Lonna

  I id on my stomach, my stunted wings folded forward up, stubby red tail shing side to side. I couldn’t stop turning the events of the night over and over in my head.

  Melissa called me beautiful. Even though I was a half dragon, and a runaway princess, and an all around mess… Melissa still called me beautiful.

  So I’d kissed her.

  Then Melissa had said she was a girl, and it felt like everything clicked into pce. It felt like everything was exactly the way it was supposed to be…

  Except Melissa didn’t feel the same way. The moment we parted, and I saw the look of confusion in her eyes, even before she asked me about the kiss - I knew she didn’t feel it. Didn’t want it. Didn’t understand it.

  I’d been drawn towards Melissa ever since she’d gotten here - and only thinking she was a man had kept me from acting on it. Now, I knew she was a woman… but I also knew that Melissa didn’t feel the same way. She only saw me as a friend. If that. Maybe less. Maybe she just saw me as the bitch who’d dragged her into this mess. Maybe she even hated me…

  Except Melissa wasn’t like that, was she? Unless she was, and I was wrong, and…

  I sighed, shaking my head. I was getting nowhere, thinking like this. I needed to take a walk. I needed to clear my head.

  Decision made, I rolled out of bed and onto my feet. Talith turned to face me, as I did so, opening his mouth to speak, but I held up a hand before he could.

  “Don’t want to hear it.”

  “...I haven’t said anything yet,” Talith muttered, crossing his arms.

  “I can hear it all, already. You think I’m being dumb. You think I definitely should stay put. And most of all, you think I should stop pining over someone who doesn’t want me.”

  “I think anyone who doesn’t want you is an idiot,” Talith corrected. “...But maybe I was a bit… harsh… on Melissa.”

  I stared at him, hard, while Talith shrugged his shoulders.

  “I still don’t think she’s the Heroine. And I don’t think anything good will come out of you two fighting your mother.”

  “Don’t call her that,” I demanded, gring at my brother. “There’s only one woman I’ll ever consider my mother.”

  “No,” Talith insisted, shaking his head slowly. “Sorissa did a lot to you. But she raised you for even longer than Maiar did. You can’t erase that.”

  “I had only one mother! One! Not two, not three, one. And Sorissa killed her.”

  Talith stared at me for a moment, opening and closing his mouth. Then he lowered his head, staring at the ground. “Maiar wouldn’t want you to act out of revenge.”

  “It’s not revenge. It’s for the well being of every person on this whole forsaken continent that Sorissa’s reign ends. You know that as well as I do.”

  “What I know is that you’re the only family I have left. What I know is that family is important. What I know is that you shouldn’t have to take the lead in killing your own mother - whether or not you see her that way.”

  “...I tried running away, Talith. I tried telling myself it didn’t need to be me. I told myself that someone else could summon the heroine, and take care of the threat. That it wasn’t my responsibility, just because I benefited from everything she did. But that was when I was thirteen. I’m twenty-one, now, Talith - and I’m the only one who can lead the Heroine to victory. So I’m done running.”

  Saying so, I grabbed my cloak off the floor, slipping out the door and walking down the hallway. I passed Melissa’s room without stopping, simply slipping on my cloak and moving toward the manor’s front door.

  I was done running. I really, truly was done with it. ...So long as I was only talking about Sorissa. Melissa was another matter, though. I still couldn’t stop the kiss from fshing through her mind, again. The kiss, and Melissa’s confused words right afterward.

  I needed a breath of fresh air. I needed to get out of the manor. And honestly, I needed a bite to eat. I hadn’t been invited to dinner with the countess, after all. Of course, the servants would have brought me food if I’d asked but then I’d have had to eat under Talith’s watchful stare. I wanted to be alone for a bit.

  Too bad I didn’t have much in the way of coinage. Talith had always handled that... He used to make decent money, working as a bcksmith. By contrast, I’d been living at home with our mother, doing nothing to earn my keep beyond mending the torn clothes. Not that it hadn’t been appreciated. Lapsi, like my mother and brother, aren’t exactly known for their needlework. They tended to struggle with anything that required a delicate touch.

  Part of why I valued the cloak Mom made so much was because it had taken her so many tries to get it right. Maiar refused all help, though. She’d wasted so much fabric, too. It was honestly a good thing that I was the only one in the family that needed to eat, because we really didn’t have much money to spare that month…

  The sheer number of potato-based meals I went through that month… Mom basically had to force feed my by the end - I kept insisting that I could get everything I needed through sunlight, but she said that wasn’t any way to raise a growing girl… Not that I did much growing, in the end.

  Even back then, at barely fourteen years of age, I’d been thinking of how best to escape if my mother ever came for her. Of how to survive, if I was abandoned. Of how to make sure I could stay alive, no matter what came. That’s exactly why I ended up asking Vellos to teach me how to be a thief. No idea what he saw in me that made him say yes so easily, though…

  Who’d have thought my first big mission would be sneaking into the castle, though? Stealing the summoning scroll. Bringing out the Heroine. I’d done so many things my younger self never could have imagined, in just the st few days.

  I wondered if my Mom would be proud, seeing her daughter like this… Probably not. If anything, she’d have sided with Talith. She’d have wanted me to stay safe.

  Not that it mattered. Mom was dead. Soon enough, Sorissa would follow.

  And then I really would be an orphan.

  The sound footsteps coming down the hallway shook me from my thoughts. Pressing myself ft against the wall, I peeked around the corner, to see two guards walking down the hall. Likely on patrol.

  What were their orders, regarding me? Were they meant to keep me here? Was I free to come and go as I pleased? I wasn’t sure I wanted to know. They were coming right toward me, though.

  Looking about, my eyes locked on a small vase, standing on a pedestal. More importantly, I locked eyes on the shadow cast by that pedestal, and darted toward it. Wedging myself into the corner, between hallway and vase, I focused on draining all light from the area, until the spot was all but pitch bck. Then, I bent what little light there was left around myself, making myself invisible - at the cost of not being able to see, for the duration.

  With a double yer of protection, all I had to do was wait until the guards walked past me. It was a trick I’d employed in the castle, letting patrol after patrol pass me by as I snuck toward the library. I was convinced it would work.

  So you can imagine my surprise when a set of footsteps walked straight up the alcove, and stopped.

  “Funny,” came a dry, familiar voice. “I don’t remember this alcove having quite so dark a shadow.”

  I cursed under my breath, letting my magic fade so that I could gre up at the Countess.

  The Countess responded with a smile, green eyes flicking across my countenance. “Your power to hide is impressive, Princess Lonna. But you went a little too far with the shadow work.”

  “I’ll keep that in mind,” I replied, rising up from a crouch to my full, somewhat unimpressive, height. “What are you doing out this te at night?”

  “The guards alerted me the moment your door opened, Princess. I thought if I hurried, I might be able to catch you before you ran off into the night.”

  “I’m not running,” I said, gring now. “I’m just having a walk.”

  “Considering your brother isn’t with you, I can only hope that’s true,” Liliath replied. “That said - you are a guest in my home, and not a prisoner. So while I’d appreciate knowing your whereabouts, it’s hardly a requirement - you are, of course, free to go outside. Though I imagine there’s talk of the Princess all up and down the street, at this point.”

  “Good thing I don’t look like much of a princess, then,” I retorted, shrugging.

  …She did have a point, though. I could hide my wings, my tail, and my horns - but not my yellow eyes, or sharp canines. Even if I kept my hood up, there was a chance people would recognize me.

  It wasn’t like I was in danger, though. The smart ones would be scared of Sorissa taking revenge, and the stupid ones…

  Well. I could take care of myself.

  “I imagine you can take care of yourself,” Liliath ughed, as if reading my mind.“I would ask you to go easy on my people, though, if trouble were to arise.”

  “...You really care about them?” I asked, frowning. “I always thought nobles were too busy living it up to care about what happened to the people on their nds.”

  “Perhaps some are,” Liliath answered, shrugging her shoulders. “I always thought it was foolish to ignore the needs of those who feed us. Which is why I’ll ask you again to go easy on them.”

  “Fine. If that’s all? I kind of wanted to go out a bit.” I gnced toward the end of the hallway, where the guards had stopped to gape. When Liliath’s own eyes flicked to them they snapped to attention, causing a small smile to touch her face.

  “Not quite all,” Liliath informed me, reaching for her belt. I tensed as Liliath’s fingers brushed past her sword hilt, but that wasn’t what she grabbed. Instead, she pulled from her belt a small pouch, which she tossed to me.

  It was surprisingly heavy. “This is…?”

  “Coin. Fifty crowns to be precise - it should be more than enough to try a few of the local delicacies.”

  “It should be enough to buy a local house,” I replied, staring at the bag. “Why, by the trees, are you giving me all this?”

  “...The guards informed me that you were haggling for clothes when they found you.”

  “Yeah. And?”

  “If you’re to be seen as a queen, at the end of all this, you need to present yourself as one now,” Liliath expined. “The people who see you as the Princess, as you walk down the street - they should see you as a figure of wealth and power. They should not remember you as the girl who couldn’t even afford a nice dress.”

  “Sorry to break it to you, but I’m not exactly the type that exudes royal presence.” Not that it stopped me from slipping the pouch under my cloak, and into a pocket.

  “It’s never too te to learn,” Liliath’s replied, a small smile on her lips. “Now - I believe we both had somewhere to go?”

  I nodded, slowly, walking past the guards, down the hallway, and out the door.

  There were another two guards outside, who gnced at me curiously as I exited, but otherwise said nothing.

  “...Guess slipping out unnoticed was never going to happen,” I muttered to myself, walking down the steps of the manor, and toward the town.

  ***

  “Tell me what these are called again?” I asked, staring suspiciously at the pte of food the tavern keeper had given me.

  “Kraken balls,” the man responded, for the third time. He was a tall man, with thickset arms covered in hair. He was currently gring down at the cloaked figure who’d taken up a stool at the bar and ordered a pte of his “finest food.”

  AKA me.

  “But they’re not actually… you know… Testicles, right? You promise, right? Because I will eat most things, but even I have some standards.”

  “Like I could afford to serve a set of those,” the man snorted, shaking his head. “Look. Eat them or don’t. I have other customers to see to.”

  Rather than saying anything, I just poked one of the lightly breaded balls with my finger. Then, with a bit of hesitation, I popped it into my mouth.

  It was delicious. Juicy and warm, and more than filling, by the time I’d finished eating the first I was already reaching for the second. By the time I’d finished the fifth, I’d already ordered a second pte. It was only after eating my third that I finally slipped out of the tavern, belly full and belt pouch… not at all lighter. In fact, since I’d gotten change in the form of helms and caps, it was actually a bit heavier than when I entered.

  “What am I supposed to do with this sort of money, anyway?” I groused to myself, shaking my head as I walked down the road. Rightly speaking, I should probably be saving it for the journey. I was hoping to avoid going into too many more towns, but it wasn’t like we could avoid people altogether during the journey. Money might very well come in handy. Even if we hunted our own food, and built our own shelter, there was a chance our clothes might get torn beyond repair. Alternatively, one of us might fall sick and need medicine, or… Well, who knew what else?

  I was lost in thought, thinking of all the potential uses for my new coin, when I bumped into a figure even smaller than me, sending them sprawling across the ground.

  Instantly, another figure stepped out of the shadows, this one just ever so slightly taller than me, this time. “What do you think you’re doing, walking without looking where you’re going?” the new person demanded. “If you’ve hurt my brother - I’ll… I’ll report you to the authorities! I’ll make you pay for his medical bills! I’ll-”

  “Rex,” I interrupted, rolling my eyes at the tirade. The girl giving it to me couldn’t have been more than thirteen. She was dirty, filthy really, and her clothes were so covered in patchwork that it was impossible to tell what color the original clothes had been. Her cheeks were gaunt, seeming to indicate she’d gone a while without food.

  Her brother, lying on the floor, looked almost the same. A touch less thin, maybe? Most likely the girl was doing her best to keep him fed, at cost to herself. He was also moaning, faintly, and clutching at his arm. “It hurts…” he whispered. “It hurts…”

  I didn’t speak. I just studied the kid. I did know a simple healing spell. It wasn’t much, but it would work on minor injuries. I could use it on the boy… but speedy healing could take its toll on a person, and it didn’t seem like this one had much left to give.

  Besides which, as someone who’d undergone quite a bit of pain myself, it was pretty damn obvious to me that the boy was faking.

  “So what’s the pn?” I asked, shifting my gaze to the girl. “Talk up how much trouble I’ll get in with the guards, and then demand I hand over some coins to keep your silence? Or maybe he was supposed to steal my purse when I bent down to give him a look over?”

  “I-I don’t know what you’re talking about!” the girl insisted, but her voice cracked ever so faintly.

  I smiled, in response. “Tell your brother to get up. I’ll pay for you two to get a bath, and some food in you, but that’s it. I don’t respond to extortion.”

  The boy had stopped moaning at some point. Now he was staring fearfully up at me, while his big sister walked cautiously around me to reach her brother.

  “Who are you?” the girl demanded after a moment. “If - if you really think we’re trying to cheat you, why are you helping us?”

  “Because I feel like it,” I replied, rolling my eyes. I wasn’t going to say it was because they looked too pathetic to ignore. Not out loud at least. “Also, you seriously need to work on your con artistry. What if I didn’t even have any coin on me? What if I refused to pay? Did you even have a backup pn?”

  “I… I’m not admitting to anything!”The girl lifted her chin as she spoke, staring defiantly. “I’m not going to let you trick me into-”

  “Yes, yes, whatever you say,” I interrupted, rolling my eyes yet again. I was starting to get dizzy, honestly, but it wasn’t like I could just not roll my eyes at this idiocy. “For now, we’re getting you to a bath. And then some food...”

  “The public baths are closed,” the girl replied, in return, frowning. “They closed hours ago.”

  “...Fine then. I didn’t want to do this, but…” The girl flinched back at my words, but she needn’t have - I didn’t touch her. I was just moving into a crouch, so that I could etch some symbols onto the road with a piece of chalk. Something no good magi would ever be caught without.

  “Rex, would you? It’s a basic cleaning spell. I use it on myself all the time.” Saying so, I regarded the symbols I’d drawn for a moment, gave a firm nod, and then bisected the symbols with a circle.

  `”Stand in the center,” I ordered, but the girl only stared back at me with defiance in her eyes. “For the love of the Majesty Trees, do I need to show you it’s safe?” I demanded, stepping into the circle myself. Bending down to touch the first symbol I’d drawn I poured energy through the circle, causing a fsh of light.

  When the light cleared, every single speck of dirt that I’d picked up during my travels had disappeared, leaving me feeling clean and refreshed.

  “Now you,” I insisted, stepping out of the circle.

  “...Why would you do this for us?” the girl asked.

  “Just get in the circle, before I change my mind.”

  She at her brother, who was still ying on the ground. He looked back, fear and wonder lighting up his eyes in equal measure. After a moment’s hesitation, the girl stepped into the circle, and I lit it up again.

  When the light cleared, the girl’s dress was still patchwork but her skin was clear and her brown hair was no longer matted and filthy. She looked at herself, wonder in her eyes for a moment, before giving her brother a firm nod.

  Soon both of them were clean. Which meant I only had to deal with the fact that they were starving.

  “Now that you’re clean, it should be easy enough to get you fed,” I decred, turning away and gesturing for them to follow. Although my back was to them, I could still sense their presence via my light magic, and knew they were standing stock still.

  I didn’t stop moving.

  The boy was the first to break, getting to his feet and starting after me.

  “Bek…” the girl protested.

  “I’m hungry, Travi,” Bek responded. “I know you don’t trust strangers, but… I don’t think she’s a bad person…”

  Travi hesitated a moment, but then she jogged up to grab my hand. “Please,” she said. “Slow down? Bek can’t walk very fast…”

  “Fiiiiine,” I sighed, slowing my pace and resisting the urge to smile. Kids were too easy. “But only because we’re not going very far.”

  Our destination was an inn, right next to the tavern from earlier. The innkeeper had been getting ready for bed, from the nightgown she was wearing when she answered the door, but her scowl turned into a smile when I held up a crown and asked for a room with two beds, and some food.

  Soon, Travi was poking at her own kraken ball with a finger, sniffing it suspiciously, and then popping it into her mouth. Only after chewing and swallowing did she finally nod to Bek, who eagerly bit into his without a single compint or worry.

  He probably didn’t even realize his sister had been checking for poison.

  “So how’d you two end up living on the streets?” I asked, after the siblings had eaten enough to fill their shrunken bellies. “Town seems prosperous enough - does the Countess not have an orphanage?”

  “No, there is one,” Bek said.

  Travi shot her brother a gre, and then sighed. “There is one,” she confirmed. “But it’s only for citizens. Our mother was a traveling merchant - she died of illness while visiting the city. She left us some money - but it ran out quickly…”

  “We don’t even have enough to pay the entrance fee if we leave the city,” Bek added, ignoring his sister’s gre as he volunteered more information.

  “So in other words you’re stuck,” I murmured. “Not enough money to get anywhere, and if you even try you won’t be able to get into town again. That right?”

  The siblings nodded as one.

  I sighed. “I know a farming vilge - in the Mirra Valley. Your mom ever take you out that way?”

  Travi and Bek exchanged gnces, both shrugging haplessly.

  “...Guess not. It’s pretty small. But. If you can find your way there, I’m sure the vilgers would help you out. If no one else will, you could find someone named Vellos - mention my name, and he’ll take you in.”

  “Thanks,” the girl murmured, “But I don’t even know how we’d get there.”

  “You’ll need to book passage, of course,” I replied, with a careless shrug. “I’ll leave you a few gold coins. Enough for the trip.”

  “...Why?” Travi asked, suspicion evident in her voice. “And don’t tell me it’s-”

  “Because I feel like it?” I suggested, cracking a small smile. “Maybe I just know what it’s like to be hungry and alone. You’re doing a good job looking after your brother… but it shouldn’t all be up to you. You’re a kid, too, you know.”

  “Am not,” Travi protested. “I’m thirteen.”

  “Yeah?” I asked, pursing my lips. “Well then, miss thirteen years old, you should know better than to turn down a helping hand when it’s offered. What with you being so worldly, and all.”

  “I know enough to know nothing’s free,” Travi replied, eyes stubbornly locked on mine. “What do you want from us?”

  “...Someone took me in, once, when I was thirteen and alone. Maybe I’m just returning the favor, the best I can.”

  It was a more honest response than I’d intended, and by the time I’d finished speaking I was gazing somewhere off to the left of th girl.

  The suspicion in the girl’s eyes seemed to grow worse, from that, and after a moment I sighed. “How about this, then: I want to know about the Runaway Princess.”

  “The… Runaway Princess?” Travi asked, blinking in surprise. “You mean Princess Lonna?”

  “That’s the one,” I confirmed, a small smile on my lips. “I heard she’s in town.”

  “I heard rumors,” Travi admitted, “but…”

  “I hear she eats children,” Bek whispered, voice low. “I hear she swoops in through windows on dragon wings and eats children who don’t listen to their mothers…”

  “She does not,” Travi insisted, but her voice shook faintly. “I heard she is part dragon, though… She sounds terrifying.”

  “Not the sort of person you’d want to meet on a dark night, huh?”

  Both siblings shook their heads.

  “Why do you want to know about her?” Travi asked.

  “I don’t know. Guess I just…”

  “Felt like it?” Travi suggested.

  “Yeah. Something like that.” I gave back an easy grin. “Anyway. Mirra Vilge, in the Mirra Valley. Book yourself passage with a merchant heading that way - and tell them…” I hesitated, here. I’d said to give her name, but after that conversation…

  “Tell them L with the red hair sent you,” I decided, at st.

  “Ell?” Travi asked, a little suspicious. Slowly, though, she nodded. “And you’ll really leave us coin for the trip? Just because you feel like it?”

  “And in return for what you know about the Princess,” I reminded her. “I want to hear everything you have to say about her.”

  As it turned out? Travi had a lot to say on the subject. Stories about how I’d eat children notwithstanding, there were tales about how I could burn people to a crisp with my breath, and how my bloodcurdling scream announced certain death. Not to mention the stories that I’d only run away so that I could sneak about as Sorissa’s eyes and ears.

  I listened to them all, burning into my mind just how people saw me. Just what I was up against, if I did become queen.

  Eventually, Bek let out a yawn, and I held out a hand. “That’s… enough stories for tonight,” I told them, fully aware of how strained my smile must have looked. “You should get some rest.”

  Travi nodded, stifling her own yawn.

  Despite the room having two beds, the children curled up on a single mattress.

  I blew out the ntern before moving toward the door. In the doorway, though, I hesitated, remembering my promise to leave them coin. I wasn’t sure how much was needed for the journey, though. “...Trees forsake it. I never was good with money…” I muttered to myself, before sighing and reaching into my cloak.

  Not knowing how much they’d need, I withdrew a handful of crowns from the bag.

  The rest of the purse, I left for the children.

  EmilieEmber