by Dyan Chick
She inhaled deeply through her nose and exhaled from her mouth. “I am what I have to be. No different than you.”
I knelt down next to her and the blood caught my eye. I had forgotten about her wound during the fight. “You’re hurt. We need to get you taken care of.”
She looked at her arm, then back to me. “It’s fine. We’ll be to Yorkton soon. I can get it taken care of there.”
I reached over and tore the sleeve off of her blouse.
She pulled her arm back from me.
“Stay still,” I said, pulling her arm back. “You need a bandage.” I wrapped the sleeve around the open skin and tied it off. “There. That’ll help until we get to somebody who can clean it.”
“Where’d you learn that?” she asked me.
I shrugged. “I might not have learned everything I was supposed to learn, but I picked up a few things living as a peasant.”
She smiled and held her hand up in the air. “Help me up.”
She grunted as I helped her up then she brushed off her skirt. We walked back to the carriage in silence.
When the driver saw us, his eyes widened and he dropped the flask he had been drinking from. He raced over to us. “What happened?”
Saffron waved her hand at him. “Don’t worry about it.”
He looked toward the tavern as if he expected somebody else to join us. His hands were trembling. “How can I not worry about this?”
“Because we’ll double your fee,” she said. “Let’s just get to our destination quickly.”
We were rocking and bumping our way down the road within seconds of the door closing behind us.
Every swallow was painful. I gently ran my fingers over my neck. My hand was covered in Saffron’s blood. It should have been mine. That’s who they were after. How did I let this happen? I was useless to defend myself. I had only known Saffron a few days and in that time she had to save my life twice. What if Saffron wasn’t there? What if there had been four guards? At the rate I was going, I wouldn't live to see my next birthday. I’m being hunted.
“Saffron, what drawing were they talking about?”
She shifted in her seat, wincing when she moved her shoulder. “The king has been searching for you since you were smuggled away. He’s never known for sure if you were alive, but he didn’t want to take any chances. Each year, on your birthday, he commissions artists to make a drawing of what they think you’ll look like at that age. He distributes the drawings to his guards.”
“And they just kill anybody they think might be me?” I asked.
She shook her head. “There were a few restrictions. The king didn’t want his guards to
have the power to kill any girl they wanted. He didn’t want people to know you might be alive.
They had to check with the town priest to confirm that the girl’s age was close to yours. See if
they had record of the birth. If the girl was an orphan or didn’t have proof of being
born in that town, then they could kill her.”
My mouth was wide open. How many girls had been killed for me? “They don’t have to
ask permission anymore, I guess.”
Saffron looked grim. “It seems that is the case. He must have gotten word about the dead
guards at your grandmother’s house.” The color drained from her face.
Maybe her wound was worse than we thought. “What is it? Is your shoulder hurting?”
“He might have your grandmother.”
“My grandmother is dead, you said so yourself.” My pulse quickened.
“He’s a necromancer. That means he can bring back the dead. If his men got to her before ours, he could bring her back and ask her anything. She’d have to tell him.”
My hair was falling out of the elaborate braid. I pushed it off of my face. “Will he know where to find me?”
She shook her head. “We didn’t tell her those details for this exact reason. I just hoped it would never be needed.”
“Where are we going?” I asked.
“To see a friend. We’ll have to make the stop short, though. I don’t think we can keep you anywhere for too long that doesn’t have guards. It’s too much of a risk. I’d guess the king has sent his Reapers after you by now and I’m no match for them.”
I swallowed hard. The Reapers are after me. “There has to be something I can do to fight back. Something I can do to protect myself.”
“Even a trained warrior isn’t much use against the Reapers. They only have one weakness: fire. Even that doesn’t stop them, it just slows them down. Could scare them off for a while, but only a sorcerer could make enough fire quickly enough to have any effect. The sooner we get you to the Ravens, the better.”
“There’s sorcerers working with the Ravens?”
She nodded. “One of the most powerful in the whole kingdom. He’s the leader of the Ravens.” She glanced out the window. “The sooner we can get you there, the better.”
“Why not go straight there, then?” I asked.
“To be a princess, you must understand diplomacy. There isn’t anybody at the Raven camp who can teach you like Sir Henry can.”
I looked back out the window, trying not to see Reapers in every shadow or flicker of movement. “You’re sure there’s no way I can give up this whole princesses thing and just be a normal girl?”
“You’ve never been a normal girl, Wilona. You were born for this.” Saffron rested her head against the seat and closed her eyes. Our conversation was over. I opened my mouth to say something, I wanted to know more, then closed it, not sure of how to argue against something I was still trying to wrap my head around.
Settling back in my seat, I pulled the pendant out from under my bodice. As we bumped along the rocky road, I considered what my life could have been like. What if the king had just assumed I was dead and never came for me? What if my parents had been just like everybody else? What was it that made made me so special? How could one little piece of metal have so much control over my life?
6
Every so often, I risked a glance at Saffron. Her chest rose and fell in slow, deep breaths. I wasn’t sure if she was really asleep or if she was just resting. Neither would surprise me. After what I had been through today, I wasn’t sure if I’d ever be able to sleep again.
The vibrations of the carriage changed. They weren’t as rough as they had been. I glanced out the window. We were traveling down a well maintained road. It was smooth and well groomed. The streets were empty.
My stomach churned. Something isn’t right here. Time seemed to slow down as we passed through the town. There was no sign of life anywhere. All of the shops were closed. None of the doors or windows were open. The only sound was the rattle of our carriage. “Where is everybody?”
I reached across and tapped Saffron on her elbow. Her eyes snapped open, instantly alert. I pointed to the window. She looked out, jaw set. “Something isn’t right.”
The carriage jolted and stopped.
I held my breath as visions of heavily armed King’s guards overwhelmed my mind. Please don’t be the Reapers. “Saffron?”
“Stay here,” she whispered. She pulled open the door and shut it behind her.
I tucked the pendant back under my bodice and closed my hands into tight fists. Voices from outside carried through the carriage but I couldn’t make out the words.
My whole body shook as I waited for Saffron’s return. The voices turned to shouts and my blood went cold. I have to do something. I looked around the carriage for a weapon. There has to be something I can use. I found a bottle of wine next to one of the seats and picked it up. Better than nothing. I opened the door a crack and peeked outside. The unmistakable sound of steel on steel rang through the air. Gripping the bottle by the neck, I quietly stepped out.
A body was sprawled face down on the ground in front of me. I clasped a hand over my mouth to keep from crying out. He wore the black leather of the King’s Guard. A puddle of blood was
staining the road under his abdomen. I swallowed back the sick feeling in my stomach and crept to the front of the carriage.
Saffron was engaged in combat with another King’s Guard. She was red faced and grunting with effort. The guard was a heavyset man and his movements were slow. Neither of them could see me. Saffron kept her injured arm at a distance from the man as she swung her sword. He dodged her blow and sliced at her neck. She jumped back just in time to avoid his blade.
I had seen her take on more challenging opponents than this man, but her injury was preventing her from keeping up. I held the bottle out in front of me. I wish I knew how to fight so I could help her. Saffron caught my eye and looked away quickly. I ducked down behind the carriage so I would be out of the line of sight of the guard. He turned his head behind him but didn’t look down. I let out a breath. That was close. Saffron found my eyes again and gave me a single, small nod. I swallowed hard, trying to figure out what she wanted me to do.
I looked at the bottle again. The only thing it was good for would be to hit somebody with it. I wouldn’t do much damage on his body with the armor he wore. His head. A blow to the head would do damage to even the largest man.
I lifted the bottle above my head and gently rested it on top of my head, waiting for Saffron to look my way again. Once she did, I lifted the bottle and brought it down on my head, showing her what I intended to do. The faintest smile crossed her face.
Saffron ducked down and put her leg out, causing the fat man to stumble and fall to the ground. “Now!”
I jumped out from my hiding place and slammed the wine bottle over the man’s head. He went limp. The purple liquid ran down his face. I dropped the broken bottle and stumbled back from him. My breathing came out as quickly as if I had been running and my heart was throbbing in my ears.
Saffron narrowed her eyes at the man. In two large steps she reached him. She raised her blade above him, preparing to finish him off, then pulled the blade back. Kneeling down, she pressed her fingers against his neck.
She stood and locked her gaze on me. “He’s dead. Blow to the head hit him just right.”
The words rang through my ears and I stumbled backward a few steps, eyes locked on the unmoving body. I killed a man.
My breathing came out in short bursts, too fast. No matter how much air entered my lungs, I couldn’t catch my breath. It was as if my breathing was trying to match the speed of my heartbeat. The world started to spin and I reached out trying to find something to hold on to.
Saffron grabbed my arm and turned me away from the body. She went in and out of focus as I recalled what just happened. Saffron locked her green eyes on mine. “Try to slow your breathing. You are fine. You did the right thing.”
I looked at her, trying to follow her instructions. My breathing started to slow down. “I shouldn’t have done that. I didn’t mean to kill anybody.” I covered my face with my hands. Saying the words out loud made it more real.
Saffron pulled my hands off of my face and lowered her face so she was level with mine. “Do you think he would have let us go?”
My shoulders dropped, defeated. “No.” I glanced at the body again. He had been trying to kill us. If we hadn’t killed him, he would not have thought twice about finishing us off.
“Is it over, lady?” The driver popped his head up from the other side of the carriage.
“It’s over. You can come out,” Saffron said.
He was slack-jawed, eyes fixed on Saffron. “Who are you?”
“It’s best you don’t know the details,” she said.
He nodded, closing his mouth.
My cheeks flushed. She wasn’t going to tell him that one of the bodies was there because of me. For days, I’d been thinking that the king needed to die. Until today, the idea seemed almost innocent. Somebody out there would make him go away. I wouldn’t have to deal with the realities of what it meant to kill a person. I looked at my hands, sticky with spilled wine. No blood from the dead man was visible on me, though I knew it was there. I’d see it for the rest of my life. His blood, his life, gone because of me.
Saffron’s voice jolted me from my thoughts. “We need to get to our destination. Quickly.”
“As you wish, lady.” The driver’s hands were shaking as he held open the door for us. He shut it and we took off down the road almost instantly.
I forced myself to take a few deep breaths. My cheeks were wet from tears I didn’t know I had been crying. I wiped my face.
Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed that blood was flowing down Saffron’s arm. The fighting had aggravated the wound. I handed her a handkerchief that had been tucked in my sleeve and she pressed it against her injury.
“How did they know we’d be here?” I asked.
She shook her head. “I don’t know. The whole town was empty. Makes me think maybe Reapers came through and took everybody away. The guards might have been there to check for anybody the Reapers missed. Things like that happened before, when the duke was building his army.”
“What about the children?” I asked.
Saffron let out a sigh. “He takes them, too. Though I’m not sure what he does with them.”
A small fire was growing in my stomach. How could he do such things? I wanted to scream or punch something. My mind went back to the man I killed.
The body count in my wake was rising daily. The guards at my grandmother’s, the guards at the tavern, and now two more. If he was helping the king, he was just as guilty but I couldn’t help but feel like I was starting to make some choices about what kind of princess I wanted to be.
“Everything I’m doing is going to help get rid of the king, right?” I asked.
“Yes,” Saffron said.
“When he’s gone, all of this death, it’ll stop, right?”
She pressed her lips together. “Your first is always the hardest. It will get easier.”
My eyes widened. “You expect that I’ll have to kill more people?”
“I hope you won’t have to, but if you do, it won’t be as bad as today,” she took a breath, “we’re about to start a war to remove the king from his throne. Things will get worse before they get better.”
I wrapped my arms around myself and leaned back against the seat. These last few days had been the worst in my life. Trying to imagine days filled with more fear, more death, or more heartache was almost impossible.
“How am I supposed to do this?” I whispered.
Saffron’s eyes softened and she smiled at me. “Don’t worry, you have lots of people on your side. We’ll keep you safe.”
I relaxed into the seat as best I could and pulled out the pendant again. Just minutes ago, it had felt like a curse. Now it was beginning to feel like a calling. Was I strong enough to answer?
7
The sun was dipping low into the horizon when we finally turned off the main road. The carriage rolled past an animal enclosure and a large stable. We came to a halt in front of a modest home. Saffron locked her eyes on me. “This is your first test, princess. Act the part.”
I swallowed hard. I wasn’t sure who lived here, but I was already acutely aware of the fact I was expected to sway people to join the Ravens. I reached up and felt my hair, trying to pin it back in place. Then I smoothed out my dress. There were splashes of wine along the skirt and my hands were still covered in wine. I cringed. This was not how a princess was supposed to look.
Saffron reached across the carriage and pulled my necklace free from under my bodice.
I clasped it protectively and felt exposed with it out in the open. “You sure this is okay?” My chest tightened as I remembered the soldiers in the bar.
She sighed. “You’ve got to get used to it, Etta.”
I flinched at the sound of the new, unfamiliar name. During my training with Lady Genevieve I had still been called by Wilona. Nobody told me I was going to have to switch it up, though I suppose it made sense.
Etta. I tried the name out in my head. It felt u
ncomfortable, like wearing somebody else’s clothes. Looking down at the expensive dress, I laughed to myself. I am wearing somebody else’s clothes.
“Etta,” I whispered it, barely audible, then shook my head. No matter what I did, it didn’t feel like it fit me. Taking a deep breath, I closed my eyes and tried to imagine what my parents looked like. I am their legacy. They gave me this name. Why does it feel so wrong? For some reason, I didn’t feel like I had earned the name of a princess. I still felt like an impostor.
The driver opened the door for us and helped each of us out. He had my trunk waiting for me already. Saffron gestured with her hands for me to walk in front of her. I took a deep breath and lifted my chin. Lady Genevieve's lessons filled my mind.
As I stepped toward the front door of the home, it swung open to reveal a man in farmer’s clothes. He greeted me with a warm smile.
I smiled back at him, feeling surprisingly at ease in his gaze. His white hair and hunched posture made him look older than 60. He had a thin face and red cheeks. Despite the fact he wore farmer’s clothes, they were well cared for and clean. Most of the farmers I met were covered in dirt.
“I’ll take that, young man,” he said to the driver as he reached for my truck. He lifted it with ease and set it inside the house. When he stepped back out he was holding a purse of coins. “What was the total for the trip?”
“I told him we’d double it,” Saffron hurried to add. “He was an excellent driver.”
The old man nodded and counted out seven gold coins. Probably more money than the man normally made in a whole year. “How’s seven gold?’
The driver’s face lit up. “Thank you sir, very kind.” He nodded his head as he spoke into a small bow.
“Thank you for taking such good care of my niece and her friend.” He gestured to Saffron, then to me. He dropped the coins in the driver’s outstretched hand before closing his full purse.
“Any time you need a ride, sir, please summon me. My name is William.”
“We’ll keep you in mind for future work, William.”
William bowed again and then turned to leave. As the carriage rode out of sight, Saffron greeted the old man with a hug.
