by Dyan Chick
I relaxed as I watched the friendly scene unfold. How a princess would react in a situation like this? Lady Genevieve would tell me to command attention, not get lost in the crowd. I cleared my throat and lifted an eyebrow.
“Oh!” Saffron turned to me. “I’m so sorry, your highness. Please allow me to introduce to you my dear friend, Sir Henry.” She gestured to Sir Henry and then to me, “Sir Henry, this is her royal highness, Elizabetta Aqualine.”
Sir Henry stepped past Saffron to stand in front of me. I maintained a bored expression and stiff posture. He bowed low. “Your highness, it is an honor to have you in my home.”
I held out my hand to him. “Thank you, Sir Henry, for having me.”
He kissed the top of my hand and I pulled it back. I gave a polite smile, not wanting to seem too eager or too friendly, though I had already failed at that when I first arrived.
“Please, come in.” He touched my elbow and guided me into his house. “We have much to discuss.”
The home was sparsely furnished, but clean. There was a sitting room, a small kitchen, and a table for meals. In the sitting area, there were four wooden chairs facing the fireplace. We each took a chair in front of the empty fireplace. It was too warm for a fire right now but the newly burned logs and ash told me that it was used at night to keep the home warm.
Sir Henry handed us each a polished wooden goblet full to the brim with a dark, sweet smelling wine. I waited for Saffron to drink first, not sure of the etiquette or expectation in this situation. She took a long draw. I took a small sip and wrinkled my nose. It was my first taste of alcohol and I was not impressed. Why do people drink this stuff?
Sir Henry watched me as I sat there with the goblet in my hands. He took a drink from his. Then another before he opened his mouth to speak. “You almost have me fooled, girl,” he said with a sparkle in his watery blue eyes.
I flushed and glanced sideways at Saffron. She covered an obvious smirk with her goblet. She wasn’t going to bail me out of this one.
My eyes grew wide. Fooled? Maybe Saffron had made some sort of mistake. Maybe I wasn't the princess she was looking for. Maybe I was just a normal girl. For a moment, I considered the possibility of returning to a normal, less exciting life. One where I was not being hunted. The reality of what my life had become tumbled down on me. The King’s Guard were looking for me. I could never go back to being a normal girl.
He must be testing me. I straightened in my chair and blinked. “I’m sorry, Sir. I don’t understand.”
He laughed. “I know your story. I know Saffron told you to princess it up for me.”
My cheeks felt warm and my flush deepened.
“It’s okay, I’m a friend.” He sat down in the chair next to Saffron and turned it so it faced mine. “You have an important job ahead of you, and that’s why you are here.”
I relaxed a bit and glared at Saffron.
“Sorry, I couldn’t help it.” She smiled at me. “Plus I wanted to see what you could do away from Lady Genevieve. If it makes you feel any better, I’m impressed. When they told me I had to have you ready in just a few short days, I didn’t think it could be done.”
That makes two of us. “Wait, who told you?” Saffron had been with me since I left my grandmother’s house. When did she meet up with somebody?
“I met a contact while you were with Lady Genevieve,” she said. “The Ravens have eyes everywhere.”
“Lady Genevieve is the best,” Sir Henry chimed in, “she can turn anybody into a princess with enough time.”
“How much is enough time?” I asked. The idea that anybody could be made into a princess made me nervous.
“Oh, I don’t know.” He tapped his finger on his chin as he thought. “A few months, maybe more, depending the pupil.”
“She had three days,” Saffron said.
His eyes widened. “Maybe there is something to be said about blood, then.” He squinted at me and looked me up and down. “I would have guessed you’d been with her a month.”
I sat up a little straighter and smiled. At least my time with Lady Genevieve was worth the effort.
Saffron turned from me to Sir Henry. “We only have two days before we have to head out again.”
His eyes narrowed. “I was told I’d have a week. You marrying her off already?”
My head snapped to him. “Marriage? Nobody has said anything about marriage. I’m not ready to be married.” I had seen girls younger than me married in my little village, but my grandmother always told me I’d have to wait. Since I never had much interest in marrying one of the few single men in my village, I never worried about it. Now I realize she was making me wait until I found out who I really was.
Saffron lifted her hand. “This has nothing to do with marriage. The king knows she’s alive. He’s probably got the Reapers looking for her.”
A dark shadow crossed Sir Henry’s face. “This does make things more of a challenge. Did he change the law?”
Saffron nodded. “I don’t think the guards have to check with a priest any more,” she paused a moment, “we rode through Redding. It was empty. Shops closed, people all gone. Just like last time. I think he’s building his army.”
Sir Henry sat quietly, fingers steepled under his chin. “Then we better get going right away. You two can’t linger here.” He stood. “First, I’ll show you to your room, then we meet back in here to begin.”
Nervous butterflies filled my stomach. Reapers. Undead army. Saffron had said this was just the beginning. That things would get worse before they got better. How much worse can things get? People were going missing, people were dying for no reason, that seemed pretty bad to me.
I stopped in the middle of the room. When the others realized I wasn’t following them, they turned to look at me. “There’s really no way the king will believe I’m not a threat? Why would he waste so much energy on a teenage girl?”
“He sees you as a threat for many reasons. Mostly because if you wanted to, you could rule,” Sir Henry said.
“I don’t want to rule. I’m not a leader.”
“You don’t have to,” Saffron said. She turned to Sir Henry. “She’s had a very long day. She needs a few minutes.”
She walked back to where I stood and placed her hand on the middle of my back. “Come on, let’s get you cleaned up.”
Saffron and I were to share a small room with two little beds. On a table was a wash basin and a wash cloth. I washed the travel off of my face then started scrubbing the wine from my hands. No matter how much I washed, they didn’t feel clean.
A hand placed on top of mine stopped my progress. I dropped the cloth in the basin. My hands were red and raw from scrubbing.
“They’re clean,” Saffron said, “you’re safe.” She walked away, leaving me staring at my reflection in the bowl.
The girl staring back at me didn’t look different. Same blue eyes, same narrow nose, same pink lips. But somehow, this girl wasn’t the same girl anymore.
Closing my eyes, I gripped the side of the table and took a few breaths before I turned around. Saffron was changing from her maid outfit into a simple house dress. I looked at the dress with envy. I wasn’t yet used to the corset and layers of fabric I was wearing.
Saffron caught my glance and gave me a sympathetic smile. “I’ve got an extra house dress in my bag. You can wear it while we are here.”
I didn’t waste any time changing from the heavy dress into the lighter clothes. I went back to the sitting room feeling a hundred pounds lighter.
The fire was crackling softly in the now dark room, giving it a warm glow. I joined Sir Henry, once again having lessons alone. He gestured to the chair at his right so I sat next to him. This time, I fell into the chair, all pretense of being a princess forgotten.
He gave me a sideways glance. “After you leave here, you’ll have to be Princess Etta all the time.”
It was a strange thing to hear. I felt like I was putting on a disguise and playing a ro
le of somebody who wasn’t me. Yet, it was me. It might even be a truer form of myself because it was who I was supposed to be. I spent a lot of time the last few days trying to imagine what my life could have been. What if I had been raised in a place instead of a cottage? What if I had spent all my days wearing gowns that weighed almost as much as me? If I was Etta, was I still Wilona?
Almost as if he could read my mind, Sir Henry cut in. “You know, it’s not all bad. Being a royal.” He turned to face me with his kind eyes.
“It’s a lot to take in,” I confessed. “I keep wondering what it would have been like if my parents hadn’t died.”
His eyes locked on mine. “None of that matters. Everything you have been through will make you stronger, not weaker. You’ll make a great queen.”
“I already told you that I don’t want to rule.”
He didn’t break his gaze. He looked as if he was trying to tell me something without words. What did I know about this man? I thought back to the conversation when we arrived.
I gasped. “They’re planning to marry me off.”
“I’m not a Raven so I can’t speak to their plans.” He held his hands up in front of him, “I’m just here to teach you diplomacy and geography.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. It’s been a long few days. I tried to shake the paranoia from my mind. Isn’t that what princesses do? Get married to forge alliances? If I’m not ruling here, they’ll eventually have to find me a place to go.
“Are they going to marry me to the leader of the Ravens?” I asked.
He shook his head. “I might not be able to tell you much, but I know that won’t happen.” He looked behind him. The room was empty. Saffron left the house when I began my lesson. Possibly to meet with another Raven contact.
“Princess, we need to get going on the lessons. We don’t have much time.”
I sighed. Frustrated that he wasn’t going to tell me more, I relented. “All right. Tell me why a princess needs to know these things.”
“A princess should know how to talk to people from all over the world. There are different customs, greetings, and expectations from different people. You don’t want to insult somebody because you didn’t know the correct way to greet them. And you should know where these people come from, what their homeland is like, and what their government is like. Do they have excess wheat that can be traded? Do they have a shortage of water? Do they have an army of sorcerers that are waiting to attack us? Knowing about the cultures and places of the world is very important for any leader.”
I lifted my eyebrow at the word “leader.”
He smiled. “Don’t worry, we’ll start you small.” He stood up and walked to the little table that held the wine jug. Under the table, standing on its side was a tattered brown book. Books were expensive and rare. Each page was handwritten and the fragile pages were sewn together. Most books were made by monks who lived on the islands in the sea. He carried the book as if it were a newborn baby and then set it gently in my lap.
“This is an atlas,” he said. “It has maps of all of the known world.” He flipped open the first page, and I saw a drawing of a shape with lines going across it and small words written inside the shape. “This is Illaria. See here?” He pointed at a star on the map. “This is the capitol, where the king’s palace is.” He dragged his finger across the page. “This is where we are, outside of Redding. And this is where you lived, near Campari.”
We spent the next several hours going over all of the maps in his book. We broke only for a small meal that Saffron brought us. As he went through each map, he told me about the government and the customs of the country we looked at. He told me stories of wars and alliances. He told me about the past marriages of past kings and who we thought would be the best to make an alliance with us now.
The fire was down to glowing embers by the time we finished. I rubbed my eyes and stumbled into the bed, falling asleep in the dress I was wearing.
The next morning began with a quiz over everything I had learned the night before. Anything I got wrong was reviewed. Then we practiced greetings for several hours. Saffron came to my rescue midday with another meal. We took a small break and I walked around in the field outside of the house. The wind cut through the thin house dress, refreshing me. I wasn’t sure I could fit anymore inside my head. Reluctantly, I walked back to the house, knowing I had more in store for me this afternoon.
I arrived inside to find a large map spread across the entire dining table. Saffron and Sir Henry were standing next to it, making marks with charcoal sticks. I approached with apprehension. The other maps we had looked at were small, and we didn’t write anything on them.
Saffron looked up at me. “Ready for more?”
I sighed. “This is a lot to learn in such a short time.”
Sir Henry stopped moving the charcoal and looked at me. “I know. We would have liked to give you the whole year to prepare, but it just wasn’t possible.” His mouth turned down into a momentary frown, then he pulled it into an impassive line.
I had a flash of a warning knot in my stomach, but pushed it away. I was probably imagining things. “What’s this?”
“This is a world map,” Henry said proudly. “Here’s Illaria and here is Sardina.” He moved his finger across the sea to an island. “Here is Gallia. These are our two best hopes of alliances. You’ll be traveling to each of them.”
I looked at Sir Henry in disbelief. “I’m not ready!” I blurted out. “How can I convince these people to help us? I don’t even have any idea what we would be asking for.”
He held his chin in between his thumb and forefinger and looked at me thoughtfully. “What do you think you have been doing the last few days? This is what Lady Genevieve and I have been preparing you for.”
“I don’t feel like a princess, or anybody important. There has to be some senior official in the group, what are they called?” I gestured with my hand as I tried to recall the name of the group responsible for my rescue.
“The White Ravens,” Saffron said. “And we’re going to be leaving to go to them tomorrow morning.”
Sir Henry clasped my hands in his. “I know this is a lot to take in, but it’s important and we need you. The Ravens will help you to see the big picture when you arrive. They will finish getting you ready to meet with the Kings of Sardinia and Gallia. I know you can do this.” He gave me that warm smile I had grown accustomed to in the short time he had acted as my teacher.
Saffron placed her hand on my shoulder. “It has to be you.”
I think she meant the words as a comfort but they only served to cause my stomach to churn. I didn’t feel like I was the right person for this job. I was worried that when I met the kings, they would see a peasant girl playing dress up. I took a deep breath and let it out. I wasn’t sure how I felt about all of this but I knew the Ravens were my best chance at survival and my best chance at destroying the king.
8
I woke before dawn the next morning to prepare for travel. Though I had spent much of the last week moving from one place to another, I still wasn’t used to the long days with limited rest. We were making the last leg of our journey on horseback. I dressed in riding clothes. They were nicer than what I owned while living in the village, but not as elaborate as the dresses I had been wearing at Lady Genevieve’s.
Sir Henry was still asleep as we prepared to leave that morning. Saffron didn’t want to wake him. We said simple goodbyes the night before, knowing it would be an early departure. Saffron handed me a cup of hot tea to sip on while she readied the horses. I sat in one of the wooden chairs in front of the ash filled fireplace.
“Etta?” I jumped at Sir Henry’s voice.
I turned to see him approach me in his dressing robe. His white hair was messy from sleep but his watery blue eyes were alert. He glanced around. “Is Saffron outside?”
I nodded. “She’s preparing the horses. Did we wake you?”
He shook his head as he sat in the chair ne
xt to me. “No, I’ve been awake for a while. I don’t sleep much anymore.”
I wasn’t sure if he was referring to his age or something more sinister as the cause of his insomnia. I sat in quiet thought, wondering if he was going to continue speaking. We said our goodbyes already and I was not sure of what to add. He taught me a lot over these two short days, but we didn’t really have any conversations that were not related to maps, geography, or diplomacy.
He sighed and rearranged himself in his chair so he was turned toward me. “Etta, you’re a smart girl. That’s clear by how quickly you learned from me. You’ve probably already thought about this, but I wanted to mention it anyway. Please, Etta, don’t trust anybody.” He fixed a pleading gaze on me.
I was taken aback by his words. I was curious about the White Ravens and their plan for me, but I felt like I didn’t have a choice. If I couldn’t trust them, who was I supposed to trust? The king was trying to kill me, and I didn’t know how to survive on my own. The White Ravens were my only option. I had to hope their intentions for me were noble. I certainly believed in their cause of removing the king. I was about to open my mouth to say as much, but Sir Henry began to speak again.
“There is a lot you don’t yet know. There is only so much I was allowed to tell you or they wouldn’t have brought you to me. You need to do whatever it takes to make sure you are getting the whole truth from people before you believe them. You have a long journey ahead of you. This won’t be over quickly. Use your mind and trust your intuition.”
Sir Henry reminded me of my grandmother. She always told me not to trust anybody. I used to think she was just paranoid in her old age. Now I knew she was protecting me. I couldn’t help but feel like Sir Henry’s worry was coming from the same place. Even though he was telling me not to trust people, I found myself believing him, trusting him.
I leaned against the chair to steady myself. “Who wouldn’t let you tell me?”
