked again.
In disbelief, the princess picked up the large fur coat and threw it over her shoulders. It was still very warm and after a very short time she felt her fingers again, even if they hurt a little.
She sat down on the bed again and buried her face in the large coat. He still smelled of the king and
for a moment Lyanas thoughts began to circle around him. He was a tall and really handsome man.
It was too bad he seemed to be such a tyrant. On the other hand ... she didn't know what he had already experienced. In her opinion, he couldn't have been more than 36 or 37 years old. Nobody became king this early without a valid reason to do so. His father must have died early. Or did he get it on the bloody road? It was possible, but she didn't want to assume the worst. Whatever it was, it seemed to have aroused a deep hatred in him. And then there was this brief moment when he caught her after her fall.
Had she just imagined it? She stared at her hand as if that was where she would find the answer to all of your questions. But of course that wasn't the case.
She closed her eyes tiredly and leaned back. It was so terribly quiet, so she started humming something to herself. When she stopped briefly to wipe away her tears, she noticed that the guard from before was back and had sat in front of her cell. But when he noticed her staring at him, he blushed slightly.
"Forgive me, Your Royal Highness, but the song that you were humming ... that was really nice. I've never heard of it before."
Lyana smiled gently. "It is an old folk song from the Sun Kingdom, my grandfather taught me. The
melody is really nice, but the lyrics to it are a bit sad."
"What is the song about?" The guard seemed seriously interested.
The princess was happy to have someone to talk to and so she told him about it. "It's about a man
who fell in love with a girl from another kingdom. The two wanted to get married, but his father
was against it. When he finally got his approval, he wanted to meet his lover to tell her about it.
However, she had only left him a letter in which she wrote that she could no longer marry him. So
the young man married another woman and never saw his lover again. But he never stopped loving
her. "Just speaking about it brought tears to her eyes again and the guard also secretly wiped his
face. "That is a really sad song."
Lyana nodded in agreement. "Yes, but I still like it very much. Sometimes I imagine how they both found each other again after their death. If they really loved each other, that love will ultimately outlast death too."
The guard frowned. "Do you really think so? After all, she rejected him and never contacted him again."
Lyana shook her head energetically. "No, I'm sure she had a reason for that. Maybe she was afraid
of alienating him from his father with the wedding or she got terribly ill and didn't want to burden him. Even if she had started a family of her own, she would certainly not have forgotten him. It was probably just a misunderstanding. "At least the sun princess couldn't explain it any other way. She had never been in love before, but she was sure that if she were, nothing else could separate her from her lover.
"You may be right," the young man admitted.
Since she had the feeling to have established a bond with the guard, she tried to steer the conversation in a different direction. "Tell me, are there folk songs in your kingdom too?"
The guard laughed and shook his head. "No not more. They were forbidden in the presence of the king. Because of the fear of being caught singing them, however, they preferred to forego singing
them altogether."
"So you don't sing?" That was difficult for Lyana to imagine. "But how long have songs been banned?"
The young man leaned against the wall, shrugging his shoulders . "It wasn't too long after King Ulrics coronation, I suppose."
Now it got interesting. "And how long has he been the king?"
Another shrug . "I can't say that anymore. That was a long time ago. "
"But you have to remember such a coronation", Lyana tried to urge the guard on.
"Your Royal Highness, that was before I was born, how could I remember something that I didn't
experience at all?"
Not seen it? But the guard was probably only in his mid-twenties. No country would be so crazy
and leave power to a child. "But .. how old was your king then?"
"Well, he was ...", the young man began, but then froze and looked down at the floor, embarrassed.
"What's going on?" Confused, the princess went closer to the bars.