Crowns and Daggers

Chapter seven

Raven stumbled away from The Castle, cheek stinging from the cut the larger guard had given her. Her hand was sticky with blood, her face stained with tears. She was an absolute mess, but for some reason, she was trying not to smile. Making her way down the semi-busy streets, more than a few people stopped to stare at her ragged appearance.

Despite everything, Raven's mind kept wandering back to Prince Asher, the way he'd rescued her, and the easy demeanor in which he held himself, so unlike the images of stiff, cold royals she had always pictured marching around The Castle. Lost in thought, she didn't realize she'd reached the warehouse until Wilder grabbed her arm and marched her into the farthest corner of their home, where they kept a large basin of water, and away from the listening ears of the smaller children.

Kairo was scooping up a cup of water, and his eyebrows shot up when he saw her. "Raven, what in all of Xinahar happened to you? You look like you got run over by a horse!" he said, looking her up and down.

Raven chuckled and started cleaning the dirt and blood off her face with a rag. "Not far from it," she said, and explained the reason for her injuries, leaving out the deal with the prince.

"Sounds like you had quite an adventure today. You scared me half to death, again!" Wilder exclaimed.

"You know, the prince was actually concerned about me. Who knew royals could be nice?" Raven wondered. The half smile disappeared from Wilder's face.

"Never, ever trust royalty, no matter how nice they seem," he warned.

"I know, I know. That's our one rule here. Well, that and don't get caught, which I already broke. Don't worry, I don't trust the prince."

"Prince?" came a small voice from behind them, and they turned to see Kairo's little sister, a small girl with pigtails, dark Quorronian skin, and inquisitive brown eyes standing next to them.

"It's nothing for you to worry about, Maya," Kairo soothed.

"Okay, if you say so. Oh, and Kai, we want a story!" Maya said enthusiastically.

"Really? And what kind of story?" he asked gently, steering the child away from Wilder and Raven, toward where the others were waiting expectantly.

"Tell us about the gods!" a small voice cried from somewhere in the crowd. Kairo smiled and knelt down in front of the little group, waiting until they were all seated in a semicircle around her to start. Raven pulled up a crate alongside Wilder and sat in the back to watch as Kairo's eyes lit up and he started to tell a story that they'd both heard countless times, but that he never failed to make interesting.

"Once, there was nothing," he began. "Not even a speck of dust. It was all just blackness, darker than any night you've ever seen. Suddenly, a small light appeared that grew bigger and bigger until it was the size of a giant. It was the primordial god of chaos, Kaosu. With nothing but pure will, the god shaped Almira, the primordial goddess of order. Back then, there were no laws, and no genders, so Kaosu and Almira were both male and female at the same time, but now, most people recognize Almira as female and Kaosu as male." Kairo paused to let the mutters of, "Whaaat," die down before continuing.

"Almira thought it was too lonely in space, so she created the mass of rock that we now know as Xinahar, and infused life into it. Oceans, forests, water, animals, plants, Almira created them all. Except for people. There were no people yet. Kaosu and Almira had three children together; Kahlo, Luna, and Celeste. After the three deities had children, creating more gods and goddesses, they took it upon themselves to create a race lowlier than themselves, but still intelligent. Thus, people were born, springing from the dreams of Luna into the world, and because of that, Luna became the goddess of dreams and the moon. Kahlo gifted the humans with fire, earning himself the title of the god of fire. He decided to create a giant ball of fire to put in the sky so it wouldn't be dark and cold all the time, which is now known as the sun, so he is the god of the sun as well. Luna chases him with the moon, creating day and night. The last child, Celeste, created time. Her father, Kaosu, became angry at the lack of chaos, and attacked his children, but they defeated him and he was banished to the sky. Every night, Celeste cries for her lonely father, and her tears are scattered across the sky to shine as the stars. The end."

A couple of the kids had fallen asleep, but most were staring in wonder at Kairo. Wilder was smiling, and Raven saw Kairo catch his eye and grin back, flashing seldom-shown dimples, then look quickly away. She gazed around at the children, amazed at the story's effect.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Ash blinked sleep out of his eyes, glancing at his window. The sun was just beginning to set, coloring the walls gold while it slowly disappeared below the horizon. Everything from the day rushed back to him and he realized he must have fallen asleep while trying to wrap his head around the conversation he had overheard between his father and the messenger.

At a knock on his door, Ash groaned and sat up, Ember tumbling from his stomach with a startled squeak. After a few seconds, a hesitant call came from the hallway.

"Prince Asher, the king requests you come to dinner now." Ash sighed at the use of his full name. It was so...formal.

"Tell my father I feel sick." he shouted back, not entirely lying. The thought of facing the king after what he'd overheard made his stomach roil.

"Of course, your highness." There was the sound of receding footsteps, then everything quieted again. Ash got to his feet and went to look out the window at the sunset-gilded city beneath him, thoughts of the elves running circles in his mind.

Ember raised his head sleepily, as if sensing Ash's restlessness, and lazily flapped over to perch on the windowsill. Ash rubbed his scaly head and Ember made a contented purring sound. Ash furrowed his brows as he listed his options; stay where he was, act as if nothing had changed, and continue hating the elves as his father wished him to, somehow convince his father to leave the elves alone, or find the elves himself, at least see if they were truly as terrible as the king said they were, and if not, warn them.

He squeezed his eyes shut and pressed his palms to his head, until another knock at the door interrupted his thoughts.

"What is it?" he growled, annoyed.

"Um, I—I was just told to bring you your meal," what he guessed was a maid stuttered.

Ash's tone softened. "Thank you. Just leave it outside my door." He heard the clatter of a metal tray and the swish of fabric, then the maid was gone. Ash left his position at the window and softly opened the door, lifting the tray piled with delicacies. His stomach growled and he realized how hungry he was. Behind him, Ember snuffled happily at the scent of the food and bounced over to where Ash stood. Ash batted the dragon away with a free hand after tossing some roasted duck meat in his direction, and went to sit at his polished mahogany desk as Ember wolfed down the chunk of food.

Ash relished eating the meal without having to worry about using a certain fork for a certain dish. He swallowed the last piece of bread, placed the plate on the floor for Ember to lick clean, and leaned back in his chair.

"So, what do you think of this?" he asked Ember. The dragon looked up at Ash, cocking his head, most likely looking for more food. Abruptly, he hopped up on the desk and stuck his neck out to nuzzle the tip of Ash's ear. Ash's heartbeat sped up as he reached out to pat the little dragon's head. It seemed like a clear sign from Khari, god of nature, that he had to find his mother.

With less than a fraction of a plan in place, Ash leapt to his feet and searched his room for the rarely-used travel bag he had been given the one time his father had made him go to Quorro for a meeting about some kind of trade bartering.

It wasn't until he'd thrown a pile of clothes and a small pouch of money into the satchel that he realized he had no chance of making it to the elves on his own. Having only left the capital of Zimeania a few times in his life, he didn't even know what the forests of his own kingdom looked like, much less the others'.

Ash cursed. Who would be willing to journey to Quorro with him against the king's orders to look for a species that was supposedly extinct? His only real friends in The Castle were a stable boy named Alik, who wouldn't disobey the king even if it killed him, Agatha, the old librarian, who wouldn't be much help in the wild, and Ember. He huffed in frustration, and unwilling to give up on the prospect of locating the elves, thought back to his encounter with the thief, Raven, earlier that day.

If you ever need a favor, call me up. Those had been her exact words. Ash smiled slowly, his plan beginning to solidify in his mind.

"Well, Ember, looks like we've got a thief to catch tomorrow."