A Court of Cards

♣Six♣

Ace opened her eyes to a thick, wet substance being currently drooled onto her face.

She bolted upright and slammed presently into the pinto's face. Both animals were startled, and the horse-saliva-covered one stormed to the stream to wash off.

They'd been in this cursed forest for five days now, and still the marketplace hadn't let up from their clamorous conundrum of shoppers. It was the city square, but did the city ever sleep?

According to Marvel, Hearts slept often to preserve their beauty and youth. So what was so important about these past couple days that required practically the entire city to reside nearby?

As if fate was on Ace's side, a newspaper floated through the stream, most likely having been dropped by a careless card as they busied along. Intrigued, Ace carefully removed it from the river and flipped it over.

The headline screamed: ROSE AND THORN, DAUGHTERS OF THE RED KINGDOM, TO BE PARADED THROUGH THE SQUARE TODAY!

Ace scoffed and let the thing drop back into the water. Who were those daughters of the kingdom? They weren't even ranked. And they were going to be 'paraded' around the city like cattle.

But wait...

A smile slowly grew on Ace's face as she saw a different way to view this phenomenon.

All of the people would be in the square, watching the queenlings go by. Ace could slip out on the pinto and go toward the Black Kingdom with ease. Heavens, maybe even some of the Spades would be at the Red Kingdom to see the queenlings. After all, Rose and Thorn ahd never been seen by anyone before after their birth celebration. Apparently the Queen of Hearts and King of Diamonds found the outside world to be too 'dangerous' for the heir to the kingdom. 

Some royalty, Ace thought as she watched the dawn rise over the city from her vantage point. Too chicken to converse with their own people. 

And here Ace was, frolicking with Hearts and Diamonds, living in filth. It was at least better than most of the other Aces' lives, though- usually they sat in a palace far higher and more guarded than that of the Queen and King. According to rumor, the Ace of Hearts was so insanely beautiful that the kingdom deemed her a witch, an enchantress. Not long after, the Ace was burned at the stake. There hadn't been one since.

Ace hadn't read many books as a young child, but she knew well that no one knew quite how the Aces came to be- in fact, there was some theory that they just- appeared. One day, the kingdom was in an array of fear, for there was no all-powerful Ace to protect them. Then the next, a new Ace would simply show up, bringing the kingdom back to peace. Ace didn't know how she herself had been brought to this world- everything was a blur before the Arising. 

The Aces of Diamonds, on the other hand, were known for their steady line of Aces born through nobles or royalty and the ace before them. The odd thing about Aces- well, one of the multiple oddities- was that the Ace could, for the most part, be brought into the world through almost infinite passages. They could be born from anyone to the King and Queen to a One, or could simply appear.  As a matter of fact, the history books couldn't recall the last time the Ace of Diamonds had been absent. 

On the other hand, the Ace of Spades' whereabouts were unknown. It had been missing for years, and no Ace had appeared to take their pace.

The Spades seemed to be doing fairly fine without it, though. 

The loud cry of a trumpet brought Ace back to the present. Dawn had just broke. Ace had better start to move.