by Ali Winters
Lucian mounted the horse and headed straight for her.
Her eyes widened.
By the stars!
She needed to hide again, now.
Oriana dove for the nearest bush, pulling branches around her in an attempt to conceal herself. She looked down; her white pants now covered in brown mud. It was probably a better choice of colors for blending in on this planet. She’d have to pick her own outfits next time.
The clack of hooves pounded on the ground, slowing as it approached the trees, slower, and closer. Oriana held her breath.
The graceful black animal stopped inches in front of her. Tufts of black hair flowed from at the beast’s ankle and shining silver strands layered the bottom of its massive hooves.
“Whoa, boy,” the Prince said as he reached forward to pat it’s muscular neck.
The horse danced so close; she could almost reach out and touch it’s shining legs.
Don’t do it. She chided herself, squeezing her fists tightly in front of her, sucked in a breath, and held it.
Peeking through the small spaces between the leaves of her bush, her gaze traveled up the animal’s legs and up to the rider. She examined his stoic facial expression. Light danced overhead, highlighting his features. Her heartbeat skittered.
Lucian dismounted, his boots coming within inches of her face. Oriana peeked up at him through the leaves, his head turning from side to side as he scanned the area. Lucian wrapped the reigns around a branch of the very bush in which she was hiding.
He’s going to find me.
The three buttons crammed inside her pocket seemed to burn with his proximity.
His movements stilled and her heart beat frantically. Could he hear the pounding within her chest?
The urge to get up and run threatened to overpower her. Fighting the feeling, she forced herself to remain as still as possible. He stood still for a long moment, eyes scanning the area once more before he wandered away into the trees.
Waiting until he put some distance between them, Oriana dragged herself out from under the bush. The horse whinnied at her sudden appearance.
“Shush, horse. You’ll give me away.” Oriana whispered harshly.
The horse whinnied again and shook its head in response, it’s massive hooves stomping against the ground. She had to follow Prince Lucian and see what he was up to, he could be meeting others to discuss plans for the next attack.
Oriana inched forward, running from tree to tree.
Where is he?
A movement out of the corner of her eye drew her attention. Taking careful steps, she moved toward it. Another movement caught her eye and adjusted her path, continuing her pursuit. He was backtracking… What is he doing?
A branch snapped directly behind her as she straightened, whirling around.
Prince Lucian stood behind her, just as a net wrapped itself around her, flinging her up into the air.
She screamed.
“Quiet, you’ll scare all the animals,” he scolded, leaning his shoulder against the trunk of a nearby tree.
“Get me down this instant,” she hollered.
“I’ll tell you what, I will let you go if you promise to be quiet.”
“I’m not making any deals with you,” she snapped.
“Fine, have it your way then, Princess. I’ll just let you hang there until you decide to be civil again.” He turned and walked away, disappearing through the cover of the trees.
Oh no. She was alone, hanging in the air with no way to get down. How long would he leave her defenseless like this?
It was too much. She’d made it all this way, she couldn’t be more than a few doors away from help and she was going to die alone in a forest. No one would ever know. Tears fell, soaking her cheeks. She pulled her knees to her chest and let her emotions go.
“You don’t have to cry. I wasn’t going to leave you.” Lucian’s voice startled her as he fiddled with the rope and slowly lowered her to eye level.
He stepped up to Oriana, steadied the swinging net with his hands, looking her in the eye. Oriana dropped her gaze to the ground. She couldn’t bear to look him in the eye. Not with everything he was responsible for doing to everyone she loved and the neighboring Kingdoms. The ground spun, and seemed to drop away to dizzying distances. She squeezed her eyes shut. What a terrific time to realize she couldn’t handle heights. Maybe looking at him was the better option.
She peeked up through her thick lashes, wet with tears, and gazed at him. His forehead creased as his lips formed a tight line.
Fresh tears spilled down her face.
“Hey, it’s okay. Don’t cry Oriana.” He reached in through the net and placed a gentle hand on her head.
With all the leverage she could manage, she gripped his wrist and pushed him away.
“Don’t touch me,” she snapped. “Why did you do it?”
“What are you talking about?” Lucian frowned at her.
Reaching into her pocket, she pulled out one of the green buttons and flicked it at him. It bounced off his forehead and dropped to the ground. Grunting with exasperation, he stooped to pick it up. She swung her foot and missed. The momentum of her kick spun the net.
“Where did you get this?” he asked, turning the button over in his hand and reaching out with the other to steady the net.
“Where do you think I got it?” She reached in her pocket and threw two more at him. “These were found too. Want to guess where?”
“Not really,” he said pacing back and forth. “But it seems to me, that you’ve been sneaking around, and taking buttons off our Citinal officers uniforms. I can’t think of a good reason why. Care to enlighten me, Princess?” His eyes narrowed dangerously at her.
“I have done no such thing!”
“You weren’t sneaking around just a few minutes ago?”
“Not that—I didn’t take the buttons from you.”
“So you were sneaking around, uninvited?”
“I didn’t take them from you!”
“Then how did you get them?” he sneered.
“I’m not telling you anything while I’m stuck up here.”
“Fair enough,” he said, and strode over to the rope that held her high above the forest floor, pulled his sword from the sheath at his hip and sliced the loop.
Oriana hit the ground with an impact that forced the air from her lungs. Groaning, she rolled to her side, the impact forcing the air from her lungs. Now everything hurt.
Making it to Jupiter now was looking like less and less of a possibility than she’d initially hoped it would be.
Pushing herself onto her hands and knees, she lifted her head to meet Prince Lucian’s gaze. He was squatting down in front of her, one arm resting on a knee, the other gripping the hilt of his sword. The gleaming blade flashed at her. She gulped.
“Go ahead,” she muttered and dropped her head. Hopelessness filled her, draining her of all emotion.
He didn’t move for several moments, then gracefully, he stood and lifted his sword. Nothing happened.
She raised her gaze, the setting sun bright behind him framing his impressive form. She squinted into the light. Lucian’s hand was outstretched and waiting. Her eyes darted to his hip, where his sword had been sheathed.
“Aren’t you going to kill me?”
“Why would I do that?” He cocked his head to one side, his brows drawing together.
Without waiting for him to say anything more, Oriana spun on her heel and ran. Whatever mind game he was trying to pull on her, she wouldn’t fall for it. She’d make it to Jupiter… to Caelan, somehow, and when she did, Lucian would pay.
Lucian
Lucian sighed. What is that sef doing here? She comes uninvited, runs around my forest, and accuses me of leaving buttons everywhere. Of all the ridiculous things for anyone to do… he rubbed his forehead.
With long strides, he backtracked to where his mount waited patiently for his return. Freeing the reins, he lifted himself up and urg
ed the horse into a run. Oriana zigzagged through the trees, but she was slow and not in the least bit skilled in camouflaging herself. She didn’t know the forest like he did. Unfortunately, he knew she was heading for a steep drop off.
Lucian urged the horse faster, catching up to her as she reached the edge. Her feet skid to a stop as he reached her. Lucian jumped down and grabbed her by the waist, her arms flailing in a pathetic attempt not to fall forward. Lucian pulled her back into him, wrapping his arms around her.
“You sef! What were you thinking, running like that through a place you don’t know? You almost got yourself killed!” he lectured her, spinning her to face him.
“What does it matter to you how I die? You’re the one trying to kill me. Or are you just attempting to avoid my blood spilling on your soil?” she spat. “Are you going to take me back and kill me on Soleis now?”
Her questions and accusations reached him, but he couldn’t make sense of anything she was saying.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“The buttons!” she yelled.
He arched an eyebrow.
“You think I want to kill you because you have a few buttons? That doesn’t even make sense.”
“It does when I found them on three planets that were attacked. My—” A sob caught in her throat cutting off her words.
“Attacked?” He gripped her shoulders tightly and shook her. “Who attacked you? Who else was attacked?”
Her legs gave out beneath her and he slowly lowered her to the ground. “Oriana, please tell me what happened.” Lucian sat back on his heels.
She covered her face with her hands and sobbed. Unsure what to do, he ran his hand through his hair to keep himself from reaching out to her. Something bad had happened to Soleis and some of the other planets—and it had caused her to fear him.
Oriana
“I don’t understand, what attacks?”
Oriana dropped her hands, and a heated sneer replaced the sorrow from moments before.
“Yes, the attacks—and those,” she hissed, jerking her chin at him, “Were left after each one. We had peace, and you attacked us in the middle of the night, and had the nerve to leave a calling card.”
“I’m sorry to disappoint you, Princess,” he said, venom dripping in his tone. “But my Kingdom had nothing to do with any attacks. What kind of krike loses a button on every planet they assault?”
“Well, someone left it there!”
“We finally, after so many years, have a treaty with your world as well as the rest of the Inner Ring, we wouldn’t jeopardize that.”
“Then why did you approach me at the ball? You risked your place within the Alliance, as well as threatening the treaty between my world and Jupiter in the process,” she lashed out, body shaking uncontrollably. He was playing stupid, adding insult to injury.
“I already explained to you what happened,” Lucian bit out. “And if we wanted to attack, we wouldn’t have bothered to work so hard on getting treaties with all the Kingdoms. We would have just attacked.” He stood and took a step back. “Furthermore, don’t you think it’s just a tiny bit suspicious that it was the same button from the same officer’s rank left at the scene of each attack? No Citinal is that sloppy.”
Oriana opened her mouth, a scathing retort on the tip of her tongue, but stopped and let her jaw snap shut. What he said, did make sense. Now that she thought about it, it was suspicious, even to her. But, who would have wanted to make it look like Earth had been responsible for the attacks… and why?
“Something doesn’t add up,” she mumbled after a moment, more to herself than to him, getting to her feet.
“Yeah, no kidding sweetheart,” he said sarcastically.
She scowled in his direction at his use of the offensive nickname. “Why leave this behind?”
“Because whoever did it, wanted whoever found them to think it was my Kingdom that was responsible. To throw you off the trail.”
“No… they meant to kill me. But—” her voice broke unexpectedly.
“But what?”
“My maid, Celeste, they didn’t know she took my place. They killed her, thinking she was me. Whoever was responsible for this, wanted me dead. They must have known that my death would have caused a war between Jupiter and—”
“Earth,” he finished for her. “The two planets with the strongest Citinals.”
She looked up at him wide-eyed. “There was something else—something that struck me as odd,” she rubbed her forehead. “I just—what was it.”
“What? What is it?” He gripped her shoulders again.
What was it? Why am I telling him any of this? Dropping her hand, she studied his face. His forehead creased as his rich mahogany eyes searched her face. Worry, written all over his expression.
“The men who attacked Soleis, they weren’t wearing Earthen uniforms. They wore our uniforms. Then… then I was on Pluto—the men who were there…” She squeezed her eyes tight, trying to remember. The pressure of trying to get out alive had overridden everything else happening. “They had the same dusty gray hair, but they wore Pluto’s uniforms.”
“If these attackers wore the uniforms of the planets they were on, don’t you think it’s a bit strange that these,” he held up a button for her. “Were found at the scene?”
She could feel the pieces of the puzzle locking into place. Why hadn’t she realized any of this earlier?
“Why?” she mumbled after a few moments had passed. It didn’t make sense. All the planets had treaties with each other. Her masquerade was the first time all of the nine inner planets had been together. Earth was the last to gain an alliance with Soleis. It should have marked the beginning of several million years of constant peace.
“Come on; let’s get you cleaned up.” He lifted himself up onto his horse, who had stayed at his side. Lucian held his hand out, but she didn’t notice until she looked up.
“I should walk,” she said uncertainly.
“Don’t be ridiculous. That would take too long. I promise, no one will recognize you if that’s what you are worried about. Besides, you don’t exactly look like a princess covered in mud.”
Oriana bristled at his comment, grabbed his hand and allowed him to pull her up into the saddle behind him. The animal shifted its weight, the surprise making her wrap her arms around his waist.
Lucian tapped the sides of the horse with the heels of his boots and they leapt forward at a brisk, steady pace. The forward momentum knocked her off balance and she reached out, tightening her arms around him. Falling off this animal would hurt.
She looked down, then realizing her mistake, squeezed her eyes shut, and buried her face in his back. Too high… too high!
One of Lucian’s hands covered hers. “Ease up; you’re making it a little hard to breathe.”
Her arms stiffened and she inwardly groaned before loosening her hold.
“S—sorry. I’ve never been on a horse before,” she admitted.
“I won’t let you fall.”
His words comforted her only because they were accompanied by a slower pace. While the beast only swayed, Oriana kept her face buried in his back, her fists tightly gripping the sides of his jacket. After a moment she lifted her face, “Lucian?” she asked.
“Mmm?”
“What did you mean when you called me a set?”
His back stiffened, after a moment he answered.
“Sef… not set. It just—” He let out a sigh of resignation. “It means fool… idiot. I wouldn’t repeat that in public if I were you. It’s not language a princess should use.”
Heat rushed up her cheeks. “Oh.”
Within minutes, they had dismounted the horse and were on the steps leading into the castle. Oriana stood, facing the expansive architecture before her, hesitating as Lucian started climbing the steps.
“It’s okay. No one is around right now.”
“I just…” Just what? Did she even know what she was objecting
to? Prince Lucian was trying to help her. Before she could figure out what she wanted to say he reached back, taking her hand and leading her through the doors.
“Good evening, your Highness,” an older woman greeted him. “And who is this?” she asked. The woman’s graying hair was pulled back into a tight bun and her narrowing gaze made Oriana fidget.
“I found her in the forest. I’m afraid I startled her when I rode over the bridge. Preliator reared and she fell trying to avoid us. It’s my fault, Rosalie.”
“Then bringing her here was the least you could do, your Highness,” she admonished lightly. “Come with me, miss. I will show you to the guest’s quarters so you can get cleaned up. We will get you a fresh outfit as well.” The woman looked her up and down once more with distaste.
“I will be up soon to check on you,” he called after her.
She looked back over her shoulder, as she followed the housemaid. The growing smirk on his face highlighting the dimple in his left cheek.
Oriana stretched as she stepped out of the bath set flush into the tiled floor. Wrapping the plush towel around herself, she stepped across the white and gold marble tiles of the bathroom and into the changing room.
An outfit, closely resembling the one she had ruined, was laid out on a small cushioned bench. She lifted the shirt and examined it. A sleeveless shirt that zipped up the front, with a standing wing-tipped collar. The top was a dark brown, much like Prince Lucian’s eyes and golden threads decorated its edges in swirling patterns. Oriana fingered the material; it was soft and thin and felt warm. The pants were a plain black with gold threads that ran up the seams on the outside of the legs, but it was unlike any material she’d ever felt before.
She dressed, looking at her reflection in the mirror. Dark circles surrounded her eyes and her mouth was pulled down into a frown. Sitting down on the bench, she reached under to grab her boots and pull them on. A jacket had slid to the ground, she picked it up, slipping it over her shoulders and buttoning it at her waist. It was such a simple design, but the swallow-tail pattern flattered her.
Pulling her hair back, she entered the temporary chambers she had been given for the night. She took one step inside the main room and stopped. Lucian stood, leaning against one of the posts on the canopy bed.