Zoe Reed - Breaking Legacies

“The witch didn’t tell me I wouldn’t be able to change back on my own,” she said. “I tried to yesterday, but I couldn’t. I had begun to worry I’d be stuck like that forever.” I moved on to the next tooth mark with a nod. “I thought I could run to the village before you woke and steal any clothing someone left on a line, but the wolves…”

I wanted to ask if she’d have come back after finding some clothes, or whether she’d have been on the run again, but I’d never spoken to royalty so freely. I didn’t know my boundaries. “You’re safe now, Princess,” I told her in assurance, and nodded toward my dog, “thanks to Albus.”

“And you,” she added. She took in an inquisitive breath, and bent over enough to get in my line of sight. “Who are you?”

I straightened up to meet her gaze, because that’s what she wanted. The painting in her chambers was nothing compared to her true beauty. It could never have captured the brilliant twinkle of her deep blue eyes, or the perfect shine of her dark hair, or the energetic glow of her russet complexion. I felt my face burn all over again, and I resumed concentrating on my work.

I hadn’t mentioned my name to the wisp because it couldn’t have said it, so I answered her question with, “My name is Kiena, Princess.”

“Of house?” she asked.

“No house.”

“Right, you said your father was a soldier, and then a traitor,” she recalled, removing her hand from my shoulder now that I’d finished her stitches. “Who did he fight for?”

“My father fought for Lord Tithian, Princess,” I answered, and in a way far more gentle than I bound any of Albus’s or my own wounds, I began to wrap linen around the princess’s wrist. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see that she recognized the name, even though both of us had just been infants at the time. Lord Tithian’s township, Ocnellio, had been decimated after my father turned. It was a rough time during the war; Valens had been crippled by civil unrest that King Hazlitt was supposed to fix. No more Ocnellio, no more house Tithian. “My mother’s just a cottager. Myself, a hunter.”

I didn’t tell her that my father was the infamous traitor who started the rebellion that added to that civil unrest. That he fought to keep King Hazlitt from the throne for reasons he never told my mother, and thus she’d never told me.

“What about a surname?” asked the princess, examining her finished bandage with a pleased smile. “You at least have a surname.”

As much as I’d wanted to, I couldn’t keep from answering her. She was royalty, and she’d just asked me a direct question. “Thaon,” I answered, waiting for her to be appalled when she recognized it.

“There we have it. Kiena Thaon,” her smile widened instead, and she extended her uninjured right hand to me, “Avarona Gaveston. Well met.”

I was shocked, and entirely unsure of exactly what she wanted. Her hand was angled for a shake, but I’d been to one tournament my entire life, which was my only experience witnessing those of higher class, and the royals and ladies were made acquaintance with a kiss on the hand. I wasn’t a knight, or even a boy, but if Avarona had any remnant of her father’s temper, I wasn’t going to disrespect her by shaking her hand, even if that’s what it looked like she expected.

“Princess,” I said, though I was blushing again, and I gave the best bow I could since I was on my knees, while I took her hand to press my lips to it. After the greeting, I studied her for a long moment, and though the princess looked thoroughly amused by my blushing, I was still in awe. “Do you really not know who I am?”

She thought about it for a minute. “Kiena Thaon,” she deliberately repeated my surname with a look of complete understanding. “You’ve mistaken my apathy for ignorance.”

My eyebrows furrowed at that, because it didn’t make sense that she wasn’t the least bit troubled about being in the presence of a traitor’s daughter. However, I wasn’t about to argue with her. I also needed to get the fire going to keep her warm before I could go to the village and find her some clothes, so I walked away to begin gathering firewood.

“If you didn’t ask for the task of finding me,” started the princess, “and given your family’s reputation, how’d you come to work for the king?” I could feel her eyes on me as I strode farther away to search for some dry wood.

“I was recommended by Sir Silas Leventhorp,” I called back to her, and so she’d know how I knew him, I added, “formerly of House Tithian. Now, of House Gaveston.”

“Ah, Sir Silas,” said her voice. “Your fathers fought together?”

Since I’d gathered enough wood, I waited until I’d walked back to her to answer the affirmative. With the embers still glowing, it didn’t take much effort to get a flame out of the timber, and once it was blazing, I sat back on the sleeping furs, in front of the princess since she was sitting sideways to the fire. She was huddled up with a fur pulled tight around her, but her feet were sticking out the bottom, and her toes were almost blue with cold. I shouldn’t have waited so long to get the fire going, but Avarona didn’t make nearly as much fuss as I expected for a princess, and at that, a wounded one.

“Are your feet numb, Princess?” I made a reach for one of them, and when she made no protest, I pulled it into my lap to try and rub some life back into it. If I brought her back to Guelder without any toes, the king would have my head.

She watched me for nearly a minute in thoughtful silence before responding. “You needn’t so much trouble yourself over me.”

“You’re the heir to the throne I serve,” I told her with a shrug, wrapping my hands around the front end of her foot and trying to instill some heat into the icy flesh. “I’d trouble myself more, Princess.” Speaking of troubling myself, I still had that pouch of gold, and I was almost ashamed at letting the princess sleep under the stars, even if I did think she was just a Will-o’-the-wisp. “I should take you to the village inn. You’d have a hearty meal, and a warm bed to sleep in.”

“You’ll do no such thing,” she protested, but her movements were gentler when I motioned for her other foot. “The inn is the first place they’ll look if the king has sent any of his soldiers to find me.”

“I respectfully doubt that’s so, Princess,” I said, and tried not to look at her when she wiggled the toes I’d just finished warming under my thigh to keep the warmth in them, because I didn’t want her to see me blushing again. It was fortunate I didn’t work in the castle. It would be torture interacting with royalty all day, especially royalty that looked like her. “I believe I was the only one Ellie told that you were heading south. The king should be searching north of the Black Wood.”

“Dearest Ellie!” the princess exclaimed. “Do you have the contract she had written?” I pulled it out of my vest and handed it over, continuing to rub at her foot while she read it. When she’d finished it, she said, “You have to keep taking me south.”

“Princess!” I blurted. “I made an oath to hear you out. I cannot keep taking you south.”

“But you must,” she begged, leaning forward and taking my face in her hands to make me look at her. “My life depends on it.” She must have known I was going to ask why, because she answered before I could. “I can’t tell you yet. I will tell you, I swear it, but not yet.”

At the thoughtful expression on my face, she removed her hands and sat back patiently, retightening the fur around her shoulders. “Let me take you to the inn,” I requested, and glanced deliberately at her wrist. “You’ll be in pain later, and while I cannot remove it, I can at least make sure you’re comfortable. And well fed.”