The Blood King's Love

Seventeen

Three years ago, the Blood King got married. 

Not for love, of course. It was a political move. Even the naivest of his followers could tell. 

Teron is the only country bordering Valon that had enough power to go against the Blood King's army with a fair fight. With King Dietrich, at least, they had peaceful relations. But ever since the Blood King took the throne, tensions had been rising. 

The king of Teron wasn't very keen on Valon's new ruler, since he was extremely young when he became a royal--they doubted his capability, and the Blood King knew that. People speculate that for this reason, the Blood King started sending his troops to different towns across Valon--towns like Eseq, my old home--and kill have them massacred. All to send a warning to Teron. To show them that they weren't just formidable, but ruthless and deadly. 

I personally believe there's more to the Blood King's actions than just quick genocide to show off his strength to another country. There has to be some sort of other benefit. But the notorious man is so hush-hush about all his actions, all we can do is hypothesize. 

Regardless of his intentions, however, Teron definitely took notice. When other smaller countries tried to invade Valon, they didn't even stand a chance. Teron figured that, if they weren't careful, Valon could easily invade and destroy them. 

For a longtime, there was a bit of a standstill. Tension only rose when Teron stopped exporting and importing goods from Valon, and taxes on products grew. Some riots among the poorer townspeople would break out, and the wealthy (upset that they had to pay 2000 more rupees than usual for their porcelain teacups) began to take their businesses and money out of deals with Teron. For a long time, we suspected violence to break out. Or maybe the Blood King would use his people's outrage as an excuse to decapitate a foreigner with a his sword. Either outcome was possible. But what actually happened was a shock to all of us. 

Six years after he took the throne, the Blood King went on a surprise visit to the neighboring country for the first time. He was there for about a week, and was spotted with Teron's prime minister only once. The next thing we knew, he returned with a bride. 

Princess Freya was eight years the Blood King's junior, and she was the third child born into the family. Around my age, just by looking at the artist rendition in a newspaper, I knew she was one of the most stunning spectacles I had ever seen. Her hair was long and bronze, her eyes a golden brown, her freckles pronounced with bone structure even the gods would envy. Why the Teron kingdom would give away their most beautiful asset the a country they weren't friendly with was confusing at first, until after the marriage ceremony, where relations with Teron and Valon got significantly better. Trade resumed, and the rulers of the two countries seemingly became companions. The exact conditions and specifics of the marriage wasn't clear, but everyone could tell it was for the better. 

At first everyone expected Freya to be a sort of dog to the King--but to our surprise, she turned out to be just as deadly. She was rumored to have ladies-in-waiting tied to a tree for a day without any food or drink just because they styled her hair wrong. No one knew if she had always been like that, or if the Blood King influenced her. But either way, she became a force to be reckoned with. 

But they didn't seem to love each other. The articles I read, at least, and the testimonies my father gave me (before he went missing) said that the married couple were never physical with each other when they were seen together--they didn't even look each other in the eye. That wasn't surprising; she's a young girl who was forced to marry a man she didn't know, and he was a merciless sociopath that would probably slit her throat at a moment's notice. 

Naturally, people were suspecting a baby to be born. The Blood King obviously wanted an heir, right? He didn't have any close family, and if he wanted to continue the reputation he had given Valon, he would need his own flesh and blood to do it, right? 

Months would go by after the marriage as people were waiting for the announcement of a prince or princess. But it never came. 

Something else came instead. 

Princess Freya had about seven siblings, two girls and five boys. The oldest men in the family were either in line for the throne, thriving in another distant country or generals in the Teron military. But there was the youngest child that no one knew what to do with. Two years into Freya and the Blood King's marriage, they held a ceremony for the arrival of the youngest prince of Teron. He was quickly given a welcoming parade, his own chamber, and it was rumored that he began training with a bow and arrow and sword fighting and even time and time he attended meetings with other diplomats. 

Everyone understood. His closeness with the Blood King, his sudden arrival to the country--the fact that it made sense for the Blood King to keep Teron further under lock by not only taking their beloved princess, but converting a young Teron boy into a boy with Valon loyalty. The fact that the queen and king seemed to never be intimate, and even slept in different sides of the palace. They never planned to have a child. The Blood King was raising Teron's last prince to become his successor. He was to be the next heir to the Valon throne. 

His name was Teio. Prince Teio of the Teron Kingdom.