Clara woke up apprehensive the next morning. She pried up her pillow and noted that the muffin was still there, though she doubted that it was worth eating anymore – if it ever had been.
“Well, let’s just see if he shows up today,” she muttered. “Make it worth the waste and all that.”
She rolled off of her mat, dressed quickly, and then headed outside. Since she no longer had Lady Roxanne to question her actions, she didn’t have to wake up Jasmine to get dressed in the mornings – not that she needed it. She chose a pair of loose leggings and shirt that she’d been given by Sir Martin. Since it was a bit nippy this morning, she also threw on a jacket. Over that, she naturally fastened her sword. Then, with a glance over her shoulder to make sure everything in the tent was in order, she headed outside.
One of the perks of being a Water Princess was the fact that she got to sleep in a large, somewhat fancy tent with the other two girls. It was nice, to say the least.
After doing her morning stretching exercises, she ran three laps around the camp, and, once satisfied that there wasn’t anything dangerous about, she stalked back to see if anyone was doing anything about breakfast. It wasn’t anywhere close to ready, so she found a bow and quiver and wandered over to the tree line to practice.
Jakob eventually came to fetch her to tell her it was time to eat, and once they had eaten, she announced she was going to go explore the woods. No one argued. She’d been exploring the woods since the second day she’d been there, and she hadn’t seen anything particularly dangerous. According to one of the guards sent to protect her, this was because the first hundred yards or so into the forest were actually pretty friendly, as Amber had left that part mostly alone. Jasmine insisted on doing her hair first and Clara let her, it being the girl’s job.
There was a clearing that Clara had found her third day here, and that was where she went. There wasn’t really anything special about it, but she’d claimed it as her own and came here every day to practice … whatever it was she felt like practicing that day, whether it be gymnastics, Tae Kwon Do, her sword, or a combination of the three.
She was leaning towards the combination today.
As she neared the clearing, she heard a voice, and she realized that there was someone already there. Deciding that she would rather be safe than sorry, what with this being Amber’s territory, she silently scaled a tree that overlooked her clearing.
There he was, the intruder. A young man, probably about her age, with messy red hair and a face full of freckles, crouched in the middle of the clearing, staring away from her. He held a bow at the ready, and there was a fancy sword in his belt. She gripped the hilt of her own sword as a grin spread across her face. Well, she’d come for practice, and it was always so much more fun when she had an actual opponent.
She slipped her pack off of her shoulder, hooked it on a branch, and opened it. She pulled out the fencing mask and put it on, then grabbed the nearest vine, placed a hand on the hilt of the sword, and jumped.
Andrew heard a thunk behind him and swiveled around to find himself staring up the blade of a sword. Slowly he lowered the bow, then raised both hands as he stood up.
“Uh, hello?” he said to the person at the other end of the sword, who was shorter than him by a full head, and whose face was covered by a white mesh mask. Andrew guessed that the lad couldn’t be any older than twelve, possibly thirteen.
“Draw your sword before I draw it for you.”
“What?”
“You heard me, I told you to draw your sword. I come here every day to practice my swordsmanship, and since you’re here, you may as well help me.” The boy left a long pause, then tilted his head to the side. “Otherwise, I’ll have to take you as my prisoner.”
Andrew swallowed and lowered a hand to the hilt of his sword. “Okay, you’re giving me a fighting chance?”
“Something like that. Come on, I don’t have all day.” He poked Andrew’s shoulder with the tip of his sword to punctuate. It wasn’t hard enough to puncture, but Andrew got the idea.
Andrew drew his sword, and the boy instantly stepped back, lowering his sword, allowing Andrew the time to get into position.
“You’d better put up a good fight,” the boy warned him, “lest I regret giving you the option.”
And then the fight began. Andrew had, over the course of the several weeks since the Kirat, gotten better with the sword, especially once he’d received his from Dular. But this kid was good. He darted here and there, in and out of the range of Andrew’s sword. The silver sword was narrower than Andrew’s by at least an inch, but it blocked Andrew’s with enough force to send shivers up Andrew’s arm. Then, just to confuse Andrew further, the boy threw in gymnastics.
“Who – who are you?” Andrew asked, after blocking a blow that barely left his sword in his hand.
The lad actually paused a moment, leaning on the hilt of his sword, the tip plunged into the dirt. “I – I don’t rightly know, sir,” he answered, “I mean, I know who I was this morning, but I’ve changed so many times since then.” Then he whipped the sword out and swung it towards Andrew’s legs.
“Right, Alice,” Andrew muttered, jumping out of the way, and blocking with his own sword. “Do you work for Amber?”
“I could ask the same of you,” the lad countered. “Except I would have thought that Amber trained her troops better than this, certainly wouldn’t take them so puny, and wouldn’t give them that nice of a sword.”
“I’m sorry, not all of us can be child prodigies,” Andrew countered, not pleased with the kid’s vote of confidence. Sure, Abraham had mentioned that the people of Upper Klarand were known for their skill with weaponry, but this was almost ridiculous. “How old are you – you can’t be more than twelve.”
The kid tilted his head to the side. “Actually, I just had my sixteenth birthday before I came. But I am something of a kinetic genius, according to my dad.”
“Why are you wearing that mask?”
“I read once that they were terribly comfortable,” the kid answered. “I think everyone should wear one. And no, before you ask, I didn’t burn my face with acid. I’m more careful than that.”
And to punctuate his speech, the lad tossed his sword into the air and did a backflip. However, this time he apparently misjudged the distance, since his mask got caught on a branch and came off, simultaneously knocking the kid off-balance.
Her blonde hair fell down to frame her face.
Andrew gasped, taking a step back. “You’re – you’re a girl!”
The girl caught her sword as it fell towards her and was on her feet again in a moment. “Of course,” she countered, “what’d you expect? A giraffe? Ugh, and Jasmine worked hard on that hairdo, too.”
“Um … no?” Andrew spluttered. It wasn’t like she had much of a … figure, though now that he knew she was a girl, it was obvious. It was also obvious that she was very annoyed.
While Andrew was still trying to sort out thoughts over the new development, he suddenly found his sword knocked from his hand. It went flying through the air, and the girl caught it without missing a beat.
“So, now that we have that established,” she added leveling its point at his throat, “though I have no idea why you would think I was a giraffe – if either of us is one, it’d be you – you may tell me, who are you with, and what were you doing in my clearing?”
“Your clearing?” Andrew spluttered. “What makes this your clearing?”
“I came, I saw, I claimed,” she declared, moving the point closer to his throat. “You’re avoiding the question. Who are you, what are you doing here, and where did you get this sword?”
“Fire Prince?”
Andrew glanced up to see Abraham standing at the edge of the clearing. The girl spun around and pointed her own sword at him, allowing the hand with Andrew’s sword to fall to her side. “Are you with him?” she demanded. “Who are you and what did you ju
st call him?”
“I am Lord Abraham of Lower Klarand,” Abraham answered, very calmly for having a sword pointed at him. “And that is the Fire Prince. So long as you are not working for Amber, we have no quarrel with you.”
“I’ll decide if there’s a quarrel or not,” the girl hissed. She spun back around to face Andrew. “I don’t believe it. You’re too clumsy to be the Fire Prince.”
Clumsy. Well, that was a new one.
“I came out of the Firefall,” Andrew protested.
Her already narrow blue eyes narrowed even further. “So you say.”
Suddenly something clicked in Andrew’s head. She’d been quoting books from his world, including Alice in Wonderland. That meant that she must come from his world. And she fought. Very well.
“You’re the Water Princess,” he realized, wanting desperately to be wrong. She was gorgeous, and that was half the problem. The other problem was that she was staring up at him from the hilt of his sword.
“Well, well,” she said, with mocking surprise. “You can figure something out on your own after all. Yes, I’m the Water Princess, and I am not impressed.” She waved with his sword. “Turn around and march. I can ask questions of you far better at my own camp. And you, Lord Abraham, had best follow unless you want me to give you a reason.”
And with that, she marched past Andrew and into the trees, pausing only long enough to collect her mask and a bag that she, presumably, had hung from the branch of one of the trees. Andrew glanced at Abraham, who gave Andrew a look that wasn’t quite helpful, then decided that they’d better follow. For one, she had his sword, and secondly, she was the Water Princess.
How in the world was he going to convince her that he actually was the Fire Prince?
Glancing over her shoulder to make sure that the redhead and bearded man were still following her, Clara made her way back through the woods. This guy couldn’t be the Fire Prince, he just couldn’t be. She had only had was one request – that he not be a redhead – and this guy most certainly was one. She could practically see Kath smirking.
She reached the camp and her two prisoners were still following. She’d been half-hoping that they would run off while her back was turned and she’d be done with them, but no. Well, she had the “Fire Prince’s” sword, so maybe they were just following in hopes that she’d give it back. It was a nice blade, a bit bigger than she preferred, but it definitely fit her picture of what the Fire Prince’s sword would look like.
No, she wouldn’t let herself think like that. He must have stolen it from the real Fire Prince, though she couldn’t see how he managed it, considering his lousy skills.
They met Jakob almost as soon as they stepped foot into camp.
“Water Princess, back already? Who are your friends?”
“They’re my prisoners, Jakob,” she informed him. “I captured them and have brought them back for interrogation. One claims to be Lord Abraham of Lower Klarand; the other thinks he’s the Fire Prince.”
“Jakob,” Lord Abraham repeated. “As in the son of Lord Erik?”
“Yes,” said Jakob, slowly. “Water Princess, why don’t you think they’re who they say they are?”
Clara was silent a moment, as she searched for a good reason that Jakob would accept. “All right,” she decided, “maybe Lord Abraham is telling the truth. I knew there was a reason that I let him keep his sword. But,” she spun around to face the supposed Fire Prince, “this young man has clearly deluded him.”
“Water Princess, I can assure you that he has done no such thing,” said Lord Abraham. “I pulled him from the Firefall myself.”
Clara didn’t want to believe him, so she spun on the guy in question, and pointed the tip of his sword at him. He seemed to find that more disconcerting than when she used her own sword, and it amused her. “Tell me, what is your name? Your real name.”
“I am the Fire Prince,” he protested. “I didn’t want to be, but I am.”
He looked like a kid with his hand stuck in a cookie jar. Clara was tempted to laugh. Instead, she quoted. “Oh, come now. Speak up, good lad, and fear nothing. How used ye the great seal of England?”
The guy blinked, but then a grin pulled at one corner of his mouth. “To crack nuts with,” he declared.
It was Clara’s turn to blink. Then she pushed the tip of his sword closer to him. “I didn’t want you to answer that question. Answer the first. What is your name?”
He took a step backward and closed his eyes. “It’s Andrew,” he admitted. “Andrew Stevenson.”
“Thank you, Andrew,” she said, lowering her sword. “Now was it really that hard?”
“No,” said he, a thoughtful tone entering his voice that she didn’t like. “But now, may I ask, what is your real name?”
Clara rolled her eyes. “I’m the Water Princess. You couldn’t hear it if I told you. Or, at least, that seems to be how it works.”
“I know,” he agreed, “but since you just heard and used my real name, I thought you might want to return the favor. Otherwise, I’ll have to just call you Alice.”
She narrowed her eyes but decided she might as well, lest people start thinking that Alice was her real name. “It’s Clara. Clara Mandras.” He couldn’t hear her anyway.
“Thank you, Clara.”
Clara froze. He… “Oh, you think you’re so clever!” she declared, but he took a step forward and put a hand on her shoulder, leaning down so that pretty much all she could see were his freckles and green eyes.
“I am the Fire Prince,” he said. “I’m not saying I wanted to be, but I am. And now,” he let his hand fall away as he took a step backward. “And now it seems we’re stuck with each other.”
Clara stared at him for several seconds, not trusting herself to say anything. At last, she plunged the point of his sword into the ground at his feet and spun around, declaring that she needed to go find Jasmine and get her hair re-done.
She paused only long enough to overturn a table and declare, “Stupid mistletoe muffins!”
Chapter 2
So, that was the Water Princess.
That was the Water Princess.
Somehow, Andrew got the impression that she wasn’t impressed with him, and they certainly had not gotten off on a great foot.
Slowly, he bent down, pulled his sword out of the dirt where she had left it, and sheathed it. He met the eye of the young man who had met them when they entered the camp. Jakob, she had called him, the son of Lord Erik, according to Abraham. He gave Andrew a sympathetic smile.
“She’s testy around strangers,” Jakob explained. “You intimidate her.”
“I, uh, sorry?” Andrew swallowed. “She…”
“Oh, don’t worry about it,” said Jakob, grinning. “Intimidation is about the only language she understands. I don’t think I’ve ever seen her speechless before.”
Andrew closed his eyes, but still, all he could see was her glaring up at him.
“So, how have things been in Upper Klarand?” said Abraham, conversationally. “The Dragon has struck little on the lower side of the forest, so we can only imagine…”
“She has caused quite a bit of trouble,” Jakob admitted. “The summer before last … Essua was bringing relief to one of the villages, and she and the men who went with her as guards fell prey to the Dragon’s magic.”
Abraham was silent for several moments. “The poor girl. How are your parents and other siblings doing?”
“Quite well, everything considered,” Jakob answered. “Dina is blissfully unaware of the seriousness of everything.”
“Ah,” said Abraham. “Well, you’ve turned into a fine young man since last I saw you, toddling at your father’s knee, and I’m sure your parents are quite proud of you.”
Jakob nodded. “Father entrusted the Water Princess’s safety to me. Though it isn’t very hard, considering her skill.”
“Yeah,” said Andrew.
“Believe it or not,” s
aid Jakob, “she actually managed to keep her skills secret for the first few weeks she was here. Well, I found out some of them early on, but other than that, she had us clueless.”
At that moment, another young woman passed, a girl a bit taller than the Water Princess, with long, black hair bound in a braid.
“Ah, Jill Anna,” said Jakob.
She immediately stopped and turned to them, dipping into a low curtsy, a fist held over her heart. “Yes, sir?”
“The Water Princess just said something about mistletoe muffins. Do you know something about that?”
Jill Anna blinked, then slowly nodded, color rushing into her cheeks. “She was asking for ways by which she might summon the Fire Prince last night,” she explained. “So I told her of the stories. She was willing to try.”
“Ah. Well, it seems she was dissatisfied with the results,” said Jakob, with an amused grin. He gestured towards Andrew and Abraham. “May I introduce you to my Uncle, Lord Abraham of Lower Klarand, and the Fire Prince?”
The girl let out a gasp, then sank into an even lower curtsey. “It actually worked,” she breathed.
“Jill Anna, do you know where Jasmine is? I can’t seem to find her anywhere.”
Andrew turned to see his old friend, the Water Princess. She was ignoring Andrew at the moment, her attention on Jill Anna.
“No, Water Princess,” said Jill Anna, standing up and approaching her, some of the formality dropping out of her voice. “I haven’t. Not since shortly after you left to practice in the woods.”
“Hmm,” said the Water Princess. “That’s not good. My hair came undone.” She shot Andrew a brief glare. “And … yeah. She’d better not have wandered into the woods. I’ve told her not to.”
“You and me both,” agreed Jill Anna, worry creeping into her voice. “But it would be just like her.”
“Um, who’s Jasmine?” Andrew spoke up.
“My maid, her younger sister,” said the Water Princess, jabbing a thumb towards Jill Anna. “She’s been trying to get me to take her into the woods almost since we got here. And now it seems that she’s gone on her own.”
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