Empress of the Sun
Empress of the Sun
I do not own the characters, as they are the property of Stephenie Meyer. No profit is being made from this fic, and no infringement is intended.
Bella:
The sea had always been important to my people, if only for what it brought us. The land of Forks, ravaged as it was by bitter winters and endless rain, often relied on the trade brought by our ships from distant lands. How many times had I visited the harbour to give my blessing to a newly made vessel, or prayed for their voyages to be short and bountiful or sewed garments for the widows and orphans of shipwrecks? So many times that I could scarcely recall a quarter of them in my mind - but despite all of that experience, I had never actually been on a ship before in my life.
The Queen Renee was beautiful, there was no doubt about that; all gilded wood and moulded gold, the figurehead a smiling maiden with an ornate crown. The swan emblem of my family was embroidered onto the sails in neat, even stitching, stark white against the blue, the wings arching proudly. I looked up at it as I walked onto the deck, the salty air stinging my lips, the heavy folds of my dress catching at my heels. This was my first and last time of sailing under that crest. When we arrived, I would exchange the swan for a sun of gold, a princess for an empress, a kingdom for a husband.
Wasn't that a good bargain?
I will confess that I did not feel like the perfectly poised beauty that the Golden Empire had ordered when the voyage began. The sky had been a dismal grey on the day we sailed, and soon it deepened to black, a churning mass of clouds roiling and seething above our heads as the first sheets of rain sluiced the ship, dripping through the planks and running down the cheeks of the golden figurehead. I huddled in my cabin, shaken to nausea by the constant swaying, gulping down the medicine that Leah brought and praying for an end. When the storms ended, the heat began, and that was worse, baking my knights in their silver armour and peeling me out of my wools and furs. My hair, limp under the drowsy blanket of the sun, was filled with pins that dug into my scalp and pulled my skin tight, while my body was swathed in silk and satin of brightest gold and white. Ribbons snaked through the bodices of my gowns, stealing my breath and forcing my back straight, their edges glittering with minuscule rubies and diamonds that were as cold as ice against my sweltering skin.
But that was nothing, not to a princess. I leaned on Jasper as I forced myself to walk around the deck, smiling at all the sailors and watching the waves curl white against the curve of the ship. The mountains of Forks slipped away under a film of pale mist, and other lands loomed ahead. We passed slivers of rocky grey coasts, skeletal towns bleached white and scoured clean by the waves, needle-like towers with cities splayed beneath them, lush islands like a blot of green ink against the endless blue. One of the last belonged to the Empire of the Sun, and they sent in tributes for their ruler's bride - ropes of pearls that dangled from my hair to my waist, a scarlet bird that twittered so loudly I had it sent to the other end of the ship, plump fruits that had to have their velvety skins peeled back to expose the glistening innards before I could safely eat it. When I bit one, the wet crunch of it between my teeth burst with sweetness, and I laughed for the first time since the voyage began.
One night, not a week before we were to reach the city of Brandon, the air was heavy, stifling in its heat. I lay in my cabin, curled up on my narrow bed as I watched the flickering light of my lantern, hanging from an oiled rope, the yellow flame dipping with every creak and roll of the ship. Leah and Jasper lay on the floor, a coiled mound of bronze and gold, while Jacob was hunched in the corner facing the door, his fingers curled around the hilt of a knife. All were asleep, and had been so for hours - my sworn knights had slept little on the voyage, and it appeared it was finally catching up to them - but a strange spark of restlessness played through me, fluttering in my chest and making it impossible to slumber. Through the narrow window, a faint breeze drifted through, carrying with it with the tang of salt, the whisper of the hungry sea, the promise of my future.
Suddenly, I was sick of the dim golden light, of the stained wooden boards above my head, of the uncertainty that had been drumming through me for longer than I thought I knew. I drew my sleeping-robe tightly around me as I settled my feet onto the floor, the grainy wood rough against my soles. My knights stirred as I slipped past them, but the endless heat had made them drowsy and slow for the past few days, and I knew that the sleep they so desperately needed would pull them back down soon enough. At least on this ship, surrounded by my father's men, I needed not to rely on them to protect me from daggers in the dark.
Once we reached land though…
I didn't want to think about that.
The sky was thick with stars when I reached the deck, bathing everything in an eerie silvery luminance while the sea breeze blew the hem of my shift around my ankles and gusted my hair in a playful snarl around my face. I smoothed it down, staring at the glimmering waters with a faint feeling of disquiet. Just what had I come out here for? A childish urge…but I wasn't a child any more, and I could not let myself forget it.
"You should be asleep, Princess."
I did not turn around, knowing the identity of the speaker from his heavy tread as much as the warm tones of his voice. "I could not sleep, my lord. It is a hot night."
"That it is, your Highness," Harry agreed, his voice quiet as he came to stand beside me, the starlight brightening his hair to silver, shadows casting lines across his impassive face. "But still, you must try. You will need your rest."
I smiled, but my head was bowed underneath the shroud of my hair as I rested my hands on the balustrade, fingers curling around the edge. The wood was worn smooth and cool under my hands, polished by years of wind and wave. "For my wedding, you mean?"
He hesitated, but only for a moment. "Yes, your Highness. That and more. You will have your coronation, the feasting, the dancing. The Emperor will not be pleased if you collapse when promising your undying devotion to him."
I laughed, and even I heard the bitter edge to it. "I suppose it would not be the romance that minstrels sing of. The golden groom and his crumbling bride."
Harry was silent for a moment, and I breathed in deeply, trying to quell the dizzying rush of recklessness that had swept through me. "You agreed to the match, your Highness. Cha- His Majesty would never have forced any marriage on you that you could not bear."
"I know my duty," I whispered. "And it will be good for my people, won't it? This marriage of mine will make my kingdom great."
"It will greatly improve trade," Harry murmured, folding his hands together, "and it will solidify our alliance with the Golden Empire against Volterra. It…will soothe a great deal of your father's worries, princess."
"And my husband? Will I please him?"
"He choose you, your Highness. We can only assume that he viewed a match with Forks as more desirable than that of any other possible alliances, and as long as you provide him with heirs, I should think you will be a perfectly satisfactory wife and empress."
Alliances. Bloodlines. Positions. That was not the stuff that they spun sonnets and songs out of, but they were the backbones of kingdoms, they let an empire rise and fall. I knew this, and I knew my duty - but a part of me, perhaps some remnant of my mother that had slipped under my skin and curled around my heart, could not help the words that were spoken then, in a voice as small as the winking stars above us.
"Do you think I will be happy?"
Harry turned to look at me then, and there was a sort of weary kindness in those eyes. But there was steel too, the steel of a man who had seen a dozen wars and all their madness, forged a thousand alliances out of swords and coal and fur, who had given everything for his duty and could not see why any should falter in doing their own. The steel of Forks.
"You will be marrying the most powerful man in all the lands, princess. You will be his empress for the sake of your kingdom. Of course you will be happy - you must never be anything but."
All of the towns and cities of Forks had begun out of necessity, the ancestors of my people migrating together against the cold and the beasts of the woods, their homes spilling outwards as more were birthed and more came. They grew with us, sprawling settlements, narrow streets that twisted and branched into a hundred others, houses of wood and stone piled together like kindling. Our cities are alive, my father said, and even in the bitterest months, when the cold blazed and it was too dark to see anything from the walls of our castle, I had understood what he meant.
But the city of Brandon was very different. I caught my first glimpse of it from the tiny window in my cabin, a line of white against the green-blue of the sea. I pressed my face to the glass, watching in amazement as we drew closer and the features became clearer - the gleaming white walls, the lighthouse, glittering with glass and the shine of its lamp, the buildings, square and squat, perfectly shaped like the painted boxes I played with as an infant. It was all so measured and spaced, sparkling clean as if the grey-green slime from water and rot that had slithered through the other harbour cities we had seen did not dare risk the wrath of those that had built such a sight. It was meticulously neat, the city of Brandon, and relentlessly organised…but it did not seem quite real, like a painted ball-mask in comparison to the living faces of Forks' cities. I wasn't sure what to make of it.
"They plan all of their cities," Marie whispered to me as we stood waiting for the gangplank to be lowered. Already, crowds had gathered by the edge of the water, their faces canted up towards the ship, their hands stretched as they called out to us. I could vaguely make out the words - cries of welcome, of well-wishing, of desire to see their new Empress. They wouldn't, though. Marie and Harry had insisted on my wearing a long-sleeved dress of white satin, a golden veil both protecting my skin and obscuring my face. It was traditional for the bride to only show her face at her wedding day, apparently, with only a select few viewing her features before then. I wondered if the male consorts of the Golden Empresses had to do it as well.
"You may think it to be rather impractical, and you'd be right, but they do insist on it. They design it, make allowances for a bigger population than the current one, and leave space for expansion, and then build it - all perfectly matched, of course. Naturally, there are events that they can't plan for, and sometimes they go to waste, but it is a useful control method, I suppose. Of course, the poorer areas don't get planned for, and they are a great deal more unsightly, but the imperial court will never have to see them, will they?"
If she had wanted me to reply, I never had the chance to, for the gangplank was lowered, and the process of leaving the ship that had borne me to safety had begun. Others went before me, carrying trunks of my belongings, the leather peeling and faded after weeks of being stored in the dank quarters of the ship, while my sworn knights gathered around me, staring in awe at this new life we had come to.
My expression might have been hidden by the filmy veil, but we had known each other too long to be able to hide like that. Jacob didn't say anything, but he squeezed my hand when no one else was looking. Leah was too busy staring fiercely at the crowds below us, daring them to say anything. I had heard that there were no women who fought in the south. Judging from the incredulous stares some of the crowd were directing at her armour and sword, the rumours had been correct. How…strange.
At last, we left the ship, Jasper behind me and Jacob in front, the plank swaying over the yellowish foam as we touched the ground. I glanced over my shoulder, catching a last glimpse of the smiling figurehead, my mother's features cast into rusted bronze and left to hang for eternity. The reflective glint of the sunlight was too bright for me to make out that smile now. I hoped that wasn't an omen.
The party awaiting for me at the bottom of the plank was certainly grander than the one that had seen me off. There were about fifty men awaiting me, all richly dressed, some armoured, some in vibrant robes, some in other forms of fashion that I had not seen before, with hose and sashes and jewelled doublets that were a world away from the clothing of Forks. As I stepped off the creaking plank, they all bowed deeply from the waist, their heads almost touching the ground.
"Your Royal Highness," one intoned, "we welcome you, to the glorious city of Brandon, in the name of his Royal and Imperial Highness, High Prince Edward, soon to be His Royal and Imperial Highness, Edward III, Emperor of the Golden Lands, of Plaskett, of the Isles of Cynthia-"
The stream of titles continued, but I felt my attention wandering away from the speaker, a balding man in his forties, and found myself staring at the men who had accompanied him instead. I remembered what Marie had told me - I could trust none of these people, at least not without ascertaining their motives first. Were there any expressions on their faces that might give them away, any clues that could tell me anything about their characters? It was difficult to tell. I let my gaze drift from one man to another - only to feel a sudden lance of shock as I saw the expression one of the men was directing at me.
It was difficult to tell his age, this man with pale blond hair knotted back and armour without any emblem or colours to show his allegiance. But his eyes were dark and fierce, and they were fixated on me with such an intensity that I fought the urge to recoil. I had never seen this man before in my life, and he had not seen my face at all - but there was an almost animalistic look in his eye, tempered by a coldness that made me shiver. I did not know who he was, but his very presence sent chills down my spine, and I was glad that there were so many other people present to stand between myself and him.
At last, the talks concluded, and a litter was brought forth, with gauzy white curtains and litter-bearers dressed in gold. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes - in Forks, we did not garb everything in sight with blue and silver, but I had to remember that the Empire of the Sun was very different to the northern lands - and climbed in, unsurprised when my grandmother insisted on riding with me. In fact, I was grateful. There were none who knew the southern people better than Marie, and I suddenly felt a pressing need to gain some knowledge about them.
"Grandmother, did you see that knight? The blond one, with no colours?"
"Ah," Marie murmured, leaning back on the padded cushions and drawing the curtains around us with a twitch of her gnarled hands. "Him. Yes, child, I saw him. It's been some time since we last laid eyes on one another, but I do not forget many knights - particularly those from my own lands."
I sat up straight, a quiver of surprise running through me. "He is from Phoenix?"
Marie's lips pressed together in a thin line. "Of course. That was Sir James, child, one of the knights who escorted your mother to Forks when she wed your father. One of the youngest knights my lands produced - but certainly he was very, very good on the battlefield. Won many a tournament, if I remember correctly. Most of the knights who stayed with her until her death either took up service with your father or returned to Phoenix, but Sir James chose instead to go to the Golden Empire. Why, I cannot fathom - I had expected him to go to Volterra."
"But…but you don't trust the Volturi."
"Yes, so I suppose I should be glad that such a skilled knight chose instead to go to a steadfast ally instead, should I not? But I thought their temperaments suited him better and Renee-"
She stopped abruptly, shaking her head. "But that was years ago child, and I tire of the past. Come - sit up properly girl, and practice your accent. It's so atrocious it'll be a wonder if your imperial husband will be able to work out when you've said your vows…"
But as magnificent as Brandon was, the Golden City outshone it as the sun to a tallow candle.
It took us three days to reach it, even with the hard riding that felt as if my flesh was being jolted from my bones with every bounce of the litter. The roads of the Empire had been built generations ago, by an emperor in a rare reign of peace, and they were wide and smooth, nothing like the narrow, twisting pathways that one followed through Forks - but still not enough.
Marie complained incessantly, and Jacob and Leah grew more snappish by the day, but I said nothing. I wasn't sure if I should be angered or grateful by the delay, but it was out of my hands. A princess never complains.
Besides, it wasn't as if I lacked for amusement. The large number of escorts that had been provided for me harkened back to the time when the Golden Empire was embroiled in war, both with other kingdoms and its own overly ambitious providences, when a kidnapped empress would be more valuable than all the gold in the world. In these times of peace, only tradition required such a large guard, and convention was quickly discarded in favour of whiling the time away. Many a knight slowed his pace by the litter to speak to me of my new homeland, amuse me with witty jests or boastful story or pass me some sweetmeats. Marie seemed unhappy by this, even when they offered her favourite, sugar ribbon.
"You are too kind, Sir James," she told the knight, her prune-like lips pursed. "But Her Royal Highness has a delicate constitution and truly, this journey has been long and hard for us all. You should save it for yourself instead."
Sir James shook his head, holding out the pretty sweet to me. "No true knight should ever take a comfort that a lady has not been offered, Your Grace. I am afraid I could not offer a gift worthy of Her Highness for the wedding, and it would gladden my heart immensely if she would accept this token, humble as it is, as a tribute of my thanks for her safe arrival."
I smiled, though he could not see it behind my veil, and took the sweet, ignoring Marie's glare. "You are too kind, Sir James, though I thank you gladly for it."
The sweet was delicious and I finished it quickly, stealing a guilty glance at Jacob and Leah, who had ridden tirelessly behind my litter without any such offerings for themselves. Jasper rode at the head of the procession, ostensibly to keep an eye out for the party that would welcome us into the city. But I knew better. Jasper had been thirteen when he saved my father's life in the Battle of Uley, becoming one of the youngest knights in history shortly afterwards. One didn't get to that position without a healthy dose of paranoia, and he knew full well that even in supposedly friendly lands, one's guard could never be fully let down.
But that was a grim topic, and I let my mind drift away to more banal matters, namely the desire to do something. I grew weary of ever travelling by the litter, stretching my legs only for the short rests our escort allowed on the way to the city. Marie enjoyed being carried about in the sumptuous construction, but princesses of Forks rarely bothered with such inanities. We rode, our mounts the strongest and hardiest horses in all the kingdoms, often bearing the banner of the present monarch if they rode with us. I knew that I had to leave such customs behind with my new marriage…but I was not empress yet, and the thought of being trapped in that cramped, stuffy tent for a moment longer was almost unbearable. I was beginning to feel strangely heavy, my limbs leaden and my head spinning. It would do me good to ride in the fresh air.
Marie was enraged when I asked the lead escort, Lord Garrett, if I could ride; she caught the scandalised looks several of the knights were exchanging and no doubt was seeing my reputation plummet as I spoke, especially when I made it clear I did not care if it was side-saddle or not. But several of the knights had brought spare mounts, in order to alternate between the two during heavy riding, though I was surprised to see Sir James step forward in order to offer me the use of his extra mare.
"She's rather worn-down," he said with an almost apologetic smile, indicating a drooping grey with large, frightened eyes, "but she'll go gently, so long as you use a firm hand to guide her."
I smiled gratefully at him, though I soon discovered that the mare went so slowly that it would have been almost as fast to ride in the litter. Still, I could not fault him for wishing to keep his future empress on a safely slow mount, especially when he was one of the few knights not giving me strange looks after my decision to ride. I ignored those disturbed expressions, remembering how they had stared in such askance at Leah.
I agreed to this marriage to aid my people. Do not think that I will abandon every part of myself that is Forksian, just so you may adore me as your golden queen. My father sent a princess, not a porcelain doll for you to paint in your image of what an empress should be.
Also, while I would not have admitted it to even my sworn knights, I was still feeling rather strange. My eyes were drooping, my stomach felt as if a thousand live snakes were twisting and slithering inside me, and the heat, once nothing more than an irritant, was pressing down in a smothering wave. My hands tightened around the reins of the horse, but I refused to speak of it. Perhaps the decision to ride the horse in the first place was foolish, but Marie's snide remarks would be unbearable if I faintly requested to return to the litter.
But my vision was swimming now, and things were changing…I saw a glint of white against the glare of the sun, enormous walls of gleaming stone rising in front of glistening spires, curving roofs that shone bronze in the heavy sunlight, the shadows of guards patrolling the top of the walls. We've reached the city I realised, but the sight was blurring and waxing my eyes, and there was the annoying blare of a horn-
They've come.
I raised my head, my tongue thick and heavy in my mouth. There was a cloud of dust rising - dust or sparks - and within it, the gleam of mail, the glint of gold as a banner snapped in the wind, the thunder of hooves. Riders were forming out of the dust…no, no they had to emerging from it, men in ornate armour, too numerous to count, and at their head, a man with shining golden eyes…
I swayed in the saddle, distantly hearing alarmed shouts, but still caught in that mesmerising gaze, barely noting the look of horror on his stunning face as he reached for me…
Then nothing.
When I came around, it was to find myself lying on a pile of cushions, a sea of anxious faces peering down at me. No sooner had my eyes fluttered open when I heard a shout of "She's awake!" and Jacob and Leah came suddenly into view, their eyes glittering with both anger and fear.
I licked my lips, tasting the dryness. "What happened?"
"You fainted," Leah spat, one hand on her sword hilt as her eyes flickered about nervously. "You nearly fell from your horse - you could have been killed!"
I felt a cool touch on my hand, but ignored it in favour of shaking my head, still feeling slightly dizzy. "I fell? But…What…I don't remember…"
"She is not hurt?"
This voice was smooth, velvety, like liquid honey poured into my ear. I twisted to see the speaker, and felt my jaw drop even as I did so.
It was a man of about eighteen, with messy bronze hair, gleaming armour and a crooked, if slightly diminished grin, staring down at me with a curious expression in his eyes. But those things I barely noticed in the second I stared at him. Instead, my eyes focused on the embroidered sun on his tabard, the circlet of pale gold around his brow, the glittering topaz of his eyes.
"You're…You are…"
"Your Royal Highness," Jasper said quietly, his head bowed in respect as he kneeled, my own knight humbled before this stranger. "This is the man who saved you from your fall."
"It was nothing," the man said, coming to kneel next to me. His features, as smooth and perfect as the marble statues in the city of Brandon, were dazzling to behold, but it was the look of kindness in his eyes that caught me off guard. The face of a god, but the eyes of a mortal…
But then…wasn't that the very description to befit an emperor?
"Thank-you," I whispered, feeling all the planned speeches with their pretty words dry up in my mouth. "It is good to meet you at last…Prince Edward."
And so Bella finds herself off to a less than auspicious start - but at least Edward gets to introduce himself in a suitably heroic fashion :) . See you next time, and please review!
