Burning Bridges

by Nadege Richards

  “Your jacket, Princess,” said a guard. I stared at him for a moment, still stuck in a stupor.

  “Excuse her, she’s just a little anxious,” Noah said, sliding my jacket off my shoulders and handing it to him. He took my hand and led me further into the huge fortress that was the central building of Siphon’s City, the place my father made laws that dictated everyone’s lives. It was only then that I realized how anciently beautiful the place was, the way the murals stood in your way and craved for attention. Chandeliers that looked about retired with only an ounce of life still kindled within them hung from the golden ceilings. Halls as wide as our streets forked every corner and furniture made for appraisal adorned the rooms. With every step we took, I made sure to stop and take in my full of it all.

  Though, along with awe, came contempt. What did they have to be proud of, a voice whispered in my mind.

  Nothing.

  I forced the thoughts out of my head, desperate to think about anything but Ayden. Though, I knew thoughts of him waited for me, anticipating the moment unconsciousness would take hold of my mind and I’d have no other choice.

  “You’re going to love this,” Noah suddenly whispered into my ear, as we stopped at another set of grand doors that grazed the ten foot ceilings.

  The guards whispered something to each other and then slid the doors apart, revealing a giant ballroom with thousands of busy bodies dancing and eating happily in outfits that made mine seem like a pawn.

  It was overwhelming. With all the shiny gold drapes, marble flooring, and huge statues that seemed more like a part of the party than accentuating it, I found it hard to keep my eyes on one thing at a time. Women with big wigs and intricate hair pieces sat in one corner of the room, sipping their wine and laughing about things not half as funny as their makeup. The men stood on the other side, as tradition went, waiting till a decent enough woman caught their fancy. I…well, as for me, I stood hand in hand with Delentia’s Prince, my soon-to-be husband, while all eyes fastened solely on us.

  “They love you,” Noah reiterated. He led me past the gawking stares to a table surrounded by what I guessed were his friends and family. An angelic harmony created by a band of harps, flutes, and pianos infiltrated the ballroom as people danced.

  Big smiles and warm hugs greeted me as we stopped at the table, and I played on a smile the best I could. “Princess Echo, how very glad to meet you,” Queen Accenia chirped, holding me in a tight hug.

  “Nice to meet you,” was all I could think to say.

  “You know, all my Noah does is talk about you. It’s very informal, but at least I know his heart is in this wedding. How are preparations coming along for you?” That was code for: are you ready?

  “Does he now?” My eyes went to Noah as I combed my mind for something to say. He arched his brow expectantly and wrapped his hand around my waist. “Everything is coming along great. I’m excited, and very much so.” I smiled at the Queen, and then up at Noah. His smile said he liked my answer, but something just felt so wrong. If I was happy—truly and utterly happy—why would I have to lie about it?

  “Um, pardon me, but may I have a word with my cousin?”

  Noah and I turned around and stood face to face with Isobeli. At that moment, I could have kissed her.

  I turned back to the Queen and said, “Will you excuse me for a moment?”

  “Of course,” she said, giving me a smile before sauntering off to cater to her own business.

  “Don’t be gone long,” Noah whispered in my ear. He placed another chaste kiss to my cheek, this one a hell of a lot closer to my lips. “I have a surprise for you.”

  I nodded and quickly left with Issy. I didn’t know if she saw me struggling to keep up with my façade, but I was glad for the break. She led me out to the balcony gallery, and as soon as we were away from the music, she began to laugh.

  “What’s so funny?” I asked. I moved over to a bench and sat, pressing down the folds of my dress the best to my ability. When you had over seven layers of fabric that was almost impossible.

  “What’s funny, you ask?” Isobeli said, shuffling over to sit beside me. The sunset played against her face as she spoke, brightening her natural beauty I always envied. Where she was subtle and tranquil, I was chaotic and overt. She smiled and I frowned, she was day and I was night. Though through those differences, we collided and got along in a way neither of us would have expected. We were both seeking something in this world—an end, we’d called it. It was what made us so close. “Well, for one thing, I hate that dress on you. I suppose if you hadn’t taken so much time trying on dresses, you would have found something better than your mother’s choice.”

  I frowned down at the dress. “No, green isn’t really my color, is it?”

  “No, darling, it most definitely is not. Though, the Prince didn’t seem to care about the color as much.”

  “Please.” I shrugged off all thoughts of the Prince. Right now, while I was away with my best friend, I wanted to talk about things other than him.

  My mind started to wander.

  “Hey, Is?” I called, staring into the sunset. She murmured her response. “Do you ever think of escaping?”

  There was silence for a while before she decided to speak. “Of course. I want to leave for Kylon someday, but that’s so far ahead from now. I’m always traveling, but never to anywhere I want to go.”

  “No,” I whispered with a shake of my head. “I mean, escape. Like out of New Haven. Don’t you ever wonder what’s out there, who’s out there? What if there’s this other world so foreign to us, and we’re all just sitting here doing nothing about it? Don’t you ever want to pass those borders into Shado—”

  “No,” Issy interrupted. Her eyes looked at me fiercely, scolding me for even daring to go that far. “My life is here, Echo. I was born here, and here I shall die. In New Haven. That’s it. Why would you even think different?”

  “Well, I—”

  She reached out and pulled a pin from my hair. “Did you do something with your hair?”

  Amazed by how quickly she was able to change the subject, I decided to let it go. Any thoughts of sharing my dreams with Issy went right out the window. That left no one. “Yeah, Mother did something fancy with it. Do you like it?”

  She stared at me with a scowl. “By that do you mean do I like the beehive on your head? Well, then no.” She plucked out a few more of the pins until my tresses brushed past my shoulders. “There, better. You know, with those bright blue eyes of yours and insanely midnight hair, you don’t look like a Thedibian. More like a vagrant from the other side. You know, with their wild hair and eccentric colored eyes.” She smiled, a joke hidden behind her words.

  “Not funny. You make me seem like a pariah when you say that.”

  Isobeli laughed and rested her head on my shoulder. “You know I love you, Echo, and that’s all that really matters. Just between you and me,” she said, grabbing my attention, “if you did plan some crazy escapade, I’d follow you to the moon and back. Hell, maybe even further if there is anything out there like you say. I might even be willing to die for it.”

  “Thank you,” I whispered, leaning my head on hers. “Though, I do prefer we go somewhere a little closer if possible. The moon, Issy? Really?”

  She laughed silently at herself, and silence followed soon after. It was nice, being able to talk to her. I just wished she wouldn’t shut me out like she did so often. It made me feel oddly alone.

  A maid walked out onto the balcony and called for me. “The Prince wants to see you,” he said. I sighed and looked down at Isobeli and shook my head solemnly.

  “Tell him…” I pulled the rest of the pins out of my hair and stood to leave. “Tell him I’ll be right there.”

  When the maid was gone, Issy whispered, “You okay?”

  Knowing she couldn’t possibly understand, I shook my head and said, “No. This is my duty, right? So why fight it.” I followed the servant’s trail back into the bal
lroom and looked for Noah in the midst of everyone here. To be honest, it wasn’t all that easy, seeing as this was probably the most people I’d ever seen in one place before. It didn’t help that most of the men wore masquerade masks, either. It was another part of our stupid tradition for the Grand Season’s Ball. It was our way of welcoming the fall. Royals never wore them, but those of a lower class had to.

  I started down the ramp that would lead me down to the dance floor, and not wanting to interrupt the dance procession, I pushed though the crowd of people without making myself visibly known. That never seemed to work, though, and eventually some people tried to pull me aside to talk. Sad thing was, it was never anything interesting or worth listening to. Gossip was all anyone cared about in New Haven, and the gossip just had to be about me.

  In my haste to get free of the tangling mass of bodies, I managed to trip over someone’s gown and tumble flat onto the floor. For a moment the loud gasps that broke out around the room seemed for someone else, but as the stars shooed from above my head and I regained some sense, I realized all eyes were on me.

  “Are you all right?” a voice said from above me, distant, yet so familiar. His face came into focus, his mask the first thing I see. Beautiful, I thought. His eyes were so…

  Violet.

  I cocked my head to the side and tried to see if I was imagining things. And when that and blinking didn’t work, I knew.

  “Excuse me, pardon me.” Noah stood above me and sighed. He pulled me to my feet and my hair caught under someone’s heel. I yelped when it tugged at my scalp.

  “I’m fine,” I assured Noah and all of our onlookers. “I just…um…missed a step, is all. Carry on.”

  “Is your head all right?” Noah took me by the waist to sturdy me.

  I wanted to answer, but a half glance across the room caused the words to escape me. The only thing that I could coherently put together was, “Ayden?”

  And yet I barely got that out before Noah was dragging me through the throng and away from the violet-eyed boy. I wanted to ask him what he was doing here. He was the only person I knew with eyes that brilliant. Yet, I was the only Thedibian with dark hair and blue eyes. Somehow, we matched.

  “What happened to you? Where’d you go?” Noah questioned as we finally emerged to a corner away from everybody.

  “The balcony, for fresh air,” I answered over the music. I looked down at my feet and sighed. “I’m not so sure I can do this.”

  “What was that?” he yelled.

  “I said I’m not sure I can do this. Get married and be your wife. I’m not really cut out to be a Queen, tonight has proven that.”

  The confusion that came together on his face was obvious. “You’ve been a princess for seventeen years of your life. What is one more year going to do to you?”

  I shook my head and blew the hair from my face. “You don’t understand. The title ‘princess’ doesn’t make me who I am. I choose that. What happens if I’m not happy, Noah? What have you then? Will you force me to love you?”

  His sigh was audible over the music, but I caught his discomfort. Raking his hands though his hair he said, “No. Of course not, but we don’t have a choice, Echo, and everyone is fine with that but you. You are the only one.”

  The music shifted into something a bit more slow. The lights dimmed and I found it hard to see Noah anymore. Voices from behind us said his family was calling us over, no doubt to find out about what happened. My eyes searched the ballroom again and I found the pair of violet eyes still watching me. “If so, then I am the only one willing to do something about it.” I turned back to him and frowned. “And I’m fine with that.”

  “Echo, I didn’t—”

  I spun on my heels, just out of his reach, and lost myself in the crowd once again. Except this time with better purpose.

  Ayden.

  ▪AYDEN▪

  I didn’t expect the Princess to follow me. Granted I hadn’t exactly planned to come, I didn’t expect her to notice me so quickly either. Or at all. I ducked into the crowd, made sure to keep my head low, and went straight for the staircase that would lead me to the locked chambers.

  I glanced behind me half way up the stairs and realized the Princess was but a few steps away from me. Determination was written all over her face. I smiled, finding it somewhat endearing.

  “I know it’s you,” she said from behind me. I kept walking, taking halls deeper into the fortress. Her steps became more persistent. She was making this harder on me than it already was.

  Maybe if you hadn’t stood around gawking at her the whole damn time, I chided myself. Maybe the job would’ve already been done.

  I stopped short of a forked hallway when I heard voices coming from around the bend. I ducked into the shadows and hid myself from view. They were ladies, I thought to myself with a frown, not guards at all. But when the ladies stopped the Princess to talk, I knew I had my chance. I emerged from the darkness and her eyes found mine immediately. I knew she had her chance to call me out and have me arrested for trespassing—hell, even robbery—but she stood there and talked to them as if she hadn’t seen me at all. Her eyes watched me as I left.

  The Queen’s sacred chambers weren’t hard to find. In a literal sense, all I had to do was follow the voices of gossiping women. Once I’d given them all a chance to clear out, I snuck in and locked the door behind me. For a moment I got caught up in the essence if the colossal room, taking in everything from the four-poster bed to the golden curtains that accentuated the crystal glasses and marble floors. Though, I couldn’t forget my reason for being here so easily, it was my only reason, in fact.

  To save my family.

  I searched the dressers first, sifting through drawers of clothing, make up, and accessories.

  Women, I thought with a grimace.

  When I gave up hope on the dressers, I tried the wardrobe, digging through coat pockets for anything. I’d almost assumed the room was empty when I stared down at the bottom of the wardrobe and found a jeweled box lying beneath fallen clothing. I reached for it, the finality that I’d found something hitting me with a wave of relief.

  I didn’t hesitate or freeze up like I did at Miss Othman’s shop. I knew someone would be up here soon—or worse, the Princess would find me.

  The box was no bigger than a shoe, but inside it held more than one would expect. Surprisingly, it wasn’t locked either. Inside held tons of images, most mainly of Thediby’s wide plains and fields—places I could only dream about.

  A picture fell from the box and as I went to pick it up, the electric blue eyes of a little girl staring back at me gave me pause. My fingers caressed the picture as if I could really reach out and touch her. She was young and looked happy, life’s burdens thrown to the wind without a single thought of remorse. She wore a big, toothy grin for the photographer with her arm slumped over another young boy. She was unrecognizable, but one thing was certain.

  She was a Hunter.

  Her dirty clothing proved that. I pondered who she was or if she was alive, who the young boy was and if he was still with her. Overall, I wondered if she knew her picture hid in a box at the bottom of the Queen’s wardrobe.

  I dismissed the thoughts and shoved the photo into my breast pocket. It wasn’t important to me, but if it had been hidden for a purpose, it was important to someone. I rounded up the bills at the bottom of the small box and pushed them into the pockets within the blazer I’d borrowed from Adamo. Actually, most of what I wore tonight was from him, even the mask. My hands shook violently as I checked for anything out of its place and it made it hard to focus on the noises outside in the hall.

  Noises. I stilled.

  No, voices.

  At a stealthy pace, I shut the box and returned it to its place in the wardrobe. The voices in the hall grew nearer and they seemed to coincide with the beat of my heart, a loud hum I could hear clearly now as I rushed to a corner of the room and hid behind the curtains.

  The door knob shook m
omentarily and I held my breath. I cursed myself silently and tried not to think too much ahead of myself. Unfortunately, that never worked. They were going to catch me and I was going to be thrown into the King’s playing chambers.

  The door eased open and someone stepped inside, their feet still on the parquet. My heart must’ve skipped a million beats then because I couldn’t hear its slow staccato rhythm in my ears anymore.

  The door slammed shut and the sound of a lock being turned resonated through the room to where I stood.

  “I know you’re in here,” she said. I released a small breath, but wasn’t relieved in the slightest. “Ayden, I know it is you.”

  Frowning, I moved from behind the curtains and stood a yard’s length away from her. She looked beautiful. I resisted the urge to look her directly in the eyes, but the Princess was everything the guys had made her out to be and so much more.

  “How did you know—” I started.

  “How did I know it was you? As if watching you sneak into the room wasn’t clue enough?” she said, echoing my earlier words. Her gaze on me turned curious. “What are you doing in my mother’s sacred chambers, Ayden? She isn’t here to grant you the permission, and she still wouldn’t have had she been here.”

  All thoughts of her beauty shifted when I became aware of the money and the picture in my pocket. “How did you get in? The door was locked.”

  She held up her wrist to me and the key on her bracelet sparkled in the dim florescent lights. “Miss Ashley has the key to every room in this palace, as every Floor Keeper does. Good thing I ran into her, eh?” She frowned and moved closer to me. “Why are you here?”

  “I’m here in service,” I said without missing a beat. It would have been a good lie had I been a good liar.

  She glanced over at the wardrobe and my eyes followed. I hadn’t closed the wardrobe, not completely. She didn’t seem to notice this because she turned back to me and said, “What is it like where you come from?”

  “Excuse me?” I said, feeling out of place. What kind of question was that?