The Art Of Dancing In The Rain

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L i s 

"C'mon, Lis, you need to get up. Nanny says if you miss the coronation today, she's going to put you up for adoption."

"I'm not going. And, Nanny is full of crap. There's got to be a law against putting the princess up for adoption." I said, pulling a pillow over my head.

"It's Nanny. She'll find a way, I'm sure." I felt the bed at my feet dip with the weight of another person. Two hands yanked the blankets off my body. The frigid air was a slap of reality to my bare legs. I sat up immediately, hastily wiping the sleep from my eyes.

The brown haired girl sitting at the edge of my bed smiled warmly. She was as tired as I was, I could see it in the poorly concealed bags under her eyes and the tangles in her hair. I didn't even need to ask if she'd been up half the night again. I knew by the sad look upon her face.

"Did Andrew come back from his patrol?" I asked softly, crawling to where she sat. I pulled my legs up to my chest. The girl, Talia, shook her head.

"They--they think he's gone for good this time." She croaked, her voice cracking.

"Oh, Tals, I'm so sorry." I reached out for a hug, but Talia a hand between us.

"No. No time for sorries. You need to get ready for the coronation." Talia stood, putting her hands on her hips. That was Talia alright--emotions didn't exist to her until she was alone. She powered through everything; grief, guilt, shame, sadness. They all didn't exist to her until she was alone. When she was alone, I knew she would cry into her pillow and scream at God for everything he's taken away from her. 

I knew Talia like I knew the back of my hand. She was my best friend, and had been ever since my first day at King's Guard, the school for children of nobility. She and our little circle of friends were the first people to ever treat me like I wasn't an anomaly or to worship the ground I walked on because my parents were the most powerful King and Queen our Kingdom had ever seen. 

"I'm not going."

"Please, Lis--"

It was my turn to put a hand up. "If Nanny sent you up here just to try to coax me into going, you might as well leave. It's not worth it."

Talia groaned. "Lord Montgomery is your only living relative, which means he could be King someday--"

"The only way he's going to be become King someday is if I marry him, which is incest and also really gross."

"--If the Senate elects him." Talia closed her eyes, the way she always did when she was frustrated. 

"Well, the Senate has the collective intelligence of a worm, so I'm sure they won't. All he's doing is becoming Duke of Allania. I don't see why it's a big deal." I threw my arms in the air and walked towards my closet, pushing the doors open. In front of me lie an entire room filled with frilly dresses and elegant ball gowns that I knew I would never wear. I crouched down to examine a drawer of old jeans. 

"It's a big deal because he's a very important man. Everyone is going to be there. This is the perfect chance to work out alliances with neighboring colonies." Talia marched over to me and pulled me back from the closet, turning me towards the door. "Here's what you're going to do: you're going to march yourself down to the seamstress's office, put on your dress and get in the carriage that will take you to the coronation."

I jerked from Talia's grasp. "Here's what I'm not going to do: go to that coronation. It's all plastic people with plastic smiles who probably talk garbage about me the second I turn my back." I walked to the vanity mirror, Talia on my heels. "They don't think I'm a real leader, either. Look at me, I'm barely seventeen."

"So? You took on full-leadership of Veron when you were fourteen. By fifteen, you nearly eliminated homelessness and you reconstructed our rusting water systems. By sixteen, you reinforced military stamina and we regained control of our smaller, outer lying city-states. You're a good leader. There's nothing you can't do, and if those old farts don't see that, well then that's their problem. Not ours." Talia pushed a lock of jet-black hair behind my ears. She put her hands on my shoulder gently.

"I'm going to be alone if I do go." I whispered. 

"No, you're not. I'm coming with you, so are Maia and Natalie. We'll work like normal. Maia and I will discuss foreign policy, Natalie knows our war strategies like the back of her hand. All you need to do is discuss alliances."

I let my gaze travel down to the countertop, where my mother's seashell hairbrush rested. It was a pretty thing--it's handle covered in sparkling gems and the back plastered with a white seashell from one of the beaches in our Kingdom. I hadn't used the brush in forever, though. Part of me could still remember sitting on her bed at night while she brushed my hair and my father read stories to us. That was the part of me I usually hated.

"No one is going to believe that a couple of teenagers run an entire Kingdom."

"They don't need to know what happens behind closed doors. Maia's parents and mine both work in the Senate and Natalie's father is the Grand General of our military. That's always our excuse."

I kept silent, vying for an excuse.

Talia forced me to meet her gaze. She put her closed fist over my heart. "Toujours victorieux, right?"

"Toujours victorieux." I said, my voice a little bit too quiet.

Those words would follow me to my grave. My great-great grandfather coined them as our Kingdom's motto on his first day of kingship. There was another, longer motto about always prevailing and staying strong against a common enemy. I was supposed to memorize it for my coronation as princess, but I didn't. I knew the common enemy. It was the single Kingdom that each colony and each Kingdom around the world hated: Nox.

After our world was destroyed in the Big Flare, what was left of civilization was forced to develop tiny colonies and Kingdoms scattered around the world. A few of the strongest banded together to form Nox with the intention of taking over the entire world. My Kingdom, Veron, was one of the sixteen colonies left that had yet to be taken over by Nox, and we were damn proud of it. Nox was a tyrannical beast, never to be trusted.

"Please, Lis. If you can't go for your Kingdom, go for me. I've never been to a coronation ceremony before and I want to go sooooo badly. Imagine all the lights and the gifts, and the dresses. Please, Lis! Please." Talia clapped her hands together, pouting her bottom lip.

I sighed. "Where are Maia and Natalie?"

"Downstairs in the throne room, why?"

"Tell them to get ready. We're going to the coronation."