Talia opened the door to the carriage, jumped down, and quickly brushed the wrinkles out of her skirt. The last few hours of the ride had been highly uncomfortable. Prince Mikhail had said nothing further to her and every time she accidentally made eye contact with him; he'd quickly glance out the window as though he had not just been staring at her.
Over the past few years, she could count the number of times she'd cried like that on one hand. There was the day Ora left, the day the Vezdan court received news of Ora's death, and the day after she'd signed the Treaty of Fronov. At no time had she ever cried in front of another person, and it made her feel as ashamed as if she'd gotten drunk and stripped naked.
It had obviously made the Prince uncomfortable, and she couldn't fault him for that. If he had suddenly burst into tears while she was trapped in a carriage with him, she would have found it horrifying.
She could, however, fault him for trying to take advantage of her in a moment of weakness. She was trying very hard to do that, but he appeared so confused and frustrated by her rejection of him, that she suspected he was entirely clueless of what he had done wrong.
Talia waited for him to exit the carriage and lead the way up the steps to the front door of the Inn. When she saw him pull his hood low over his face, she followed his example and did the same. They'd stopped for the evening at a small town off the Southern Road, and even from the outside, the Inn looked to be a rough sort of place.
If he even tried to pull that 'they-only-have-one-room' nonsense, she really would get angry with him, she decided.
He spoke with the Innkeeper and then silently led Talia past the hall that led to the rented rooms and into a small and very crowded dining hall. The only space they found was at the end of a long table that butted against a wall. She ended up crammed between him and the wall, which was a very awkward place to be.
"It's busy, so I suppose the food must be good," she said as though she was completely unbothered by the fact that she was squashed against him.
"Fairly average, really, but they've got a storyteller in from the capitol tonight!" answered the elderly man seated across from her, as though she had been speaking to him.
"Ah," she nodded and glanced up at Prince Mikhail. He was still avoiding eye contact with her.
They had no sooner gotten their plates and mugs of ale when the storyteller entered the room to shouts and cheers of applause. He grinned widely as he strode to the center of the room and swept the patrons a low theatrical bow.
"What'll it be tonight, gents?" he asked in a rich, booming voice.
From all corners of the room, rowdy patrons stood and shouted their favorite stories, each trying to be loud enough to be heard over the others.
"The Ogre of Dali!!" cried one.
"Tell the Sea Voyage of King Toli!" called another.
"Bainle and the Sea Demons!"
"The Curse of Queen Tasha!"
"The Curse of Queen Tasha?" the storyteller repeated. "Certainly not the Curse of Queen Tasha! Why... that's a tale that's against the law to tell, and I'll not risk my neck or good name for you lot!" the storyteller grinned even wider, and Talia realized at once that it was part of his act. He was teasing his audience with the forbidden nature of the story which drove them all to loudly insist that he tell it.
The man spent a few moments shaking his head no, and looking worriedly over his shoulder as if Imperial guards might break down the front door at any moment.
"You really want to hear about old Queen Tasha, do you?" he asked again and was immediately answered by shouts, whistles and the stomping of feet. "Well, I suppose we're far enough from the capitol, and we are among friends!"
The crowd laughed and cheered their approval.
"Our story begins in the days of my great, great grandfather in the country of Vezda," he began.
The crowded booed as one, and Talia scowled unnoticed into her ale mug.
"In the ancient House of Eosin, a daughter was born to the King. She was, by all accounts, the most beautiful child in all the kingdoms of the world. They named her Tasha, and the King and Queen doted on her. To the world she showed a beautiful face and displayed a kind and gentle manner, but in her heart... oh but in her heart, boys, there was nothing but great evil!"
The patrons booed and stomped their feet to show what kind of woman they thought she was.
"As Tasha grew into a young lady, suitors came from every corner of the continent. It was said that Princes, and Kings, and Dukes, lined up in the street for their chance to ask for her hand, and that must have gone to the young woman's head, for she declared that she would have none of them!"
"Unless she could have all of them!" Someone in the crowd shouted drunkenly, and everyone roared with laughter.
"Now don't go jumping ahead in the story!" the speaker admonished the drunk. "That came later!"
"From the stories I heard, she came all the time!" the drunk shouted back, and the room rocked with laughter again.
"Hurry and finish eating," Prince Mikhail ordered her.
"Now, now lads, let me tell it. It's what I'm paid for! Tasha of Vezda refused all of her suitors, but not before they began picking quarrels with one another. War broke out on the continent between Frem and Pylora, and that is when Emperor Mali of Unaria knew he had no choice but to get involved!"
Cheers and whistles from the crowd accompanied Emperor Mali's entrance in the story. Talia scoffed.
"Mali was a great warrior: brave and wise, and so handsome and strong that people called him a God among men. He ended the war between Frem and Pylora in less than a day, but he knew that if Tasha of House Eosin remained unmarried, more wars would break out! He marched into Vezda and demanded her hand from the King, but the King refused. Mali cut off his head!"
Wild applause and stomping followed the King of Vezda's death.
"And thus, the beautiful girl with the wicked heart became Queen of Vezda-- but not for long. Emperor Mali forced the new queen to surrender, and he took her not as his wife but as his prisoner back to Unaria!"
The men cheered and made lewd comments. The storyteller went on to detail how the two fell in love, how the Emperor sent all his other wives away at Tasha's urging, and how Tasha could not deny her lavicious nature and began sleeping with other nobles and palace servants.
Over the booing and shouting of the patrons, he explained how the Emperor was too blinded by love to punish her, and how in a jealous rage he attacked and killed her favorite lover.
"And then, lads... then, at last, Queen Tasha revealed the darkest secret of House Eosin. As everyone knows, they are desendents of the monsterous sea people, and magic runs through their blood... dark magic! She cursed the poor besotted Emperor and all of Unaria! In the dead of a moonlit night, she spilled her own blood across the high throne of Unaria, and from then on, anyone who ruled our Empire would see their line die out and end before their own eyes," the storyteller dropped his voice to a stage whisper as he spoke of the curse.
His audience was so engaged that several of them leaned forward in their seats to better hear.
"Her own children were included in that curse, and they died before the Emperor's eyes within a few days of each other. The Emperor never took another wife, and who could blame him? When he passed, and his brother took the throne, Unarians thought the curse was gone. He already had many sons and plenty of grandchildren, but one by one, his sons and grandsons died, until only one grandson survived to sit on the throne: Aleksi the Great!"
Here, the patrons stomp and cheered again.
"And now we have the two sons of Aleksi the Great, and not a single heir born, and the question is... Will Queen Tasha's curse be fulfilled?"
The storyteller paused a moment to let his audience consider the question.
"But what is the moral of the tale of Emperor Mali and Queen Tasha, boys?"
Most of the audience chimed in unison: "Lust and wisdom can not reside in the same man!" However, a few louder or drunker patrons called out insulating things about Queen Tasha or about women - Vezdan women in particular. Even the elderly man across from her shouted that Vezdan girls were only good enough for the brothels.
"Excuse me, please... I need air," Talia said, squeezing out from between Prince Mikhail and the wall.