Page 19 of His Realm

He nodded.

“I have no doubt Varic can speak Old Norse,” I told him.

“We know nothing of him.”

Which was not great. He was their prince. They should have known everything about him.

He moved quickly and grasped the bars of the cell. “But truly, you are to be wed to the draugr?”

Back in the day, the king was called the boria, the queen the mavia, and the prince the draugr. Antiquated titles most people didn’t use anymore. It didn’t mean I hadn’t learned them, and Varic, because he had a bit of showman in him, liked the dark, Gothic, ominous sound of the word draugr and still used it. The queen hated mavia and had forbidden its usage. I couldn’t blame her.

“I am to be wed,” I responded. “Now would⁠—”

“How will the prince marry a man and secure his line?”

It should have been obvious, but maybe not to him. “Surrogacy,” I told him.

His eyes searched my face. “And does the prince have many sons from others?”

“No. The prince has no children.”

He looked confused. “But then, without the benefit of other children, how will you know if the prince’s issue will be a son or a daughter?”

“Either is great. A queen can be next in line as well as a king. Just because there hasn’t been one doesn’t mean it wouldn’t be wonderful.”

“Wonderful?”

I nodded.

“I don’t know this word.”

“Best,” I offered. “Awesome.”

“I see.” He nodded. “You would sit a girl on the throne?”

“A woman, yes. No problem.”

“But again I ask, without records, how would you know if the prince is able?”

“We’re gonna go on faith here,” I told him.

The man looked utterly stunned.

I turned to Zev, having no idea what to say.

“Normally,” Zev began, “you would know from courtesans giving birth if the prince had strong seed or not.”

“Got it,” I said, turning back to Sorin. “Well, like I said, we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”

I understood from the look on his face that the uncertainty was not something he was used to considering.

“Things are different in Ophir,” Zev explained. “Something like what you’re suggesting could never be considered there.”

“How would you know?” Sorin asked him.

“Because I lived there.”

“You lived in Ophir,” Sorin stated, clearly astounded.