“Yes, how I’ve grown!”

  “Not only that, but you’re a man now. A handsome one!”

  “Fairest, no offence, but that’s a bold thing to tell a man of my lowly stature.”

  “It’s the truth, and I have committed myself to speak the truth no matter anyone’s position in this palace, Kairos. I find you extremely attractive. I must go now, and you need your rest—you’ve had such a long journey. But I hope to see you in the morning. I’ll let Father know you’re here.”

  Kairos bowed cordially and watched her walk down the tower steps, stopping next to his bag. “Yes, I’ll get it. Thank you. Rhea, Fairest.”

  “I’ll see you in the morning!” she replied. “I’m looking forward to spending time with you!”

  When her elegant body slipped out of his sight, he spun around in a circle, suppressing a shout. Never had a woman given him attention like that. Never had a woman talked so... so sweetly to him, and never had he accidentally touched a woman in that way. His body tingled. He moved directly to the one small window and opened it. A cool breeze met his face, and he breathed in the fresh air. “Oh my!” he said before he ran down the stairs to get his possessions.

  The room had been emptied of furniture but for a desk, a table, and an armoire. A few pages of his father’s writings had been piled along with several journals and notebooks, a rack of vials and bottles, and anything else the royals assumed he might need to perform magic. But he couldn’t think about magic or responsibilities right now. All he could think of was the beautiful Rhea.

  And so, his time at Prasa Potama began. As the days passed, King Tobias gave him assignments, but Kairos, enthralled with Rhea, gave his work less attention than he should have. His days spent with Rhea had become more important to him. Indeed. Kairos had fallen in love, and it seemed to him that Rhea had also fallen in love with him. King Tobias, on the other hand, wondered if he had made the right decision signing him on as his personal wizard!

  The WindRunner

  This story should be read after Rise of the Tobian Princess, and before Fall of the Kings.

  THE MORNING AFTER HER trial, Erika sat on the jetty. She wore no armor. The sailors already loaded her bag with her armor, and her other belongings into the ship. They kept her sword and her bow under guard, promising to return them when she reached Prasa Potama. Her gown, soiled and damp from having been on the dungeon floor, smelled musty and clung to her body. Only her cloak kept her protected from the wind, but she shivered regardless. and fidgeted with the strap to the knapsack at her side.

  The sun inched above the eastern horizon, casting morning hues of gold and pink across the water, a pleasant sight if she hadn’t been so despondent. White caps splashed on the surface of the sea and the wind captured the sand particles and scattered them into the air, slapping her in the face, as if the universe were mocking her.

  “You see?” it seemed to say. “You’ve done nothing right, and you will pay for your inadequacies the rest of your life.” Nature was so bent on ridiculing her that even her tears, as salty as the seawater, stung her face.

  The sad thing was, she agreed with the verdict. She admitted her mistake. Repeatedly. She had shattered her dreams. Her family would be furious when she returned. The Cho Nisi hated her. And worse of all, she’d have to bury her love for Arell in among the other wounds her heart kept secret.

  She glanced toward the road, hoping beyond hope he would appear on his horse to save her—to insist that the elders not send her away.

  How foolish a thought! She killed his father. Why would he want her to stay on his island?

  The Cho Nisi sailors took their time loading food and water onto the boat. Cho Nisi were slow and meticulous with everything they did, as if they had no other care but to draw out each moment and live it to its fullest. A respect for life that Erika had never seen before. As an outsider looking in, she wished she had learned to be that thoughtful. If she had, Arell’s father would still be alive.

  Beyond them, Serena, her black hair blowing free, and her white dress wafting in the breeze as the breakers rolled over her bare feet, walked along the beach toward them, just as steadily. Jealousy swelled inside of Erika and burned like the fever. Not only because of Serena’s simple beauty and uninhibited ways, but because Serena had the reign of the castle now, she had Arell’s favor, and she lived guiltlessly.

  Erika turned away, not wanting to see the Cho Nisi girl. It was enough to know that the woman would remain on the island with Arell while Erika, like a sick animal, a castaway, was exiled, and told to never return. Tears welled in her eyes again and she wiped them away quickly.

  Serena passed the dock and stepped onto the jetty. Why? What does she want? Erika groaned and turned her back to her.

  “Fairest,” Serena whispered.

  A gust of wind carried the fragrance of Serena’s ginger oil, a perfume the girl had shared with her after Erika’s bath that first day.

  Erika pushed her hair out of her face and kept her gaze fixed on the surf. How wildly it rumbled on windy mornings!

  “I’m sorry to see you leave. I am sorry that there was so little mercy given you. Not everyone on the island feels the same way as the elders do.”

  Erika snickered. Serena navigated over the rocks and sat next to her.

  “They didn’t execute me. That’s mercy enough.” Erika said. “I killed your king, Serena,”

  “It was an accident.”

  “Don’t make excuses for me.” Clouds floated in front of the sun and the warm breeze turned cool. Erika shivered more from having cried all morning than from the drop in temperature.

  “You are angry with me?”

  Erika shook her head. She shouldn’t be so hostile toward Serena. The girl did everything possible to make her comfortable during her stay.

  “I’m angry at myself. I knew better than to release that arrow into the brush. The gods brought me here to fall in love with Arell, just to take that away from me.” She turned to Serena and looked into the young woman’s eyes. “So, I would experience the same loss that you and your people felt when I killed Arell’s father.”

  Serena sighed, sympathy in her eyes. “You are hard on yourself.”

  “As I ought to be,” Erika said.

  They both looked out over the sea, each in their own thoughts. Erika’s filled with self-hate.

  “I am guessing you two will be together, though. Someday.” Serena whispered.

  “That’s impossible. Your father has issued a death warrant should I return.”

  “But my father can’t stop two people in love from being together.”

  Erika held her breath at that, wondering how much Serena knew about Arell.

  “Arell loves me?” Erika asked in a timid voice.

  Serena shrugged and picked up a pebble, adding another to it until she had a handful. “I have two brothers and I have watched their courtship with women. The more they like someone, the more confused they act. I have to laugh at them sometimes.” She smiled. “They are so afraid to admit being soft toward a woman. They fight it, as if it were some snake trying to strangle them.”

  Erika laughed quietly.

  “I had to tell Ross to stop hurting himself and just admit he’s in love. He finally proposed. But he was so silly.”

  “It’s good he has a sister.”

  Serena nodded, tossed her rocks, and brushed her hands on her skirt. “Arell is the same way. He is not as easy to talk to, though. His thoughts go much deeper. He has a lot of heartache.”

  “My fault.”

  “It’s true he mourns for his father, but he’s not like us, not like Cho Nisi entirely.”

  “How’s that?”

  “He has two hearts that tear him apart. One for his father’s people, and one for his mother’s and the people who raised him. They come in conflict.”

  “Don’t the Cho Nisi, and the Moatons get along?”

  “Sometimes. Arell’s mother raised him in the village, even though his father was king. That was an odd relationship. I didn’t know his mother, I was too young, but I remember his father coming to Nico to get Arell sometimes. All of us children were jealous because Arell would get to ride a horse to the castle with a king! And then his father would bring him back after a day or two. The older Arell grew, the less time he spent in Moaton. When his mother died, Tira, the Seer, told my father he was to take Arell in as a son.”

  “But his father was still alive? Why didn’t Arell just stay at the palace?”

  Serena looked steadily into Erika’s eyes, her head tilted as if Erika should be able to guess the answer to that question. Erika shook her head. It made little sense that anyone would consider Arell an orphan if his father were still alive. After all, Erika’s father raised his family.

  “Fairest, he is a native. Arell’s skin is dark, like his mother’s. The Moatons look down on us. Arell would never admit that his father didn’t accept him because of his skin color, but the rest of us saw it.”

  His own father?

  “I’m sorry,” Erika whispered.

  “What’s worse, my brothers were angry when Father consented to raise Arell. They are just as thick-headed as the Moatons. They have tossed Arell between the tribe and Moaton, divided that way. But he would never admit it. He remained naïve to it all.”

  Men shouted from the docks and Erika looked to see if they were ready for her, but they were still loading.

  “I am going to miss him greatly,” she said and with a sigh, hugged her knees, closed her eyes, and let his image occupy her mind. “Everything might have been so different if I hadn’t been such a fool.”

  “But would you have even come to the island?”

  She buried her head in her arms, wishing she had magic enough to change things, change her life, change the past.

  “I wish I were one of his cloaks,” she mumbled.

  “Fairest?”

  “A mass of fabric hanging in his closet. I would steal away in his armoire, unnoticed, just to watch him sleep.”

  Serena laughed. Erika grinned, her eyes still sealed shut. She breathed deeply. With the world shut out of sight, and only the fragrance of the ocean tingling her senses, she pretended like she once did as a child. She saw him laughing with her, holding her, kissing her.

  “I would wait until he was in deep slumber and then quietly crawl out of my closet and lie across his bed to keep his feet warm.”

  “You are imaginative,” Serena laughed.

  “And when he awoke, he would wrap me over his shoulders and take me wherever he went. I would keep him warm and be a delight for him, and he would love me for it.”

  ARELL STOOD ON HIS balcony contemplating the trial and all that had happened that day. The soldiers had taken Erika back to the dungeon to get her things and allowed her to stay in the castle in the lower rooms. Come morning, they would escort her to Northport. They would take the WindRunner, Cho Nisi’s fastest sailing vessel, drop her off in Prasa Potama and return immediately. And then she would be gone. Any communication with the Potamian kingdom after that would be with her father, King Tobias.

  It was as it should be.

  What he had requested had been honored. Surely after all that angst before the trial, he’d be more at ease, now. It was over. She was to live. Sending her away was a soft sentence. Why hadn’t his burden been lifted, then? Why was he not able to sleep?

  Here it was, hours before dawn. His rug had become worn from pacing the night before the trial, worried about the verdict, fearful for the princess, wrestling with his emotions. He glanced at his bed, the covers in a pile, a pillow on the floor. He needed sleep, but his mind wouldn’t let him.

  Arell sighed and returned to his chamber, straightened the covers, and picked up his pillow. Fatigue overwhelmed him. He yawned, collapsed, barely getting the blankets over himself before he fell asleep.

  Few hours had passed when he woke, and dawn’s light already seeped through his windows. The air seemed misty inside and so he opened his eyes wide, alarmed, and blinked to clear his vision. His closet door hung open, swinging gently as if someone had just released the latch. He pushed the covers aside to rise out of his bed and noticed his woolen cloak laying at his feet. He hadn’t put it there, neither had he opened his armoire. When he picked up the garment it was strangely warm, as if someone had just taken it off.

  Stress has taken a toll on me, now I’m imagining things!

  But Erika’s smile was vivid in his mind this morning, and everything he looked at reminded him of her. The image of her standing so bravely in front of the elders during her trial, and how he admired her for her courage—she was like a lioness.

  What was she doing in his mind so early this morning? Why was she even there? He needed to be rid of her! When they take her away today, let them take away the images in his mind and the ache in his heart as well!

  Silas had asked him not to see her that morning, not to come to the dock and bid her farewell. Did Silas assume Arell would make a fool of himself over a woman? That he would choose a foreigner over his own people and by doing so dishonor his father?

  Arell walked to the window and gazed outside. Northport was not visible from his chambers, but he sensed her heart breaking.

  “Why would you want to go to the docks?” he asked himself, “If not to lay your eyes on her one last time... to kiss her goodbye, perhaps?”

  Arell drew in a deep breath, pivoted to the closet, and hung his cloak on its peg. She’s gone. Her trip to the island had been nothing more than an act of Providence—a way for him to discover who killed his father. The gods were on his side. The magic of the island played its part. His questions were answered, and for that he was grateful. He was king now and mustn’t let the foolishness of his youth hinder him, nor let a lioness lure him from his responsibilities. The elders spared her life. She had much to be thankful for!

  ERIKA BREATHED IN DEEPLY, the heartache still there.

  “It’s a wonderful thing, to be that in love,” Serena said.

  Erika opened her eyes. “You’re in love?”

  Serena nodded shyly. “He’s a friend of my brother’s. He teases me and we kissed once. He will ask me to marry him someday soon. I would love for you to come to my wedding, Fairest!”

  “That’s wonderful, Serena, I...” Her voice trailed. It would be impossible. The corners of her lips turned. “I am leaving Cho Nisi for good, Serena. I won’t be coming to your wedding.”

  The men at the dock waved to her. It was time. She stood and picked up her knapsack, her hands trembling. They had freed her. Her sentence might have been much worse, she could have been marching to her death right now.

  “Your people have been merciful,” she said, looking at Serena through a fog of tears. “Tell your father thank you.”

  “I will plead with my father to allow you to return.”

  “Would that help?”

  She shrugged and shook her head. “My father is a stubborn man. He won’t listen to me. But it won’t stop me from trying. There is already too much hatred in this world, and our island shouldn’t be part of it.”

  Erika smiled and laid a hand on Serena’s shoulder. She should never have been jealous of the woman, and now she was even more humbled. “You’ve been a loyal friend,” she said.

  “Still, you will return. How could you not?”

  “I hope you’re right.”

  With that, Erika, stumbling slightly over the rocks on the quayside, made her way to the WindRunner.

  The men didn’t smile at her when she stepped up the plank, nor did they welcome her on board. Their faces were stern, like Chief Silas’. They were doing their job, taking a prisoner off their island. Nothing more.

  Fairmistle Boon

  This short story can be read along with Rise of the Tobian Princess.

  WITH HER BROTHER GONE to war in the north, and her father off to the tentmaker, Erika, the youngest daughter of King Tobias, wandered the majestic halls of the castle, growing restless by the day. Her father had confined her to the palace, not as a punishment but as a precaution. Her recent deployment to Tellwater Valley with her brother’s troops had been disastrous because of her irresponsible mistake. A mistake that tore her heart in two, and now she couldn’t stop thinking about it. Like a tragic dance by a court mime, the scene played over and over in her head. If only she could travel back to that moment and stop herself! She had kept the skura in sight as it circled over the canyon threatening to attack her brother and waited to release her arrow. Why, when it disappeared into the brush, did she shoot? During training, her brother Barin cautioned her about firing into the unknown. He trusted her to be alert, be cautious, be zealous but not careless, and yet she let her fear dictate her actions and here she was—guilt laden. The memory of that poor man lying dead haunted her.

  “Murderer,” her father’s gods seemed to whisper as a breeze whistled through the marble statues in the hall. She stared at them, tears in her eyes. Who was she to argue with the gods? “Not only the king of Cho Nisi has died, but there is no longer protection for his people,” she confessed to them. “And I’m to blame with no way to make restitution.”

  Their cold marble eyes looked down on her. Silent, unyielding, their reproach pierced her soul.

  “What was that Fairest?”

  She hadn’t seen Rory come up from behind her, but then, she paid little attention to anything going on in the castle, what with her heart burdened so. She turned to him, stunned, and stared. The soldier who had helped her descend Canyon Gia when her brother and his men were well ahead of her—the young man who the mountain giants almost crushed to death, but who helped save her brother when they found the secret of chasing the monsters away——Rory had been a guardian angel to her. His bright blue eyes sparkled in the moonlight. He had changed out of his armor and wore the King’s standard on his tunic.

 

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