The Wildest Woods

by S. K Munt

  Quilline and I clapped and cheered but Martya didn’t- she couldn’t tear her eyes off her own reflection and I could not blame her. I’d been right to say that the gown had been made for her to wear, and now that Quilline had twisted her hair up into a high French roll and had added dramatic eye make-up and dark, burgundy lips, she looked incredible. Everything worked, as though Riesling had sewn it for her all along, and I couldn’t help but wonder if this moment- this exchange- had been fated. I couldn’t wait for her to put the mask on, and yet I sort of hoped that she didn’t leave it on all night because her smoky eyes were killer! Sam wasn’t going to recognise her!

  I didn’t look like myself either because I’d been powdered white and then rouged within an inch of my life, but I liked it that way and that was the point of a masquerade, wasn’t it? To step into a dream?

  ‘Larkin…?’ Martya asked, sounding nervous when she caught me staring at her. ‘What do you think?’

  ‘I think you look incomparable,’ I said, and she clutched her hands to her chest and squealed.

  ‘You’re not just saying that?’

  ‘You’re a vision, and if Sam’s jaw doesn’t hit the floor when you make your grand entrance, then he doesn’t have any.’

  Martya giggled but Inoborna came barrelling through then, and there was a moment of bedlam as we all gasped and moved to hitch our sparkly, dangling, chew-worthy skirts and baubles out of his way. But he went straight to my window, put his front paws up on it and began to howl like someone was dying, and I forgot my panic over my dress and moved after him quickly as panic over other imagined things set in. Had someone been hurt? Had a salt and pepper bear wandered out of the Fallen Forest and into the town square again?

  ‘What’s the matter with him?’ Riesling called out over the top of his mournful lamenting.

  ‘I don’t know, Inoborna, down!’ I clapped my hands together and picked up my skirts, hurrying after him. ‘What’s wrong, fella? What’s going on?’ But the dog couldn’t answer with words so he continued to howl, and I dropped my skirts and covered my ears as I came up to the window behind him, squinting out into the afternoon’s glare to try and see what was amiss. At first everything looked perfectly normal (aside from the excess of powdered wigs, that was) but then I heard a sound that set my teeth against one another and I knew that the dog was right to be carrying on. I’d only ever heard that sound twice before in practice drills, but one wasn’t scheduled that day so the sound of someone’s gun firing precisely five times made me contort in a full body cringe.

  ‘Oh my God!’ Martya pushed past me and half-leaned out the window, staring towards the dock. ‘Was that five shots?’

  ‘The signal for outsiders?’ Quilline demanded, as my heart seized up in terror. ‘Get out of here! Who on earth would be visiting us?’

  ‘It’s not just the signal for outsiders!’ I gasped, pushing Martya and Inoborna out of the way so that I could see out the window again. ‘It’s the tocsin for Callielian outsiders, specifically!’ I turned to Martya, my face crumpling. ‘Oh my God, they’ve come for me, haven’t they?’

  Oh, everything’s going to be ruined! Not just the ball, but our entire existence here could be at risk from this day out!

  Martya grasped my shoulders and looked straight into my eyes. ‘It doesn’t matter if they have, Larkin, they’re not going to get within six feet of you! We have contingency plans, remember? You go into hiding and Bastien becomes King Raphael. Everybody knows what to do- we’re prepared for this.’

  ‘But there could be hundreds of-’

  Inoborna began barking again and I whipped around once more, crying out when I saw a single red figure with bright red hair racing towards the castle from the direction of The Fallen Forest while staring up at my window. Gasping, I pulled off my amber ring and hurled it across the room, and Sam’s thoughts slammed into me like a stampede of racing horses immediately and painfully.

  Soldiers! Ten of them! Arcadian! His mind was racing as fast as he was, making his thoughts disjointed, but I picked up on every one of them regardless because he was practically screaming them at me. It’s a squadron, Lark! They came to investigate a suspected colony of outlaws and are absolutely stupefied to find a kingdom instead! They don’t know who we are, where we came from or who is in charge of us, but they want to find out and are demanding to be let in and granted refuge!

  How heavily are they armed? I asked, but Sam had drawn too close to the castle for me to be able to see him from up there anymore, and I turned to Martya and madly signalled to her to hide. She looked at me, bewildered, but Quilline and Riesling picked up on what I was trying not to say or think and damn near frog marched her into the bathroom, hissing at her to take the dress off and put her glasses on even though she hadn’t been wearing them since she’d put her book down. I didn’t know how this day was going to play out now, but I wasn’t giving up Martya’s chance to knock Sam’s socks off at an opportune moment without a fight!

  Barely at all! In fact, they’re in worse shape than we were in when we first got here because it’s taken them a whole week to get this far north so-

  That’s good! So all we have to do is take them out and we’ll be fine!

  I don’t think we can take them out Lark, not without more being sent in their stead!

  Why? How important could a band of soldiers be if they only sent ten- But the door slammed open then, cutting me off just as Quilline slammed the bathroom door behind her, and then Sam practically staggered into my room, looking like he’d decided to own his own shameful past too because he was dressed like an eighteenth century pirate and looked so dashing that even the two women that weren’t attracted to men looked taken aback. His eyes widened when he saw me and I’m sure mine did the same in alarm, but he came over to me and grasped my wrists with his clammy ones and panted: ‘Well…!’ he swallowed hard as he fought for breath. ‘Their leader- who introduced himself as their Guardian- seems to go by the name Kohén Barachiel, Lark so I’d say… pretty damned important!’

  No!

  I clamped my hands over my mouth to hold in a scream and almost set myself on fire with the panicked flares that shot out of my palms. Immediately, Quilline began to lose it.

  He’s here! Kohén is here, oh sweet Jesus my life is over-again!

  ‘Shit!’ Sam tore my hands away from my face and then pulled me to him, holding me tightly against his deep blue embroidered jacket and white ruffled shirt, and shocking me further with his sudden display of protectiveness and compassion. ‘Don’t you hurt yourself over him, Lark! I know you’re scared but hold your fire until it’s pointing at him, got it?’ He pulled me back and looked into my eyes. ‘He can’t hurt you, not anymore and better still- I don’t think he’ll even want to.’

  I coughed out a laugh. ‘Are you kidding me? Even if he does feel guilty enough to let me live, for fifteen million Cadians-’

  ‘That’s the reward offered for you, and you’re not here, remember? No one in Raphael has met Larkin Whittaker, and we are peaceful people that would never harbour a known murderer, remember?!’

  ‘That’s right!’ Quilline gasped. ‘And you’re in disguise-’

  ‘She still looks enough like herself to be recognised by someone that knew her intimately,’ Sam argued, taking my hand and pulling me towards the door. ‘But if she borrows my cloak she can look like anybody she can dream up, so start thinking hard about a familiar face that Kohén will not recognise, okay? Even if you just twin me, you need to be able to hold onto the mental picture in order to keep its power in place.’

  ‘What? You’re taking her down there?’ Riesling demanded, looking thunderstruck. ‘That’s insane!’

  ‘No, insanity would be assuming that we’d be able to keep her contained at such a moment,’ Pirate Sam scoffed as he donned his tri-corner black felt hat again, and I nodded, knowing that I’d kill anyone that tried to prevent me from doing whatever I could to protect my people myself. ‘You ladies need to stay up here thou
gh, all right? For now there’s no danger- we have them outnumbered three to one and barricaded on the other side of the gates, but though they’ve been polite so far, they’ve basically said that if we don’t let them in to prove that we aren’t outlaws, or if they don’t return we’ll end up with Callielian guards crawling all over the place in a matter of weeks. So I think we need to stick to the pre-arranged plan and try to sell them on us being as God-fearing as they are in the hopes that they go away quietly.’ He didn’t wait for a response before he was hustling me out the door and though I could barely feel anything below my knees for the fear, I managed to stumble down the stairs after him while Riesling picked up Martya’s casual clothes from earlier and shoved them through a crack in the bathroom door.

  ‘How are we going to convince that we’re not Godless, with a Kingslater vessel sitting right there in our harbour-’

  ‘They haven’t seen the ship or the harbour because they’ve come from the southeast! They literally just fell out of the Fallen Forest near behind the schoolhouse, saw Inoborna running at them and ran for their lives so I don’t think they’ve even seen the lake yet.’ We’d already entered the internal stairwell and Sam’s voice was rebounding off the stone walls as we took the ancient steps two at a time. ‘Kingslater was down at the Inn organising a few more barrels of ale to take back to The Iana, so he shouted out to his men to surround them but Kohén’s soldiers didn’t even try to run- they were too shocked, I think, and that gave some of our people the chance to snap out of their shock and remember protocol.’ We burst out into the second-floor hall and I almost sobbed with relief when I saw my knight running towards me with Trajan the explorer hot on his heels, and when I saw that his beard had been barbered away, my knees almost melted with badly-timed delight. Goodness, he looked delectable! What had he been thinking, when he’d allowed that perfect, sharp and utterly masculine jawline to become concealed by fuzzy golden hair?

  Cairo’s eyes bugged when he saw my costume too, but that was probably because Lady Lucida and her two courtesans were following them and they were already dressed identical to me, only with their masks in place. Lady Lucida looked more shocked than anyone, but she didn’t say anything as I flung myself into Cairo’s arms, and he jokingly asked if I had three matching knights for him. This wasn’t the entrance I’d wanted to make, but it didn’t look like we were going to be having a party after all, so all that mattered was that he was safe.

  ‘Where’s my father?’ I demanded. ‘Did K-’ I sobbed, unable to say the name yet. ‘What has that bastard seen? Said?

  ‘A lot, on both counts!’ Cairo pulled back and lifted my face to his, and though his eyes were bright with anxiety, he shook his head and wiped away one of the tears that had started rolling out of my eyes already. ‘Calm yourself, my love, everything is under control! I just escorted Bastien to the throne room myself and four of our guards are watching him while a fifth is trying to find him a fake crown that will fit. He’s a bit stunned, but he knows what role he has to play and I have faith that he’ll be able to do it well. We’ve also herded up anyone that might be recognised from Calliel and have had them taken to the most remote cottage to keep them out of sight. Everyone but Martya that is, but I assume-’

  ‘She’s up in my tower, and Quilline and Riesling are with her,’ I said quickly, not missing the way Sam sighed with relief beside me as I turned to Serif, who had just shocked me by apparently shooting up another three inches that day. When had all of the boys in my life started becoming men? ‘Could you please go up there and ask them to stay put until the situation is under control please?’

  ‘Yes, your highness,’ Serif said quickly before taking off. ‘You look beautiful by the way!’ and although Cairo chuckled and murmured something softly, I didn’t acknowledge the compliment at all. Who cared about how I looked at such a time? I wanted to be dressed like a warrior, not a damsel! Oh, why hadn’t I done more about keeping our borders secure? My aversion to fences could be the death of us!

  Cairo squeezed my upper arms and leaned back, looking fierce and beautiful in his chrome-plated armour, which had been glued to a silver mesh lining, giving him the ability to move naturally. ‘Well, everyone else is assembling in the throne room and awaiting a debriefing so that’s all going to plan, but I don’t think we need to worry about a battle breaking out today. In fact, I don’t think that Barachiel scumbag poses a threat to us at all.’ He glanced at Sam. ‘Did you tell her what you heard?’

  ‘Most of it,’ Sam stepped forward and squeezed my shoulder with one of his leather gloves, and I turned to look at him. ‘Remember how I said they’ve been sent here to investigate a colony? Well, that appears to be the only reason why they were sent here- we were sighted in the winter just as you feared we were, and from what the pilot of the plane saw, he deduced that we were just a bunch of Godless shipwreck survivors trying to stay alive in a land of ice and ruins and this little pack of soldiers assumed that they’d find little more than human remains by the time they arrived. Naturally, they did not anticipate finding arable land up here either, much less a thriving civilisation, so your old friend is gobsmacked to say the least and incredibly intimidated but trying to look tough. He can barely think cohesively at all but I do know one thing for sure- you have not crossed his mind once.’

  That was astonishing to me. ‘Are you serious?’

  Sam nodded. ‘Not your name, not your face and certainly not your reward so breathe Larkin please- you’re not being hunted this day and if we stick to the original contingency plan, there’s a chance we could diffuse the threat smoothly.’

  ‘We should kill them right now!’ Lady Lucida snapped, eyes flashing behind her mask while I wilted again Cairo with relief. ‘Before they get the chance to tell anyone else what they’ve seen!’

  ‘I concur!’ Cairo said, but I shook my head and took off towards the stairwell again, beckoning to the people that were milling around in the hall to follow me.

  ‘Though there’s nothing more that I’d like to do than incinerate that bastard kid where he stands, murdering him and his men is not a decision that I’ll be making in hot blood. I don’t know why Karol would sent his baby brother on such a dangerous mission, but if the crowned prince fails to return home, then I’m certain that more soldiers will be sent looking for him and until our border is more secure, we can’t risk that.’

  ‘Would you take him as a hostage then?’ Sam asked, and I shrugged, feeling flushed and sweaty and clammy as I hurried down the grand staircase that led to the foyer and out into the throne room. My father saw me and jumped to his feet, racing across the room to greet me and I held him tight as he wrapped me up in the kind of embrace that would have stopped my heart two years ago. He was already in costume too but luckily he’d dressed as the King of hearts anyway and looked handsome and fierce- curly-toed shoes aside.

  He’s safe for now! I thought, glancing at Lady Lucida over his shoulder and seeing her blink with surprise to realise, as I had, that this might be the day when she fulfilled the prophecy about saving someone that I loved. And he’s going to stay that way! I have accepted her and that is clear so now, she will do the right thing by me!

  ‘This is madness!’ Bastien pulled back and shook his head, looking pale. ‘Absolute madness! Of all the people to send...!’

  ‘It doesn’t make any sense, your highness,’ I said pointedly, and he grimaced before nodding reluctantly and staring down at his shoes, probably feeling foolish indeed. ‘But it will…’ I turned back to Sam and Cairo, almost laughing when I saw that Inoborna had sat beside them like the third musketeer. ‘We need to know everything that Kohén Barachiel and his soldiers know, from where he stands on the issue of killing me, to how many soldiers are in this so-called army of theirs, before I decide how to proceed, all right?’ I turned from the knight, to the pirate. ‘So I suppose it falls to you to save the day, while I listen on from a safe distance, doesn’t it?’

  ‘You want me to give him a massive headac
he?’ I nodded and he grinned wickedly, bowing to me, and I didn’t miss the way Cairo frowned when Sam lifted my limp hand and kissed it gently before squeezing it. ‘It would be a pleasure to fuck with Barachiel’s head for you and then relay all that I extract from it, my queen.’

  ‘I’m not your queen today- you’re the King’s Guard and I’m just one of four courtesans so I’d like you girls to stay with me too, please,’ I said, including Lady Lucida and her girls in on my gaze. Sam straightened and shrugged before giving me my hand back, and the courtesans nodded and shuffled forward, looking nervous and just a little bit self important. ‘The only monarch here is the one that God left to inherit the earth, and mentioning Satan, her daughter and her wrath is strictly forbidden, all right? Make sure that everyone remembers that! We must prove to these soldiers that we are a peaceful, merciful and strong nation that has been built on a foundation of love for god this day and adheres to most of Calliel’s laws- or we will go to war, and I’d very much like to avoid that.’ I stood taller as my insides clenched in determination. ‘At least until we know that we are strong enough to flatten anyone that would dare take us on.’

  ‘I can’t believe this is happening now,’ Lady Lucida grumbled, ‘I’ve been looking forward to this ball all year!’

  But I shrugged, trying not to look as scared and unhappy as she obviously felt. How wonderful it would be if for Cairo’s birthday, I could give him myself once I’d finally gotten my much-needed closure! ‘It was only ever going to be a matter of time before we were discovered, so now that we have been, we need to stop worrying about hiding from the rest of the world, and concentrate on deceiving them instead and if you’re lucky, that might just include going ahead with the ball later tonight anyway.’

  ‘That sounds like a plan!’ Cairo said, taking my hand and yanking me to his side and this time, I did not miss the way Sam’s brows pulled together in resentment, and that made my heart skip a beat. Oh boy, how had I not noticed how possessive he was of me until now? And how was Martya going to steal Sam’s attention while I had her locked up in a tower? ‘I hope it goes without saying that my crew can be counted on to fight at your side if it is required, yes?’