Incatasi

Chapter 1

"I will ask you one more time, where is the princess!"

"I don't know for the last time! What would have to do I with her! I'v never  seen her! Who did?"

"Fine deny it. You'll regret it. But come back if you find anything... interesting. Come to the tavern that is.

My bonds were undone and I was pushed out a door. I turn around to say something, but where the door once stood, there was only brick wall.Confused, I start walking, in the darkness of the night, down an alley. I looked at the brilliant stars and wondered who the man was in the shadows, who tied me up in rope to a chair in a dark room with only one lantern on a table lighting up that gave a silhouette of the man.

I look around the alley, still walking, only to find leftover barrels of beer next to the backdoors of shops and bars with dirty bricks as the background. I hear some scurrying and hurry to the blacksmith. The blacksmith's not much, but my boss and I forge the best weapons and tools. I tighten my ponytail and close up the blacksmith.

I hang my apron and hurry to mother's household. I kick the gravel with my boots and step on the wooden, weak porch. It felt like it was going to give away any second. I open the door with a good excuse. Mother, Father, and Beth were sitting down on the wooden dining chairs with empty plates on the table. Lanterns were hanging on the walls.

"Where have you been, Antoinette! It's past curfew! If it wasn't for the patrols being so stupid, we would have had to pay a fine!"

"But my boss wanted me to stay and deliver something to someone at a bar."

"You're in big trouble missy."

"No, but..."

I feel a sting on my cheek. Mother was glaring, as well as Father and Beth.

"No excuses! You have to pay up too. King Lewin and Queen Adelaide's guard and advisor came taken away from our house and live on the streets! No food for you! Now go to sleep! Beth, honey, why don't you get your beauty sleep?"

I gave her a glare and stomped out of the dining room into my room, which was at the end of the corridor. I touch my cheek and it didn't sting as much, but hurt a lot. I touch the faint scar under my ear and remembered the day it had happened. It was a day similar to this one. I came home late with a nasty burn on my hand from working at the blacksmith. It was my first day.

There were three reasons for my parents to be mad at me. Mother was mad, because I came home late and father said they didn't have enough money to help my burn. The third reason was I probably that I wouldn't be able to finish my chores on time.

When Beth told me to go get her some water so she wouldn't have to get herself, because she twisted her ankle. As I was about to hand her the glass, sharp pain arose in my hand and the glass fell and shattered into three pieces. Father got mad at me and threw it at my face. It hit my right under my ear.

I came out my thoughts and look around my room, the smallest in the household, and at my bed. My bed were pieces of straw and a thin worn out cloth for a blanket. At least my family had been nice enough to give me a lantern on a crate.

I lay on the straw and wonder how came to be in this family. Mother was short, tan, and had black hair with brown eyes. Father was a bit taller than Mother, tan, with blond hair and dull grey-blue eyes. Beth was tall as Mother, tan, had black hair and grey-blue eyes. Ugly, I know right? She is pretty mean and bossy for a twelve- year old.

While I was taller than Father, I had olive skin, brunette hair and eyes with different shades of blue. How did I survive in this house for fifteen years? Who knows?

My mind drifted off to the man looking for Sapphire Grace. He was crazy, Sapphire Grace was the heir to the throne of Cotra; the kingdom I live in now. But the princess had been missing for ten years since she was five. Sapphire had probably died, out alone in the dark. I get up and grab my sapphire necklace inside my crate.

I had found it in one morning, when I woke up, since then I had kept this little treasure safe with me. I put it on, hiding it under my shirt and drift off to sleep. Wondering about where the sapphire necklace had come from and why the man was looking for Sapphire Grace. Was there a connection between the two?