Dismemberment Read online

  Chapter One

  (Nine Years Later)

  Katyea, her personal governess, unlocked the latch for the blinds and threw the heavy switch upwards. She clapped her hands as sheets of sunlight seared through the thick white slats hungrily though it seemed the luxury of even having such a portal had long since wore off.

  “Come now, it’s time Princess! I swear you’d sleep all day if we’d let you!”

  “But you won’t… will you?” Princess Steyan responded, forcing open an eye momentarily, before turning her head face down into the thick, warm down of the pillow once more.

  “You must get up! Today is the day the King will announce who is to marry Prince Bram.”

  “And what should I care of such things? I pity whoever it is! Prince Bram is arrogant and thinks only of himself.” Katyea shook her head and pulled the pillow out of Steyan’s sleepy fingers.

  “Don’t utter such things! You think you’re safe because the new young Captain has his eye set on you… but you should be far more wary. Besides, he is forbidden to marry!”

  “Nothing is for certain in a world where suns rule ahead of all timber to time.”

  “No, not ever,” countered the governess, “and it is best you remember that well!”

  Yes, Governess,” mocked the Princess but ever so gently for she loved Katyea like her own mother.

  “Keane and I have always loved one another. We were meant to be together and that will never change… so remember it well.”

  Katyea shook her head again before spryly seizing the comforter and tugging it quickly free of the bed. Princess Steyan moaned. She threw her arms up in surrender, her white satin skin contrasting sharply with the potpourri of tattoos scattered about her naked sunlit torso. She rose from the bed, feigning to scowl.

  “Right… let’s get going then, seeing as we’re in such a dreadful hurry!” She strolled towards the door, stretching and shaking her round bottom as she reached for the latch.

  She paused and turned, her perfect body highlighted by slats of sunshine beginning with her two proud breasts and striping her down to her toes. Holding her face from reach of the rays, she added, “Sun be scold, we would not want EVER to keep the King’s Court waiting!”

  “You really are hopeless,” sighed the governess, holding open the Princess’ plush housecoat into which Steyan quickly slid what little modesty she had left.

  “It’s cold in here today,” said the Princess offering up one big body shiver as proof. She wrapped the robe tightly across herself.

  “I will start a fire while you wash,” said Katyea. “Soon it will be much cozier.”

  “Nonsense! You work far too hard and it’s not that cold… just a bit nippy. I shall be fine. Besides, we’ll be leaving shortly, will we not?”

  “Yes, we are… but not until you have a bite and a steaming mug of roasted chicory.”

  “Yes mother. Whatever you say, mother,” winked the Princess, tying her long black strands into a tight bun behind her head. She secured it in place with a pair of stubby white hair daggers.

  “I am worried,” said Katyea. “I threw stones today!”

  “And what did they tell you?” The princess asked intrigued.

  “That it would be a cold day,” replied the governess.

  “Ha! That’s it… and you fear for but a sprinkling of cold? You shouldn’t. The cold wakes you… it embraces your soul and tells you you’re alive!”

  “There are many layers to cold my dear… but, if it has indeed woken you, then perhaps it isn’t entirely shrouded with ill portent.”

  “You worry too much Governess.”

  “And you just called me Governess… which frightens me all the more!” They both laughed as the Princess bent to wash in the warm, lilac scented water.