The Heart of King Travis

The Great Request

Those previous events all lead to me sitting at my old desk and drawing pictures of the house across the street. It was an obsession, but it helped me feel like they were still there somehow. I lived in Kinsley's old room, but the furniture that I brought from my last room was all the same. I had my old twin bed with the red linty blanket and the little vintage vanity Mika had gotten me for my fourteenth birthday. Tremaine insisted that I took Kinsley's nicer furniture, but I didn't need to steal from her any more than I already had.

Lessons in violin and piano totaled six hours on every day I didn't have school. My fingers had gotten a lot quicker and I became quite advanced at both instruments, but neither provided any joy for me. The only thing worse than learning useless skills was spending time with Tremaine. She watched me play for about an hour each day before filing her nails and applying makeup in the same room (she had a vanity in the corner). The room we played in, AKA The Lady's Parlor, was obviously decorated by The Monster herself. Everything was pink from the pink rose vase in the corner to the pink vanity. Even the walls and carpeting were pink, which was quite a sore sight.

Tremaine obviously thought I was quite the prodigy considering she invited Vince and Spencer in to watch me play almost every week. Vince stared drunkenly into space and Spencer just leaned back, crossed his arms, and glared at me. If only he knew Tremaine was making me do all of this. Maybe then he wouldn't be quite so cross with me...

My endless daily routine of music lessons, Primrose Academy, and drawing continued on for a few years with not too much interruption. As it happened, I seemed to be sinking deeper and deeper into an endless ocean of stress, but no one was there to pull me out. The few people who understood me were in Rosebury and the people I lived with treated me like garbage. My parents were who knows where and I thought about them every single day. If only I could find them, they might be able to rescue me from drowning...

One day, the routine was interrupted. Little did I know, this was the start of my adventure. I was gliding my bow over the strings of my violin, beautiful sounds emerging as I went. I noticed that Tremaine looked considerably more excited than usual, but I ignored this as I played. She probably just got a new dress or something. I finished off the song by producing a deep and mellow sound with my bow. Right as I hit the last note and put my violin down to rest, Tremaine started talking. "Arden, I've been thinking about this for a while and I think I've come to a conclusion." I expected her to want me to learn some new instrument, but what she said was quite different.

"I'm sending you to King Travis's camp. You'll leave a week from now."

Tremaine paused and braced herself, expecting me to be excited. I wasn't. King Travis's Camp was a sort of test held at the palace. A group of about twenty eligible teenagers would be sent away to live with him and his advisors for a certain period of time. It was kind of like living at a hotel, except for the fact that people were followed by bearded men with notepads who watched everything that happened. At the end of the indefinite time period, the advisors and the king picked one of the teenagers to be on the king's team of advisors. Long story short, it was an excellent way for parents to use their kids for publicity and money. It was basically calling Tremaine.

With Tremaine's piercing eyes, sharp features, and quick hands, she was definitely an imposing figure. I'd stopped standing up to her after the Morecis left, and she basically bossed me around every day of my life. That day was the day it all changed. "No. I'm not going," I said in an oddly confident voice. Her eye twitched before she responded "You have to. It's not up to you." Ah, so she wasn't expecting me to argue. I could use this. "I'm not going because I'm not going to be your tool for money and publicity. You can just cake on some more makeup and marry someone richer than Vince if you want THAT life." I sounded confident, but I was shivering inside. She was going to get very mad.

I could feel the tension in the room and Tremaine's face was getting very red. She slammed down her blush palette and turned to face me completely. "You do NOT speak to ME that way! I gave you EVERYTHING and guess what? This is just an opportunity to give YOU more!" My fist clenched up in anger. I wasn't scared anymore. She was not going to treat me this way. "Well then tell me, Auntie! What DO I get? Because let me tell you, I know you. I KNOW you're going to take EVERYTHING from me even if I do become an advisor because you LIE." I set my violin on the ground and stormed out of the room, slamming the obnoxious pink door behind me.

I turned to the right and marched up the creaky old stairs no one ever bothered to fix. I ran down the lengthy hall to my dirty old wood door and practically leaped inside, slamming it behind me. With that, I fell on my red blanket and sobbed. I begged to no one in particular that I would be saved from the woman and from the camp.

After a few minutes of crying, I heard a single, gentle tap on the door. For a second, I assumed it was Tremaine. Then I realized that her knocks were sharp and menacing. Wiping the tears from my eyes, I got up, fixed my hair, and walked up to the door. I opened it to reveal someone I'd never expected. Spencer.

This was the first time in a while that he hadn't been glaring at me or avoiding me. He actually looked a bit excited to be there, which made me confused. "Hey, Arden!" he exclaimed as if he hadn't seen me before. I raised an eyebrow at him before he dropped his oddly happy manner and asked "Can I come in?" I nodded slowly and opened my door to let him in. He entered quickly and shut the door right away. I stepped back, scared he was going to hurt me. He didn't. Instead, he sat down at my bed and looked around. I noticed he had a fist-sized blue velvet bag he had been hiding under his brown leather jacket.

"Umm...what are you doing here?" I asked. He met my eyes before saying "I heard your conversation with Aunt Tremaine." Oh, he had to bring that up again. I shrugged, trying to imply that I got over it (I didn't). "I think you should go to the camp," he said awkwardly. Tremaine sent him. Pathetic. Even she probably could have picked up on the fact that we didn't get along very well. "Did Tremaine send you?" I asked, waiting for him to confirm my suspicions. He shook his head. "No. I came here myself. It's about Kinsley," he responded. I paused for a second, wondering if he was lying. But then I realized he wasn't. Spencer loved his sister, and he wouldn't use her to lie to me, especially if Tremaine instructed him to. "What is it?" I asked, now curious about what he meant.

"You're aware of the fact that she was part of the rebellion against King Travis, correct?" he asked with a twinkle in his eye. I nodded and he smiled, happy I knew the truth.

"Then I have something you need to see," he said with an even bigger smile.