by Shelby Hild
“There must be some mistake,” Vivilyn said quietly.
“Maybe your family didn’t care as much as you thought,” Brayleigh said as she held her letter in front of her.
“Maybe they just didn’t have time,” Darissa said immediately after. “It is harvesting season, right?”
Vivilyn nodded.
“You’re not the only one who didn’t get a reply,” Jolene said with a slight nod towards Freya. The woman didn’t appear upset at all at the lack of correspondence from her family.
“Oh,” a woman in black said, stepping back into the room as she lugged a bag full to the brim over her shoulder. “We seem to have forgotten this outside.” She looked around the room. When her eyes landed on Vivilyn, she smiled and began to walk over with the bag.
“These are for you,” she said as she set the bag on the table in front of Vivilyn.
“All of them?” Vivilyn squeaked. Her smile started growing.
“Yes, my lady,” the woman said as she started to walk away. “It seems almost all of Treelyn wanted to write you a letter.”
Brayleigh rolled her eyes, then tore into her own letter. Vivilyn could tell whatever it said didn’t thrill her.
“Well, then,” Prince Aiden said with a smile. “I’ll leave you all to enjoy your letters and the rest of your day. Tomorrow will be our next Ceremony out in the gardens. Until then, time is yours.”
Brayleigh was the first up and out of the room, closely followed by Freya. Vivilyn waited with Darissa, Marisol, and Louise. Jolene left with Irene, Clara, and Macy.
“How many do you think he’ll be sending away tomorrow?” Vivilyn asked.
“Normally at the second ceremony the number is lowered to 165, but I think we are already lower than that,” Louise said as she clutched her three letters tightly, as though afraid someone would take them from her.
“I have a feeling he’s trying to lower the numbers quicker than usual so we can get traveling sooner,” Jolene said. “It wouldn’t surprise me if he gets us down to 100 by the end of the year.”
“Do you really think that he’s going to knock us down that quickly?” Marisol said. Since she didn’t receive any letters (she admitted that she never finished writing one), she was helping Vivilyn carry her bag.
The small group passed a small trash can outside the room which held a single sheet of paper.
“What’s that?” Vivilyn asked as she set the bag down.
“Looks like a paper to me,” Louise said with a smirk. Curiosity stronger than common sense, Vivilyn reached in and pulled the paper out.
Daughter,
Remember your duty.
The Earl of Libros.
“That was Brayleigh’s letter,” Darissa said, reading it over Vivilyn’s shoulder. She took the paper from Vivilyn and set it back in the trash can.
“He didn’t sign it,” Vivilyn said quietly. “He didn’t even put her name or anything.”
“That’s the great Earl of Libros for you,” Darissa shrugged. “He’s not the nicest of people, but he is very ambitious. And driven. And he expects the same from his children. Brayleigh’s brother, Theodoric, is just like him.”
“Doesn’t she have an older brother too? I thought I heard her speaking of someone named Mavric?” Louise asked.
“It’s not my place to say…” Darissa said.
“He was taken,” Jolene said, always willing to gossip. “We were about seven, I think, maybe eight? When it happened. Apparently, he could… what was it called? He had a special ability and was taken in the middle of the night so as not to mar the family name. He was nice. Probably the nicest member of the Libros line.”
He had a special ability. Vivilyn tried to imagine the terror she would feel if Duncan was taken in the middle of the night. It was horrible. Poor Brayleigh, she thought, to know her brother was being sent to his death.
If someone found out about her ability, that is what her fate would be. She could never let herself forget. No matter how comfortable she became.
Talking died down as the group reached their rooms.
Darissa made no move toward her own room and followed Vivilyn as though they’d already agreed to continue talking in her's. The three of them entered and as Vivilyn went to close the door, Maxwell, the cameraman rushed up closer, one hand to his ear.
“My apologies, Lady Vivilyn,” he said as Vivilyn reopened the door. “We just got a firm reminder that if there’s a collection of you ladies three or more, then we need to be present. Can’t let any conversations go unrecorded, now can we?”
Serinta sat on the couch as Vivilyn, Darissa, and Marisol entered the room, barely glancing at Maxwell behind them. Three sheets of paper were spread out on the low table in front of her.
“My brother is getting married,” she said as Vivilyn and Marisol set the bag next to the couch. Darissa sat in the chair on the other side, still clutching her letters to her heart as though she could absorb the words without needing to read them. Maxwell moved to the opposite side of the room so he could get a view of all four women.
She continued once she was aware all eyes were on her again. “Apparently Sean met a princess of Dravonya at a festival on the coast.”
“A princess of Dravonya?” Vivilyn asked. As she sat down next to Serinta on the couch, Marisol sat on her other side.
“Isn’t that on the other side of the Alosia Ocean?” Marisol asked.
“Yes,” Serinta said. “Father is beyond thrilled thinking of the connections he will make. I just hope they stay here, instead of moving over there. I don’t want to wait sixteen months to hear from him.”
“It doesn’t take sixteen months,” Darissa said, absentmindedly. “Only about three. And their ports are beautiful, especially the one that their academy is in. The main castle there is cool, but the academy… They say it used to be a dragon academy.”
“Dragons are fictional,” Serinta said with a laugh and roll of her eyes.
As they grew quiet again, Vivilyn began to look through the letters in the bag. Most of the letters were from random people from town.
She was able to sort through the letters to find ones from people she actually cared to hear from. One from each of her parents, one from Ryso, three thick ones from Maia (that still held the comforting scents of the bakery), one thick one with her brother’s large scrawling on it but no name written, one from Verno, Lolina, Mo, and Eso, and twenty-eight from little Iza.
Vivilyn opened one of Iza’s letters.
To Future Queen Vivilyn,
Vivilyn rolled her eyes, but smiled. The handwriting was her mother’s so she knew Iza convinced Suzetta to write at least this letter for her. She could hear the little girl speak quickly in her mind.
You look so beautiful on the screen. How do your lips hold the color so well? Miss Suzetta says it’s lipstick. Can you send some here so I can wear it? Duncan says I remind him lots of you when you were younger. It makes me so happy to hear that. I wish you hadn’t left so soon after we got here. There are so many things I want to ask you. Maia is helping answer questions. She is even letting me help in the bakery when your Ma and Pa can spare me.
I’ve tried to start drawing like you, but my pictures aren’t anything like yours. Mr. Magnar says they do remind him of your first attempts though. I’ve sent a few of the ones I have attempted to you and will send you others that I try. As many as I can before they are no longer collecting letters. The guard man brought with him lots and lots of paper, so we don’t have to worry about running out.
I miss you.
Come visit real soon, okay?
Iza
It was obvious that Iza signed the letter herself.
Carefully Vivilyn opened all the other envelopes from Iza. In each of them was a picture. Although she couldn’t tell what most of them were supposed to be, they made her smile wider than anything had since Duncan left. It was apparent that Iza really enjoyed using lots of different colors. Staring at the pictures, she could imagine th
e dark-haired child sitting at her desk, head bent over a piece of paper, trying to draw something.
Vivilyn felt close to her family again for the first time since Duncan had left. She understood Darissa waiting to open her letters. Instead of opening the rest of them, Vivilyn got up and dug out a string from the hair accessories left in the bathroom and tied the remaining family letters together. Then she set them next to her bed. If she read one every night, perhaps she’d have enough to last her the rest of her time in the competition.
Serinta quickly stood up after rereading her letters a few more times.
“I think I’m going to go brag about soon having a princess for a sister-in-law to some people who will understand its significance more.” Serinta winked playfully at Vivilyn before collecting her letters and leaving the room.
Not too long after, Marisol decided she needed a nap and left to go to her own room. Darissa moved across the room and sat next to Vivilyn. Maxwell looked to the door for a moment and went to pick up his equipment, but Darissa waved her hand to say he didn’t have to leave.
“Did your whole town write you letters?” she asked, lightly moving letters around in the bag. “I thought we could only get responses from people we wrote to.”
“Technically, I think I did only get responses to what I wrote,” Vivilyn said, remembering how she started her letter. “I jokingly added something like ‘to whoever my parents read this to’ at the introduction.” Both women laughed. “I’m predicting Pa showed it to a few people, but Ma went around town reading it to everyone. She’s so excited for me to be here. Scared, but excited.”
“Why is she scared?” Darissa asked as she looked at the front of her own letters again, a wistful smile splayed across her face.
Vivilyn froze. Why did I say scared?
“Is it because you’re so far away?”
“Yeah,” she said, relieved Darissa had given her an easy out.
“This is the first time you’ve been away from home so long, isn’t it?”
“Yeah,” Vivilyn repeated. Darissa looked at her again. “We’ve not had much opportunity to travel or explore beyond Treelyn.”
“I remember my first time away from home for an extended period of time,” Darissa’s smile faltered. “It was about the time Ma started getting sick.”
“What…” Vivilyn started to ask and then shook her head. “It’s none of my business.”
“It’s fine,” Darissa said and reached her free hand out to squeeze Vivilyn’s. “I understand. Most people already know, but it’s part of my story, part of who I am.”
Vivilyn’s vision started wavering, but she could still hear Darissa’s voice.
“When I was small, Ma was the most vibrant woman I’d ever known.” Vivilyn no longer saw Darissa in front of her.
Instead, she saw a dainty brunette with eyes grayer than a stormy sky. Her face was slightly plump. The woman squatted next to a small auburn-haired toddler as they both looked down at a gecko. With pudgy hands, the child tried to grab the gecko, but it ran out of sight behind a rock. The toddler started to scream in frustration.
“Now, now, Rissa,” the woman said as she pulled the toddler into her arms and stood up. “It’ll be back. You startled it, darling. Shh. Shh. It’s okay. It probably thought you were a giantess trying to steal it from its family.”
The world shifted. It was still the same woman and toddler, but it looked to be a few years later. The woman was heavily pregnant, and she had a pained look on her face.
“She lost my little brother,” Darissa’s voice cut through, “and wasn’t quite the same after that.”
Vivilyn’s view shifted to the woman on a bed and young Darissa crying in the hallway talking to a short man with seafoam green eyes and light blond hair.
“I don’t wanna go,” young Darissa screamed. “I wanna help Mama. She needs me.”
“We don’t want you to go either,” the man said, kneeling down in front of her. “But Mama needs time to heal and to know you’re safe. You’ll have plenty of fun at the palace with Uncle Anton and you’ll be back before you know it.”
Darissa’s adult voice cut in again, “I don’t know what else happened that year I was gone, but Mama’s mind was never as strong as it had been. She’s been prone to seeing things that aren’t necessarily there, bouts of melancholy, and her mind goes to very dark places sometimes.”
Vivilyn’s mind turned to Darissa’s parents, but older. The brunette and blond hair were both very gray. The woman leaned heavily into the man, but both had wide smiles on their faces.
“Welcome, ladies,” the man said. Darissa ran forward and the woman’s smile faltered.
“She doesn’t always remember my father and me,” Darissa said as Vivilyn’s vision turned back into the real world. “But we know she loves us.”
Darissa’s eyes were filled with tears. Vivilyn pulled her into a tight hug. She couldn’t imagine having her mother not always remember her.
“I wish I could read what she said,” Darissa said, her mouth half smiling.
“Why can’t you?” Vivilyn asked as Darissa pulled out of the hug.
“I’ve been asked to not read them until after the ceremony, apparently one of them said something that we’re not supposed to know until after then.”
“Aren’t you curious to open them, then? Why not just take a little peek?”
“I would never.” Darissa held her hand to her mouth as though shocked by the question. “My family is trusted to keep our word and do as our monarch requests. We would never betray that trust.”
Vivilyn kept looking at her.
“Of course I’m curious. Just not curious enough.”
Their conversation halted as someone ran up to the door and knocked quickly. Irene opened the door and poked her head in before they could react. She was slightly out of breath, having run from who knows where.
“Jolene says the princes—” she had to pause for a moment to inhale deeply a few times. “They’re sword fighting in the gardens on the other side of the building. We’re all going to watch.”
Just like that, Irene turned around and ran back the way she came.
“Should we join them?” Vivilyn asked.
Darissa laughed before she spoke. “Of course. Who wants to miss that?” She stood up, still clinging to the letters from her parents. “Let me drop these off in my room first.”
When they finally arrived in the gardens, the few benches scattered around were all occupied. It seemed like about half the women in the Trials had shown up.
The princes stood across from each other in the shadow of a Grand Tree. With at least six different shades of green, the small budding leaves made Vivilyn smile. She could almost see the diamond and heart shapes that formed naturally on the bark.
The princes bowed to each other, then drew their blades. Both of them seemed relaxed as they slowly moved in a large circle.
Something about the whole situation seemed familiar to Vivilyn. She’d never seen anyone fight before except for the times Duncan got into fistfights with some of the other people in Treelyn.
As soon as the blades clanged against each other, she knew exactly where she’d seen this before. The vision she’d had during the beach date was occurring in front of her. Except the brothers weren’t mad at each other like she thought.
They did grow agitated as they continued to block each other from getting a hit.
Vivilyn wished she knew something about what was going on, but before she had a chance to ask, Brayleigh calmly walked up until she was just out of reach of the princes.
Her presence distracted Aiden just long enough for Ethan to sneak in a shot at his leg.
“That’s cheating,” Aiden called back. “I demand a redo.”
“No redos,” Ethan said. “I win. It would have ended this way eventually—she just helped speed up my victory.”
“That is not true,” Aiden replied, but he smiled and slid his sword back into its scabbard.
&
nbsp; “You haven’t won since I was ten,” Ethan said. “Just admit it. I’m the better swordsman. The best swordsman this side of Dragon’s Spine.”
“Never,” Aiden said. His stern expression softened with pride while Ethan put his sword up as well. It was obvious to Vivilyn that Aiden was happy his brother was a skilled fighter.
“Are you now?” Brayleigh asked. “The best swordsman this side of Dragon’s spine, hm?” She visibly looked Ethan over before lightly laughing to herself. “I’m not so sure about that.”
“What is that supposed to mean?” Prince Ethan’s face turned bright red. His nostrils flared.
“What do you think, Lady Serinta?” Brayleigh asked, calling back into the crowd.
Serinta jogged up to Brayleigh’s side and shook her head.
“You could take him,” Serinta said. “Between us, I bet we could take them both.”
The two women shared a playful grin before turning back to the princes.
Brayleigh’s smile challengingly at the princes. Then she said, “What do you say? Us versus you?”
Prince Aiden took a step back and raised his hands.
“I’ve seen you two practice,” he said. “I am not risking looking like a fool in front of so many of the women I’m supposed to be impressing. Losing to Ethan is one thing, losing to one or both of you is something completely different.”
“My dear Prince Aiden,” Brayleigh said, her voice full of mirth. “Are you afraid you’ll lose?”
Aiden shook his head. “I’m not afraid of something I know would happen.”
“We’ll do it.” Prince Ethan’s knuckles were white as he clutched the hilt of his sword.
“Ethan,” Prince Aiden said. His voice held a hint of a warning to it. “We don’t want to get hurt. This is not a challenge worth taking.”
“They won’t hurt us,” Ethan said. “I’ve seen them practice too. We can take them.”
“There is no way this turns out well,” Darissa whispered next to Vivilyn. She was the only one of the ladies to speak besides Serinta and Brayleigh. “Ethan and his pride.” Darissa laughed quietly and shook her head.
