by Casey Lane
Cinderella thought of her stepmother and the awful Malina.
"No thanks."
He smiled knowingly and patted her on the back. “It was nice seeing you, Elle. You have to come over for dinner sometime."
Both of them knew that would never happen given her situation, but it was nice of him to ask.
"I appreciate it.” She took one last look at the gem on the table. “I think it's about time I paid a visit to our dear retired captain. There's nothing I love more than voluntarily visiting a man who wants me dead."
Chapter 9
Braedon walked into the tavern and was surprised to hear neither drunken revelry nor fighting. He tried to remember if there was a holiday as he took in the foul odor of spilled ale and sweat. The man behind the bar gave the prince a nod and gestured to the end of the room. Braedon spied a large, rotund man hunched over next to a half-filled glass. The flesh of his wide face pressed into the wood countertop before him.
The prince raised eyebrow at the barkeep. “How long has he been like this?"
"Not sure. Can't remember how old he is.” The bartender winked and headed into the back room.
Braedon walked over to Falstone and shook the paunchy man by his shoulder.
With a deep breath of air, the unconscious drinker roared back to life. He immediately grabbed his mug and downed half the contents before noticing the prince.
His squishy face took on a stupid, happy appearance. His speech was slurred. “If it isn't the Crown Prince of Loren.” He gestured to the room as if there were a crowd of hundreds. “Did you know this man before you is practically my son?” Falstone pulled Braedon in close. “I taught him everything I knew. And now he's all grown up. It's kind of tragic when you think about it."
Braedon wormed out from under the drunk's arm. “There's nobody here, you old fart."
If Falstone heard the prince, he certainly didn't understand him. “Did you hear me, everyone? I love him like a son."
The prince shook his head and took the seat next to his friend. He attempted to match the volume of Falstone's bellow. “I need to ask you a few questions."
Falstone appeared to comprehend him for a second, until he stood up and threw his arms into the air, sloshing his drink on to the prince's lap. The room-temperature ale soaked through his pants immediately.
"When his father died, everyone in the palace wanted to mourn and wear black, but I said no. That's no way to show a boy what's possible in life. So I took him on adventures."
"I should've come earlier.” The prince looked toward the empty tables and chairs. “Before the show started."
Falstone continued to step forward. “And when he was old enough, most of the adventures happened right here."
Braedon grumbled. “I need your help, Falstone. Just let me know when you're ready."
"I remember… I remember when we slew a dragon together!"
"It was a dog. And we weren't slaying it. We were finding it because you lost it."
Falstone looked over at him. “I know the story.” He blinked a few times. “Braedon, when did you get here?"
The prince let out half a sigh mixed with a laugh. “It doesn't matter. Can you tell me about the Captain of the Guard?"
The boisterous barfly wiped some of the spilled ale on his arm with his shirt and sat beside the prince. “Of course I can. He and I had a few adventures back in our youth as well."
Braedon rolled his eyes.
"Don't give me a look like that, Prince Grumpy. Me and the captain go way back. We fought in the war together. He was the only one who could drink me under the table."
"Did you hear about his wife?"
Falstone nodded. “A real shame. I was there the day he met her at the brothel. She was fiery."
The prince wondered how much truth his friend put into his elaborate stories.
"Does it make sense that he retired after she went missing?"
Falstone's face made its best drunken attempt at incredulous. “Not at all. He'd search for her to the ends of the earth, but from what I hear, he's holed up in his house. Won't even answer a knock at the door. It doesn't make any logical sense."
The prince tapped his fingers on the bar. “No, it doesn't make sense. It's like he changed into someone else."
Falstone looked deeply into Braedon's eyes. He leaned in as if he were about to speak great truth. “Braedon?"
"Yes?"
"Never change."
And with that, Falstone once again fell asleep on the counter.
The prince laughed to himself as the bartender came back into view.
"Get the old man some water, will you? If for nothing else than his awful breath."
The barkeep nodded.
Braedon wrung the ale from his pants. “I've got some work to do."
Chapter 10
As Cinderella snuck between buildings onto the street where the captain lived, she couldn't help but feel that someone was watching her. A glimpse of something out of the corner of her eye here, a far-off, faint noise barely within earshot there. There were few things she knew better than the sounds of the night.
Someone wants to play a game. Oh, we'll play a game.
The thief ducked through several alleyways, and when she reached a dead end she knew all too well about, she climbed up the side of the building and waited for her pursuer. As she gripped the stone with her dexterous fingers, she recognized the person behind her by both walk and smell. With the agility of an assassin, she pushed her feet off the wall and landed softly below.
"What are you doing here, Kiyara?"
Her meek, leggy stepsister turned with a jolt. Her face made it seem as though she had failed her objective. “I'm sorry, Elle. I couldn't sleep at the house, and I got tired of keeping watch for you."
Cinderella walked over and patted Kiyara's shoulder. “It's okay. But you might want to warm up your legs, because there's a slight chance we'll be running for our lives."
Kiyara almost smiled, which was like a win in itself. “Could be fun."
"It always is."
They walked and spoke in soft tones in the dark alleys of the village.
Cinderella mostly charted the next twist or turn, but she stole occasional glances at her silent sister. It hardly made sense that Kiyara and Malina came from the same awful woman. She'd overheard enough conversations to know that her stepsisters had been through a lot in their youth, but the two girls certainly handled their hardships in different ways. Kiyara looked as though she was always ready for the other shoe to drop. And Malina seemed to be the one holding all the shoes.
A light breeze cooled the long walk as the half-moon lit their way to the house owned by the former Captain of the Guard. As they approached the door, Kiyara froze before they could get close enough to knock.
Her look was uncertain. “Something about this place feels strangely familiar."
Cinderella eyed the house. Years ago, when she was in a particularly rebellious phase, she would leave notes telling the captain about fake heists and missions she planned to undertake. Few things made her laugh more than watching the massive, authoritative man wake his family and rush out in the middle of the night. One time, she laughed so loud from a nearby rooftop that the captain nearly spotted her.
This looked like a completely different house. It was somehow colder and darker, as if the life had been sapped from it.
The thief nodded. “Something about this place feels creepy.”
She stepped forward and knocked on the door. It swung open from the rapping of her knuckles. A stale odor and unsettling darkness met them from the inside.
Cinderella could hear her sister's heartbeat pounding.
Kiyara cowered even further back. “Looks like nobody's home."
"Sadly, we can't give up that easily.” The thief pressed the door open with a loud creak.
The light from the moon made the dark contents of the house look gray. Cinderella motioned to her sister and took several steps inside. Truth
be told, it wasn't the first time she'd snuck into the captain's house, but things felt different back then. Even late at night, it had felt lived in. As if a child had grown up there. As if a family had been forged between these walls.
Now, it was as cold and lifeless as a crypt.
Kiyara stumbled into a chair, and a puff of dust wafted into the air. “I don't like this place, Elle. I think we should go."
"You should go."
Kiyara covered her mouth in shock as Cinderella followed the old, monotone voice back to its possessor. The Captain of the Guard looked leaner than the thief remembered. He shuffled toward them like a wraith. The moon only lightly highlighted his features, but it was enough for Cinderella to see his dim, soulless eyes.
The thief crossed her arms. “Is that any way to speak to an old friend?"
The captain lit a lantern, which added color to the room but not warmth.
He looked over toward Cinderella and betrayed the slightest hint of recognition. “I'm retired, thief. Play your games elsewhere."
She smiled. “I'd be happy to leave you alone until your funeral, where I assume I will be giving the eulogy. But first, I need some answers."
The captain was a stoic statue. “Just leave me be."
Cinderella was used to a little more back and forth between them, but she felt for a man who'd endured such tragedy.
"Where's your daughter? Is she staying with someone else since your wife disappeared?"
The man's eyes seemed fixed forward on nothing in particular. “I don't know."
His tone made Cinderella's adrenaline begin to bubble. She'd seen enough: a father who'd forgotten to care about his child.
"I remember you telling me you did everything for your daughter."
"Leave.” There was no emotion in his words. “See yourself out."
As the man moved to turn around, Cinderella dashed like lightning to step into his path. “Your wife went missing, Captain. From what I've heard, you've done nothing about it. Were you the one who did it?"
His voice remained measured, which infuriated the thief even more.
"I don't know what happened to my wife, and I don't care. Leave."
Something broke in Cinderella as she slapped the retired soldier in the face. “You don't care? And your daughter might be out in the streets somewhere, and you don't care about her, either?"
The captain didn't react. Neither from the blow to the face, nor the impassioned questions. He was like Cinderella's father in every way.
"Leave or kill me. It doesn't matter."
She moved to slap the man again, but Kiyara took hold of her wrist. It was a stronger grip than the thief expected.
"It's not worth it, Elle. We should go."
The captain seemed to notice Kiyara for the first time. A hint of pain showed in his eyes, but it was gone as quickly as it came.
He stared directly into the stepsister's face. “I know you. You were here."
Kiyara took a step back. “I've– never been here before."
The wraith continued to fix his gaze. “You were here."
When Cinderella looked toward her sister, she saw something in the window. Actually, it was someone. The whites of the eavesdropper's eyes met hers, and he leapt away from the house.
"Stay nearby.” The thief sprinted out the front door.
She turned to the side of the house and glimpsed the back of a leg running the opposite direction. Cinderella doubled her speed and ran toward the spy. She tried not to think about the strangely-altered captain.
Despite her best efforts, she couldn't help but connect the dead eyes of her former adversary with the vacant glare of her formerly loving father.
Cinderella reached the back of house, only to see that the eavesdropper had hopped onto a building on the other side of the cobblestone street. She heard a late-night carriage in the distance.
"He's fast."
She reached deep into her reserves and pulled out a little more speed as she followed the path left by the man at the window. As she tried to scale the same building he had, once again, she only saw the slightest part of him reach the roof. Cinderella listened to his footsteps slapping against the top of the building, and she stretched for the next handhold. Her fingers slipped at the same time one of her feet gave way. The thief's stomach lurched as her remaining hand on the building carried her entire body weight.
"Damn!"
A familiar wave of anxiety came over her and her instincts kicked in. She swung herself off the exterior with her remaining hand and flew toward the ground. Her reflexes sharpened to a point as she approached the unforgiving stone below. Cinderella tucked her head and rolled at just the right moment. What could've been broken bones or a shattered spine for the untrained was nothing but a light and perfect impact on her rounded back. As she completed her tumble and looked up, she saw the eavesdropper's gaze following her. He ran out of sight before she could identify him.
She grunted in frustration. “Godmother isn't gonna be happy about this."
Cinderella heard a little girl's scream back in the direction of the captain's house. She took one second to release a loud crack from her spine and ran toward the noise. Behind her former rival's home, and far across the street from Cinderella, she saw Kiyara standing a few feet from the captain's daughter.
The little girl pointed at the stepsister and screamed her words in a high-pitched voice. “You did this to my father! You made him hate me!"
Cinderella couldn't hear her sister over the calamitous sound of the approaching carriage on the road, but Kiyara's face was red and splotchy. She was crying, and it wasn't pretty. Cinderella waited for the carriage to cross, but as she did, the captain's daughter took off running. The little girl tripped and fell face forward in front of the quintet of horses bearing down on her. Cinderella's heart skipped several beats when she knew she'd never reach her in time.
Part II
Chapter 11
Prince Braedon's chest heaved as he tried to catch his breath. He bent at the waist and thanked his lucky stars that he hadn't gotten a drink with Falstone before his little one-on-one race with the thief.
His words came out in sharp bursts. “She's really fast. Strong and fast. It's almost unfair."
He could barely hear himself over the clattering hooves of an approaching carriage. From his perch on the rooftop, the prince heard a little girl scream. Instinct worked better than his lungs as he scaled down the building with relative ease. Braedon saw a young woman crying as a girl who couldn't be older than ten seemed to scold her with an accusatory finger. He saw the carriage in the distance, just as he noticed the little girl's hips were pointed to the street.
His eyes widened. “Not good.”
Several steps into his sprint, he noticed the thief to his right. There wasn't enough time to stop and protect himself. He blocked everything out of his mind and channeled all his energy into the muscles of his legs. He watched the girl begin to run toward the loud and unforgiving danger that came for her.
Braedon whizzed by the thief and saw the girl trip into the middle of the road. His lungs burned as he bent down at full speed and hoisted her off the stones and out of the way of the lead horse. He was surprised by how far he was able to throw the child just as one of the legs of the carriage animals slammed hard into his knee. He felt his body twist in ways it wasn't meant for, and the pain was an excruciating knife up his side. The horse knocked him clear of the carriage, but the damage was already done. Attempting to put weight on the injured leg nearly sent him to the ground in agony.
Through watery eyes, he looked into the little girl's face. Her fear told him she was far from safety.
She reached for him. “Help me!"
Ignoring his pain, he took the girl's hand and limped toward the nearest alley. There wasn't enough time to identify the young woman, but her sobs echoed through the village. The little girl cut off the circulation in his hand with her iron grip as they went as fast as they could between the
two buildings. With every step he took on the injured leg, a blinding wave of fire pierced his every sensation. The tiny fingers wrapped with his were the only thing that kept him conscious.
The girl directed him through the darkness. “She didn't look like that, but I could recognize her eyes. I'll never forget those eyes."
The prince didn't have the wherewithal to respond, but he knew that the shadow of the thief couldn't be far behind. He'd sprinted in hundreds of foot races on the grounds of the castle, but he'd never felt his heart beat this fast before.
He wondered if he'd ever race again.
The girl led him to what looked like a dead end, but there was a small hole in the corner of one alley wall, just big enough for her to fit inside. She tried to pull him through the small opening, but he squeezed her hand to stop her.
"I'll hold them off. Get as far away from here as you can."
The girl nodded and let go, and soon she disappeared into the darkness beyond.
Braedon heard the sound of clattering footsteps behind him. This was not the noise a thief would make if she were going for the element of surprise. He knew she could smell the blood in the water.
Braedon looked around for something to defend himself with and came upon half of a broken axle in the alley.
He gingerly bent down with one leg and lifted the piece of wood into the air. The leg with the twisted knee barely felt like it was part of his body anymore. It hung there, useless, and continued to send him signals of overwhelming pain."Really feeling like a pirate here. Just gotta replace the broken knee with a peg."
Through all the agony and the fear, he hoped that joke wouldn't be his last. The footsteps came to a stop, and the thief walked out of the shadows.
Her eyes looked concerned. “Is she okay?"
His voice sounded more frantic than he wanted. “Why? You only like to hunt them when they're healthy?"
