The King's Daughters

by Nathalie Mallet

  I winced. Right now, I feared I didn't possess the mental fortitude to suffer Diego's exuberant, yet aimless, blabbing without losing patience with him.

  "I heard about your interest in this despicable affair and thought that perhaps I could be of some help to you."

  I stared Diego up and down and tried to keep a straight face. Dressed as he was, in a vibrant blue-velvet ensemble, complete with white stockings and fancy high-heeled shoes, I had trouble imagining him running around with the guards as I'd been doing lately.

  Noticing my scrutiny, Diego's left eyebrow rose. "You don't approve of my garment."

  I was too tired to lie. "No. I don't care for it."

  To my surprise, Diego smiled. "Neither do I. Now tell me what you've uncovered these last days."

  I sighed. "Nothing."

  "Oh come on now."

  "It's the truth . . . well, not exactly. We know the facts and little else."

  "I don't understand. Please, you must explain it to me."

  Why does he need to know this, I thought, annoyed by the dandy's persistence. I wanted to tell Diego to forget about this and go away, but the determined look on his face convinced me it wouldn't work—worse, it would bring on a barrage of questions. So it was with resignation that I explained the situation to him. "What I meant is that we know that a beast, or beasts—sometimes I think there's more than one—is killing people in the castle—that's a fact. However, we still don't know why, what sort of creature it is, or how it was brought here. As for the princesses, we know they've been kidnapped—that's a fact. But by whom, how, and why remains a mystery. I can't even figure out how the kidnappers got in and out of the room without being seen."

  "The windows," ventured Diego.

  "No. They were locked from the inside."

  "The servants' passages."

  I frowned. "What servants' passages?"

  Diego beamed with pride. "See, I knew I could help. And you doubted me. Come, I'll show you where those passages are."

  * * *

  The princesses' room had been put back in order; even a new door had been installed. As it was, I hardly recognized the place.

  Hands on his hips, Diego scanned the surroundings. "Uh, disappointing."

  "I know. It's a pity they cleaned it up. I wish you could've witnessed the damage."

  "No, silly. I meant the décor. This is the royal wing, it should be better than this." He waved a hand at the light blue walls.

  I shrugged. "I've seen worse."

  "True. You, yourself, are lodged in what is commonly referred to as 'Draft Alley.' " Diego's expression took on an apologetic air. "For someone of your rank to be lodged there . . . hmm, it's a clear indication of the king's discontentment with you."

  "Discontentment!" I snorted. "He hates me, you mean."

  Diego pouted. "Feelings can change, you know." This being said, he walked to the wall. A long silky ribbon with a gold tassel at its tip hung there. Flicking the tassel with a finger, Diego explained, "This ribbon is linked to a bell in the servants' quarters. Pull it, and a valet or a maid will come running out of that door." Diego indicated the space beside him.

  I stared at the blue wall with its white, decorative box moldings. "I don't see any door."

  "Look." Diego pressed on the wall and one of the box molding panels popped open. "It's camouflaged to blend in with the décor."

  I couldn't care less about the door's decorative function, what interested me lay beyond it. But as soon as I entered the passage, my interest vanished. This wasn't the dark mysterious tunnel I had expected. This was a simple passageway of whitewashed walls. I took a few steps down its length. My foot struck a tiny piece of debris, sending it bouncing off the walls. I picked it up further down the passage. It was a small metal loop the size of my pinky. I showed it to Diego. "Any idea where this might come from?"

  "Hmm, looks rough. From a shoe strap maybe? I don't know."

  I glanced at my meager find and sighed. "Might as well forget it. It's probably nothing anyway." Dropping the tiny loop in my pocket, I moved on.

  Shortly after, we emerged in the servants' quarters. The activity in that room was dizzying. Chambermaids were dashing left and right, valets were rushing past us, while cooks kept barking orders in the background. Yet despite the urgency of their work, every servant in the room took the time to acknowledge our presence by curtseying or bowing to us.

  DING-DING.

  I jumped, startled by the bell. Right beside the door where we stood a dozen small brass bells were neatly lined upon the wall. A label, indicating to which room it was linked to, was affixed under each bell.

  Ingenious, I thought. "I suppose my room isn't amidst the ones listed here."

  "No, your wing was built long before this system was put in place."

  I smiled—Good. I hated the idea that someone could enter my room at will without my knowing. Again, my eyes roamed around the busy room. To my knowledge, servants were on duty day and night, so escaping through this passage without being seen was impossible. In my opinion, there were no better eyes than servants'. Most often than not, the permanence of a servant's position in a house depended entirely on his keen sense of observation. (A good servant often knew what his master needed or wanted before he knew it himself.) Determined to test my theory, I asked who was on duty the night of the princesses' abduction.

  A mixed group of valets and maids stepped forward. After a brief interrogation, I learned that all servants' passages led to this room and no other—a rapid visit of the other openings proved this—and that nothing unusual had come out of any passages that night. We were back to that same point, which was in total darkness.

  "If they didn't escape through these passages, where did the kidnappers go? How did they leave the castle?" I slapped my arms against my sides in frustration. "This is impossible! Did they vanish in thin air? Were they invisible?"

  I was rubbing my forehead, trying to make sense of this enigma, when a young maid approached me. She was barely out of girlhood, and her features still possessed some childlike qualities, that ephemeral rosy hue, and that perfectly radiant, moist skin seen only in little children. Right now she was pretty; in a year or two she'd be beautiful.

  "Your Highness," she began, locking her large hazel eyes onto mine. "I was not on duty the night the princesses disappeared, so I cannot attest to what may have come out of our passages. But I know people who can walk through the castle without being seen."

  "Who?"

  "Those strange ones from the east."

  Diego and I exchanged intrigued glances.

  "Go on," I said.

  "Two days ago, I was on my way to clean the princesses' room." The maid pointed to the door we had come out of earlier. "Through that passageway. I was almost there when I realized I'd forgotten something. I turned around and . . . and . . . " She paused, eyes widening. "And there they were, right behind me, the two of them, as close to me as you are, Your Highness. I never heard a sound or saw a shadow move. If not for my scattered brain, I would've never known they were there. This has happened to other servants too. These strange ones, they keep appearing and disappearing all around the castle like . . . like spirits."

  The girl was trembling. Clearly, she was still shaken by her encounter with the barbarians.

  "What were they doing in the passage?"

  The girl looked unsure. "Seeking something on the ground. I'm not sure. They scared me so, I screamed and ran away." Her eyes glistening with tears, she lowered her head. "I wish I could be of better help to you. The young princesses have always been kind to me."

  Cupping her chin in my hand, I raised her face. "Don't be sad. You've helped us tremendously."

  "Oh thank you, Your Highness." Bursting into tears, she ran away.

  I turned to Diego. He was looking at me with an odd little smile plastered on his face, which I didn't care much for. "My, my, my," he said, "what a heartbreaker you could be if only you would expand your interest beyond Prince
ss Eva."

  The comment shocked me. Caught in a blend of contradicting feelings, I didn't know how to respond. For one, I badly wanted to wring his neck, while my sensible side was telling me to move on, because starting a fight with a foreign prince, over words, wasn't smart. I chose to ignore the comment and changed the subject. "What do you think they were looking for in that passage?"

  "Don't know." Diego played with one of his long black locks. "Honestly, I'm surprised they know about these passages."

  "Do you have any idea where they can be right now?"

  "No, but I assume we're going to go look for them."

  I smiled. "Yes."

  * * *

  Finding the two barbarians took more effort than I thought possible. However, all that trotting and questioning we did throughout the castle bore fruit; we learned some interesting facts about those two. For example, they possessed the singular ability of being at one end of the castle one instant, then at the other end the next. Finally, after hours of search, the barbarians fell into our sight.

  "There they are!" exclaimed Diego. "They're heading outside."

  I grappled Diego's arm before he could run after the pair. "Where are you going like that?"

  "After them—outside."

  I pointed to his feet. "With those shoes . . . in the snow."

  We borrowed boots and coats from the guards' supply room, and then we went out. Diego cursed all the way to the garden wall. Apparently, guards' garments weren't to his taste. For my part, I thought they were fine. The coat was warm and the round fur hat fell low enough on my head to protect my ears from the bite of the cold. The boots were a bit big though.

  "Where are they?" I asked, squinting. The reflection of the afternoon sun on the snow was blinding,

  Shielding his eyes with his hand, Diego scanned the horizon. "Can't see them anywhere. Let's look around. I'm sure we'll find something."

  After a thorough search of the castle's grounds, we uncovered a series of tracks in the snow.

  "Goodness!" Diego gasped. "Those are the biggest bear's tracks I've ever seen. The beast's a monster."

  These tracks were similar to the ones I had discovered in the conservatory. "Are you sure those belong to a bear."

  "Can't you tell?"

  "Not really—bears do not wander the desert."

  We followed the tracks to the edge of the forest. A second series of tracks, a man's footsteps, were visible a short distance away. From where I stood, I could see that those footsteps were also following the bear's trail. So we were not alone tracking this beast.

  * * *

  I didn't know how long we'd been gone, but to me it felt as if we'd been wandering through the woods in the bear's footsteps for ages. I was glad when we reached the summit of a hill where we could get a good view of the surrounding landscape.

  "The bear went down the hill," I said, indicating the sliding tracks to Diego.

  "Yes, looks like it's going toward that village over there."

  Rising on my toes, I could see the rooftops of small wooden houses in the distance and the thin plumes of smoke rising from their chimneys. I looked at the darkening sky. "It's getting late."

  Diego beat his sides vigorously. "And cold. We should return to the castle. Even the hunter following the bear has given up."

  Diego was right. Only the bear's tracks went down the hill, the other's were gone. Quite frankly, by now I didn't know which of the two intrigued me the most, the bear or the mysterious hunter. As I began searching for where the hunter's tracks had stopped, the sound of a frightened horse echoed amidst the trees. The crack of branches breaking followed. That noise was accompanied by the stumping of hooves striking the icy ground.

  I scanned the forest, at first seeing only tall, dark pine trees. Then I spotted a rider through a clearing in the dense forest.

  "THERE!" I shouted, pointing to the horseman. His silhouette was little more then a dark shadow against the horizon. In spite of the lowering sun shining in my eyes, I thought I saw the edge of a long hooded cloak. I ran toward the horseman. Of course, as soon as I neared the clearing he took off in the direction of the village before I could get a better look at him.

  "Amir!" Diego called behind me. "Amir, come back."

  I pushed on.

  "Aaaamir, we have a problem." The panic lacing Diego's tone made me stop.

  I turned. The woman warrior stood behind Diego holding a blade against his neck. My hand went straight for my sword.

  Diego's eyes became as big as my fists. "Nooo!" he yelled as the blade was pushed harder against his neck.

  "We mean you no harm," I told the warrior woman. "Release my friend."

  In a quick head snap, she flipped her long, luscious black hair out of her heart-shaped face, exposing striking exotic features: small, low-bridged nose, high cheekbones, pouty lips, and eyes as dark as a moonless night. Boring those dark smoldering eyes into mine, she motioned for me to drop my sword.

  "No! You drop your weapon."

  She replied by yanking Diego's head backward, exposing the white flesh of his neck to the frigid air.

  "Please, Amir," begged Diego. "Don't argue with her. She'll slice my throat. I know she will."

  Well, she certainly looked determined enough. I scanned the darkening forest. Her companion could be anywhere in those woods with his bow drawn and ready to release an arrow . . . or maybe he'd just galloped away, leaving her alone here. Maybe she was afraid. I shot one glance at her intense gaze, and I was certain that this woman knew no fear. That worried me. My fist tightened around the grip of my sword. Dropping my weapon was the last thing I wanted to do, yet I feared that if I didn't do it Diego would die. Against my will, I opened my hand. The sword fell into the snow.

  At that instant, I thought I saw the corners of her mouth curl slightly. But before I could be sure, I lost sight of her face as she tightened her hold on Diego, pushing him forward, forcing him to walk toward me.

  "Why are you doing this?" I said. "Unhand him at once! You can leave safely. I won't attack you."

  "She doesn't understand our tongue," Diego murmured through clenched teeth.

  I began making signs, gesturing to her that she could go in peace. Well, I hoped this was the message she was getting.

  Twisting her pouty little mouth to one side, she eyed me with perplexity. The expression on her face couldn't be any clearer; she thought I had gone mad.

  I ceased gesturing like a demented monkey and just backed away from my sword. This time there was no confusion, I clearly saw it; she smiled.

  Sure, that was too simple.

  Still holding Diego in front of her, she slowly walked toward me. Once only a few steps separated us, she stopped, pulling Diego's head back again.

  "Let him go," I whispered while raising my hands, palms up.

  What she did next totally baffled me. She shoved Diego to the side and pounced onto me like a panther pounced upon a gazelle. The force of the impact made me stagger backward, and I would have fallen into the snow if she had not sunk her fingers into my coat and pulled me up against her. For the space of an instant, no longer than a couple heartbeats really, our eyes locked—mine were wide with shock, hers burning with an uncanny intensity. It was as though she was trying to look into me, into my heart and soul, as though she was searching for something hidden deep inside me. Then she did the unexpected: she kissed me. I was so dumbfounded that I didn't do anything to stop her; I just stayed there without moving. Almost immediately an eerie feeling invaded me. And for a minute there, I could've sworn that time stood still. My senses suddenly became heightened. I was aware of everything around me. More so, I was aware of everything about her, her smell was a medley of leather, horses, and green grass. Her lips were pillowy soft and cool; her hands on my forearms were like iron shackles. Finally awakening from my state of shock, I tried pushing her, but my fingers got tangled in her chain mail. Then she pulled away.

  Although her kiss had been very brief, the feeling of her
lips upon mine lingered on my mouth long after it was over. And the sharp pang it had produced deep within my core was rather unforgettable. Never had I felt something alike. I stared at her with my mouth agape. How could lips as lovely as hers produce such a jarring effect?

  "Shal-galt," she breathed, and then she ran off.

  Stunned, I stood there like an idiot, watching her vanish into the dark forest without moving. "What was that?"

  Brushing snow from his coat, Diego dragged himself to his feet. "Well, my friend, I think you have an admirer—and she's ferocious. They're the only kind worth having, if you ask me. Let's hope she hasn't bewitched you though."

  Even though I knew Diego was only jesting, I feared there might be some truth in what he had just said. "Bewitched, huh," I said under my breath. There was something "magical" about her touch. Shal-galt, could that be a spell word?

  "Diego, have you managed to learn their names since I last asked."

  "The man's Khuan. The woman's name is Lilloh."

  "Lilloh . . . Lilloh," I repeated, as if saying her name could tell me something new.

  "Amir, I know she kissed you, but has she stabbed you too?" Diego asked in a concerned tone.

  "No. why?"

  "You're bleeding."

  I looked down at myself and saw that my hand was dripping blood. "Gah, I must have ripped it open on her chain mail." Sure enough, when I checked my palm one of her chain mail's links was imbedded in my skin. I pulled it out and stared at it for a while. Then fishing the small metal loop we had found in the servants' passage from out of my pocket, I placed it beside the link. They were identical.

  Chapter Eight

  That night I was plagued with nightmares, in which my dearly departed brother Jafer kept appearing to me.

  "Look to the east," he would say in some of those dreams. In the most unpleasant one, Jafer and I were strolling together in the snow when I suddenly began sinking. Most disturbing in this was that while I desperately fought for my life, Jafer just quietly watched me sink with an air of total exasperation and reproach, as though I was the cause of my own sinking.