“Raphael said he was saving you,” said Prince Ari. “I don’t know what he did, but I can see that it worked.”
“It did.” She went toward the door, not wanting to waste another moment. “Now it’s my turn to save him.”
THE ALCHEMIST
THE NOW
“You foolish child!” The Alchemist grabbed Raphael by the shoulders and shook him far less violently than he deserved. “Trespasser! How dare you come into my home and snoop around.”
Raphael had always been trouble. Just like his mother had been before he’d gotten rid of her. It seemed he was going to have to dispose of her kid now, too.
“Let me go!” Raphael squirmed, seeming to believe that his sparrow-like strength would be enough to free him from his grasp.
“You’re in my house,” the Alchemist said, tightening his grip. Not that it really mattered. He’d locked the front door behind him and put the key in his pocket. There was no way out. No way for anyone else to come in either. “My house, my rules.”
“I thought it was my house,” Raphael said. “And Jasmine’s. You said we were moving here. I was just having a look.”
“Nice try.” The Alchemist dragged him to the room he’d seen the boy come out of. “Having a good look at her, were you?”
He pushed Raphael toward the small bed with the corpse of his wife and watched him recoil. The little snoop would have nightmares from this. If he let him live long enough to dream again.
“I won’t tell anyone,” said Raphael. “I don’t care about your wife. I don’t even know her. Just let me go.”
It was then that the Alchemist took a good look at the body on the bed and noticed that the gold chain had been lifted out of her dress and was tangled in her hair.
“You little thief! You tried to steal her necklace!”
Raphael held up his hands. “I don’t want it. I just want to go home. Jasmine’s waiting for me. Please, let me go.”
Oh, the silly boy. Did he really think he could let him go now? As if it wasn’t bad enough that he’d seen the body, but now that he’d seen the pendant, he could never be allowed to go free.
“Watch out behind you!” shouted Raphael, as he moved quickly to pick up a chair, place it underneath the broken window and leap for the ledge. But he was too short and the window was too high.
Instead of trying to stop him, the Alchemist crossed his arms and watched him, amused at the boy’s courage. There was nothing in this room to assist his escape.
Raphael struggled for a bit, then seeing the futility of his situation, he slumped to the floor and pulled his knees up to his chin.
“You’re just like your mother, aren’t you?” the Alchemist said, recalling her final moments. “She resisted her destiny as well.”
The boy scowled at him, although as defiant as his expression may be, the shaking of his body revealed his true self.
“I always knew you killed her,” he said, narrowing his eyes.
The Alchemist smiled and puffed out his chest, pleased to be the one to decide the moment when this child would cease to breathe. It would be the right thing to do. He seemed to be immune to his elixirs, just like his mother had been, but there were other ways to enhance their effectiveness.
“You remind me of someone other than your mother,” the Alchemist said. “Another boy I once knew who pestered and bothered me when I was trying to work. I didn’t like him either.”
“Did he wear the other half of the necklace?” asked the boy.
The Alchemist let out an involuntary gasp. “What did you say? How do you know about that?”
The boy shrugged.
This was a bigger problem than the Alchemist had first thought. It looked like he was going to need to let him live a little longer than he first planned, to find out exactly what situation he was dealing with here.
“How do you know Ari?” the Alchemist asked.
“I don’t know him,” the boy said.
“I saw you with him. Do you think that pathetic disguise fooled me? I followed you here. Saw you two chatting like you were old friends.”
“Then why are you surprised I know about the pendant?”
“I’m surprised he told you about it. What else did he tell you?”
The boy looked to the floor and sealed his lips.
Deciding that a little time without food or water would loosen his tongue somewhat, the Alchemist stepped from the room, closing the door behind him and sliding across a heavy bolt to lock it in place. Raphael didn’t bang on the door or call out in protest. He seemed to know it would be a waste of energy.
The Alchemist went out the front door, locking it behind him so that nobody else could get in or out, and walked around the perimeter of the house to see if Ari was still about. Clearly, he was no more courageous as a man than he’d been as a boy. He must have fled in fear, probably running directly back to the palace to cry to his father. But what had he been doing here in the first place?
He headed for the storeroom attached to the outside of the house and rummaged around inside for his ladder and took it to the broken shutter.
Fetching more supplies, he returned to the ladder, placed a plank of wood over the shutter and hammered in several large nails. That should help keep the boy contained until he could figure out what to do with him.
It was imperative he find out exactly what Raphael knew about Ari and the pendant before he killed him. There was far too much at stake here.
The Alchemist climbed down the ladder and looked north. If he walked in that direction for long enough, he’d eventually reach the palace. What had Ari been doing there all these years? Probably not much. He was just another foolish boy who didn’t know the difference between his nose and his earlobe. Just look at how long it had taken him to track them down. It’d been so long since he’d stood face-to-face with that boy. Ari had been just shy of his sixteenth birthday. The birthday that was supposed to make him a man. It took more than just breathing in and out for sixteen years to make someone a man. It took hard work, cunning, and effort.
The Alchemist was far more of a man than that stupid boy would ever be—the one running back to the palace and the one shaking inside his house right now.
Which was why he had to stick to his plan. If all the men in the kingdom were dead, including precious Prince Ari, then there’d be only one person fit to take the throne. He hadn’t been quite ready for Ari to find him, but if he was so keen to speed up his demise, then so be it. The plan was almost complete anyway.
The apprentice who became the Alchemist, would soon become the King.
ANA
THE BEFORE
Ana ran her hand over the horse’s mane in the moonlight, as she waited for the Alchemist to finish loading the cart. Her life depended on this horse to take her as far away from his hell as possible. She shifted her attention to the horse beside her, not wanting to play favorites. There’d been enough of that in this palace already.
“Have you taken care of the animals?” the Alchemist asked, tipping his head toward the perfumery.
She nodded. “I have.”
“You’ll need to hide in here,” the Alchemist said, taking the lid from an empty crate. “Just until we get outside the palace walls.”
“Ugh!” Ana couldn’t think of anything more demeaning. “There’s no way I’m doing that. I’m the Princess of Wintergreen, not a criminal.”
“Ana,” he said, climbing off the cart and placing his hands on her shoulders.
She flinched at the contact, having always liked him better when he was standing at a distance.
“We had a plan. If the guards at the gate see you, they’ll alert your father and we won’t get more than a mile down the road.” He twitched his nose, as was his habit when he was anxious.
“My father is fast asleep. You told me so, yourself.”
The Alchemist had set small scented candles alight all over the palace to lull its occupants into the deepest of sleeps. Her father would be
having a pleasant dream right now, unaware of his daughter’s escape.
“He can still be woken.” The Alchemist’s voice was gentle but pleading. “Come on, Ana. Hop in the crate.”
She shook her head. “There’s another way out. A hole in the wall. I found it when I was a child. Meet me at the clump of privet shrubs half a mile south of the gates. I’ll wait for you.”
He sighed and returned to the cart, tugging on ropes to make sure the load was secure.
She looked up at the palace she was about to leave. The only home she’d ever known and the home that should rightfully be hers one day. It would feel strange to leave it. But sometimes walking away from something was the only way you could hold onto it.
She nodded at the Alchemist and lifted her hand.
“Be careful, my love,” he said.
She was grateful for the darkness that covered the cringe that flickered across her face. It wasn’t too late to change her mind. No, that wasn’t right. It was too late. Too much damage had been done. She had to take steps to set things right. One day she’d rule Wintergreen. But right now, she needed the Alchemist’s help. She could put up with him leering at her if only she kept the end in mind. It was a small price to pay.
There was so much she could learn from this man. So much she’d learned already. He never made her feel like she was inferior. If anything, he made her feel like she was even better than he was.
She wound her way through the moonlit shadows of the garden, wanting to visit her favorite tree one last time before she left.
A smile spread across her face when she saw it and she quickened her steps until she made contact with its papery bark, running her hands over it, marveling at the feel of it. Retrieving a knife from her bag, she slashed at the tree in exactly the way the Alchemist had taught her. He loved this tree too and his eyes had lit up when he first discovered it in the garden. To think that Ana had walked past it all her childhood and never known what magic flowed through its branches.
The tree wept tears of blood at the site of its wound as if it too knew she was leaving, and she collected the resin in a jar she’d brought for this purpose.
“Goodbye,” she whispered, certain that she’d miss this tree more than any member of her family. “And thank you.”
Tucking the knife and the jar back in her bag, she stumbled her way through the darkness to the palace wall and squeezed herself through the hole she’d been so excited to find as a child.
She waited behind a bush until she saw the Alchemist, then stepped on the road and waved her arms, never so pleased to see him.
He slowed the cart and held out his hand as she hauled herself aboard.
“We did it,” she said, trying to steady the beating of her heart, hardly able to believe they’d gotten away with it.
“We did.” The Alchemist grinned at her as she took her seat a respectable distance away. “Are you ready?”
She nodded enthusiastically, ready to start her new life, and they traveled through the night, pleased not to hear any sound of being followed.
With each mile they put between them and the palace, Ana’s fears diminished, her hope of successfully starting a new life rising along with the sun. She tipped back her head to catch the warm rays, enjoying the feeling of her long, dark hair flying out behind her.
She looked across at the Alchemist, who had a small smile plastered to his thin lips, as he held the horses’ reins.
He winked at her just as the cart hit a bump in the road, jostling her across in her seat until she was pressed up against him, leaving her wondering if he’d somehow done that on purpose. She shuffled back in place and smiled in what she hoped was a reassuring way.
The Alchemist believed she was in love with him. He was certainly in love with her, but the truth was that she wasn’t in love with anyone. It was hard to open your heart to love when every time you looked in the mirror, you were filled with hate.
Ana despised the world. She hated her parents, her brother, her servants and her life. Most of all, she hated herself. If she’d been born male, how different her life would be. She’d be recognized as heir to the throne and rule with the sort of power her father lacked. She’d invade Forte Cadence first as their closest neighbor. Then she’d focus on the other kingdoms. The Sands of Naar was surely a soft target despite the high wall that was said to surround its city. She’d then go after Feldspar and the Bay of Laurel. She’d invade all the four kingdoms and rule the world. Once that was accomplished, she’d be able to look in the mirror and be proud of who she was.
But that wasn’t the way it was to be. That had been made clear to her, just as she’d made things clear in the note she’d left her parents. They’d have found it by now. They probably didn’t even care and were spending the day fussing over precious Ari on his birthday.
She’d left on his birthday on purpose, just to show him how little she cared for him. And because she couldn’t stand to witness the celebration of him becoming a man. Sixteen years hardly made someone a man. She hadn’t even mentioned him in her note, which she felt was a more powerful message than if she’d delivered him a note of his own.
The Alchemist shuffled over toward her and placed his hand on her thigh. She concentrated on the blur of trees by the road, pretending his hand wasn’t there. If she pretended hard enough, perhaps he’d remove it.
Life was going to be different now. They’d find a place to live where they could set up their own workshop. Not a pathetic perfumery, but a laboratory for alchemy. Without the interference of the palace, who knew what they’d be able to discover. They’d only just begun to tap into the power that nature’s oils could release.
It was exciting. She could feel the anticipation bouncing off the man beside her too, and not just because his fingers were sliding dangerously close to her crotch. She reached for his hand, pretending to want to hold it, and gave it a squeeze, sliding it back to a less personal space.
She wasn’t frightened of this man. They were going to come up with a plan to overthrow the palace so that together they could sit on the throne as husband and wife. The Queen of Wintergreen and her Prince. It was possible. It would take years of careful planning, and Ana already had some plans brewing inside her mind, forming an elixir of their own. Perhaps having a Queen would be sufficient for the kingdom. Did they really need a new Prince? Of course, she kept these thoughts to herself.
“You’re not having regrets, are you?” the Alchemist asked, his nose twitching once again.
She shook her head.
“Good. We’re going to set things right. You’ll see.” He flicked the reins, urging the horses to quicken their pace. He seemed just as keen as she was to reach their destination.
After much discussion, they’d decided to stay within the borders of Wintergreen where the soil was fertile. They’d need to plant their own garden to harvest their oils. The supplies they’d taken with them wouldn’t last forever.
“I have something for you,” the Alchemist said, reaching into his coat pocket.
She smiled, wondering what it could be.
He handed her a small sachet of smelling salts with a pretty ribbon tied to it.
“Put it around your neck,” he said. “Draw in the scent whenever you feel anxious. It will help to keep you calm.”
She did as she was told, and felt a wave of serenity wash over her, as she wondered what he’d put in this elixir.
She could smell lavender, as she’d expect in a calming blend, but there were other ingredients, harder to detect. Sandalwood perhaps? Could she smell clary sage in there as well?
“You’re very lucky,” the Alchemist said. “You have a good life ahead of you.”
“I am,” she said, nodding. He was right. She really was lucky to have found her way out of the palace with a man who loved her so much.
“You like the scent?” he asked, motioning for her to smell the salts again.
“Very much,” she said, noticing that his hand was sliding up
her thigh once more.
She didn’t stop him this time, deciding she really should be more grateful for his attention. She wasn’t second best in his eyes. He loved her far more than her parents did.
She drew in more of the scent and closed her eyes, letting the fragrance seduce her senses.
“Make the horses go faster,” she said, her breath hitching as his hand slid higher still.
She wanted to start her new life and she wanted it now. With the Alchemist by her side, how could she possibly lose?
ARI
THE BEFORE
Ari opened his eyes on his sixteenth birthday deciding that the only word to describe how he felt was bittersweet. In truth, he felt more bitter than he did sweet.
From today, he’d be seen as a man in the eyes of the kingdom. It should be cause for celebration. But he didn’t feel much like a man. There were too many things he didn’t know about himself. Did all men feel like this?
There were only two things Ari knew about himself. That one day he’d be the King of Wintergreen when his father handed him the throne. And that just because he was a male, it didn’t make him more worthy of the job.
The first thing he knew because it was repeated to him at least a dozen times a day. Eat your dinner, you need to be strong for when you’re King. Practice your archery, all good kings know how to shoot an arrow. Meet this girl, she would make you an excellent Queen. It was impossible for him to forget who he was destined to be.
The second thing he learned from his sister, Ana. His older sister, who was second in line to the throne despite being born first. Gender outranked age when it came to the royal hierarchy in Wintergreen. Not all of the world’s kingdoms worked like this, but in Ari’s kingdom, this was how it had always been. It was a fact.
The Kingdoms of Evernow Box Set Page 28
