A King Without His Queen

“You foolish ignorant little boy!” Jasmina spat at her son who was smiling sheepishly and shamefully. She had just spent the last half an hour explaining rather loudly that he could have been killed for his foolish act of kissing the Crowned Princess Lillianna's hand in the market earlier that day.

The young prince sighed and looked exasperatedly to his mother. “Mom, I would have been fine. I was just having a little fun. It's not like I hurt her or anything,” Rashka explained for the umpteenth time since his mother went on her little tirade.

He apparently wasn't getting what was so wrong with what he did. The prince may have been twenty one, but he tended to act rather kiddish. Some might have blamed it on his parents treating him like a kid. But few knew what the real reason for this kiddish behavior, yet it was also part of the reason why he seemed too mature for his age at other times. The secret was something that was only known among the Akelan and a select few out side the family.

His mother let out a frustrated sigh and ran a hand through her long curly brown-black locks, the very locks that Rashka had inherited. Her jeweled eyes showed many emotions. Anger for the stupid act that Rashka did. Happiness that he was still alive. Sorrow that he wasn't wise enough to know better. And what is in all mothers' eyes: love for her children even if they are not the best or greatest.

“You don't understand, mijo,” Jasmina said, referring to her son as mijo, thanks to her Spanish roots. Jasmina sighed and sat in front of her son and looked him in the eye to prove how serious she was about this issue. “They could have killed you.” She took a deep breath to steady herself as the thought of losing her boy was just too much for her. The Oonai queen silenced her son, who opened his mouth to interject something. “It doesn't matter how well you fight, my son. They would have taken you prisoner and would have hung you from those blasted gallows.” Jasmina was almost in tears.

“To you it was a kind and gentle gesture since it is common among our people to be that friendly with perfect strangers, but, mijo, to those who are not as we are it just isn't the proper thing to do. To them, you are a mongrel vagabond. Filthy, dirty, good for nothing other than petty and in expensive entertainment, and nothing more.” Jasmina had become very solemn now. She hated how her people were treated, and that was another thing she had definitely passed on to her son.

Rashka was very serious now as well. Maybe all along he knew that was he did was dangerous and rather unacceptable to the Princess's crowd, but he just didn't want to believe it. It seemed like the princess was different from the others he had met in the market. Or rather, did not meet, since most just watched and paid with a few coins. Maybe it was that difference that made him do that terribly rash thing. He wasn't sorry he did it, only sorry for making his mother and father worry.

Smiling ever so softly the Oonai prince looked out the tent opening and into the oncoming dusk. It was beautiful. The great ball of fire was just about to set, leaving Rashka and the world in darkness until the next morning. The young man tore his gaze back to his mother. His smile was still on his face as he reached over and hugged his mother tightly.

“Mom, I am sorry for making you and dad worry so much about me. I never intended to endanger my life. I just didn't think it over as throughly as I ought to have done. Forgive my foolishness. “ His words were of truth and no hint of falsehood.

The two pulled out of the hug. Jasmina smiled at her son. “Thank you. You are forgive for this offense, Rashka.” Jasmina rose and gave a little stretch as she gazed to the setting sun. “Supper is in an hour, so you might want to clean up a bit,” she chuckled slightly as she walked away, her anklets and other jewelry jingling all the way down to the stately banquet tent.

Rashka stood like a soldier at ease out side his tent and stared out the window a bit longer. His mind was on far away things and long ago. He stood like that for a few minutes just staring and thinking. After a few minutes however, the young Oonai prince sighed, and left the atrium to do as his mother asked of him.

Meanwhile on the other side of the city....

“How could you have been so....so....foolish?!?” Her Majesty Queen Charlotte Marianna II cried to her daughter who was looking any where but at her mother. The queen had just spent the past hour or so since Lillianna had returned from her little jaunt into the city explaining to the young princess the atrocities of what she had done.

“Mother!” exclaimed an exasperated princess who was getting tired from her mother's endless rant on how going into the city was dangerous and unsanitary. Groaning in frustration, Lillianna rose and gave her mother an icy stare. “I know it may have been foolish and yes, it was filthy, but I am not afraid to mingle with the people whom I will one day rule over. I want to see my people, I want to be a different monarch. Mother, I am not like you. I know that kills you, but please just accept it as it is.”

Lillianna's heart was aching for how much she was hurting her mother. She could see it in the queen's eyes. The sadness and disappointment was almost too much to bare. Lillianna was indeed almost nothing like her mother, but almost every bit like her father who was in a meeting with foreign ministers about some trade policy or something of that sort. Lillianna was not the perfect lady or princess like her mother wished her to be.

The queen sighed. Her daughter was certainly unruly, no thanks to the child's father. Nor to the brothers who spoil her. Lillianna ought to have been taught more etiquette and manners if she was to ever please a foreign prince. It wasn't that the queen didn't love her daughter, it was just more like Charlotte Marianna wanted her daughter to be the best and have the best. Which is why she would not stand for her daughter to be,,,,defiled by that mongrel Rashka. Charlotte Marianna was only mildly comfortable with allowing gypsies in her palace to entertain guests, but the only ones allowed were the Akelan.

As if reading her mother's thoughts, Lillianna huffed, silver eyes blazing. “Mother! It was just a kiss on the hand. You seem to have no problem with those disgusting pigs who call themselves gentlemen kissing my hand. What makes Prince Akelan so different!?” she said, trying to tame the raging anger that boiled with in her. How could her mother be so..blind to the fact that Rashka was much more gentlemanly, even as a gypsy, than the gentlemen of the Royal Court? Lillianna could not understand it.

Charlotte Marianna's ice blue eyes narrowed and her nostrils flared. The nerve of her daughter to speak that way to her. “They may be pigs, Lillianna, but they were born much higher rank than that Akelan brat ever was. He may be a prince to his own people, but that is it. He is not recognized ever where as a prince and so you will do well to remember that in this country, he is just another lowly peasant.” Her voice was dangerous low and filled with venom. A sign to prove that she was most displeased with her daughter's actions and speech..

Lillianna huffed, and grabbed the book off the ledge. The comment about the Akelan prince made her very curious. She had some research to do. “Mother, I can not take this right now. If you will excuse me I shall remain in the library until supper. And I wish to be undisturbed.” Lillianna gave her mother a small curtsy before strolling down the long halls and into the massive palace library to begin the equally massive search.