Pigsty Princess

by Nancy S. Brandt

  “Does that mean I don’t count? If Abilities don’t matter to commoners, why doesn’t my Insensitivity make me one of you?”

  “Look, Mariana, I’m sorry. This isn’t about you. It’s about the King.”

  “My father.”

  “Sure. Your father, your grandfather, possibly even your brother someday. I think this country would be a lot better off if the rulers would stop trying to line their own pockets and think more about the people they’re supposed to be serving.”

  A cry went up from the pond, and Elnys looked over his shoulder. “Hamneth’s got it,” he muttered and ran back to the water.

  “Got what?” Mariana followed him.

  She reached the pond just as Hamneth lifted a gilded wooden chest out of the water. Mariana gasped when she recognized it.

  “That was stolen from my father’s wagon the day we arrived in Talla.”

  The men around the pond glanced at her briefly, then Traren took the chest from Hamneth, and the medic climbed out of the pond.

  “Progenna,” he said in greeting, tipping his head toward her.

  “Stop,” Traren said. “We don’t have time for this. We have to get these jewels to the tunnels before the soldiers get here.” He knelt on the ground next to the chest. “Mariana, do you know how to open this?”

  Stunned, she snapped, “And why would I open it for you? You stole it from us in the first place.” She crossed her arms and shook her head. “I won’t help.”

  “Fine.” Traren stood up and grabbed a rock from the edge of the pond.

  “No,” Mariana cried as he smashed the latch of the chest. The lid cracked. One of the other men slide the point of a dagger in and pushed until a piece of wood broke off and flew up.

  When Traren forced the top of the chest off, the gems piled inside lit up like someone was holding a candle behind each one. Mariana stepped forward to see this and as she did, the light grew so bright, she had to squint. The men nearest the chest shaded their eyes, and a couple of them moved back.

  “What is going on?” Traren muttered. “They didn’t look like that when we hid them in the pond.”

  “Those are Sensitivity Stones,” Mariana said, her voice hushed. “They’re only supposed to light up in the presence of the right Ability. I’ve never seen them all light up at the same time. I don’t know how that can happen.”

  “I do.” Hamneth stood up and backed away from the chest.

  “Wait.” Everyone spun to see Orlando approaching. He only had eyes for Mariana. “You’re doing it.”

  “What? No. That’s impossible. I’m an Insensitive, and besides, I’ve held these stones many times and they never did anything like this before.”

  Orlando swallowed. “Listen to me.” He took hold of her shoulders, tightening his grip when she tried to pull away. “I’m a Blood Sensitive, and when we first met, I automatically reached out for your Ability.”

  “But I…”

  “No,” he said, cutting her off. “I did it without thinking, and I felt something I’ve never felt before.”

  “Yes, nothing.”

  “No, Mariana, listen. I’ve felt Insensitives before. Adindira, Elnys. Chaos take it, everyone else here. You’re not an Insensitive. Your father and mother, and Kylan. They all lied to you. You’re a Chaos Sensitive, and possibly the strongest one Valborough has ever seen. That’s why the stones are lighting up. I think your emotions took over after the scene at…my father’s house. Dira told me what happened with Emmarine. I think your Abilities are coming to the surface because of all that was going on. You broke the windows at the carpenter’s shop, and you set the fire at the Flagon.”

  “She set fire to the restaurant?” Traren asked.

  “Not on purpose,” Orlando said, glaring at his friend.

  “Yeah, but still. Could be she’s on our side.”

  “Our side?” Mariana couldn’t cope with everything she was hearing, so she held onto the one concrete thought she could find. “You’re the rebels? You attacked the caravan?”

  “Yes.” Orlando nodded and sighed. “I’m the one who kept you and your mother and sister in your wagon while my men raided the others.”

  ****

  “I can’t believe we didn’t know this before.” Alexandria was furious, but Thibault could feel she was using her Air Sensitivity to calm herself to keep from alerting the servants to the argument. Already she’d dismissed two footmen who’d attempted to bring a tray of tea and cakes to the library.

  “How could we have known?” Jonathan asked. “He told us he was a pig farmer and a commoner. We had no reason not to trust him.”

  “We had every reason. He wanted to marry Mariana. We should have suspected there was more to it than just physical attraction.”

  The King shook his head. “I know you think of her only as my daughter, but she is a beautiful young woman, Alex. It’s not inconceivable a man might find her attractive. Isn’t that right, Thibault?”

  Why did Jonathan have to bring him into this conversation? He’d been content to stand against a bookcase and pretend to be invisible while the Queen ranted. In addition to that, what could he possibly say that wouldn’t sound like he had taken notice of the Progenna’s charms?

  “All of the King’s daughters are beautiful, your Majesty.”

  “Oh, Thib.” Alexandria shook her head. “Always playing the diplomat.”

  Jonathan shook his head. “Leave him alone. My point is we had no reason to believe Orlando was anything more than what he presented himself as.”

  “By the Elements, he told us he was an Insensitive.”

  “If I may,” Thibault said. “That is not a word commoners generally use. Sensitivities have always been reserved for the nobility, so the ordinary people don’t label themselves that way. Also, if I’m not mistaken, he never actually said he had no Abilities. He merely stated he is, indeed, a common pig farmer, and he let us draw our own conclusions.”

  “But he isn’t a common pig farmer.” The Queen slammed her hand on a writing desk at a heavily curtained window. “He is the son of Andreas Geindara. He has a Sensitivity.”

  “I think it’s safe to say they haven’t bonded yet,” Thibault said. “With all due respect, and forgive me for discussing this, but if she and Orlando have…been together…that way, he would have known instantly what she is. Even if he weren’t a Blood Sensitive, he would feel the power exchange and know she isn’t an Insensitive at all.”

  The King shook his head. “As much as I want Mariana to be happy, I can’t let that happen.”

  “Jonathan, they’re married. What can we do?” The Queen brushed the wrinkles out of her light coral dress. “I think it’s time to think about what happens next. We’re not going to be able to keep her Abilities secret forever, and after the way she was dancing with him last night, things may move along faster than you hope. You need to take care of this. That girl is not going to sit on the throne of Valborough.”

  She curtsied and went to the door of the library. “I will need to release the silencing field when I leave. Ursula and I are going to visit Liliana and the baby, then we are having lunch with the representatives of the charity medicine board.”

  “I can’t believe you’re leaving the palace at a time like this.” Jonathan scowled but didn’t look at her. “What if I need you here?”

  “Darling,” she said coolly, “you are still King. There should be no need for a show of your Abilities until I can get back. I think it’s best if the people see us behaving normally. They don’t need to start asking themselves questions that could lead us down a road we’re not ready to travel.”

  He sighed and nodded. “Of course, my dear. You’re right. We will get this situation under control before anyone else needs to know.”

  “I’m sure you will do what needs to be done.” She bowed to the men and left the library.

  Thibault spoke when they were alone. “She wants Orlando killed.”

  Jonathan sighed. “If only that were
all. She wants both of them dead. She’s wanted Mariana dead for nearly twenty years.” He poured himself a snifter of brandy. “You know, Thib, all of this could have been avoided if I’d just let her true mother keep her.”

  Thibault said nothing. This conversation threatened to go in a direction he wasn’t comfortable with, and he wasn’t going to do anything to get it there faster.

  After a sip of the liquor, Jonathan said, “But I had to think about the Sensitivities. That was a lesson my father made sure I learned. ‘Sensitivities are for the nobility and royalty only. If the commoners were able to use magical Abilities, there would be chaos. We’d have no way to rule them.’” He downed the rest of his drink.

  “Chaos. I guess that’s what we do have, eh, Thib? Chaos.” The King sighed. “The Queen is right. For the good of the kingdom, my daughter and her pig farmer have to die.”

  ****

  “Mariana, are you going to come out?” That was Adindira, and Mariana, sitting on the edge of the bed, had to shake her head. Clearly, Orlando had given up trying to get her out of the bedroom and had sent for reinforcements.

  “You can come in,” Mariana said.

  Dira came through the bedroom door and closed it behind her. “I guess you’re angry at us.”

  “Us? I don’t know about that. I am angry at your brother, or should I say half-brother? Why didn’t you tell me about him being noble?”

  “Because he isn’t.”

  “What is it with you all playing these word games? His father is a Sahdeer. That makes him the Margrave of Geindara.”

  “His mother, our mother, was a commoner. Why doesn’t that make him a commoner? He never wanted anything the Geindaras had, not after Honoria sent him to live with us.”

  “It doesn’t work that way.” Mariana got up from the bed and walked over to the window. Orlando and the men were still out by the pond. It was afternoon now, and they had been bringing up stolen gold and jewels from beneath the water most of the day.

  “Maybe it should work that way,” Dira said, bringing Mariana’s attention back to her. “Why does being noble matter so much to you anyway? What has being royal ever done to make your life better?”

  “Are you joking?” Mariana stared at her sister-in-law standing with her hands on her hips, and the look in her eyes was one Mariana had seen her give her sons when they had disobeyed her. “Of course being royal made my life better. I lived in a gorgeous palace, several gorgeous palaces, in fact. I had the best, most beautiful gowns, and men always wanted to dance with me.”

  Darius’s face flashed through her mind, but she pushed it away.

  “So, being royal got you things. If that’s all that’s important to you, then you’re right. Your life was magnificent.” Adindira slowly bobbed her head up and down as though contemplating what Mariana had said. Then she continued, “And I suppose all those pretty dresses and gorgeous rooms with their fancy furnishings loved you?”

  “Love? What are you talking about?”

  Adindira sighed. “I’m not surprised you don’t know what it is. I highly doubt your parents loved you either.”

  “Why are you saying these things?”

  “Mariana, your parents knew what you are. They knew about your Chaos Sensitivity. They had to.”

  Mariana shook her head. “I still don’t know if I believe any of that.”

  “How can you not believe it? Don’t you remember what happened just a few hours ago in the center of town?”

  “I don’t know what happened, and I don’t know I had anything to do with it.”

  “Well, I was there, and I saw what happened. You got upset and things exploded.”

  Mariana started trembling the way she had with Emmarine. The glass in the window rattled, and the air in the room began to swirl around her.

  “Mariana, stop.” Adindira’s expression wasn’t one of fear, just annoyance.

  “I’m not doing this on purpose. I don’t know how it’s happening.”

  “I do. It’s you. Just breathe.” Adindira stood directly in front of Mariana and put her hands on either side of the Progenna’s face. “Look at me. Think about something happy. Something that makes you smile.”

  Mariana tried to do as Adindira suggested. She remembered how happy she’d been to find the pond and the memories of swimming when she was a girl.

  That thought brought up that her husband was the leader of the rebels, the men who had been attacking the nobles as they traveled from the capital to Talla. The breeze in the room picked up.

  The dresser started rattling back and forth on uneven legs. The mirror above it cracked and fell, shattering at Adindira’s feet. Several small bottles tumbled to the floor, and one of them broke, its perfume spilling out and filling the air with a spicy fragrance.

  “Mariana, stop. Make yourself relax.” As though in a panic, Dira glanced around the room. “Dresses,” she said. “You like clothes, right? Have you ever designed yourself a gown?”

  “Um.” Mariana closed her eyes and concentrated on slowing down her breathing. “Once.”

  “Tell me about it.” Dira’s voice took on a bit of a frantic edge. Mariana didn’t like that she was scaring this woman who had tried to be her friend.

  “It was for Ramone’s wedding,” she said, opening her eyes. She caught her sister-in-law’s gaze and thought about the dress. “I’d seen a woman at one of his engagement balls wearing something like it, but hers was dark blue. I wanted to wear a soft rosy pink.”

  “Sounds pretty.” The curtains stopped whipping around, but the air was still moving. “Keep talking.”

  “Uh, I wanted it to have lavender flowers embroidered from my right shoulder to the left hem. It would be like a sash of flowers.”

  “And the skirt?” Dira urged.

  “Oh, full with a darker pink tulle petticoat underneath. I even had found a tiara with stones the same color as the tulle. I’d seen all the perfect fabric on Linen Alley in the capital.” She took a deep breath. “I spent days sketching the dress. I even went to the seamstresses’ quarters to borrow a tape to measure myself so I knew it would fit.”

  “What happened?” Dira released her face but touched her shoulder, urging her to the bed.

  “Mother wouldn’t let the royal dressmaker make it for me.”

  Adindira scowled. “Why not?”

  “She said it was Ramone and Victoria’s day, and she wouldn’t have me attracting inappropriate attention.” Mariana clasped her hands in her lap, rubbing her thumbs together as the pain of this memory flooded back. “Ram is the Cognate Prince, after all, and he is presumed to be, next to Father, the strongest Sensitive in the kingdom. I guess it wouldn’t do for his little sister to show him up.”

  “Especially an Insensitive one.” Dira spoke softly, but she put her hand over Mariana’s. The gesture was strangely comforting.

  “My parents lied to me. Both of them.” Tears fell, and Mariana didn’t try to stop them. “They knew. Why would they let me believe I am nothing? All the Laws of Valborough are written to preserve the sanctity of Sensitivities, and they let me grow up believing I had no power.”

  “I can’t give you any answers. It doesn’t make sense.”

  Mariana thought back to when she went before the Abilities Trainer. The memories were fuzzy, even though she had been twelve years old. She should remember it clearly. From what her sisters had told her, the encounter was a memorable one.

  “Did Orlando ever tell you about his time in front of the Abilities Trainer?” she asked Adindira, sniffling.

  “That Kylan person?” Dira shrugged. “He didn’t say much except it was frightening and painful. Why? How was it for you?”

  Mariana shook her head. “I don’t remember. I know I went to see him, and I know when we came out of his apartments, he told my parents it was what they feared. I had no Abilities.”

  “It was what they feared?” Dira furrowed her brows. “Why would they fear that?”

  “I don’t know, but I rem
ember Mother telling me most children show aptitude in something that leads their parents to suspect what Sensitivities they will manifest. I guess I didn’t have anything.”

  “Maybe. Or maybe not.”

  “What do you mean?”

  Adindira bit her lip and stood up. She began to pace the bedroom. “What if they suspected for a long time you were a Chaos Sensitive, and that’s what they feared?”

  “Why would they fear that?”

  “Well, I haven’t figured that part out yet. I mean, the First Law of Valborough is clear, and from what Orlando and Hamneth say, a Chaos Sensitive is automatically the strongest in the kingdom. Seems to me they’d be eager to help you gain control of your Abilities, find you the best teachers, all that. They would know you’d be Queen one day. In all likelihood, you’d be the strongest Queen Valborough has seen in, maybe, generations.”

  Mariana felt ice form in her veins again. “That’s why.” She said it so softly, she wasn’t entirely sure Dira had heard her.

  “What’s why? Why what?”

  Clenching her jaw, Mariana embraced the chill that went through her. It was the only thing that kept her from falling apart as everything that had led her to this moment came into crystal clear focus.

  “They never wanted me to sit on the throne of Valborough. That was for Ramone, the firstborn, the son. If anyone knew what I am, that would mean he could never be King.”

  “It means more than that.” That was her husband’s voice.

  Mariana didn’t know when Orlando came into the house, let alone when he entered the bedroom. She faced him, even though she was still angry at his lies.

  “Think about it, Mariana,” he said, moving around this sister so he could be close to his wife. “If the people of the kingdom find out you’re a Chaos Sensitive, they will demand your father give up the throne in favor of you. He might turn it around and make you challenge him officially, but there is no way you wouldn’t win. I don’t think he was saving the throne for Ramone. I think he lied to you to keep the throne for himself.”