Avan's Gift (Queen Avan, #1)

by Alice Ivinya

  Klia started to fidget as I neared the end of the tale, a pout appearing on her lips and her arms folding. She seemed jealous, as if I had enjoyed running around the countryside harassed by savages. I ignored her and focused on the others.

  “I need to tell the king about Lord Jasper. What he said and did, but the guards didn’t take me seriously,” I finished. “I rushed all this way to tell him.”

  Reg stroked a short beard he was now growing. Klia had always said she loved beards. “If you go with Joff tomorrow to the Growers’ Square, Prince Killian will probably be there. If you request to approach him, I’m sure they’d allow it.” He had a soft, unassertive voice, completely the opposite of Klia.

  I nodded, relieved to have some sort of plan. “Thank you, Regald.”

  “Right,” said Bea, clapping her hands, “Now we know what has happened to poor Avan, we should be even more eager to get her to bed.” She leant towards me. “You can share with Klia. Good thing you two are almost the same size as you look sorely in need of some clothes. You’ll want to look respectable for tomorrow if you stand a chance of talking to royalty. I’ll sort all that out. You go and wash and then straight to bed. There is enough water here in Herne for a full bath, Finn has been heating it. And Klia, do not keep her up all night with your jabbering. Show her the way, now.”

  As I started to relax, a great wave of tiredness settled upon me and I doubted even Klia could keep me awake. I hoped I would be too exhausted even for the nightmares. I smiled gratefully at Bea and stumbled after Klia towards our room when Regald caught my arm. He looked awkward and rubbed his neck. “Eh, Miss Avan, when you see the prince and say what happened and so on, would you mind emphasising that I was wounded and protecting villagers that were under attack? You see, I don’t want it to appear that I ran away and failed to protect the crown prince when he was in danger.”

  I put my hand over his. “I’m very grateful, Regald, for you bringing my friends here safe. And I’m glad your shoulder is better.”

  He seemed to relax at this and opened the door more fully into Klia’s room. “The arrow didn’t get far through my chain mail, thankfully. We managed to regroup with others from Vale, Elmhill and Firegrove near Hollythorne. About half of your party have made it here safely. Unfortunately, about three quarters of the Growers haven’t. We assume the Tharans took them or they turned home.” He looked down at the floor and scratched his bandages. “I’m sorry we let you down, but I’m glad you’ve escaped. You’re safe here.”

  As soon as he closed the door and I realised Klia had wandered off, I pulled off Cedric’s clothes and slipped behind the screens into the bath. It was a portable, round metal one like they had in fancy inns and the warm water felt amazing. I submerged myself right up to my neck and rubbed the layers of dirt from my skin. How long had it been since I’d had a bath? Before the start of the drought, certainly. As I relaxed, I tried to process my feelings towards Klia’s family. I had been so focused on the Tharans and Cedric, it was only just hitting me that Joff and his family had abandoned me when I could have been killed. They were kind and welcoming now, but they also hadn’t come back for me. I didn’t blame them, I completely understood, especially since they’d had the small twins there and Joff was a Grower. But still, it made me feel a distance from them, like I was the disposable part. I would never truly be part of their family and never the priority.

  A loneliness niggled inside me and I felt exhausted from constantly pushing myself to be strong. I wanted somebody else to look after me for a bit, like Cedric had tried to. But then maybe I had let people look after me all my life, only to be dropped by each due to circumstance or inconvenience. I’d always known deep down that Klia liked me as her closest friend because I let her do whatever she wanted and joined in her antics. But that wasn’t really me. I needed to stop latching onto people to copy and follow, but I had no idea how. I covered my face in my wet hands. I was too exhausted to have thoughts like these, but I wasn’t going to let myself be swept up in Klia’s silliness again. And I had to learn to be more independent for the next time Klia’s family let me down.

  Klia had taken my clothes away to be washed and returned with a newly pressed nightgown, just as I was collapsing into bed. I sat up and pulled it over my shift and she threw herself onto the covers beside me.

  “Do you love him?” she whispered excitedly. Her previous jealousy seemed to have vanished.

  “Who?” I mumbled, burying my face into the pillows.

  “The prince, of course. You two spent two days together. You must have talked and when a man and a woman are alone... things happen.” She poked me in the ribs, making me wince.

  I groaned. “He was very nice and I liked him,” I mumbled, opening one eye a crack.

  Klia rolled her eyes and flopped down onto her back. “You’re hopeless,” she muttered. “Two days was all I needed for Reggie and I to fall in love.”

  I closed my eyes again and enjoyed my thoughts turning to a happier direction. I missed Cedric’s kindness and the way he gave me his full attention, but I wasn’t in love with him. At least I didn’t think I was. I hadn’t become giggly or faint or smiley like the older girls at Vale who said they were in love. But he was very kind and I couldn’t help but replay our conversations over and over. And those warm brown eyes. Maybe if I got to know him better... Maybe...

  Klia got dressed for bed and snuggled under the covers beside me. She hadn’t bound her hair and it escaped over her pillow and onto mine so it tickled my face. I didn’t mind as her familiar scent reminded me I was safe and not alone anymore. It was so good to have company again.

  I smiled and fell into a dreamless sleep.

  IN HERNE THE GROWERS were given different jobs according to their Arts. The most skilled were employed to tend Herne’s towering trees or spent their days in the surrounding fields, making the crops grow. The more mediocre Growers were given one of hundreds of jobs requiring their aid in the city. Growers with little skill, like Joff, were normally not needed at all, but due to the drought, they gathered daily in the Grower’s Square outside the castle to ripen crops or fruit which had been harvested early to save water.

  I followed Joff through the winding city streets to the castle, wearing Klia’s pretty, pale green festival dress and a matching embroidered head wrap. It made me feel worlds away from running through the woods in trousers with Cedric. Part of me was sad to no longer be wearing his clothes, as if all the evidence of our time together had been washed away. I wondered what he would think of me in this dress; it was much more flattering. I wondered if he would blush and stutter. He wouldn’t be able to forget I was a woman this time. I smiled to myself.

  I remembered how he’d thought me beautiful when I’d somehow invaded his head. I’d been dressed in his clothes, my hair a mess and my cheeks sunburnt, and yet through his eyes I’d just seemed vibrant and exciting. The memory made my heart leap. By the earth, I hoped he was all right. Even if he came back, there was a chance I’d never see him again. Now I was here in the endless sprawling city and I realised how small I was compared to him. We belonged to different worlds. The little village where we were neighbours really was just a daydream.

  Herne was much more impressive in the daylight. The trees reared overhead like giant pillars with covered walkways, doors, windows and balconies up their sides. The branches had intricate rails and some were draped with curtains of flowers. The canopies were so high overhead the very sky appeared green, fractured with golden sunlight. The leaves shielded us from the oppressive heat of the drought, keeping Herne cool.

  Soon, the castle reared up ahead and occupied my attention. It stood four stories tall between four shorter trees that acted like towers. It had its own outer stone wall, though the upper half of the castle itself was mostly wood. Above, a dozen flags flew. Most bore the red squirrel on the field of green bordered by different colours, but Joff pointed out the albatross of the Staverts of Woodport, and other sigils neither of us knew. Swans,
salmon, deer and foxes. It was as if a great gathering of forest animals was happening above our heads in a secret meeting.

  The Growers’ Square was just inside the castle walls, and nobody stopped me as I slipped through the drawbridge over the empty moat next to Joff. I linked my arm through his as crowds pressed around us.

  “Apart from Growing, listening to plants and making land fertile, have you heard of Farthi having any other gifts?” I asked.

  The broad man shook his head. “Can’t say I have, Avan. Obviously the Tharans have theirs with the animals and the Eltarians have their medicine and knowledge. And who knows what governs the gifts of the Valhaira. But they’re all different from ours because they’re different tribes, different blood. Why?”

  I shrugged. “No reason,” I lied. I still wasn’t sure what to make of those two episodes, and I wanted to experiment further before talking to anyone about what had happened. Part of me wondered if they had all been in my head. But then how had I known Elia’s name?

  The courtyard was full of men stacking boxes at intervals for the Growers to work on. I stood next to Joff as he pulled out green stems of wheat by the handful and made them turn gold, before separating the grains from the rest of the plant and filling a barrel with the seeds. It was fiddly and time consuming and I soon grew bored watching him. I hoped it would be obvious when Prince Killian appeared.

  As Joff worked, I lightly touched the back of his leather jerkin. Nothing. Before, both the visions had happened when I was holding a person’s hand. I couldn’t just grab his, however. Elia’s had been a memory, but Cedric’s had been his current thoughts...

  Joff made me jump by tapping my arm. “That looks like a prince to me, Avan,” he said, nodding to a group of people on the wooden walkway that surrounded the courtyard. They were royal guards surrounding a young man dressed in a rich green cloak and a dark blue tunic. Surely only nobility could afford such colours?

  I thanked Joff and walked to the nearest steps. My heart sped up with nerves and I told myself I was being ridiculous. I’d just spent two whole days with a prince, why was I so nervous about meeting his younger brother?

  I walked as respectfully as I could up to the knot of people, smoothed my skirts, and approached a guards. I bowed my head respectfully as he looked me up and down. “Please, I need to talk to Prince Killian,” I said. My own words sounded foolish and I clenched my fists to encourage myself on. “Please. I have news about Prince Cedric.”

  The guard looked bored. “What news is that, young miss?”

  “Well, I... he and I escaped the raid together and Lord Jasper seemed to be after him in particular and hurt him and...” I stumbled.

  Another guard approached the first. She was short and stocky and had a strong aura of command. “Oh, stop intimidating the lass, Steven,” she said. “I’m sure the prince can hear what she has to say.”

  Steven nodded, then walked briskly away back to the castle. I smiled at the second guard in thanks as she led me to the prince. I curtsied to Cedric’s younger brother, thinking how rude it had been for me to have never curtsied to Cedric. He’d just never seemed to be an actual prince. Everyone was watching me now, and I felt the heat rise to my cheeks. The prince looked about sixteen and had curly light brown hair and the tanned skin of most Farthi. His facial expressions were so close to Cedric’s that I couldn’t help but stare for a moment. He seemed completely taken aback by me, his posture uncomfortable and his eyebrows arched.

  “Your Highness,” I managed. “I was in the same party as Prince Cedric and Chancellor Felix. When we were attacked by Tharans, Cedric and I escaped together.” The guards shifted awkwardly and glanced at each other. The prince frowned. I realised I had missed off Cedric’s title and ploughed on before they could read too much into it. “We went to the next village, but Lord Jasper had laid a trap and caught us sleeping in a windmill and then he chased us and attacked us. Prince Cedric was injured and...”

  “Don’t worry, Killian, I’ll deal with this,” interrupted a smooth voice from behind. Killian looked relieved to see the newcomer as if he hadn’t known what to do with me.

  I turned to find an immaculately dressed noble at my back with a smart brown beard and startling blue eyes. The guard, Steven, was at his side and must have fetched him. The noble smiled courteously at me. “What is your name, miss?” he asked.

  “Avan Weaver from Vale, my lord,” I said with a curtsy.

  He gestured with his arm. “Follow me, Miss Weaver.”

  I looked back but Prince Killian was already striding away. I followed the two men through a nearby door in the castle wall and into a small office with two chairs. The guard lingered outside while the lord nodded at a seat while he retrieved some parchment. At last I felt like somebody was listening to me and leant forward.

  “Now start from the beginning,” said the man, looking at me expectantly.

  I told him everything in detail, minus the conversations Cedric and I had, and I tried to make out I’d been more respectful of the crown prince. The lord nodded encouragingly and now and again would scribble something down. When I finished, he smiled and thanked me.

  “I’ll inform the king and the guard of your news. One question, if I may ask,” he cleared his throat. “Were you and Prince Cedric involved... romantically at all?” he raised an eyebrow, his expression otherwise blank.

  Embarrassment and disbelief cascaded down into anger. “Excuse me? We knew each other for two days. I’m a respectable woman!”

  The nobleman studied my outburst, stroking his beard. A faint smile twitched his lips. “All right, lady, I meant no offence. That will be all we need from you.”

  I felt a flutter of panic as I realised he was dismissing me and I wasn't content to go so easily. Didn’t he care what I had just told him? “Will you get Prince Cedric back? Will this start a war?”

  He held out a hand in a soothing motion and gave me a practiced calm smile. “Now, don’t worry. Relations between Tahara and Marchwood have always been strained, but we always continue in peace. Prince Cedric will be back soon and Lord Jasper will pay for what he has done, I am sure. I will pass on to Cedric that you got here safely.” He dipped his quill in the ink again. “Tell me, where are you staying?”

  I felt so small and it was clear these men wanted nothing to do with me. I looked down at my hands folded in my lap. “With the guard, Regald. He’s marrying a close friend.”

  The nobleman nodded, wrote down the name, and then led me to the door which the guard held open for me. I followed. “Thank you, my lord. You didn’t introduce yourself.” I let my tone border on accusatory.

  He gave a small bow of his head. “Apologies. I am Lord Rupert, lady. I’m Prince Cedric’s brother. Your news is in good hands.” He gave that calming smile again, and then the guard closed the door.

  Chapter Seven

  An Uninvited Guest

  I SAT AT THE KITCHEN table with my head in one hand and my other drawing patterns in the flour. I wondered what was happening to Cedric. Would he be all right? There had been a lot of blood from his arm and foot when I’d seen him carried away by Jasper’s men. He would have been dragged south quickly to Tahara. Would they have risked stopping nearby to treat him or at least bind his wounds? He must have been in so much pain. And what about the other Growers from Vale? Was the castle really doing everything to get them back quickly? I shook my head. Of course they were. Cedric was the crown prince! They couldn’t just let him be kidnapped by foreign thugs. It was me who was useless, and for the first time in my life I felt achingly alone.

  I jumped as Klia threw her shawl at me. “Stop being such a mop head, Avan, and look at me. Do you think my hair should be up like this? Or should I leave it loose? In Herne people always pin their hair up when they’re dressing up.”

  I sighed. “I think down. That’s more like you. You’ve never worn it up.”

  Klia rolled her eyes. I imagined Cedric telling her off. “That’s because we always had to c
over it before. I want to look beautiful, not just ‘like me.’ You only get married once.”

  I shrugged. “They both look nice. You always look pretty.”

  Klia slapped her hands to her sides and glared at me. “Avan, I’m getting married, and you’re ruining it. Why do you have to sound so glum? It’s my wedding day in three days and I want you to be happy for me. You’re my best friend and you’re supposed to be fun to be around.”

  I rubbed my eyes. “Sorry, sorry, you’re right. Let me help you experiment with your hair.” I stood and washed my hands of the flour so I could help pin her hair. I held a mirror behind her head so she could see all angles. “I’m just worried about Cedric.”

  Klia pouted in the mirror. “Why? He has the whole of Herne to rescue him. They don’t need help from a washerwoman and you’ll probably never see him again.” She picked up a blue ribbon and gave it to me to weave through her honey coloured hair. “Father said he’d Grow some flowers for me to weave in my hair, too. I was thinking of apple blossoms.”

  “That would look lovely.” I hesitated. “Are you sure you want to get married so quickly, Klia? I mean you have only just met him.”

  Klia batted my hands away so she could see the ribbon in her hair. “Of course. One day, when you fall in love you’ll understand. And he has a good job.”

  “It means leaving Vale forever,” I mumbled.

  Klia’s expression softened and she turned to hold my hands. “I’ll come and visit, Avan. Though you might find a man here, too. Wouldn’t that be nice? Then neither of us would have to weave or wash clothes for other people. Our children could grow up together in Herne protected against any drought or Tharans.”

  I shrugged, then realised I was holding Klia’s hands. Nothing happened. No white mist or entering Klia’s thoughts. “Klia,” I started slowly. “Can you think of something? A memory. One you have strong feelings about?”