by A J Manney
Zalia nodded. “I guess so. Beckam said Arrosa isn’t as advanced as the other kingdoms because we’ve been closed off these last eighteen years. I guess this is one of those things. It makes sense. We wouldn’t be able to do the training we need to do in dresses.”
Raven nodded. “We are going to be amazing in these!”
Zalia laughed at her. “I think we’re going to need more than nice pants to become warriors.” They laughed together and finished unpacking everything and putting it away.
That night, Zalia lay in bed tossing and turning. She was nervous about the next day’s training. She knew it was the next step on her journey, but she was scared about it. She finally fell asleep several hours later and slept fitfully. She dreamed of the night of the attack. She dreamed she couldn’t get to her family to save them and they kept being killed over and over again in front of her. Crying out, she woke herself up. Sitting up in bed, she cried quietly to herself. After a few moments, she took several deep breaths, trying to calm herself. She was really unsettled but knew she needed to sleep. She slept off and on during the night and got up at daybreak to get bathed and ready for the day.
Standing in a towel, she surveyed her clothes. She had never worn a pair of pants before. She’d never had a need. Hesitatingly, she pulled them on. They were much softer than she thought they would be, and they were thick. She knew they would help provide protection for her legs. She picked out a long tunic top in a deep purple and pulled it on. Pulling her curls behind her, she put a long braid in her hair. She left off all her jewelry because she knew it would get in the way of training. She pulled on thick socks and her new leather boots. She looked at herself in the long mirror along the wall. She didn’t recognize the princess in her anymore. She looked scary. All she needed now was a large sword on her back like Prince Valen and she would look like a warrior. Unbidden, an image of the Prince came to mind, and Zalia whisked it away. Where did that come from? I need to focus. It’s time to train.
Zalia neatly made her bed and headed to the kitchen to get breakfast and hopefully some tea before training. She smelled fresh bread as she got close to the kitchen. When she got there, she saw Mari standing at the stove stirring a large pot.
“Good morning, Mari,” Zalia called out. Mari whirled around to look at her.
“Mercy child, you scared me,” she said placing a hand over her heart.
“Sorry,” Zalia said with a wince.
“Never you mind,” she said with a smile. “You’re up early. Do you usually get up this early or could you just not sleep?” she asked.
Zalia shrugged. “A little of both, I guess,” Zalia said. She walked over to the stove. “Can I help you with anything?”
“Do you have experience in the kitchen, child?” she asked Zalia.
“Not really,” Zalia said sheepishly.
“Well, it’s time to remedy that then, child. Come on over here.”
Zalia spent the next hour learning how to peel and cut potatoes and how to fry up thick slabs of ham in butter. She helped pull the bread out of the oven when it was done. She even learned how to boil water and make tea.
By the time Raven and Beckam came into the kitchen for breakfast, Zalia’s cheeks were flushed from the heat of the kitchen, but she had a huge smile on her face. “Good morning,” she called out as they entered the kitchen.
Raven smiled and came over to see what she could do to help. Beckam looked at her curiously. “You’re working in the kitchen?” he asked.
“Yes,” Zalia said defensively. “I’m helping.”
Beckam smirked. “Do you know your way around the kitchen?” he asked as he pulled a cup of hot coffee to his mouth to drink.
Zalia scowled at him, but before she could say anything, Mari turned on him, waving her spoon at him. “Don’t you be messing with my girl. She was a big help this morning.”
Beckam held both hands up in a gesture of surrender and smiled. “Yes, ma’am.”
After breakfast, Zalia and Raven both offered to help wash dishes and put the food away, but Mari waved them off. Beckam said, “Stop trying to get out of training. Let’s go.”
After hugs and thanks for breakfast to Mari, Zalia and Raven walked to the training hall, apprehensive.
When Zalia walked into the training center, she immediately saw the difference in Beckam. Gone was the fun-loving cousin. In his place stood the serious warrior.
“Let’s go, ladies. Over here,” Beckam called out. Zalia and Raven walked over to him. “Follow me and keep up,” he threw out over his shoulder.
Raven and Zalia both looked at each other and then followed Beckam over to the track of some kind running all the way around the training hall. He started into a slow run. Zalia just watched him.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“I’m running at a nice easy pace for you two. Let’s go.” Beckam said as he ran backwards, facing them.
Zalia looked at Raven and then back at Beckam. “Okay,” she said and started following him, running at a nice slow pace. When she caught up next to Beckam and matched his stride she asked, “Why are we doing this?”
Beckam grinned at her. “It’s called conditioning.”
Zalia scowled at him. “What does this have to do with training? I thought we were going to learn how to use weapons.”
Beckam looked at her. “Part of being a soldier is developing endurance and strength. We have a lot of training we are going to do that has nothing to do with weapons. You have to train your body to be the weapon.”
Zalia looked at Raven with a grimace. Raven grinned at her as she ran next to Zalia. “Ooo, our bodies get to be weapons,” she waggled her eyebrows at Zalia. Zalia just laughed and kept running.
A few laps later, they were neither smiling nor laughing. Beckam finally told them to take a break. Zalia bent over, gasping for air, sweat dripping off her face. “He’s trying to kill us,” she gasped out to Raven. Zalia didn’t know what to do with herself. Her heart was pounding out of her chest, and she was covered in sweat.
Beckam let them rest for a moment before he yelled, “Break’s up. Let’s go.”
Both girls groaned and headed his way. When they reached him, they saw he had two dummies of hay standing up. He spent the next few minutes explaining the series of punches and kicks he wanted them to practice. He demonstrated the punches and kicks. He motioned for them to start.
Zalia stepped up and tried it, and Beckam just laughed. Zalia whirled around and glared at him. “Hey, I’ve never done this before. So instead of laughing at me, maybe you could show me what I’m doing wrong.”
Beckam grinned at her and came over and corrected her stance and her motions. After several tries, she started getting a better feel for it. Then he walked over and helped Raven. After they both had the hang of it, he started to walk away.
Zalia stopped and asked him, “How long do we do this?”
Beckam kept walking. “Until I say stop.” Zalia and Raven both groaned. “Start punching,” Beckam yelled out.
Zalia punched her dummy. “I wish that was his face,” she grumbled. Zalia punched and kicked until she couldn’t feel her arms and legs anymore. Finally, Beckam told them they could stop. Zalia and Raven both collapsed on the ground. Beckam led them from there to some strength training.
After that, they stopped for lunch and then went back to the training hall again. Beckam led them in more training. He worked on some hand-to-hand combat with them. He gave them each a flat-edged dagger to practice with and began making them practice defensive and offensive moves. He taught them how to break a choke-hold, where to kick to do the most damage, and more. By dinner time, Zalia was ready to start crawling. Every muscle in her body hurt. She and Raven walked quietly to dinner.
Mari just smiled at them as they walked in and collapsed in chairs. Wisely, she didn’t ask them how training was going. Henri and Collette joined them for dinner and kept the conversation flowing with Beckam. After a quick dinner of beef stew and
brown bread, Zalia and Raven bid everybody goodnight and went to their rooms.
After saying goodnight to Raven, Zalia headed into her room. She went right to her bathroom and had a long soak in the bathtub. After an hour in the bath, Zalia got dressed in her nightclothes and lay in bed. Exhaustion plagued her, and she fell right to sleep. Miraculously, she didn’t have any bad dreams and even managed to sleep all night.
She woke up the next morning feeling well-rested, but when she tried to get out of bed, she realized she couldn’t move. Gritting her teeth, she pulled herself out of bed and got dressed slowly. She couldn’t believe how much her body hurt. It took her forever to get dressed. She finally made her way slowly to breakfast, just as Beckam walked in. He smirked at her when he saw her. Zalia wanted to throw something at him. “Not a word,” she said with a growl and he laughed out loud.
“I hate you,” she said, and he just laughed harder. She slunk into the kitchen and fell into a chair. Raven came in a few minutes later and looked as bad as Zalia.
Zalia made it through breakfast and then headed to the training hall. It was more of the same. More running, more hand-to-hand combat, training with knives, strength training, and more. Zalia fell into bed exhausted again that night. Two weeks passed with each day more of the same. She had a long way to go, but each day she was getting stronger. Her body didn’t hurt as bad at night.
__________
One night, two weeks into training, Zalia was feeling better. She had more energy than she had in the last two weeks. After dinner, when she and Raven walked back to their rooms, Zalia asked Raven, “Hey, can I come in your room and talk for a little bit? I’m not ready to go to bed yet.”
“Me neither,” said Raven. “Come on in.” Zalia followed Raven into her room. They both sat on the bed and relaxed.
Zalia looked at Raven. “Why are you continuing to do this?”
Startled, Raven shot her eyes to Zalia’s. “Doing what?” she asked.
“Training,” Zalia said. “Why are you putting yourself through all this? I have to because I have to take back my kingdom. Why do you?”
Raven was silent for a moment, thinking. “I’ve always only been a servant. I have never had a chance to experience the world or do anything. I want to strengthen my body and become the strongest I can be. I want to make something of myself, not just be a servant. I need to be as strong as I can to be able to do that. And…” She looked at Zalia. “I don’t want you to have to go through this on your own,” she said with a smile.
Zalia looked at her. “You know you will never have to be a servant again, right? You are free.”
Raven nodded. “It’s an incredible feeling.”
“Do you miss your family?” Zalia asked her after a moment.
Raven looked away for a moment and then back at Zalia. “I do,” she said quietly.
Zalia placed her hand on Raven’s arm. “I’m so sorry, Raven.”
Raven looked away again. “It’s okay. It’s the life of a servant,” she said.
Zalia looked at the wall for a moment, thinking. “Do you think they’re still alive? You’re from Sol, right?”
Raven nodded. “I am. I don’t know. I hope so.”
“Do you have any brothers and sisters?” Zalia asked of Raven.
“No,” Raven responded. “Just Ma and Papa.”
Zalia looked at Raven with a promise in her eyes. “When we get through this, I will get you back to your family. I give you my word. I will do everything in my power to help you find them and reunite them with them.”
Raven had tears in her eyes when she hugged Zalia. “Thank you.”
They both sat quietly for a few moments, lost in thought. Then Raven asked Zalia, “How are you doing? Do you miss your family?”
“Every day,” Zalia responded. Then she sat quietly for a moment. “I wonder if I could have done something to help them. I wonder why I am still alive, and they aren’t.” She blew out a breath. “I miss my brother Kael teasing me. I miss my mother’s hugs. I miss my father telling me what to do. I miss seeing them every day. I miss them so much it hurts, but I also feel this strange aloofness. I feel like there is so much I don’t know. I feel like my parents kept secrets from me, and now I may never know the answers. I don’t understand why. It’s all so frustrating,” Zalia said as she looked at Raven.
Raven looked at her sadly, not having any answers to give her. Raven looked at her cautiously and then asked, “What happened to you that day? How did you survive?”
Zalia took a deep breath and blew it out. She told Raven the story from start to finish of the day her castle came under attack. When she finished, she lay back on the bed, exhausted. Raven looked at her and said, “I didn’t realize Prince Valen had helped you so much. I thought that he had just helped send you into the woods. I didn’t realize he walked with you through the entire castle and all those soldiers. That’s so romantic,” she teased.
Zalia rolled her eyes. “That was not what I was feeling when my kingdom was under attack and my family was killed.”
Raven put a hand to her mouth. “I’m so sorry, Zalia. That was so callous of me. I shouldn’t...”
Zalia interrupted her. “It’s okay. I know what you meant.” After a little more time spent talking together, Zalia yawned. “Well, we had better get to bed. We have another full day of training tomorrow.”
Raven groaned. “Don’t remind me.” She stood up and waited for Zalia to stand up from the bed before giving her a hug, surprising Zalia. “I’m so glad we’re here together. I wouldn’t want to do this with anybody else.”
Zalia found that she had tears in her eyes as she hugged Raven tightly. “Me neither.”
Zalia headed to her room, her heart heavy. She felt good talking to Raven, but she feared talking about the attack would bring on her nightmares again. Because of that, she was afraid to go to sleep.
Chapter 8
As Zalia lay in bed that night, her mind kept returning to the conversation with Raven and the uncertain future they both had. Zalia had made a promise to return Raven to her family; she just hoped she could keep it. She worried about the days ahead. Would she really be able to lead an army against King Mylan to take back the Kingdom of the Red Rose? It seemed so far-fetched. And what would she do if she defeated him? She supposed Prince Valen would take over the black kingdom. But what would happen to her kingdom? She had no desire to rule over it herself. She thought of her dad and wished he could still rule the kingdom. She wished none of this had ever happened, putting her in this horrible position. Then she thought of her family, and her heart ached once again. She lay there for a long time before finally falling into an uneasy sleep.
Zalia was running. There was death all around her. Zalia ran faster and faster. She saw servants lying face down all around her. She saw Silas as he was struck down. He looked up at her and said, “This is all your fault.” Zalia cried out and ran to help him, but he was dragged away by soldiers from Astra. They laughed at her as she tried to run after them but couldn’t. She turned away. She knew she had to find her parents and her brother. She ran and ran but couldn’t get anywhere to find them.
Finally, she made it to the throne room. She opened the massive door and ran inside, finding her mother and father. They were sitting on their thrones with smiles on their faces. Kael stood at their side. They talked as if they didn’t have a care in the world. Zalia ran towards them, yelling, trying to warn them of the soldiers, but she couldn’t get to them. They didn’t hear her. She screamed as loud as she could and fought at the restraints that held her, but she couldn’t get to them. Then the doors opened, and the soldiers came in. They ran to her parents and brother and drew their swords. Her father looked up at her then, right into her eyes, and she heard him say as clear as day, “This is your fault.” And then the soldiers struck them down. Zalia screamed...
Zalia shot up in her bed into a sitting position, breathing hard. She was drenched in sweat and couldn’t catch her breath. She hear
d her door close softly. “Raven? Beckam?” she called out, her voice filled with fear.
“It’s Valen,” she heard a low voice say.
Zalia was shocked. “Wh-what are you doing here?” she hated that her voice quivered, but she couldn’t help it. It was the aftermath of her nightmare.
“I just got in and heard you cry out. I thought you were in danger,” he said, and she heard him quietly sheath his sword.
“I’m sorry,” she said quietly. “It was just a dream. You can go now.”
Valen stood there quietly for another moment as if unsure whether he should leave or not, and then in a whisper of movement, he was gone. The man moved like the shadows themselves. Zalia sat there for a few more moments trying to calm her racing heart. Then she finally lay down. After what seemed like several hours, she fell into a light sleep.
She awoke early. Unable to go back to sleep, she sat up on the side of her bed. She felt slow and heavy-hearted as she dressed. She needed to get out of her room and go help in the kitchen. Helping Mari always put a smile on her face. With that thought, she began to get ready quickly. She put on her black leather pants, pulled on a deep rose-colored tunic, and pulled her curls back into a braid. She quickly made her bed and straightened her room before heading to the kitchen for the day.
When she got to the kitchen, she pushed open the door and ran right into Prince Valen who was on his way out of the kitchen with a cup of hot coffee. The impact spilled coffee all over him, and Zalia shot startled eyes up to his dark ones. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t even look where I was going. I’m not used to anyone beside Mari being in the kitchen this early.” Zalia finally shut her mouth. She knew she was rambling. She looked away from his dark eyes and ran to the counter to grab a towel. “Here,” she said, walking back to him. She began to wipe the coffee on his shirt, touching his stomach, before she felt a hand on her arm.
“I’ve got it,” he said briskly before turning and walking out the door. Zalia stood staring after him, her cheeks burning in humiliation.
