Chapter 6 – Royalty
Haru stared up from her dazed position on the floor.
This blonde woman, who was she? Why was she in the house? She looked strangely familiar. The glint of a crest around her throat triggered Haru's memory. It looked like the royal seal. Only one person in the world possessed that emblem.
Her eyes widened with shock. The crown princess! What on earth was she doing in their tiny village?
The haughty woman gave a sneer at the prone girl sprawled on the ground, "From what your family spoke of you I expected you to be almost a fairy yourself. Indeed you're rather ordinary." She raked her eyes up and down Haru. "Brown hair, brown eyes, no beauty at all, how pitiable."
Haru staggered to her feet. Baron's warning had come true! Royal or no royal, she wouldn't take this lying down.
"You majesty," she bit out. "I don't know what they've told you," she gestured to her relatives still clustered together in the corner of the room, "But it's all lies. I found everything in the next village over. A man has a hothouse who sold the violets, strawberries, and apples to me cheaply."
The princess scowled turning her beautiful face into a fearsome caricature. "You're lying. There are no greenhouses within a hundred miles of this pathetic town." She tilted her cruel face close to Haru's own. "There's only one place you could have gotten these items, only one place in the dead of winter where such things can come to be." She straightened to her full height, "Wretched girl! I have been searching my entire life for the location of the months - feeding stray cats hoping one of the little flea bags would lead me to their magic, sending hundreds of noblemen through the villages spying on stupid peasants' conversations, and yet you seemed to find it in a few days!"
"I don't know what you're talking about," Haru insisted. "I told you I got them from the next village." She had to make the stately woman believe her.
A swift kick from the muscular guard towards her abdomen made her double up in pain collapsing onto the wooden floor. The princess seemed to take great pleasure in inflicting her punishments on hapless people.
"Fool!" Her blonde curls swung wildly. "Your cousin and aunt blabbed the whole story to Lord Machida. How you came back each time with what they asked for. My nobleman told them to give you one more task of finding apples before he called me, and I'm glad he did. Do you know what I could do with the power of the seasons?"
The brunette could only close her eyes in anger. That was why Lin was being so pigheaded about the apples! It was a final test to impress a cute nobleman. How stupid of the girl!
The princess paced with agitation across the sitting room unaware of Haru's turmoil. "I could command the harvest to last for months, gathering a great stock of grain and vegetables to fill our warehouses ten times over!"
Haru gave a slow blink. That sounded almost generous. Did she misjudge her sovereign?
"You'd feed the populace willingly?" she hazarded.
The woman gave a bitter laugh. "That's the most idiotic thing I've heard you say yet. Feed people for free? Please. I'd cause a bitter drought afterwards withering the town's existing crops then charge a gold piece for each leaf and tuber I'd sell to the populace."
The injured girl could only groan at the princess' plan, "You'd bankrupt and starve your own people for money?"
"That's only the beginning, my dear. I would send the favorable summer winds to my navy allowing them to conquer the neighboring lands. The cruel winter snow I would use to starve out the land locked countries. With the months at my command, I could rule the world!"
Haru shook her head in disbelief at the diabolical plot, "The months will never obey you even if you threated me!"
The princess wrenched Haru up by the roots of her hair. "Oh you poor little girl, why don't we test out that theory?" she hissed. "Guards! Lock her up in the highest tower. Don't let her out of your sight until I see her!"
The men did as their ruler commanded seizing the helpless girl into their powerful grip.
As the princess began to step into her grand carriage, Lin and her mother ran outside interjecting, "Wait! Your highness! Don't we get a reward for telling you about where Haru got the violets and fruits?"
The woman turned ice cold blue eyes on the selfish pair. "You'll lucky I don't have you beaten like the cowering dogs you are for speaking out of turn to me," and with those hissed words their ruler rode off in a flurry of snow.
TCRTCRTCRTCRTCR
Outside, Haru tried to thrash around to loosen the death grip the guards had on her arms, but she only managed to direct their cruelty onto her.
"Stop squirming street rat!" The man nearest to her backhanded her viciously across the cheek sending her staggering into the nearest snow bank. She caught herself in time, nearly wrenching her wrists with the force, but the glint of the ring on her finger contrasted against the white snow.
The ring! I can use it to call for help! She thought with relief. The slickness of the melted snow on her hands soon had the ring off her finger and enclosed in her small palm. Just as the guards grabbed her again, she kicked them causing them to bend over in pain.
Hah! See how that feels!
Swiftly she tried to run, but the large, burly one recovered quickly, catching her by the ankle before she could take another step. She tried kicking free again, but a second blow to her head knocked her unconscious. The men never knew as they slung her across their shoulders that a little ring dropped into the snow from her lifeless hand.
The gold sphere bounced once, twice, and rather than falling over on the ground, it froze on its edge before magically rolling down the hill out of sight of the incapacitated girl and her captives.
The guards stripped Haru of her few belongings leaving her in only her simple dress and imprisoned in the tower of the royal palace.
The poor girl, now awake, tried the doors and locks but they held firmly against her efforts. A large locked window was her only view of the outside. Even if she could get the glass doors open, a yawning emptiness was her sole reward. Haru sunk to her knees in pain and anguish. Only the thought of her missing ring stopped her from completely weeping in despair.
TCRTCRTCRTCRTCR
"She hasn't returned yet, Yuki fretted at Lune's side.
The white cat, her lover, Muta, and Toto had been keeping watch for the human girl for hours at Baron's side.
"Something must have gone wrong," Lune answered her.
"I think we made a mistake underestimating her family," the black crow said with reflection. Muta surprisingly agreed with his adversary.
"Baron?" They all questioned his silence.
He never should have let her go. They had been too careless thinking that the problem lied with cousin and aunt, but as immortals they were not allowed to directly interfere in a mortal's life. They had already broken their vow by giving Haru the sought after items, but the only other option was leaving her to die! What could he do?
As he glanced across the tree line again, something moved in the stillness. A familiar gold ring rolled itself until it landed against his booted feet. Picking it up with trembling gloved hands, he could only stare in disbelief at the small object.
The ring he gave Haru.
Baron met the others worried gazes.
"Let's go after her."
I picture the blonde princess from the Russian cartoon. The aunt and her daughter being turned into dogs was their punishment from the folktale.
More to follow,
Grignard