The Singer's Crown Read Online Free PDF

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    The next guest was a suitor also, one Earl Orie of Gamel’s Grove. Younger than the baron—a good deal more handsome, Kattanan noted—the earl did not kneel, but bowed as if he would sweep the floor with his dark hair. “I am not such a great gift-giver, Your Highness, as my worthy competitor. Still, I would offer a token of my affection.” From a pouch at his hip, the earl pulled a necklace that sparkled with gold. “May I approach, Your Highness?”
    â€œYou may.” Melisande straightened her skirts and raised her chin as he came to stand before her. He held out to her the necklace, a golden chain of interwoven flowers, with a jeweled bee as its pendant. She gasped and met his sparkling black eyes. “I have never seen its like.”
    â€œEach bloom was once a wildflower, transformed by wizard’s touch into this marvel, as I would have you transform my life, Your Highness.” The words tripped smoothly from his lips, as if practiced before a polished plate. Kattanan smiled a little, still aglow from his performance.
    â€œI thank you for the present.” Melisande slipped it over her hair, but a link caught at her combs. The singer jumped up and with careful fingers untangled it. Once the task was complete, his eyes widened in horror, and he fell to both knees.
    â€œForgive me, Highness, for having touched your person unbidden.” As a child in foreign courts, he had been allowed a certain ignorance. As he grew older, those who felt themselves offended had replied with violence, a sharp blow or a beating intended to teach him the local customs. In his eagerness to please his new mistress the lesson had slipped his mind.
    The earl’s hand leapt to his hip, where a sword would have hung were this not a royal court. “If this boy has offended, Highness, it shall be my pleasure to punish him for it.”
    â€œBe not so quick to anger,” the princess responded. “He can bring me neither shame nor injury. Indeed, he has delivered me from a fight with my own hair. Take your seat in safety, Kattanan. Again, I thank you, good Earl.” He bowed out of her presence with a fierce look at Kattanan, who shrank back to his place, his glow forgotten in the trembling of his hands.
    By the end of the long procession, no less than twelve men had asked for the princess’s favor. Each was received with due courtesy, at least as he came close. Between introductions, though, Melisande rolled her eyes at her brother and sent tiny sighs in his direction. Her fingers tapped even more upon the throne—in the rhythm of his song, Kattanan was pleased to note. At last, the prince rose and clapped his hands together. “Minstrels, my sister requires a dance.” He took the princess by the hand, and led her down the few steps to begin the first dance. Kattanan sipped at a goblet of wine, his eyes tracing the path of the princess, his ears listening to her voice.
    â€œWolfie, I shall never be able to chose among these,” Melisande was saying.
    â€œFather and I have already eliminated many men who came first to us.”
    â€œIt’s not the marriage that I mind so much, but these suitors just want to be closer to you, to gain favor for when you are king. They don’t ask for my sake.”
    â€œDid you not hear all their compliments? And what of the gifts you’ve had from them? When Esther came of age, she received only five offers, one of whom was our own cousin.”
    â€œEsther has the nose of a boar; no man would want to get his heirs from her.”
    â€œThey just don’t know you yet,” Wolfram said. “Give them time, and they’ll see you as more than your title. You may even begin to see them, as well.”
    â€œNone of them seems a bad sort, and no doubt I could make a life with any one of them. That just makes the decision more trying. Sometimes I wish it were done already.”
    â€œHow about the baron? You