The (Not So) Perfect Princess

We barter with the betrayer

When we were within twenty feet of The Circle, Eily and I slowed to a tip-toe. I could hear music being played, and when we got close enough, I peeked around the corner of a caravan and saw people dancing around the fire, one of them being Fäbi. Hopefully, she’d been too busy to notice our absence.

Q, Scout, and Nessa were sitting on the same rug they had been when we left, but they weren’t enjoying the show. Q was whipping his head around, mouth bent in a frown, chocolate eyes scanning the huge crowd of people. He was looking for me and Eily. Nessa was sitting a little ways away from the boys, looking a little frightened. Scout was looking for us in the crowd, too, but not as maniacally as Q. Suddenly Scout turned at just the right angle, and his blue eyes locked on mine. Immediately Scout’s face brightened and he started to get up, but I put a finger to my lips, and Scout dropped back to the ground. His eyebrows crinkled in confusion, but I just shook my head. I held up my index finger, trying to say, Hold on a sec. I shrank back behind the caravan and turned to Eily.

“What are we supposed to do now?” I whispered. “We can’t go in and they can’t go out without someone seeing us.”

“I say we just walk in like nothing’s wrong,” Eily whispered back. “And when someone asks us what we were doing, we’ll just say we had to go to the bathroom.”

“Together?” I wrinkled my nose.

Eily thought for a second. “How about….you’re afraid of the dark?”

I rolled my eyes. “Eily, we can’t just—”

A strangled scream suddenly erupted from inside The Circle, cutting me off. I glanced at Eily with wide eyes, but she just shrugged.

“Hello, friends!” a loud voice called from directly behind me. I gasped, whirled around, and found myself face-to-face with Fäbi. She was smiling brightly, but the look in her eyes chilled me to the bone.

Thankfully, Eily recovered quickly.

“Hi, Fäbi,” Eily’s smile was just as bright as Fäbi’s. “We were just—”

“No you were not.” Fäbi said sweetly.

Eily’s smile didn’t falter. “But you didn’t let me finish.”

“Does not matter,” Fäbi glanced at the bag Eily had half-hidden behind her. “I do not care that you have your bag back.”

Eily scrunched her nose up. “What do you mean—”

“AVANI!” a tiny voice howled. Before my name was even fully pronounced, I’d shoved past Fäbi, jumped around the caravan, and stepped into The Circle. I realized now that the music was gone—the dancing, the rugs, the food, even the children were all gone. The only people left were Fäbi and four muscular looking men….each of them grabbing hold of my friends. Scout was tucked under one man’s arm, Nessa was slung over a shoulder, and the last two men had taken hold of Q’s arms, trying to keep him still.

I glowered at Fäbi.

“I told you we shouldn’t have trusted her,” Eily mumbled, coming up behind me.

“If you try and run, I think you know what will happen to your friends,” Fäbi smiled. “I am going to call the soldiers now, and you will go with them without trouble, yes?”

“Never,” I growled. “I did not come this far to be dragged back to that prison. Why do you want to turn me in, anyways? Do you like seeing people suffer or what?”

“Oh, no, of course not,” Fäbi laughed. “I’m doing it for the reward.”

A reward? Did I hear her right?

“My family has lived in poverty since before I was born,” Fäbi continued, her smile drooping a bit. “But no longer. After you are gone, we shall live as kings.”

I smirked a little. “You really believe that you’re going to get that reward? If the reward is even real—which I highly doubt—those guards will grab me and go. They’re not going to give you or your family a penny.”

Fäbi frowned. “I do not believe you. They gave me their word.”

I laughed. “Their word? I’ve lived with those jerks my whole life, so believe me when I say you’ll be lucky if you make it out of this alive.”

“Well then what do you suggest I do, friend?” Fäbi snapped, her smile gone. “Set you free?”

“Yes,” I said. “But not without this.” I reached over and plucked Eily’s bag from her hands. I quickly untied the top and reached down into it until I’d fished out what I wanted. In my hand was my priceless emerald-and-gold comb. Fäbi’s eyes widened with greed when she saw it.

“You let us go and don’t alert those soldiers, it’s yours.” I waggled it in Fäbi’s face. She had to think about it for maybe three seconds. She barked something in another language, and the muscle men immediately let my friends go. I scooped up the sobbing form of Nessa, trying to calm her down. Scout and Q ran toward the edge of The Circle and I gladly followed, but I turned back, realizing that Eily was not with me.

“I didn’t even get a piece of that apple pie,” Eily sighed, her usual scowl back. In one swift movement, Eily brought back her leg and kicked Fäbi in the shin as hard as she could. The girl went down howling, and Eily walked away smirking.

I couldn’t help laughing as the five of us hurried toward the river.