Sold to the Prince of the Meldanians

by Hollie Hutchins

  Amelia laughed. She was getting tired. Between the day’s events and the alcohol, it felt good to lay down. She closed her eyes and felt a slight pinch as Dr. Ivan gave her the shot. For a split second, she wondered if maybe she should be more careful. Maybe Doctor Ivan was another one of the Queen’s plants. Eldan said she had spies everywhere. Was he going to drug her and drag her to the Council building so the Queen could finish what she started? Or maybe he was just going to do the deed right here, and the injection wasn’t something to numb the pain, it was something lethal.

  Or maybe— And then her mind quieted. Instead of worrying in that moment, Amelia just decided to do something she hadn’t in a long time. Trust.

  She just trusted instead of feared. Even if the doctor was trying to hurt her, there was nothing she could do about it, so instead, she went for option b. She reveled in this newfound tranquility and soon fell asleep.

  She was in her own bed when she woke up sometime the following morning. She was somewhat disappointed, having not opened her eyes to find Eldan sleeping next to her, but she supposed it was for the best. They were both injured and needed to have a good night’s sleep. Her stomach was bandaged and her shirt had been folded back down over the gauze. She wondered if the doctor carried her to her room or if perhaps Eldan had woken up before her and he delivered her.

  There was coffee on the bedside table and a note from Garcia which read:

  Sent some search teams out. Ten of the twenty-one human families have been found and returned to Meldania. I am organizing the check in efforts in front of the Council building. Meet me there when you wake up if you would like to help.

  Garcia

  P.s. If you are not feeling up to helping, please don’t strain yourself. I do not want the King thinking I am responsible for your getting an infection or what have you.

  Suddenly everyone was so worried about Amelia getting hurt and what Eldan might do to someone who was found at fault. She supposed that display of his in the arena really woke people up. He may be a kind, caring leader, but that doesn’t mean he won’t fight for what he believes in. Amelia had known that for a long time now, but it seems the rest of Meldania was just now starting to understand how strong and determined Eldan really was.

  Sitting up, Amelia found there was very little pain around her cuts and she knew she would be fine to go help Garcia later that morning. For now, however, she decided to have her coffee and make a few phone calls.

  The first call she made was to Ilda. She felt she needed to explain exactly why she wouldn’t be coming into work that day. Ilda said it was fine, considering none of the human kids were there that day and she could handle the few shifter kids who did get dropped off.

  “But I’m tired of you always having an excuse to blow off work,” she said. “I don’t want to hear any more about how you can’t come to work because there’s a threat to your life or because your boyfriend is critically injured. Got it?”

  Amelia laughed. “Trust me Ilda, I have no interest in having any more threats to my life or letting my…” She wasn’t sure she wanted to use the same word she did. It felt so middle school. “Letting King Eldan.” Now that sounded a lot more mature. “Get himself into any more trouble. I will be in tomorrow, I promise.”

  “Tomorrow then.” Ilda hung up.

  Next up was Lia, who, as expected had a lot to talk about. Apparently, their parents’ new sober lifestyle had so far stuck and the family was getting along better than ever. After Lia told them that Amelia was still alive, they all became determined to find a way to sneak her back into District Eight.

  “It really brought us together,” she said. “All that scheming and rule breaking. I think we came up with a pretty good plan too. Wanna’ hear it?”

  “Hang on, Lia. I have to tell you something.”

  “What is it?”

  “Lia.” Amelia sighed. ”I’m not coming back to District Eight. I’m going to stay here in Meldania, with Eldan.”

  “... oh.”

  “I’m sorry, I know this is really hard to hear. It wasn’t an easy decision for me to make, you have to know that but… I’m happy here. I love Eldan and he loves me and I think we could make a really beautiful life here together.”

  “I understand.” Lia’s voice sounded faint and a little throaty, like she was trying to hold back tears. “I just want you to be happy, that’s all.”

  “I’m going to find a way to get you guys here, the whole family. Eldan and I will figure something out as soon as everything settles down here. We will sneak you out and it will be great. You’d love it here.”

  “I don’t know if I want to go,” she said. “I have friends at school who I’m really close with and we’re really close to graduating. Things are finally starting to look up for us here in Eight. I don’t want to leave now.”

  Amelia took a sip of her coffee, unsure what to say. “Okay.” It was all she could come up with. “I don’t want to tear you away from your friends and your life. As long as you’re happy, then I am too.” She smiled through the sadness. If her family was doing well, who was she to try to change things. “Listen, I have to go. There’s one more call I gotta’ make.”

  “Okay,” said Lia. “Call me later?”

  “Will do.”

  Last up was Victoria, who was thrilled by the idea of Amelia helping her sneak into Meldania. She had been so discouraged lately by her work in the District Eight hospitals and Lola was still afraid to walk the streets alone at night. They had been thinking about trying to get to a different District but Amelia said she would find a way to get them to Meldania instead, to which all Victoria had to say was, “I love you. Tell that hunky boyfriend of yours I say thank you in advance for busting me and my girlfriend out of this hell hole.”

  Amelia said she wasn’t sure how long it was going to take but promised to relay Vic’s message onto Eldan and hung up.

  She got out of bed and got dressed. She badly needed a shower but she figured it could wait a few more hours. If she was going to be outside looking for people all day anyway, there was no reason to clean up just to get sweaty again.

  Before she left for the day, she went to check on Eldan. She wasn’t expecting to find him awake, but not only was he awake, he was up and moving around. He nearly toppled her over when she came through the door.

  “There you are!” He pulled her into a one-armed hug. “I was wondering when you were going to wake up.”

  “I’ve been up for a while, actually,” she said, then quickly added. “I thought you might still be asleep. Or maybe had gone to the Council to figure out the details of your mother’s court date.”

  He waved a hand in the air. “That can wait. How are you feeling?”

  “I’m fine,” said Amelia, pulling out of the hug and going to the window. It faced the center of town. She thought she might be able to catch a glimpse of the check in station Garcia set up. “In fact, I think I am going to go help them with the human families soon. Wanna’ come?”

  “Sure,” he said. “I’ll just have to check on Lendir first.”

  “About that, why didn’t you tell me you didn’t kill him?”

  Eldan half smiled half winced. “I wasn’t so sure I hadn’t,” he admitted. “I was hoping that I had only caused him to pass out, but everything happened so quickly. I had to run to you the second his lights were out, and I didn’t know until I got home whether or not my plan worked.”

  “How long had you been planning on that?”

  He shrugged. “Oh right around the time I realized I was going to win the fight. I would have killed Lendir if I thought it was necessary. But it just… wasn’t. I hope you’re not upset. I know you’re not Lendir’s biggest fan, but I promise you I will never let him lay so much as a finger on you. I will throw him in jail if he tries anything.”

  “I’m not mad,” said Amelia. He was standing next to her now and she took his hand in hers. “Having the ability to do what’s right instead of what’s easiest or wha
t will award you the most power in the end… that’s real strength. You’re going to make an amazing King.”

  He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and kissed her head. “I sure as hell will try to be.”

  “Also!” Amelia said turning to him. “I forgot to ask, when was it that you filed the paperwork to make me a Meldanian citizen?”

  “A week or so after you arrived here.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “I wasn’t sure how you would react,” he said. “I didn’t want to freak you out or anything. It might have been coming on a little too strong, telling the girl you just met a few days prior that you have gone through all the steps of making her a citizen of your city.”

  Amelia smiled. “Yeah, okay. I see your point.”

  Eldan smiled back at her. “To be fair, it wasn’t my idea. It was my dad’s. Whenever I would go to visit him those first few days you were here, I guess you were all I talked about. One day, when my dad was in one of his more lucid states, he suggested I file the paperwork in case anything was to happen. I think he was starting to guess at what my mom might have been planning, or he had his suspicions. I thought it couldn’t hurt to give you some protection in case she tried to kill you without warning. He signed the paper happily and told me to do whatever I could to keep you safe.”

  “He did all that for a woman he didn’t even know?” Amelia could barely contain herself. She wasn’t sure if she felt like laughing or crying. All she knew was that she now felt this incredible warmth all over her body, like she’d just lowered herself into a bath of heated honey.

  “Well,” said Eldan. “He knew me and I guess he loved me so much that by extension, he loved whoever I loved.”

  “You mean you loved me after only knowing me a week?”

  Eldan looked away and out the window. “I didn’t know it at the time,” he said. “I guess my dad did. But yes, I’m sure now that I did love you then.”

  Amelia leaned in close to Eldan and watched a group of shifters escort a human family through town towards the check in station. There were two parents and three kids. The smallest of the kids kept running ahead of the group. It looked like he was playing a short-range game of tag with one of the shifter men. A tear escaped Amelia’s eye as the scene unfolded before her and she thought about how lucky she was.

  13

  Brotherly Bond

  The Queen’s court date was set exactly two weeks after the duel. Amelia had to work that day at the nursery, which was fine with her—she didn’t have much interest in attending the trial anyway. Eldan seemed nervous the morning of as the two of them walked to work together.

  “What are you scared of?” Amelia asked a few blocks into their journey. “You have an airtight case. What is your mother going to do? Try to win the jury over with her charming personality?”

  The joke made Eldan crack a smile. “I’m not scared she’ll win. I’m just nervous because this is going to be my first time addressing the public as their new King. I wish there was a better way to start engaging with my subjects than holding a trial against my own mother, their previous Queen.”

  Amelia nodded. “I understand. There’s a lot of pressure. But it’s nothing you can’t handle.” She put a hand out and stopped him from walking any further. “You are their King and you earned that title because you fought for them—all of them. You did what you knew was best for Meldania and its people. They know that, or, at least most of them do. The others will come around eventually. All you have to do now is live up to your promise to make Meldania the greatest city in the world. Do you think you can do that?”

  “You make it sound so simple,” he said.

  “It is simple,” said Amelia. “Meldania needs a great leader. You are a great leader. It’s as simple as that.”

  They walked the rest of the way in silence, hand in hand. When they arrived at the steps in front of the Council building Amelia leaned onto her tiptoes and kissed Eldan on the cheek.

  “Good luck,” she said. “I believe in you.”

  It was a short trial. The Queen presented her case for attempting to kill Amelia. She argued that she had good reason to believe that Amelia was helping Eldan cheat in the fight, and therefore she was helping him plot to kill Lendir, which was a crime punishable by death. The problem was she had no proof of this conspiracy, and it was hard to convince a jury that two people plotted to kill a third when that third person is not only still alive, but is being treated for his injuries by doctors hired by the accused killers.

  After the guilty verdict came, it was up to King Eldan to decide what the Queen’s punishment would be. Exile was common in cases such as this, but Eldan felt that was far too harsh, and, as he explained to Amelia the night after the sentencing hearing, it was not what his father would have wanted.

  “What then?” she asked. “Keep her in jail?”

  “She will have to be kept somewhere, yes,” said Eldan. They were at the dining room table eating a steak dinner with a side of roasted vegetables and wine from a local Meldanian vineyard. “But I don’t think the jail cell in the Council Building is the right place. Of course we could send her to the District Eight Prison. We have an agreement with them.”

  “No way,” said Amelia. “She would get eaten alive there. The second they find out she used to be Queen… It would basically be issuing the death penalty.”

  Eldan nodded. “I figured as much. We could let her be on a sort of house arrest, in a place on the outskirts of the city. She would have to wear some sort of tracking device and have near-constant security.”

  “That sounds like a good solution.”

  “You wouldn’t be afraid, having her living so nearby?”

  Amelia shrugged. “No, I don’t think so. As long as you’re here to protect me, I’m not really afraid of anything.” She smiled. “Besides, I’ve gotten pretty good at swinging a lamp. She can give me her best shot.”

  There came a laugh from the doorway behind Amelia. She turned to see Lendir standing there, leaning against the wall on his good side. His shoulder was still bandaged but the bruises on his neck were almost gone. Amelia hadn’t seen him up and about since the fight, nor had she spoken to him. Every time she went to visit he was asleep.

  “Now that,” he said. “Is a fight I’d want to see.”

  “Lendir,” she said. “Hi. I didn’t know you were walking around.”

  “How are you feeling?” Eldan asked. He stood up and pulled out the empty chair nearest Lendir, who took it with a nod of thanks.

  “I’ve been better,” he said. “But I’m healing.”

  “Are you hungry?” Amelie went to stand. “I’ll go—”

  “I’ve got it,” said Eldan, motioning for her to sit back down. “I’ll be right back.” He disappeared through the door to the kitchen.

  Amelia repositioned her napkin on her lap and used her fork to push around the peas on her plate. Lendir was watching her. She could feel his eyes on her, but she didn’t look up.

  “How are your injuries?” he asked after a while. “I heard my mother got a slash in.”

  “Just the one,” said Amelia. “She left only shallow cuts.”

  “That’s good. You’re lucky. I’ve been on the receiving end of her slashing before and trust me when I say she could have done a lot more damage if Eldan didn’t get to you in time.”

  Amelia frowned at her plate. “You mean.” She looked up. “Your mother would hurt you?”

  “When she was training me,” he said. “Yeah. She wouldn’t hold back. She wanted me to be the best fighter in Meldania, which meant I had to train by fighting, really fighting, not sparing.”

  “Did she do the same thing with Eldan?”

  Lendir shook his head. “No, she gave up on him early on. She always said he was too weak to be a champion, too caring.” He smirked. “Looks like she underestimated him. We all did. Except our father of course.”

  Amelia waited for Lendir to continue but the Prince did not.
/>
  “I need to know,” she said. “Whether or not you support Eldan as the new King, and if you or your mother are going to try anything.”

  Lendir stared at her for a few intense seconds before answering. “I have no intention of trying anything. As for my mother, I don’t know. I am no longer in contact with her, and I hope to keep it that way.”

  “And I’m just supposed to take your word for it?”

  He leaned back in his chair and put his good arm up over behind his head. “Yes, in fact you are. I know it may seem crazy after everything that’s happened as of late, but I don’t want to be King. I love being a Prince— it comes with all the perks of royalty without any of the responsibility. Why would I want to mess that up?”

  Amelia stabbed a piece of carrot with her fork and put in her mouth. She watched Lendir as she chewed. “Alright.” She swallowed. “I believe you. But that doesn’t mean I trust you. I will be keeping a very close eye on you, got it?”

  He smiled. “Whatever you gotta’ do,” he said. “Feel free to keep an eye on me all the time… when I’m eating, sleeping… showering.” He winked at her.

  Amelia rolled her eyes but couldn’t stop herself from smile slightly.

  He’s annoying but harmless.

  Eldan came back in carrying a plate of food in one hand and a glass of wine in the other. “I know Dr. Ivan probably told you not to drink wine until you are fully healed, he said the same thing to me, but I’ve decided one glass won’t hurt us. I figured you might agree.” He put the food and drink down in front of his brother and smiled. “Besides, we are celebrating!”

  “Celebrating what?” asked Lendir.

  Eldan returned to his seat and lifted his own glass. “Our victory!”

  Lendir cleared his throat. “Uh, our victory? I don’t recall winning anything.”

  “You’ve won your life,” said Eldan. “Your freedom. You are no longer under the thumb of