Finding a Princess (Seven Sisters Book 1)

by Amy Richie

  With the added light, I could see the inside better. Next to me on the seat was a small framed man that I hadn't noticed before. How had I not noticed an entire person?

  “Oh,” I jumped, “I didn't see you there. Who are you?” The man didn't respond. “I thought this was only for a Princess.” Still silent. Typical.

  The man was smaller than Leo, that must be why they wanted him to ride with me. Size didn't always matter, maybe he was some sort of ninja. It would explain why he didn't say anything. He didn't even stare at me the way everyone else did. Did he think I couldn't see him?

  Outside the window, the Queen had come out to wave me off. Would I ever see her again? They would probably make me stay on Tontine now. Not that I would miss her that much, at all really. She was a strange woman. She knew she would be dying soon, I realized with a jolt. They would ask her to give birth to the next line of princesses and she would die.

  Shaking my head of those dark thoughts, I waved back at her.

  The Rove suddenly whirred to life, making the seat vibrate under me. “Whoa,” I squealed, holding onto the wall with one hand. I really wished the man wasn't in here with me, it was weird enough that I was being transported to a different planet – now he had to come ruin that by being all silent and mysterious. “Are you another Guardian?” I asked with the same result.

  “Leo said I was riding alone.” Nothing.

  The Rove lurched forward, taking my stomach with it. “Have you ever ridden in one of these things? Do you think it's safe?” Of course it was safe, I assured myself since he wouldn't. Leo wouldn't put me in here if it wasn't safe.

  Outside the window, the Palace blurred out of sight and we were suddenly in the air. “I've never even been on a plane,” I exclaimed, hard pressed to disguise my wide grin. “This is so cool!” Pressing my face against the window, I watched the Rove take us further into the sky and then with a sudden burst of speed - we were in space.

  Chapter Sixteen

  “Are you the fourth Princess?” an oily voice hissed from the man next to me.

  Taken aback, I could only stare at him for several long moments. “Ummm...” Why else would I be in this Rove and heading to Tontine? “Who are you?” I asked instead.

  “Are you?” he asked again, still staring straight ahead.

  “Do all the Guardians talk like that?” I wondered out loud. Leo and Kris were both all quite and mysterious too. Why didn't they just talk like normal people? It would make them less creepy and make me want to answer.

  “I am not a Guardian,” his hiss became more vehement.

  “Then who are you?”

  “Tell me if you are the fourth Princess,” he demanded, his face turning all red and blotchy. “Are you the Princess of Tontine.”

  “I guess.” My forehead scrunched slightly. There were a lot of weird people on Zar, some of the dangerous kind of weird too. I needed to be careful until I knew which kind this guy was.

  “You guess?” His eyes slid over to take in my face and then back away just as quickly.

  “Kris said I am but I've never actually been to Tontine so I don't know what they're going to say. Guess we'll find out together.”

  “We are not going to Tontine.” He sat back against the seat and templed his fingers under his pointed chin.

  “Yes we are,” I argued. “This UFO Rove is programmed to take us there.” It wasn't like it had a steering wheel.

  “I am the one who programmed it,” he replied calmly.

  “Leo said...”

  “The Guardian could not see me.”

  It did seem kind of weird that he said it was for one person and only the Princess could ride in it when this man was already in here. My heart clenched slightly with the first stirrings of panic. “So, where are we going then?”

  “To see my master.”

  His master? “You mean the King?” I squeaked hopefully.

  His eyes darted to my face again, this time taking in more than just a peek. “I do not serve the King.”

  “You don't?” Did they have a choice in that? Did the King know?

  “Have you met the Prince yet?” he asked, turning away again.

  “I met the Queen.”

  “Prince Aiden,” he clarified.

  “I don't know who that is.”

  “He hopes to one day be your husband,” a small grin played around his thin lips.

  “I don't think I'll ever get married,” I gushed. “I don't like the thought of getting bossed around by a husband.” Was this man from the Prince? Was that his master?

  “Aiden is the Prince of Tontine.”

  “I...” I didn't realize Tontine had a Prince. And they expected me to marry this guy?

  “He doesn't want you either.”

  “Huh?”

  “If rumors can be believed, the Prince threw a royal tantrum when he discovered you had been found and he was expected to marry you within seven days.” This time, his grin was unmistakeable.

  “He doesn't have to worry about that,” I huffed. “Did he send you to kidnap me or something? Is he trying to stop me from getting to Tontine?”

  “Not at all,” the man frowned dramatically. “Prince Aiden knows he has no choice but to marry you.”

  “Why doesn't he have a choice?”

  “Anyways,” he continued without answering, “I don't serve Prince Aiden either.”

  “Are you going to tell me where you're taking me and what your master wants from me?” My nostrils flared in anger.

  “You'll find out soon,” he pointed out the window.

  My breath caught, momentarily making me forget that I was being kidnapped. There were more stars to see than I ever imagined. They were so close it felt like I could reach through the window and stroke their brilliance.

  In the distance, but getting steadily larger, was a large ball of red light. “What's that?” I murmured, not able to tear my eyes away from the sight.

  “The Red Sun,” the man hissed close to my ear.

  “The Red Sun,” I repeated in amazement.

  “Hurdesh is the only planet lit by the Blue Sun,” he explained, not making much sense to me.

  “It's beautiful.” I turned to the man, wanting more information from him. He quickly jerked his head away from my gaze, staring instead into his lap. “What's your name?” I asked him, tapping his foot with my own foot.

  “It doesn't matter,” he mumbled.

  “Did your master tell you not to make eye contact with me?” I guessed. He must have known about my compulsion.

  “We'll be there soon.” He moved as far as possible away from me, pressing himself against the wall of the Rove.

  I had no luck trying to get information from the man and, true to his word, it was only a short time later that the Rove began to slow down and get lower. We landed with a jerk onto a planet that seemed small to me – considering I only had the earth to compare it to and a short look at through the window before we touched the ground.

  “Are we there?” I asked, eyes wide as the lights inside the compartment went out and the seats slid apart.

  “Welcome to Kluff,” he announced, holding his arm wide to invite me to get out of the Rove.

  “This is another planet?” My eyebrows crinkled. “How many are there?”

  “Seven.”

  “Oh yeah,” I remembered with a breathy voice.

  Kluff seemed to be a planet made only of sand. As far as my eyes could see, which was pretty far, there were no buildings or trees or water. Only sand.

  In the sky above us, a much larger planet put us in mostly shadows. “What is that?” I pointed up to the much larger planet. “Is that a moon?”

  “That is Tontine,” his head jerked slightly.

  There was something strange in my chest, something that was clawing it's way out. An emotion I had never felt and couldn't possibly define was trying to get out at the sight of my home planet. Tontine. How could I have ever doubted that was where I belonged?

 
Tears welled in the corner of my eyes, taking me by surprise. Pride swelled inside me. “Take me there,” I spoke the words before I had time to think about them.

  The man cowered low to the ground. “My master,” he stuttered, “he wishes to see you.”

  I let out a breath I hadn't realized I was holding. “Fine,” I relented, “but you'll take me to Tontine when I've seen him.”

  “Yes,” the man jerked forward. “This way.” he started walking forward, his steps uneven. With one last look at Tontine in the sky above us, I hurried to follow.

  Chapter Seventeen

  The wirey man turned on the spot and stared at me. Confused but resigned to the awkward gaping, I clicked my tongue impatiently. “There's no one here.”

  “We're here,” he said slowly.

  Had I really pushed the guy so hard he was now Mr. Creep a saurus? I didn't even mean to. “I meant your master,” I snapped impatiently.

  Without warning, his hand shot out and made contact with something solid that I couldn't see. A door appeared, looking bizarre by itself in a sea of sand. “This way,” the man purred, pushing the door open to reveal a dark space. “After you.”

  “You want me to go in there?” I twisted around the man to try and see through the darkness. As far as I could tell there was nothing there but this door. Things weren't what they seemed here though, it could be a portal to somewhere.

  “Yes,” he nodded.

  “What's in there?” I took a step past the man to get a closer look.

  “My master wishes...”

  “Yeah, I know,” I cut him off. “And he's in here?” Taking a deep breath of uncertainty, I stepped inside the small space – not sure what I expected to happen.

  Nothing happened. I was standing in a dark space the size of a small closet. Outside, the man continued to watch me with his eyes slightly blank.

  “What now?” I prompted. “Which way do I go? Is there a code or button to push?”

  “He will see you soon,” the man replied, then swung the door closed in my face.

  “What?” Did he just shut me in? I wasn't expected to just wait here in this coffin, was I?

  Feeling around blindly, I searched the door for a handle of some sort. Although there was what felt like a keypad, there was no handle that I could find. I pushed hard against the unrelenting door, hoping it would open by brute force.

  “Hey!” I screamed, pounding my fists against the door. I was no weakling, but the door didn't budge at all. “You let me out,” I screamed to the man. “You can't just lock me up in here.” Normally I needed eye contact to convince people of things, but the man was already soft. “Open this door!”

  From behind me, there came a scuffling noise. I whirled around, expecting the very worst, but nothing was there. Only the thick blackness that my eyes couldn't penetrate. My heart was thudding too loud, making my head spin.

  “Is someone there?” I called out, barely hoping for a reply.

  “Hello,” a small voice called back.

  What I had taken for another wall turned out to be a corner which I only found by sliding my hand along the wall until it fell away. Heart telling me not to go further, I peeked my head around the corner. It was still very dark, but I could tell it was a short hall of sorts. At the end of it was another door with a small slice of light shining underneath it.

  I glanced back at the door the man had closed and then towards the door with the light under it. Light was better than dark, I decided quickly. Moving quickly, I stopped just in front of the door and gave it a small push. It swung open easily, as if it were waiting to be discovered.

  A tiny room opened up to me, a tiny room with a dirty floor. The kind of room you only saw in scary movies – complete with a young girl huddled in the corner. My eyes scanned the rest of the space. No windows, no other door, dingy yellow light coming from the ceiling, no furniture, and no master that I could see. Unless the girl was the master; somehow I doubted that.

  She was small from what I could see- her hair bright red and her face paler than any I had ever seen before. She peeked up at me from her place on the floor, her head was still half in her knees. “W...who are you,” she gasped. It was obvious she had been crying.

  “Kalli.” My narrowed eyes refused to relax. “Who are you?”

  “Are you here to kill me?” she asked, her terror showing.

  “Why would I be here to kill you?” Had she done something wrong that deserved a death sentence?

  “This place...” Her lips curled in on each other.

  “Not exactly the Ritz,” I snorted.

  Her head came completely up. “Are you from earth too?”

  “Hmm,” I grunted. She was from earth, definitely not the master.

  “Are you?” she asked again.

  “How long have you been here?” I asked instead of answering her. I tried not to make it habit to trust people I didn't know. Especially people who thought I was a killer.

  “I don't know,” she shrugged. “I was brought here yesterday.”

  “They just locked you in here and left?” What did they want? “Did they say anything to you?”

  “There was this weird guy.”

  “I think I know him.”

  “Everyone here is weird, but this guy was...”

  “Creepy,” I supplied for her.

  “Yeah.”

  “What's your name?”

  “Bonnie,” she said in a small voice.

  “Did that man say anything else to you?”

  Bonnie nodded, letting her hair flop in her face in the process. “He said his master wanted to see me.”

  “Did you see this master guy?”

  “No, I've been in here this whole time – alone.” She shivered violently.

  “Have you looked for a way out?” I crossed the room to one of the dirty walls and ran my hand across it.

  “There is no door,” her voice broke. “I think they're going to kill us.”

  “I doubt it.” There was a small place where the wall rose up, maybe there was something hidden there. Or perhaps it used to be a door. If we could just...

  “How do you know that,” Bonnie wailed, her voice raising.

  “They would have killed us already if that was the plan,” I said calmly, turning to look at her. “Why bring us here together if they were going to kill us?”

  “Aren't you scared?”

  “There's nothing to be scared of yet. Nothing has happened except throwing us in here.”

  “Do you know what they told me?”

  Didn't she say they didn't tell her anything? “What?”

  “They told me I was a Princess.”

  “You're one of the Princesses?” My hands stopped their search of the seemingly blank wall.

  “That's what they said but I don't believe it. It's all too weird.” She shook her head and dropped her face back into her knees.

  Bonnie was a Princess. That meant she was my sister.

  I swallowed hard and slid down to the floor beside the frightened girl. “I'm a Princess too,” I told her, trying to inject confidence in my voice.

  She looked up, her eyes bright green and watery. “You are?”

  “There are seven of us in total,” I said slowly. “Do you know what that means?”

  “What?”

  “This guy must be trying to get all of us.” Someone had tried to kill us when we were just babies and then me again in the market. Maybe Bonnie was right – they were going to kill us.

  Chapter Eighteen

  “How long have we been here?” I shot the words across to Bonnie who was sitting with her knees pressed into her chest still. How did her legs not fall asleep?

  “A few hours,” she replied softly.

  “More like a few days,” I grumbled. Patience had never been high on my list of virtues.

  “I don't think it's been that long.”

  “When is going to come back for us?” I wondered out loud.

  “Do you really
want him too?”

  “Anything would be better than just sitting here.” I could get the man to do what we wanted, I was sure of it. He would take us straight to Tontine and then we could figure out what was going on. What was Leo doing now? Was he even looking for me, did he know I was missing?

  “Where are you from?” Bonnie asked suddenly, not lifting her head from the wall where it had leaned.

  “The earth.” I already told her that. I had explained to her about the curse that had sent us to earth and then hid us.

  “Yeah, I know that. Where at on earth?” Her lips raised into a hint of a smile. Bonnie could be a pretty girl, I realized, if she would smile a bit more.

  “Montana,” I quickly made up. I had once seen a movie about a girl that lived in Montana, people had good families there.

  “What's your family like?”

  “I have a mom and a dad,” I swallowed thickly. “They both live together.” I wasn't sure what made me lie to her, except for the fact that I hated being an orphan...and a thief.

  “My parents are still together too, it's rare these days.”

  “I know. I was the only one of my friends to have parents.”

  “Parents that weren't divorced?” Her eyes widened. “I live in Hidden Oaks,” she explained. “It's this tiny little perfect town in southern Indiana. People stay together there.” She sniffed loudly.

  “What are your parents like?” I couldn't help my curiosity, I had never met a perfect couple before.

  “They adopted me and my brother when we were babies. My dad is a lawyer, mom stays at home.”

  “A lawyer, huh?”

  “Yeah.” She grinned wide. “Last summer we went to Paris so I could paint the Eiffel Tower.”

  “Why would you need to go all the way to Paris? There's pictures of it all over.”

  Bonnie's grin turned into a soft chuckle.

  My top lip snarled up at the picture she conjured. How had she gotten so lucky to be adopted by people like that? Why hadn't anyone wanted me?

  “I heard French people stink anyways,” I sulked.

  “They don't,” she rolled her eyes at my words. “I'm going back to study for a year after I graduate.”