Soul of the Crow: An Epic Dark Fantasy (Reapers of Veltuur Book 1), стр. 17

The Fate of the Princess

Acari

I trip over myself hauling out of Gem’s room, dragging the patter of her small steps behind me. Circling an arm around her waist and one under her legs, I lift her against my chest and run down the winding stairs that lead into the church below.

“Excuse us! Sorry!” I yell, apologizing for my disruption of the ceremony of colors taking place, while consequently interrupting it more. But we’re only there for the ten seconds it takes to finally burst out the wooden door and into Sungem Courtyard where I find my shoes awaiting me.

On any given day, this courtyard is usually less inhabited than Dove Plaza, the courtyard at the south front of the palace. But since we are just a day away from the Festival of Wings, it seems the entire palace has planned on attending church today, as dozens of lords and ladies crowd the paths. We blow through a gaggle of women sharing the latest gossip, leap over children playing Jacks on the grass, and dodge advisors and soldiers preparing for their duty like we are a gust of wind. Everyone is left disheveled by our wake.

We are quite the sight for confused bystanders: a prince scrambling through the crowds with a giggling toddler in his arms. If Gem’s existence had been known, most people probably wouldn’t think anything of it. Two siblings running through the halls seems a normal enough thing to do.

However, since no one knows who she is, their confusion—and, more importantly, their worry—are difficult to hide from their scrutinizing gazes.

As I race past the Forbidden Garden, I’m actually relieved, if not surprised, to find a different guard stationed there. I don’t want to have to explain to Borgravid who Gem is and what I’m doing with her. Although he has always been kind to me, and although on occasion he has let me sneak into the Forbidden Garden, he has served under my father my entire life, and I have never once been so full of myself to think that he would be more loyal to me than he is to my father.

Just past the garden, I clamber into my chamber, slamming the door behind Gem and me. My chest pounds against Gem’s head. She pulls back, resting her hand over it with delight as she examines its rise and fall.

“Acari? What are you doing back so soon—”

I almost drop Gem at the sound of Hayliel’s voice. Instead, I only manage to half drop her, easing her the rest of the way to the ground and fixing my tunic as Hayliel steps around the corner and into view.

“Hayliel. You—you’re here. Hi,” I say, waving awkwardly.

“Hi,” she replies, looking peculiarly from me to the child at my hip.

Gem doesn’t stand still long. When she notices the magnificence of the room we’ve just entered, a golden, expansive contrast to the small dungeon she’s called a home her whole life, Gem can’t contain herself. She darts past Hayliel with the briefest of waves, vaults into the air, and plummets onto the fluffed blankets of my bed. Giggling all the while, she rolls across the mattress, taking three to four full rotations before meeting either end and then starting over.

Rather than fighting it, I cross the room to meet Hayliel. “Hayliel, meet Gem.”

Hayliel’s eyes go wide. Not with shock; she’s known about Gem for a while now. It was hardly the kind of thing I could keep from the person I spend most of my time with, especially after my mother and Rikeet died. I had to tell someone. But, even though Hayliel has known about Gem, she has never met her. After everything I told her, about how my father kept her a secret, about the small cleft in her lip, I don’t think she ever thought she would meet her.

“This is Gem?” she asks sweetly. Practically floating, Hayliel glides over to the bed. She falls to her knees just as Gem rolls over to her, their faces almost nose-to-nose. “It’s so nice to meet you.”

“Hi!” Gem beams, before bounding off to the next dazzling thing she can find.

As Hayliel stands from the floor, I watch Gem, admiring the light she brings everywhere she goes and cursing my father for ever trying to snuff it out. The thought reminds me that we have no time to dally. I rush to the wardrobe and swing the doors back so quickly I almost knock Hayliel in the face.

“I thought she wasn’t allowed to leave her tower?” she asks, barely dodging the blow.

I sigh. “She’s not.”

“Oh?” My head is buried too deep inside the wardrobe to actually see her smile falter, but I hear it. Oh, I hear it. I feel her peer around me too, looking over my back to see what it is I’m searching for. “What’s wrong? Why is she here then? And what are you looking for?”

“This!” I shout, pulling out an old leather satchel that used to belong to my mother’s father.

Hayliel frowns up at my raised arm, the empty bag dangling before her. Gently, she reaches it, cusping her hand over mine, and lowers my arm.

“What’s wrong?”

I sigh, shuffling over to my bed and plopping down atop it. This will be the last time I ever sit on this bed, the last time I will ever see this room. It might be the last time I ever see Hayliel.

“My father has called a Reaper to…” I don’t finish what I’m saying. Instead I nod in Gem’s direction. She’s found a decanter of fresh water and the matching goblets that go with it and is pouring herself a