The Cursed Girl, #1

by Maria Vermisoglou

  Alec nodded. “They do seem to care for their people, but this”—he waved around him—“I don’t understand it.”

  I put my finger to my lips, pointed to the door, and then said loudly, “Well, what are we going to eat?” I had heard footsteps, and I hoped it didn’t mean trouble.

  “Well, that smells wonderful,” said Alec.

  “Oh, help me to the table. We are having a real dinner,” Jonathan said.

  They were acting like they had done this before, and maybe they had. Who knew how many times they had been chased in towns in the middle of a war? While we ate, they joked and we all talked. Midnight was next to the table and was enjoying her fish, which she had earned with her actions. It made for a somewhat cozy atmosphere almost like we were a family.

  When we were finished eating, I took the dishes for washing, and the boys noticed the problem with the room for the first time. “All right, how are we going to sleep?” Alec said.

  “Ugh... maybe someone sleeps on the floor and the other two in the beds?” said Jonathan from his chair.

  “I can sleep on the floor,” Alec said.

  Alec was always kind, but didn’t it cross their minds that the larger bed could be used for two? Maybe not, since in the palace everyone had their own room. “Boys. Or rather royals. The solution, if everyone is to sleep comfortably,” I said, putting my hands on their shoulders, “is that you two will share this majestic bed, and I will sleep with Midnight in the smaller one.” Their expressions were priceless. I opened and closed my fingers. I wished I had a pencil to draw them.

  “Wait. You mean,” Jonathan said, “that we are going to share the same bed?”

  “What’s so bad about it? Since you are best friends, it shouldn’t be a problem. Ritta and I have slept in the same bed many times.”

  A few minutes passed, and they were still trying to get over the shock of that idea—it was like I proposed they sleep with a cow. Now that I thought about it... they might sleep with a cow better than with each other. What a thought.

  “Welcome to peasant life. I wish you goodnight,” I said, patting them on the back. I took my cat and I crept under the covers of the smaller bed. It was good that the fire was still going, and I closed my eyes. I heard creaks on the floorboards, and I guessed they both were going to sleep in the larger bed after all. Wow. In this war we made history on social matters too: royals slept like peasants.

  The rays of the sun peeking through the curtains woke me up. I looked around in confusion for a moment, and then I remembered the difficult journey in the tunnels, sleeping on the ground, and then finding the inn. Alec and Jonathan must be asleep. Oh my heavens. They were sleeping in a very awkward position: it was like they were lovers, not friends. Heavens. What a thought. I had to contain my laughs, or I would wake them up. I took a pencil and a piece of paper from my bag and drew them. Now I had proof that this was not in my imagination. I thought this was funny, and I would laugh later.

  I took some dirty clothes and started handwashing them under the sink. At least here, we could take care of some things, but unfortunately no magic for me. Alec and Jonathan would find it strange if clothes washed themselves and also dried themselves in a matter of minutes.

  A muffled “Ugh” came from the direction of the bed, followed by a groan. Someone had woken up, saw the situation and then woke the other one up. I heard Alec and Jonathan talking, and I set my clothes to dry and went to the room. “Morning,” I said.

  “Good morning,” they said. Jonathan was looking in a bag, and Alec was searching for something on the floor; they were keeping themselves busy.

  “How did you sleep?” I asked innocently.

  “Very good,” said Alec. “Extremely good, now that we don’t have to sleep on the ground.”

  I raised my eyebrows. “I saw that clearly,” I said and showed them my drawing. If yesterday’s expressions were priceless, today’s were a thousand times more hilarious.

  “You will not show this to anyone,” Jonathan said, clearly ashamed.

  I laughed. “What will people say? That two friends are close? Or that you are sleeping the way peasants are?” I giggled and then whispered, “You know, royals are meant to be close to their people.”

  “Still, you are not showing this to anyone,” Jonathan said, and I smiled. “Eva,” he said in a louder voice.

  “All right.” I laughed. “One day Ritta kicked me in the leg, and I couldn’t move it for a week. Be grateful.”

  He seemed more at ease now and smiled. “Really?”

  “Yes, she did.”

  Still uncomfortable, Alec didn’t look at either of us. “So, what are we going to eat?”

  I sighed. “I have to go down again. Do you have any clothes for washing? I was just doing mine.”

  “We’ve never done that. What do we have to do?” Alec said.

  Servants probably did that for them at the palace, but there were no servants here. None of us would have much to wash, but we wouldn’t be able to wash the clothes in the tunnels, so we should take care of it now while we had the chance. I shook my head. “Just leave them in the sink. I’ll get some breakfast.” I locked the door and went downstairs. Again, I filled a basket and took it upstairs with me while I thought about what to do with Alec and Jonathan. Am I asking too much of them? It can’t be easy, but they have to adapt. If they want to be invisible and pass for peasants, they have to start acting like them. They had made a start, but royals were so... so... unbelievable.

  When I returned to our room, I heard them talking, and I saw Alec helping Jonathan to walk. They walked to the fireplace and then back to the chair. “A little walk before breakfast never harmed anyone,” I said, and Jonathan fell down.

  “I lost my concentration,” he said.

  Because of me? “Sorry,” I said and went to the bathroom where they had put some clothes for washing. Why would he be distracted by me now? We had been together for days, no, weeks, on this journey, and he had to be distracted by me now? I didn’t get it at all. Midnight purred at me. “Do you get it?” Meow. “Of course not, who does?” Meow. “Do you want a bath?” Midnight retreated. “Of course not. What a stupid question.” Meow.

  When I came back to the main room, I saw them waiting for me at the table with the breakfast served. The room was cold. I looked at the fireplace and the fire was out.

  “I don’t suppose you know how to light a fire?”

  They shook their heads apologetically. “I suppose not,” I said, and I used my tinderbox to start the fire. The wood lit almost immediately. Yes, I helped a little—sometimes you needed a little magic. Who would see me anyway? I had my back turned to them.

  “Time to eat,” I said, taking my seat.

  “How do you know how to light a fire?” Jonathan asked.

  I looked at him, but he didn’t seem distracted—just curious as always. What was going on in that head of his? “How do you know how to eat?” I asked.

  “That’s not the same. Everyone knows how to eat.” He smiled.

  “And every normal person knows how to light a fire even without a tinderbox, but we are not in the woods.”

  Alec became interested suddenly. “Wait. You can light a fire without a tinderbox?”

  Oh, dear. I have a long way to go with these two. Time for lessons on how to learn to be a peasant. “All right, I am going to start teaching you things, because that’s not looking good for you two. You have to learn how to survive by yourselves.”

  Alec nodded, but Jonathan asked, “Why?”

  Always clueless and curious, aren’t you? “Because a number of ifs can happen, and you have to be prepared to survive on your own.”

  He lost his color, but I didn’t understand why. “What ifs?” He was serious now.

  “We could be separated.”

  “Oh,” he said.

  What is he thinking? “Right. Let’s eat first.”

  That was really weird, and we continued eating in silence. Afterward, I went out and
took a couple of rocks for the first lesson. “You take two rocks and do this until you have a little spark and then put the rocks near twigs and brush.” The rocks sparked so I put the rocks near some twigs and brush near the fireplace. “With some effort, you have a fire. To put the fire out, pour water or sand over it, like so.” I gave each two rocks so they could try to make a fire. “Your turn now.”

  Surprisingly, Jonathan mastered it quickly, but Alec had some trouble. After a while, he was able to make fire too. It was a little dangerous to teach them how to light fire in a wooden room, but it was only a spark and small fire, and I had them do it at the fireplace and watched them carefully.

  Over the next several days, I taught them several things that would help them. I used my drawings to show them how to recognize edible plants from the poisonous and deadly; I would show them the actual plants when we came across them in our travels. I taught them how to cook—basic foods only—and wash clothes. They had some trouble with these lessons, but in the end, they mastered each skill. Witches considered skills to be either defensive or offensive. Knowledge of edible plants was defensive skill, and fire mastery was an offensive skill. When Alec and Jonathan began to master skills, I was able to tell if they were defensive or offensive types. Alec was a defensive type and mastered edible plants quickly. Jonathan was an offensive type, which was why it was easier for him to master fire.

  Throughout these lessons, I watched them, but I noticed Jonathan was always looking at me. Why? And I didn’t understand why each time he looked at me, I seemed to blush. I sighed. Ritta dear, where are you? I need you to help me solve this riddle.

  The last lesson was hunting and meal preparation, but I was not going to bring an animal here to have it killed. I ate some meat occasionally, but not much. I couldn’t handle the thought of an animal being killed, so I explained to them how it could be done and then showed them how to clean vegetables.

  “Have you ever eaten any meat?” Alec asked.

  “Not much,” I said, and it was true.

  “Why not?” Jonathan asked.

  “Because it’s expensive and I don’t like meat that much.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because I don’t like the thought of an animal being killed.”

  “But it’s not you who killed it.”

  I shrugged. “It’s the same thing. It might not be me, but the animal is not alive, right?” He nodded and that ended our lesson on food.

  That night I dreamed about a knife from the sky that was dripping blood. I woke up with a start, but I was not the only one awake. Alec was at the door.

  “Where are you going?” I whispered so I wouldn’t wake up Jonathan.

  “Nowhere, I am listening. There’s a commotion outside.”

  I listened too, but that was no commotion. Something was really, really wrong. “I am going to find out what’s going on. You know your guidelines. Follow them.” If there was an emergency, they were to wait ten minutes and then, no matter what, they had to leave. They had promised. At least now, Jonathan could walk again and their escape wouldn’t be as difficult. The bad news was they didn’t know the tunnels, so they might get lost.

  I changed into pants and a shirt. It wasn’t an outfit a girl wore, but I didn’t want to pass for a girl. I put my cloak and left the room. I stayed in the shadows and I heard screams and cries. Out of nowhere, a woman ran toward me. She was bleeding and had a knife sticking out of her leg. “Run!” she screamed. “The Spanish are here.” She fell to the floor and didn’t move. I didn’t think. I ran back from where I came from. I met people in the corridors, and they asked me what was going on. “Spanish. Run!” I couldn’t think to form a sentence. I was worried about the people, but I couldn’t save everyone, so I focused on saving the two that I could.

  I reached our door and opened it. They were still there waiting at the wardrobe with our things packed. “Run. Go, go.” We moved into the wardrobe and down the stairs. We couldn’t get into the tunnels. The tunnels were full of screaming people. A flashing light caught my eye, and I understood what had happened. The Spanish knew about the tunnels. Someone had spoken. Someone had betrayed us. I pulled Alec and Jonathan back into the room. “We can’t go down there. The army knows about the tunnels.”

  They stared at me in horror. “How? What are we going to do?” Alec asked. “Why would they come to Italy?”

  I didn’t have any reasonable answers because I was close to being crazy. “I don’t know why, maybe they conquered Portugal, and they have moved on. I don’t know.”

  Alec looked at the door. “Are we trapped? What can we do now?”

  “We don’t have time for questions. They will get us if we don’t do something. Lesson two. We learn to fly.” They looked at me like I was crazy, but fear makes you do stupid things.

  I grabbed some bed sheets and tied them together. “Help me.” They did it without asking questions—they trusted me. When we finished, I pushed the bundle out of the window.

  “We are going to jump?” Alec asked.

  “I prefer to die fighting than see everything fail,” said Jonathan.

  “It’s better to run and leave the fighting for another day,” I said, and after I secured the bed sheets, he started going down and Alec followed. I waited for the two of them to make it down some distance. Bang! The door to our room crashed to the floor before I could climb after Alec. Our time was up. “Run!” I screamed at them and cut the sheets with my knife.

  “Eva, no! I didn’t know if Alec or Jonathan screamed or if it was both of them. I didn’t look. I just hoped they would get away.

  I turned to face the soldier... who was none other than Nathaniel. Fate was a strange thing. “I am sorry we have to meet like this,” he said.

  “Me too,” I said and meant it.

  “But I have no choice. I am following orders—”

  “And you have to kill all those people? Why? And why do you kill them in the tunnels? They did nothing.”

  He shook his head. “Wars are bad, but the winner always has mercy.”

  I almost screamed. “Mercy? You call that mercy? Or do you call it mercy that this devil of a king has killed his nephew?”

  He shrugged. “There must have been a good reason.”

  Laugher boiled within me, but I kept it inside. “Ha. Yes. That he wanted the throne that he stole.”

  He shook his head. “The king is wiser than the young king could have ever been.”

  I took a deep breath. “He would have become wise if he was given a chance.”

  He shook his head again. Why didn’t he understand? But then I knew: power. He was promised power or money. “Whatever they promised you, you will not get it in the end.”

  “That’s where you are wrong.” An evil smile graced his lips. “I will get everything I ever desired.” His eyes began to glow.

  “Then I guess there is nothing more I can tell you to change your mind.”

  “You can come with me. We can share the reward. After the young king is dead.”

  Oh, no! If he knew Jonathan was alive, then they would know—if they didn’t already.

  In normal circumstances, I would have been mad, but I wasn’t. I was sad for him. People like him didn’t belong on Earth, but there was one more thing. “How did they learn about the tunnels?”

  He didn’t even bat an eyelid. “Oh. That was all my doing. I told the king when he promised a reward of ‘heaven’ to whoever could get him the young king.” Nathaniel boasted and boasted. “Goodbye, Nathaniel,” I said sadly.

  He stared at me in confusion. I shot my arrow from my crossbow. He wouldn’t survive. It was a poisonous arrow, and after what he had said and done, he shouldn’t. I ran toward the window. It wasn’t too high and the street below was empty of people. Pain shot through my arm, and I turned and Nathaniel’s hand falling from the knife in my arm. Nathaniel collapsed as his last breath left his body.

  “You could have stayed faithful to Alec,” I said before I jumped.


  The Cave

  I used my powers since no one could see me this late at night. I kept running and didn’t stop until my vision blurred and an image filled my mind: I was near a lake and there were trees around. I saw a sign that read BOLOGNA. My vision cleared, and I came back to reality. My dear cat was looking out for me, as she always did.

  Thank the Heavens Midnight was still with Alec and Jonathan. They were in Bologna now. I could reach them in a day without rest, maybe less, but with my wounded arm, it was difficult to say. I had bandaged it, but without my supplies—which were with Alec and Jonathan—I could not heal properly. I started running and made sure to avoid people. When the sun was high, I had crossed enough of the place to know there were no plants that could heal me and no one in this city had survived. I passed a sign and read that I was now leaving Florence.

  I was still running when I felt something light in my mind. Was someone trying to invade my mind? But it was so light, like a cloud; maybe it was a nymph or a spirit. Still, I kept my defenses up, and I started the interrogation. “Who are you?”

  A voice exploded. “Finally. I was trying for days.”

  “Ritta?” Shock filled my voice.

  “There is no other.”

  I smiled. “How are you doing it? Did they open the gates?”

  “Not yet and since the war is still roaming, from what I hear, it won’t be anytime soon.”

  “Then how?”

  I felt her smile in my mind. “From a little silver book from your collection.”

  Oh, no. That silver book was the rarest not only from my collection but from all collections of all the worlds. What if someone knew about it? Ritta sensed my fear.

  “Don’t worry. I didn’t tell anyone, not even your mother, and I put it back after I memorized the spell.”

  “Thank Goodness.”

  “But how did you acquire it?”

  I smiled mischievously. “With a little bargain and a little threatening.”

  “I see, how are you doing anyway? And where are you? And explain to me why did you not come back up? Why are you in pain?”