Royalty Fantasy Boxset: Ember Dragon Daughter & Hasley Fateless (Fated Tales Series 1 & 1.5) (The Fated Tales Series: YA Royalty Fantasy)

by Rebecca K. Sampson

  And that’s how we ended up here. The only thing different about this story is now I refuse to leave. The Faeinto workers come and go on my ship and the merfolk let them through.

  I don't know how they make the blood, it's a guarded secret. But they are charging Grydagia a premium for it, meanwhile, they are giving it to us for free.

  I sometimes wonder, how will they ask us to pay for this favor in the future? But the royal family is forgiving and honest, maybe that’s the unicorn influence in their blood. We’ll have to see with time.

  And you, my dear, would look very lovely in their braided hairstyles with silver trim woven in. For the royal family they weave in unicorn hair, but the rest of the kingdom has to get creative with ribbons and colorful thread.

  I just realized you could have short hair or even hate braids. What do you look like? Wait, no, I’d like to see it with my own eyes. My eyes are grey, by the way. I’ll give you that much.

  Yours,

  Arsenio

  Hasley felt guilty as she read it, which was a very conflicting feeling to have while in the midst of their strange partial fatings. Each time the warmth comforted her and gave her peace, yet it was not as satisfying as she imagined it would be when it settled permanently.

  With these interruptions, she didn’t feel whole. She felt worse than when she was completely fateless, because this was an interruption on her soul. She decided that was a good way to describe it, as being interrupted. As a Fateless, she felt invaded. As interrupted, she was incomplete.

  But the guilt for assuming Arsenio must know more about the truth of the dragon’s blood lingered with Hasley. He would tell her if dragons were walking around Faeinto, right?

  This knowing him but not entirely was a stain on her conscience, one she couldn’t wait to be rid of. But it would be over soon, Ember now knew the truth. She would help Amic in his plan and Hasley would be home again. Wherever that home may be.

  Ember had been prepared to run away from her home at any moment. Hasley pretended not to notice that Ember always had spare clothing and extra food with her. Once she even glimpsed a knife in her bag. She knew her friend had secrets and a past she couldn’t share, but Hasley would never have guessed her friend was the missing heir to the dragon throne.

  For one thing, Ember never seemed like she wanted the things a crown would give. She was always hidden, separate, haunted. Before Ember’s letters, Hasley thought that meant Ember knew she was the heir, that she had somehow escaped and was hiding. It turns out she was hiding from the world, but because of a deeper deception, she was told all her life. She thought her scales would endanger her family and lead to her death.

  That turned out not too far from the truth. Ember couldn't possibly be the same girl she knew now. But which version of her friend did Hasley need, the one that knew how to hide in plain sight or the future queen of a dragon kingdom that no longer had dragons?

  And now, which home did Hasley need? One that was familiar and included what pieces of her past that she could salvage, or one that was entirely new?

  Fifteen

  Unopened

  Hasley shivered, a sheen of sweat slick on her skin. Coming slowly into conscious awareness, she re-adjusted her blankets to get warmer. She opened her eyes, realizing this was not the same blanket she went to bed with.

  “Hi,” a voice said to her left. Hasley turned over in bed and saw Sandra sitting in a chair next to her.

  “Welcome back,” Sandra said. She stood and pushed a tray closer to her on the bed. Hasley sat up and accepted the bowl of broth.

  “What am I doing here?” Hasley asked and shivered again. She hoped the answer wasn’t that she sleepwalked through a forest in the night.

  “James found you ill this morning. You spent the night in the rain and dirt. You should've come over here, Hasley, we’d have kept you safe. But anyway, you seemed confused and couldn’t stop sneezing and shivering so he carried you here. You slept about….” Sandra looked up to the ceiling, as if it had an answer.

  “Six hours since you got here, I believe. It’s well into the afternoon now,” Sandra finished.

  “No, no, does Arsenio know I’m here?” Hasley pushed away the food and blanket and tried to get out of bed.

  “Of course he knows,” Amic said as he strode in the room.

  “He asked me to give you this.” He held out a letter to her.

  Hasley nearly fell as she eagerly reached for the letter and sat on the floor to read it. The grey baggy trousers she wore pooled at her ankles.

  Hasley, the most important thing you can do for yourself is take care of your health. Both in your mind and your body. Please, if it is raining go to my dad’s house. Hearing you were there all night in the cold broke my heart. Even I sometimes stay on my boat. It isn’t as comfy as my dad’s house, I’m sure, but it’ll do.

  I’ll miss you, but stay the day if you can. One day, we’ll get to stay there together.

  -A

  Hasley’s smile faltered as the gold of the fating faded and she clutched the letter to her chest. She knew if the situation were reversed, she’d tell Arsenio the same thing. It didn’t make it any easier for her to accept, but accept she must.

  Hasley got back into bed and focused on what was right for her--rest, food, and sleep. But mostly sleep. She awoke to another tray of food carried by Sandra, so it must have been hours. Not long after Amic entered quietly, relieved to see her awake.

  “James and I are working on updating your campsite so that you are more comfortable,” Amic said as he sat on the edge of her bed. Hasley sneezed and blew her nose.

  “Can you make sure that there are open spaces for Amalthea to fly? I don’t want her to be too boxed in,” Hasley requested, braiding her hair as she talked.

  “Of course, we thought you would like that and we’re already building it that way. You’ll have an open canopy draped over branches so that rain won’t hit you if it came from straight above. The sides are open so Amalthea can fly in and out. It won’t solve for rain coming in sideways, but we’ll think of something or you can come join us on those days.”

  “Thank you,” Hasley whispered and snuggled back down into the blankets.

  “I have one more thing for you,” Amic said and reached into his pocket. He pulled out a sealed envelope, weathered over many years.

  “What is it?” she asked, feeling a surge of nervous energy.

  “Lane gave this to me during one of her last visits. She told me that one day, we would be together again and we would give this sealed envelope to Arsenio and his pair when they met,” he clutched the letter to his chest. “And that’s you. It’s meant for you two.”

  Hasley could feel the despair radiating off of him. ”What’s in it?” she asked gently.

  “It holds her hopes and dreams for our growing family and stories from when she and I were first fated,” Amic choked out, “All these years I thought about opening it, but I couldn’t face it knowing that it is the last letter from her that I’ll ever read.”

  Hasley couldn’t imagine how he felt. With every letter she felt her pair ripped from her, but it was okay because she knew it wouldn’t be forever. Amic’s pain was infinite.

  “When I saw you glow gold to his letter, it broke my heart. To know that you and my son would feel that same pain of separation, that I hadn’t prevented it from happening to him by finding a way to take down this dragon’s piss of a wall sooner…” he sighed in regret.

  “There is a whole kingdom worth of people who haven’t solved this, or did nothing for they thought they had no power or right too. You found a way, and you are acting on it. Please don’t be upset with yourself about it,” she said.

  Amic shook his head, seemingly not hearing her. “I thought about opening the letter then, hoping for comfort and advice for myself. But I couldn’t do that to you two. It’s for you and Arsenio to open once you are together. This time, I know it will happen soon.”

  He held out the letter but seemed
unwilling to let it go. Hasley pulled him into a hug.

  Sixteen

  A Game

  “She’s agreed with the timing! She writes that she had already been meeting the other resistors when she knew you were missing and she will continue to do so, but with the extra notice that she is endorsing the wall’s destruction. We are working soon when the coordinated day will be, but I think they’ll agree with my suggestion.” Amic said the next day, coming into her newly made camp with James and another man she didn’t know.

  Amic’s chest seemed to puff at the thought of his suggestion, so Hasley had to ask.

  “I assume you mean Ember?” Hasley hedged, “And what was your suggestion?”

  “For the explosion to happen during the Mutrien ball,” Amic supplied.

  He smiled with his teeth and crossed his arms, waiting for praise over the idea. Hasley sometimes forgot he was the oldest of their companions, only a little younger than her own parents. He seemed alive and youthful with them. It was almost as if he too was at the start of his life, looking for purpose and the fating, instead of the tragedy that was his separation from his pair.

  “Guards and party guests will be busy with their revels, it was a good idea,” the mystery man said. James turned to look at him, and the mystery man looked back at him with a twinkle in his eyes. They stood close, but not touching.

  “Hi, I’m Hasley,” she said, keeping her spot on the log and waiting for an introduction back. The way they looked at each other suggested something, but she wasn’t sure of what. She rubbed her hands and held them near the fire. Despite the temperature being pleasant for everyone else, she felt cold in her limbs constantly. Goosebumps rose on her exposed arms.

  “I’m Maroon, James’ pair. We met yesterday. I was supposed to meet you, actually, but I saw James first,” he said.

  Hasley felt a clenching in her heart as sudden as a knife wound. Her and James had come here together, both out of sorts and part of the Fateless. While Hasley knew her pair was waiting for her just beyond the wall, she felt left out now that James met his pair officially before her. It was as if their journey together as tortured compatriots was over, and she was left behind, wanting and alone.

  Jealousy felt like an infected bug bite, an irritant that came up without warning and at the flip of a coin could root into her soul or heal without a mark.

  “Congratulations,” Hasley whispered.

  They sat along the fire and ate breakfast together. James moved to sit beside her while Maroon and Amic talked on the other side.

  “You should sit with your pair,” Hasley said, wanting to support her friend despite feeling sad. The sweater Amic had brought her was warm and she liked the deep green tone. The longer arms helped her feel safe, she tucked into them as she crossed her arms.

  “I wanted to check in on you,” he said. “I know this must be hard for you.”

  “You should be happy with your pair. It’s your first full day together. That’s a big deal and I’m a distraction from that.” Hasley tucked back a strand of her hair. It was longer than she had ever had it and more unruly without the hygiene products she was used too.

  “You are a welcome distraction, Hasley. I could use my friend right now. Can we talk?” James pleaded, ringing his hands and bouncing one of his knees a few times before he realized and stopped.

  Hasley untucked her arms, realizing her selfishness and naivety. She would be there for James. It was okay to feel down given all she was experiencing, but now more than ever she needed to feel connected to those that cared for her. After all, she cared for them too.

  “Of course, I’m sorry. Tell me about what is on your mind. What is it like to have a pair?” Hasley asked. Her hand twitched for her pen, wanting to talk to her own pair, but she forced herself not too for his sake.

  He smiled hesitantly. “It’s really nice to have someone to talk to. We are interested in different things, yet we want to know about our opposing passions. It’s nice to know I’ll always have that companionship. But…” He hesitated to continue.

  “What is it?” Hasley prodded. She absently took the breakfast plate Amic handed to her.

  “He didn’t have visions or dreams like me or hear voices like you. He was where he had to be, just waiting for me. I had to be driven to find him. It reminded me of some fears I had when I was younger,” he took a deep breath before continuing.

  “I’ve always cared more about the emotional connection over the physical. I just don’t feel driven by touch. Maroon feels the same. We’ll be best friends, spending our lives together. I used to worry about that, since many people seem to look forward to the physical side of a relationship and I wondered if my pair would too. When I started getting those visions and realized I was fateless, that’s when the fears came back. I wondered, what if there was no one that complimented me and that’s why I wasn’t well?” His voice broke on the last word.

  “And you were wrong, James. You found your pair. The right person was waiting for you too,” Hasley assured him.

  “I know. I know that now,” James said as a tear trailed down his cheek. He brushed them away. “I am okay now. I have Maroon and I will no longer have those dreams. But why did it have to be me? Why did the gods do that to me? On one hand, I’m so glad Maroon didn’t have to experience that. But on the other, I see what you are going through and what you’ve told me about Arsenio’s experience and I wonder. Why not Maroon too?”

  James looked down at his feet and whispered, “it makes me feel like a horrible person for even thinking that we should have shared that pain too.”

  “No, you are not a horrible person. Don’t think that about yourself. You just want to be understood. And as for why it happened to you and not him? We can’t know the answer to that. What we can count on is that there is a lesson in this, somehow. We’ll find it together if you want, okay?”

  He nodded, his whole body shaking. He took a deep breath and let it loose.

  “Can I tell you a secret?” Hasley said, hoping to console him. James agreed.

  “I feel angry too, at the Gods. But I know that in the end, what I think of Aaleia and Mutrien doesn’t matter. What matters is what actions I take with what I have. We have to focus on ourselves and not any other outside influence. We are truly all we have and all we can interact with. When we do that, I know the world will fall into place.”

  “You really think that, even with how you are living and the pain you feel?” He asked her, eyes crinkling as he surveyed where they were and the wraith asleep on the dirt beside them.

  “The alternative is that I can’t influence anything. That is unthinkable, so I reject it.” Hasley knew that some days that belief was harder to keep than others. There were times where with her condition, all she could do was sit and think of her pain and blame others for it. But when she could, she chose another path.

  “Thank you Hasley, that helped. Truly,” he said, smiling genuinely at her.

  When she bid goodbye to James, Maroon, and Amic, Hasley stopped to write a letter.

  A,

  I want to know more about the kingdom you came from, Faeinto. We don’t discuss the other kingdoms here. I’m sure they once did, and maybe the older generations that remember free trade still do, but it is a mystery to me and not taught in school. How did the First Fating come together in Faeinto?

  Here is the story of Ashkadance.

  Kariana, our first Queen, was the daughter of Zander General. He was in charge of the army that fought against the opposing two continents. She was bred in war, part of the old world before the First Fating. As surely as we are unable to escape our births, she was unable to escape a life in bloodshed and chaos.

  She fought the dragons with her father, until one day she found love with one. Kariana stood on the top of Mount Pietan as Drakul swooped down to meet her. We do not know whether his claws were ready to kidnap the general’s daughter or poised to kill her, but once their eyes locked his original intent did not matter. They beca
me fated on the spot. He landed beside her and she dropped her sword. Outstretched she reached for him, but as her fingers dusted his skin he morphed from dragon to man.

  I always thought of that as a very romantic scene. We have a statue to commemorate the event and I visit it frequently. I wonder what their first kiss was like, as Drakul had to learn how to be a human at the same time.

  I wonder what our first kiss will be like.

  Okay, I’m going to change subjects now. Your father was here, he has news. Ember agreed to help, just like I expected her too. And James has a pair. At first I felt jealousy, but I’m okay. I’m happy for him and can’t wait to get to know his other half. To bring up kissing again, James said that wasn’t what their relationship is like. I do want that though, with us. Assuming you do too. What do you think?

  Did you have any friends like that? Who did you spend time with before all of this?

  Forever,

  Hasley

  Hasley,

  I like you calling me A. I’m sure it was done in a rush to speak to me and then get my own letter in return, but I still like it. Even if it was for efficiency.

  I’m glad you aren’t jealous of James. He is now complete, better than before or on the way to it. You can’t see it yet, but you are better than before too. You were focused on a perfect life. What do you think of those ideas now? Is it still important to you?

  We’ll have our own kind of perfect. I can’t wait to see who I become at the end of this.

  If we had a normal fating, maybe it would have taken you longer to separate from the perfectionist part of you.

  I am logical, but in my own way. Just like we all have our own version of perfect, we have our own version of what is logical or realistic. I like to see the world as a game. A game where we all win. Sometimes to win, you have to first lose.