Of Spinning Gold and Song

| Twenty One | The Princess

"I'm sorry what?"

It took a moment for me to decide who she thought I was. After a while, I came up blank. Only one child had been borne to the royal family of Lyvens and I had just met with him: Crown Prince Lawrence. There were no other children, no daughters, no princesses.

"Oh, but don't you know?" she asked. "Didn't your mam tell you?"

"Tell me what?" My voice was becoming disgustingly shrill. I was disgusted with myself but didn't seem to be able to control it.

The woman was frowning. She sat up from where I had knocked her to the ground and started gathering laundry into her basket, which I rather sheepishly helped her with. "Everyone knows the reason Her Majesty called you here is because you're the girl of the rumors. Did you not know?"

"Rumors?" It took a moment before that stressful audience containing the multiple death threats came back to me. "The rumors of a girl from Queen Isolde's home kingdom that had magic?"

"That's what she told you, is it?"

"It is," I said. I sensed she was holding something back, talking her way around in circles, and I didn't like it one bit. "Was there something else?" I supposed that this strange meeting could provide me with some answers, at the very least. No matter now strange and unbelievable and undeniably false the rest of it all was. I had thought the rumor to be rather suspicious: that the queen would be so fearful of me based off nothing more than the capricious word of mouth.

"Well, that's the part of it everybody knows," said the servant, piling the last of the clothing into her basket and rising to her feet. She offered me a hand and I was quick to jump to my feet. I didn't need help.

"But there's more to it," she continued. "People say that that girl is a true princess to the throne—a descendant of the royalty of Lyvens. It wouldn't be too much of a stretch to say that Her Majesty had had an affair, as she always seems to be shut up in her quarters, and next to nobody ever sees her. In fact, I've only seen her once or twice and I've been working in this castle for some thirty years now. People say that the girl was robbed of her royal heritage and grew up a peasant, despite being the true princess."

I shook my head vehemently. "There's no way that's true. I look exactly like my mam, not the queen. People say I'm the spitting image of her, and I believe it. Furthermore, people in my village all saw when my mam was pregnant with me. I know who my mam is, and it's not the queen."

And if it was, it would be absolutely disgusting because she would be telling me to marry my brother. But I didn't add that because I was one hundred percent sure that it wasn't true.

Honestly, I was feeling rather put out and angry. Yesterday I had been sure of my family, yet in the past hour, I'd had two separate people suggest that both of my parents weren't actually my real parents. I knew who my parents were, and they were the wonderful people that had raised me and given me a home, the people who I loved with all my heart despite their flaws, whom I would have given anything to have by my side, to be safe at home with, instead of in this terrible palace of lies and deception.

It was only now, so far away from home that I was starting to realize the flaws in my thoughts before. It was becoming increasingly clear that this whole thing was so much larger than me, than us, than anything I could have ever imagined. Something like shame had started creeping through me these past few days. I had no right to judge when I hadn't known anything close to the whole picture.

But I intended on finding it out.

"Well, that's what they say," remarked the servant. She started walking away and I had to step briskly to keep up with her. She hadn't exactly invited me to come along, but nor had she told me to leave, and she was still speaking with me. Besides, I didn't have anywhere else to go and I really did want to hear what she had to say.