by K. E. Drake
Samuel lifted his eyes to see the redhead and forced his lips into a halfhearted smile that turned into a grimace. “Good morning.”
She noticed the prince’s hesitation and paused a moment to consider him. “Is everything all right?”
Samuel thought for a moment but then shook his head with another sigh. “I didn’t think you would actually come.”
Ruby’s expression of concern quickly vanished only to be replaced with her usual smile. “Of course I came. I wouldn’t miss this for anything.”
Samuel only watched her, pressing his lips into a tight line and tilting his head as if deeply considering something. “Are you sure that you’re ready to take on a journey of this magnitude?” he finally asked.
She gave a sure nod. “I’ve waited for this moment my whole life. I’m ready.”
“It could be dangerous,” he tried.
“Why, that’s all the more reason to go!” she beamed.
Samuel bit back a groan. “We could be on the road for weeks, months even.”
“I’m prepared for that.” Ruby responded and stood a little straighter. She tilted her head thoughtfully, turning curious. “If it really will be as dangerous as you say, why are you going?”
Samuel cast his eyes to the sky before bringing them back down to look at her. “My kingdom is on the verge of bankruptcy. We’re deep in debt and it’s taking everything we have to pay it off.”
I understand what that’s like. Ruby’s bright eyes softened. “How did your kingdom lose its money?”
“Failed business deals with the overseas Kingdoms of Rona and Almorine. Now are you satisfied?” Samuel snapped. He swung himself up into his stallion’s saddle and urged the magnificent steed into a quick trot.
Ruby just lifted her shoulders in a small shrug and then followed suit, mounting Cocoa and catching with Samuel before falling in step with him and his horse.
She and the prince quickly left the palace yards behind as they started heading south. The pair rode through green fields and past fertile farmlands, and they soon came upon a bustling town. They traveled a fair distance away from the market, but the hum of the villagers running their errands and working at their shops and stands reached their ears.
The town was two rows of fine stores that lined each side of a long dirt road. A small cluster of homes were placed in a full circle at the end of the marketplace. A group of children playing hide-and-seek ran to the sides and backs of the houses, ducking behind fences and flower bushes and trying to quiet their giggles as the other children searched for them.
Ruby watched them fondly, remembering years ago when she, her stepsisters, and a few of their friends spent time together and played games in that same marketplace.
The sounds of the laughter and chatter quickly faded as the pair rode further away from the town. Moments passed in silence and Ruby turned to the prince, venturing a question. “Where are we going first?”
Samuel kept his gaze straight ahead as he answered. “Avon to search for the Kepa jewel. It’s the nearest destination from here, and I know a shortcut that will cut out a day’s ride.”
“How do you know where to look for each jewel?” Ruby asked, lifting an eyebrow when Samuel clenched his jaw.
“I’ve been planning this quest for a month now,” he informed her, his voice tight. “This map holds clues that I’ve been working out for weeks.” He patted a long, rounded container that was tied to the pommel of his saddle. “I’ve studied every history book with anything recorded on the jewels and I’ve narrowed down the possibilities to the likeliest locations for all of them.”
Ruby’s heart swelled with so much excitement she thought she might burst. “Where will we go after we leave the mountains?”
The prince snapped his piercing emerald gaze to her then, frowning. “Do you always ask this many questions?”
Ruby gave him the sweetest smile she could. “Only when I have this many questions.”
Samuel blew out a short breath that turned into a groan. He urged his horse into a trot, putting some distance between him and the cheerful girl.
Ruby laughed softly as she watched the prince slow his horse to a steady trot a bit ahead of her. As quickly as her humor came, it dissipated. I really shouldn’t upset him. He is my guide on this journey after all.
What could I do to cheer him up? Her lips twisted off to the side, then she smiled as an idea came into her head. She tightened her grip on the reins, sat deeper in the saddle, and urged her horse into a gallop.
A red and brown blur whooshed past Samuel. He looked up in time to see Ruby and her mare speed ahead of them, getting further away with each beat of pounding hooves. “Come on! First one to the bridge wins!” she called back to him.
Samuel shook his head in wonder at her, but at the same moment his grip tightened on the reins. I can’t believe I’m about to do this. Samuel leaned his body lower to the mane of his mount and urged his white stallion into a full gallop after Ruby.
This one was going to be a challenge.
Chapter Three
First Night of Camp
The last light of the sun faded from the sky as Ruby and the prince came upon a vast meadow in the southern lands of Omrie.
Twinkling stars began making their appearance in the ever darkening sky, illuminating the twilight with a silvery glow. The warm, mid-Summer breeze swept through the space, rustling the leaves on the nearby trees and stirring up the fresh scent of the lush grass and the subtle fragrance of the wildflowers spotting the field.
Samuel pulled his stallion to a halt in the clearing near a pair of gnarled, leafless trees. “We’ll make camp here for the night.”
Ruby guided her horse to a stop as well and looked around the flowering meadow. Her stomach suddenly knotted and her trembling fingers fiddled with her reins as the prince of Avon dismounted. Swallowing hard, she followed suit and slipped out of her horse’s saddle. She reclaimed the reins and slowly led the gentle animal further into the clearing where the prince was tying his horse’s reins to a low-hanging branch on one of the nearby trees.
Keeping her eyes turned to the ground, Ruby stopped her horse when it stood beside the prince’s, only lifting her gaze enough to tie her mare’s reins to the tree.
As he finished securing the reins, Samuel seemed to examine the tree and then moved over to the other side to a cluster of low-hanging branches.
Carefully, Ruby glanced up from her horse’s saddle to peek at the prince. He was distracted, and she found herself watching him, tilting her head at him as he broke off a few of the dried branches with one hand and filled up the crook of his other arm with the load of sticks.
Samuel soon finished and stepped back from the tree, smacking bits of bark from his hand. His eyes found Ruby’s across the distance, and he paused, lifting a single brow at her when he saw she had been watching him. “Wood for a fire,” he supplied, raising the armful slightly as if to show her.
A hot blush heated Ruby’s cheeks. She gave a short nod and dropped her gaze back down to her horse’s saddle, fiddling with the tie of one of the saddlebags to keep her hands busy.
Samuel shook his head with a quirk of a grin and turned from the young lady, moving a few steps to the center of the meadow and crouching down in the grass damp with evening dew. He unloaded the armload of wood onto the ground, arranged the sticks, and then began building a fire.
Meanwhile, Ruby was distracted. She stared down, although her vision was unseeing, and her heart beat hard until the pounding echoed in her ears. Her stomach had sunk little by little throughout the day the longer she was on the journey. She was far from home and in the middle of nowhere, alone except for the prince, and alone with the prince.
Shaking her head in an attempt to clear it, Ruby brought a hand up to stroke her old mare’s cocoa-brown mane and paused when she saw how her fingers shook. She plunged her hand into the horse’s mane and combed through it in an effort to settle her jumping nerves.
What if th
is whole thing was a mistake? she asked herself not for the first time that day. Maybe I should turn around and go back home where it’s safe. Her chest constricted with the betraying thoughts. She couldn’t go home now. Her adventure had just begun.
As orange glimmers sparked on the pile of wood and began to grow into a steady flame, Samuel stood and stepped back from the campfire. He pushed his fingers through his sandy-blond locks and brought his eyes back up to where Ruby still stood a few paces away. She looked anxious as she thoughtfully ran her hand through the horse’s mane. “Are you all right?”
The prince’s quiet question drew Ruby out of her troubled thoughts and her attention snapped up to him. “Y-yes, of course,” she feebly replied to the young royal, quickly turning her gaze back to the worn leather of the saddle. She couldn’t let the prince know she was worried.
Ruby drew in a deep, steadying breath and stepped back from her horse. Feeling the prince’s eyes on her, she slowly moved over to the crackling campfire across from him and sat down on the grass within the warm glow of the crackling flames.
Samuel considered the young woman while she kept her eyes down on her lap and began picking at her nails. He moved out of the campfire’s light and back into the silvery night toward his mount, quiet as he pondered his situation. The prince had never had anyone accompany him on his journeys and wasn’t used to having anyone but himself to look out for.
Samuel opened one of his four filled saddlebags and he had to remember to pull out two of the neatly wrapped packs instead of one. He exhaled a long breath as he closed the saddlebag and returned to the makeshift camp and the oddly quiet girl.
Ruby’s fidgeting hands stilled as the prince knelt down at her side. Her anxiety built until she thought she would explode and her gaze snapped up to his. “Am I safe alone with you?” she blurted out. Suddenly, her eyes went wide and her face flamed. She turned her head away and held her breath, unable to speak, unable to move.
Samuel seemed taken aback, but the corners of his lips quirked into a slow grin. “Possibly.”
To Ruby’s surprise, a soft giggle slipped past her lips. She breathed in and exhaled a soft breath as the weight on her shoulders began to subside.
He eased himself back on the grass and then reached his open hand out to Ruby. “Here.”
Ruby looked to his offered hand to see a small, square package, neatly wrapped in a white cloth resting in his open palm. She lifted her gaze from the pack to peek at Samuel’s face.
He nodded once and extended his hand a little closer to Ruby.
She lightly took the offered bundle and turned her attention down to the small pack, unfolding the neat wrapping as Samuel also opened his. The cloth fell open to reveal three strips of dried meat, a square of cheese, and two biscuits.
The smell of the food reached Ruby’s nose and her stomach twisted, reminding her that she hadn’t eaten since her quick breakfast before setting out that morning. She longed to devour the meal, but she waited to eat until the prince ate a bite of his meat. She pinched off a small piece of one of the biscuits and put it in her mouth.
The pair sat in the peaceful silence as they ate their meals. The only sounds in the meadow were the soft chirp of nearby crickets and the pops and crackling of the campfire as thin wisps of smoke rose into the air and caught in the breeze.
Samuel ate another bite of food and cast a glance to his companion out of the corner of his eye. He was still uncomfortable with the idea of having the young lady along with him on his journey, but she was here, so they might as well get to know each other a little better. He swallowed that bite and cleared his throat. “Tell me something about yourself, Ruby. What’s your family like?”
Ruby lifted her gaze to the prince, surprised by his request. “My family?”
The prince nodded, and she swallowed with difficulty, lifting her shoulders in a small shrug. “Oh, well...my father was a Lord, and my mother a sailor’s daughter before she met my father.”
“You’re a Lady?” the prince asked.
“In title, yes, but I don’t consider myself as such anymore.” Ruby picked at her food. “My parents were married for twelve years, but my mother died when I was eight. I barely remember what it was like to have a mother.” She glanced up at the prince when he didn’t say anything. The orange glow of the firelight shed pale light onto his face, casting faint shadows on his strong features. He was quiet, allowing her to continue.
“Not long after my mother passed, my father met a woman named Bianca. She was a widow of a wealthy merchant. Two years after the meeting, Bianca and my father were married, and she and her two daughters came to live at the estate.” Ruby found herself smiling as she remembered the day she first met her new stepfamily.
“I was an only child before my father remarried,” she explained, eating another piece of her biscuit. “Lianna, the younger of Bianca’s daughters, and I became close friends from the very start. She’s just one year younger than me.”
Samuel ate another piece of meat, chewing thoughtfully. “And your other stepsister?”
“Cora.” Ruby supplied, then considered her next words. “Cora is, um... unique. She isn’t at home much. She spends most of her time in her room or at town, squandering what little money we have left, purchasing new dresses and jewels or going out with a new beau every other week it seems.” She shook her head, troubled. “I don’t mean to say anything bad about my sister. I love her, but she can be... difficult,” she carefully confessed. As she thought, a small smile appeared on her lips, though it didn’t reach her eyes. “Just before my sixteenth birthday, my father’s health began to decline,” she admitted with difficulty, swallowing the painful lump that formed in her throat. “He passed away just one month after I turned sixteen.”
“I’m sorry, for your loss,” he sincerely apologized, deep lines forming on his brow. “I don’t know what I would do if I lost my mother or father.”
Ruby drew in and then blew out a shaky breath. She gave him a brave smile, though her soft-brown irises shone with a sad light. “Things only got worse after he died. He left behind debts we couldn’t pay back, and the servants quickly left when we could longer compensate them.”
Samuel sympathized with her situation. He nodded in understanding and quietly listened as Ruby continued.
“I began working as a maid at the palace for Queen Monet. I met Melody about a year later and helped her gain a position there too,” Ruby added. “Lianna did her part to help, keeping care of the estate, cooking meals, picking up supplies, and the like.” The mournful light in Ruby’s eyes began to fade as she spoke of her two closest friends.
“Is it hard having a stepfamily instead of a real family?” Samuel asked.
“No, I don’t think so. Family is family, whether you share the same blood, the same name, or you aren’t related in any way at all.” Ruby fell quiet as she considered her next words. “Bianca never treated me like one of her own daughters. I never experienced any of the warmth from her that I remember from my father or even from my mother,” she admitted, leaving out the parts of her life after her father’s death when her stepmother had been cold and aloof to her.
A soft smile graced Ruby’s lips. “Through it all, I’ve felt...something inside of me, like a spark in my heart that’s sort of kept me from losing hope and my belief in magic.” She cast a careful glance up to the prince to gauge his reaction. “Does that just sound foolish?”
Samuel shook his head at her question. The glow of the fire caused his emerald irises, highlighting the sincerity in them. “No. No, that’s not foolish at all.”
Ruby’s cheeks heated, although from embarrassment or from the warmth of the campfire, she didn’t know. “I’ve talked so much about myself. What about you?” She paused. Was it too presumptuous to question a prince? Considering the current situation, she pushed the fear down. “How did Avon lose its standing? You never actually told me.”
Samuel exhaled a heavy breath. For a long moment, Ruby t
hought he would say nothing, but he finally spoke. “My kingdom, as you know, is struggling. Circumstances for Avon had been slowly declining since my grandfather was king. Not long ago, we entered into business deals with the overseas kingdoms of Rona and Almorine. The ships carrying our trade were taken down by storms in Rona waters. We had supplies imported from Almorine. The shipments we had paid for were attacked and the cargo stolen by marauders reported to have worked for the king of Almorine.”
The prince’s eyes took on a distant look. “The losses nearly broke us. It had been almost everything we had. We sold everything of value we could to pay back as much of the debt as possible. Avon produces enough on its own for us to make it by. We pay back what we can when we can to keep us from going bankrupt.”
He shoved a hand through his hair, tousling it. “It’s been this way for three years. No journey I’ve gone on has brought us treasures enough to pay back what we owe. That’s why I’m on this journey to find the Kings’ Jewels. With them, they’ll bring us treasure unimaginable and Avon will thrive again.”
Ruby’s heart went out to him. She opened her mouth to speak, but no words seemed adequate to console him.
Quiet fell between them as they finished the last bites of their food.
Sighing softly, she neatly refolded the empty cloth on her lap and gave the prince a small smile, meeting his eyes. “Thank you. For sharing that with me. I hope you find what you’re looking for.”
Samuel inclined his head and indicated for her to hand him her empty cloth, which she did. He stood and went back to where the two mounts stood grazing the meadow. The prince opened the same saddlebag he had retrieved the packs of food from and placed the empty cloths in with them.
Ruby watched as Samuel opened a different saddlebag and pulled out a roll of blue material. She tilted her head to the side. “What are you doing?”
Samuel turned back to Ruby and saw the young lady watching him once again. “Setting up the pallets.” The prince slightly lifted the rolled blanket in his hand. He paused and then turned to her, a single brow arching. “Did you bring one for yourself?” He saw Ruby duck her head and her cheeks colored a faint shade of rose-pink in the silvery light.