“So what if you’re not a good person? You’re a good friend.” Anna looked at Bart, and then said, “To me at least.”
“I really don’t think my family likes me either, not when they’ve got my baby brother. He’s the complete opposite of me, all polite and noble. Can’t take a joke for crap,” Bart said, munching on a biscuit.
“Well, look at that. You’re all outcasts in your families. And, hey, I don’t have a family to begin with, so I’m worse off than you,” Anna’s knight said to brighten the mood.
Anna looked at the ground and said, “Yeah, none of us really belong anywhere.”
From outside the carriage, Bill said, “You know the best thing about family? If you don’t like the one you’ve got, screw ’em and go make a new family. At least that’s what I did. But I’m just a chauffeur, so what would I know? Looks like we’re here, kids.”
Looking outside the carriage windows, the friends saw an amazing sight. There were floats from every store in the shopping district. Toys R Yours had a giant jack-in-the-box that actually sprang open when you cranked it all the way. Poisoned Goblet had a mad scientist’s lab, and every few minutes he’d create a new concoction that would explode into something astonishing like colorful clouds or just a big explosion.
Even Shannon’s Café and Pastry Shop had a float with a bunch of ovens churning out treat after confection. With rumbling stomachs, Anna and her friends got out of the carriage and went after the baking float. However, there was already a crowd of kids hounding Shannon and her crew, so Anna had a hard time getting to the actual float.
Thinking up a brilliant plan, her knight jumped onto the nearest carriage and leapt onto the float. The bakers didn’t really appreciate this and beat him with wooden spoons and ladles to try and repel him, but he ignored them and used his cloak to gather every pastry in sight. Once it was full, he hopped off and brought the spoils back to his master. The young friends ran back to their carriage amidst an angry group of kids and bakers and barely made it inside.
“Bill, hurry and get us out of here!” Anna called out to her chauffeur.
Cracking the whip, he pushed his way out of the irate crowd with the knights clearing a path for him. Soon they were away from the scene of the crime, home free, and on their way back to Shel’s. Anna and the others were laughing all the way back, having a grand old time. When they were inside again, the thieving knight dropped the pile of pastries onto the table, and they all, excluding the knights, dug in eagerly. Of course, they made themselves sick, but the friends didn’t care, for they were in good company. After digesting the sweets, Anna excused herself to go to her father’s party. The princess was in good spirits when she did.
Chapter 10
Anna was glad to have the warm memories of her friends. As she opened the doors to the ballroom of the castle, the princess was beginning to feel a little nervous. There were already many nobles and their knights present, all of whom stopped what they were doing to look at her as she entered. She gave a small bow and quickly made her way to the other side of the room where her sister and father were waiting. She came up next to them and gave a small hello, which they returned. Coraline looked at the stain on Anna’s knight’s mantle and got a superior look on her face.
“So, it looks like your knight can’t take care of himself,” Coraline said.
“Oh, that, that’s just a little—”
“A little souvenir from your bout with Lord Pumpernickel,” Anna’s father said, taking a sip from his glass.
“Oh, yes, I suppose it is, we just—”
“Got a little carried away. I understand. I always thought he was a little annoying myself.” Anna’s father said.
“Yes, well—”
“Still, I think you should be more careful of who you make enemies with. I’ve spoken with him, and he says that you are forgiven.”
“T-thank you, Your Majesty. I won’t make the same mistake again,” Anna said, bowing.
Her father looked her knight over and said, “Yes, it seems you might have been right. That knight of yours is a troublemaker surely.”
Glancing at her knight, she said, “I wouldn’t say he’s a troublemaker. He was just defending himself.”
“If some noble wants to mistreat it, it should let them. It’s fitting, considering the difference in status.”
“I know he is—”
“It, daughter. It is an it. I believe we already went over this. You must be its mistress and control it. Do you understand me?” he finished with force.
Staring at her feet, Anna said, “Y-yes, Your Majesty. I-I’ll teach it its place, one that it is deserving of its position in life.”
“Good. Speaking of position, why is your knight standing next to you and not over with the other knights?”
“Oh…uh…I…”
Before she could stutter out an answer, Anna’s knight was already moving toward the side of the room where the other knights were. Her father gave a nod of approval, and then took out his gold pocket watch. He closed it and put it away, stepping away from his daughters to address the other nobles.
In a booming voice, he spoke. “Ladies and gentlemen, I thank you for coming here tonight to celebrate my most recent children and their late mother. I know she was most beloved among you and even the common folk. She was truly a wonderful woman, and I do miss her, but at least I have her beautiful children to remind me of her. Also—”
The king was interrupted by the doors opening, his son stepping in. Cornelius was dressed up for the occasion, but once again he was missing his knight. Walking confidently up to his father, he gave a grand bow and stepped in line with his siblings. If their father was angered by this show of arrogance, he didn’t show it and went on talking.
“Also, please enjoy the evening in her honor.”
Everyone clapped, and then went back to talking among themselves, most likely about Anna and her family. When Anna looked back at her family, she saw that Coraline had backed away from her father and brother, who were staring each other down. They were both assessing the other, until finally her brother made the first move.
“That certainly was a good speech. I’m surprised you were able to come up with that on your own—if you actually did come up with it.” Cornelius picked up a glass and swirled the contents.
“Yes, well, it comes with many years of practice, something you wouldn’t understand.”
“Indeed, I wouldn’t, still being young like I am. That’s something you wouldn’t understand anymore.”
“There are some things that only do come with age, however, like bearing many, many children to multiple beautiful women,” the king said coolly as he took another sip from his glass.
“Well, I’m sure you’re unable to bear any more at this point.”
“Trust me when I say that I am very able. It’s just that I don’t want to have to take care of any more children.”
“As if you ever personally took care of us.” Cornelius had a tiny growl in his voice as he spoke.
“No, but I did spend a great deal of money on you, which, of course, I expect you to pay back someday.”
“Well, obviously I will. I just need to finish some of my research and—”
“Finish your research? You’re a prince. You should have people doing that for you. Plus, as if anything you came up with would get you any sort of money. Is it still like when you were little and you studied the flowers in the garden?”
“No, I’m researching bigger things.”
“Using my money. So, really, it’s my research, not yours. You could never have anything that is solely yours, being that you will always be beneath me.”
Cornelius choked up at this and stormed away, pushing people out of his way as he went. Her father had apparently been so sure of his victory that he didn’t even smile in celebration. He excused himself and quietl
y left through a side door, his knight following after him. Anna and her sister stood there awkwardly, not knowing what to say, until Anna finally spoke up.
“That certainly was a show, wasn’t it?”
Coraline fingered her glass and said, “Yes. One of them is going to kill the other one of these days.”
“Don’t think like that. They’re father and son, they would never.”
Her sister sighed. “You really are stupid, aren’t you? He’s the king, and Cornelius is a prince. One of them, maybe even both, is going to be dead eventually.”
As her sister turned to leave, Anna grabbed her by the arm. “Please wait. I have something for you.”
Pulling the present out of her pocket, she handed it to her sister, smiling. Coraline stared at it before finally opening it to find something strange inside. It looked to be a simple mask, nothing a noble would ever wear.
“What is this thing?”
“Put it on and see for yourself.”
Slowly, Coraline put it up to her disfigured face. Looking at her reflection in her glass, she didn’t notice anything special about it. She went to scoff in typical fashion, but caught her reflection again. Her face was completely back to normal as if nothing had ever happened to it. She was speechless, absolutely shocked at what she saw. She touched her face, and the mask popped off into her hands.
Anna smiled brightly as she said, “I really was sorry for what my knight did.”
“B-but where did you get this?”
“I had it imported from some magi to the east. It took me a long time to find something that would actually work, but it sorted itself out in the end.”
“Why would you—”
“Because you’re my sister, and I love you. Please tell me that you forgive me and that we’re on good terms again like we used to be.”
“Anna, I—oh, god, I have to go,” Coraline said, running to the exit.
“Sister, where are you going?” Anna called out after her. But she was already gone from the room.
With her whole family gone, Anna really had no reason to stay any longer. Her knight came over, and they both left the ballroom in silence. Walking back up to her room, her knight finally said something.
“So where do you think she was going?”
“I don’t know,” she replied in a meek voice.
“Also, don’t you think it was weird that neither of your siblings had their knights with them?”
“I guess.” Anna shrugged.
“Yeah, it really makes me wonder.”
“Will you please stop that?” Anna shouted at her knight.
“Stop what?”
“Pretending like you’re not mad at me.”
“Why would I be mad at you?”
“Because of how I treated you in front of my father, calling you an it,” Anna said, stomping in frustration.
“Well, if you hadn’t done that, your dad would have been angry with you.”
“It was still a horrible thing to do. Aren’t you upset? Even a little bit?”
“No, not really.”
Anna tried to find words to say while her knight just chuckled at her, saying, “You really don’t want people to be upset with you.”
“Who wouldn’t want that?”
“I actually think it’s pretty funny when I piss people off.”
Anna sighed as they reached her room and went inside. “Why do you have to be so difficult?”
“Why is the sky blue?”
Anna put her hand into her pocket and pulled something out. It was a small square with a pretty blue wrapper and a red bow. She had completely forgotten about this, but she could give it to him since it was yuletide still. Walking up to her knight, she handed it to him and stepped back, waiting for his reaction.
“You gave me a present. Why?”
“Just to say thank you for being my knight all this time.”
“You know, I haven’t really been all that good of a knight.”
“Just open it, silly.”
Unwrapping her present, he pulled out a copy of Anna’s favorite book, The Golden Knight.
“I don’t know if you read or not, but I thought that I could read it with you. It’s my favorite book. I used to have another copy, but I gave it away to my old servant. So, what do you think?”
Anna’s knight didn’t reply immediately, finally saying in a husky voice, “It’s the best gift I’ve ever gotten.”
“It’s the only gift you’ve ever gotten.”
“Yeah, I guess it is.”
A guard appeared to ruin the moment. He was blanched white and looked as if he were about to throw up.
“Princess? Princess, your father—the king—he’s dead.”
Chapter 11
It was funny. As dark a day as it was for the kingdom, it was rather nice out in comparison. The funeral procession for her father was a short but grand one. Every noble was there, wearing black, mourning for their king. Anna couldn’t see them, but she knew her other brothers and sisters were there as well, protected by more than just their knights for fear of the king killer coming after them. Nobody had any proof, but everyone was sure that it had been Coraline and Cornelius who had killed the king. Neither had been seen since the party and thus were prime suspects. And even though no one had done anything about it, Anna was sure they suspected her as well, being that she was closely related to them.
Finally, they reached the throne room, where the body would be on view for everyone to pay tribute to. After a moment of silence, Romulus, her oldest brother, came forward to a podium in front of a throne. He looked just like their father, only with less gray in his hair, and was just as powerful as him. Being that he was alive first and for the longest, the man had quite the following of people who wanted to see him crowned king. He was the only child born to the king’s first wife, so he had always thought he’d become king without a doubt.
He never showed any signs of it, but Anna always thought he resented his half-siblings for being born and contesting his right to rule. His knight was nowhere to be found, and he had no guards around him, but still, Anna was certain he was completely safe, his commanding presence enough to deter any would be assassin. Romulus cleared his throat and began his long eulogy for their father.
“Nobles, you all knew my father as a strong, intelligent, and charismatic man, and that was who he was. He had no weaknesses other than his own mortality. Now, I know there have been rumors going about, and I would like to set things straight. My father, your king, was murdered.”
Everyone gasped and began murmuring among themselves until Romulus held up his hand for silence.
Continuing, he said, “It is true. But I want you to know that he didn’t go quietly into the night. From what we could tell, he was assaulted by multiple knights in his bedroom the night he returned from the ball celebrating his most recent children and wife. Let it be known that he and his knight didn’t go down without a fight. They took a total of ten of the unidentified knights who assaulted them. So far, we haven’t found out whose knights these were, but I’m sure you all have your suspicions that it was my own half-brother and – sister, Cornelius and Coraline. As much as I hate to say it, all the evidence points to them. So, from now on, we will be commencing a citywide search in hopes of finding them. Anyone with any information about their whereabouts please speak to me so that we can apprehend these criminals. But for now, let us bow our heads in mourning for a great man, who ruled a great kingdom and a great people.”
Everyone bowed their heads as they were all given a chance to see their king one last time before he was put into the royal mausoleum. Anna was one of the last people to look at her father, thinking that the mortician had done an excellent job making him seem just as powerful in death as he had been in life. Her knight and new squad of guards escorted her back to what s
he thought would be her room. However, the guards seemed to have a destination in mind that Anna and her knight didn’t.
They continued to go down further into the castle until they reached the dungeons. As Anna passed by the cells, she could hear moans of agony and the whispers of men who had long ago lost their sanity. After a while of wandering in the poorly lit corridors, they came to the interrogation room. When she stepped inside with her knight, she could see pushed up against the walls tools that were normally used in the process of extracting information from prisoners. She wasn’t a prisoner, though, but a royal princess, so Anna was very confused as to why she was down here. Then she saw Romulus. He was sitting at a table with a jug of water and two glasses set out.
Stern as ever, he said, “Please sit, Anna.”
“What is going on, brother? Why was I brought here?”
“Well, Anna, your brother and sister are the prime suspects for the murder of the king. I’d just like to know if you have any information about their locations.”
Anna sat down and responded, “The last place I saw either of them was at the ball like everyone else.”
“Yes, but unlike everyone else, you don’t seem to have an alibi for when the murder took place.”
“I was going to my room. My knight can attest—”
“Your knight’s testimony is worthless. You know that. Now, being that you are the closest to the suspects and have no alibi, you are also under suspicion.”
“But I’m still here. Why would I stay if I were guilty?”
“That is the only reason you are not in one of these cells. Now, I’ll take your plea of ignorance for now, but I will find who did this, and there will be punishment. Mark my words.”
“I-is that all br—Romulus?”
“No, actually. I have something that I would like you to take a look at. Bring it in.”
Two guards brought in something that was very strange indeed. It seemed to be a knight, but unlike any Anna had ever seen. Unlike every other knight, this one was shoddy and poorly made from what she could tell from the remains. The more she looked at it, however, the more she thought it looked familiar. After she had gotten a good look at it, her brother began speaking again.
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