The Princess and the Captain Read Free

cannot understand your objections.’
    â€˜But you know,’ wept Malva, ‘you know perfectly well what marriage will mean to me! I shall have to give up the only pleasures I’ve ever been allowed. I won’t be able to study any more, or read, or say what I want, or go out without an escort!’
    The Archont heaved an exasperated sigh. ‘I do know, Princess. But you have no choice.’
    Malva was choking with rage. How could the Archont give in so quickly?
    â€˜When you’ve taught me so much!’ she told him. ‘It’s thanks to you that I discovered the joys of reading, writing, making up stories, thinking. You even gave me my longing to travel and a taste for freedom!’
    The Archont smiled sadly. ‘I am only a humble tutor. It was not I who taught you all those things, but the authors of the books you read. And books are not the same as life, Princess. You must give up your childish dreams. You must do your duty.’
    Malva felt betrayed and abandoned.
    â€˜Trust your mother,’ the Archont told her gently. ‘I am sure she has chosen you a good husband. The Prince of Andemark is only thirty-three, and they say he’s an excellent dancer.’
    Malva couldn’t have cared less about the Prince of Andemark and his dancing steps. Every time she closed her eyes she sawherself shut up in a room waiting for the wedding night, and dreadful panic churned in her stomach.
    Once, when she was very small, she had watched the Parade of Gifts: envoys from all over the Known World had passed through the Citadel courtyard in procession. One of them had a huge reptile on a leash. ‘A female allicaitor that I caught in the Lands of Aremica,’ he announced. Then he produced a cage with a terrified hare crouching inside. The envoy had given the hare to the Coronador, saying, ‘Throw it in the air and watch!’ The Coronador had thrown the poor creature. With a snap of its teeth, the monstrous reptile had swallowed its prey.
    Alive.
    To the plaudits of the nobility.
    Malva felt she was in exactly the same situation: they wanted to throw her to a stranger who would crunch her up in an instant.
    In the end the Archont finally realised that she was prepared to do anything to avoid such a fate. One evening he admitted that he sympathised with her.
    â€˜You’re so young, so beautiful … and so gifted. You’ve always had such an independent nature. I can see why you don’t want to spend your life as a puppet on the arm of a man who’s too old for you.’
    Malva had raised her amber eyes to him, brimming with tears. ‘Talk to my mother! Talk to my father!’ she begged. ‘Ask them to call this marriage off!’
    The Archont had shaken his head. His powers were great, but not great enough for that. Galnicia needed this alliance with Andemark, and the Coronador wasn’t going to change his mind.
    â€˜Your father entrusted your education to me, but otherwise I’m powerless.’
    â€˜Then what can I do?’ cried Malva in despair.
    â€˜I don’t know,’ the Archont replied. ‘But be sure that whatever you decide, you can count on my help.’
    For some time Malva had thought the question over from every angle. At last it seemed to her that the only solution would be flight. It was certainly the only way she could escape this marriage, but she couldn’t bring herself to make the final decision. Paralysed by fear, she kept putting it off until tomorrow.
    Then came the day when the Coronador summoned her to the Council Chamber and made her burn her notebooks. That ultimate humiliation had suddenly swept aside her fears and scruples. As soon as she was out of the Chamber she had gone to find Philomena to tell her what she was going to do.
    â€˜Very well,’ Philomena had murmured at once. ‘In that case I’m going with you.’
    And so the two of them, thanks to Malva’s friendship with the