Life or Death

Chapter Two

It's a boy. A rather handsome one, but still. Definitely not the next queen.

He's tall and wears a dark, borderline dramatic tunic. His golden blonde hair is neatly cut, whereas Matthias' is messy and due for a cut. He shows no emotion and reveals nothing. He gives both me and Andra a once over. We mirror him.

"Girls, welcome!" Matthias' booming voice cuts through the silence like a knife. We take that as our cue and walk up to the dais where the throne sits. Unlike everywhere else in the castle, the throne room is made entirely of white marble, and I stare at it as I curtsy low to my brother. You would think Andra and I were the same person because we move in perfect sync without trying. We rise from the curtsy and I'm the first to speak.

"Pardon me, Your Majesty, but who is he?" I nod my head to the boy. Normally, I would speak to him like a normal person, but we have an audience.

Matthias seems to remember the boy is here. For a fleeting moment, I wondered if Matthias had already gotten drunk at noon, but he just looked tired.

"Yes, of course. Andra, Nessa, this is Raiden Aberforth. He will act as my royal assassin."

I refrain myself from gaping at Raiden. He looks to be barely a year older than me, and yet he's an assassin?

"Didn't we already have a royal assassin?" Andra asks.

"Well, yes. But he left about a month ago."

"Why, because he was sick of you pranking him by telling him to kill people who don't exist?" Matthias only shrugs.

I ignored them and turned to Raiden. Studied him. Now that I'm looking at him, he looks like an assassin. He's lean without being bulky, and I expect he's swift because of it. He stands with perfect balance, whereas I've had to shift my weight about five times since we got here. 

"Why do we need an assassin? I mean, we have a personal guard and a whole army at our disposal." I ask. I think it's a reasonable question, but Mattias looks at me as though I were a child asking him why the sky is blue.

"Why not? I mean, we could always use the extra protection, and since we've been getting more threats, I just figured we needed it now more than ever."

"Wait, we've been getting threats?" Andra asks. Being the daughter of a general, she's always keen on protecting us, loyal when she has no reason to be.

"One of the many joys of being king, I'm afraid."

I was just as surprised as Andra. I'd never heard of any threats to anyone in the castle. It made me wonder if there was anyone in the kingdom who wanted me dead.

And who might be brave enough to attempt it.

~

When Matthias finally decides to stop talking, we've missed lunch and must go straight to lessons. We send someone to bring us food as we brush up on geography and history. After that, we sit through one of our more excruciating lessons, etiquette. It's not the subject I personally hate, I enjoy that part. It's our prude teacher Lady Jeanette. Every day, without fail, she has us read a chapter of an ancient etiquette 101 book, summarize it, and act out an example of it. When we finish, we move on to the next chapter. And we keep going until lessons are over, just to do it again tomorrow.

The whole time, I couldn't help it when my mind went to Raiden. For some reason, I couldn't help but feel some connection to him. Although I hadn't spoken to him yet, there was something about him that I couldn't quite place, that intrigues me as though he were a character in one of the books on my shelves, as though he wasn't real, but at the same time too real for me to bear.

The rest of the lessons are a blur, and eventually, we find ourselves back in our quarters. Something takes over me then like I'm being possessed because I look to Andra and ask the one thing I'd never thought I'd ask.

"What if we went to one of the revels? Like the one tonight, perhaps?"

She looks at me as though I've politely asked her to chop her own fingers off.

"You have got to be joking." Andra follows me into my room and falls dramatically onto my bed.

"I'm serious. This could be good, you know." I plop down next to her.

"Right. And this has nothing to do with Raiden, correct?" I don't respond. Instead, I stare at the intricate painting of a forest on my ceiling. I had it painted years ago, so the beautiful scenery is the first thing I see when I wake from a nightmare.

She turns to her side, propping up her elbow and holding her head with her hand. "There's nothing good that ever comes out of those revels, ness. Nothing. Everyone there is drunk, under some spell, or just straight-up crazy."

She's right, though I'd never in a million years admit it. Especially not to her face.

"At least someone our age will be there, right? We won't have to spend the whole time with my brother's courtiers, right?"

"That's true."

"So, let's just go. It'll be over before you know it." I stand from the bed and walk to my wardrobe. I open it and start looking through all my gowns. Normally I only wear my nicer gowns for holidays or the rare occasion of someone important from another kingdom coming to visit. In Lideria, the rulers tend to leave each other to rule in their own, brutal and stupid ways.

Sometimes I like to imagine how Tarnow would look if I became queen. But then I remember I will never get the opportunity, and even if I did, they would never accept me as their queen.