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I don't usually think of myself as a trusting person. I really don't. I've been taught and conditioned to take everything with a grain of salt because a royal can never be too careful around others, even if they seem friendly or are royal themselves. I don't even fully trust the servants that roam around our flower patch. Sure, I trust them to make my bed and help me dress but only because I can see what they did. I didn't fully trust the food that was handed to me by the chef, for example. Every item of food or drink had to be passed to a food taster or cupbearer before being served to my family and me.
So, what possessed me to trust this particular servant I will never know.
The day started off like any other.
I was snoozing away in my comfortable bed made of feathers when a maid turned down a flower petal, effectively waking me up when the burst of sun invaded my quarters unforgivingly. I groan and turn my face away but a droning voice enters my ears making me dread the day already. "Sire, did you know you're twenty minutes late for breakfast? Your parents are wondering where you are."
I frown into my bed before turning my face to the youngest – but still pretty old – advisor of my father's court. "I'm tired, Renard."
"Be that as it may, Your Highness, Your Majesties are still expecting you at breakfast."
"Just like yesterday and the day before that and the day before that." I grumble, burrowing my head into the pillow.
"If you did not spend so much time outside the Vale frolicking about who knows where than maybe we wouldn't be having this conversation."
I roll my eyes but get up anyway as the maid and the old goot leave my room. I stretch and see my outfit for the day laid out on a chair nearby. Normally I would have servants help me dress but I refused to have any help years ago. For one, I would have more chances to sneak out without servants coming into my room at all hours of the door. For two, having two or more servants help me get into pants and a shirt was just weird. It's not like I had ties on my back I couldn't reach or something.
Today must be a special day or something because the outfit chosen was in the colors of the royal seal. An orange vest with striped puffed shoulders – I hate that design – long yellow sleeves and tan pants. At least I kept my usual boots. My parents seem to love putting me in clothes that blend with the family's famous auburn hair.
Ugh. Whatever. I'm hungry. I'll wear the stupid clothes if they want me t—Woah. I look good. Oh yeah.
Oh no. Damn. I look good.
I'll have to sneak away again tonight. Ugh.
I scowled. It's not that I like being around my parents or their little court all day but it'd be nice if I didn't have to sneak out and avoid my own house because of stupid squealing girls. Don't get me wrong, though. Some of these girls were definitely easy on the eyes and the fact that they only had eyes for me was great. Except that they only had eyes for me. These girls were fun to entertain the first time but they became too clingy the second time I met with them. It's like having that one friend that only had you for a friend so they clung onto you like a leech and stuck to you everywhere whenever. Trust me it may seem amazing to you but after hearing the same squealing voice for days at a time the moment you stepped off your flower, you'd be begging for escape like I was.
Not to mention the thrill you'd get every time you discover a new way to pass by the guards announced. I love watching the guards wonder how exactly I leave the Vale almost every time, especially as they change the patrols every other day just to catch me unawares. Jokes on them. I'll never reveal my secrets.
My parents know better than to ask me how I do it and where I go. They know I won't answer them. But that doesn't stop them from asking me when I was going to settle down with a 'nice girl already'.
I pick at my food as my father starts to speak. "Come on, son. I hear that Salene girl has a wonderful reputation among the noble families. She's humble, sweet, smart…"
"And her blood!" My mother gushes. "She comes from a long line of dukes and duchess'! The oldest family here to hold such titles."
"Yeah, and she also can't shut up about how wonderful her outfits look or how excited she is about the next ball and about who's courting who…" I point out. Mother cuts me off.
"At least, she knows more than you about what's going on here. Where were you last night?"
I guess I was wrong. What a drag. "Here and there." I answer with a smirk.
"Here and there?" I can see my mother's face get red. "You can't just go off by yourself all willy nilly! You could have been killed! And then what? We're just supposed to be okay with that?"
"I do not go off all willy nilly! I bring my sword with me and Buzzby."
"And do you even know how to use that sword of yours? Don't think I don't know you've been ditching your lessons, young man."
"Oh, come on, Mother! Why can't you understand that I don't want to waste my life going to lessons and meetings and court hearings?" I growl.
"And why can't you understand that as the crown prince you have certain abilities to uphold! What will the court think seeing the future King ditching his duties!" My mother responded immediately.
"Court, court, Court! Is that all you think about?"
"I think you two need to calm down…" I hear my father say.
Mother cuts him off too. "No! If he has something to say, he should say it right now."
"Tabitha…"
"Fine. Mother—" I stress the word "—We're the royal family. We lead the fairies. They look up to us. I get it, I do. But I'm sixteen years old, Mom. I don't want to be stuck inside learning how to calculate taxes or sitting in on a meeting where a bunch of men talk to each about how best to strategize in case of war or how to organize the guards, how to keep public relations with other kingdoms! I just want a day to myself."
Mother raises her eyebrows and closes her eyes slightly. Father sighs next to us, ignored. "A day? A day to yourself? That's what you want?" I nod my head aggressively. "We can't have the next heir go missing for an entire day without reason."
"Fine. A few hours every day. Come on I'm going crazy being stuck here!"
I can see her thinking about it and I wait anxiously until she slowly places her palms down on the table and looks up. "Okay. A few hours of recreation. We can do that. Two hours after lunch. Three hours after dinner. Alright?"
"Yes, Mother," I say, sitting back with a sigh. "Finally," I mutter under my breath.
"Oh, good. Glad that's settled." I glance over at my father.
"Well," Mother says. I sigh internally and pick my fork back up. "This is certainly not the morning I was hoping for."
"Sorry for being such a disappointment." I mutter sarcastically.
"My sunshine, how could you say that?!"
"Son, whatever gave that idea?"
I look up at my parents and scowl a little. "Nothing. I was being sarcastic." Seriously? How could they not hear that?
"Even if that's true, I still don't want to hear it." I'm sure if the table wasn't so large, my mother would have bent over the table to grab my hand. "You must know that whatever faults you think you have we will always love you."
Father frowns and leans forward concerned. "Son, if there's anything at all you want to talk about, you can always come to me, alright?"
I wave away their concerns. "Yeah, yeah. I get it. I wasn't being serious. Ok? I won't say that again." I stare them down until they seem satisfied and return to their food. I shake my head at how they can switch from angry or resigned to worry warts at a drop of a hat. I wasn't being serious at all.
Thankfully, they seemed content to eat the rest of the course in silence as we all think to ourselves. Hopefully, those "recreational hours" Mother was talking about start today. The last time I went out with Buzzby I came across a human settlement that seemed interesting. I mean, as far as I can see, the humans were just a bunch of farmers and crop growers but they seem to all congregate in this one area with a lot of those stick and stone buildings. One of those seemed to be particularly interesting as I saw dozens of humans come in and out of there the two hours I was there. And they didn't come out looking "all there" either. Did humans have something similar to the boyair we have here? You know? The fermented drink that burns as it goes down and leaves its victim dizzy and acting stupid? If they do, I want to see if it tastes any different to boyair. Humans won't notice if a drop goes missing.
My train of thought is lost as I hear my mother speak up again.
"I still wish you'd pick a girl already."
Oh. My God.
"Seriously? Mother, we have to do this now?"
"Well, it's not like we're getting any younger, dear. I just want to see you settled down with the right girl."
"And you think one of those girls that throw themselves at me is the right one?" I scoff. "Not likely."
"If you don't like any of those girls than why didn't you just say so?"
"I did! You said I couldn't possibly have met every girl and to come to you later." I try not to roll my eyes in annoyance.
"It seems I did say that," She returns holding a finger to her chin. Now I roll my eyes. "Well, since it seems we're just full of compromises today, how about we make a deal? We send you to different kingdoms, and you can frolic about wherever you wish, if you promise to seriously consider any of the princesses or young ladies of the Courts. Agreed."
Get a new playground and freedom in exchange for spending a few hours with pretty girls? As long as they didn't start stalking me, it's not bad. Not bad at all. "Okay." I see my parents sigh in relief. "But…I take Buzzby with me."
Mother practically has a heart attack in her chair. "That wretched thing?"
"Yes."
"No!"
"Yes!"
"You could get hurt!"
"And how many times has Buzzby let me get hurt?"
"Just because it hasn't happened yet doesn't mean it won't ever happen." There is no winning with my mother on this. I look at my father for help.
"Tabitha… Let the boy have his bee." Father chimes in, coming to my rescue. Father always seemed to choose his battles, but no one could say he was a terrible ruler. It may come as a surprise to many that the just and quiet ruler used to be as daring and adventurous as me. Although, Mother insists he wasn't as reckless as I am. I can't really picture my Father as being like me, though, even if he was the one to first show me how to ride on Buzzby, my bumble.
Yes, Buzzby is a bumblebee. Don't laugh. He's the best damn bumble for miles around.
I tune back in to the conversation in time to hear "If you insist on taking the bumblebee than you're also taking some guards with you."
Typical. "Never in a million years would I expect to go anywhere without you sending guards after me."
"It's not a crime to worry about my child." She dabs at her mouth with a napkin. "Ok. Enough talking. We have a big day planning the Solstice Festival and I have to find out which kingdoms have plenty of eligible ladies." She stands up and calls for her ladies-in-waiting. "Genevieve? Cecelia?"
No answer.
Mother's eyes furrowed. "Genevieve? Cecelia?" Still no answer, which was unusual as they liked to stick close to the Queen. And it's not like the flower walls were extraordinarily thick either.
Something's wrong.
I can see my father shift and stand with eyes furrowed himself. I see him lock eyes with my mother as he walks close to her. "Do you hear that?" he whispers to her.
For a second, I'm confused at what he's talking about until I pay closer attention and hear it myself. Faint yells were coming from the town. Just as suddenly as I heard that I could also hear from just outside our flower:
"We're being attacked!"
I watch horrified as we immediately hear what must have been the same man cut down by the spear that penetrated the petal making up the back wall. As if that was the signal to everyone outside, our little safe haven is ambushed by a fleet of creatures I'd never seen before. I don't even know if you could call it a creature as they looked more like humanoid shadows that moved into the room like water down a river.
Whatever they were, they were still penetrable as I immediately withdrew my sword and lunged toward the closest one. I could see out of the corner of my eye my father join in the foray as he protected my mother.
Two ambushed me at once and my sword clinked against the spears they used to try to impale me. Being that spears are made to be thrown from a distance toward the intended target, I try to convince myself that these whatever-they-are are not good at hand-to-hand combat or close-range combat but the fact that I can feel bruises forming on my legs and arms begs to differ. I grunt as one of the spears nicks my arm.
I hate that I'm mostly on defense so I think quickly, wondering how in the world I was going to wave off these creatures. I dodge a jab at my head as I trail my eyes down their forms and it's like a light goes off in my head. Shadows are formed from light but they can be cast away by light too.
I needed to time this attack right so I start edging to toward a table on a side wall where a very expensive vase sat. Better to break a vase than to break my bones. My plan works out well as I easily distract one of the things and I turn to face on the second when I hear a chilling scream. "Mother!" I barely have time to see her uncharacteristically punch the shadow thing attacking before I instinctively lift my sword and block a swipe by a spear. I saved myself a sound gashing but the unexpected swing threw me off balance and slammed against the ground on my back. My breath is taken out of me and I have a momentary moment of shock before I see a spear coming down at me. I spin and hear the tear of the petal behind me, thankful it wasn't my head being torn, and collect my dust into my hand. This takes concentration normally but I hope this brief moment is enough to do what I need.
I grasp my sword and let my dust shoot out of my hand and wrap around my blade before I thrust it into the shadow man above me. I panic in the brief moment nothing happens until the creature lets out a roar of brief and disintegrates right before my eyes. I know some living creature of some type just died but yes! Ha! I win!
My momentary glory is forgotten when I remember my mother. I search frantically for her and sigh when I see her being flanked by my father as he fights off one of the intruders. My relief is short lived, however, as I see a second go to pounce on my unsuspecting father from his left. Don't even ask how I managed to do what I did next because I have no idea.
Between one breathe and the next I managed to swing my arm out, with my sword, and send it flying directly into the creatures' abdomen, somehow bypassing my father, and with gold dust still lighting the blade.
I take a moment to stare in shock at the now empty space where my sword rested to wonder how in the hell I managed to do that. I've never taken throwing lessons in my life!
I take a deep breath and turn to Mother, wanting to ask if she's all right as Father takes care of the last darkness embodiment, when two more enter in through the rip of the back wall. Beyond annoyed and infuriated, I yell at my parents to go as I pick up my sword.
"Cornelius, are you crazy?" I hear Mother shriek.
"We can't just leave you."
My sword parries a spear as I answer back, "You have to take Mother and go!"
"I will not leave my son with these infernal things to hide like a coward!"
"It's not like you know how to protect yourself, Mother! You need –" I grunt as the force of a spear pushes the hilt of my sword into my stomach "—to go somewhere safer!"
"He has a point Tabitha!"
"And where exactly do you expect me to go—Watch out!"
I barely register her warning before I hear Father groan in pain. Between parries I glance over in his direction and see a massive hole in the flower where I assume he was thrown through. Mother stands at the hole gaping down at the scene in horror.
"Mother, when you get the chance grab Father and go! He's not as young as he used to be!"
"But–"
"Mother, please! I can't fight this thing if I'm worried about you too!"
With a glance, I see she's finally listening to me as she shoots up in the air apparently finding an opening. I have to turn my eyes back to my own fight but I do hear her yell "Be careful!" before the only ones in the near vicinity are me and the intruder. It's a scary sight to see when your opponent has no face yet still manages to send chills down your spine. I take a deep breath and concentrate more than I ever have in my life as I try to find a weakness in this being's form.
It's too late though. The creature has apparently found mine.
I can't help but stare in shock at where my sword lay inches from me where it landed after it got knocked out of my hand. I don't notice the butt of the spear coming toward me until it slams into my stomach and all the air leaves my lungs. My back burns as I slide across the floor. I'm barely oriented when the shadow looms over, spear raised and coming toward me. I panic. Was this how I was doing to die?
Apparently not.
What had to be from out of nowhere I see my sword come flying again, but this time, hitting the spear and knocking it out of the shadow's hand instead of the things body. I twitch as the butt of the spear hits my stomach again and I just know it's going to leave a bruise there for a few days. At least I'm not dead.
The creature turns to whatever thwarted its deed but the thwarter gets to him first. I see what must be the dining table's cloth come over its head and cover its body. It struggles briefly before it seems to morph down into the floor back to wherever it came from. I look away from the floor and to my rescuer.
"Your Highness, the shadows have infiltrated the Vale and are surrounding the castle. You must sneak out before they kill you!" the man above me, who I can only assume is a servant of the castle from his clothes, says.
It takes me a moment to digest what he said. "My parents!" What happened to my parents?
"They're safe, Your Highness. There's a legion of guards protecting them just off the East wing, but you must get out now!" he urgently prodes me to get up and I do. I follow out of the flower and we stick behind boulders and stems, keeping an eye out for the enemies as he leads me through a beaten path towards where I assume my parents are.
I assumed correctly as I see the legion the man spoke about surrounding my parents in a tight circle as they held off the attackers, but I'm floored by what the man says next.
"I hope you took a long look because that's the last you'll ever see of them."
My eyes widen as I'm pounced from behind and my face meets the ground. A weight settles on my back and I grit my teeth as I squirm. There's no give. I stop when a pair of boots stand in front of my face. "We didn't need to keep them alive. That's just to make you cooperate."
I spit dirt out of my mouth before asking, "Cooperate for what?"
The man crouches down, hands twined together over his knees. He slowly grins, looking maniacal, and says, "I guess you could say… Revenge." The last word is said like he could almost taste how delicious it is. Gross.
"Why would I ever cooperate in your sick schemes?"
"Because then Mom and Dad go…" he waves with the next word, "bye-bye."
I grind my teeth and glare at the man, who smiles even wider (if that's possible) knowing what my response will be. I don't bother to struggle as I'm hauled up by the shadow behind me and take one last look at my family. I even crane my neck to keep them in sight for as long as possible as I'm pulled further into the bushes where a dirt hole is. They push me down first and I land hard on my right shoulder. I grasp at it in pain and am pushed down again when the shadow lands on me. I see the man's boots land next to my head before a searing pain grows on my temple and know no more.
