by Amy Richie
I looked over at Kris but besides for a tiny narrowing of his eyes, which didn’t help at all, he didn’t explain anything. Maybe he didn’t really know anything, but somehow I doubted it. Kris was the type who knew everything. And when he didn’t – he wasn’t very comfortable with it.
I wasn’t either right now. Everything was too fast and Kris wasn’t going to slow down long enough to tell me anything. I needed to make him though. I had to know exactly what was going on.
What did they expect me to do anyways? A princess. What did they do, smile and wave at people? When was I going to be allowed to go back to my friends? They were probably freaking out by now.
Chapter Ten
“I’m not going anywhere else with you,” I declared in what I hoped was a firm voice. I saw Kris’s shoulders sag with his sigh but I didn’t move.
“Could we get to the Palace at least?” he asked with an arched brow.
I glanced around nervously, already having forgotten that there was someone out there looking for me. Maybe. “I need some answers,” I insisted, even going so far as to close my arms like a pouting child.
He closed the small distance between us with abrupt speed. His careful mask slipped ever so slightly. “You’ll get all your answers when we reach the Palace. The Queen will tell you all you wish to know.”
“Why can’t you?”
“I have other things to do,” he snapped through clenched teeth.
“You show up in the middle of the night on a deserted highway and bring me to a planet,” my tongue darted out quickly to run across my incredibly dry lips, “a planet that isn’t Earth, where giant flowers and lizards attack me – then you just expect me to follow you blindly?”
He glanced angrily at the old woman who still moved close by. “Sounds about right,” he nodded curtly, “except it wasn’t a lizard. It’s a Zeptor.”
“And they weren’t flowers – they were Crellis?”
“Right.”
I rolled my eyes, but at least he wasn’t smiling. “I need something.”
“What do you need?”
“A reason to follow you.”
“What else can you do?”
My mind went blank. He was right. What else could I do except stay with him? No one else knew where I was – including me. That didn’t mean I had to admit it to him though. “I’ll just…stay here and buy some apples.” I reached into my pocket for the loose change there, knowing full well they probably didn’t accept American money here.
“You don’t like apples,” he scoffed.
“I…” color slowly drained from my face. “How do you know that?”
“You aren’t a picky eater, in fact you’ll try just about anything; but you hate apples and yogurt.”
“Lots of people hate yogurt,” I mumbled. “It’s just spoiled milk and sugar.”
His lips turned up softly. “I know things are confusing now Kalli, but all will become clear soon. It’s not safe here; we need to get to the Palace.”
“To talk to the Queen?”
“Exactly.”
“But how will I know what to say to her? I don’t even know why I’m here.”
“Yes you do.”
To become a Princess. “And if I don’t want to?”
“What?” The soft smile that had been playing around the edges of his mouth disappeared completely.
“Do I have a choice?”
“No!”
With that he turned on his heel and headed off again. The old woman nudged me with the outstretched apple, nodding encouragingly. I considered my options for almost half a second, then hurried after Kris.
“I’m asking this Queen to send me back home,” I declared angrily at his retreating back. “I’ll tell her how you kidnapped me from my friends and if she’s a decent person, she’ll send me home.” What were the odds that she was a decent person though?
“She’ll send you home.”
“I meant back to Earth.”
“Earth isn’t your home.”
My foot caught on the uneven road, sending me to my knees. Hands immediately shot out to help me up. I hadn’t even realized we were being followed, but when I looked behind me after I was again on two feet – I was shocked at the small crowd gathered there.
Kris was there, answering my question before I could ask it. “They’re curious about you.”
“Why?” My forehead crinkled in confusion. It wasn’t like we had entered a small village where a newcomer would instantly be a novelty. There were hundreds of people here – maybe thousands. And I didn’t look any different from them; probably not even much cleaner.
Could they tell just by looking at me that I was from a different planet? If I had seen any of these people back home, I wouldn’t think they weren’t from Earth. Then again, that wasn’t a possibility back on Earth. Sometimes you could tell someone was from a different country just by how they looked, maybe that was it.
“They know who you are,” Kris explained softly. At least I think he was trying to be helpful; really it didn’t help at all though.
“That I’m from Earth?” I looked at all the curious faces, watching me keenly.
“That you’re the future Princess of Tontine,” he corrected in a low whisper.
I was afraid he was going to say that. “I’m not…”
Two fingers were pressed quickly to my lips. “They’ll probably follow us all the way to the Palace. Try to ignore them.”
Sure enough, as soon as I took a step – so did the crowd behind me; and once I was aware of them, it was impossible just to ignore them. Much to Kris’s irritation, I stopped often to check on the ever growing crowd. Didn’t these people have better things to do? It sounded like the Palace was far away.
“Maybe we should…”
“You’ll get used to it,” he called over one shoulder.
The old woman, still clutching her apple, suddenly opened her mouth in a soundless scream. Her eyes widened, finishing a horrible look of fear. I felt something brush along my arm, but there was no time to react. I didn’t see anything, but I certainly felt it. A heavy thud resounded in my ears – the only sound I was aware of before everything went quiet. Kris hovered over me, his face a mask of fury; until even he disappeared into the blackness.
Chapter Eleven
I let my eyes stay closed even after I was awake. I was too comfortable to still be on the street and the bed was too soft to hope that I had just been dreaming this whole time and really I was in my bed at home. The air smelled different, cleaner; and there was no noise of the busy market we were just in.
I was going to have to open my eyes, I realized with a small groan. I didn't want to face anything else unfamiliar but it didn't look like I would have much choice. Even if I could just lay there and pretend to be sleeping, what was the point in that?
I let my eyes open slowly, not knowing what to expect this time. Ever since I first saw Kris on the highway, things had gone from weird to weirder really fast. This was no exception.
A white ceiling stretched high above me and although it was light, I could make out the hundreds of glow in the dark stars dotting along the white paint. Once it was dark, an entire galaxy would become visible. I knew that for a fact because this was a room I knew well.
When I was little I had the longest bout of permanency I would ever know in the home of Agnes Howl. I went to live with Aggie when I was three and she let me stay two months past my eighth birthday. This was the room I had stayed in.
Aggie was legally blind and almost seventy-eight years old but had somehow filled the room with everything I could have wanted. Bright blue walls joined the white ceiling covered with the wonders of space. I couldn't wait for the lights to go off.
A woman came every morning and stayed until it was time for bed. Shelia - the house keeper. I almost forgot about Shelia. She disappeared after the state decided Aggie Howl was too old to properly care for a young child.
I sat up and let my feet hang off the
side of the bed; the bed with the same dark blue sheets. It couldn't be the same bed though, unless I was dreaming. It was hard to tell anymore if I was awake or not.
I turned my head towards the single window, wincing at the remembered pain. Someone hit me. There was a thick bandage plastered to the back of my head so I couldn't even properly assess the damage. I remembered everything that had happened to me - even the bizarre stuff - so that was probably a good sign.
Without moving my head too much, I scanned the room again. Same huge vanity with the smooth mahogany wood and large oval mirror stood pressed against the wall closest to the walk-in closet. The same pink curtains with tiny white crowns adorned the window. I didn't even realize I remembered this room until I saw it again, but it was exactly how I remembered it.
Life had been good with Mrs. Howl and Shelia. It was quiet but I was taken care of. I never went to bed hungry or afraid. Back then, the room had been a comfort for me; now - it was just creepy that these people replicated it. How did they get it so perfect?
I stood up slowly, holding onto the bed post so I couldn't fall when the initial round of dizziness hit me. Making my way to the window, my mind traveled back and forth between past and present. My life had always been borderline strange but it was mine and I wanted it back.
It was clear from the sights outside the window that this still wasn't Earth. We weren't in the market either. I let myself slump forward until my forehead was resting against the cool glass. I felt helpless here, just being swept away by things I didn't understand. Used to being in control; I wasn't doing well here.
A chill traveled quickly down my spine, prompting me to embrace my torso until I could cup my elbows. A shadow hung over the world outside, making everything darker and unwelcoming. As far as I could see out, a long lawn stretched with it's close cut grass and strangely shaped trees surrounded by tiny fences. A path of smooth white marble of some sort snaked throughout the yard, creating shapes and letters. There seemed to be no purpose to the path except to break up the monotony of the bright green grass. I cringed at the thought of what that grass would look like if the sun was actually shining down on it.
As I watched, a woman wearing a long white gown of some sort emerged from the building I was in and hurried along the path too quickly to just be on a stroll. I perked up, curious to see what the woman was doing. Maybe the paths did lead somewhere.
The woman stopped suddenly and turned back towards the building she had just left. Her head tilted back to stare up at me, as if she could see me from that distance. I blinked back my shock, holding my place by the window. She was too far away to make out many details, I could only tell that she was thin and had long light colored hair.
My attention was jerked away from having a stare down with the unknown woman when the bedroom door opened. Kris stood there, looking as stony as ever. Despite his irritating habit of causing more confusion than he cleared up, I was glad to see his familiar face.
He thundered into the room and stood rigidly behind a chair that was pulled close to the bed. "Kalliope Harris," he called out formally, "the Queen will see you now."
Chapter Twelve
My eyes widened until I could actually feel the air drying them out. Knowing I wouldn't get any answers hadn't stopped me from asking them before and it certainly didn't stop me now.
"The Queen? What does she want?" Strange white-woman forgotten, I hurried across the room to place myself in front of Kris. "How did I get here? Who hit me? Why would someone do that? And what..."
"It appears I was correct in thinking it would be better for me to come see you here," a soft female voice cut off the remaining barrage of questions I had. A woman with a youthful face but old eyes swept in to the room, her wide silver and blue grown taking up too much space.
"Why?" I asked with narrowed eyes and tense shoulders.
"You wouldn't have come to me very quickly."
"I meant why do you want to see me?" She had to be the queen or maybe one of her advisers. Weren't queens old?
"Not all of us, " she chuckled. "I supposed even the old ones start out young."
I felt my eyes widening before I could stop it. What just happened? Did I say that out loud? "Guess so," I answered myself and her at the same time. Maybe it was best not to say anything. She was the Queen and she had come here to talk to me; let her talk.
"I did come here to talk to you," she sighed. I shot a glance at Kris but he was making a point to study the floor designs. "You were bitten by the Crellis," she said suddenly.
"What?" Was she trying to confuse me on purpose?
"Earlier - you had questioned why you were bleeding even though your pants weren't ripped; that's why."
I didn't even remember that until she brought it up again. Running my hand across my thigh, I realized something else too - I wasn't in my own clothes. Someone had dressed me in weird silk feeling pants that fanned out widely around the bottom of my legs so that it might look like I was wearing a skirt and a shirt that was way too small. The sequined tank top didn't even cover my stomach all the way. What the heck?
"I...did someone...?"
"You had blood on your pants," she reminded me gently.
"Because I was bitten...by a flower." I looked again to Kris. "Good thing it wasn't poisonous," I tried to smile.
"Oh, the Crellis are highly poisonous," the Queen answered happily. "They don't always bring death to their victims, but usually."
"Guess I'm just lucky." It wasn't something I often said about myself, but since I didn't die - it fit.
"Luck has nothing to do with it," she smiled wide. "You're Tontinion, naturally equip to counter any attack."
"The Tontine people are immune to the bite of the Crellis," Kris jumped in. "We don't know why."
"So the Tontine...people are different than you?" Even amongst the really strange; I was the odd one out.
"They are very strong, powerful people." The Queen still hadn't lost her smile. Maybe she did botox; that could explain a lot.
"I'm not strong," the only power I had was being able to lie pretty well and it didn't look like that would even work here.
"Your compulsion works," once again the Queen responded to unspoken words, "just not on a Guardian." Her eyes swung over briefly to Kris, just in case I wasn't sure who she was talking about.
"Is that a...Tontine thing too? I mean...can you do it?" Obviously she knew what I was thinking, would that happen to me too?
"It's actually a Princess thing." She stepped further into the room to sink gracefully on the edge of my unmade bed. "Our birth mother gives us each a power; one that will help us rule our planet."
A hundred questions raced through my head but it was hard to grasp just one so I could ask it out loud. "My mother is dead," I blurted instead.
"Yes."
"Was she your mother too? Are we sisters?" Kris said I had six sisters.
"You do have six sisters; but I am not one of them."
My sigh came out too loud, sounding more like a groan than anything else. "Nothing here makes sense. This room...was mine when I was a little girl. How is that possible? Who's trying to kill me? Why did my mother die? Where is my father?"
"The tradition of the Seven Sisters goes back thousands of years. Legend says that there was war between all the planets and one brave woman stood in the middle of all the fighting - begging them to stop before all of the Zar galaxy was destroyed. A great flash of light struck the woman to the ground and in shock, the men stopped fighting. Nine months later, the woman gave birth to seven daughters - each with a special power; one to rule over each planet but with a sisterly bond that would join the galaxy instead of tear it apart. Every thirty-eight years one of the sisters is chosen to carry the next generation of princesses so that each is nineteen years apart."
"Is that why you brought me here, to have all those babies?" I really hoped that wouldn't be why.
"No, you are here to rule over Tontine. One of your sisters will carry the bu
rden, but first she will become queen for 19 years."
I let out the breath I hadn't realized I was holding. "That's really confusing."
"I suppose so," she nodded.
"So my mother was a Princess?"
She nodded. "I took her place. She was very kind."
My eyes narrowed as a tiny sliver of understanding flickered through my over worked mind. This woman was waiting for one of my sisters to come so she could die giving birth to the next litter of princesses. What a crap deal.
"I'm sure you're hungry," she rose fluently from the bed. "Take a moment to reflect and then join us downstairs for dinner." Then she swept from the room as suddenly as she had swept into it.
Chapter Thirteen
Knees unable to hold my weight any longer, I sank onto the edge of the frilly bed. Too much, the Queen had told me too much. My mind was reeling with the effort to process it all.
Seven Princesses.
Nineteen years apart.
Kris said I came of age.
I just turned nineteen.
Unbidden, my eyes filled with the burning sensation of unshed tears. This wasn't the time to cry and I knew it.
Things still didn't seem quite real, kind of like I was in a dream and reality was still blurred along the edges. Twisting my top lip between two fingers, my mind moved back to my friends and my home.
True, I was forced to move around all the time so I never had much of a home – but just seeing a familiar face would be great about now.
I sniffed softly and rubbed at my itchy eyes. What were my friends doing now? Did they stay on the side of the road where I had left them? Hopefully, they weren't still waiting for me to get back. If they waited, they would get caught and it didn't look like I was going to be allowed to go home any time soon. And how would I find them again once I did go back? I sucked in a shaky breath.
A sudden knock on the door had me gulping harshly and grinding away the last remnants of tears. What if it was that crazy queen again? That's all I needed was for her to see me crying like a baby.
