Flight of the Five Swans

Fate Chapter 29

Raia was feeling a distinct sense of panic. As far as she could see, her current situation was now just as bad as it had ever been when she was Soran's prisoner. At least in Deturus, her sisters had still been able to transform back into humans and keep her company at night. Now, the other five princesses were swans at all times of the day and night and on top of that, Raia feared that they were slowly losing their humanity completely. She, on the other hand, still had two whole shawls to knit before she would be able to break her sisters' swan curse and set them free. And in the meantime, they were now trapped in Ithcar, the country that had been threatening war on Kyoria since before she was born.

Could things even get any worse?

The only silver lining that Raia could find was that no one—not even Ayden—knew her true identity here. She thanked her lucky stars for the initial suspicion that had prevented her from giving Ayden her real name when he had asked. She was certain that the king of Ithcar would exploit the situation to his advantage—and Kyoria's disadvantage—were he to learn that he had even one of the Kyorian princesses under his roof. She didn't like to think what he might do should he discover that he had six of the seven of them within his control, though she was determined not to find out.

Still, Raia was having a hard time thinking what to do—not only to prevent her discovery, but also how to escape. She couldn't very well send a message to her father. In fact, posting anything to Kyoria was out of the question; she was sure such an action would draw unwanted and antagonistic attention. Nor did she imagine herself capable of planning an escape from the castle—let alone finding her way out of Ithcar—on her own. Raia would no longer have her sisters' help in plotting, and if their last trip was any indication, she severely doubted her chances of navigating them all home through the forest. Thus far, the extent of her plans consisted solely of keeping her identity secret, as well as trying to cure her sisters as soon as she possibly could.

By the time one of the servants had appeared to escort Raia to her required audience with the king, Raia had already washed and changed into the strange garments provided her, and was knitting madly at the fourth nettle shawl. She stuffed all of the shawls back into her grubby pouch when she saw the door opening, and kept a firm grip on her pouch all the way to her audience with the king. No way would she feel comfortable leaving her precious knitting alone in the room. To her, it was as priceless as anything Raia had ever owned. The shawls meant the return of her sisters. She would not risk losing them—or having anyone else touch them—for the world.

Raia's heart pounded in her chest as she was led down winding corridors to the king's reception room. Relief flooded her when she entered the room and saw that Ayden was also present. He stood to the right side of the king with his hands resting behind his back, looking at her with an expression of encouragement on his face. Her eyes fixed on him desperately, as though his mere presence anchored her, preventing her from being swept away by the force of her own panic. Feeling slightly calmer, Raia allowed her gaze to drift to the older man in the room.

From all the stories Raia had heard from her childhood of the evil Ithcarian rulers, she had imagined the king as tall and skeletally thin, with a twisted mustache and evil red eyes. Well, maybe not the red eyes. But as far as Raia was concerned, the twisted mustache was a definite requirement for a leader who was reputedly so corrupt.

But the king of Ithcar was not at all as Raia had pictured. Tall, he certainly was, and rather slim as well. His features were just as strong as his son's, though the king's face also sported a neatly trimmed goatee that was peppered with gray. His dark hair was of the same salt-and-pepper coloring, and his eyes were the exact shade of brown as Ayden's—a warm, cocoa-brown that Raia immediately found herself wanting to trust.