The other foot soldier nodded in sloppy agreement. “Aye. ’Tis the truth. And anyway, if the stolen princess had been returned, we’d all be celebrating. Bells ringing. Women opening their skirts.” He looked around, disappointed. “I don’t see any such wonders here, just ugly fucking soldiers with too much ale in their bellies.”
His companions laughed, but the boy spoke the truth, I had to give him that. The crowd in the pub was as quiet and reserved as any ordinary winter day in late afternoon. My thoughts had been so wrapped up in Sara that I hadn’t even taken the time to notice how strange that nobody seemed to be thinking about her except me.
I rose and straightened myself out, breathing deep to sober myself up. Then I stepped out into the cold chilly late afternoon, passing the captain as he came back inside.
Outside, the streets were quiet. The night soil men were beginning their rounds, the whores were starting up their evening trade, but there was no sign of celebration. I splashed my face with the cold water from the drinking trough that stood before the horses, and blinked away the ale.
Something was wrong, I was sure of it.
If news of Sara wasn’t everywhere by now, it meant someone was keeping her a secret. It meant King Rowan didn’t know she had returned. It meant she was in trouble.
I had to find her. There was no time to waste.
Sara
When my hood was removed, my surroundings had changed completely. I was in a set of rooms that were as luxurious as they were frigid. I looked out the window and saw there was no glass in the window frames, which were covered with lattice wound through with dry vines.
From the paintings on the walls, showing blooming summer flowers and sunshine in the fields, I gathered I was probably in the queen’s summer quarters, far away from curious ears and eyes at this time of year.
The queen sat across the room from me, with a goblet of wine in hand. Next to her at the table sat Bardo, looking pale and concerned. “I told you, my queen, that she was the true stolen princess.”
“And why, pray tell, was she not turned into pig feed eighteen years ago?” The queen glared at him over her goblet. “I haven’t been paying you to keep her hidden all these years, you stupid man. I’ve been paying for your silence, but now here she is. My biggest problem in the flesh. Alive and well and….” She now turned her gaze towards me. “…unacceptably beautiful. At the very least you could have disfigured her.”
“My queen,” whimpered Bardo. “I have faithfully discharged all of your orders. It was never clear to me that you wanted her dead.”
Queen Beatrice rolled her eyes and shook her head. “Do I have to tell you to relieve yourself each morning, you fool? What sort of idiot thinks I’d have wanted her alive? I paid you to do away with her. And I didn’t mean hide her.”
Bardo babbled away, but as the Queen approached me, his whimpers of protest grew too quiet for me to notice. For a long moment, she stood before me, looking at me with pure disgust and annoyance. Then she took hold of my face and examined me with rough touches, turning my cheeks this way and that. With her thumb she drew down my eyelids, as if examining me for disease. Her fingertips were ice cold and it was enough to make me shiver.
Her lips twisted in disgust. “She looks like her mother. One glance at the little slut and her father would know the truth in an instant. Thank God for all those other imposters, making this one easier to deal with.”
“My queen—”
She turned her back on me and approached Bardo once again. He fell silent at once and swallowed so hard and so painfully that I heard the gulp from across the room. “Who else knows about her existence? Who else knows the truth?”
“The family I placed her with, that’s all, I swear it. My queen, if you’ll just allow me to—”
“I suppose I have no choice but to believe your word on that. My guards will deal with them at once. As for you, you dirty little toad, you have been my extortionist for long enough,” the queen said to him. “But that time is over. The secret has been revealed and your value to me is gone.” With a snap of her fingers, she turned away and two of her guards seized him.
Poor Bardo didn’t stand a chance, and the guards left him in a garroted, dead heap in a matter of seconds.
For a long moment, it was as if time stood still. Until the queen turned to me, looked me in the eye… and snapped again.
The guards came for me this time, like wolves going in for the kill. Though I was bound and gagged, I squirmed from my chair and wriggled desperately across the floor. I tried to keep my throat and neck shielded, for they seemed fond of slitting throats and I would not allow them to have easy access to mine.
I screamed against my rope gag and kicked them hard. I felt my shoes connect with a stomach, a jaw, perhaps even a groin, and they fell back.
For a moment, I was left alone on the floor, while they regrouped.
“Of course, she’d be a fighter,” said the queen, exasperated and impatient. She downed her wine and rose from the table. “Perhaps it’s better if I’m not here as a witness, just in case. Find me when it’s finished, but do it right this time. If anyone finds her body, I will make sure they find yours next.”
With that, she turned and departed, leaving me alone with the two guards. I screamed with all my might, but gagged as I was it came out as little more than a mumble, and I was met with a punch that sent my senses reeling and silenced my cries. The guard that had hit me placed his foot on my chest and made a shushing motion above me.
I stared up at him with my chest heaving, trying desperately to catch my breath, confused about why he wasn’t finishing the job. Though I could not grasp the full scale of what was going on with the queen and her plans for me, it was clear that the guard wanted to give the impression, at least, that he had done away with me as the queen had asked, and the realization dawned slowly: he was an ally.
Had Bors sent him, somehow, to rescue me? Or was he loyal to King Rowan and ready to save my life? The punch he’d delivered had been hard, but then it would have to be if he was trying to make out that I was dead.
“It’s over,” he said over his shoulder. “Must have caught her just right.”
There was a moment of hesitation. “We’ll take the body to the south entrance, dump her in the sea.”
“I’ll do it. You get back to the watch. Last thing we need is anyone starting to ask where we are.”
“The queen said—”
“Do you really think I’m going to make a mistake with this? Queen Beatrice would have my head. No, leave it with me. Trust me, nobody will find the body.”
I tried to keep still as the moments passed, then heard the door shut, and the guard helped me to my feet, guiding me to the very chair where the queen had been sitting.
“Thank you,” I said as he unfastened my gag, my hands trembling as I searched his face for any sign of who he might be. I was barely able to trust that he wasn’t trying to poison me as he poured me a glass of water, then a goblet of wine, removed my bindings and motioned for me to drink.
“You must be thirsty,” he said, and his voice sounded concerned. Kind, even.
But as I drank, he caressed my hair, then my cheek, and my collarbone, in such a way that I knew exactly what he wanted. There could be no mistake.