The Mâvarin Revolutions: Princess on the Run, Part Two

Okay, I didn't manage to get this done a week after the previous installment, but it's been less than two weeks. That's progress! And I have finished the scene, after being a little stuck on it. I've even been writing the next one in my head, so I guess this book is truly underway. You won't see all of it here, but I'll post one more scene, at least.

Meanwhile, there's this. Last time, if you'll remember, Commander Wil Masan of the Palace Guard was trying to convince Princess Cathma Masha of the "otherworld" Mâvarin to flee from her own family to avoid a bloody succession at the imminent death of her father, King Jor.


The Mâvarin Revolutions

Fragments from a Work in Progress

by Karen Funk Blocher
© 2007 by KFB

Princess on the Run, Part Two

“Fãrnet, I suppose. There really aren’t a lot of choices, if I’m going to do this at all. Do you think Prince Areno and his family would give me their protection?”

Wil nodded thoughtfully. “They might at that. Especially if they expected to gain some advantage by it.”

The Princess looked annoyed. “Explain,” she said.

“Prince Areno plays politics better than you do. He knows that Mâton and your family are unlikely to express official disfavor if he takes you in and marries you. That would effectively preclude your ruling here, but Areno’s eldest child could be the monarch of a country much larger than his own.”

“I hate it when your suggestions put men in my bed,” Cathma Masha remarked.

Masan flashed her a calculatedly lascivious grin. “No more than do I, with one exception,” he said.

“Which you dare not make,” she retorted.

“We’re getting off the subject here. The point is that Fãrnet probably is the safest place you can go – if you can get there, that is.”

“And the rest of it? I have no intention of marrying Areno.”

“But it does no harm to hold out the possibility, while we see whether a better resolution to your situation is possible. I’m with the Mâ-na-Mâ on this much: you would make a great queen.”

“So your counsel is to run away now, and perhaps return in triumph later.”

“That’s pretty much it, yes. You can hide in Mâvarin instead of Fãrnet, but you would need to be either extremely well-hidden or extremely well-protected. Even if you leave the country, you will need help along the way. My influence, such as it is, does not extend beyond these walls.”

“If I do leave – and I have not yet agreed to do so – where is my immediate destination, then? That inn with the Mâ-na-Mâ innkeeper? Perhaps Liru’s home with all the magic doorways?”

“Either will do. The big problem will be getting you out. Princess, please. I want you to live.”

She must have heard his earnest tone, with no trace of the banter in which they’d indulged just moments before. She nodded slowly. “So do I, Wil.” She sighed. “All right. Set up your people to get me to the Palace door. I don’t suppose I can pack anything?”

“Best not. It should not look as though you are going anywhere.”

“All right. Give me half an hour. I’ll go. But I still don’t like it. And Wil….”

“Yes, Princess?”

“Thanks for making me go.”

“I can’t make you do anything. You’re going because you’re an intelligent and sensible young woman, who will not invite death for no good reason.”

“That, too,” she said.


Related Entry: A Fire in Mâvarin