Damsel Knight

by Sam Austin

  Boone stands at the edge of the platform with her mother beside her. On the far side the three rich northern men huddle together, Drust the pig farmer beside them. Angus and Julius alone stand either side of Alice, in the hope that their status will add weight to her words.

  She's not sure how much it helps. Most of the crowd must have noticed Julius's lack of cloak.

  "I'm leaving to go north," her mother says when applause rings through their burnt surroundings. The loudest claps come from the women who had fought on the wall. Other hands move together mechanically. "Prime Minister Ceana has asked me to. I wondered if you would consider coming with me."

  The north. She no longer thinks it full of barbarians. The golden soldiers do cruel things, but she can't say they're any more brutal than those of the circle. For a moment the idea appeals to her. All those dragons. It would be amazing to take Gelert to see them, and to see if there were others as friendly and savage as him.

  "I can't," she says finally. "Alice will need all the help she can get."

  "It's not common in the north," her mother says with hesitation. "But there are places across the sea where changing your gender is thought of as normal, as normal as we think of changing our looks. If that's something you want."

  Boone looks at her as the applause dies down. It's strange to think this is the same woman who would try every day to force her to be someone she wasn't. Whether it's the loss of memories, or the new ones she's formed, Boone doesn't know. But not all the change is bad. "For now I'm fine with how I am. But thank you."

  Her mother nods, wringing her hands together and bowing her head in a way that's all too familiar.

  "Thank you." Alice ducks her head to the crowd. A few of the women make the same motion back, and one or two of the boys. "These next few years will be tough for all of us. There's a whole world out there that we haven't met for a very long time. There will be challenges, but together I know we can face them."

  The words are not quite as pretty as her father's, but she can see they will be with a little practice.

  "Now go and celebrate!" Alice gestures at the long row of tables making their way up the golden road. Short tables. Tall tables. Curved tables. Straight tables. Enough space for the hundreds of men, women, and children to sit together. "There's food enough for all."

  Angus falls to one knee, facing her with his head bowed. On Alice's other side Julius does the same. From the surprised, slightly bashful expression on her face this wasn't planned. Still, it's a good idea.

  Boone falls to her knees, bowing respectfully in Alice's direction. Her mother does the same, and one by one those in the crowd join them. Soon everyone is on their knees, though some like Drust scowl through it.

  Then Angus gets to his feet, glaring out at the crowd as if he can force them to change their minds about Alice with the weight of his eyes. Even with one of his wrists heavily bandaged he looks fierce. "Your Queen!"

  The people respond eagerly now they know what's expected of them. "Our Queen!"

  Angus looks to Alice, and the girl nods her head. The people scurry away.

  "You know," her mother says thoughtfully. "The only reason the north backed Alice as a queen was because they thought she'd be easy to manipulate."

  "They'll be surprised." Boone watches the girl as she chats animatedly to Julius, Angus trailing close like a faithful dog. The red cloak around his shoulders had proved to be more indication of his attitude to his new leader than any of his notions about women and witches. "She learns fast, and she'll stick by what she thinks is right."

  A hint of a smile comes to her mother's thin lips. "There's something else you should know before I leave. Innes. He had a great many wounds, but none of them scarred. We can change faces, bodies, heal cuts perfectly, but when you bring a person back from the dead or the brink of it even the best magic weaver leaves a mark. It's like grasping at multiple ropes. You need to drop some to make it work."

  "Neven didn't." Boone swallows. She doesn't say what Ness had confided in her. That the scar on his stomach had disappeared too. Instead she reaches for something she's sure her mother had already noticed. "Timon can touch people now. Ever since he absorbed that dragon fire, and Neven brought him back."

  Her mother puts an arm around her, leading her to the back of the platform where Gelert has formed a large red hill. The idea had been for him to tower magnificently over Alice as she gave her speech, but he'd curled up like a castle sized puppy and gone to sleep. All these speeches are as boring to him as they are to her.

  "I know what you think," her mother says earnestly, her voice low. Gelert's steady breathing covers her words from any eavesdroppers. "That I forgot everything from before, but I didn't. Your father had a friend: Moore. The queen raised him, and there was a great deal of mystery about where he came from. Your father used to tell me everything, and he told me one day that the man said his blood was tainted and the King ordered him to never have children."

  Boone looked at her mother. "Tainted?"

  "Yes. His whole bloodline. The King had tracked his family down when he was a child, and ordered the death of all of them. The queen begged for the boy's life and took him in. Of course I never believed it back then. Your father was so trusting. I thought this Moore was playing a joke on him. I didn't think the King would do something like that.

  "Then one night your father came home flustered. He'd been gone several days. The queen had gone missing. She'd been sick for some time, so the whole kingdom was in a state looking for her and two servants who'd disappeared at the same time. A kitchen maid and an aide. I asked him not to, but he told me everything."

  The woman is silent so long that Boone takes a guess. "Mr and Mrs Moore kidnapped the queen?"

  Her mother laughs. It's a bitter sound. "No. Though many would think so. She kidnapped them. They were expecting a child and planning to run away. She figured it out somehow and insisted they take her with them. Your father helped them of course, along with a trader he knew."

  It doesn't make sense. "Why would she want to leave if she was sick? The best healers were at the palace." And Alice was there. Why would she want to leave her?

  "She was feverish at that point. When your father asked her, all she would say was that the price was too high. Mr Moore seemed to understand, but wouldn't explain."

  Ness runs toward them from the direction of the slums. He seems to be racing Timon who at fourteen is almost as tall as him. Neven walks behind them at a sedate pace, his constant cold expression swapped for the moment, for a mildly bemused one. Beside him walks his mother, looking at her child with her brow crinkled in worry as she so often does now.

  Boone can tell from her mother's face that while she didn't know then what the queen meant by price, she does now. How many children would've had to die to make her well again? How many did die before she figured out where her youth and beauty came from? While the queen isn't talked about anywhere near as often as the King, it's assumed she's from the same long ago age that the King came from.

  "And Neven?" Boone's almost afraid to ask. "Did she say anything about what might happen to him?"

  "One thing. Your father repeated it to me several times, hoping I could explain it for him. Just before he left them, he heard her tell Moore to protect the baby from the darkness. Moore asked her what darkness, and she rapped her knuckles over her heart. ‘Inside,' she said."

  Inside. The thought of her Neven being associated with anything that isn't kind and honest feels wrong, but that was the old Neven. She knew him. She doesn't know this sad, cold stranger who hadn't had a friend before she came along.

  Ness reaches the edge of the platform, steadying himself on its wooden surface. Timon giggles at his side. It's good to know that no matter his age, Timon giggles instead of laughs.

  "Neven made something really amazing." Timon spreads out his arms as if to measure exactly how amazing this something was. "Like really, really amazing. You have to come see."

  "Yeah." N
ess half turns to glance at the trailing Neven. When he turns back to her the cocky smile is frozen on his face, a glassy version of what it should be. "You'll like what he called it as well."

  Boone sits down on the edge of the platform, reaching out a boot to touch one of Gelert's large scaled feet. The dragon doesn't stir. "Do you want me to guess?"

  Ness turns around, cupping his hands around his mouth to yell. "Neven! Come and tell Boone what you called that thing you made!"

  Neven trots toward them, away from her mother's side. He looks at Ness with the kind of expression you'd give someone you didn't know, or trust. It's the same look he'd give strange boys in Porthdon, since so many of them would pick on him. "You mean the, it’s supposed to explode machine?"

  "Yeah." Ness gives Boone a significant look. "The, it’s supposed to explode machine."

  Boone can't help but smile. Whatever else has changed about him, his skill naming things hasn't improved.

  Neven frowns, suspicious. "What's wrong with that?"

  "Nothing," Ness says hastily. "It's a fine name. I'm sure its performance will live up to it."

  Now Boone is interested, and a little worried. "Performance?"

  Ness looks at Neven. The smaller boy shrugs. "Daylight's not really the best time, but I can give a small demonstration. I made plenty." A thin smile spreads over his too serious face. "And it is pretty amazing."

  Mrs Moore arrives holding a long thin metal tube that reminds Boone of the metal shooters Neven sacrificed. She hands it to Neven along with a small box. Then she sets down the large sack she'd pulled the box from and kicks Gelert on the dragon's massive head.

  The animal grumbles, raising his head with a yawn that shows his several sword length teeth. His half closed eyes snap open quickly as a whole chicken is tossed onto his tongue. The grumble turns into a purr as he savours the morsel.

  Mrs Moore said she'd chosen to take over feeding the dragon because she didn't want to risk him getting hungry and eating livestock, or worse, humans. Boone doesn't think that's the reason. She enjoys feeding him tiny treats too much for that. Though she doubts the woman will ever admit that she'd become fond of the dragon.

  Neven takes something from the box and puts it into the tube, much like he'd loaded stones into his shooters. Holding it in both hands, he aims it at the sky and twists.

  There’s a bang.

  Boone doesn't realise she'd shut her eyes until a cold hand slips into her own. She opens her eyes in time to see the remains of the explosion, sending red sparks flying outward far up in the blue sky. By her side Timon stares up at it in rapture.

  Neven twists the tube again. This time she doesn't jump. Whatever strange bomb Neven has turned from destruction to beauty, explodes outward in a spray of green sparks. They seem to crackle a little before they drift down.

  Behind her she's sure the people are looking upward with a mixture of horror and wonder. Perhaps Alice is as fascinated as Timon, but for now she's content not to turn and see. Instead she watches the green sparks fizzle to nothing.

  Things may not be perfect. Alice will need to be protected from her own people, and might never make the changes she wishes. Neven is different, but so are all of them. They’re together, standing up for the things they believe in. That’s what’s important. There’s a whole unexplored world out there, but whatever the future brings, she’ll be by her friend’s sides with her father’s sword.

  She blinks, seeing the after-image of the beautiful bomb behind her eyelids. It really is amazing.

  <<<>>>

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