The Lost Kingdom (The Fifth Element Chronicles)

Chapter 13 [part 2]

What did I just do?

I could not control myself.

I saw it in Caelus' eyes.

I really had ruined everything.

'What do you mean you're the princess of Crescendo?'

'She just had too much liquor, don't listen to her,' Caelus tried to fix the damage by getting up from his seat and grabbing my shoulder. 'Last week she said she was the Queen of Eurus.'

Aylyn was not convinced.

'Take off your mask.'

She pronounced in a single sentence and made my whole body freeze.

'Aylyn, seriously, don't listen to her.'

'I want the mask off now,' she said and wielded the arrow again in my direction.

I raised my arms and had no choice but to listen to her.

I removed my mask slowly, perhaps trying to delay the inevitable.

When my face was exposed I knew she recognized who I was. I knew there was no way to fix what I had messed up.

'By all the Gods, you're the bloody Princess.'

'Aylyn...' Caelus tried to start.

'What's the matter with you? You bring a princess into my house? You let me talk about the Rajikarus in front of her?' She pushed him with both hands, and managed to move him quite a bit. I was impressed by the strength she showed, but totally frightened by what her words meant.

I had to fix it.

'Hear me out Aylyn,' I said, putting myself between her and Caelus.

'Is that an order, Your Majesty?'

Her words sounded familiar.

That was the way Caelus treated me. I thought he had something against me but maybe it wasn't just him.

Maybe it was part of a mindset that lived hidden in plain sight.

The Rajikarus were opposed to all royalty and I was but the example of everything they hated.

'No, it's not an order, do you think I want to impose power here or something? I'm not what you think I am.'

'I figure, you're the nicest monarch of all. I have to trust you because you will solve all my problems, you will ease my sorrows and manage to save me from my torments. I've heard that same story over and over again all my life. And you want to know what happens? Nothing, absolutely nothing. Because everyone who is born in a golden cradle thinks they are actually made of gold.'

Didn't she know my story?

I had to tell her.

'She's not like that,' Caelus' voice startled me from behind my back.

'Now you're defending her?' Aylyn asked feeling increasingly betrayed.

'I'm not defending her, I just know her.'

It wasn't true.

He didn't know me at all.

Or did he?

'She lived her whole life as a commoner, worked and suffered like all of us, and only recently found out she was the princess of a whole damn Kingdom. She's trying to help us in ways your tiny little head wouldn't understand. I didn't bring her here by mistake Aylyn, I trust her.'

Aylyn grabbed her head and pulled back.

'What in the Gods name did she do to you, are you in love with her or something?'