Bride to Be (part sixteen)
Bride to Be (part sixteen)
King and Queen, Alderic and Tamarilde
Eyes in the brisk wind tearing
But jaws in defiance of weak hearts clenched, the two surveying
The grey and brown and yellow-gold, the blue blue sky
the empty land ungiving
He kissed his first son’s head and drew her near
Under his cloak, that smelled of clean, cold air
His day’s angry fling at her father’s borders
Had carried him afar, forced the changing of his horse
for another
And the grumble of this underling, who had served
Alderic’s sire
Had taught him a worthy thing
That he had not earned their love, and was not admired
Tamarilde’s father measured the starving
Its hours, its grains and gruels, by so many spies’ tales
Carried to his ears, and some in sympathy
“Imprison him,” her mother said. “Or if he will ride
against a hail of spears, so be it. Women should not love.”
Sanguine, for he believed it too, the Old King measured
Then, had his daughter known
How much this rocky sovereignty, how much this union
She with Alderic, her love
Were the playacting of unschooled children
She might have chose the end that came
Do forewarned hearts know alchemies
To forge themselves in iron
Bride to Be
Bride to Be (part one)
(2022, Stephanie Foster)
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