Chapter 11
The ‘village’ wasn’t what I expected. It wasn’t even a village, not by my reckoning. It wasn’t even what I’d consider a hamlet. If I was to classify it at all, I would call it a…farm, or a compound at the most. There was a main house and yard with several outbuildings and…that was it. There were no gardens or animals or crops. There was a large oval dirt yard that I would have thought was a corral but there were no horses to be seen despite there being a stable.
‘If that…person—’ I refused to acknowledge that he was a soldier or that he was from Kairos ‘––was able to follow us through the woods, what’s to stop him from finding us here?’ I asked Breust, who had paused at the gate to the compound and was taking it all in with a smile on his face.
‘Nothing,’ Breust replied as if it wasn’t concerning at all.
‘But—’
‘You’ll be safe here,’ Parisar said, coming to stand beside us.
They were the first words he’d spoken to me since the attack.
‘How?’ I asked, turning to him with my hands on my hips.
He didn’t answer me. He didn’t even look at me.
‘Get everyone settled,’ he said to Breust. ‘And then we’ll meet to discuss the guard rotation and chores.’
Breust nodded and loped off toward the others. Tain looked back over her shoulder at me with a scowl.
‘I don’t understand how you expect to keep me safe here,’ I said, crossing my arms. ‘You only just kept me safe on the trail here.’
‘I knew he was following us,’ Parisar replied.
I snorted. ‘Sure you did. That’s why he nearly killed me.’ I swallowed as I said the last part. I still wasn’t comfortable thinking that someone wanted me dead. I didn’t think anyone could be comfortable with that.
‘I wanted to see how far he would go,’ Parisar explained casually. ‘I wanted to know whether they just wanted to kidnap you or whether they wanted you gone entirely.’
I turned to stare at him, my mouth hanging open in disbelief. ‘And you didn’t think to warn me?’
Parisar looked down his nose at me. ‘What good would that have done? You would have given it away, and we would have lost the element of surprise.’
‘Ri-ght,’ I drawled, looking away from him and feigning interest in my surroundings.
‘Everyone else knew,’ he said, as if this made it any better. ‘They were all on alert, which is why you are still alive.’
I turned to snap at him—I didn’t know what I was going to say—but he stepped closer to me and spoke again before I could.
‘I won’t let anything happen to you, Princess.’ His voice was a burr against my skin…and not entirely unpleasant. ‘I am very good at what I do.’
‘And what is that, exactly?’ I asked, my voice breathier than I’d like. ‘Kidnapping princesses?’
His lips quirked up in a smirk. ‘Among other things.’
He walked away, leaving me gaping after him. My pulse thrummed in my throat, and my brain was fuzzy. How did he always manage to leave me so off balance?
‘Come on,’ Tain said brusquely. ‘Stop mooning after the lord and stow your gear. Just because you’re a princess doesn’t exempt you from chores.’
‘What?’ I snapped. ‘Mooning?’
Tain shook her head at me. ‘And here I thought you’d be more upset about having to do chores.’
She stalked off, expecting me to follow her. After a moment, I did.
Tain led me into the main house. It was simple enough, just a large room that was used as a shared living space with seating for everyone. Beyond the main area were two large bedrooms and a bathroom that we were all supposed to share. I honestly didn’t know how that was going to work. Did we all share the bath water, or did someone replenish it each time? I shuddered at having to bathe in the same water as the men, and the women for that matter.
‘You want fresh water, you haul it and heat it,’ Tain said, taking in my expression. ‘No one here is going to play servant to you, your highness. You’ll be expected to pitch in with the cooking and cleaning, as well as the hunting.’
I flinched at the thought of hunting. I could shoot an arrow; archery had been part of my lessons from when I was young. But I’d only ever shot a stationary target and never something living.
‘Or perhaps gathering wood would be more your speed,’ Tain drawled with sarcasm.
Tain stepped back into one of the bedrooms. ‘You’ll be bunking in here with Cor, Sim, and me.’
‘Cor and Sim?’
Tain rolled her eyes. ‘The other two female members of the team,’ she replied. ‘Try to keep up.’
I nodded, stowing the names away. I didn’t know which was Cor and which was Sim, which made me realise I hardly heard the others refer to each other by name, but then again, I hadn’t exactly been paying much attention to them. No wonder they saw me as a spoiled princess.
‘Cor and Sim,’ I said with a nod.
‘This is your bed.’ Tain showed me the plain wooden frame with bare mattress. The other beds were made with crude blankets. ‘Blankets are in the chest at the end of the bed. Use the chest to stow any personal belongings—‘ she drifted off. I didn’t have any personal belongings.
‘Right,’ I said, walking over to the chest and lifting the lid.
A waft of lavender and cedar greeted me. The blanket folded neatly inside was a khaki green colour and made from rough woven fabric, but it was clean. I spread it over the bed and tucked the edges under the mattress as I’d seen my maids do. It wasn’t as neat as they made it, nor as neat as the other beds in the room, but I was proud of myself for the achievement, small though it was. It was the first time since Parisar had shoved that hood over my face that I felt in control of something.
I looked around the room again. ‘There’s only three beds,’ I said, turning to Tain.
‘Sim and I will bunk together,’ she replied.
‘You gave up your bed for me?’ I asked, surprised.
Tain snorted. ‘No, but Sim did.’
I nodded, wanting to meet Sim and thank her.
‘I’ll ask around to see if anyone has a spare change of clothes for you,’ Tain said.
‘No,’ I replied, and she frowned at me. ‘I mean, I’d like to do it. It will help me get to know everyone.’
Tain looked at me for a long moment before nodding. ‘Come on. We’re meeting to discuss chores and such.’
‘And eat?’ I asked, my stomach rumbling quietly.
Tain nodded and turned, stalking out of the room. I scurried after her. She didn’t like me, that much I knew. It was an unusual feeling for me, and I knew how utterly asinine that sounded. Not everybody liked me, but in the castle, they at least tried to hide it. I wouldn’t be getting that much courtesy from these people if Tain’s reaction to me was any indication.
Sim turned out to be a petite, dark-skinned woman with close cropped hair and startling green eyes that reminded me of the ocean. Thalassoan? I wondered. What was a Thalassoan doing in a group of Eudaimonians? But then, were they all Eudaimonian? Parisar had told me they were all loyal to the crown…but which crown?
I looked at the others, really looked at them for perhaps the first time. Breust appeared to be Eudaimonian. The dark hair and pale skin marked him as one—although his skin was not as pale as mine, which I attributed to him being out in the woods and in the sun more than I was. Zeyr could be from Eudaimonia or Kairos, or even Querencia, although I doubted it. If he was a subject of Elil’s why would he be in this group? He had brown hair, not as dark as Breust, and palish skin, although, again, not as pale as mine—it was paler than Breust, though. It gave him a bland, unremarkable appearance that meant he could pass into all three kingdoms without being thought odd. As for Tain, if her blonde hair was natural and not the result of a colouring treatment I’d heard the maids talking about, then she was from Kairos. The other woman in the group, not that I had been introduced to her, was Cor. I was only able to put a name to her face because of the chore allocation that had happened at the meeting. Cor was fierce with bright red hair, piercing green eyes, and wore a wolf pelt over her shoulders. As for her heritage, I could only guess. If I had to choose, I would say she was from the borderlands, which meant she could be from Eudaimonia, Querencia, or Kairos. I would hazard a guess at Kairos. Their southern border and our north-eastern one were the only regions I knew of where wolves lived, and red hair—if it was natural—was unusual enough to place her close to, if not in, Kairos.
The other member of the group, Weylei, was the most unusual, and I wondered why I had only just noticed this. I blamed Parisar. He had been my main focus, as much as I hated to admit it, especially since I was still trying to gather information on this group and their real agenda.
As for Weylei, I wasn’t even sure if he was from Fernweh or if he had come from one of the lands across the sea, the island of Coreya. I’d seen their ships come into Eudaimonia once or twice, on the rare occasions I was allowed to visit the port. They sat low in the water with a great dragon’s head on the prow. Oars poked out from the sides and the top was completely covered with large spikes protruding from the roof. Two tall masts reached into the sky with sails reinforced by batons. The guards had called them turtle ships because of the way the deck was completely covered like a turtle shell. They were a stark contrast to the other ships docking along the port, and they brought with them spices in beautiful hand-painted vases, delicate hair pins encrusted with fine jewels, and yards of colourful silk. Dark hair, darker than most people in Eudaimonia, darker even than mine, olive coloured skin and almond-shaped eyes that didn’t have a fold on the eyelid, set them apart and made them immediately recognisable. They had at first been looked upon warily, but it wasn’t long before the people of Eudaimonia counted the days until their ships came in. Their products were revered and much sought-after, and I knew some of them had stayed and set up shops in Port City.
Perhaps this member of the group was from one of those families, or maybe he truly was from Coreya. And if so, why? Why was he here? Why was he a part of Parisar’s little group? And come to think of it, just how long had this little group been together? The ‘village’ was well established, and the members moved around each other with the ease of people who had lived together for a long time. Did Father know about them? Did Mother? I had to believe my mother knew, if she was the one to order Parisar to take me—something I was still having a hard time believing.
‘Why the frown?’ Parisar asked as he sat down next to me.
We were all seated on logs around a fire in the open space in front of the main house. There was a sitting area inside with real chairs and everything, even a table for meals, but the group seemed to prefer to meet outside, and this was where they’d had the earlier meeting. He handed me a bowl of stew, which I took with a murmured thank you.
I was sick of stew, but I was hungry, and I was not going to cause a scene and give him or the others any more reason to look at me with disdain. Tain had made her opinion of me quite clear earlier, and by the chores assigned to me, it appeared no one thought much of my abilities.
‘I can do more than just wash dishes and make beds,’ I said, taking a large bite of stew.
‘You’re upset because I didn’t give you more jobs?’ Parisar asked, one eyebrow raised in surprise. ‘Would you like to chop wood? Or do the laundry?’
I didn’t answer. I wasn’t angry about that. I wasn’t really angry at all. I was just frustrated.
‘How long are you going to keep me here?’ I asked.
‘Until your mother sends word that it is safe for you to come home.’
I turned to him. ‘If you’re here and your father has been removed from the castle, who is guarding my mother? Assuming what you’ve told me is true.’
‘Your mother has enough loyal guards to protect her.’
‘Then why couldn’t they protect me, too? Why did you have to bring me here?’
Parisar sighed. ‘I have explained this to you,’ he said.
‘Explain it again because it doesn’t make sense.’
Parisar stood.
‘Where are you going?’
‘Away,’ he said, his jaw tight.
‘But—’
He stalked away, not even looking back at me. It was what I wanted, wasn’t it?
‘You really know how to win friends and influence people, don’t you?’ Breust said from a log over from the one I was sitting on.
I scowled at him and scooped up more of my stew. I didn’t want to be here, but I also knew I would never be able to find my way back to the castle. I didn’t even know if we were still in Eudaimonia. I assumed we were, but I had no idea where we were within the borders of the kingdom. The wood was utterly foreign to me, not that that was much of a surprise. I hadn’t been more than a day’s ride from the castle in my life and of that, the only other place I’d really been was Port City.
‘Where are we?’ I asked Breust, not expecting him to tell me.
‘On the border of Eudaimonia and Werifesteria,’ he replied.
I gulped, almost choking on my stew. ‘Werifesteria? Isn’t there an impenetrable border between us and Werifesteria?’
Breust nodded, enjoying my alarm. ‘A little over half a day’s journey that way,’ he pointed into the thick woods, ‘is where the thorns start.’
‘Thorns?’
He nodded again, this time with a wicked grin. ‘Thorn bushes taller than three men stacked on top of one another. And the thorns,’ he shook his head, ‘the thorns are as long and thick as a man’s arm.’ He pushed up his sleeve and made a fist, turning his forearm to and fro as an example.
‘Or a woman’s arm,’ Tain added, fisting her own hand and showing me her forearm.
‘But why?’ I asked, more to myself than anything.
‘There’s a legend says a witch put a curse on the castle because the king offended her,’ Breust said.
‘Bullshit,’ Cor spat. ‘That witch was trying to protect the princess.’
‘Protect her from who?’ I asked.
Cor shrugged. ‘The truth has been lost to time, but I think it was from the king of Querencia.’
Querencia again. Why did everyone suspect Elil?
‘Protect her from what?’ I asked. I had only heard the story from Master Frances, and I didn’t remember anything more than that no one had heard from Werifesteria for a hundred years.
‘The story my grandmother told me was that the witch was in fact the princess’s god mother. She warned the king that the king of Querencia had plans to invade Werifesteria. The king ignored her warning and betrothed the princess to the prince of Querencia on the day of her naming ceremony. The witch put a curse on the kingdom to stop them from marrying.’
‘So the princess was just a baby?’
Cor nodded. ‘Apparently the curse didn’t come into effect until the princess reached the age of maturity. The godmother gave the king until then to reverse his decision. When he didn’t, the curse struck, and the thorns grew up along the border, cutting Werifesteria off from the rest of Fernweh.’
‘But what about everyone inside?’ I asked. ‘Did the godmother kill them all?’
Cor shrugged. ‘No one knows what happened to them. No one has ever been able to get through the thorns to find out.’
‘Enough chit chat,’ Parisar called from the opposite side of the circle. ‘Get to work.’
No one complained as they got to their feet. I followed them. I was in charge of cleaning the dishes after every meal. I’d never done it before, but how hard could it be?