Disclaimer: I do not know Gail Carson Levine nor am I Gail Carson Levine. Many of the settings and some of the characters used in this story are hers.

A/N: First Sunday of the summer! How awesome is that?! I'm sooooo happy. Finally, all the studying is SO over. Sweeeeeet.

Aria's Melody

Chapter Six: When Frederick Met Jessalyn

Prince Frederick slowly walked down the palace corridor, a feeling of dread at the pit of his stomach. Three times already he'd thought about turning back. And three times he'd forced himself to keep walking forward. Not that it was really walking. It was more like laboriously dragging his feet towards his father's room. It'd be so easy to turn back, but he kept reminding himself that he was doing this for Ayortha. For Aria.

It was sooner than he'd hoped when he arrived at the large door of his father's chamber. Frederick gave a silent nod to the guards on either side, and then proceeded to give a weak knock. Maybe if it were quiet enough, his father wouldn't even hear.

"Who is it?" King Randall's voice came from the other side of the wooden barrier, loud and threatening.

Frederick gave a grimace, disappointed that the King had heard the knock. "It's me Father."

"Oh. Well come in then."

Frederick opened the door to the room and stepped in, the door closing with a dry click behind him. His eyes adjusted to the darkness of the room. The heavy curtains were drawn shut, letting in hardly any presence of daytime. The only light came from a small candle on King Randall's escritoire, which he sat next to, staring at the unlit fireplace.

"Father." Frederick hesitated, unsure of how to start. When King Randall remained silent, Frederick spoke again. "There's…something important I must talk to you about."

King Randall finally turned his head from the fireplace to his son standing meekly near the door. "What is it?" His tone was less than welcoming.

The prince cleared his throat. "The, uh, the new laws that were put into effect. I don't think the kingdom agrees well with them…The ban on singing is no doubt the worst. I think that maybe if we took the laws away, or if you'd feel better if it were half of the laws that were—"

"Stop!" King Randall growled out, his command making Frederick tremble slightly. "I don't want to hear your insane babbling. Do you think that we made these laws for no reason? It's for the good of this kingdom that we're doing this!"

Frederick didn't miss the use of the word we in his Father's statements. It's only you Father, he thought bitterly, not me too. He stood silent, too scared to say what he felt.

King Randall waved a hand of dismissal. "Leave me."

Swallowing hard, Frederick did as he was told, feeling frightened, bitter, and angry. But most of all, he was disappointed. Disappointed that he'd let Aria down.

* * *

"So you survived finishing school after all."

"Barely. I was under surveillance daily after I returned. The teachers absolutely hated me. But that was alright." Aria shrugged, making a face. "The feeling was reciprocated."

Terence laughed, causing Aria to have the sporadic urge to hug him. "Do you still run off occasionally?"

Aria nodded. "I do."

"Good." Terence smiled.

The two slowly strolled down a street in Amonta, little shops and stands filling up each side of the road. There were bakeries and barrelmakers, butchers and vegetable stands. The town seemed to explode with liveliness, people bustling everywhere and children's voices yelling as they played their games down the street.

"I love this," Aria breathed, watching as a little boy gave a few shiny coins to a fruit vendor and was allowed to pick an apple in return.

Terence looked down at the girl beside him. "You haven't been around here in a long time have you?"

Aria shook her head regretfully. "I haven't been around in this town to explore ever since my mother died. I've only had enough time on each of my visits here to visit Grands."

They walked by a small jewelry stand, and Aria stopped, fascinated by the unusual necklaces and bracelets the vendor had displayed carefully in front of her, making sure none were stolen. The adornments were all made by the same sort of substance, a delicate silvery-white metal.

"My mother has a necklace that reminds me an awful lot of these," Terence said, looking at the display.

"They're beautiful." Aria picked up a bracelet that had caught her eye. The ornament was made of tiny links of the metal, the silver-white color both soothing and elegant.

"It is, is it not?" The vendor was an old lady with short gray hair and startlingly blue eyes. A dark orange garment was wrapped around her, and she slowly reached out to look closer at the bracelet Aria held. "These were all made by a close friend of mine. A very talented woman. If you look at the inside of each of the links, she engraved her initials." The senescent lady showed her two guests.

Aria and Terence peered at the inside of the bracelet. Sure enough, the letters "R N" were elaborately engraved in each of the miniscule links.

"That's amazing. It must have taken her forever."

"It did," the lady agreed. "This silver-white metal is only found in Tallkes, in a site located in the walls of the kingdom's capital city. It's a difficult substance to work with. It takes two months for my friend to engrave all the letters into the links of a bracelet like this, and eight more months for the metal to dry and harden completely."

"Eight months!" Aria's eyes widened.

The vendor nodded. "That's why these are so rare. And high-priced."

* * *

Jessalyn watched from the shade of an oak tree at the tiny figure of Prince Frederick across the castle grounds. He was slowly trudging through the grass, obviously unaware of both the sunny atmosphere and her watchful eyes.

From what Jessalyn had observed so far, it seemed as though the prince was quite a moody, gloomy character.

But no worry. She was sure she could fix that.

* * *

"Help! Help!"

Frederick turned from his brooding thoughts to look across the clearing and was surprised to see a girl running towards him in obvious distress. He walked quickly towards her, forgetting for the moment about his father.

"Lady, is there something the matter?"

The girl stopped in front of him, gasping hard and a hand to her head. "Oh! I was—was walking in the woods, and all of a sudden, I heard something behind me. And, and I started walking faster, and I could hear it speeding up too. So I started to run, and soon it was chasing me!"

The prince listened with concern and looked into the trees across the clearing from where the girl had come from. "Did you see what it was? Was it a human or an animal?"

"I—I don't know! Oh, you have to understand, it was absolutely dreadful!" The girl gasped and put a hand to her heart, moaning.

Frederick nodded. "I'll go look right now. The sooner we solve this problem, the better. Would you like me to find someone to accompany you home?"

"Oh!" The girl grabbed his arm. "Please, don't go! It's too dangerous. Let a few of the castle guards do it. I'd rather you stay with me for awhile. I know it's really silly of me, but I'm still frightened. I'm so sorry for the trouble."

The girl looked up at Frederick with pleading green eyes. The prince couldn't help but think how pretty she was, the dark lashes that surrounded pools of green, golden hair that framed a delicate face, and a full set of lips that were currently trembling.

"Alright," he agreed, not noticing that the girl was still gripping his arm tightly.

"Oh thank you!" She breathed, a smile spreading across her face. "I really appreciate your act of kindness." She swept a curtsy. "I'm Jessalyn."

"Frederick." The prince bowed.

Jessalyn put a hand to her mouth. "Frederick! Oh dear me, you're not Prince Frederick?"

Frederick nodded awkwardly. "I am."

Jessalyn flushed, and she put a hand to her forehead in embarrassment before curtsying again. "I'm so sorry Your Highness, I didn't know… Forgive me for my ignorance."

Frederick reached out a hand to Jessalyn to lift her from her curtsy. "It's alright. Are you new here?"

"Well," Jessalyn smiled, "yes I am. I'm visiting my aunt and uncle here in Aloya. I'm from Tallkes." She ran a slender hand through her hair. "This is such a beautiful kingdom. Well, what little I have had a chance to see so far," she added.

"You haven't had a chance to see much yet?"

Jessalyn shook her head.

"I'd be honored to show you around," Frederick offered. "There are many places here I am sure you would love to see."

Jessalyn clasped her hands together. "Oh really? That would be wonderful! Thank you Prince Frederick."

"It's my pleasure."

A/N: *Shakes head*. Frederick, Frederick, Frederick. Sorry about the short chapter. It just seemed like a good place to stop. But the next few updates should be faster, with more time and all. You know what to do! :P