Chapter 8
913 Words
I used the pot to heat water over the fire and emptied the treasure filled bowl into the cave before using it to wash the dishes. Then I returned to the labour of sorting the treasure.
There were crowns, tiaras, strands of pearls, necklaces, and rings amongst the treasure. I wondered if they were worth as much dented and tarnished as they were from the dragon’s treatment, or whether the dragon only valued them for the material they were made from, rather than the beauty of the object wrought.
“It is a pity you have such a dismal education,” the golden-haired man observed from his throne. “I would not mind the company of someone educated.”
I pushed back my instinctual bristle at the insult. I was considerably more educated, I knew, than many in my kingdom, and certainly more so than most princesses. He was lonely, however, I thought, and wanting conversation, but disdainful of starting one with someone he considered beneath him.
“What are you reading about?” I prompted.
“I am reading the epic poems by the Fae Sage Yric of Cynraed, most particularly the Paragon of Theodghar and the Deceit of Elovyn.”
“Poetry,” I sat back on my heels and regarded him in bemusement. The beautiful golden-haired man was absorbed in reading poetry, or all the unusual things for him to possibly be reading in a dragon’s cave, poetry had not even entered my speculative list. “I did not imagine you would read poetry.”
“What did you think I would be reading?” he asked me, haughtily.
“I don’t know. Spell books, I guess.”
His lips quirked, as if he were not sure whether to grimace, or laugh. “I am not a mage.”
“What are the poems about?” I returned to my task.
“The Paragon of Theodghar is set during a fabled war and tells of the battles and events during its last weeks. Its themes include fate, the glory of heroic battle, homecomings, rage and the downfall of pride.”
“And the other?”
“The Deceit of Elovyn is also about the downfall of pride, but in a different way. In it two noble Fae men talk pridefully about the beauty and virtues of their wives. One becomes envious of the other, and upon meeting the wife, is enamoured of her. He arranges it so that he has access to her bedchamber when her husband is away and threatens to kill her if she will not… hmm,” he paused. “Perhaps not a suitable poem for a princess.”
I stood, lifting the heavy bucket. “I know what s*x is.”
He sneered. “You think you know what s*x is. Very well,” he continued. “Elovyn is threatened that if she will not submit, Ferandis will kill her and one of her servants, and place them together in the bed, making it seem that her husband discovered them together upon his return, and killed them both in a rage.”
“Ferandis was not a very nice man.”
“No,” he was amused. “He is most likely fictional, but nonetheless.”
“What happens next? Does she submit?”
“She is a Fae woman,” he replied with amusement. “She pretends to submit but draws a dagger from her pillow and kills Ferandis. She has her servants parade his body through the streets of their city declaring his attempted crime.”
“I like Elovyn. Why is it titled the Deceit of Elovyn, then?”
“Ah, because of the way the poem is written,” he was the most animated I had seen him. “It implies that perhaps Elovyn was not entirely truthful about the event, and scholars have argued that the implication is that her declaration of his attempt to r**e her was in fact covering up her crime of passion upon discovering her lover to have no intention to leave his wife for her.
“You have to understand Fae culture to understand the poetry,” he explained. “The Fae do not lie, but they can omit, avoid and mislead. The poetry is written in such a way that it implies that Elovyn’s account is unreliable. The Fae language is fascinating for its nuances.”
“Is it?”
“Yes, there are words within Fae that when combined with a certain inflexion can imply deceit,” he had set the book to the side and leaned forward on his chair, his golden hair sweeping forward over his shoulder. “For example…” he spoke a phrase and then repeated it with a very subtle difference in the pronunciation. “The first is straight Fae, but the second implies there is a hidden deceit.”
“Why would they have a language that is designed to tell you that they’re being deceitful?” I wondered.
“Nuances,” he smiled with genuine enjoyment, his face lighting with the expression. “Fae cannot lie, but if their language tells you that they’re not telling the truth, is it really a lie? The language of deceit was initially developed as a literary device. It was their way of saying, this is an imagined story, and not a true event. When the cataclysm of mankind began, they evolved that language into one they use with man.”
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