Princess Wars

by J. D. Rogers

  "How do they get it to glide across the sand?" I asked. "Won't there be too much friction between the skis and the sand?"

  "Trade secret. They coat the skis with a substance that makes them very slick. I think it's some sort of tallow, but I can't be sure. Whatever it is, it works quite well."

  "How do they steer it?"

  "They lower the sails, pick the back end up, and turn the ship in the direction they want to go."

  As we drew closer, I could see there were four men camped next to the ship. Two of them were soldiers. They wore black riding boots, white cotton breeches, white cotton shirts that laced down the front, and red jackets. They carried swords and crossbows. The other two men wore billowing white silk pants, red silk vests, and white silk turbans. They were shorter than the two soldiers and had much darker complexions, clearly the sailors.

  "Only two sailors?" I said.

  "Sand ships can't carry very many people. The more people you have, the more weight you have. The more weight you have, the more wind you need to move the ship. A ship this size is limited to no more than five people. One sailor to work the square sails. One to work the jibs. Three passengers."

  We obviously had a problem since we now had six people. Edgerton must've realized what I was thinking. "One of my guards has agreed to stay behind. He'll work his way to a port and book passage on a ship from Gibney, one that's headed to Standish."

  That explained what would happen to the horses we were riding. "You trade with Gibney?"

  "No, but the people of Standish do, and we trade with them. What we know about this side of the world, we've learned from them. And they learned from the Gibeans."

  "Why don't you trade with us?"

  "Our ships don't sail to this side of the world. Your ships don't sail to our side. Only the Merchants of Gibney send ships to our side of the world. If you sent ships to us, we would gladly trade with you. Perhaps when you become Queen of Vassa, you can change that."

  "If I become Queen of Vassa, my oldest sister, Bedonna, will become Queen of Adah. She won't be interested in establishing trade with a county ruled by her little sister. She'll only be interested in killing me."

  "Why would she want to kill you when you're living on the other side of the world?"

  "If she found out I was alive. She'd convince herself that she needed to kill me before I tried to kill her."

  Edgerton glanced back at me and smiled. "I'm glad I didn't try to kidnap her."

  "Bedonna's not someone you kidnap."

  The two soldiers saw us approaching and moved toward us. They were both tall and thin, with long blond hair pulled back into ponytails. The older one had a neatly trimmed beard of the same color. The younger one was clean shaven. The two sand sailors were smaller, not any bigger than me. They had thick black beards. The turbans they wore made it impossible to tell if they had hair or were bald. All four men seemed surprised to see us.

  "You found a princess," the guard with the beard said. Or something to that effect. He spoke in the Common Tongue. Since I only knew a few words. I had to guess what some of them meant.

  "Princess Lila Marie Haran," Edgerton said. "Youngest daughter of Bella Justine Haran, the late Queen of Adah."

  "Why are her hands tied?"

  "She didn't come willingly. I had to kidnap her."

  "You think that's wise?"

  "Wiser than returning empty handed." Edgerton gave his horse to the guard and helped me off mine. "I'll untie your hands, but I wouldn't try to run away if I were you. Those wild men aren't dangerous when you're on horseback, but when you're on foot, they can be very dangerous. Especially if you're alone and unarmed."

  "Understood." I used the Common Tongue instead of Gibean. I turned my back to Edgerton and he untied my hands. I wasn't foolish enough to try to walk the thirty or so miles back to the Western Palace. Not with all those wild men I had seen. Plus, I was hungry, I hadn't eaten since yesterday morning, just before Edgerton drugged me.

  "I haven't eaten since yesterday," I said, switching back to the language of the traders. "I would like something to eat. Or do you think that starving me will make me more cooperative?"

  "Of course not, Your Highness. I just never gave it much thought." Edgerton turned to the guard with the beard and switched to the Common Tongue. "The princess is hungry. Find her something to eat."

  "We have no food left, save for the coconuts that grow on the palm trees."

  "That will have to do."

  The guard grabbed a green coconut from the pile next to their burned out campfire, split it into smaller pieces with his sword, and offered a piece to me.

  "Thank you," I said in the Common Tongue. "What's your name?"

  "Conkling Eades, Your Highness. Captain Conkling Eades."

  He seemed surprised that I could speak the Common Tongue. I didn't bother to tell him that I couldn't. That I only knew a few words and phrases in his language. I found a spot near their burned out campfire, sat, and ate my coconut. It wasn't the ideal breakfast, but it was sweet and moist and it filled my empty belly.

  While I ate, Edgerton conversed with his soldiers. They talked too fast for me to follow the conversation. I assumed they were talking about which of the two men would travel back on the sand ship and which would ride the horses to a nearby port. After a couple of minutes, Edgerton walked over to me and switched to Gibean.

  "My man needs your help. He needs to travel to the closest port where he can book passage on a merchant ship from Gibney."

  My first thought was to not help him. After all, they were holding me here against my will. But I realized I might be able to use him to get a message to Vomeir and the others that were still waiting for me.

  "He doesn't speak Adish," I said. "How does he plan on getting around in a country where he doesn't speak the language?"

  "He doesn't speak Adish," Edgerton said. "But he does know the language of the traders."

  Edgerton nodded at the guard with the beard, Captain Eades. I turned to him, and spoke in Gibean. "Can you speak the language of the traders?"

  "Enough to get by," he said in Gibean. "I need to get to a port that will have a ship from Gibney."

  "You could ride straight south from here. That would take you to Queen's Town. But Queen's Town is just a fishing village. The ships from Gibney don't stop there."

  "So where do I go?"

  "Head north until you see the Western Palace, then turn east. There's a road that will take you through the Pass of Nod to the city of Morcesha. Once you reach Morcesha, you can take the Queen's Road south, to the Port of Nadal. It's our largest port and at any given time there are a dozen ships from Gibney loading and unloading."

  Captain Eades bowed. "Thank you, Princess."

  "It's a much longer route. But it's a safe route and your best chance to get home."

  "I look forward to serving you, when you assume the throne of Vassa."

  He seemed so sincere about wanting to serve me, that I couldn't let him go without a warning. "When you reach the Pass of Nod, you'll be stopped by a small group of soldiers. Tell them that I sent you to let them know what happened to me. Then tell them I went with a man from the Far Lands, that I decided everyone in Adah would be better off if I left the country. Just don't tell them that you served under that man and that he kidnapped me. If they know that, they might kill you."

  Captain Eades bowed again. "I understand. You don't want them sitting around waiting for your return when you won't be returning."

  "Tell them that the powder witch is dead and it should be safe for them to continue to the Western Palace."

  "As you wish, Your Highness."

  "Tell them that their duty to me is fulfilled and they are free to do as they wish. There's one called Captain Vomeir. Tell him that I said thank you, for everything."

  Captain Eades bowed a third time, tied a sack of coconuts to the pack horse's saddle, mounted Edgerton's horse, and headed north. As the two horses disappeared over the hill, so did my last
chance of escape. Like it or not, I was heading across the Desert of Shifting Sands.

  "The sailors tell me that it's time for us to leave," Edgerton said, coming over to me. "They've spent the last couple of weeks charting the winds on this side of the desert. Apparently, they blow from the east during the day and from the west at night."

  Edgerton looked toward the east. The palm trees on the distant hills were swaying in the wind. A minute later, a warm breeze hit us in the face. Edgerton escorted me to the sand ship and then offered me a hand, helping me climb on.

  "We ride on the rear net, Your Highness. The sailors work on the planks and sleep on the front net."

  I noticed several sacks were hanging from the ship's lone mast, filled with what looked like coconuts. Obviously our food and water supply for the trip across the desert.

  I sat in the middle of the net directly behind the mast. The net was thin but strong. I was about three feet off the ground. Edgerton and the clean shaven soldier helped the two sailors push the ship off the grassy hillside and onto the sand. The sand was reddish brown in color and as soft as talc. The boat sunk down several inches, its two large skis disappearing beneath the sand.

  That convinced me we weren't going anywhere. Then the sailors raised the sails. First the top square sail was unfurled and secured, then the much larger bottom one. Both were made from squares of red and white silk that had been stitched together to form checkerboards. As soon as the bottom one was unfurled and secured, the ship lifted out of the sand and moved forward, gliding on top of the sand.

  About a mile out, a large sand dune loomed in front of us. I was sure we would plow into it, but the two sailors raised three red jibs over the front of the ship. With each jib, the ship's front seemed to lift further out of the sand. Once all three jibs were tied down, the ship glided over the dune with no problem.

  "Amazing isn't it?" Edgerton said, sitting next to me. "I don't know what they coat the skis with, but even sand doesn't stick to it."

  The clean shaven soldier sat on my other side. Edgerton introduced him as Captain Bokham Moira. At the same time, one of the two sailors, the one standing on the right hand side of the mast, looked at us and said something in a language that wasn't Gibean or the Common Tongue.

  "He wants us to move further back," Edgerton said. "It will help keep the front of the skis from plowing into a sand dune."

  The three of us scooted further back. The front of the ship did seem to rise up a little, although we didn't seem to gain any speed. We were moving at a good clip, not as fast as a horse could run, but certainly as fast as your average man could run.

  "How long will it take us to cross the desert?"

  "About two weeks. If the winds remain strong. Longer if they die down."

  That meant I had two weeks to learn to speak the Common Tongue, not to mention learn the history of Vassa and its neighbors. Before turning my attention to my studies, I took a final glance at Adah, wondering if I would ever see it again.

  Chapter 12

  Two weeks in the desert isn't fun, even when you don't have to walk. The sand ship moved quickly during the day, and a bit slower at night, since we were tacking into the wind. Days were hot and I took shelter from the sun under the wool cape that Edgerton gave me, holding it over my head like an awning. Nights were cold and I wrapped the cape around me for warmth. Sand swirled around our faces both day and night, forcing us to wrap silk bandannas around our mouths and noses. For distraction, I studied the Common Tongue and the history of Vassa.

  One week into our journey, a stand of palm trees appeared on the horizon. Edgerton said it would take two weeks to cross the desert, which made me wonder if I was seeing things.

  "Is it just me, or are there some palm trees in the distance?" I said, speaking the Common Tongue.

  "It's an oasis," Edgerton said. "A dozen palm trees and some bushes being fed by an underground spring. We discovered it on our first trip across the desert. I'm amazed our sailors were able to find it again."

  "Will we stop there?" If we didn't, I was tempted to jump ship.

  "We did on our first trip. It gave us a chance to replenish our drinking water and wash off some of this sand."

  Sure enough, just before we reached the oasis, our two sailors lowered the ship's sails. Once the sails were down, the sand ship came to a quick stop. Our two sailors took a dozen empty water bags hanging from the main mast and refilled them in the pool. They refilled our food bags with coconuts by picking one of the palm trees clean. Once they finished restocking our supplies, they told us that we could bathe in the pool.

  "You first, Your Highness," Edgerton said. "We'll turn our backs so you can have some privacy."

  I dropped my cloak and plunged into the pool still wearing my clothes, which needed to be washed as much as I did. The water was clear and cool, indicating the spring feeding it was deep. The pool wasn't big enough to swim in, not more than a couple of strokes. But it was deep. You could dive under the water and go a good ten feet down. There was a fissure in the pool's rocky bottom, with fresh water bubbling up from deep within the earth.

  I stayed in the water until the pads of my fingers grew wrinkled, then reluctantly climbed out. I stretched out on the grass next to the pool and called out. "Next."

  Edgerton slipped around the bushes the guys had moved behind to give me some privacy. He saw me stretched out on my back, the yellow silk clinging to me like a second skin, and went into a tizzy. "Your Highness, you must cover up."

  "You cover up," I said. "I'm going to let the sun dry my clothes."

  Any embarrassment I might have felt over being so scantly clad had long since left me. I was used to this outfit, used to my traveling companions. Not that they paid me a lot of attention. Bokham and Edgerton were too well mannered to gawk at me and the sailors were too busy.

  Edgerton, on the other hand, wasn't nearly as comfortable with my body being on display. When he saw me lying there, wet and next to naked, he grabbed my cloak and tossed it over me like a blanket.

  "The Queen of Vassa does not lie around naked when there are strange men about," Edgerton sputtered.

  "Then I guess I'm lucky there are no strange men about. Just my traveling companions." I tossed the cloak off me and stretched back out. "Besides, I'm not the Queen of Vassa. I'm Lila Marie Haran, Princess of Adah."

  Edgerton grew red faced. He wanted to argue with me, but didn't know what to say. Instead, he kicked his boots off and gingerly waded into the pool, still wearing his clothes.

  The two sailors appeared, removed their turbans and vests, and waded into the pool clad only in their silk pants. It was the first time they had taken their turbans off, revealing the fact that they shaved their heads.

  Bokham Moira, my blond haired guard, opted to walk into the pool with everything on but his boots and sword. I couldn't help but laugh at him and Edgerton, which made both of them turn as red as a setting sun.

  "Are all the men in Vassa as embarrassed by their bodies as the two of you?"

  "Our clothes are as dirty as yours were," Edgerton said.

  I laughed and watched as three of the men produced knives and used them to shave. The two sailors shaved their heads. Bokham shaved his face. When they finished, they climbed out of the pool. The sailors put their vests and turbans on. Edgerton and Bokham slipped into their boots.

  "It's time to go, Your Highness," Edgerton said.

  I pulled myself to a sitting position, laced my sandals up my calves, and tied my cloak around my shoulders. I followed Edgerton through the bushes and back to the ship. "Did you know the Queen of Adah doesn't marry."

  "I didn't know that," Edgerton admitted.

  "She takes consorts, but she doesn't take a husband."

  "Wouldn't that make you illegitimate, Your Highness?"

  "Not in a matriarchal society, which Adah has always been."

  "Do you know who your father is?"

  "Mother said that it wasn't relevant. She said the only thing that m
attered was that we were her daughters."

  "Your country is very different from mine. The Kings of Vassa have always married."

  "Is your queen married?"

  "She is not."

  "So there's no law that requires your queen to marry."

  "Not that I know of."

  "Glad to hear that." I wasn't sure I wanted to get married. I wasn't sure I wanted to be tied down to one man. I liked the idea of being able to toss men out of my bedroom whenever the whim struck me. Although if Edgerton and Bokham were any indication, I might have a hard time luring a man from Vassa into my bedroom.

  We walked behind the ship, following it as Bokham and the two sailors pulled it around the oasis.

  "Do you have any brothers?" Edgerton asked me.

  "No woman in my family has ever given birth to a boy."

  "Ever?"

  "Ever. Nobody is quite sure why. That's just the way it's always been. Is that going to be a problem?"

  "It shouldn't be. In our part of the world, the king's or queen's first born becomes heir to the throne, regardless of whether it's a boy or a girl."

  "What becomes of the younger daughters?"

  "They marry a duke or a baron, live the quiet life of what's referred to as useless royalty. We have a lot of useless royalty in our part of the world. Many of which will seek your hand in marriage."

  "We have no useless royals in Adah," I said. "We have our queen and a barren hill called the Cemetery of Would Be Queens."

  "I think I like our system better," Edgerton said.

  "What will happen when we reach Vassa?"

  "I'll introduce you to our queen, Catlett Shae Laamatt. Queen Catlett if you prefer. You'll spend some time with her. If she likes you and thinks you're fit to rule, she'll make you her heir."