Fadiya stared up the intimidating, winding spiral limestone steps. After a full day of listening to petitioners to the crown, she felt drained of all her energy. And the thought of climbing all those steps now felt daunting. Impossible. When she had a bedchamber just off the throne room for days just like this. Her gaze slid back, through the arched doorway, to the throne room and the hidden bedchamber door at the far side.
She had not even known it was there as a girl. She had always assumed her father had made the trek up these very steps every night, to say goodnight to his three children and sleep beside his wife. Fadiya wondered now how many nights he had slept all the way down here, alone. She grasped the cool stone railing and hauled herself up the first few steps, her thighs already beginning to burn.
Half-way up the staircase, between floors three and four, Fadiya paused, leaning against the cool stone wall to catch her breath. She cursed the palace designer for putting the bedchambers primarily on the sixth floor, and also Ralof for having decided to keep the nursery and their own bedchamber up there. “Away from the din of the working areas” her husband had said. She had previously worked in the sewing shop on the second floor, and had not remembered getting this tired and winded going to bed each night. Had her few years on the throne really made her so soft already?
When Fadiya finally pushed open the nursery door, she was greeted with a sharp intake of breath. Before she could have a moment to even collect herself, a small, dark-haired boy flung himself towards her.
“Mama!!” squealed Unar, her and Ralof’s eldest. Fadiya barely managed to keep herself from toppling backwards down the stairs before she could steady herself and wrap her arms around her son. A tiny wisp of a girl with a poofy blonde pony tail was slipping into Fadiya’s arms as well, and she rested her cheek against Jaga’s soft hair.
Ralof grinned at her from where he was rocking a basinet with his foot as he rocked himself and a toddler in a rocking chair. “I wasn’t sure you were going to make it,” he said softly.
“I thought I was too tired, but this welcome has been worth it,” she said with a smile, squeezing two of her four children all the tighter.
Inktober 2024, Prompt #6: TREK🧡🖤👻🎃
Whitney Writes... 
Leave a comment