The Queen And The Flower

Part 1

The market place was busy, as it always was this time of day, early birds out getting their worms. That worked perfectly for me. With all the bustling, a vendor was far less likely to notice the apple falling out of his cart when I bumped into it.
Busy is one thing, but chaotic is a whole other mess, and one I don’t like dealing with. Chaos, unfortunately, seemed to be on the menu for this morning.
It all seemed to happen at once. The apple hit my palm the same second someone slammed into me, and a split second later shouting erupted from the crowd. Glancing down, I was startled by who I saw pulling away from where she’d crashed into my chest.
Away the princess ran, away from the guards struggling to push through the crowd. I turned tail and ran after her, grabbing her arm and pulling her into an alley. She cried out and hit my arm, desperately trying to get me off. I let go, resulting in her falling back into the dumpster.
I just barely smothered my grin.
“Hey, Princess, relax. Why are you running from your guard?” I asked, crouching to where she lay on the ground.
She looked up at me with big doe eyes, wide with fear. Either way, her voice stayed firm
and sharp as she told me off. “That’s hardly your business! Leave me alone!”
“Alright, as you wish,” I shrugged, standing. The shouting was getting nearer, and rapidly so. “You have fun being towed back to the castle. Ta ta.”
“No, wait,” there was defeat leaking into her voice now, defeat and desperation. The poor girl. “Will you help me?”
I grinned, and she recoiled ever so slightly. Grabbing her wrist I pulled her behind the dumpster and slid a panel in the wall up, gently urging her into the dark space. In she crawled, no hesitation, trusting and naive. Oh, so stupid. I guess princess aren’t taught not to trust strangers like the rest of us peasants. Then again, what other choice did she have?
I wasn’t planning on hurting her, of course. I just couldn’t shake the thought of how dead she’d be if anyone else had picked her up. It must be my mother shining through.
The space I’d built wasn’t built to fit two people, no matter how small we both were. I may be flexible, but this was ridiculous. I wasn’t certain whose hair was in my mouth, nor was I sure which heartbeat was hers and which was mine, but it was almost cute, the way she curled up delicately against me.
I slapped a hand over her mouth as the thunderous footsteps of guards trampled the alley where we’d just stood. She tried to pry it off, but I didn’t budge, not trusting the daft little thing not to talk or gasp and give us away.
Once the footsteps and shouting faded away I twisted, pressing my cheek to the ground, knee pressing uncomfortably into the back of my skull, peering out through the crack I made as I lifted the panel. Once I deemed it safe out there, I sat up and shifted us around.
After much jostling and tiny squeaks of protest from the princess as her dress caught under me, I was finally able to press my ear to the wall opposite where we’d come in. I could hear singing softly, and chatter. The sounds of fifteen orphaned girls preparing themselves for their day after a long nights hard work. I sighed heavily, we’d have to wait for them to leave.
I pulled away to slump against the wall my back was already pressed into, a rather pathetic attempt at giving the princess in my lap some space. There was a moment of silence before she whispered, quiet as a mouse.
“What’s happening?”
“We have to wait for the girls living in the building to leave. Do you have any idea what the time is?” I whispered back.
“No.”
Silence, then, “Who are you?”
“Princess, we’re still hiding.”
She finally shut up, and I pressed my ear to the door again. Though I knew, logically, only five minutes passed, it felt like half an hour before the lady in charge of the girls collected them to be sent on their way.
Slowly, I slid the panel up and rolled out, quietly looking around before moving so the princess could slip out after me. She dragged herself out in the most ungraceful way, now covered in mud.
Again, I suppressed a grin.
The room we entered contained fifteen beds, each with brightly coloured covers and drapings thrown wide open to reveal messy beds and dresses with scandalously low necklines and slits up the skirts for one to poke her leg out of.
We got halfway across the room when the princess wrenched her wrist out of my grip and hissed in a tone of voice that suggested she was prepared to fight. “Where have you taken me?”
“Relax, Your Highness. I have no intentions to sell you. This is how we get to my home, on the roof.” I said in a calm whisper, backing up to the wall.
“That’s a rather pathetic lie.” She replied, glaring at me hard. The black smeared artistically around her eyes helped the dark look.
I just pulled at the door that revealed a large dumbwaiter. Doubt and indecision clouded her face, softening the glare.
“Come now, we have to hurry.”
It didn’t take all that long to get her up, and I followed shortly after. When I arrived she was standing awkwardly in the corner, taking my home in. All three walls of it, that is.
Long before I moved in, the roof and one wall had burnt down, and the space had been abandoned. The other rooms on this floor weren’t safe to move around in, but with some tarps and rope from my old job, it was easy to make this room livable. A bundle of blankets and rags vaguely resembling a bird's nest served as my bed in the center of the room, where the tarp roof was least likely to leak on me. A large square box pushed into one corner of the room, about as tall a my knee, held all my possessions. Excluding the twin masks, which I took off the wall as I strayed further into the room.
Both masks were simple things; white, with black eyes and mouths painted carefully on. One a smile and one a frown. I held the frown in my left hand and the smile in my right, enjoying the familiar weight that helped soothe the butterflies in my stomach.
“Welcome, Princess, to my home.” I greeted enthusiastically, spinning on my toes as I walked to my bed and dropped dramatically into it. “What has you running through the market like a hare with a hunter on it's bushy little tail?”
“That remains none of your business.” She replied shortly, but without the harsh edge to her voice.
I raised my left hand, the mask hiding my face. “Remember who grants you sanctuary. Remember your manners.”
Though I couldn’t see her, I knew she shuddered and turned away. Had this been a real performance I would have taken the opportunity to creep closer while she wasn’t looking.
“It appears I’m at a disadvantage. You know who I am, and yet I know nothing of you.” She said politely.
I stood and spun, switching masks. “They call me Amaryllis. Forgive my ignorance, but I don’t seem to know your name, Your Highness, could you give it to me?” I asked with a dramatic bow, my suddenly empty left hand extended.
“Princess Lucy,” she lied. “That’s certainly an unusual name.”
“That’s what happens when your mum’s a witch,” I shrugged, standing perfectly upright, with my back straight and my arm tucked behind me.
“P… pardon me?” She stuttered, clearly taken aback.  
“My mum's a witch,” I repeated, rolling onto my toes. “Don't worry though, she died in childbirth and I nary a clue how to do any of her magic.” Lowering the mask to look out one eye, I could see her looking me up and down doubtfully. I dropped back down to stand on the soles of my feet.
After a short silence she finally responded. The simple “Ah. I see.” in a voice that strained to cover her distress was the only thing she could come up with. It amused me to no end.
I decided to get a good look at her finally. Her long, dark hair cascaded down her back, thick curly locks reaching past her bottom in a frizzy, ruffled mess. Her long, slender fingers, the nails painted a lovely shade of dark blue, were attempting to comb out a small section she had pulled over her shoulder. Her face was round and soft, her lips shiny with gloss and her eyes dark around the edges with a black pencil I knew the rich girls used.
I've never been one to envy, but I simply adored the look the pencil gave them. Not that her big doe eyes needed to be more accentuated. It was still lovely.
Her dress made me grin, one I didn't bother to smother as I had the mask covering that part of my face. It was a plain brown thing, with a skirt that I'm sure was far smaller and lighter than she was used to, judging by her walk. But her corset and soft materials made it an awful disguise. No one this far out into the city would wear such things.
I decided I wouldn't think much of her body. With her fancy corsets she could be any shape she wanted. Her arms, cutting jawline and gently rounded face told me she wasn't as slim as most princess were. She wasn't fat, but she'd certainly never missed a meal.
She noticed me looking and crossed her arms over her bosom. I slid the mask up to cover my entire face, still smiling softly to myself.
“Next time, Princess, when playing hide and seek with your guard, perhaps choose a more… appropriate camouflage.”
“Whatever do you mean?” She asked, reaching down to let her fingers brush against her skirt. I bit my tongue to stop from chuckling.
“No one out here wears corsets,” I chided. Tired of standing for her, I flopped back onto my bed, legs spilling out the side. I swung my feet cheerfully. “Too expensive. And we don't all wear brown. Colour is an important part of everyone's life. Also, wear a hooded cloak. No one out here could possibly dream of maintaining hair so long.”
“Thank you, I'll keep that in mind.” She replied after a moment of consideration. She always paused to consider my words. I liked it, liked listening to the silence of her thinking. Liked her listening to me, chewing my words around her mouth before spitting out her own for me. Here, in my room, above the city with only three walls, I sat on a throne and she at my mercy, waiting and afraid that I would give the word.
‘Off with her head!’ I almost giggled. “So, Princess. Where were you running too?”
“Still none of your business.
I sighed, rolling my eyes as a switched masks to display a frown. This was tediously annoying, and I made sure my feelings were clear when I spoke. “I can't help you if you don't let me, and I am not keeping you here forever, Princess.”
Again, the consideration. I knew my impatient tone tasted bitter on her tongue. “I was leaving the castle.”
“Mhmm. I gathered that. How long did you plan on staying away?” I asked, pretending to look at my nails, though I wore leather gloves that covered all but two of them and a mask with no holes to peer out of.
“I… I don't know.” She said, voice slowly getting quieter as her arrogant confidence left her.
“And where were you planning on going?” I asked, dropping my hand and turning my masked gaze to her.
“I don't know.” She whispered. She fidgeted with her skirt, but didn't look away, even when I dropped the mask and gave her a look that silently asked if she was stupid. She squirmed under my gaze. “Oh stop with that look, you bloody fool!”
She recoiled as sharply as she had snapped when my face split into a huge grin and I jumped up suddenly, masks tumbling onto my bed. I rushed over to my box and rummaged through it, pulling out an old green and pink court jesters hat, little silver bells hanging from each of the two tips. I slipped it on, the spiked fabric laying across my chest as the bells around my head jingled deafeningly in my ears. I stood and presented myself with a grand flourish, hands in the air and feet apart, the whole thing a non-verbal ‘ta-daa!’ She looked so shocked. I tumbled forward, head over heels, until I popped up right in front of her, on my feet once again. I towered over her, a fools grin all but painted on my face.
She wasn't sure whether to be afraid, uncertain if she had upset the witch's child, or amused by the fools antics. I wasn't sure either.
From here I could see the colour of her eyes, a delightfully soft brown with tiny flecks of black around the irises, speckled with honey where the light leaking in hit them. The black pencil was smudged and messy.
“You run from your castle, not a clue where to go, and you call me the fool?” I asked softly, still with a grin. She realized just how afraid she really should be.  “I may be fool, Your Highness, but you are the idiot.”
“Amaryllis,” she said in a tiny, frightened voice, placing a hand on my chest, her longest finger falling into the crook of my collar bone. She took a took half a step back, her heel hitting the wall.
I took two steps away, not a fan of her gentle, useless touch, or of the way her voice, soft and soothing, cooled the fire in my chest and drowned out the joy clawing its way up my throat at the sight of the pretty little princess's eyes pulled wide and her jaw locked shut in fear.
She deserved that fear, she deserved the snakes twisted and wrestling in her stomach while she watched someone chew and maul over whether her performance was satisfactory enough to give her a meal, let her stay under their roof.
I pulled the hat off and tossed it back into the box. One of the bells hung outside, jingling softly before coming to rest. I sat back down in my bed, crossing my legs and ignoring the masks clacking against each other as I bumped them.
“Tell me you at least know why you left.”
“The ball is tonight.” She says simply. We both knew it wasn't an explanation. I waited for more and raised an eyebrow when it didn't come. she bit her lip and refused to look away still.
“And?”
“And… that means I have to find a husband.” She murmured. I still didn't understand. She sighed heavily. “I don't want to.”
“I assumed that much. What I don't understand is why? And why you'd go through this much trouble to avoid the inevitable.”
“I don't want to marry some random suitor that decided I was pretty enough to bare him kids.” She spat. “Princes are all spoiled brats and I'm supposed to go out there and put myself on display in hopes one of them will think I'm worthy of them.”
“That sounds awful.” I said, lifting the mask with the frown to my face. “Unfortunately, I don't have much experience with princes. But I do know that all you'll ever really have to do is give him a son and then enjoy your life in a castle. Sorry, but I really can't muster the sympathy.”
She made a sputtering sound. I realized that I had offended her, and I couldn't care less. What I did care about was my empty stomach.  
“Are you hungry, Princess? Or did you nick breakfast before you fled.” I asked, standing and pulling the hanging tarp aside so I could peer outside and determine the time.
Empyrean, the first and largest sun in our solar system, was nearing its peak, with Plantin, our third moon, slowly chasing. Sol, the smaller of the two suns, was rising, moving rapidly through the sky after Empyrean. By now I should have had breakfast and been relaxing with my feet in the lake, waiting for the school bells to ring and the kids to rush out for their outside break.
I turned back to the princess, mouth open to inform her I'd be slipping out to grab us something to eat, but was silenced when I saw a small pile of food sitting on a piece of pink cloth at the Princesses feet.
She smiled softly. “I nicked breakfast before I left. Would you like some?”
  I could already feel my mouth watering, and I didn’t bothering fighting my grin. “It seems there is a brain inside that pretty little skull of yours.”
There were apples, pears and little buns that I had no doubt were fresh baked and soft, nothing like the hard loaves I occasionally bought. I leapt over my bed and sat on my knees beside the fabric. She did the same, but I hardly noticed when I spotted the muffin. The last time I'd had a muffin I was fourteen, which must've been over five years ago This one was golden brown, with little black spots littered over the top. Chocolate, the gift of the fairies. Food bliss.
I quickly snatched that while she picked up a small orange and began peeling it. I carefully picked a chip out of the top. It was half melted and stuck to my nail. I happily sucked it off and paddled my feet while it melted in my mouth.
I was halfway done the pastry when it occurred to me that I had no clue where she had hidden the bundle. She wasn't carrying a bag, and I hadn't seen the pink fabric before. Through a mouthful of food, I asked where she'd hidden it.
The corners of her mouth perked up. Perhaps she was amused by my lack of manners, or maybe she was just proud of how well she’d hidden it. “I’ve got a belt on under one of my skirts’ layers, I hid it there.”
“That explains why some of the loaves are crushed” I teased, picking up a crumb and flicking it at her. She rolled her eyes and ate more of her orange.
“Where did you get your fool’s cap?”  she asked, making polite conversation.
“I used to be a court jester.”
“We haven’t had a jester in years, long before I was born.”
“Then you should be able to come to the logical conclusion that I wasn’t a jester in this kingdom.” I said simply, popping another chocolate chip in my mouth.
“Where were you a jester?”
“Another kingdom.” I shrugged. I wasn’t sure what the kingdom was called, but I did know it was somewhere down south. It was always cold there.
“How did you end up over here?”
“I joined a traveling circus. They came by about… two years ago? I remember you watching. That was my last show.”
“What happened?”
“Ring master died and the guy who took over was a bastard, so I left.” I stood and stretched, bending backwards until my head was between my legs and I could peer at her awe struck gaze. It was the mildly disturbed look the crowds always gave me, and it looked lovely on her, just as it had in the circus tent years ago.
I smiled and let my upper torso lay on the ground, my head propped up by hands. On either side of my arms, my feet paddled, making a cute little tapping sound. A small smile graced her lips.
“Are you entirely certain you don’t know witchcraft?”
I laughed, bringing my feet up and over my head so I laid on my stomach the same way anyone might. “No witchcraft. Just flexibility. I’ve been doing this for as long as I can remember, it’s what earned me my place as the jester.”
She smiled brighter.