Tall grass brushes against my leg.
I giggle.
Nicholai runs up behind me and grabs me. He throws me in the air. I squeal as I fall back down into his arms.
But I don’t land in his arms. I land against a patch of burnt ground. I jump, and look around.
“Nicholai?”
Something grabs my foot. I look.
There’s a skeleton, blackened from fire, hissing as the wind cools it. It looks up at me and begins pulling me away.
I claw against the ground, trying to get away. Around me people are on fire, running and screaming in pain.
“Nicholai!” I scream. Two other skeletons grab onto my legs. I scream and fight harder.
“Nicholai!”
I look, and find Nicholai, lying on his back, his armor smashed, a red puddle growing underneath him. I scream again, clawing at the air only to tangle my arms in rib bones and burned clothes. I'm pulled into a deep, black hole.
Something hisses my name:
“Cai...”
“Cai…”
************
“Cai!”
I open my eyes, letting out all the air left in my lungs with a high-pitched scream. I’m still in my bed, my arms and legs tangled in my sheets as I stare up at the ceiling.
Or I would be if something wasn’t in my way. I jump as a dark shadow looms over me, then squint and see that it’s Axellia, looking very worried and frightened.
I sigh. It was only a dream, again. The same one I’ve had over and over again since Nicholai…
I rub the white line on my ear. The cut from the elves’ arrow is gone now, healed over the three months since that day, but a scar still lies across the top of my right ear. I guess it’s always going to be there. Usually a Unicorn Holder would have fixed it up for me, but the one that used to work for us disappeared a little while before Nicholai died. I guess he went somewhere else. Or…
...maybe he died too?
Either way I now have a scar.
“You’re alright, Cai,” Axellia whispers as she leans down and hugs me. “I’ve got you. You’re alright.”
“Children?” Bebin pokes her head in from her room attached to the nursery, her nightcap hanging lop-sided on the top of her head. “It’s close to midnight. What are you two doing?”
“Cai had a bad dream again,” Axellia explains as she lets me go and we both sit up.
“Oh, my dear,” Bebin walks over to my bed and sits down next to us. She pulls me into her lap. “I’m so sorry.”
I wrap my arms around her neck and set my chin on her shoulder. It is not until I feel her arms around me that I realize how cold I am, and shudder.
“Put your robe on, now,” Bebin says as she takes it off my bedpost and slips it onto me. “We’re deep into winter now, it’s going to be cold for a while.”
“Where’s Mother?” I ask.
“In her room.”
“Can I go see her?”
“I’m not…I’m not sure that’s a good idea, m’boy.”
“But why? Mother always lets us come see her when we’re sad.”
“Right,” Axellia agrees. “Why can’t we see her? We haven’t seen her in forever!”
“Things are different now, my sweet. And it hasn’t been forever since you’ve seen her, it’s been-”
“Three days!” Axellia cries, collapsing against the mattress, her hands thrown in the air.
“She’s not feeling well because the baby is coming soon, that’s all, your highness,” Bebin tries to reach over and pat Axellia’s head, but she rolls her eyes and lets herself roll off the bed.
“But three days is so long!” she plops onto the floor. “We miss her!”
“I know you do,” Bebin sighs, pushing a strand of gray hair back into her nightcap. I climb out of her lap. She stands up to hover over the sighing and groaning Axellia as she rolls around on the floor. I sit cross-legged on my pillow. I don’t want to go back to sleep yet because I’m scared I’ll have another nightmare. I decide instead to walk over to the map on the wall near Axellia’s bed.
Jutting out of the clear blue waves are three big clumps of land. Two are divided into colored sections. The third is just plain grey. I don’t pay the gray one much mind, there’s no one living there. At least I don't think so. Everyone says those who try to go there never come back.
I put my finger on the castle near the top of the orange mass towards the bottom of the top continent, then set another finger on the castle near the bottom edge of the blue mass just above the orange one. I sigh as I stare at the space between my fingers. That’s how far Father is from us. It’s not much, actually, but just enough that I can’t see him.
Bebin sets her hand on my shoulder as she carries Axellia on her hip. I look up at her and she smiles weakly.
“Let’s see how much you know, shall we?”
I sigh. I don’t feel like learning right now, but I have nothing else to do.
“What’s this a map of?” Bebin asks.
“Tellura,” I answer.
“And how many continents are in Tellura?”
“Seven,” Axellia grumbles against Bebin’s shoulder.
“No, there are seven kingdoms,” Bebin corrects. “There are only three continents.”
“Countries, continents, same thing,” Axellia grumbles.
“No, it’s not…” Bebin tries to explain as Axellia slides out of her arms and back into the floor.
“I don’t care!” she cries.
Bebin sighs, but doesn’t try to pick her up, or get her to answer any more questions. She just lets her lay there.
“Which continent do we live in?” she asks me, smiling softly.
“Benedomin,” I point to the top continent I was already looking at. “This one,” I say as I rest my finger on the orange clump.
“Correct, now wh-”
“And that’s Peliacu,” I point to the continent below it. “And that’s Neohem,” I point to the biggest, grey continent far out west.
“Very good!” Bebin cheers. “Now, which-”
“The people who are part animal live in Peliacu, the people who aren’t part animal live in Benedomin, and nobody lives in Neohem,” I continue.
“Well. Not the correct terms, but yes, that’s right.” Bebin congratulates me, but I don’t feel like smiling as she hugs me.
“Show off!” Axellia cries, slightly muffled because her face is pressed against the floor.
“Alright, let’s see what you know, Princess Axellia,” Bebin says with her hands on her hips. “What are the seven races?”
“Humans,” Axellia mumbles.
“Yes, that’s what we are, what are the other six?”
“The short people and the tall people.”
Bebin sighed and rubbed her forehead. “Dwarves and giants, Axellia, dwarves and giants.”
“Whatever.” Axellia sighs. “Then there’s the fish people, the fox people, and the bird people.”
“Merfolk, kitsune, and fairy, Princess Axellia. You can’t just call them the whatever people!” Bebin rolled her eyes.
“Why?”
“Because it’s rude.”
“Why?”
“Because those aren’t their names.”
“Why not?”
“They just aren’t.”
“Why?”
“Axellia, please-”
I leave the two girls and walk back to my bed. I’m bored with learning now. I take my sketch book out from under my pillow and sit crossed legged on my bed as I stare across the room to the map. I open my sketchbook up and pull my pencil out of the center and begin drawing pictures of Durcardi and Omniphilo. I draw a picture of myself in Durcardi, and a picture of Father in Omniphilo, and write over the top “Come home s…”
“Bebin, how do you spell ‘safe’?” I ask.
“S-A-F-E,” Bebin calls as she drags Axellia off the floor. I write the word down, and then close the sketch book, saving it for when we can write letters to Father again. Crawling back under my blankets again, I clutch the sketch book to my chest, feeling tired but not wanting to go back to sleep.
Bebin is still fighting with Axellia, and their voices keep me from resting.
“I don’t wanna talk about the map anymore!”
“Alright, how about going back to sleep like Cai?”
“No. Not tired.”
“Then perhaps you should play with your dolls.”
“No.”
“How about drawing?”
“No.”
“Oh, for goodness sakes…” Bebin pushes her cap back up, out of her face. “How about practicing your languages? Malanese, perhaps?”
“Valla.”
“Oh, you smart, cheeky, little lassie!” Bebin picks Axellia up and sets her on her feet, only to have her collapse back into the floor.
“Well, what do you want to do?”
“Go outside!”
“You know you can’t-”
“But I’m bored!”
“I know, but you have to wait until-”
“But I’m bored now!”
I groan, pick up my pillow and put it over my head, trying to drown out their arguing for a few minutes until Bebin jerks it off me.
“…and stop doing that! You’re going to catch your death of heat,” she picks my head up and sets it back down on my pillow. I look over to the bed next to me, and find Axellia sitting up on her pillow with her arms crossed, a deep frown on her face.
“Now, Princess Axellia, if you aren’t going to sleep, at least be quiet so your brother can.”
“Fine!” Axellia sighs as she collapses back against her bed. Bebin yawns and walks back into her room through the door in at the back of the nursery. Axellia picks up a basket of woven balls and begins throwing them at a target hanging above her bed. I close my eyes, finally deciding I might as well try to go back to sleep. The smack, plop, smack, plop, of the balls hitting and dropping makes rest, once again, impossible, though.
“Axellia, stop!” I cry.
“I’m bored!”
“I’m tired!”
“So, go to sleep.”
“I can’t, you’re being too loud!”
“No I’m not.”
“Yes you are!”
“I’m just throwing balls. And they’re not even the hard ones.”
“They’re still loud!”
“No they aren’t!”
“Cai,” Bebin sighs, poking her head back through the door. “Her balls are about as loud as when you draw when she’s trying to fall asleep. Just ignore it and go to sleep.”
“I can’t!” I whine.
“Just try,” Bebin closes the door back. Axellia sticks her tongue out at me as I turn my back to her. She continues to throw her balls, and I continue lying there wide awake. Grumlbing, I climb out of bed and go into Bebin’s room. Her room is small, and only has a bed, a trunk, and a small table with a wash bowl, mirror, and a sketch drawing of Mother and her brother when they were children.
“What are you doing, Prince Cai?” she asks me as she sits up from under her blankets.
“Can I sleep with you tonight?”
She sighs and rubs her face. “You know you can’t, my boy.”
“But why not? Mother won’t let me go to her room anymore, and I’m scared to sleep alone.”
“I’m a servant, Cai, not your mother. I can’t behave like I am.”
“But I’m scared.”
Bebin looks at me with a sad face. She stands up and walks over to me, kneeling down on her knees, and hugging me tight.
“I know you are, my dear boy, and I wish there was something more I could do. But there are certain rules I have to adhere strictly to. I don’t expect you to understand now, but someday…”
I pull away and storm back into my room, slamming the door behind me. I crawl back into my bed and pull the covers over my head. I open my sketch book and look at some of the pictures I’ve drawn; of me, of Axellia, and Mother, and Father, and Nicholai, all together.
I feel a weight on top of me. Pulling the blankets off to find Axellia on top of me, her arms around my middle.
“I’ll stay with you so you won’t be scared,” she says. I smile, pull the blankets back, and let her crawl under them.
********
Clang! Clang! Clang!
I jump up at the loud noise, smashing my head against Axellia’s as I do so.
“Ow! What’d you do that for?” I ask.
“Me? You’re the one who ran into me!”
“Did not!”
“Children, children, shush!” Bebin cries as she stumbles out of her room, holding a finger to her mouth.
“The King’s returned!” someone calls from the top of the bell tower in the very middle of the palace. “The King’s returned! The war is over!”
“Father!” Axellia and I both cry as she jumps out of bed and races into the hall.
“Hey! Hey, Princess Axellia, come back here!” One of the guards calls. I tear out the picture I’d drawn for Father earlier and race after Axellia.
“Princess, come back-Oh! Not you too, Crown Prince Cai!” the guards call as I race down the hall after my sister. Bebin cries for us to return as well, but we ignore her. We rush down the halls, searching frantically for Father. We finally find him standing outside his and Mother’s bedroom door, talking to some of his smart people. He’s still dressed in his armor, his hair pulled back.
“Father!” we both cry as we rush towards him. The smart people look a little startled at our approach. Father turns, smiles, and bends down to scoop both of us into his arms.
“Hello, you two,” he smiles as he presses kisses to both of our foreheads.
“What took you so long to come home?”
“We missed you!”
“Why’d you stay away forever?”
“We thought you’d never come back!”
“I thought those bells meant another funeral.”
“I’ll answer all your questions later,” Father promises as he stands back up, and faces his smart people.
“So, um, yes sir,” one of them clears their throat. “The new palace should be ready for your family to move into by next month.”
“Excellent,” Father nods.
“We’re moving?” Axellia cries, her eyes wide with shock.
“Yes, my dear,” Father answers.
“Why?” Axellia asks, arms crossed. “We like it here.”
“Because it’s not safe here anymore,” Father answers. “We’re too close to the Omniphilo. We’re going to move into a new, safer castle on the other side of our Durcardi sometime next month.”
“So, you didn’t solve the problems?” I ask. “You didn’t take care of the people who wanted to kill-”
“Oh, no, I solved it,” Father answers in a low, growly voice. “But I don’t want anymore problems like this to come up again.”
“How’d you solve it?” I wonder.
Before Father can answer, a soldier comes up with a giant box in his hands.
“Your majesty, where do you want this?” he asks.
“Set it down there,” Father points to the wall to the side of his and Mother’s bedroom door. “I’ll show them to the queen as soon as she’s-”
Axellia pops open the top of the box and looks inside. “Eggs?”
“Peacock eggs,” Father explains as he gently pulls Axellia away from the box so the soldier can set it down. “It’s a gift for your mother.”
“Where is Mother?” Axellia asks.
“Well, she-” Father begins just as more servants come in with trunks, barrels, and bags full of stuff. And something odd.
A little girl, about mine and Axellia’s age. One of the servants is leading her down the hall by her hand. She sees something that scares her, though, and ducks down a hallway.
The servant that was holding her hand opens her mouth to say something, then shrugs and carries on his way. Slowly the girl pokes her face around the corner. It’s a bit hard to see her because her skin is almost as pale as the white walls of the hallway, only a splash of pink freckles make her stand out. Curious, I walk over to her. She gasps as I round the corner to meet her, cowering and shrinking away until she collides with a potted tree against the wall of the hall.
She stares up at me with big, scared, blue eyes, shaking. Her hair is a very, very pale yellow, and her ears are a little odd looking. They’re pointed, like an elf's, but instead of poking out from the side of her head, they lie flat against her head like a human’s. Her face and dress, which look almost like a nightgown, are covered in dirt, the bottom of her skirt is torn. She has no shoes.
“Who are you?” I ask.
She shakes her head, whimpering, not answering.
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