by E. Molloy
Her grin just kept growing as he stumbled over syllables for a moment, hoping the name would come to him. He fumbled around in the large pack he'd pulled from his horse for the request that the messenger had given him. He'd folded it into tiny little squares before tucking it away, but when he unfolded it, there was his answer.
"Under Order of the King," he read sternly, raising his voice to recite over her giggling. "The White Knights are called to send the finest of their Order to retrieve, from a tower," he stopped, his hand dropping to his side in resignation as he recalled the last portion as clear as day. "P...Princess Lillian of Navarr." He tried to swallow but couldn't, a lump the size of a dragon forming in his throat.
Chapter 7
The princess looked satisfied with herself, and Daveth had no idea what to say to her. "On the bright side," she chimed in off-handedly, as if this was no big deal to her. "I intend to pretend that you came to my rescue or whatever. My father wouldn't be very pleased with your Order if he found out I'd had to save myself, and I'm sure he wouldn't be happy with me to know I didn't sit tight and wait for some man to come get me."
He was stunned silent, humbled by his stupidity, and the position that he should have realized all along that he was in. What was worse, she had the arrogance of royalty but none of the class, and it was obvious. "I....I'm sorry, your highness," he said, taking to one knee. It couldn't make up for how he'd treated her thus far, but it was the only thing he could think to do to show how humbled he was.
She sighed. "Sorry isn't going to set up the tent, though. What the hell were they thinking, sending you? Are you like, the bottom of your class?"
"I'm..." He paused. He didn't know how to answer the question.
"Yeah...you have armor and a horse. That is the only thing that makes you knightly, and neither of them fits you anyway."
Not wanting to snap at her as before, knowing now that she was the princess, he kept his words quiet, feeling more saddened than angry at this point. "You're right," he agreed, his head lowered to stare hard at the ground.
She nodded. "I know I am."
"I'm...I'm not even a knight."
She nodded again. "I know you're not."
"I'm sorry."
"Yeah, well, you'd better be. So what are you, then? Just your regular run-of-the-mill imposter?"
"I...I'm a knight in training, your...majesty."
"Stop with the majestic highness crap. Why are you here instead of someone capable?"
"I..." He had no words.
She sighed finally. "Never mind. It doesn't matter. I'll get us both home safely, and then you can take whatever credit you want. Just don't expect me to marry you after. That's not how this story ends, you got it?"
"Yes, ma'am."
Daveth finally found the courage to stand, picking up a bedroll and unrolling it on the ground for her. There was only one. "If you need to rest, go ahead. I'll...I'll let you know when I get this up properly," he said. His voice echoed dejection, which he no longer tried to hide. He then set back to the task of putting the tent together, hoping that she wouldn't keep talking to him. He left his stray armor pieces where they were. There was no point trying to keep up appearances at this point. He had not only proven himself a fool in all of his actions that day, but had done so in front of the Princess.
The princess moved toward the bedroll, commenting, "At least it's not cold tonight." She didn't sound the least bit ashamed of her deception, or for how she made him feel. And why should she? It was he that was being deceptive first and deserved to feel ashamed, she had certainly made that clear.
Thankfully, she said nothing else after lying down, and Daveth was left alone with his thoughts and the defiant tent. The calm of knowing he had already let her down as much as he possibly could have set his mind at ease, in a way. If he couldn't pitch the tent, then at least she wouldn't be surprised. Coincidentally, this calm helped more in setting the tent up than he'd expected, and after about ten minutes it was full standing.
"Sorry it took so long, your worship," he said quietly, turning from the completed project. At this point, he couldn't exactly feel good about the accomplishment, except knowing that she would at least be able to sleep beneath its cover.
She leaned up on her side, having been turned away from him as he'd worked, and glanced at the tent. Surprise was over her features, likely at the fact that he'd managed to do something right. Without a word, she pulled up the bedroll by its sides and moved past him with it and into the tent. There was some shuffling about, but Daveth didn't expect to see her again.
As she settled in the tent, Daveth laid himself out on the hard ground, still fully-suited in his armor. His head hung down awkwardly from the neck of his armor, and he shuffled restlessly.
After a few moments, he heard laughter again. Opening his eyes, he could see the girl peeking through the opening of the tent. Crawling over toward him in a fashion unbefitting a princess, Lillian picked up his gauntlets from the ground near the tent on her way. She set them upside down on the ground a foot away from his head. "Lift your head," she said, and he did as he was told, allowing her to slip them under his head, then covered them with the empty pack. "There," she said, satisfied with the makeshift pillow. "Better?"
He laid there a second, rocking his head a little back and forth to test it. It was the right height, but, "It's kind of lumpy".
Her features scrunched a little, "Yeah, well, it's armor. You'd probably be better off not sleeping in all that, you know. You can get sores."
He looked over at her. She wasn't very close, but it was the first real time he took note of her features. How could she have NOT been the princess? Beneath the dirt spots on her face, tattered clothing, and disheveled orange hair, she was clearly the fairest in the land. Her bright green eyes stared at him with an intensity that was illuminated in the darkness by the nearby fire. His mouth moved wordlessly a moment as he tried to find the courage to speak again. "I'm not about to get down to my undergarments in front of the princess," he said finally, wishing he had chosen his words more carefully.
She, of course, rolled her eyes. "I won't tell anyone. Besides, if it covers all your bits, what's the difference? I'm only wearing 3 layers right now, and you don't hear me complaining every time you look at me."
He stared, unable to really argue with that logic, but still uncomfortable with the prospect. "I'll be fine," he said, before trying to roll over. Of course, the armor didn't move with him, and he ended up just looking like a turtle trying to get up for a few seconds before deciding he was just going to stay there. "Ah, much better," he said, pretending his struggling had actually served some purpose.
She shook her head, laughing at him a little again as she crawled back into her tent. "Well if you change your mind, I promise I won't peak," she joked, from behind the closed cloth opening.
Daveth remained silent a bit, staring up at the trees. It wasn't just that, though. He still felt like whatever was there would come out at any time. If he didn't have his armor on, how was he supposed to fight it? He had to stay ready, even if it meant staying up all night laying there in his armor waiting for the attack.
The young man had been valiant in his attempts to stay awake, but once boredom and exhaustion set in he slowly drifted off to sleep. In the darkness of the woods, a figure had stood watching since the two had taken up camp. Cloaked in black, it moved gracefully and silently across the forest floor carried by dancing shadows. The shadows faded once it neared the camp, becoming one with the cloud of darkness in the woods as a woman emerged from them. Two red eyes appeared in the shapeless form behind her, watching the woman who had wandered from their embrace.
Long wavy black hair reached to her lower-back, and she was covered from her tan-skinned chin to her toes in intricate black markings. The marks on her neck were different, though, seeming to taper off the higher they got like branches on a tree, with no line reaching past her jawline. She wore a thin black dress, simple and comfortable in its de
sign. The garment came down to her knees and hugged her chest modestly with a square-cut that left all to the imagination. In the darkness, it would appear as though the markings on her body grew from the cloth upward and outward. Aside from the dress, she wore nothing else, bare feet padding silently against the forest floor as she moved through the camp with purpose. Her green eyes glowed brightly despite the hardly-burning embers that remained of the fire as she stepped across the earth slowly and gracefully toward the knight who lay sleeping on the ground. The woman was beautiful, with almond-shaped eyes, full lips, and smooth features, and she moved with the grace of a cat.
Daveth shifted in his sleep, as much as his position would allow for, smacking his lips together a few times loudly. She didn't pause or hesitate, though. The two wouldn't be waking anytime soon, of this she was certain. The flames of the fire reignited suddenly as she knelt over him. She spared but a glance toward the tent momentarily before turning her eyes back to the young man.
Reaching into the pouch beneath his head, she carefully retrieved the order that he had folded up to retrieve the princess. Daveth let out a loud snore, but remained fast asleep. She unfolded the order, reading it over before dropping it. It burned in the air as it fell, and in the moments before it would have landed on the ground, the page turned to ash which was picked up by a light breeze that stirred at the perfect moment. The woman moved away from him, toward his shield. Leaning down, she touched a gentle dark finger to the front. A small crack formed at the top, then grew down the center of it until the piece was just one blow away from splitting in two.
Looking around the camp, the woman spotted the horse. The animal's eyes stared dead ahead, watching her as she moved but not crying out in protest. A small smile played at the corner of her lips as she nodded to the creature, who then lowered its head and fell straight back to sleep.
She moved toward the animal, checking all of the equipment on it patiently as if she had all the time in the world. The horse didn't stir from its slumber as her fingers gently traced every item. Satisfied that her work here was done, she moved toward the helmet that lay astray on the ground. It lifted on its own from the ground and into her hands, before she said in a low, smoky voice, "Let's go". The red-eyed shadow she had ridden on dashed out of the darkness, the body of a large cat appearing to pounce on her. The shadows whipped around in a small dervish, consuming the woman. The smoke, its rider, and the white helmet disappeared at the exact moment that thunder shook the skies.
The horse let out a horrified scream, scrambling to its feet abruptly and clumsily. It was, however, less clumsy than Daveth, who had to rock on his side a few times before he could get up. Lillian poked her head from the safety of her tent, apparently having been as quick to rise as the others. She looked to Daveth with a questioning expression; as if he would be able to explain why thunder.
"It's just a storm," he replied to her wordless question.
"Doesn't that mean rain?" she asked, though it came out as more of a statement.
"Well what do you want me to do about it?"
She slapped her hands to her forehead, and just as they made impact lightning struck somewhere close and the ground shook at the same moment that the entire forest seemed to light up brighter than day. The princess jumped with a gasp, and stared on at him with an expression of fear. Nothing came after, though. No more thunder or lightning, and not even rain fell. Just silence. The two stared at each other, both wondering when it would strike again.
"Do...you think...that was it?" she asked, her voice shaking a little as she looked around for answers in the dark of the forest. Finding none, of course, her next best bet was Daveth, which wasn't saying much. "That was weird."
"Yeah," he said, unsettled by the strange occurrence. Now that he was standing, it seemed an impossible task to get back to sleep. He hadn't intended to sleep in the first place, but it had just kind of...happened. He hoped that standing would at least be able to prevent it, so he leaned against one of the nearby trees. While before he had only a mild paranoia of what may have been following them, the thunder had been too ominous a sign to ignore, and he was now determined that a watch was necessary, even if Lillian had no intentions of taking shifts with him.
She stared at him a moment, cocking her head to the side a little as she leaned more out of the tent. "Aren't you going back to sleep?"
"I wasn't asleep."
She laughed. "I heard you snoring. It woke me up before the thunder."
"Why would I be snoring if I wasn't asleep?"
"Exactly," she said with a roll of her eyes. She must not have had the energy to argue, which Daveth was relieved for as he didn't either. Without another remark, she tucked back inside the tent, leaving the young man to his thoughts and the nagging feeling that something was horribly wrong.
The princess. So he really was just useless. This armor was useless. What would he do if something did attack, sick the horse on it? She planned to lie for him, to say that he had saved her and that he was a hero. Daveth wanted nothing more than to be a hero, but just because people believe it doesn't make it so. His eyes slowly skimmed the ground for his helmet as some form of assurance that he was something, but found nothing. Great, now he'd lost the most significant piece of his armor, by definition of appearances anyway.
He spoke into the night, hoping that she would be asleep already and thus unable to respond. "Did you move my helmet?" he asked, a hint of accusation to his tone.
"Why would I do that?" she replied from within the tent, sounding irritated to be hearing his voice again.
"I have no idea. But it's gone. And you're the only other person here."
"Well good. It doesn't fit you anyway."
She'd really thrown it out because it didn't fit him? "It fits me fine, and I would like it back."
"I told you, I don't have it," she huffed, and he could hear her turning over from within the tent. She took a loud deep breath and slowly released it, and Daveth braced himself for what it might sound like when a Princess screams. "Please be quiet," she said, surprisingly calmly. "I need to sleep. You can look for it in the morning, it couldn't have gone far. Just...stop talking...please."
The fact that she'd put the effort into being kind to him was enough for him to feel stupid for even bringing it up at that moment. He shut his mouth, shaking his head and looking away.
"Thank you," she said, sounding exhausted, before he heard her shuffle around again.
Daveth was up the rest of the night, and managed to stay on his feet for all of it as well. However, he had also left his armor on, and when daylight finally broke he was twice as exhausted as an all-nighter would normally leave him. Lillian had been true to her word, though, and she slept until the sun came up. She hadn't moved otherwise throughout the night, and she woke up groggily. As she crawled from the tent, her eyes half open, she looked to be reaching around for something before fully realizing her surroundings. A small groan escaped her before she begrudgingly stood. She wiped her dress with her hands, and then looked to Daveth. Her half-closed eyes were complimented by a lazy yet still condescending smile.
"How long have you been standing there?"
"Since you went back to sleep," he admitted.
She stared a moment, then laughed, shaking her head as she looked back at the front of her dress, still apparently cleaning things off of it, though it didn't seem to be getting any better. Daveth started the arduous task of packing up the tent and bedroll, neither of which would have normally been hard except he was exhausted and weighed down still. He'd never worn his armor this long before. Even his training hadn't required him to sleep in his armor, or stand idle in it all night long. His knees were aching, every joint in his body seemed to have an unholy itch, and he was sweating profusely.
Still nothing if not determined, Daveth managed to clean the entire site without falling into a heap of sleep on the grass. Stuffing the items back into their pack and tying it back to the horse, he readied their steed for anot
her long day. The horse, of course, didn't mind. He'd slept just fine, had plenty to eat and drink while he waited for the princess to get up, and literally did nothing but walk around with people on his back all day anyway.
Before they left, Daveth gave another good look around in the daylight to see if he could find his helmet, to no avail.
"What are you doing?" Lillian asked finally, climbing atop the horse before him, yet again.
"Looking for my helmet," he replied, lifting a rock near the tent. He could have sworn this was exactly where he left it. He stared hard at the rock, as if staring would turn it into his helmet, but really just wondered where it could have possibly come from.
"Still?" she replied irritably, with a small sigh afterwards.
"Well, if someone hadn't moved it, I wouldn't be looking," he replied, again immediately regretting his tone. He had thought it would be easier to be kind to royalty, but he also hadn't expected royalty to be so ungratefully stuck up.
"Why would I take your stupid helmet?" she asked, turning the horse and riding it over toward him.
"It's not stupid, It's a symbol of the Order and ensures that everyone recognizes that I..."
"That you're something that you're not?" She sighed, petting the horse a little on his neck as she leaned forward to rest her chest on the back of the animal's neck. "If you don't hurry up, I'm going without you."
"You wouldn't," he said, looking up to her to see an expression that said that she very much would, and Daveth did his best to get to his feet quickly. She waited for him to mount, backing up on the horse's back to give him room to get on. Why she didn't just wait for him to mount first, he didn't know, but he assumed it was that same pride that she seemed to show in everything else.
Chapter 8
The King of Navarr lived in the Royal Palace, placed in the center of the country's biggest city, Diamondruf. Not unlike the city's glittering title, its walls contained some of the most prestigious locales. The citizens were all of high nobility, with the few exceptions to this being many of the merchants and other lower class citizens who were necessary to provide certain services to its residents. Indeed, their residents were some of the most privileged in the world, and lived lives of luxury and festivities. Across the world, people questioned the possibility of such a city existing, since it was well known that they had exactly zero poor people within their walls.