The Safest Place to Hide

1. Premonition

 The lower town was quiet that evening. You could have heard a pin pinging on the cobblestone the moment it dropped to the ground. The sun was just beginning to set, its remaining rays beaming through the trees and shining into parts of the sky. It was a gorgeous sight to behold, and Anna Drake was enjoying every moment of it. She had been stationed, at the window, since the sun first began to descend, and had not taken her eyes off of it for a moment.

"You would think you've never see the sun set, Princess."

Anna turned around briefly to glare at Cora Harley, her friend and oddly enough, her servant. "I haven't," she disclosed. "I've never taken the time to appreciate most of nature's wonders."

"Oh," Cora said. "I didn't mean anything by it, or to assume-"

She held up her hand to interrupt. "Don't worry about it." Anna turned back to the glorious sight before her. The sun was a little farther down on the horizon now, it's light sinking farther and and farther. "I told you to speak freely around me, Cora, especially on this trip. It's a vacation for the both of us."

Cora smiled. "Old habits are hard to break. What made you take your leave here anyway? Camelot is probably the worst place two people like us could come."

"You're probably right."

"I never question your decisions, my lady, but I have wondered about this one. Camelot is magic free and it's punishable by death if you're caught practicing it."

Still gazing out the window, Anna smiled. Cora was always such a worry wart. She no longer cared to watch the sun go down. She was watching the old woman next door, as she pumped water from the reserve. Her children were close to her, playing, like they didn't have a care in the world. She wondered if the subjects in her own kingdom lived their lives like this, simple and carefree. She was almost certain that they did, but she had never paid attention before, and she found herself envious of them for a moment.

"I am aware of Camelot's laws, Cora."

Cora stopped what she was doing and stared at her. Feeling Cora's eyes on her back, Anna turned back around to face her.

"And you still came?" she asked. Cora's voice was full of astonishment and disbelief.

Anna nodded. "I know that we'll be safe here. You and I may be sorceresses, but we're wise enough to keep our magic hidden. It's outlawed at home too, but we were never caught there."

Cora pondered that for a moment. Without saying anything, she got the stew she'd been cooking off of the stove and put out the fire. She got the two bowls she had packed for the journey. She knew they would never need more than that, since she planned on washing them after each use. She set the table with the bowls and the silverware, and carefully distributed the stew. Steam rolled from the bowls. She got the two goblets they brought, out of the cupboard, and filled them with a red wine Anna had extracted from the king's personal stores. She thought about what Anna had said, and she concluded that she was right. Asteria, their home, was magic free just like Camelot, and they managed to keep their powers a secret there. Why couldn't they do that here?

"I guess I just figured you would go somewhere where you could use your gift freely." She sat down at the table.

Anna joined her right away. She had told Cora, before they left Asteria, not to treat her as a princess, but as a friend and her equal. She didn't want anyone in Camelot to know she was royalty. When she told her father she wanted a break from being Princess Anna of Asteria, she had meant it, with all her heart. Usually, Cora would have pulled her chair out for her, served her food and drink to her, waited for her to finish and refilled her glass if it got even close to empty, and then taken the dishes away to the kitchen to be washed.