Judd had once read a story about a princess locked in a tower, waiting for her prince to come rescue her. The prince had heard about the princess from a far away country and had journeyed across the sea, battling sea monsters and crossing unfamiliar land, defeating brigands and bandits to arrive at the base of the tower. Ultimately, the romantic value of the story had been captured in the single scene at the end when the prince had rescued the princess who had fallen in love at first sight though she didn’t even know his name. Judd had imagined himself in the role many times. Of course, in his head, he had been a knight, not a prince but had done much the same as the prince in the story had, reaching the tower and climbing it despite being clad in all his armour and often being much taller and more handsome than he felt he was in real life.


    As he climbed the narrow stairs to the top of the castle’s centremost point, he recalled the story once more. The prince had gone most of the story without his princess. Judd’s princess had been by his side almost the whole time. The prince had climbed the tower’s exterior while Judd had a perfectly usable staircase to ascend and the prince had been dressed in his finest, most royal, garments while Judd was bare foot, in dark grey silk trousers and a white nightshirt.


    Aalis was in the room she had slept in as a child. It was the highest point of the castle proper, a pretty dome like a crown to all those who were outside, looking up. However, as Judd climbed into the round space, he discovered that it was not just an adornment, but a bedroom. There was a grand bed suspended from high arches of the ceiling, white and gold ropes forming a sling to hold the bed up off the floor. The ropes also made a rectangle above the bed, allowing for sheer white drapes to softly hang over the bed and sweep across the marble floor, like a woman lying on the edge of a riverbank might trail her fingers across the surface of the water.


    Directly above the bed, in what would have to be the absolute middle of the castle, was a skylight in the shape of a star, its rays separate panels of glass, all of them cut from glass that was lightly frosted around the outer edges and clear in the middle. There were windows around the outside of the circular room, each one designed to curve, forming the dome with the arches. The windows were also frosted in the same way, allowing starlight to glimmer softly and the moon’s brittle glow to cast shifting shadows from the clouds in the sky across the floor.


    Judd came to the top of the stairs, ascending through the floor, facing the end of the bed. For a moment, he couldn’t see Aalis. She sat on the side of the bed, facing away from him, her silvery dreadlocks loose down her back and dressed in layers of the palest lavender, grey and white. Her feet did not reach the floor and she was as still as a statue.


    Judd licked his lips, wishing he knew what to say. “I know now, what you meant…about the importance of the vow you made,” he said as softly as he could, feeling like he would shatter the world by breaking the silence, “you weren’t talking about my promise to you. You meant your vow…to Garo Rylan, to be faithful as his wife.”


    He edged around the corner of the bed, Aalis staring forwards without speaking.


    “Aalis…Genovieve,” he paused, unable to work out what to call her and saw her throat shift as she swallowed, as though both names pained her, “you couldn’t tell me then. Would you tell me now?”


    He stood in front of her, her lavender eyes blinking slowly. The bruises on her body were already fading and her lip was almost healed yet she seemed frighteningly close to death, so strong was the air of despair around her.


    “There is not much to tell.” She said softly. “This room…this was my childhood.” She gestured to the space without looking at it. “Separated from everyone as I could hear everything they said and thought, even into the night, sometimes so loud it was as though they were in the room with me. The suspended bed brought some relief and sometimes, in those precious times when most of the castle slept, I would lie on the bed, looking up at the stars…and hear music.”


    Judd’s skin prickled in awe.


    Aalis licked her lips. “I gave little thought to love. My greatest concern was if I would be able to sleep more than a few hours. Then I met Garo. He was kind, polite and handsome and a great friend of Nicolin. I was shy and enamoured but never gave weight to my whimsical wonderings. Often I would go into the royal gardens. Walking bare foot on the grass and being amidst nature seemed to filter the chaos, like a refreshing bath. Rylan and Nicolin would accompany me after supper. They would talk, I would wander and we would go inside. One day, Nicolin was summoned in to address a matter. Garo promised to see me inside safely. As I paused in the vestibule to put my shoes on, Garo caught me around my waist and set me on a ledge, offering to do so. When he slid the second shoe onto my stockinged foot,” Aalis shivered, “his hand caressed my ankle and calf…sliding up my leg as he stood up. The next I knew, he was kissing me passionately and I was lost in his embrace. A moment later he recoiled and dropped to one knee, apologising for his actions. He said he was desperately in love with me,” Aalis gave a small, sad laugh, “me…the raven haired spectre of castle Astaril. He asked if he could petition my father for my hand. My heart leapt in joy and I agreed without hesitation.”


    She stopped speaking. Judd was tempted to urge her to continue but didn’t want to unsettle her.


    “The night we were married, I waited for him in our chambers here in this very castle. I was nervous about my role as a wife in the bedchamber yet, I confess, I was eager too. When Garo came in, he knelt before me and said he could not make love to me in the home of my father. He said it grated against his sensibilities and begged that I would not think less of him to wait until we were in Fort Verion.” Aalis closed her eyes. “His eloquent plea only increased my love. We stayed a week in the castle then took almost the same again to travel south. I was in a covered carriage as we entered the main thoroughfare and into the fort itself. Garo was protective of me, attending my needs himself and refusing servants. I was too bewildered to pay any much attention, never having left Astaril before.


    He opened the door to his bedchamber, richly furnished, deep colours, dark woods…so different to my own cold existence. I turned to him, thinking this was the time I would fulfill the most important role as a wife…that was when he struck me.”


    Judd bristled but contained it. Aalis continued, her tone void of emotion.


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    “I…was so shocked I think I was still smiling even as my skin stung from the blow and I looked at him again when he slapped me so hard I dropped to the ground and he kicked my chest, winding me. Several more blows later he stood over me and said, now you will never forget your place.”


    “Aalis…”


    “There was rarely a day that went by that he did not hurt me. I felt as though I was being punished, as though I was something he despised but I could not fathom it.” Her statuesque fa?ade cracked slightly as her brows furrowed. “Had I failed him? Hurt him?”


    “You must know, Aalis, it was he who failed you!” Judd insisted.


    Aalis blinked, tears trickling down her frosted cheeks. “I was not permitted to leave the bedchamber for a month and only given scraps to eat. Then Garo would have me dress as a servant to pour wine at his feasting table when he dined with other knights.”


    “No one recognised you?”


    “I was a faceless servant.”


    Judd groaned. “I cannot believe no one asked where you were!”


    “When the knights inquired, Rylan would give some…tasteless explanation,” Aalis trembled, “that I was too sore from Rylan’s appendage to walk or that I was sleeping off a night of intimate escapades…” She closed her eyes, shame pouring out of her. “Apart from our first kiss and a light press on our wedding day, he never touched me intimately yet the way he extoled our imaginary exploits in the bedchamber…I felt such shame…”


    Judd turned away and pressed his fists to the edge of one of the arched windowsills, lowering his head, his shoulders quaking in fury.


    “What about when Nicolin visited?” He asked through heaving breaths.


    “Garo warned me if I let on, even for a moment, that I was not happy…he would kill Nicolin.” Aalis shook with the same fear as she’d felt then. “I tried so hard to convince him. My beloved brother…he was not fooled at all. I could see it in his eyes. I was so happy when he left, thinking that he had escaped Garo’s reach…”


    “Then you received word of his death.”


    Aalis’ jaw hardened. “It seems as though you are the only heir to the throne now. You should have pleased me better. That is what Garo said to me as I read the letter. He poured two goblets of wine and made a mocking toast to the dear departed prince and left me kneeling on the floor.” She looked at her hands. “I was shaking harder than I am now, the endless stretch of a tortuous existence before me, married to the man who murdered my brother and who would, because of my heritage, take the throne one day…then something…happened.”


    Judd turned to her. “What happened, Aalis?”


    “I am not sure, I was not sensible of it at the time but it has happened since,” Aalis admitted, “I felt a blow or perhaps a push…like there was a great gale in the room and suddenly the door was opened and it rushed out…I was so upset I could not tell anything was wrong. I escaped the bedchamber and made it to the top of the wall. No one had stopped me. I had seen no one. I looked down at the rocks far below and poured the wine from my goblet before dropping it. It descended rapidly for a split second then…stopped.”


    “Stopped?” Judd paused. “On the ground?”


    “It stopped in the air, on its way to the ground yet frozen…as if it were no more than a painting.” Aalis shook her head. “I was so frightened by it, by the thought that I would end up the same way, forever falling, that I hastened inside and found everyone in the fort was struck down. Some were standing, some were sitting…but they were all still…no breath, no pulse…not a single blink.” She looked at her fingers, weaving them together and resting them in her lap. “I know now that I have a unique ability to stop time, protecting myself in a bubble.”


    “That’s how you stopped the hydra.” Judd breathed.


    “Only part of it. That was why it screamed and convulsed, because part of it was out of rhythm with the rest of it.” Aalis swallowed. “It happened in the Arena, when you were going to be killed…and with the ogre, the first monster you slayed. I stopped it for as long as I had…this unknowable power pouring out of me…but in Fort Verion, I thought I had killed every last person, their bodies seized and frozen, mad statues of themselves.”


    “That’s why you asked if Rylan was dead…you were sure you had killed him.”


    “And I ran,” Aalis nodded, “I escaped the fort, ran into the wilds…I was mad with terror and my body was raging out of control…then I collapsed. I should have died but Dragoslava, the woman who was tainted by the waters of Maul, saved me. For days I was in a delirium. She thought I would not survive. When I woke, I was exceedingly weak and my hair was stripped of all colour. I travelled north with Dragoslava and hid in her forest, learning how to be a healer…and never told anyone who I was for I was too ashamed of myself and what had happened to me…and of what I was and what I could do…”


    Judd was reeling with all he’d heard but he forced himself forwards and sat on the end of the bed. “Aalis, the people of Terra need to know what kind of man Garo Rylan really is.”


    “No.”


    “He needs his reputation to be destroyed.”


    “No.”


    “His conduct must be made known!”


    “To what end?” Aalis demanded.


    Judd twisted and stared at her, astonished. “To keep you from him!”


    “Judd, Rylan will declare war on Astaril and kill my father, not to mention all the soldiers and citizens that stand against him if he does not have his way!”


    “Sounds like he’s after the throne anyway,” Judd argued, “at least this way, he won’t be given it. He’ll have to take it.”


    “I cannot allow my people to go to war over me!”


    “And I cannot allow you to return to that bastard!”


    They stared at each other, each more worried about the other than themselves.


    “Judd…Rylan is ruthless. He killed Nicolin…” Aalis sobbed.


    “All the more reason that such a man cannot be king.” Judd insisted.


    “It is my word against his.”


    “I don’t care if it was all of Astaril’s word against yours,” Judd scooped her fingers into his grasp and kissed the tops of them, “I believe you.”


    Aalis’ expression crumpled like parchment. “But I lied to you…every day…”


    “Aalis, this is very simple,” Judd forced her chin up, “do you want to go back to Garo Rylan? Not Genovieve out of deceived, na?ve love and not the princess protecting her people. Do you, Aalis, want to return to being his wife?” Her lips trembled and she shook her head. “Then…I’ll challenge Garo Rylan to a duel.” Judd stood up and Aalis gasped, following him. “I’ll fight him for the right to be your husband.”


    “Judd!”


    “I won’t even give him the chance to rally his treacherous forces.” Judd turned towards her. “With your testimony of Rylan’s cruelty, the challenge to a duel will be supported. He won’t be able to turn me down. In fact, I’ll go to him right now and challenge him!”


    “He will kill you! Garo Rylan is a dangerous and experienced warrior!”


    Judd smiled so serenely that Aalis was stunned. “I’m no slouch myself. Aalis, I won’t allow myself to fail. I can’t. Not when you are what is at stake. Screw the rest of Terra,” he knelt before her, his hand over his heart, “I am going to protect you.”


    Aalis trembled as Judd stood and turned to leave.


    “Judd…” Her gown lightly quivered with the force of the emotion pulsing through her body. “Would you carry my favour into battle?”


    Judd smiled and stepped back towards her. “A handkerchief?”


    “Actually,” Aalis licked her lips, “the original meaning of the word favour, was a kiss.”


    Judd blinked. “Uh…kiss?”


    “Bestowed upon the knight whom the lady favoured.”


    Judd cleared his throat and took a step towards her. “I…I thought…ahem…what about the vow?”


    Aalis bit her bottom lip. “I just…wanted to know what love, true love, felt like.”


    Judd let out a small laugh, nervous and excited, his heart fluttering wildly. He slid his left hand around her waist, settling into the small of her back as he drew her forward, closing the gap between them, pressing his lips against hers in a long, tender ‘favour’.


    Judd drew back, trembling, his eyes closed. “I…I hope…”