Starrlings 1: House of Fire

chapter 17

A R I

Most of the students were enjoying their last breath of freedom before starting lessons, but Ari was spending most of her time waiting on Katja, who had spent two days in bed.

Ari was at a loss.

Nothing in her training had prepared her for Katja Koningssen to be heartbroken like this. She demanded all meals be brought to her, and then the doors locked behind her, so that no one could watch her eat. Her beautiful blonde hair had lost its body and lay limp around her face, and her lip trembled every time she gave an order.

Ari sat outside the princess's chamber, reading books and waiting for the princess to ring a bell. If Ari didn't come fast enough, Katja flung her dirty cups and plates against the wall.

On the third day, Sanna van Dael felt the need to intervene.

"This is unacceptable," Sanna told the princess, while Ari watched. "You need to leave these rooms. You haven't bathed. It's unfit for a princess. You're disgracing your Koningssen name."

Katja glared up at her from within her piles of cushions. Ari stood in the doorway, afraid to speak.

"You'll bathe, now," Sanna instructed her. "Wash your hair. Get dressed. Tom will take you for a walk with the wolves. Go up to the lake. You know that Helvig likes it there."

Katja let out a groan and pulled the blankets over her head.

"Ariane," Sanna said, turning to her. "Get the princess a clean dress. While she's bathing, she'll need fresh linens. Tom will be here in an hour to accompany her on a walk. Make sure she's ready. Then you can enjoy the rest of your afternoon without having to worry about her. Does that seem fair?"

Ari was mostly occupied with how her own name sounded in Sanna's accent, but she got to work. There was already a dress hanging up, freshly pressed, but Ari went about arranging towels and linens, while Sanna drew back Katja's covers and pulled the protesting princess out of bed.

Sanna managed to coax Katja out of the room and downstairs to the bathhouse, so Ari changed the princess's bedlinens and cleaned up the many empty coffee cups and dirty plates strewn around the room.

When the girls returned neither of them mentioned how much cleaner the room was, or thanked Ari. Katja sat down at her dressing table and stared at her pale face in the mirror.

"Sanna, will you comb my hair?"

Sanna glanced at Ari.

"Please?" Katja said. "Remember you used to comb it when we were younger?"

Sanna sighed. "Ariane, take the rest of the afternoon off."

Ari nodded, both at Sanna and then at Katja, whose long blonde hair was wet and tangled around her face, and then rushed out of the room.

Downstairs, Ari met a few winter wards who were heading out to watch some of the older students fight their wolves on the charging pitch. Ari watched them go without following. Last year, she'd tagged along with those wards, but now that she was no longer sleeping in the same dormitory as them, she felt another degree of separation. They were wards like her - orphans of the Fire War - but most of them had pale skin, most of them had a kinnwolf, and none of them were working as a servant for a princess.

Ari planned to spend her morning in the library, where she could be alone for hours without being bothered. She was looking forward to seeing the wizened night starrling librarian who wandered through the shelves, pushing a trolley of books. His dark raven would glare at students who spoke too loudly.