A True Prince

Chapter One - Year of Our Lord 1628

Out at sea, a storm gathered. Clouds darkened and grew in number, towering high against the blue sky that still held above Lookout Cliffs.

Two young riders sat atop the seaside cliffs, watching the weather build. A large brindled mastiff ranged the cliff's edge near them.

"The storm is coming this way," the boy said, shifting his athletic frame in the saddle to turn to his companion. "Looks like a wild one. If we hurry, we can make it back before it hits, Your Highness."

The young girl, a raven-haired beauty only half a year away from turning sixteen, sighed heavily, and did not look at the boy. "Sebastian, how many times must I tell you that you may call me Aslynn?"

"I know that I may, Aslynn," the boy said, saying her name with all the sass he could muster. "But my backside is still sore from the last time I slipped and called you by your name in front of Master Jabari. Imagine if I should address you so in front of the queen?"

"You never see the queen. And besides, you forget I told Master Jabari it was all right for you to be familiar with me."

"You miss my point, Princess. If I should slip at court—"

"It hardly matters to most, 'Bastian. They all look to Edward more than me. No one cares about the princess when there is a future king in my half-brother."

"I care," said Sebastian, with the air of making an obvious point in a case the two argued on a regular basis. "As does your father, and Master Jabari and Mother Bette."

"I know." Aslynn's dark eyebrows drew together as she wrinkled her button nose. "But, I don't care about being a princess, Sebastian. I want a friend who will call me Aslynn."

"And tell you when you're being a brat?" He turned in the saddle to whistle up the dog. "Artemis!"

"Aye, that too."

"Well, brat. If we don't go now, we'll surely be soaked before we get back, and I'll get hided for keeping you out."

Aslynn's sea green eyes twinkled with mischief. "Can't have that. I wager I make it back before you, and dry to boot."

"You're on." No sooner were the words out than both youths wheeled their horses back toward Castle Fair Haven, riding at breakneck speeds, leaving the mastiff to follow as fast as she could.

***

Jabari, the king's Swordmaster, waited in the courtyard, hands on hips, as the two teens charged through the gate, narrowly avoiding collision with each other and the archway. Neither had given way.

"I won!" Aslynn cried, vaulting out of the saddle as a young boy ran out to take her horse's reins. "You saw, Master Jabari!" Her tanned features were flushed with excitement and her long black hair, completely unpinned, streamed over her shoulders in wild disarray. She raked it away from her face in a fierce gesture of pride.

"I saw, all right. I saw the two of you racing like fools across broken ground, as likely to kill yourselves than not. Your Highness."

Unfazed by Jabari's grumpy greeting, she stretched up to give him a quick kiss on his whiskered ebony cheek. "But I won!"

"For certain, Princess. You had him by a nose hair, at least." The old military man had a soft spot in his heart for the princess; he actually cracked a smile before schooling his features into a stern mask. "Sebastian, I'd have expected better of you than encouraging such a race."

His foster son had to work to keep the smile off his face. "Was I supposed to let her win? She'd have me hided for sure."

"He knows me so well." Aslynn laughed, still exuberant from the ride and her win.