Fairway or Flyaway

Part One continued

DANIELLA

“Daniella! Stop this insolence NOW!” My father, King Gideon, roars at me and I cannot blame him. I’m acting like a spoiled child, denying I did anything wrong, which I didn’t. I explained that it was not my fault Marissa dropped the cakes on my face and that I did not care about dismissing my personal guard and, yes, I do know that Father picked that one himself.

I am bored, standing here while they yell at me. Well, Mother is not yelling, she is just sitting on her throne, but she nods in consent with what Father is yelling. Mother never backs me up, for she says “your father would pay more attention to you if you acted your age. Then I would not need to back you up.” But it is no use. I don’t care what they say. They can do nothing to me. I am their only heir, therefore the only way the throne can stay in the family.

My father is shouting at me, directly at me this time. “You continue to disobey and you fire one lady-in-waiting and guard after another. I am feed up with your continual annoyance, so I have decided you will no longer have the power to dismiss anyone.”

I sigh “Father, this punishment will have no affect on me, whatsoever.”

At this my father bristles, goes bright red, and says “Well then, I shall have to think of a more satisfactory one.” Then he storms out of the throne room.

I glare at my mother and say “What will he do now?”

Mother looks at me and I realize her eyes are filled with tears. “He will go to a last resort.”

“Hire me a new maid and guard?” I say.

“Yes, but then, most likely do something much more drastic.”

I gulp, for the first time worried. “What might this thing be?” I question Mother.

She looks towards the window and the tears begin streaming down her cheeks. “He-he will…marry you off.” Then, she too, flees the room. I do not believe her. Father may be a king, but he would never do that…would he?

Later, after my ”meeting” with Father, I sit in my room alone. My room is a gigantic chamber, with high vaulted ceilings and tapestries on most of the walls. I love these tapestries, for they tell my story. Some of them are covered by curtains, for I do not like to see them.

One of the tapestries that is not covered depicts my life, when I was a young girl, with curly, blond hair and brown eyes, which I still have, though the curls are not as much. Another is of Father and Mother with me, just days after my birth.

I walk over to a curtain. It is purple and very, very long and very thick to keep away dust. I know the tapestry which the curtain covers, but I must see it again. I pull the curtain aside.

There is me, when I was about 12 years, and my brothers, Maxwell, who, with his dark mass of curls and brown eyes, was 19 and engaged to be married, and Wrillian, who had lovely straight blond hair (his not quite unlike mine), blue eyes and was 15. There is also my older sister, Geminia, who was 14 and more beautiful than anything. She had soft brown hair and bright blue eyes and a smile filled with joy. She was the pride of Breay, though would not inherit the throne.

But one winter, four years ago, soon after the tapestry was completed, there came a terrible change. I was only 12 and do not remember all of it, but what I do remember is not good. I remember Maxwell, who was a fun and, well, cocky young gentleman, and Wrillian, who never stopped laughing, and, of course, Geminia, who was loved by all.

I remember when my brothers and Father came home from a visit to a neighboring kingdom, the kingdom of Ephisa, and they all became sick, first Father, then Maxwell, then, even Wrillian. The fear that coursed through Breay when the news spread I also remember, yet I do not know how soon Father recovered for, before he was out of bed, Geminia was put in, for the sickness was spreading.