The Last Princess

Chapter 10

My mind took a moment to process this.

"What?" I finally gasped. "Yes, wearing his father's suit for his coronation, splendid, isn't it?" Ivy said silkily. This couldn't be happening.

"Dad isn't his father!" I burst out involuntarily. Ivy's eyes widened.

There was a brief moment of silence when even the air seemed to stand still.

She snapped her fingers, and a mound of dirt from the floor elongated and stretched through the bars to wrap around my neck.

I gasped, trying to get in air, but it was relentless. My hands flew up to my neck and clawed helplessly at the dirt.

Ivy hissed, "You're not worthy to talk to him, let alone speak like that. Understood?"

She wanted me to nod.

I didn't care. She could kill me for all I cared, as she would invariably do, but I wasn't some helpless princess. I had the honor and dignity of my ancestors to keep up. I would not relent.

When I was getting light-headed, Ivy's eyes widened, and looking furious, she relaxed her hand, and the dirt encircling my throat dropped away on the ground, harmless.

She shot one last venomous glare at me, and spun sharply. Both of them walked away. I waited, and when I was absolutely sure they couldn't hear me, I allowed myself to fall on the floor to cough.

I needed a distraction.

So I did what I'd been doing forever, what I first had companions for, but I was now alone.

I began to sing.

It was a simple lullaby, something that I'd heard as a baby and for my whole life, as my older sisters had kept singing to me.

It was something we all did together.

And though my voice was raspy at first, it grew stronger as I kept singing.

'Moonlight shining in the glade tonight,

Moonlight shining in the glade so bright.

Here I know I am safe in your arms,

Here I know we can come to no harm.'

'Water ripples gently in the lake,

Patterns of stars are there for us to make.

Here, come to me and extend your hand,

Here, together we will make our own land.'

'Clouds drift far above us in the sky,

The moon hides behind them, oh so shy.

Here I know that we won't go too far,

For here is the place where you and I are.'

'In this meadow the wind blows past,

We will stay here till the last.

Here I see that we are always free,

Here is a place for just you and me.'

And I sang myself to sleep.