A Captive of Wing and Feather

by Melanie Cellier

  “My brother…called a Princess Tourney…to choose a bride for him?” I gasped the words out, wishing I had a chair to sink into. There hadn’t been a Tourney in the kingdoms for…I didn’t know how long. And Dominic of all people had given over the choice of his bride to a competition?

  Instead of a chair, I felt soft feathers pressing against me and let my hand trail down to brush against the base of Snowy’s neck. Her presence steadied me, absorbing some of my shock.

  “Yes, we were all as astonished as you.” Gabe shook his head. “It would have been startling enough before, but with the curse on Palinar…”

  He looked at me, a question in his eyes, and I sighed.

  “Brylee may be isolated, but we did hear about both the ongoing curse and the fact that Palinar has now been freed,” I said. “There have also been stories of new kingdoms and foreign princesses, but I’ll admit I didn’t take them too seriously…”

  No doubt I would have heard of Dominic’s Tourney, and more of this Sophie and Lily, if I hadn’t been distracted around the time of their arrival. The disturbance they caused in our land had coincided with a personal disturbance of my own—my entrapment by Leander. It had taken me some time to reintegrate into life in Brylee afterward, and I hadn’t had the means or inclination to follow up any references I heard to strange happenings in distant places.

  It had been shock enough months later when I learned that the border with my kingdom had been opened and the inhabitants freed. Many nights since I had spent awake, wondering what it meant—but each time I remembered that I had left that old life behind. And with good reason. I had long since come to terms with that.

  “So you knew the curse had been lifted, and yet you didn’t return.” Gabe kept his voice soft, as if I were some untamed creature that he feared spooking.

  “I have nothing to return to,” I replied. “I have made my peace with that.”

  “But what of your brother? He searches for you everywhere.”

  “I am astonished to hear it,” I said, and then regretted my words. I had no obligation to open myself or my old life up to Gabe. He had already admitted that searching for me was merely an escape from his own life—an entertainment of sorts.

  “What happened between you?” he asked, abandoning subtlety in favor of a direct approach.

  I raised a single eyebrow before turning away from him.

  He sighed. “Very well. But I have answered your questions, surely you would not refuse to answer some of my own. All of us have wondered many times what became of you. Everyone will be so excited to hear that I’ve found you! I’ll send word to Dominic and Jon first thing in the morning.”

  I spun back, rushing forward to grip his arm tightly.

  “No. You must promise me you won’t tell anyone. Give me your word.” I gazed up at him, making no effort to hide my desperation.

  I had left my old life behind, and the knowledge that an unknown foreigner sat on my mother’s throne and slept in her royal suite did nothing to entice me back. And while it might be true that my brother had changed—Palinar’s current liberation supported such a notion—I had trusted him before, only to be abandoned in my moment of greatest need. He might search for me, but I had no desire to be found by him.

  And all of that was nothing beside the far more pressing concern of my imprisonment, anyway. What would Dominic do if he learned of my current entrapment? I couldn’t even hazard a guess, and I couldn’t risk him—or anyone else—blundering into such a delicate situation.

  “I can’t keep such a thing from them,” Gabe protested, frowning down at me.

  “You must!” My entreating look changed into a glare. “It’s my life, isn’t it?”

  A softness lingered in Gabe’s eyes as he looked at my upturned face, so close to his, and it unnerved me. But worse was the look of calculation that gradually replaced it. His new look shouldn’t have concerned me—it was nothing like the chilling cunning Leander wore behind every expression—but it frightened me just the same. A laugh seemed to lurk behind every one of Gabe’s moods, and I didn’t want to be the object of one of his games—even if he sought to draw me into it alongside him.

  Slowly he peeled my fingers from his arm and stepped back, crossing his arms across his chest.

  “Convince me then,” he said. “Why should I keep you a secret? Something very strange is clearly going on here.”

  I bit my lip and glanced toward my wedge of swans, who seemed to be ignoring the two of us for the most part. Did I dare tell him my story?

  I examined him sideways, frustration overtaking me. What choice did I have? If I couldn’t convince him of the stakes, he might ruin everything.

  When I didn’t immediately speak, he prompted me.

  “What happened to your voice at the haven? Why couldn’t you speak? What is this place, and who was that man? It sounded as if he’s somehow keeping you here.” He raised both eyebrows. “Is that enough questions to be going on with?”

  I made a frustrated noise in my throat but didn’t actually protest. I shouldn’t be surprised—I knew well enough to expect such manipulation from someone like him. He had pushed himself into my life, and I would no doubt be left to pick up the pieces soon enough. But for now, I had to make him realize why I needed to be left alone.

  I sighed. “His name is Leander.”

  “The local lord?” Gabe frowned thoughtfully. “I’m suddenly even more curious to pay a visit to his castle.”

  “Yes.” I blew out a breath. “Weren’t you supposed to be doing that today? How did you follow me?”

  Gabe gave me a half smile. “I came to Brylee to search for you, remember? As intriguing as this Leander sounded, I was hardly going to go running off just as I found you. I waited all afternoon for you to emerge, you know. And naturally—given your open and welcoming manner earlier—I concluded I should approach you directly.”

  He gave me a full grin, and I narrowed my eyes at him.

  “You mean you hid and followed me—hardly the actions of a noble prince.”

  He actually winked at me. “Who said anything about noble?”

  I stalked away from him, grumbling silently to myself as I went. Of course it had to be Gabe of all people who found me. He had always been like this—brave but impulsive. Even as a youth, he had been dashing and full of humor, and half of the young princesses had been in love with him. None of the other princes would have seen my situation as an intriguing riddle—an opportunity to showcase their daring and skill.

  When I reached the small shelter where I spent my nights, I sank down onto the rushes that I had bundled into a pallet of sorts. It was a fitting bed for a home that was nothing more than a collection of branches formed into an open frame, with a blanket stretched over them so as to create something of a roof and single wall.

  Gabe followed me, pausing only to scoop a couple of mouthfuls of water from the lake. When he reached me, he took a seat on a fallen tree trunk that bordered one side of my simple nest. He placed his bow carefully beside him and gazed at my construction with interest.

  “Not exactly what you’d call hardy,” he said, although there was no judgment in his tone.

  I shrugged. “It’s all I need. The air here never gets any colder than what you feel now—no matter the season or the temperature of the surrounding woods. If it rains, it’s no more than a gentle mist, and no dangerous animals disturb my peace.”

  “All of this, along with a lake whose water is both fresher and clearer than it has any natural right to be,” he said, taking up my litany. “And surrounded by a collection of loyal animals who not only guard and comfort you, but who actually understand your instructions.” He paused. “Remind me again why this place is not a paradise?”

  “I suppose it would be a paradise,” I said in a low voice. “If it wasn’t also a prison.”

  Chapter 5

  “So you are trapped here.” He frowned. “But you were in Brylee earlier…I don’t understand.”

&n
bsp; I sighed. “It’s complicated.” Quite complicated enough without you getting involved, I thought, but didn’t add.

  “I’m smarter than I look,” Gabe said with what he no doubt meant to be a dashing smile.

  I eyed him uncertainly. I remembered Gabe as rash—a prince who was far too likely to leap into action and danger without proper thought. But I hadn’t seen him in years. He had been a boy then—perhaps he had grown in wisdom as well as stature?

  I shook my head at my own wishful thinking. Unlikely. Which meant I now had one more thing to worry about. But whatever the complications, it would be worse if he sent word of my location to Dominic and Jon.

  “It’s only at night,” I said, my words tumbling out in a rush, now that I had freed them. “Every night, by the time darkness falls, I must be at this lake.”

  “Or else what?” he asked.

  “If I’m not in this clearing when the last of the daylight fades, then I’m hit with crippling pain all over my body. The further away I am, the worse it is. And, as an extra gift, I receive a visit from Leander.”

  My expression no doubt conveyed my feelings about such an event.

  “So today…” Gabe winced. “That’s why you took off running back there in the forest. And why Leander was here. You didn’t make it back in time—because of me.”

  I said nothing, and guilt flooded his face.

  “I assure you, I would never mean to cause you pain, Adelaide.”

  I shrugged. Experience had taught me that the pain caused by those who intended no harm could be the most damaging—because you weren’t armored against it. But I wasn’t vulnerable to him now. I had learned my lesson and built up my armor too thick to be pierced.

  After a moment he seemed to accept that I meant to say nothing and continued on.

  “But what of your voice? Back at the haven…”

  “That is another symptom of my strange entrapment. At night I can speak like normal. But during the day, when I am free to roam, I speak only the language of the swans. It is a painful irony. At night I can speak—but I have no one to converse with. Well, except for the occasional visit from Leander—and I would rather go silent than speak to him.”

  “But now you have me to talk with,” Gabe said. “It must be strange for you.”

  The truth of his words crashed over me. His presence was strange in every possible way, and I hadn’t immediately realized what a welcome relief it was to make use of my words again. Their loss had stripped away a part of me I had almost forgotten to miss.

  Gabe turned to gaze out over the lake, and the one black and six white bodies which glided across it, their beaks dabbling for food in the shallows or their tail feathers flashing as they up-ended for a deeper prize.

  “All sorts of strange things have occurred across these lands since Palinar fell into darkness,” he said. “But this is a very odd sort of enchantment. I assume Leander is behind it, but what is his purpose?”

  I frowned. “I wish I knew. I have been trying to puzzle it out for two years without success. Leander seems to delight in my captivity, and I do not doubt he has some sinister purpose, but…” I gestured around us, “he’s given me a gilded cage. The pain that strikes me if I set foot into the trees seems utterly at odds with the protected beauty and peace of this place.”

  Sweetie waddled over, bugling at me before settling contentedly at my side. I rested a gentle hand against the springy softness of her feathers.

  “And I am not entirely alone,” I added. “My swans are loyal and true companions, even if they cannot hold a conversation. If Leander’s purpose is to break me, to isolate me, then their presence seems to work against such an aim. Why give me a language that anyone could understand—even if it was just birds?”

  “They certainly don’t behave like any swans I’ve ever seen.” Gabe’s eyes lingered on Sweetie before passing to me. “They must certainly be part of whatever enchantment Leander has crafted. You think his purpose was to isolate you?”

  I shrugged. “I don’t know for sure. But I don’t think the enchantment worked quite as he intended. He told me at first that I would not be able to leave the lake, and yet when I turned and ran, nothing happened. It was only when darkness fell that the crippling pain he had promised hit. There was a weakness of some sort in his trap.”

  “A weakness? Hmmm…” Gabe tapped his chin, his eyes fixed blindly on the water. “I wonder…”

  I waited for him to explain, but instead his mind seemed to leap in a different direction.

  “Leander is clearly a blackguard, and needs to be stopped,” he said. “Why did you prevent me from going after him?”

  For a moment I had lost myself in the puzzle of my circumstances and had even enjoyed having someone to discuss my theories with, but his words brought back my earlier anger.

  “Who knows what damage that would cause? We know nothing of what he has done here—or how.”

  “Exactly,” Gabe said. “What if killing him releases you?”

  “And what if it doesn’t?” I shot back. “What if instead it dooms me to spend the rest of my life caught in such a state? There is every chance that he alone has the key to releasing me, and I cannot risk losing it.”

  I took a moment to calm my breathing which had sped up despite my efforts to remain unruffled. How had I even considered that he might have grown past his rashness? He had already shown me proof that he had not.

  “I could have put an arrow in his leg, at least,” Gabe muttered mutinously.

  But when I glared at him, he held up both hands placatingly.

  “Oh, very well. No shooting.” He gave me a significant look. “For now. But if I’m not allowed to turn him into target practice, what exactly is our plan?”

  I bristled at his use of our but chose to ignore it.

  “Leander was a recluse in his castle long before I stumbled onto this lake and into his snare, and I can’t help feeling the building must hold answers. Why else does he refuse anyone access—except for the servants who never emerge to tell any tales?”

  “Then we must search it,” said Gabe, an enthusiastic gleam in his eye that unfurled tendrils of disquiet in my stomach.

  “Easier said than done,” I replied. “Night is generally the best time to gain covert access to a building, but I’m not exactly free to attempt it in the darkness. And any daylight attempt is significantly hampered by my inability to speak.”

  “Ah!” Gabe sat up straight. “But I am not so limited.”

  The tendrils tightened their hold on my insides. Gabe was not some backwoods servant. If the crown prince disappeared inside Leander’s fortress…who knew what consequences it would bring down on the lord—and by extension, me?

  “I think it would be in my best interests to acknowledge my true identity,” Gabe said, half to himself. “Leander can hardly refuse me at the gate.”

  Against my will, a seed of hope sprang to life inside me. Surely Leander himself must know the dangers of restraining Prince Gabriel. Perhaps…

  I shook myself. No. Gabe was just as likely to do something foolish and destroy everything I had been working toward. I had to convince him to leave all of this—and me—alone.

  “Please,” I said. “This has nothing to do with you. You should return to the capital and forget you ever found me.”

  Gabe had stood up and begun to pace back and forth, his body almost quivering with energy, but at my words, he halted abruptly.

  “You must be jesting!” he said. “Leave now? With you in the grip of unknown evil? Where would be the honor in such a course?” He shook his head, but then slowly a smile crept over his face. “And even without such considerations, this is precisely the sort of adventure I have been longing for, confined back at the palace. No. I could not abandon you, any more than I could ignore a potential threat to the kingdom. And I wouldn’t want to.”

  I worried at my lip. His words had made it abundantly clear that I had no hope of convincing him to leave. But they had al
so brushed against one of my greatest fears.

  “So…” I hesitated. “So, you think there might be a threat to more than me? To the kingdom, even?”

  Gabe sat down heavily on his vacated log. “Who can say for sure? But it’s hard to imagine that this—” he gestured vaguely at me, the lake, and my swans, “is his whole plan. If this were merely the first phase of some plot centered on you, then two years is a long time for him to wait without progressing. However, perhaps you are merely one piece of some broader plan he is assembling. From what you said, the mysteries around him began before your arrival on the scene.”

  My hand fluttered to the base of my throat. I had hoped he would brush aside the worst of my imaginings, not agree with them. I leaned forward.

  “Have you noticed…Does it seem to you as if there’s something strange about the inhabitants of Brylee?”

  I watched him closely, waiting for his reaction. He frowned at me.

  “Strange? More strange than everyone else, do you mean?”

  Now it was my turn to frown. “What do you mean everyone else?”

  “If you mean the unnatural timidity, it’s not just the people of Brylee. Even my own family is infected—thus their attempts to keep me at home away from any possible danger—and the reason for my earnest desire to be away from the capital. I was stifling there. I don’t remember everyone being so…so afraid when I was a boy. But, as you know, I spent so many years living with Teddy and Millie in Trione—as King Edward and Queen Juliette’s ward—that sometimes I wonder if I was just oblivious as a child. I’ve been back for less than three years, and I find myself visiting my friends in other kingdoms all too often. Here in Talinos, even my own family make me want to kick down a door, jump on the nearest horse, and go do something reckless.”