When the cheering had ceased, Drizdan stepped forward, his timing impeccable in the general buzz of excitement and joy at her return.
"Your majesty, the great Queen of Winter. I wish to ask for the Princess Etani's hand in marriage."
The room went suddenly silent at the proclamation and the Queen turned to her. She saw then that the Queen was not all she seemed to be, a cold light coming into her eyes as if she knew everything.
"It would bring Winter great honour to join Winter and the Drow together," she said and Etani's heart sank.
They had planned the whole thing, right down to Drizdan's proclamation and the Queen agreeing.
That had been the deal all along. Drizdan would recover her, and he would get to keep her.
"You can't, I'm already married," she said, her hand lifting and to her horror, the dark mark around her finger had vanished.
"No dear child, your marriage was annulled the moment you set foot in Winter. It is forbidden to marry the dead. You will marry Drizdan."
Taking a step back from the Queen, their entire conversation had been drowned out in the cheering of the crowd, the wild clapping and she turned, Drizdan's grin was feral.
Pulled from the dais by two enormous trolls who had been dressed to look like guards, she had been yanked from the room under the guise of protecting her and getting her to the safety of her new rooms.
Drizdan had followed, his hands in his pants pockets and almost glowing with the light of his success.
Shoved inside, Drizdan followed and she immediately turned on him, resenting his grin.
"You and that witch had this whole thing planned didn't you…?" she whispered, hating him.
"Of course we did. Isn't this place wonderful? All the rules are different."
"I will never marry you," she said and that made his smile slip.
"I'm afraid you don't have a choice Princess. If Winter declares us married, we are married."
"That's rubbish!" she cried, hating everything about that place.
Approaching her, he smiled cruelly.
"Get used to it Etani. There is no Epharis, no twins, no vampire king, no one here to save you this time. You will belong to me in a matter of days."
"Why do you pursue me?" she whispered and his eyes narrowed.
"A strong King must have a strong Queen. One who bows only to him."
"You're not the King," she said slowly, not understanding.
"No, but I will be once my mother and sisters are dead. With no one left, I will take the throne with you at my side and Winter at your call."
"I will never bow down to you," she breathed and he smiled at her, his hand flying out to strike her and she gasped, staggering back.
"You will obey your husband. I'm not as sentimental as the Lich. I will not tolerate disobedience from a woman."
He left soon after and she was alone, crawling into a huge bed with fur covering it in layers, falling into an uneasy sleep.
***
She had been told that the wedding was due to take place in three days and so she used that time to do as much research on her family as possible. It turned out that her grandmother had indeed not been a pureblood Fae, but it was not very surprising considering how many Fae chose to bring in other species to keep the bloodlines pure of degradation. The Queen's name turned out to be Tatialia, a name she thought rather odd, at least until she learnt that one of her middle names had been Ysabel and the connection was made.
Her own name at birth had been Etania Ysabel Alicia Vellorie Selene Laelia Daewen, something not even her parents knew. It was simply something you knew at birth.
The name number depended on birth, the first always having six or more and the rest having five and occasionally six with those names being taken from family lineage. One name from the eldest child came from one of each grandmother and one from the mother. Her mother had told her that Alicia had come from her, and now she knew that Ysabel came from her grandmother. The other names were random and sometimes even words that didn't make sense at all or were in another language.
No one was willing to study names for fear of someone else finding out theirs because that would spell doom. If someone had your name, they could command you to do anything at all so long as they had it and knew how to pronounce it.
She hadn't even told Letari or Avadari her full name, it was too risky. They had all exchanged the one name they had adopted from their mother, Belladonna Lyla Deanne Alicia Rivenden. Etani got Alicia, Letari got Deanna and Avadari got Lyla. The order in which the names were taken were random and if the parent gave birth to more children than the number of names they had, names would be recycled. A first name or a last name was never used.
Should she have children, she would have to have five before one of her names was recycled and unless the parent told you, there was no way of knowing which name it was that had been taken.
It was all entirely too complicated and no one was all that keen to test theories.
It was during one of her adventures in the library where she stumbled upon something she wasn't expecting. She had found a family tree hidden between a couple of books, not overly well hidden but if one wasn't looking for it, they wouldn't have found it. It was strange, clearly outlining each person starting at herself with Letari, going up to Lutheral, Tatialia, higher to a woman named Tephanie, Ameline. It was so odd, each line marking a clear straight pattern down with others being brought in, but on and on it went, a name and a species and she was very quickly figuring out a pattern. No species duplicated, woman after woman, back and back and back, generation after generation in a solid straight line. One child, always a girl, always marrying a new species, always birthing a girl except for three abnormalities that broke up the smooth, singular line. The first woman had birthed five, Lutheral was born a male, and she had been born a twin.
The line had been clearly marked out as far back as the page reached, starting with a single name, Villaria and she had been a human who had remained unmarried, the five children seeming to sprout from nothing. Four of the children were male, judging by the names and their lines ended within one of two generations, it was the girl who married a vampire, their daughter on to a dragonkin, and down with one man entering the picture only to birth a daughter and then no more.
The sight made her feel sick, it was too perfect, too clean and she felt suddenly that someone out there had been in control the whole time.
She stole the tree, stuffing it into her dress and heading back to her room. It had taken the better part of the time she had allowed, leaving her one day left to try and escape with the tree.
Packing herself a small supply of weapons she had scavenged, mostly kitchen knives and the like, she had tried to sneak out only to find a very large number of troll guards keeping her from leaving.
The Queen knew she would try and run. Her rooms had no windows and no access to any other part of the palace.
Retreating to her room, she sat and waited, knowing what was coming.