“I’m sure she’s around here somewhere,” said Jill Anna, sounding not sure. “Tucked into some corner as she often does.”
But it was soon determined that the girl had ventured into the woods. Immediately, they began organizing a search party. The Upper Klaranders had brought a dog with them and intended to use it to seek the girl out.
As for Andrew, once he had gathered from them as many details as he could, he just slipped away.
Clara nearly forgot about the Fire Prince in her worry over Jasmine as they coordinated a search party for the girl. Out of sight, out of mind, after all.
It was Lord Abraham who brought up the fact that he was missing as well, which prompted Clara to merely roll her eyes. “We’re not forming two search parties. If he’s gone and gotten himself lost as well, he can get himself unlost for all I care.”
And frankly, she would have preferred it if he had stayed lost, but at that moment, he reappeared.
“If you’d like to find the girl,” he announced, “I think I know which way she went.”
Clara spun on him. “Oh really? And what makes you so sure about that?”
She gave him five seconds to come up with an answer. He just spluttered.
“Right,” said she, turning back to Jakob and Lord Abraham, who she had been talking to. “Now back to the current matter at hand…”
“Well, if you’re not interested, I’ll go myself,” the Fire Prince suddenly announced.
“Sounds like a great idea,” said Jakob. “And the Water Princess can go with you to keep you out of trouble.”
It was Clara’s turn to splutter, and she cast an unamused glance in the Fire Prince’s direction. He returned a helpless one.
“I would offer to go as well,” said Lord Abraham. “But I must get back to camp to fetch what we left behind, and especially a certain someone, and Jakob is going with me. The men will be taking the dog elsewhere; that way we can cover as much area as possible.”
And that’s how Clara and the Fire Prince ended up alone in the woods. She wasn’t impressed with the arrangement, but there seemed to be no fighting it. He led the way, and she followed several paces behind, sword drawn just in case. There was no telling the dangers in this wood.
For the longest time, they traveled in silence, and she didn’t mind it at first. It got old quickly, though, especially when nothing exciting seemed to be happening.
“I hope you didn’t make that up just so that you could get me out here alone!” she flung at him. When he didn’t answer, she added. “Because I’ll warn you, I have a very sharp sword.” She paused, then added, “Not only that, but I’m also a black belt in Tae Kwon Do.”
“Consider me warned,” he finally answered. “Honestly, I wasn’t expecting to get stuck with you, either. Yeah, I wanted someone to come with me in case we ran into trouble. But I wasn’t expecting it to just be you.”
He wasn’t looking at her – it was apparently easier for him to talk to her that way. She couldn’t think of anything else to say to him, so they continued in further silence. She paid as little attention as she could to him and still keep up with his long legs.
“Hello!” he suddenly announced, jolting her from those thoughts.
She started to respond, but then realized that he had found something, so she quickly caught up with him and discovered that he had stopped in front of a deep chasm that cut through the woods. Several feet down was a ledge, and seated on this ledge was Jasmine and a young boy who looked about her age.
“It’s the Fire Prince!” the boy announced.
“And the Water Princess,” added Jasmine, waving violently.
“What are you doing down there?” asked Clara, not impressed. Yes, she was relieved to find the girl, but she was not happy with where they’d found her.
“Well…” she began, but the Fire Prince interrupted.
“Why don’t we get the two of you out of this chasm and we ask questions once you’re safe. There’s a storm rolling in, so we have to move fast.”
“Oh?” asked the boy.
The Fire Prince turned to Clara. “How strong are you?”
Clara rolled her eyes. “I’m not a weakling. Why do you ask?”
His glance drifted down her figure, then he snapped his attention back towards the chasm as he removed his backpack and pulled out a long length of rope. “Well, it would be best if I lowered myself down there and let you pull them up,” he explained.
“Oh,” she said shortly. Then she held out an expectant hand. “Hand me the rope.”
He turned back to her, one eyebrow raised. “Well, I was going to wrap it around that tree first,” he explained, pointing to one that stood nearby. “I wasn’t expecting you to support my full weight, after all.”
She pressed her lips together as she sought for a nice, biting retort to that, but there were none, because he did make sense, and he had already done as he said. Minutes later, he, too, was down in the chasm.
Clara waited while he untied himself, and tied up Jasmine. “All right,” he finally announced, “you can haul her up. But be careful, she’s hurt her ankle.”
So, Clara hauled up the girl, untied her, and tossed the rope back down.
“I thought I’d told you to stay out of these woods,” she informed Jasmine, while she waited for the Fire Prince to get the boy ready.
“Yes, but I thought I might help you find the Fire Prince,” Jasmine pointed out. “I found his friend – that’s Karlos, son of Lord Abraham. He’s never been to Upper Klarand before.”
“Jasmine, I had no trouble finding the Fire Prince on my own,” said Clara. “In fact, he was in my clearing when I got there.”
“Oh,” said Jasmine.
“I’ve half a mind to send you back to the village for this,” Clara continued, eyeing the girl.
Jasmine’s eyes widened. “Oh, Water Princess, please no. Please don’t send me back to the village. I’ll – I’ll be good! It won’t happen again.”
Clara quirked a smile and leaned forward and tugged the girl’s braid instead. “Lucky for you, however, we’re too far from the village at this point, and it’d be too inconvenient to send you back right now. And since I only had half a mind, I guess I’ll just have to forgive you this time and let you stay.”
“Oh, thank you, Water Princess!” the girl exclaimed. She would have sprung forward and thrown her arms around Clara’s neck, but Clara stopped her and pinned her to the ground.
“Save it,” she ordered. “You’re injured, if I remember right.”
She glanced down into the chasm to see how soon before Karlos was ready to come back up, but apparently the Fire Prince was taking this opportunity to talk to the boy very seriously. Clara figured that he’d also been where he wasn’t supposed to be.
At last, however, Karlos was all tied up, and Clara hauled him up, then tossed the rope back down for the Fire Prince. As soon as he was with them, he untwisted the rope from around the tree, stuffed it in his backpack, and then told Jasmine to stand up. She did, but he was clearly dissatisfied with the condition of her ankle and put her on his back instead.
“I don’t think we’ll be able to make it back to camp before the storm breaks,” he announced, pointing towards the angry yellow clouds that were peeking through the trees. “But I saw a cave not far from here. Karlos, get my backpack and collect a nice armload of firewood while we walk.”
“What about me?” Clara put in.
“I thought you might want to bring up the rear and continue to keep an eye out for Amber or anything else that might try to eat us.”
Clara snorted. “Well then, lead the way.”
They were, indeed, not far from the cave, and as soon as they were all inside, it began to pour.
“Well then,” said Andrew, setting Jasmine down on a rock. “Let’s see to this leg of yours while the two of you kindly tell us how in Rizkaland you both ended up on that cliff, instead of safe and
sound back at your respective camps.”
A glance was shared between the two kids, and Karlos started.
“Well, as I told you back on the cliff, I thought I heard something in the bushes, so I went to go investigate. I couldn’t find anything, so I kept going, and then I found Jasmine.”
“He scared me, though,” Jasmine added. “I thought he might be a scary animal that wanted to eat me, so I started running. And then he called out to me, so I turned around to see him, but I didn’t stop walking!”
“So, you were walking backward,” said the Water Princess, her voice deadpan.
“You could say that,” Jasmine agreed. “Well, I was walking backward, and then the ground disappeared out from under me.”
“I ran to see what had happened to her,” Karlos continued. “And, well, you saw. She fell down there. I found a long stick and tried to pull her out, but instead, I fell down there with her.”
Andrew let out a low whistle. “You’re two lucky kids,” he observed. “What do you think would have happened if you hadn’t fallen onto that ledge – especially you, Karlos?”
“Alphego was watching us, and we did fall onto the ledge,” said Karlos. “And then you two came to rescue us.”
Jasmine let out a low sigh. “He’s my hero.”
The Water Princess snorted. “Are you talking about Karlos here?” Jasmine nodded. “So, let me get this straight. He chases you off a cliff, then falls and lands on you and sprains your ankle, and yet he’s still your hero?”
The girl sighed again and nodded. It was Andrew’s turn to snort.
“But it was the Fire Prince who got you off of the cliff,” the Water Princess pointed out. “Don’t you think that he ought to be your hero?”
“It was awful nice of him,” Jasmine nodded. “But he’s your hero, Water Princess.”
“I see,” said the Water Princess, neither agreeing nor disagreeing, even as she glanced at Andrew out of the corner of her eye.
“Um, well,” said Andrew, at the same moment, as he finished wrapping up the girl’s ankle. “It looks like you’re going to be all right, young lady, so let’s see to some supper. Karlos, those sticks I had you pick up?”
Karlos produced a nice armload and handed them to Andrew. Since this was something of an emergency, Andrew used matches.
“Good job, Fire Prince,” the Water Princess spoke up. “Start a fire, that’s a perfect job for you.”
Andrew ignored her as the fire roared to life. He turned to his backpack and dug through in search of some food.
“So,” she continued, as he pulled out a package of beef jerky, “how’d a guy like you end up with the choice position of Fire Prince?” she asked, “beyond the obvious fact that you have matches.”
Andrew shrugged. “I’m still not sure. We were on a road trip, I was getting the car packed, and then there was a forest fire, and then I was here. I didn’t want to come here and be the Fire Prince if that’s what you’re asking. So, what about you? How’d you get to be the Water Princess? Beyond the obvious fact that you can fight.”
She snorted again, clearly amused by his decision to imitate her phrasing. “I froze to death,” she answered.
Andrew blinked. “Um … you…”
“Really?” asked Karlos.
“Well, almost,” she admitted. “My friends and I were practicing our diving, and when I dove, I ended up in the middle of an ice-cold river. In a swimsuit.”
An image of her in a swimsuit conjured in his mind, and he immediately shook his head to clear it. “You seem to have survived the experience pretty well,” he mentioned, as he divided out the jerky and passed it among them.
“I am very resilient,” she admitted, accepting the food.
Conversation lagged as they ate, and since the rain still hadn’t let up by the time they finished, they began making plans for spending the night in the cave. The Water Princess insisted on sleeping closest to the opening since according to her, she slept lightly and was the best with her sword. She insisted that the two kids sleep between her and Andrew.
There was little room left for argument, and since Andrew saw little reason to do so, that’s how it happened. They sat up and stared at the rain for several minutes more, but since no one was offering any conversation topics, the Water Princess soon announced that it was time for the kids to go to sleep. Karlos tried to protest, but pretty soon they had the both of them laid down and at least headed in the direction of sleep. Minutes later, she’d joined them, curled in a ball, hand on her sword in case she had need of it.
She was asleep almost instantly.
Andrew stayed awake for some time after, watching the rain in case it stopped and they might be able to head back to camp after all, and thinking about how the day had turned out. He’d met the Water Princess at last, she was nothing like he’d pictured her, and she wasn’t impressed with him at all.
It wasn’t that he’d formed an exact mental image of her, but somehow, he’d always thought she’d be taller and that she might smile more. His eyes drifted over to the Water Princess. She looked so different while asleep. Her face had relaxed, and with the glare gone, she looked sweeter, almost vulnerable. Andrew had the oddest temptation to reach over and stroke her cheek, to feel if it was really as soft as it looked.
He shook his head and laid down again instead. She had said she was a light sleeper, and he didn’t want to wake her up for any reason other than the fact that the rain had stopped.
Chapter 3
Clara was the first one awake the next morning, as usual.
Pushing herself to her feet and stretching the soreness out of her muscles, she glanced towards the Fire Prince, on the other side of the kids. She frowned. He looked even more pathetic asleep. She wondered if the guy ever truly relaxed, since he was still frowning.
Shrugging, she decided that it didn’t matter. It had stopped raining the night before, so she adjusted the sword on her belt and headed outside. Everything glistened with a yellow sheen, and the air was heavy with the sugar-sweet smell of artificial banana. Yellow water wasn’t the most useful in Rizkaland, but at least it smelled and tasted good.
Clara glanced back towards the cave and decided that she couldn’t just leave them. This meant that running was out of the question, so she decided to work on her stretching instead.
With the Fire Prince out of sight and worry over Jasmine gone, she was allowed time to think. They’d finally found him, so that meant that they could now proceed with their task of getting into the Kastle. She still felt hopeless, though. She’d been examining that cliff face since they got to it (whenever she wasn’t in the woods, that is) and she had as yet to find any idea of how to get into that mountain. What were the chances that the Fire Prince would have any new ideas?
Honestly, that guy was the absolute last one she would have picked had it been up to her. His sword skills were subpar, and he was a redhead. She hated redheads. Before she had met him, she’d had nothing against the hair color, it was true. But now … well, she had what she considered a good reason. If she was honest with herself, she still had nothing against the hair color, but between Kath’s constant teasing back home, and the fact that he was one, she was ready to declare war on the whole redheaded race. Though, to be fair, what else would you expect out of a Fire Prince? She had blue eyes, after all, as would be expected of a Water Princess.
Still, it was truly a pity that Amber was said to have brown hair, because Clara’s ire had to go somewhere.
When Andrew awoke the next morning, the Water Princess was gone. It took him a moment to realize this since he had to first remember that he had found her in the first place, but as soon as comprehension had gotten through his head, panic set in. Sure, he might have only known the girl less than twenty-four hours, but Klarand’s future depended on her – and him. He needed to find her.
Drawing his sword, he stepped over the sleeping kids and exited the cave, only to be confronted by a Water
Princess bent over backward, her hands grasping her ankles.
“Oh, good morning,” she announced, a dangerous tone in her voice.
“Good morning,” Andrew answered, feeling too relieved to find her safe to note the tone of her voice. “I, uh, you were missing when I woke up.”
“I’m an early riser,” she informed him. “And I like to exercise in the morning.” She paused a moment, then added. “You look funny upside down.”
“I see,” said Andrew, not sure what else to say about that.
“No, you don’t,” she immediately countered.
Andrew blinked. “Uh…”
“You can’t see yourself upside down since you’re right-side-up, and even if you were upside-down and I had a mirror to show you with, you’d still see yourself as right side up.”
Well, that made sense. “Your face is red,” he observed.
Her hands shifted from her ankles to the ground and she flipped over and onto her feet. “Truth be told, I’m not fond of red faces,” she admitted. “But it was funny watching you talk to me.”
“If you say so,” said Andrew, with a shrug. She was now sitting on the ground, stretching a leg over her neck. “Jakob said yesterday that Upper Klarand has been plagued by Amber pretty badly. Have you met with…”
“Amber? Not personally,” she admitted. “But I have seen a lot of her effects.” She lowered that leg and stretched the other. “Jakob took me to go visit his frozen sister, and while we were there we encountered an Eir. It was creepy.”
“A what?” Andrew had read about how Amber could turn people to ice, but he hadn’t encountered any books mentioning Eirs in Abraham’s library.
She shrugged and stood up. “Whenever Amber manages to find a rational creature that is willing to bend to her bidding, she gives it a box with which it can replicate itself,” she explained. “It’s creepy.”
“Interesting,” said Andrew.
“Yeah, there is that,” she agreed. “Now, the more pressing matter is the Mountain. Apparently, we need to go through it to get to the Kastle. However, I’ve examined the whole thing and can’t find anything, so we’ve been waiting for you. Any idea how to get us into the mountain, since Amber’s besieging the front gate?”
Water Princess, Fire Prince Page 19
