Equinox (Book One of the Firebird Chronicles) WATTY AWARD HIDDEN GEM WINNER 2015

Chapter Nineteen: Lies and Allies

The room and its occupants stood like a perfect freeze frame. Morwena held the bow out, her eyes unblinking as she waited for my reaction. Iggy’s mouth dropped open, and Kirsten took a step back. Sakura simply watched the proceedings with a nonchalant air, as if Morwena had sauntered in and demanded who hadn’t cleared their dishes away earlier.

But they were all waiting on me. I had to say something. Did I lie? Did I run?

No, I would never make it.

Lie, then.

I can’t.

Lie— or risk being killed!

I can’t lie to these people.

They have been so kind to me.

And I knew, as soon as I met Morwena’s gaze, that I had missed any chance to lie; I had hesitated for too long, and the truth was already written across my face.

‘Lumina?’ she whispered, the bow lowering and then clattering to the floor. ‘It’s really you?’

‘I’m not what you remember,’ I said defensively.

But Morwena didn’t look happy; her face contorted in irritation.

‘How could you be so stupid?’

It was not the reaction I had expected. Tears of joy, tears of disappointment or a prison cell was what I had expected.

But not the shoulder-grabbing, glaring, anger kind of reunion.

‘You— alone­­— walk around with a bow with your name engraved on it, with weapons belonging to a princess left where anybody could see?’

I just gawped. My mouth opened and closed, and a slight slurring sound seemed to try and escape my throat as Morwena’s grip tightened on my shoulders.

‘You walk around looking exactly as you did eighteen years ago— no disguise! Nothing! In broad daylight—’

If she was going to rat on me, I prayed she did it soon. The nausea in my stomach from nerves was rising through my chest.

‘…and then you pick a fight with Lord Dale!’

I was going to vomit on her feet.

‘And win!’ I heard her exclaim.

‘Aren’t…aren’t you going to kill me?’ I asked weakly, feeling my knees shaking.

‘Kill you? Good heavens, Lumina, no! You are exactly what this country needs. You’re not perfect, so don’t go getting a large head— but it’s something we can work with.’

I felt my arms flop to my sides with relief. She wasn’t going to have me killed! She must have realised I was swaying, giddy, and she grasped my shoulders firmly again.

Then my eyebrows furrowed as I tried to piece together what she had said.

‘Work with?’ I said blearily. ‘We?’

‘Yes,’ Morwena rolled her eyes, as if already regretting her decision not to throw me into the river. ‘We. Me and the rest of your people who are waiting for the moment to fight against this class system in Angelica.’

I stared at her, feeling sick once more. Perhaps she should have killed me; she was enlisting me into her army! I didn’t want to fight for a kingdom!

‘Lumina, you look like a fish,’ Sakura said politely.

Iggy giggled, and I looked furiously towards them.