The Bride by Wen Wen Yang/ Muted Dragon

“Five leagues to the barn builder, but under the conditions…” The meeting droned on like this. My father always talked as if he had all the time in the world. Considering he was the king, he probably did. Klomt, my father’s advisor, forced me into this meeting because this was supposed to be important to me. So far, the allotment of land seemed to be far from crucial in my life.

At times like these, I thought Klomt wanted the throne. By boring me to death with these meetings, he could then take the throne. That is, after my father talked himself to death.

“Lastly, we face the matter of the arrangement.” My father said, turning his eyes to me. I looked up from my arms that I had been using as a pillow. I shook off the numbness and tried to appear attentive.

“My son, Cleigh Puwir,” I instinctively sat up a bit taller at the sound of my full name. “He will be wed tomorrow night.” I fell off the chair at this point. Of course, my father’s poise allowed him to ignore my fall, though many nobles snickered at me. As I was rubbing my sore bottom, he continued with the details of how many animals will be sacrificed, how many maidens will spread what kind of flower petals before my feet on the way to the altar, and so on.

I never inherited his tongue. I got my mother’s tongue, I was told. My mother died giving birth to me. She didn’t cry out, as her wasp waist would not let me pass. She died silently. I was born without a sound, even as I was ripped from her limp, pale body.

“So it is set.” The gavel knocked against the table, releasing the nobles and clerks to arrange my wedding. One of them, Daffev the scribe, helped me up before patting me on the shoulder and congratulating me. I nodded and stepped past him to explode on my father.

“That’s why you made Klomt bring me in here?” I shouted at him. “You couldn’t even do it yourself!” I didn’t have his tongue for lengthy speeches, but that didn’t mean I was mute. “You set me up. You planned this all along and locked me out of these meetings until now!” I believe I must have been red by that moment from all the shouting.

“You didn’t want to be in any meetings anyway.” My father said as he walked out of the meeting hall. I followed like a serpent tracking a rodent.

“I didn’t know they were concerning my future!” I grabbed his shoulder and spun him around. “Why are you doing this to me?” Arranged marriages were banished in the last reign, surely my father wouldn’t reinstate them.

“We need this alliance.” He said shortly before turning away. He was fast, especially due to his long legs, and he was in his room in the next moment.

He was never good at talking to me either. The masses he could handle; his meetings weren’t a problem. But me, his own son, he couldn’t look in the eyes to explain that he had chosen my fate.

I pounced on the door, “My mother wouldn’t let you do these political maneuvers with your son’s life!” I panted ragged breaths in frustration.

“Puwir,” I spun around to find Klomt staring at me. I grunted and waved him away. “Your clothes,” he started, pointing to my room. “They are set out for you.” I froze in my tracks. Only moments before, I had been napping during a meeting. Now, I had my clothes for my wedding.

As he followed me into my room, he pointed out the long green robes. Green is for fertility. I gagged.

“Who is she anyway?” I asked as I picked up the fabric roughly. A gold dragon was embroidered on the sleeves for wealth and power at my fingertips. A phoenix covered the back to show this reign’s eternality.

“She comes from a place and people, whose alliance we must gain.” Klomt said.

“Is she beautiful?” I asked as I practiced tying back my brown hair with the matching green ribbon.

“I have not seen her.”

“That makes the two of us.” I spat out. Taking a breath, I sighed and continued. “Is she intelligent?”

“She is the priestess of her land.”

I stopped short, on my way to the bronze mirror on the wall. “Priestess? She is a nun?”

“No, not of that sect. It is equivalent to a princess in royalty, for her people join belief and government. She is allowed to marry.” Klomt clarified to my disgust.

“At least I can have a good conversation with her.” I said as I threw the robe and ribbon aside and collapsed onto my bed. Women of no substance annoy me the most. Even if they are ugly, at least they make good talk. However, beautiful women with nothing but dust in their heads are good for one thing, and that can even get tiring. The rarest possibility is an intelligent girl with the ability to be as glamorous as a jewel. But, judging my luck, I doubted I could get into an arranged marriage with someone like that.

“You must be awake before dawn.” Klomt said softly as he waved to someone in the hall. A maid quickly came into my room and set a dark drink on my desk. She left and Klomt delivered the potion to me on the bed. “Sip this drink and it will be dawn when you awaken.”

The man never lied.

My next memory was Klomt shoving me into the carriage. “I am not a child.” I said sharply. “I can get in myself.” He quickly removed his hands from my legs and I climbed in.

Someone, or something, was already in the carriage. It was dressed in red, the same hue as the furnishings of the carriage’s interior. I nearly thought it was a piece of the carriage until I saw the hands. They were the only things uncovered as the headdress veiled the being with a thick satin cloth.

The hands were tanned, not porcelain colored like the women of the nobles. Silver, not gold, decorated the thin fingers. The rings rested on the tip of the fingers, rather than at the very bottom. There were markings on the rings, markings not patterns because patterns repeat. Gems, not precious but nevertheless beautiful, studded the bracelets, also covered with the archaic writing.

The hands suddenly curled into fists. That’s when I realized I had been staring at the hands of my wife-to-be. I turned my head and faced forward as the carriage began to move. The hostler whipped the horses to a trot around the kingdom. The people threw flowers at the carriage. Some flew in through the windows and I took my time to fiddle with them. I knew the ride would take hours, possibly until nightfall.

“Please,” a voice said so suddenly that I started. “Stop ripping the flowers. They cry louder than the whipped horses.” I dropped the pieces of the flower I had been ripping apart and let them fall apart on my lap.

“So you speak.” I said as I wiped the petals off my robe.

“Did you expect me to be mute?”

“I didn’t even know I would be wed until last night.”

“Perhaps it is better that way. Less apprehension, more time for peaceful ignorance.”

I smiled as I heard her words. She had a mind, as Klomt said. Then again, I did say that he never lies.

“You are a priestess. Does that make you closer to the animals and flowers than I, a prince?”

“No,” her hands uncurled as she flexed her fingers, though keeping them together. “I merely had more time to listen to them than others.”

Hours passed like this, me trying to make small talk to make the long ride bearable.

She described her homeland, covered with every geographical feature imaginable. The creatures she described as common pets, though she called them companions, were beings I had never heard of before. I promised her that as soon as we can, we will visit her people and she will show me her land. She nodded, moving the veil but making no sound.

The carriage finally stopped. The door opened and Klomt helped me down while another official helped my bride. The official guided the blind bride past the horses and I took her arm. As he released her, we walked on a floor of petals, as my father had instructed, to the altar. Reaching the top of the hill and entering the pagoda, we took the offerings from the nobles. Most were paper money or dolls to be burnt for our ancestors. The money was to bribe a blessing for this marriage. The dolls would be destroyed in the fire, as would be our past lives and its sins. Together, we were reborn anew.

Time sped by after that, leading to the bidding of farewell to guests. Some of the male guests had the privilege to carry me and my new bride to the farthest wing of the palace. They shouted sexual insults and ‘cursed’ me with many lame children. This, of course, was to ward away evil spirits who would reverse any blessing.

During this entire time, I still did not see my bride’s face. Her hands seemed normal enough, though her skin seemed thin in the moonlight. Her nails were evenly cut and clean. The gifts from the guests, bracelets and necklaces, adorned her body.

She cleared her throat after a moment of silence. She was sitting on the bridal bed, while I paced in front of her, unsure of how to proceed. “Are we to sit all night or will you remove my headdress?” She said. I could hear the smile in her voice.

“I am patient.” I lied. “We can sit all night like this.”

Her shoulders sighed and she nodded, shaking the fabric. “As my lord wishes.”

I had no time to smile smugly at her retort as I heard the alarm bells. Hissing in anger, I opened the wooden doors. Klomt appeared down the corridor, waving the white flag of danger.

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