As usual, a big thank you to EmmaKendrick01 for providing her thoughts on the chapter!
*
Gwennalyn sighed heavily, watching her father walk away, diving back into the social cesspool that was the nobles & elite of the kingdom. It was the post-meal portion of the farewell feast, thrown in honor of the orcs' departure tomorrow morning.
It had been an exciting and thrilling week, even if the brothers had been more manipulative than she would have liked.
They had not owned up to stealing her clothing the previous night, and she had decided not to to bring it up, acting instead as if nothing noteworthy had happened once they had left her.
"What's wrong, princess?" Deiara asked, coming onto the dais, standing next to Gwennalyn, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder.
She sighed again, slumping sadly, trying to care enough to put on a happy face, lest the overly curious and simpering guests inquired as to the reason for her gloominess.
"Father just told me that Lucien is coming back next week," she grumbled, "and that once he arrives, we'll start talking about the details of our wedding."
Deiara squeezed at her shoulder.
"Sorry to hear that."
"Why do I have to marry him?"
"Because your father says so."
"But I don't love him, and he doesn't love me. So why should we get married?"
The handmaiden was silent for a moment.
"You can take solace in the fact that he is a good man."
Gwennalyn harrumphed.
"I don't care. I don't want to marry him."
Deiara did not speak; her mannerisms were familiar to Gwennalyn, who after glancing up at her handmaiden, knew that the older woman was biting back some sort of remark, perhaps to not offend the princess.
"Say what you want to say," Gwennalyn sighed.
Deiara hesitated.
"I don't mean to belittle your frustration, but you're lucky, and you shouldn't forget it."
"I know I'm lucky. I've been told that many times. My father is king, and I want for nothing."
"It's not just that. I've seen plenty of arranged marriages, some where the man was cruel or vain or stupid. Your father chose a man who is none of those things. I don't know him that well, but I can tell he is a good man, and he will take care of you."
"I don't want to be taken care of."
"Then what do you want?"
Gwennalyn sighed heavily.
"I don't know. I'm not sure what I want, I just know what I don't want."
"And that's Lucien?"
"Exactly. I don't want him."
"Well, unfortunately, there's not much you can do about it. Although I see something you do want heading towards us right now."
Gwennalyn looked past her handmaiden to see Brand and Brash stepping onto the dais.
"Evening, princess," they said.
"Evening, good sirs," she replied, watching them warily.
They nodded to Deiara, who curtsied, and left them alone with the princess.
"You remember when we first met?" Brand asked her.
She raised an eyebrow.
"Of course."
I doubt I'll ever forget it.
"When you visit us tonight, wear what you wore then."
With that, they left the dais, leaving Gwennalyn wondering what they had in store for her.
"You've taken quite a liking to our orcish guests," came a gentle voice from the other side of the dais.
Gwennalyn smiled at her mother.
"They're a straight-forward people. I appreciate that."
Her mother smiled back.
"You say straight-forward, I say simple."
Gwennalyn rolled her eyes.
"They're not stupid, mother."
"I know that, darling. But they're plain. They say what they want to say. Terribly blunt."
I'd rather that than the simpering around here.
"Your father and King Victorin will probably arrange for us to visit them soon," her mother continued, sitting down next to Gwennalyn.
"Good," she replied, keeping a straight face, already imagining what the brothers might do to her in their home castle.
Later that evening, Gwennalyn crept through the servant corridors, having just left Deiara with two orcs, the handmaiden giddy at the prospect of having them ravage her.
There'll be plenty to clean up when I see her later.
When she exited the corridors, padding into the main room of the brothers' chambers, they were as usual playing some game at a table.
She had obeyed their command to dress as she had when they had met on the road.
Which meant that she was not wearing a dress or gown.
What she was wearing instead was a meticulously picked outfit; as the orcs had torn several pieces of the original outfit in their haste, she had been forced to find replacements for certain items.
The boots and trousers were the same dark brown, the former leather and the latter linen. The vest and tunic from that day had been torn and tattered, so she had chosen similar ones, while she had decided to not even put on any undergarments, as they would soon be thrown to the wayside.
"Evening, sirs," she said as she approached them.
"Evening," they grunted back, focused on their game.
She took up a seat at the table, watching them play, fidgeting impatiently but unwilling to speak up, as begging would only play directly into their hands.
After a few torturous minutes, the game was finished, with Brash the victor.
"Your turn, princess," Brand told her.
She raised an eyebrow.
"I'm not here to play whatever that is."
Brash grinned.
"You came here so that we could fuck you, yes? So that we could ravage and ruin you on our last night here?"
She nodded, unconsciously biting her lip.
Brand leaned forward, removing the pieces from the board. As he began to replace them with miniature figures in marble, of knights and archers and kings, Gwennalyn quickly recognized the game as siege chess, a game that her grandfather had patiently taught her when she was a little girl.
"You know this game, yes? We heard it's popular here."
She nodded.
"Good," Brash grumbled.
"If you can beat one of us," Brand began, "either me or him, you'll get what you want."
Silence descended in the room as she debated whether or not to leave.
Knowing them, there was something more to this, some way to manipulate and humiliate her. Walking away would be the only way to truly win whatever game they were playing.
But I would lose too.
"It's simple, princess," Brand continued, "two games, only of which you need win."
She sighed, nodding resignedly.
Brand was her first opponent.
Although her grandfather was long dead, Gwennalyn would still occasionally play with her father, so she was far from rusty.
At first, it seemed that the brothers were novices at siege chess.
Brand was too brazen at first, losing several units where caution would have been wiser. The princess had to fight back several smiles as she claimed his pieces. Over the first dozen moves or so, she found herself with a small collection of his forces.
The room was silent as the game went on, Brand seeming to stumble into a few lucky moves. Neither brother spoke; Gwennalyn eyed them, trying to figure out what they would have in store for her, how they would attempt to manipulate her.
It did not take long for the princess to remember their disdainful cruelty.