Cinder & the Prince of Midnight

by Susan Ee

  She was supposed to be relaxing and gathering her mind and body for the big night. She didn’t know how she was supposed to relax. She’d never felt less relaxed in her life.

  So she wandered into town when she should have been trying to sleep. After all, she might not be alive tomorrow to see it.

  Today was one of the major market days. Ordinarily, it was just a small collection of stalls offering local goods for everyday kitchen needs. A couple of times every moon cycle, the market swelled into a sea of stalls with merchants coming from all parts of the kingdom.

  But as far as Cinder could tell, no one felt much like buying anything. Everyone was out, though, and talking about the hunt.

  “Wraith horses, they say,” a large woman said with much excitement in her voice. “A full herd of them.”

  “And a pack of wolfkin to accompany the king,” said a man selling scarves.

  “And the princes. They’ll be going too,” said another portly woman with a basket on her arm.

  “What do they be expecting, I wonder?” asked an old man. “A mass of killer village girls? If they’re so afraid of them, they should be recruiting the little girls to fight for the army instead of hunting them in the night.”

  “No one’s afraid of anything, old man,” said the first woman. “The Dark King would cut your tongue out for even saying so.”

  “It’s for sport,” said the fishmonger across the way. “You wouldn’t understand. These nobles are daft with too much good food and wine. They got nothing to do all day but tear each other to pieces for the fun of it.”

  “They miss the war, they say.”

  “Who could miss that war?”

  “The victors.”

  “Are you calling us commoners the losers?”

  “Well, we certainly didn’t win anything from the war, now, did we?” asked the fishmonger.

  “The war ain’t over, lad,” said the old man. “Not by a long shot.”

  The scarf merchant sighed. It was always the older ones who proclaimed that the war wasn’t over, even though the rest of the kingdom all agreed that it had been over for decades.

  “Do you think it was really a girl who mauled that nobleman?”

  “Doesn’t matter, now, does it?” said the old man. “A girl will be found and hung for it whether it was a girl who done it or not. That’s the way it always happens.”

  “What if it was a wild fairy?”

  “There’s no bounty on a fairy, you dunce. If you want the gold, it must be a girl.”

  “Will there be bounty hunters as well as the noblemen on the hunt tonight?”

  “Aye. That’s what I’ve heard. Bounty hunters to capture any girl who fights back. Wraith horses and a pack of wolfkin to protect the royal princes and the Dark King. It should be quite a show tonight.”

  Cinder had never seen a wraith horse before, but she had seen drawings of them and heard stories of what they looked like. They were said to have a flaming mane and tail. Their bodies weren’t just ethereal—they were dead and reanimated. Some of them were said to be nothing but decayed corpses held together by black magic.

  She knew from stories that the eyes of wraith horses could burn so hot that a person could have her own eyes burned to ashes in her sockets just by being near it.

  Nobles had them, but most were kept hidden since the peasants thought them bad luck. The Dark King was said to have an entire herd of them. People said that the most powerful fairies caught by the Dark King were trapped in his wraith horses. That they’d forever be bound to him in the bodies of his wraith horses, never to be free again.

  Cinder had no desire to ever see one, but she had a bad feeling that she might tonight.

  “How many girls?” asked the old man.

  “As many as the town can provide. They’re doubling the money paid for the girls tonight.” The scarf merchant shook his head.

  Cinder saw the flower stall and hesitated. Silver had told her to rest and be at peace as much as she could tonight. She knew she’d need all her energy for the hunt, but that didn’t stop the jitters.

  She didn’t want to be caught disobeying Silver. But she hesitated a moment too soon, for Silver saw her and waved her over.

  Cinder took her time getting over to the flower stall. As soon as she did, Silver gave her a bunch of thorn roses.

  “Run and hide,” whispered Silver as she put her hand out for coin in case anyone was watching. “You’re not ready for this. It’ll be a slaughter tonight.”

  Then Silver turned to help another customer.

  Cinder stood rooted to the ground. She had felt so trapped by her stepmother that she hadn’t truly considered running. Neither had it occurred to her that Silver—who seemed to miss having a good fight—would advise her to run.

  There was something in the flowers. She could feel the hardness of it in the center of the bunch, hidden among the thorns.

  She casually walked over to a darker, quieter part of the market and opened her bundle of flowers.

  Nestled among the thorny stems was a knife smeared with what looked like black honey. Poison.

  She quickly wrapped up the bundle, making sure she could easily reach the hilt if she needed it. Tonight’s hunt was more than she could handle, and she and Silver both knew it.

  It would be far deadlier than last month’s, when the hunt had been merely a distraction for bored nobles. Tonight’s hunt included royalty, which meant that it was now the height of fashion. There would be far more hunters tonight than last month. The hunters would feel free to do whatever sadistic thing they wanted and brag about it later. That was always the case when the Dark King took an interest in a sport.

  And she had done her part to make it intriguing by killing a hunter. The Dark King was never interested in anything that wasn’t a blood sport.

  She wandered through the market, lost in her thoughts. She began to notice that she had drifted into a shadowy and quiet part of the market that she hadn’t explored before.

  All the customers and merchants were whispering to each other. The stalls were empty except for selections of leather collars and whips. Behind the stalls were cages. Some small, some large.

  In the smaller cages, prisoners hunched down because they weren’t large enough for them to stand. Some of the captives had eyes that had no whites in them. Many of them had eyes that looked like jewels glittering with blues and greens, silver and yellow.

  It was hard to look at them, these crouched people. No, not people. Fairies.

  They were naked and grimy. Some watched Cinder in silence. Some fluttered their wings, while others seemed to have no wings.

  Cinder turned and fled back the way she had come. No matter what was back at home, this was no safer.

  She could feel jeweled eyes following her as she rushed back into the main part of the market. Even the customers who were handing over bags of coins to the merchants watched her nervously, as if worried that she would call the soldiers and have them arrested for some illicit transaction.

  But fairy slavery wasn’t illegal by any stretch of the imagination. It was simply dangerous.

  Chapter 10

  Cinder rushed back home, convinced that she needed to find a safe place to hide. She just needed to grab a cloak and the few coins that Silver had given her for helping her out with the flowers.

  Her plan was to disappear for a couple of nights and come back after the hunt. Helene would be furious, but that was better than being hunted, wasn’t it? Cinder wasn’t crazy enough to think that she could survive in Midnight alone with no home and no family. That way lay certain death and worse. Fairies weren’t the only ones enslaved in dark parts of the market.

  She’d wished a thousand times that she could live with Silver, but Helene wouldn’t allow it. Cinder would stay away from Silver tonight. She didn’t want her to get in trouble because of Cinder.

  She rushed into the house through the kitchen door. The kitchen should have been empty since her stepfamily almost nev
er came into it, but today, a cage sat right in front of the door. Its door was open, and Cinder almost ran right into it as she rushed into the house.

  Cinder stopped short in front of the cage. She had just enough time to think that it looked a lot like the cages that had held the fairies before someone shoved her hard from behind.

  Cinder stumbled into the cage.

  She spun just in time to see her stepmother slam the cage door shut.

  “No!” Cinder grabbed the bars and pushed the door.

  But it was too late. Helene had already locked it and was stepping away with the key.

  Cinder rattled the door.

  “Let me out!”

  “I am sorry, Cinder.” Helene sounded like she might actually be sorry. “I would have preferred not to do this, but you know we desperately need the money.”

  She sounded like she believed her own lie. The sisters entered the kitchen, one holding a jug of water and a cup, while the other held a plate with bread, cheese and slices of meat. They put down the bread and water and pushed it gingerly toward the cage with their feet.

  “Enjoy,” said Tammy with a smirk.

  Darlene giggle behind her hand. “We’re so naughty.”

  “It’s just temporary, girls,” said Helene. “Let’s leave her alone in peace. She has a big night ahead. And we want her to come back safe, don’t we?”

  “Of course, Mama,” said Tammy. “She’s like our prized horse now.”

  Darlene giggled again as Helene ushered her girls out of the kitchen.

  “Let me out!”

  Cinder called out to them until her voice broke. She finally gave up and slid to the floor. She wasn’t as tall as the fairies, but there was still not enough room to stand fully upright in the cage.

  She reached out for the bread and cheese. She supposed this was the feast that eased their guilt, if they had any. It all tasted like sawdust in her mouth, but she ate it anyway. She’d need her strength.

  Cinder leaned against the bars of the cage, occasionally touching the knife that Silver had given her. It reassured her that she wouldn’t be entirely alone and helpless out there tonight.

  After a while, Cinder’s muscles became stiff. She pushed herself off the floor of the cage, feeling older than her stepmother.

  She had a plan. They’d have to let her out before the hunt. After all that training, Cinder felt confident that her stepfamily wouldn’t be able to hold her back if she made a run for the door. They couldn’t catch her once she was out of their grasp.

  So she stretched and got limber as she waited for her chance to escape.

  She tensed when her stepmother walked back into the kitchen. This was her chance.

  But then three men came in after her. One wore the official black of a king’s guard, while the other two were obviously burly laborers.

  “There she is,” said Helene.

  The guard nodded. The two laborers walked up to Cinder’s cage and began to drag it. Cinder had to sit back down and grab the bars to keep herself steady.

  Helene put her hand out to the guard. He dropped a bag of coins onto her palm.

  “Treat her well, and you can have her again next month,” said Helene.

  “No, Helene, please!”

  Cinder reached out her hand to her stepmother. For a moment, Cinder thought she saw some remorse and doubt in Helene’s face, but that moment passed as the men dragged Cinder out the kitchen door.

  Outside, there was a cart full of cages just like hers. In each one sat a miserable-looking girl. Their ages ranged from about ten winters to fully grown women. Every one of them had the same frightened expression.

  The men shoved Cinder’s cage onto a ramp and pushed it into place alongside the other captives. Hers was the last cage in the cart. Around her, the younger girls sniffled and the older ones tried to soothe them.

  The cart rolled slowly through town, swaying this way and that. The dust and smell of horse dung weighed the air. The girls were mostly silent, staring out into the world as though they couldn’t believe what was happening. The whole town was so quiet that Cinder could hear the creaking of the wheels as it carried them closer to the forest.

  Along the way, other carts joined them until there was a procession of carts full of caged girls. Some of the townspeople watched as though they couldn’t stop looking, while others looked away as if they couldn’t bear the sight.

  They parked the carts along the fringe of the woods. Water and bread were passed along, but most of the girls had no appetite.

  They all waited and watched as the sun slid down the horizon.

  Chapter 11

  As dusk crept through the trees, the men let the girls out of their cages one by one. They huddled together on the far side of the line of carts, away from the woods. A chilled mist reached its tendrils out from the forest. It slithered toward the girls, who shifted away and huddled tighter.

  No one, not even the guards, wanted to be anywhere near the forest on a night of a full moon. So the guards stood in a line, making sure the captives were between them and the forest.

  There was no chance of anyone getting away, not with so many of the king’s guards between them and the town. The commander in charge stood on a knoll, watching the guards open the cage doors.

  The only place for the girls to run to was the forest itself. None of the guards seemed to be worried about the girls going into the woods before they were forced to.

  Guards put out platters of food and water on a cart, along with sturdy shoes for those who had been caught barefoot. The hunters wanted a sporting hunt tonight.

  Hardly anybody ate the food, but a few exchanged their worn shoes for the ones offered. One wouldn’t get far running the woods without sturdy shoes.

  As soon as they let Cinder out of her cage, she walked over to the food cart. It gave her a good vantage point where she could take in the situation.

  Many of the girls were far too young. They didn’t even have a decent chance of outrunning the hunt. The guards who corralled them looked uncomfortable doing their jobs.

  A man with a grim expression placed another platter of meat on the cart beside Cinder. He looked more like a barkeep than a guard. He kept looking toward the huddling girls with sympathy.

  Cinder took a chance and spoke to him.

  “What would happen if I stabbed one of the guards?” she asked in a low voice.

  The man paused, then picked up empty pitchers of water as though Cinder hadn’t spoken.

  “The other guards would be distracted,” he said, not looking at her and barely moving his lips.

  She took his lead and looked at the guards around the captives and pretended she wasn’t having a conversation.

  “Would they kill me?” she asked.

  “Might do.” He picked up another pitcher. “But only if they caught you. It’s a full moon, and we’re close enough to the forest. Laws don’t apply here tonight. Not to the hunters.” He lowered his voice to barely a whisper as he turned to leave. “And not to the quarry.”

  Cinder touched the hard knife handle in her apron pocket. The blade was poisoned. She couldn’t just stab a guard in the leg and assume he’d recover.

  She looked at the guards. Their commander seemed hard and unemotional, but there were guards that looked uncomfortable. She felt no guilt about stabbing one of them to free the girls, but could she kill for it?

  Her foot scuffed a rock as she walked away from the food cart. It was the size of an egg, with no sharp edges.

  Cinder bent over and picked it up, feeling the heft of it in her hand.

  Then she swung her arm back and hurled the rock at the commander.

  It cuffed him in the shoulder. It couldn’t have hurt much, but there was a moment of shock when he looked around in disbelief.

  Cinder ran.

  “Get that girl!”

  She didn’t turn to see if it was the commander or another guard who shouted. All she knew was that the guards who had been near her wer
e running after her. The rest should be distracted.

  She hoped that the girls could manage to sneak away. Not all of them would, but some of them might.

  Cinder ran into the woods. It was the only place to go where the guards might lose her.

  “She ran into the woods!” called one of the guards behind her.

  “Well, go get her, you idiot! Don’t just stand there.”

  “But commander—”

  “Go!”

  The sound of guards crashing through the underbrush came behind her. It was slow and reluctant. The commander must have been nearby, though, because the guards kept wading deeper into the woods.

  Cinder hoped most of the guards were behind her and that the girls were taking flight. She had no trouble herself running through the underbrush, not with the panic of her fear pushing her. Even when she fell, she hardly felt it as she jumped up and kept running.

  She used the noise of the guards behind her to orient herself. She knew these woods better than most. It was uncanny how quickly a person could get lost here. So she was ever so careful to only run as deep into the woods as she needed, and then to keep the sound of the guards as a compass to circle back to the edge of the woods.

  By the time she felt that she’d gone far enough to risk peeking out of the forest, the gray shadows of the oncoming night were leaching out the color of the world. The moon still hadn’t risen, but the air had that tension that always seemed to hang under the full moon.

  Any time now, the hunt would begin.

  Cinder peered around a tree at the edge of the forest. She could barely see the group of captives at the edge of the woods. The guards were tightly controlling the group, but the number of prisoners was half what it had been.

  Cinder closed her eyes for a moment and wished the escapees a safe journey back home.

  Home.

  She opened her eyes. If the other girls had homes like hers, it wasn’t worth much. But it was shelter against the night, and whoever had sold them to the guards had already been paid, so the escaped girls should be safe for another month.

  Her own house had been a home once, when her father had been alive. She had laughed and played like other children. And coming home had been a happy time.