Myfae blood had already almost completely healed my eye and the scratches on my face, but the new skin was tender andIcould feel a cut that still stung on my left temple.Despitemy best efforts, some of the blood-tainted water still slid into my mouth, the fresh metallic taste taking me back to the momentIhad stabbed the soldier, his blood filling the air.Ithought of the second soldier’s heart, held aloft in the king’s hand.Thelegends of his strength were not exaggerated, being able to simply punch through plate armor, not to mention the other fae’s ribs.Ishivered, thinking of the blood as it dripped off his arm onto the floor.
Then, it was the blood of my mother spilled all over the floor as the life faded from her eyes.Tearsrolled down my cheeks asIrealized that had only been a few minutes ago.Shewas likely still lying there.Soldiersfilled our palace, stepping over her body carelessly, kicking her lifeless form, removing her final dignity.
Thetears flowed freely now, althoughIrefused to emit any audible sobs for my guards to hear.Iscrubbed harder at my sensitive face, trying to control my thoughts, but they just kept spinning more wildly.Myfather’s screams mixed with the emperor’s words,Whyplay with the spare, whenIcan have the heir?Didhe know how closely his words mimicked the onesI’dheard my entire life?Tohave a male heir in a royal family was a great honor, with fae children being so rare as it was.Whenmy mother had been pregnant, the news of twins had spread like wildfire and great celebrations had been held across thePearlKingdom.
Onlyseven sets ofidentical twins had ever been recorded in any fae lineage, and with them, great magical power had always arrived.Itwas believed that the soul needed to be split in two in order to support the weight of the magic.Thelast pair had been born back when magic still freely flowed, over six hundred years ago.Allwere now dead, killed in theWarofFlames.Thehealers had predicted two healthy young boys for my mother, unheard of in a royal line.Mybrother had been born to great celebration.ButIhad been born next, a daughter, and had been disappointing everyone ever since.
Therehad only ever been one other set of fae fraternal twins born in written memory, nearly two millennia ago.Butthey were infamous, for they had started anotherGreatWarto allow their incestuous marriage and their tainted offspring to rule theirEternalKingdom, as they called it.Theyhad been defeated, all their children murdered, and their kingdom dissolved.Butfraternal twins were ordained to be an ill omen.
Ofcourse, when my brother andIwere born, much of this was hushed, butIcould still hear it spoken of behind closed doors.Thewhispers had been louder ever since famine and drought had settled on thePearlKingdoma few decades back.Mymother and father had done everything in their power to keep me and my brother separated.Differenttutors, different hobbies, even living on different sides of the palace.
Butdespite their attempts at separation,JunandIhad always been drawn back together.Wehad become very proficient at sneaking out of our rooms at night, meeting in the gardens to talk together and play games of our own creation.Ihad always felt the most free under the warm starry sky with my brother at my side.
Butour daily separation still had its consequences.Mybrother andIhad developed into very different fae.Junwas always quiet, studious, with a love of music and the most beautiful singing voice.I, on the other hand, had been getting into trouble since the momentIcould crawl.
Iremembered my mother’s strained face,muttering about me forcing her into an early old age.Ihad been climbing our sea cliffs again, and two guards had injured themselves attempting to retrieve me.Ihad tried to explain that they should have just let me come down on my own andIwasfiiiiine,but such behavior was not fit for the daughter of the queen.Thethought of my mother’s face, twisted as she scolded me, but with a mischievous light dancing in her eyes caused my shoulders to heave uncontrollably.Iwould never see that face again.
Icollapsed to my knees and hit the bowl of water with my elbow asIdid.Bloodywater sprayed all over the floor, and the bowl clattered about with a series of loud clangs.
“Everythingalright,YourHighness?”Thesoldier with the high voice asked.Theyhad turned around, watching me. “Yes…just…fine.”Ihad to speak slowly to prevent my sobs from sneaking through andIhoped the darkness of the cell hid the tears still staining my face.Thesoldier gave a nod and turned back around, asIlifted the bowl back up onto the bed.Iscrubbed my face one final time with the towel and tossed it aside.Ihad to control my racing mind.Iimagined, asIalways did, theCeruleanSeastretched out before me.Whilemy father andIwere rarely civil, this was the one practice he had given me that we had shared in peace.Icouldn’t take my body through the smooth controlled motions that the practice normally entailed, butIimagined them and controlled my breathing.
Iwent through the routineIhad been doing for over a hundred years, the repetition stilling my mind and my racing heart.Anyerrant thoughts that drifted back up,Ivisualized as stones thatItossed into the slowly curling waves of the ocean of my home.Eachsank below the surface to a collection of rocks being worn away bit by bit in the ocean’s grasp.
Ithrew away my nausea atkilling a man.Ithrew away the grief for my mother, forLyle, and all the other dead around me, as well as any images that lingered in my thoughts.Ithrew away the apprehension of what would happen to me in the grasp of theDragonKing, the heart-stealing general.
KingAbraxas, his name had been whispered like a dark prayer among the young soldiers.Hewas a great warrior, and of his strengths,Inow had no doubts.Buthis name was also a curse.Perhapsit would be your village he burned next, your family he would claim with a swift strike of his sword.Iwas now his prisoner.
WhenIhad finally dropped all my thoughts away,Iheard my guards moving.Theyturned and unlatched the bars to my cell, careful not to touch the iron with their bare hands.
“It’stime to go,Princess.”Imarched out once again, holding my head high, tears cleared from my eyes.AsIpassed the door, each grabbed one of my upper arms, again with a firm but not aggressive grasp.Theylead me out of the tunnels of my home, tunnelsIwould have known in the pitch black, and out towards the docks.
Mtbreath stole away as we emerged into the daylight.Icould feel the ocean of my mind growing turbulent as if a storm approached the shore.ThepalaceIhad known my whole life lay in ruins.Onlya few of the taller towers remained, and ash and that miasmic purple lightning could be seen everywhere.Bodiesstill lay strewn about, but many had been stacked in mass graves to be burned.Isaw one pyre already lit; dozens of bodies nearly charred to nothing.Thewind shifted and the smoke of the pyre floated over us, the smell of burning flesh overwhelming, andIdry heaved, doubling over in my captor’s arms.
“Ugh, gods…” the taller soldier said, using their other hand to remove their helmet.Iwas stunned by the beauty of the face revealed underneath.
Theyhad dark brown skin, the color of the richest earth in a healthy garden, and long dark hair that had been twisted into dozens of small braids close to their scalp.Eachof these braids was ornamented with copper beads, and they were all pulled back into one larger braid at the back of their head.Theireyes were a soft, honey brown so at odds with the sharp angles of the rest of their face.Longpointed ears emerged from their braided hair, marking them as fully fae.
Theycaught me staring, and gave a mischievous smile, before continuing to pull me along, “Quitepretty for a brute, eh,YourHighness?”Iaverted my gaze, but the slight pause allowed me to regain my composure.
“Whereare we going?Thereis no way the ships are ready to leave.Whatof the fighting?”IfIcould just buy some time, perhapsIcould slip away.
Theyhit me with a look that was too close to pity for my liking, “ThePearlKingdomarmy has been…subdued.”Ihad a feeling that was a very nice way of putting the slaughter that had occurred. “Asmall contingent will stay behind, but the rest are departing.”Theywalked me towards the docks, and as we rounded the final outer wall,Iwas greeted by the armada of ships bearing both the flags of theDragonKingdomand theCourtofFlames.
WhileNiatahad been unprepared for a battle, how had an entire fleet of ships approached our shores unnoticed?Nowarning had been given when the volley had begun.ButthenIthought back to the unseasonable fog that had rolled in this morning.Theenemy had used it to their advantage, heavily.
Atthe end of the dock stood a massive ship that was obviously the head of theDragonKing’sfleet.Thesails were black, emblazoned withthe green dragon of the king.Hesnarled down at me, beady eyes locked on its prey.Asa youngling,JunandIhad played dragon hunters, running through the woods on an epic quest to hunt down the final dragon,TheWorldBreaker, even though he had been brought down byEmperorHadeonlong before our time.Regardless, we had fancied ourselves the warriors of old, taking on those fierce enemies with our stick swords and leaf shields.Now, with this one staring down at me asIwas taken from my home,IwishedIcould shove a sword straight through its heart.
Cohortsof soldiers boarded the boat, but they parted with military precision to let my escorts andIclimb the gangplank.Onceon the ship,Iwas led to the upper decks and inside quickly.Fromthe main cabin,Iexpected to be taken down into the belly of the boat, to the brig or other imprisonment, but insteadIwas deposited into a small room.Bymy judgment, it was right next to the king’s quarters.Theroom wasn’t much, barely enough room for a small dresser and the bed, but it certainly wasn’t a prison cell.
Myguard gently pushed me into the room, “Myname isAvlyn, and if you need anything,Princess,Ishall be available to you.”Athousand snarky replies died on my lips, andIsimply remained silent. “Weshall be departing soon,” they said and shut the door behind them, before the loud scraping of a key entering the lock sounded from the other side.
Iturned quickly and jumped on the bed, ripping at the small porthole window above it.Itwas sealed shut and didn’t budge an inch.Iripped the sheets off the bed and wrapped my hand, before landing a solid punch on the glass.Allthis achieved was sending a reverberating shockwave of pain through my hand and up my arm.Icontinued to smash my fist into it until my knuckles bled into the sheets wrapped over them.Avlyn’svoice called through the door, “Itis reinforced.Youwon’t be able to break it.”Theydid not elaborate, but my knuckles agreed with them.
Afrustrated hiss slipped from my lips, even knowing thatAvlynwould hear it as they stood watch outside my door.Iflopped onto the small bed, relishing in the pain of my arm, focusing on it to drive away my feeling of helplessness.Butshortly after,Ifelt the boat surge beneath me.Iscrambled to look out the window as the landIhad called home for my entire life seemed to float away from me.Icouldn’t tear my eyes away—not until thePearlKingdom, with her swaying palm trees and rocky shores, disappeared into the horizon of theCeruleanSea.
Chapter4
Tori
