Princess of Earth, page 11
Eventually, he nodded, moving to stand in front of me again and reminding me of proper stance, before the whole thing started again.
After sword training with Maeteo, Hollis took me out to an archery field on the other side of the castle grounds. The grass was trimmed to perfection, and a row of eight targets stood across from us.
Up close, Hollis appeared even smaller than she had when I first met her. Her hair was black and braided down her back, but her eyes were sharp, and I got the feeling she knew more about everything than I ever would. I wondered, briefly, if I’d ever be up to the same standards.
Hollis, thankfully, was a much kinder, more laid-back teacher than Maeteo had been. After he had shouted at me one too many times for letting my guard down, I had thrown my sword at his feet and walked away. Ignoring him calling after me and heading straight to my chambers to get changed. I’d barely gotten myself into a fresh set of leggings before Hollis came knocking at my door, a bow clutched in her hand and a smile on her face. It had been impossible to say no to her.
Now, as I stood beside her and watched her fire an arrow into the bullseye of each target with ease, I felt the nausea from earlier settle back into my stomach.
Hollis gestured for me to copy her; a reassuring looks on her face as she talked me through the proper technique again. The muscles in my arm screamed at me as I pulled the bow string back, a small grunt leaving me at just how much heavier it was than how it had looked when Hollis had done it.
Eventually I shot an arrow, and my chest deflated as it landed in the grass less than five feet away.
“Don’t worry, the first time I shot an arrow I hit the wheel of a passing wagon.” Hollis smiled, shrugging her shoulders, and placing a comforting hand on my arm. “It went right over the wall.”
I laughed lightly, shaking my head and placing my bow down on the grass, sitting down next to it and stretching out my legs in front of me, wincing in pain. Hollis joined me, plopping herself down and crossing her legs under herself. She started to pluck grass from the ground, tearing out little bundles and then releasing them into the light wind.
“When Tarian and I turned eighteen,” Hollis started, shocking me into looking at her, “The general before Maeteo came to our village. We lived right on the coast, in Bayshell, and he told us that Tarian had to go with him and enlist in the army immediately. We had only been awake an hour, maybe two, and he was being taken away. Mother and Father just… accepted it. They stood and waved him goodbye.”
Her eyes were far away as she watched grass filter through the air.
“I was furious. I shouted and cried until I was sick. The thought of doing anything without Tarian made me feel like my world was crumbling, let alone living the rest of my life working as a seamstress like Mother while he was away at war, potentially getting murdered. I couldn’t cope with it.”
When I realised, she was opening up to me to get me to trust her more, I softened my features, listening to her intently.
“So, I waited until they went to bed that night, and I sneaked into their bathroom and used Father’s razor to shave my head. It took hours, but when I had finished, I looked so much like Tarian no one would know the difference — I was so small, anyway, and I had absolutely nothing about me that screamed womanly.” She laughed bitterly, shaking her head slightly, “Anyway, I left my parents a note and just… left. I walked for miles until an intake wagon passed on the road and I flagged them down, told them I had just turned eighteen and that I had been missed on intake. They didn’t even question it.”
A wry smile crossed over Hollis’s face, her eyes slicing to meet mine.
“Tarian flipped when he saw me the next morning, lined up beside him and wearing the same uniform. He looked like he had seen a ghost, it was the best entertainment I could’ve asked for. But when he asked me why I was there, I told him exactly why. That never, in all our eighteen years, had there been a day in our lives where we hadn’t done everything together, and it wasn’t about to start then.
“Besides, why should he get to go and have all the fun, killing people and having adventures, and I had to stay at home and sew because I’m a woman?”
Hollis rolled her eyes, dusting her hands off on her trousers and smiling at me. I nodded at her words, completely understanding her point of view. I had never been one to let Dane do all the dirty work, we had always been hip deep in mud together.
Dane’s face filtered through my mind briefly and I felt a pull of pain in my chest. His birthday was coming up soon, and he’d be turning eighteen, and after seeing the way Maeteo trained… I shut that thought out quickly.
“Do you think,” I started, watching a butterfly fly past us and land on a nearby flower, “If your parents had stopped you, or if the guards hadn’t let you on the wagon, that you would’ve stayed at home?”
Hollis looked like she was contemplating my question for a long minute, her lips pursed together, and her head tilted to the side.
“No. No, I don’t think I would’ve.” She said eventually, a small smile on her face, “I loved my parents, I really did, but I always knew that I was needed for something bigger.”
I caught onto the way she said ‘loved’ and my heart tugged in my chest, and I reached out to place a hand on her arm.
Hollis and I spent hours out on the field, laughing and talking and working through her series of circuits to help me learn to shoot properly. And as the sun settled lower in the sky, I finally hit a target. Punching my fist into the air, Hollis cheered, running to grab the arrow and returning it to me. I took it from her with a smile on my face, letting the bow drop by my side.
We cleaned up the space, making sure everything was back in its place, and made our way back towards the castle. Shouts and the sound of boots hitting gravel came from behind us and Hollis tugged on my arm, pulling me as far to the side as she could manage on the narrow path, just in time for a band of soldiers to run past us, all dressed in full armour and carrying swords. I lifted an eyebrow as we watched them go by, followed by Tarian, his hands tucked into his pockets as he called out commands to the soldiers in front of him. He grinned at us as he passed, nodding his head at Hollis and bowing quickly to me.
“How do I stop people doing that?” I asked when he was out of earshot, and Hollis looked at me quizzically. “The bowing.”
“Oh!” Hollis laughed loud, “Stop being royalty, I guess? I don’t think it’s going to stop anytime soon.”
I rolled my eyes, pushing her arm lightly and laughing with her as we finally made our way through the door to the kitchen.
Hollis snatched a couple of bread rolls from the counters, calling out a thanks to chef before quickly ushering me out of the kitchens, chef’s loud voice following her out into the hallways. We giggled all the way up to the second floor, where the council rooms were. This part of the castle, like everywhere else, had deep red carpets, high ceilings, and arched windows. It felt grand — far too grand for me to be wandering around eating freshly baked bread and trailing mud from the field into the carpet.
A yell from the end of the hallway made us pause. Hollis’s eyebrows furrowed into a deep V, and I shrugged. Quietly, we both made our way down to the half open door. Hollis held out an arm, keeping me behind her as she peered into the open space. Maeteo’s voice burst from the room, making my hear stop in my chest.
“This is ridiculous, Eyvlin!” He roared, the sound of hands hitting wood following his words, “She can’t get married! She just got here!”
My eyes widened as I realised they were talking about me, but… married? Hollis looked at me quickly, the same look of confusion on her face as mine.
“What do you want me to do, General?” Eyvlin’s voice sounded weary, “These papers are iron clad. Her father had been talking to King Conleth since before she was born.”
“But it doesn’t make sense!”
“It does, Maeteo.” The sound of Eyvlin using Maeteo’s name turned my stomach. “The Kings concreted the marriage pact the week Kira was born, and the attack… it was all planned.”
Hollis’s eyes went wide now, and she stepped forward, pushing the door open so fast it hit the wall with a loud smack.
Maeteo’s head spun. He was stood leaning against the table, his hair falling into his face, his cheeks flushed, and his shirt untucked. Eyvlin sat across from him, her body slumped into one of the chairs, her long hair tied back into a ponytail. Her eyes met mine, and her lips pressed into a tight line.
The most surprising person in the room, however, was Emily. Stood against the window on the far wall, her arms crossed over her chest and her eyes focused on nothing in front of her.
Hollis stepped into the room, a deathly quiet settling over the three people around the table. I clung to the back of Hollis’s shirt.
“I think,” Hollis’s voice carried through the room, making Maeteo wince slightly, “You three have a lot of explaining to do.”
14
My father had promised my hand in marriage before I was even born.
I sat slumped back in a chair, my hands locked together in my lap, staring blankly at the scattered papers in front of me. Maeteo had been combing over them all afternoon looking for loopholes while I had been training with Hollis, while Eyvlin and Emily were trying to contact the Royal Family of our nearest allies — The Water Kingdom.
They had not been lucky yet. Apparently, their Queen was notoriously hard to get in contact with unless she wanted something from you.
Hollis sat to my left, her knee bouncing as she sat on her hands, her face the perfect mask of calm, composed rage.
“They arrived yesterday.” Eyvlin sighed, pushing another stack of papers towards me. “Obviously with yesterdays… mishap, we didn’t want to — “
“I would say being shot at is a bit more than a mishap.” I muttered, cutting Eyvlin off in her tracks. Sitting forward, I took a hold of a stack of paper, eying them closely. My father’s signature was scrawled in bright red ink, a matching one next to him in black ink — King Conleth, the ruler of the Fire Kingdom.
I swallowed uncomfortably. My stomach turning at the thought of my future being laid out in front of me in these sheets of paper, signed and sealed before I had even taken my first breath. A feeling of unease settled deep in my chest. Pushing the papers away from me, I looked out of the window to my right. The village square in the distance was packed with people, and a small family of birds flew past quickly, their tweets and calls filtering in through the open space.
Having no memories of my father made this feel worse. The way he spoke about me in the contracts, like I was a possession, not his daughter… like I was nothing more to him than something to be passed to the highest bidder. Like cattle at a Sunday market.
And now, years later, both Kings that had signed these papers were dead, and I was barely finding my feet in the castle. I had been ripped from everything I had ever known, forced into a role I did not want, and now was expected to marry a man I had never met.
A hand on my arm pulled me from my thoughts, and I looked to see Hollis, her face remaining unchanged, but her eyes burning with fire.
“We can get you out of this.” She reassured me, her face certain; stubborn.
“How do you propose we do that?” Eyvlin sighed, rubbing a hand over her eyes. It was the most crumpled I had ever seen the woman, her hair dishevelled, and her robes creased. She looked like she had not slept a wink. Which, honestly, would not have surprised me.
“We fight them.” My voice surprised even myself as it filled the room. Four sets of eyes rested on me now, and I sat up straighter in my chair. “We fight them. Tell them that I’m not marrying him.”
“It doesn’t work like that, Your Highness.” Eyvlin sighed again, growing wearier by the second.
Maeteo cleared his throat, his hands resting on the table as he leaned forward slightly and locked eyes with me. My heart fluttered in my chest, and I watched as he smirked at the blush I could feel on my chest.
“Actually, Eyvie, Kira has a point.” Maeteo looked away from me, nodding at Eyvlin, “Why shouldn’t we fight them on this? They have no right to her.”
“Except the rights her father signed over eighteen years ago.”
“Before she was even alive!” Maeteo slapped a hand on the table, making Hollis and myself jump. “It is ancient nonsense that has no place in our Kingdom now.”
Maeteo’s words sat heavy in the air. He was breathing heavy, eyes boring into Eyvlin’s as the older woman glared back at him, her lips pursed unhappily.
“It would mean war.” Eyvlin said slowly.
“We have an army.”
“It is nowhere near large enough.”
“So, we bring in more troops.”
Every argument that Eyvlin shot out, Maeteo managed to counter with one of his own, until the pair stood at opposite sides of the table, both leaning towards each other snarling.
I stood from my chair, the scrape of the legs on the wooden floor making Eyvlin tear her eyes away from Maeteo and stand up straight. She smoothed her hair at the root and clasped her hands together in front of herself, looking down at the scattered mess on the table. Maeteo almost looked smug as he stood up straighter, towering over us all in the room. Hollis had gone to his side, and the difference between the two in height was almost comical.
Excusing myself, I turned on my heel and stepped out of the council room, closing the door with a soft click behind myself.
I could have gone straight to my quarters, locked myself in and paced back and forth until there was a groove in the carpet, but instead I walked myself through the many halls of the castle. Past the portraits of Kings and Queens long gone, past depictions of bloody battles and farmlands, and men that looked incredibly uncomfortable in stuffy armour.
Without any intention to, I found myself walking through the kitchens, waving a quick hello to a few of the staff I had gotten to know a little better, and exiting into the large gardens.
The sun had barely started to set on the horizon, and the air still held onto the stifling heat of the day; humid and clinging to my skin. I wiped an arm over my brow as I wandered over the stone pathways, the gravel crunching under my feet softly. My mind spun with thoughts of everything I had learned in the last few hours. Everything from sword techniques, to how to hold a bow correctly, and Hollis’s reasoning behind joining the ranks like she did. All of it swam in my head like hungry animals around an injured bird.
Right at the front, demanding more of my attention than anything else, was the marriage.
Nausea swam in my stomach as I made my way around one of the many stone fountains that decorated the gardens, and through the large iron gates to the quad. The absolute absurdity of marrying someone at eighteen years old, never mind marrying someone I had never met before, was completely devouring the inside of my brain as I made my way to what I wanted to see.
Still there in the middle of the stone, was the blood stain. It had faded now, like someone had scrubbed at it, but it was still angry enough that my heart dropped at the sight of it.
Crossing my arms over my chest, I forced myself to stand there and stare at it. Stare at the way it had seeped between some stones and spread through the cracks in others. Stare at how the small, green weeds that were growing in the dirt between stones were now dark and crumbling. Stare at the spot where someone had died. Someone who had tried to kill me first, granted, but still someone.
A thought, wild and worse than any I had ever entered my head, and I swayed slightly at the force of it.
I could…
A hand on my arm made me jump, and I spun around on the spot, throwing an elbow out instinctively.
Maeteo didn’t even flinch at the force I hit him with, his eyebrows raised slightly and a bemused look on his face.
“Are you alright?” He asked, his voice soft, his hands moving slowly up and down my arms.
I swallowed quickly, schooling my face into a neutral expression, the fear that he could read my mind suddenly making me panic.
“I’m fine.” I lied, smiling up at him, “Just a bit… shocked?”
“Naturally,” He nodded, letting his arms drop by his side and studying my face as he looked at me.
I stood still, staring straight back at him and watching as his eyes moved from mine to my lips, and back again. He reached out, tucking a stray strand of hair away from my face, his fingers lingering on my cheekbone. Instinctively, I leaned my head into the palm of his hand, his eyes snapping back to mine. His pupils had blown wide, and I could hear his breathing starting to come faster. He shifted his body slightly, angling himself a little closer to me, the handle of his sword bumping against my hip.
A deafening roar caught us both by surprise. Maeteo threw out an arm to pull me behind him, and my hands flew up to cover my ears from the sudden noise. Maeteo turned us on the spot, his head whipping back and forth as he looked around for whatever had made the noise. He finally came to a halt, facing over towards the Lides mountain, and my eyes went wide.
There, atop the highest peak of the mountain, a dark figure loomed, rising into the sky above the clouds.
Silence fell before the figure dropped back through the clouds, spreading its wings and letting out another one of those bone-chilling roars. Maeteo stiffened, his arm dropping away from in front of me.
