Rex's city of London never entered my thoughts except when people found us in the forest. I clasped my hands together until my knuckles turned white. The tightness in my chest grew to my face and jaw. "That's so far away, completely on the other side of England. Besides, it's not about what people want. It's about what's best for all of us. Thor's rebellion will lead us to our modern end much like the charred buildings in the sky were destroyed. England can't have two kings. There is only room enough for one."
The trees grew denser now. Father hummed. "So we submit to London and Rex?"
I lifted my chin. Rex was the son of the king and his BloodRite was well known. If Thor stopped, Rex could end his cruelty. We'd all be better off if he ignored the people. "Yes."
We'd never be part of the power struggle. War on horseback, with knights and needless destruction, was for people who lived in towns and sought out others to help them survive. We are self-sufficient.
My father moved closer to me and placed his hand on my back. "I worry about you."
I stepped away from his arm. The last time he said that, I stopped to speak to him instead of going with Mother to work by the river. The fire arrows that destroyed my mother's pottery shed came from Rex's soldiers in our forest as they marched toward Thor.
Jax and Cyna had gone with Mother that day. Now Father and I are all that is left of our family. I let my hands fall to my sides. My stomach felt full of rocks as I lowered my voice to a whisper. "Why?"
He covered his mouth as his eyes stared at me. A branch caught my dress, and he lifted it so I could pass easier. "It's getting late. Let's hurry through the trees."
He'd avoid the river, not that I blamed him. My lips trembled. Every time we tried to speak of Mother, I ended up crying and he shut down. My father took faster steps. "I'll be happy to get home. Nothing will happen to us there."
Any day the war might destroy Father, me or anyone who stayed in our secret camp. Soldiers roamed the forest more frequently in the past year. My adrenaline spiked.
Father kept his voice low. "Your mother would be proud of you for today. That pleases me."
The moon peeked out early, though the sun wasn't done. I became dizzy and light-headed. This was the closest we’d come to talking about Mother. "Father, I love you. You know that. And the BloodRite doesn't matter. Unless it tells me I'll be a kitchen worker feeding lost souls as they pass through the forest, I will never accept what it says."
The night covered our tracks better as we made our way through the evergreens. He scratched his head. "You might have no choice."
My nerve endings were raw now as the cool night breeze came over us. He had changed so much. "We have a choice. It's what you and Mother always said."
One or two of the women in town wore soft fine fabrics that mother used to talk about. Fine ladies as Mother had said preferred to be soft. It was why no one taught me to shoot an arrow despite how horrible I was at stitching. I rubbed my aching eyes but refused to cry. "I miss her."
Father's voice almost sounded like a whisper of a dream. "Me, too."
The BloodRite Mother had taken caused her to run away from life as a lady's maid to be with Father. Father had built our home to keep her safe from Rex and rules of kings. I ran my fingers through my knotted hair. Perhaps if the test read archer, he'd teach me.
I swallowed back that thought.
Father stared into the packed pines that had no obvious path, and ensured no one else was near them. A wolf howled in the far distance. "You mother always said you were intelligent."
Then an owl hooted. I smiled and imagined the owl thought father spoke to him. My lips were chapped, not that I had any more of that salve mother had made for me. "I'm smart enough. Why do you say that now?"
He ran his hands on the top of my head and mussed it. I sidestepped out of his grasp as I was not a child anymore. "You'll need to be, Princess."
I grimaced and smoothed down my thin knotted mess of hair. "Don't call me that."
"Let's not fight anymore. We're both tired. We'll be home soon enough."
I nodded. "Agreed."
The BloodRite was for town folk, which we were not. My thoughts returned to the girl in Avalon who wore a dress like mine. I hoped Thor let her make shoes. Despite our arguing these days, I was happy enough with my father.
The wind blew against my cheeks and battered that thought in my head. Father yawned beside me. I hoped he was just tired, and not poisoned. Mother would want me to look out for him. I rubbed my arms. We'd never venture far out of the woods ever again.
Chapter 2
"Eat more," I told the young boy, Proclus, who'd recently joined our secret camp in the woods. He was so skinny. "You'll need your strength."
The boy kept his head down so low one would think he hoped to avoid trouble. For a ten-year-old he was too small.
"Gwen, if I eat too fast, my stomach hurts."
Another starving run-away from the war. In their forest, there were always people always ran from skirmishes near their homes. Most people returned to whatever it was the BloodRite said they did once the nearby battle ended. As Proclus had no family, he might stick around. I scanned the trees that hid our outpost from a slit in the kitchen window. "Then don't eat so fast. If you want big muscles, you're going to have to eat the whole bowl."
I checked my cabinet and my food rations for today would work just fine. Now that I cooked the meals, nobody noticed how I split the shares. Proclus had clearly starved for who knows how long, but not today. After I scooped out his special extra ration, I dropped the spoon I used for serving the venison stew in the pot.
Soon I'd take everything to the river for washing in a heated water contraption a former guest had set up for us that Mother had loved. I hugged my waist and shook my head at the dirty dishes. If Mother were here, she'd fuss that her job never ended. Cyna would roll her eyes while Jax would have covered her mouth to stop a laugh. I hugged my stomach and told myself not to think about my sisters. My mother.
The birds chirped outside, as if they were happy, but my stomach clenched, which told me something was off.
Trumpets blared. I stepped back from the window, startled. Only soldiers announced themselves that way, and no soldier should be here.
I brushed the long sheath dress I wore that had once been white and tried to make it clean. The dirt wouldn't rub off. I peeked outside the slit again, but didn't see anything. If this was an ambush, we'd all be trapped inside.
I squinted to bring the edge of the gates into focus and covered my lips. Knights on foot were right outside our encampment. The sound of trumpets echoed through my window as the boy at the table took his bowl, his bow and arrow, and ran.
I sighed and cracked my knuckles as I ensured everything in the kitchen was off. A fire in the forest would destroy us. As I finished, I prayed somehow Father had enough time to ensure the trees were pulled tight against the outpost so no one might see, and that the trumpets didn't exist.
I rushed to the library where my father spent most of his days now. As I stepped into the room, I twisted my rumpled shapeless dress. "Knights are outside the door. Why didn't you pull the trees around the wall of our camp?"
Father turned and studied at me. He rarely looked at me anymore.
He outstretched his arm. "My princess."
Hardly the right word for me, though I ignored his nickname. Cyna had been Peanut. Jax had been Pumpkin. Mother had been Sweetheart. Without blinking, I shook my head and stepped back. Having soldiers here meant we were no longer invisible. "We've been found."
I had to think for us if he didn't move soon. He'd changed so much since the fire. Perhaps if the men worked fast, we could close the gate and hide our encampment. The war outside the forest needed to stay there.
My father coughed and fixed his sword that had lain on the table around his waist. He never had weapons in the library. "I invited them here."
My nostrils flared. "Why? That's insane."
He continued to analy
ze me. My skin felt grittier and I picked at my itchy dress. "Father, we're a small camp. Twenty people depend on you for their lives."
"Sit down." He patted me on the back and guided me toward a seat at the table across from his usual spot. My skin jumped. No one touched me anymore, since Mother and my sisters were gone. Father didn't seem to notice my reaction. Instead he sat across from me and stared like I was a misbehaving child. I'm eighteen, I wanted to say. Not five.
He had more wrinkles around his face than he ever had. Father coughed. He must be sick, but he has refused any herb remedies that I offer to ease his pain. I don't know what to do, but then his voice goes deep. "It's time I tell you."
My neck warmed. Another trumpet blared to announce the soldiers. My heart beat in my chest but I couldn't look away. "Tell me what? What's going on?"
He rubbed his temples. "Last month I forced you into town and had you take the BloodRite."
My chest tightened. I couldn't think, though my mind raced. So I repeated my answer and folded my hands in my lap. "I went with you because you said it was what Mother would have wanted."
The roar of laughter outside practically shook the walls inside. The soldiers were closer than I realized. Why would they laugh? They must be camped on the hill, almost at our doors.
He nodded, his deep brown eyes holding me still. "We hoped none of you girls would be like her."
I frowned. My mother was an angel, and I imagined she watched out for me from whatever world she was in now. My father had to mean something else.
"Like what?"
"Let me talk," he said.
I settled back in my chair and refolded my hands like we had all the time in the world and could simply ignore soldiers.
"Your mother married me so I'd keep her safe. We've lived away from the war in this forest for years, but there are no more safe spots. Rex's army is getting closer and Thor's preparing for a battle to end the war. The forest is no place for you."
"We'll build another fort. We've done it before, Father."
"There are too many scouts now and I promised your mother I would keep you safe. I failed her, but I won't fail you too."
"We don't have time for this, Father. Everything will work out."
"If you were normal according to the BloodRite, then you'd have had a chance to run."
I was just as normal as everyone else. Father made no sense anymore. I reached for his hands across the table, but frowned. "I'm normal. Father, I don't care what the BloodRite says."
He shook his head, and I swore that his eyes seemed haunted. "Your BloodRite was the same as your mother's."
I swallowed. So what? Mother was born some lady-in-waiting in a kingdom, but she took off with Father. There was no way I'd ever be some lady with nothing to do in a castle.
My feet tapped on the floor. "What are you talking about? What did the BloodRite say? I'm to be a maid if we lived in the city?"
He closed his hands together and prayed to some unknown god. His sword clanked against his rusted metal shoes. Finished, he gazed at me like he'd arrived at a decision. "No."
My stomach fluttered. "Father?"
He pounded a single fist against the table. Then tears rolled down his cheeks. "You are to be a queen."
I couldn't move.
The third trumpet blared. All that rang in the air were the sounds of men right outside the gates.
"What? You said I was like Mother. Was she to be Queen?"
"Your mother and I made mistakes." Father's brown eyes closed like that might stop his tears. "The day of your test, I went to see Thor..."
I covered my mouth and interrupted, "The rebel king?"
Rebels and rightful kings would be sorted out later, not that it mattered.
"It's the only way. You must marry someone that can take care of you."
Marry? I couldn't even blink. Boys were killed off fast out in the world of war. The time for family was over. I needed to protect my heart from love. It only equaled more pain. "I don't want a husband."
Father stood up. His chair scraped against the floor as he walked to stare out the small slit of a window he had in this room. "I need to make sure you're safe. Thor swore he'd keep you from Rex, even if you weren't destined to be queen. I did my best."
I curled my hands at my side. He had given up on me. "And so you let Thor have me himself?"
The soldiers' cheers grew louder. My father threw a shawl at me as he tugged me out the door, like that would cover the sin of his intention.
We reached outside, and our small courtyard was empty. At well past noon, the brightness of the day was over. Night would begin soon. Now was not the time to leave. I turned my shoulder to argue, plead, but Father kept his hand on my arm and his gaze averted. He'd drag me if I fought, though he had never laid a hand on me before.
"I promised I'd do my best for you," he said.
All traces of my father were gone with how he held me. He was acting the part of an older knight. A man doing his duty. Except for the hint of desperation in his voice, which ratcheted my own rapid heartbeat.
I turned toward him. "Then let's shut the wooden gates we built and let the trees work as cover so we can escape. Father, the rest of the world can destroy itself as long as we stay together as a family. That's what Mother would want."
Tears formed in his eyes, but he didn't stop to wipe them. The only time I'd seen him cry was the rainy day we'd buried our family.
"It's not that simple. I'm getting old. What happens to you when I can't take care of you anymore?"
Not a good answer at all. "It is simple and you are not old."
His palms grew sweaty and I hoped to break free as he said, "Gwen, it's time. In this conflict there are two sides. You are meant to be queen. You can stop the war your mother started."
I stopped. "Mother started?"
He shook his head and tugged me along. "If she had stayed in London and not run away with me, millions of people would still be alive."
"Mother loved our family. You're not being rational, Father. That BloodRite doesn't mean anything," I shouted and pulled at his arm to make him somehow see.
"Oh, Gwen. Stop fighting your future."
The mythical queen from stories was not me and not my mother. Father read too many books. I swallowed and wished I could get him to listen. "We shouldn't have gone to Avalon. All my life we avoided towns and cities. You hunted. I gathered. After mother died, nothing changed except I took over the cooking. You over-exaggerate everything."
"It's more than that. It's time."
That day in town was something I'd never forget. I closed my eyes and held myself together. The moment I stopped shaking, I stared hard into his brown eyes. I have plain brown hair the color of dirt, brown eyes and I am skinny for my age. Mother was the beautiful blonde of fairy tales. "Look at me. Really look at me, Father. I'm no queen."
He rubbed his forehead and then grabbed my arm to drag me to the gate. My skin burned as I tried to remember that this same man used to hug me and kiss away my bruises.
"Your mother's test was the same. She ran away with me. Millions needlessly died and the way this war is escalating, something has to change. You can save people."
A loud boom echoed in the air and the knights laughed again as the thud of an animal hit the ground. I flinched as it was clear a deer had just been shot right outside the gates. I clawed at my father's grasp to get free. "Stop. The BloodRite shouldn't decide anything. Please."
With a wave of my father's hand, Proclus, the same boy I fed earlier from my own provisions, opened the door. I'll never feed that traitor again. My entire body sparked for a fight.
"It's why we have two kings. The second king that cares about his people and leads them to basic human rights where we treat each other fairly and honestly is exactly what people needed. Rex's family has only cared about the nobles of London at the expense of everyone else. I'm telling you, Gwen, the one that possesses you has the will of the people behind them, and it has to b
e Thor."
My hands clenched at my sides. "The will of the people? You live in your own fairy tales, not in the here and now."
"I know more than you give me credit for."
"All that's outside is death and destruction." My words were like acid. "Five hundred years ago, England burned. We're the survivors, destined once again to see the end of the world. In the forest, away from all towns, we might survive the carnage."
It was better to let the two kings fight to the death. I turned my head away.
"The ravages of war are not all that life should be."
No. With my fists firm, I locked my hands behind my back. "The boy who would be king started this war when he stole the sword from Rex. He couldn't accept his place, so I shouldn't either."
"It doesn't have to be this way."
I gestured to the knights with helmets and swords. "Yes it does. This land had never known anything but war. We were all born from ashes."
England had been divided down the center and the battle ended only when one side murdered the other. The legend about some mythical queen that would bring peace was something parents told their children. It wasn't me. I’d never been a peacemaker in my entire life. Nothing made sense. My skin buzzed, making me feel alive.
Father held me firm as he marched me around the trees and up the small hill toward the soldiers. In the distance, men stood and quit talking.
If he didn't stop, I'd have no chance to escape being handed over to a king I didn't believe in. "Father, the people in our camp are homeless and have lost everything they ever had in this war. They're not all the people in England. There are so few of us."
A few of Thor's men laughed. Fire flew in the sky. Nausea overtook everything as my father dragged me forward.
Father stood straighter and held his head high as he spoke to the soldiers. "My daughter is to be queen. I stole her mother from her destiny of saving us all. I won't make the same mistake again. Peace is a dream we have to strive for."
I cringed as I stared at the men around us. The stone hard faces of soldiers who followed orders without flinching didn't betray a single emotion. One of the men in a helmet that showed no face pointed for us to go further into the small camp.
Whispers of a Throne Page 2
