Chapter Eight
Ash:
Almost hyperventilating, I ran back into the street, leaving the book, but the note burning a hole in my pocket. When I was in the center of the crowd, I took a deep breath, and calmed myself. For a split second, I thought about telling Corey, but a voice inside me screeched, No, don’t! I knew it was right. I couldn’t tell Corey about Andrew’s note. I know if Anna and I went after him, Corey would follow me. And I would go find him.
Putting on a placid face, I went to find Corey and Luke. They were still sitting where I had left them. Luke looked a lot more serious. I sat back down in between them.
“You okay?” Corey asked, squeezing my knee. I nodded, not saying anything. I most certainly was not okay, but Corey didn’t need to know that.
“Lynn- Ash-, I’m really sorry,” Luke stuttered. I held up a hand, and said coolly, “Forget it. I might as well get used to it.”
Turning to Corey I asked, “What’s he know?”
“What he is, what I am, what you are. That Queen Azalea died. That we’re going after your sister who’s trying to die for you.”
“So everything.”
“Yes,” he answered with his mouth, but his eyes gave me a different answer.
“Luke,” I turned back to him, “Maybe you should go talk to your dad about your being a seventh son. We’ll wait here.”
He looked at me as if he didn’t believe we’d actually wait for him. “Promise?”
“Yes, I promise,” I sighed. He gave a tight nod before scurrying off.
“He’s a keeper,” Corey muttered. I hit him in the chest.
“Don’t change the subject. What didn’t you tell him?”
“About your past. How you and Anna were separated for twelve years, and about Andrew.” The mention of Andrew made my heart flutter, but Corey didn’t miss a beat. “And about the prophecy.”
“Good. I wouldn’t want him, or anyone for that matter, to know about that unless they have to.”
Corey laughed, long and hard. I stared at him for a moment, questioning his sanity. When he finally recovered, he said, “Gosh, I can remember us only a week ago!”
“Huh?”
“Ash, a week ago you would hardly talk to me. I’d embarrass you to make my friends laugh, and you’d embarrass me even worse to get even. I’d hardly call us friends. And now look at us!”
“It was Anna,” I said slowly, “Anna brought us together.”
“Yeah, she did. She has a way with people.” I noticed he was careful to say has, not had. I was looking down at my hands, strands from my loose bun framing my face. Noticing Corey’s silence, I tilted my head to look up at him. He was looking at me.
“What?”
“You know your beautiful, right?” I was taken aback by his question/comment.
“That’s why all these guys were staring at me.” I wave my hand across the crowd.
“But they can only see your beauty on the outside. I can see it on the inside, too.”
Corey and I stared at each other. I looked at him- really looked at him. At his straight, thick, dark chocolate brown hair that hung in his face, his brilliant green eyes, his tan, heart-shaped face with his cheeks still a little to chubby for a twelve-year-olds. I remembered when I first met him- I pushed him in the mud because he was so quiet and friendless. He had been getting on my nerves. But then he got friends, and got on my nerves even more. I had known him almost all my life, and he never ceased to surprise me.
Suddenly, I was aware of our faces getting closer together and, for the second time in that hour, almost had my first kiss.
But then Luke came back over.
“I talked to my dad,” he told us, pushing through the crowds. Surprised, I straightened up and leaned against the back of the bench, as did Corey. He looked a little irritated, but he also looked as shocked as I felt.
“And?” Corey asked.
“He told me a not so nice story.” Luke’s face seemed clouded with new information. I remembered the day I found out about Anna and I being triplets, and could relate to Luke’s shock.
He sat down next to me. I asked him, “Are we gonna hear this story?”
“Before my sister was born, my parents had five boys. Two of them were stillborn, one died in my mom’s womb, and the last two died when they were only two and three years old. Then my sister, Marigold, was born. When she was two years old, my mom was expecting twin boys- conjoined twins. One of them couldn’t live without the other, and the other couldn’t live with the other. So the one who couldn’t live without the other- the older one- ended up dying, but the other survived. I was the other one.”
Luke looked so confused and betrayed and guilty. I felt a strange tingle run through my left side.
“Wow,” Corey mumbled.
“I killed him,” Luke’s face was contorted in pain.
“No,” I whispered, putting my hand on his arm, “You didn’t. You couldn’t live with him.”
“He couldn’t live without me!”
“You can’t live with this guilt hanging over you. Let go of it.”
“I can’t! I killed him!”
All my sympathy washed out for him. With a sneer, I asked him, “You don’t think I think I’m killing my sister? If I had been captured instead of her, she’d still be here. Isn’t that the same? No, I guess it isn’t. It has nothing to do with you or your petty worries that you had and have no control over. If I could’ve saved my sister but didn’t, that wouldn’t matter. It doesn’t have to do with Luke. Of course it wouldn’t matter.”
Both Corey and Luke seemed shocked at my attitude. I very almost lifted up my hand to flip my hair over my shoulder, when I remembered it wasn’t there to flip.
“Crap, crap, crap!” Luke muttered suddenly.
“What?” Corey asked.
“Hide me!”
“Explain, please.”
“It’s them. The Goddesses.” He motioned over to a trio of girls. They looked about thirteen years old. The middle one was the thinnest and the tallest. Her hair was just a tad bit lighter than Corey‘s dark chocolate hair, in ringlets that went down to her waist. Her cheekbones and nose were sharp, yet petite, as were her slender hands. Her stained lips were brought up in a sneer, flashing her white teeth. Her eyes were icy blue. Her cronies were identical- unnaturally skinny, pale, slender hands, moss green eyes, and crimped hair, though one’s hair was scarlet and the other’s was strawberry blonde.
“The Goddesses?” Corey asked.
“Major jerks. The leader- the one in the middle- that’s Aphrodite. The twins are Athena and Minerva. Aphrodite is in love with me, and won’t leave me alone.”
“Because you’re so charming,” I sneered, and rolled my eyes. Studying the girl, I decided I could take them all, easy. Especially Aphrodite- stuck up name, much.
As if reading my mind, Aphrodite’s big eyes locked onto mine. I held her gaze. She wrinkled her turned-up nose at me, making me resist the urge to childishly stick my tongue out at her.
After a quick glare, Aphrodite averted her attention to Luke. She grinned, and started walking towards us. Her little lap dogs followed.
“Hey Luke!” Aphrodite greeted in her sickly fake sugary voice.
“Hi, Aphrodite,” Luke grimaced.
“Who are your friends?” She took a moment to glare at me.
“This is Lynn and Reid.” That boy was such a smooth liar I wondered where he got his talent from.
“You new here?” Aphrodite was checking out Corey now. For some reason, this made me mad.
“Just passing through,” Corey answered.
“Where you from?”
“We travel,” I said, dodging her question. For the first time, she spoke to me.
“Isn’t that dandy! How do you know Luke?”
Luke put his arm around my shoulder, and I admired the nerve of that boy, though I wanted to beat it out of him.
“You owe me,” he mouthed to me, so fluently I barley caught it, which means Aphrodite definitely didn’t.
“Family friends. Actually, Aphrodite, we’re dating.”
A flash of pure hatred towards me shot across her face.
“Lovely. Is it a… serious relationship? If you don’t mind me prying.”
“Not with my brother around.” I nudged Corey. It seemed to please Aphrodite that Corey was my brother.
“So Reid. It was Reid, right? Do you wanna get something to eat?”
“Actually, we gotta get going.”
“Such a shame. So, Luke…”
“Sorry, Aphrodite,” Luke cut in, “But I’m going with them.”
Anna:
I dived into the closet, and Alexis shut the door just as King Brendan opened her door.
“Hi, sweetie!” the King’s slurred voice boomed.
“Father, are you drunk?” Alexis’s calm voice that made me wonder how often this happened.
“What’d make you say that, sweetie?” He hiccupped.
“Father, I think you need to go get some sleep. Rest for a while.”
“Don’t tell you father what to do!” I heard a sharp slapping noise, then the sound of retching.
“I’ll get you to bed, Father.” I heard the door open, and Alexis’s composed voice call down the hallway, “Sir Thane, Father isn’t felling good. Could you please help him to his room. And dispose of this bag.”
I heard some shuffling, and a large man stumbling down the hall. In the next few moments of silence, I changed back into my clothes, keeping the makeup in my pocket. Not long after, Alexis opened the closet back up and let me out.
“How often does he hit you?” I demanded.
“Only when he’s had to much wine.”
“And how often is that?”
“A few times every… month.”
“Every month? Alexis, you’re the next queen of Ozelite! You shouldn’t have to deal with that crap!”
“He’s my father, no matter what I am.”
Exasperated, I sighed and said, “Okay, fine. But you can’t deal with that forever.”
Alexis bit her lip, and started at her reflection in her mirror. After a moment she said, “I think it’s time for you to go back to the tower.”
“Fine,” I replied curtly. Avoiding my stare, Alexis ran her hands along the wall, and the door hissed open. I followed her up the stairs, as the door hissed back shut.
When we got to the top of the stairs, Alexis whispered, “Oh, no.”
“What?”
“The door won’t open.”
“What do you mean the door won’t open?”
“It just won’t! It tried to, but it can’t! I don’t know why!”
“Is there another way to get up to the tower besides this way?”
“Umm…” I could see Alexis racking her brain, trying to remember if there was another way to get up to my tower besides the way the guards were guarding.
“Oh!” she gasped, “There is, but it’ll take quite a long time…”
“When will my dinner be sent to my room?”
“I’ll take care of that. Come on, follow me.” I let her slide past me on the stairwell, and we continued back down the steps. This time, we went a lot further down.
“That tower’s up high,” I commented.
“You have no idea.”
Alexis stopped her descent, and started pressing against the wall again.
“How do you where all the stops are?” I asked her as she tried to find the sweet spot.
“The lanterns. See this one,” she pointed above where she was feeling, “Has the initials ‘KBC’. That means Kitchen Broom Closet.”
Sure enough, as I studied the lanterns, each one had some arrangement of letters. Finally, she silent hiss of the door opening occurred, and we stepped into a small, confined closet. Alexis peeked her head out, than motioned for me to follow her.
We hurried through the kitchen to fast for me to get a good look, but I could tell it was large and grand with lots of technology.
We stepped out of the kitchen into a grand foyer. The floor was deep sapphire blue that, with a stab of pain, reminded me of Ash’s eyes. But the only thing that caught my attention was the chandelier, made out of thousands of bits of crystal.
“Is that real crystal?”
“Just like the whole palace.”
I thought about the rumors of the palace- that it was made of all crystal- and regretted that I had been unconscious when brought into it.
“Stay here. Hide if someone comes. I’ll be right back.” She hurried back in the direction of the kitchen. I waited in the foyer, staying near the large statue of a god incase I needed to hide.
Alexis came back soon. I asked her, “What was that about?”
“Just telling the kitchen help to wait until I come again until sending food to the prisoner in the High Tower.”
“Oh, okay.”
“Um, Alexis?” I mumbled as we snuck out of the foyer, down the empty hall.
“Yes?”
“Do you have a, a um, bathroom I could use?”
“Oh, I’m sorry, Ash! You mustn’t ever use that urn they gave you. It’s filthy! Come with me.” She took a sharp turn, and stopped in front of a wooden door
“Here,” she said. I went in, and took care of my needs. With my hand just about to open the door, I heard Alexis say unnecessarily loud, “Oh, hello Governess Morgan!”
I froze. A prim female voice responded, “Good afternoon, Miss Alexis. May I ask as to what you are up to, so far away from your chambers?”
“Just going for a walk, using the latrine.”
“My, well, I was just on my way to the latrine. You may go ahead.”
“Thank you.”
I pressed against the same wall the door was on. Alexis hurried in, locking the door behind her.
“What are we going to do?” I hissed.
“There’s a passageway in here. I’ve never used it before, though, so I don’t know where it leads.”
“Anything to get out of here!”
“But I won’t know where to find you!”
“Come back n here when your uh…”
“Governess,” she supplied.
“Yeah, when your governess leaves.”
She nodded. She went over to the toilet, and pulled the flusher. I only realized it was just to throw the governess off track when she turned on the faucet, then walked away from it. She went to the air vent on the bottom of the right wall, and took off the metal vent. It looked just barley big enough for me to get into it.
“Through there?” I asked.
“Yes. I’ll meet you… wherever in a few minutes. Hurry, and don‘t stop!”
I scurried into the vent as Alexis replaced the metal part. I heard her turn the faucet off as I hurried down the vent. That was the last thing I heard.
The vent was cramped, dusty, and smelled musty. I looked forward to getting out of there. Pausing for a moment, I listen to see if Alexis was following me yet. Not hearing anything, I continued down the vent.
To my dismay, the vent suddenly split off. If could either go straight, left, or right. How would Alexis know which way I went? Should I wait for her? She had told me not to stop, though.\
Frustrated and feeling more than a little claustrophobic, I mulled over what to do. It came to me when I thought to myself, What would Ash do if she were powerless? It was so obvious then!
I shifted through my pockets. Ash always had some useful thing in her pockets. Grinning, I pulled out the pencil-like thing Alexis had used to line under my eyes. I drew a dark purple arrow pointing straight ahead. No way she could miss that. After shoving the pencil back in my pocket, and feeling quite accomplished, I kept crawling straight ahead.
Right about when I was wondering when the vent would end, I came to another metal frame in the vent. I peeked out of it first, to see what was down there.
It was the floor of a long hallway not dissimilar to the one I had been sneaking down not long before. I decided to wait for Alexis before popping out the metal frame and crawling out.
“When’s the next execution date?” a deep voice coming down the hallway asked. I froze for a moment, but scuttled out of the way so you couldn’t see my brown dress through the opening.
“Tomorrow they’re killing a whole bunch of hideaways,” another voice answered.
“Who’s doing that shift?”
“Clark, Payton, Reynolds, and Richard.”
“They get the next day off?”
“Yep. When’s your day?”
“Ah, I’m doin’ the kids. No fun in that- they never struggle.”
“Ha! I don’t have a day yet…” the guards voices got quieter as they walked down the hall. I noticed my fists were clenched, and my fingernails were digging into my palms. Unclenching them, I took a big breath.
For the first time, I realized the guards enjoyed killing the innocent. My stomach churned. I really hope Alexis turns out to be a better ruler than her father.
As if conjured up by my thoughts, Alexis crawled up next to me.
“Good job. Governess Morgan doesn’t suspect anything,” she whispered to me. I could only nod in response as I popped out the metal framing. We scurried out into the hall, Alexis quickly replacing the metal.
“Where are we?”
“The West Hall.”
“Is there a way to get to my tower from here?” Funny, how its become ‘my tower’.
“Yes. You took the right turn- we were headed here anyways.” She started walking down the hall, and I followed. We took many turns and eventually came to a dead end.
“What now?”
Alexis opened the door on the wall to the left of the dead end. The door opened to, a stone wall.
“Huh?”
“It’s a trick. Come on.” To my amazement, she walked right through the wall. She stuck her head out and whispered, “Come on!”
Dazed, I walked through the wall- which was, in fact, just n illusion. It led to a small, rectangular room. It was empty, except for a large chest in the center of the room. Alexis opened the chest with a key she pulled out of her pocket. Looking down into it, I saw it was a giant hole in the floor, with a ladder leading down.
“You go first so I can lock it,” Alexis told me. For a moment I thought she would lock me down there, but then I decided if she wanted to turn on me, she would’ve done it already. So, I went down into the hole, and Alexis followed, locking the chest behind her.
Now we were in a circular room made of stone, with oil lamps around the upper perimeter. In between each lamp was a ladder, some going up, some leading down. Alexis chose the one across from the one we had just climbed down, one that was leading upwards. Looking up, I could see it led upwards into the darkness.
“Does this go all the way up into the tower?” I asked, feeling the blood drain from my face.
“Yeah, up to the hallway. Come on.” She began climbing and, with a sigh I followed her up the ladder.
We climbed for what seemed like forever. My knuckles were white from clutching the bars, and my feet were sore, and surely forming blisters. When we finally reached the top, we were met by a trap door. Alexis just nudged it, and it swung open easily.
“Hurry up, but stay quiet.” She disappeared up the trapdoor, and I followed. I saw we were in the middle of the hallway that, at the end of it, held the door to my tower.
“That’s funny,” Alexis mumbled, “I’m positive that wasn’t there before.” I looked at what she was looking at. It was an odd sight. The chest it was sitting on was normal enough, dark, knotted wood, with three drawers in it. But on top of it, was photograph. This might not have meant anything to Alexis, but it meant a whole lot to me. Because, it was a photograph of a blonde-haired baby boy.
Ash:
Almost hyperventilating, I ran back into the street, leaving the book, but the note burning a hole in my pocket. When I was in the center of the crowd, I took a deep breath, and calmed myself. For a split second, I thought about telling Corey, but a voice inside me screeched, No, don’t! I knew it was right. I couldn’t tell Corey about Andrew’s note. I know if Anna and I went after him, Corey would follow me. And I would go find him.
Putting on a placid face, I went to find Corey and Luke. They were still sitting where I had left them. Luke looked a lot more serious. I sat back down in between them.
“You okay?” Corey asked, squeezing my knee. I nodded, not saying anything. I most certainly was not okay, but Corey didn’t need to know that.
“Lynn- Ash-, I’m really sorry,” Luke stuttered. I held up a hand, and said coolly, “Forget it. I might as well get used to it.”
Turning to Corey I asked, “What’s he know?”
“What he is, what I am, what you are. That Queen Azalea died. That we’re going after your sister who’s trying to die for you.”
“So everything.”
“Yes,” he answered with his mouth, but his eyes gave me a different answer.
“Luke,” I turned back to him, “Maybe you should go talk to your dad about your being a seventh son. We’ll wait here.”
He looked at me as if he didn’t believe we’d actually wait for him. “Promise?”
“Yes, I promise,” I sighed. He gave a tight nod before scurrying off.
“He’s a keeper,” Corey muttered. I hit him in the chest.
“Don’t change the subject. What didn’t you tell him?”
“About your past. How you and Anna were separated for twelve years, and about Andrew.” The mention of Andrew made my heart flutter, but Corey didn’t miss a beat. “And about the prophecy.”
“Good. I wouldn’t want him, or anyone for that matter, to know about that unless they have to.”
Corey laughed, long and hard. I stared at him for a moment, questioning his sanity. When he finally recovered, he said, “Gosh, I can remember us only a week ago!”
“Huh?”
“Ash, a week ago you would hardly talk to me. I’d embarrass you to make my friends laugh, and you’d embarrass me even worse to get even. I’d hardly call us friends. And now look at us!”
“It was Anna,” I said slowly, “Anna brought us together.”
“Yeah, she did. She has a way with people.” I noticed he was careful to say has, not had. I was looking down at my hands, strands from my loose bun framing my face. Noticing Corey’s silence, I tilted my head to look up at him. He was looking at me.
“What?”
“You know your beautiful, right?” I was taken aback by his question/comment.
“That’s why all these guys were staring at me.” I wave my hand across the crowd.
“But they can only see your beauty on the outside. I can see it on the inside, too.”
Corey and I stared at each other. I looked at him- really looked at him. At his straight, thick, dark chocolate brown hair that hung in his face, his brilliant green eyes, his tan, heart-shaped face with his cheeks still a little to chubby for a twelve-year-olds. I remembered when I first met him- I pushed him in the mud because he was so quiet and friendless. He had been getting on my nerves. But then he got friends, and got on my nerves even more. I had known him almost all my life, and he never ceased to surprise me.
Suddenly, I was aware of our faces getting closer together and, for the second time in that hour, almost had my first kiss.
But then Luke came back over.
“I talked to my dad,” he told us, pushing through the crowds. Surprised, I straightened up and leaned against the back of the bench, as did Corey. He looked a little irritated, but he also looked as shocked as I felt.
“And?” Corey asked.
“He told me a not so nice story.” Luke’s face seemed clouded with new information. I remembered the day I found out about Anna and I being triplets, and could relate to Luke’s shock.
He sat down next to me. I asked him, “Are we gonna hear this story?”
“Before my sister was born, my parents had five boys. Two of them were stillborn, one died in my mom’s womb, and the last two died when they were only two and three years old. Then my sister, Marigold, was born. When she was two years old, my mom was expecting twin boys- conjoined twins. One of them couldn’t live without the other, and the other couldn’t live with the other. So the one who couldn’t live without the other- the older one- ended up dying, but the other survived. I was the other one.”
Luke looked so confused and betrayed and guilty. I felt a strange tingle run through my left side.
“Wow,” Corey mumbled.
“I killed him,” Luke’s face was contorted in pain.
“No,” I whispered, putting my hand on his arm, “You didn’t. You couldn’t live with him.”
“He couldn’t live without me!”
“You can’t live with this guilt hanging over you. Let go of it.”
“I can’t! I killed him!”
All my sympathy washed out for him. With a sneer, I asked him, “You don’t think I think I’m killing my sister? If I had been captured instead of her, she’d still be here. Isn’t that the same? No, I guess it isn’t. It has nothing to do with you or your petty worries that you had and have no control over. If I could’ve saved my sister but didn’t, that wouldn’t matter. It doesn’t have to do with Luke. Of course it wouldn’t matter.”
Both Corey and Luke seemed shocked at my attitude. I very almost lifted up my hand to flip my hair over my shoulder, when I remembered it wasn’t there to flip.
“Crap, crap, crap!” Luke muttered suddenly.
“What?” Corey asked.
“Hide me!”
“Explain, please.”
“It’s them. The Goddesses.” He motioned over to a trio of girls. They looked about thirteen years old. The middle one was the thinnest and the tallest. Her hair was just a tad bit lighter than Corey‘s dark chocolate hair, in ringlets that went down to her waist. Her cheekbones and nose were sharp, yet petite, as were her slender hands. Her stained lips were brought up in a sneer, flashing her white teeth. Her eyes were icy blue. Her cronies were identical- unnaturally skinny, pale, slender hands, moss green eyes, and crimped hair, though one’s hair was scarlet and the other’s was strawberry blonde.
“The Goddesses?” Corey asked.
“Major jerks. The leader- the one in the middle- that’s Aphrodite. The twins are Athena and Minerva. Aphrodite is in love with me, and won’t leave me alone.”
“Because you’re so charming,” I sneered, and rolled my eyes. Studying the girl, I decided I could take them all, easy. Especially Aphrodite- stuck up name, much.
As if reading my mind, Aphrodite’s big eyes locked onto mine. I held her gaze. She wrinkled her turned-up nose at me, making me resist the urge to childishly stick my tongue out at her.
After a quick glare, Aphrodite averted her attention to Luke. She grinned, and started walking towards us. Her little lap dogs followed.
“Hey Luke!” Aphrodite greeted in her sickly fake sugary voice.
“Hi, Aphrodite,” Luke grimaced.
“Who are your friends?” She took a moment to glare at me.
“This is Lynn and Reid.” That boy was such a smooth liar I wondered where he got his talent from.
“You new here?” Aphrodite was checking out Corey now. For some reason, this made me mad.
“Just passing through,” Corey answered.
“Where you from?”
“We travel,” I said, dodging her question. For the first time, she spoke to me.
“Isn’t that dandy! How do you know Luke?”
Luke put his arm around my shoulder, and I admired the nerve of that boy, though I wanted to beat it out of him.
“You owe me,” he mouthed to me, so fluently I barley caught it, which means Aphrodite definitely didn’t.
“Family friends. Actually, Aphrodite, we’re dating.”
A flash of pure hatred towards me shot across her face.
“Lovely. Is it a… serious relationship? If you don’t mind me prying.”
“Not with my brother around.” I nudged Corey. It seemed to please Aphrodite that Corey was my brother.
“So Reid. It was Reid, right? Do you wanna get something to eat?”
“Actually, we gotta get going.”
“Such a shame. So, Luke…”
“Sorry, Aphrodite,” Luke cut in, “But I’m going with them.”
Anna:
I dived into the closet, and Alexis shut the door just as King Brendan opened her door.
“Hi, sweetie!” the King’s slurred voice boomed.
“Father, are you drunk?” Alexis’s calm voice that made me wonder how often this happened.
“What’d make you say that, sweetie?” He hiccupped.
“Father, I think you need to go get some sleep. Rest for a while.”
“Don’t tell you father what to do!” I heard a sharp slapping noise, then the sound of retching.
“I’ll get you to bed, Father.” I heard the door open, and Alexis’s composed voice call down the hallway, “Sir Thane, Father isn’t felling good. Could you please help him to his room. And dispose of this bag.”
I heard some shuffling, and a large man stumbling down the hall. In the next few moments of silence, I changed back into my clothes, keeping the makeup in my pocket. Not long after, Alexis opened the closet back up and let me out.
“How often does he hit you?” I demanded.
“Only when he’s had to much wine.”
“And how often is that?”
“A few times every… month.”
“Every month? Alexis, you’re the next queen of Ozelite! You shouldn’t have to deal with that crap!”
“He’s my father, no matter what I am.”
Exasperated, I sighed and said, “Okay, fine. But you can’t deal with that forever.”
Alexis bit her lip, and started at her reflection in her mirror. After a moment she said, “I think it’s time for you to go back to the tower.”
“Fine,” I replied curtly. Avoiding my stare, Alexis ran her hands along the wall, and the door hissed open. I followed her up the stairs, as the door hissed back shut.
When we got to the top of the stairs, Alexis whispered, “Oh, no.”
“What?”
“The door won’t open.”
“What do you mean the door won’t open?”
“It just won’t! It tried to, but it can’t! I don’t know why!”
“Is there another way to get up to the tower besides this way?”
“Umm…” I could see Alexis racking her brain, trying to remember if there was another way to get up to my tower besides the way the guards were guarding.
“Oh!” she gasped, “There is, but it’ll take quite a long time…”
“When will my dinner be sent to my room?”
“I’ll take care of that. Come on, follow me.” I let her slide past me on the stairwell, and we continued back down the steps. This time, we went a lot further down.
“That tower’s up high,” I commented.
“You have no idea.”
Alexis stopped her descent, and started pressing against the wall again.
“How do you where all the stops are?” I asked her as she tried to find the sweet spot.
“The lanterns. See this one,” she pointed above where she was feeling, “Has the initials ‘KBC’. That means Kitchen Broom Closet.”
Sure enough, as I studied the lanterns, each one had some arrangement of letters. Finally, she silent hiss of the door opening occurred, and we stepped into a small, confined closet. Alexis peeked her head out, than motioned for me to follow her.
We hurried through the kitchen to fast for me to get a good look, but I could tell it was large and grand with lots of technology.
We stepped out of the kitchen into a grand foyer. The floor was deep sapphire blue that, with a stab of pain, reminded me of Ash’s eyes. But the only thing that caught my attention was the chandelier, made out of thousands of bits of crystal.
“Is that real crystal?”
“Just like the whole palace.”
I thought about the rumors of the palace- that it was made of all crystal- and regretted that I had been unconscious when brought into it.
“Stay here. Hide if someone comes. I’ll be right back.” She hurried back in the direction of the kitchen. I waited in the foyer, staying near the large statue of a god incase I needed to hide.
Alexis came back soon. I asked her, “What was that about?”
“Just telling the kitchen help to wait until I come again until sending food to the prisoner in the High Tower.”
“Oh, okay.”
“Um, Alexis?” I mumbled as we snuck out of the foyer, down the empty hall.
“Yes?”
“Do you have a, a um, bathroom I could use?”
“Oh, I’m sorry, Ash! You mustn’t ever use that urn they gave you. It’s filthy! Come with me.” She took a sharp turn, and stopped in front of a wooden door
“Here,” she said. I went in, and took care of my needs. With my hand just about to open the door, I heard Alexis say unnecessarily loud, “Oh, hello Governess Morgan!”
I froze. A prim female voice responded, “Good afternoon, Miss Alexis. May I ask as to what you are up to, so far away from your chambers?”
“Just going for a walk, using the latrine.”
“My, well, I was just on my way to the latrine. You may go ahead.”
“Thank you.”
I pressed against the same wall the door was on. Alexis hurried in, locking the door behind her.
“What are we going to do?” I hissed.
“There’s a passageway in here. I’ve never used it before, though, so I don’t know where it leads.”
“Anything to get out of here!”
“But I won’t know where to find you!”
“Come back n here when your uh…”
“Governess,” she supplied.
“Yeah, when your governess leaves.”
She nodded. She went over to the toilet, and pulled the flusher. I only realized it was just to throw the governess off track when she turned on the faucet, then walked away from it. She went to the air vent on the bottom of the right wall, and took off the metal vent. It looked just barley big enough for me to get into it.
“Through there?” I asked.
“Yes. I’ll meet you… wherever in a few minutes. Hurry, and don‘t stop!”
I scurried into the vent as Alexis replaced the metal part. I heard her turn the faucet off as I hurried down the vent. That was the last thing I heard.
The vent was cramped, dusty, and smelled musty. I looked forward to getting out of there. Pausing for a moment, I listen to see if Alexis was following me yet. Not hearing anything, I continued down the vent.
To my dismay, the vent suddenly split off. If could either go straight, left, or right. How would Alexis know which way I went? Should I wait for her? She had told me not to stop, though.\
Frustrated and feeling more than a little claustrophobic, I mulled over what to do. It came to me when I thought to myself, What would Ash do if she were powerless? It was so obvious then!
I shifted through my pockets. Ash always had some useful thing in her pockets. Grinning, I pulled out the pencil-like thing Alexis had used to line under my eyes. I drew a dark purple arrow pointing straight ahead. No way she could miss that. After shoving the pencil back in my pocket, and feeling quite accomplished, I kept crawling straight ahead.
Right about when I was wondering when the vent would end, I came to another metal frame in the vent. I peeked out of it first, to see what was down there.
It was the floor of a long hallway not dissimilar to the one I had been sneaking down not long before. I decided to wait for Alexis before popping out the metal frame and crawling out.
“When’s the next execution date?” a deep voice coming down the hallway asked. I froze for a moment, but scuttled out of the way so you couldn’t see my brown dress through the opening.
“Tomorrow they’re killing a whole bunch of hideaways,” another voice answered.
“Who’s doing that shift?”
“Clark, Payton, Reynolds, and Richard.”
“They get the next day off?”
“Yep. When’s your day?”
“Ah, I’m doin’ the kids. No fun in that- they never struggle.”
“Ha! I don’t have a day yet…” the guards voices got quieter as they walked down the hall. I noticed my fists were clenched, and my fingernails were digging into my palms. Unclenching them, I took a big breath.
For the first time, I realized the guards enjoyed killing the innocent. My stomach churned. I really hope Alexis turns out to be a better ruler than her father.
As if conjured up by my thoughts, Alexis crawled up next to me.
“Good job. Governess Morgan doesn’t suspect anything,” she whispered to me. I could only nod in response as I popped out the metal framing. We scurried out into the hall, Alexis quickly replacing the metal.
“Where are we?”
“The West Hall.”
“Is there a way to get to my tower from here?” Funny, how its become ‘my tower’.
“Yes. You took the right turn- we were headed here anyways.” She started walking down the hall, and I followed. We took many turns and eventually came to a dead end.
“What now?”
Alexis opened the door on the wall to the left of the dead end. The door opened to, a stone wall.
“Huh?”
“It’s a trick. Come on.” To my amazement, she walked right through the wall. She stuck her head out and whispered, “Come on!”
Dazed, I walked through the wall- which was, in fact, just n illusion. It led to a small, rectangular room. It was empty, except for a large chest in the center of the room. Alexis opened the chest with a key she pulled out of her pocket. Looking down into it, I saw it was a giant hole in the floor, with a ladder leading down.
“You go first so I can lock it,” Alexis told me. For a moment I thought she would lock me down there, but then I decided if she wanted to turn on me, she would’ve done it already. So, I went down into the hole, and Alexis followed, locking the chest behind her.
Now we were in a circular room made of stone, with oil lamps around the upper perimeter. In between each lamp was a ladder, some going up, some leading down. Alexis chose the one across from the one we had just climbed down, one that was leading upwards. Looking up, I could see it led upwards into the darkness.
“Does this go all the way up into the tower?” I asked, feeling the blood drain from my face.
“Yeah, up to the hallway. Come on.” She began climbing and, with a sigh I followed her up the ladder.
We climbed for what seemed like forever. My knuckles were white from clutching the bars, and my feet were sore, and surely forming blisters. When we finally reached the top, we were met by a trap door. Alexis just nudged it, and it swung open easily.
“Hurry up, but stay quiet.” She disappeared up the trapdoor, and I followed. I saw we were in the middle of the hallway that, at the end of it, held the door to my tower.
“That’s funny,” Alexis mumbled, “I’m positive that wasn’t there before.” I looked at what she was looking at. It was an odd sight. The chest it was sitting on was normal enough, dark, knotted wood, with three drawers in it. But on top of it, was photograph. This might not have meant anything to Alexis, but it meant a whole lot to me. Because, it was a photograph of a blonde-haired baby boy.
Chapter Eight
Ash:
Almost hyperventilating, I ran back into the street, leaving the book, but the note burning a hole in my pocket. When I was in the center of the crowd, I took a deep breath, and calmed myself. For a split second, I thought about telling Corey, but a voice inside me screeched, No, don’t! I knew it was right. I couldn’t tell Corey about Andrew’s note. I know if Anna and I went after him, Corey would follow me. And I would go find him.
Putting on a placid face, I went to find Corey and Luke. They were still sitting where I had left them. Luke looked a lot more serious. I sat back down in between them.
“You okay?” Corey asked, squeezing my knee. I nodded, not saying anything. I most certainly was not okay, but Corey didn’t need to know that.
“Lynn- Ash-, I’m really sorry,” Luke stuttered. I held up a hand, and said coolly, “Forget it. I might as well get used to it.”
Turning to Corey I asked, “What’s he know?”
“What he is, what I am, what you are. That Queen Azalea died. That we’re going after your sister who’s trying to die for you.”
“So everything.”
“Yes,” he answered with his mouth, but his eyes gave me a different answer.
“Luke,” I turned back to him, “Maybe you should go talk to your dad about your being a seventh son. We’ll wait here.”
He looked at me as if he didn’t believe we’d actually wait for him. “Promise?”
“Yes, I promise,” I sighed. He gave a tight nod before scurrying off.
“He’s a keeper,” Corey muttered. I hit him in the chest.
“Don’t change the subject. What didn’t you tell him?”
“About your past. How you and Anna were separated for twelve years, and about Andrew.” The mention of Andrew made my heart flutter, but Corey didn’t miss a beat. “And about the prophecy.”
“Good. I wouldn’t want him, or anyone for that matter, to know about that unless they have to.”
Corey laughed, long and hard. I stared at him for a moment, questioning his sanity. When he finally recovered, he said, “Gosh, I can remember us only a week ago!”
“Huh?”
“Ash, a week ago you would hardly talk to me. I’d embarrass you to make my friends laugh, and you’d embarrass me even worse to get even. I’d hardly call us friends. And now look at us!”
“It was Anna,” I said slowly, “Anna brought us together.”
“Yeah, she did. She has a way with people.” I noticed he was careful to say has, not had. I was looking down at my hands, strands from my loose bun framing my face. Noticing Corey’s silence, I tilted my head to look up at him. He was looking at me.
“What?”
“You know your beautiful, right?” I was taken aback by his question/comment.
“That’s why all these guys were staring at me.” I wave my hand across the crowd.
“But they can only see your beauty on the outside. I can see it on the inside, too.”
Corey and I stared at each other. I looked at him- really looked at him. At his straight, thick, dark chocolate brown hair that hung in his face, his brilliant green eyes, his tan, heart-shaped face with his cheeks still a little to chubby for a twelve-year-olds. I remembered when I first met him- I pushed him in the mud because he was so quiet and friendless. He had been getting on my nerves. But then he got friends, and got on my nerves even more. I had known him almost all my life, and he never ceased to surprise me.
Suddenly, I was aware of our faces getting closer together and, for the second time in that hour, almost had my first kiss.
But then Luke came back over.
“I talked to my dad,” he told us, pushing through the crowds. Surprised, I straightened up and leaned against the back of the bench, as did Corey. He looked a little irritated, but he also looked as shocked as I felt.
“And?” Corey asked.
“He told me a not so nice story.” Luke’s face seemed clouded with new information. I remembered the day I found out about Anna and I being triplets, and could relate to Luke’s shock.
He sat down next to me. I asked him, “Are we gonna hear this story?”
“Before my sister was born, my parents had five boys. Two of them were stillborn, one died in my mom’s womb, and the last two died when they were only two and three years old. Then my sister, Marigold, was born. When she was two years old, my mom was expecting twin boys- conjoined twins. One of them couldn’t live without the other, and the other couldn’t live with the other. So the one who couldn’t live without the other- the older one- ended up dying, but the other survived. I was the other one.”
Luke looked so confused and betrayed and guilty. I felt a strange tingle run through my left side.
“Wow,” Corey mumbled.
“I killed him,” Luke’s face was contorted in pain.
“No,” I whispered, putting my hand on his arm, “You didn’t. You couldn’t live with him.”
“He couldn’t live without me!”
“You can’t live with this guilt hanging over you. Let go of it.”
“I can’t! I killed him!”
All my sympathy washed out for him. With a sneer, I asked him, “You don’t think I think I’m killing my sister? If I had been captured instead of her, she’d still be here. Isn’t that the same? No, I guess it isn’t. It has nothing to do with you or your petty worries that you had and have no control over. If I could’ve saved my sister but didn’t, that wouldn’t matter. It doesn’t have to do with Luke. Of course it wouldn’t matter.”
Both Corey and Luke seemed shocked at my attitude. I very almost lifted up my hand to flip my hair over my shoulder, when I remembered it wasn’t there to flip.
“Crap, crap, crap!” Luke muttered suddenly.
“What?” Corey asked.
“Hide me!”
“Explain, please.”
“It’s them. The Goddesses.” He motioned over to a trio of girls. They looked about thirteen years old. The middle one was the thinnest and the tallest. Her hair was just a tad bit lighter than Corey‘s dark chocolate hair, in ringlets that went down to her waist. Her cheekbones and nose were sharp, yet petite, as were her slender hands. Her stained lips were brought up in a sneer, flashing her white teeth. Her eyes were icy blue. Her cronies were identical- unnaturally skinny, pale, slender hands, moss green eyes, and crimped hair, though one’s hair was scarlet and the other’s was strawberry blonde.
“The Goddesses?” Corey asked.
“Major jerks. The leader- the one in the middle- that’s Aphrodite. The twins are Athena and Minerva. Aphrodite is in love with me, and won’t leave me alone.”
“Because you’re so charming,” I sneered, and rolled my eyes. Studying the girl, I decided I could take them all, easy. Especially Aphrodite- stuck up name, much.
As if reading my mind, Aphrodite’s big eyes locked onto mine. I held her gaze. She wrinkled her turned-up nose at me, making me resist the urge to childishly stick my tongue out at her.
After a quick glare, Aphrodite averted her attention to Luke. She grinned, and started walking towards us. Her little lap dogs followed.
“Hey Luke!” Aphrodite greeted in her sickly fake sugary voice.
“Hi, Aphrodite,” Luke grimaced.
“Who are your friends?” She took a moment to glare at me.
“This is Lynn and Reid.” That boy was such a smooth liar I wondered where he got his talent from.
“You new here?” Aphrodite was checking out Corey now. For some reason, this made me mad.
“Just passing through,” Corey answered.
“Where you from?”
“We travel,” I said, dodging her question. For the first time, she spoke to me.
“Isn’t that dandy! How do you know Luke?”
Luke put his arm around my shoulder, and I admired the nerve of that boy, though I wanted to beat it out of him.
“You owe me,” he mouthed to me, so fluently I barley caught it, which means Aphrodite definitely didn’t.
“Family friends. Actually, Aphrodite, we’re dating.”
A flash of pure hatred towards me shot across her face.
“Lovely. Is it a… serious relationship? If you don’t mind me prying.”
“Not with my brother around.” I nudged Corey. It seemed to please Aphrodite that Corey was my brother.
“So Reid. It was Reid, right? Do you wanna get something to eat?”
“Actually, we gotta get going.”
“Such a shame. So, Luke…”
“Sorry, Aphrodite,” Luke cut in, “But I’m going with them.”
Anna:
I dived into the closet, and Alexis shut the door just as King Brendan opened her door.
“Hi, sweetie!” the King’s slurred voice boomed.
“Father, are you drunk?” Alexis’s calm voice that made me wonder how often this happened.
“What’d make you say that, sweetie?” He hiccupped.
“Father, I think you need to go get some sleep. Rest for a while.”
“Don’t tell you father what to do!” I heard a sharp slapping noise, then the sound of retching.
“I’ll get you to bed, Father.” I heard the door open, and Alexis’s composed voice call down the hallway, “Sir Thane, Father isn’t felling good. Could you please help him to his room. And dispose of this bag.”
I heard some shuffling, and a large man stumbling down the hall. In the next few moments of silence, I changed back into my clothes, keeping the makeup in my pocket. Not long after, Alexis opened the closet back up and let me out.
“How often does he hit you?” I demanded.
“Only when he’s had to much wine.”
“And how often is that?”
“A few times every… month.”
“Every month? Alexis, you’re the next queen of Ozelite! You shouldn’t have to deal with that crap!”
“He’s my father, no matter what I am.”
Exasperated, I sighed and said, “Okay, fine. But you can’t deal with that forever.”
Alexis bit her lip, and started at her reflection in her mirror. After a moment she said, “I think it’s time for you to go back to the tower.”
“Fine,” I replied curtly. Avoiding my stare, Alexis ran her hands along the wall, and the door hissed open. I followed her up the stairs, as the door hissed back shut.
When we got to the top of the stairs, Alexis whispered, “Oh, no.”
“What?”
“The door won’t open.”
“What do you mean the door won’t open?”
“It just won’t! It tried to, but it can’t! I don’t know why!”
“Is there another way to get up to the tower besides this way?”
“Umm…” I could see Alexis racking her brain, trying to remember if there was another way to get up to my tower besides the way the guards were guarding.
“Oh!” she gasped, “There is, but it’ll take quite a long time…”
“When will my dinner be sent to my room?”
“I’ll take care of that. Come on, follow me.” I let her slide past me on the stairwell, and we continued back down the steps. This time, we went a lot further down.
“That tower’s up high,” I commented.
“You have no idea.”
Alexis stopped her descent, and started pressing against the wall again.
“How do you where all the stops are?” I asked her as she tried to find the sweet spot.
“The lanterns. See this one,” she pointed above where she was feeling, “Has the initials ‘KBC’. That means Kitchen Broom Closet.”
Sure enough, as I studied the lanterns, each one had some arrangement of letters. Finally, she silent hiss of the door opening occurred, and we stepped into a small, confined closet. Alexis peeked her head out, than motioned for me to follow her.
We hurried through the kitchen to fast for me to get a good look, but I could tell it was large and grand with lots of technology.
We stepped out of the kitchen into a grand foyer. The floor was deep sapphire blue that, with a stab of pain, reminded me of Ash’s eyes. But the only thing that caught my attention was the chandelier, made out of thousands of bits of crystal.
“Is that real crystal?”
“Just like the whole palace.”
I thought about the rumors of the palace- that it was made of all crystal- and regretted that I had been unconscious when brought into it.
“Stay here. Hide if someone comes. I’ll be right back.” She hurried back in the direction of the kitchen. I waited in the foyer, staying near the large statue of a god incase I needed to hide.
Alexis came back soon. I asked her, “What was that about?”
“Just telling the kitchen help to wait until I come again until sending food to the prisoner in the High Tower.”
“Oh, okay.”
“Um, Alexis?” I mumbled as we snuck out of the foyer, down the empty hall.
“Yes?”
“Do you have a, a um, bathroom I could use?”
“Oh, I’m sorry, Ash! You mustn’t ever use that urn they gave you. It’s filthy! Come with me.” She took a sharp turn, and stopped in front of a wooden door
“Here,” she said. I went in, and took care of my needs. With my hand just about to open the door, I heard Alexis say unnecessarily loud, “Oh, hello Governess Morgan!”
I froze. A prim female voice responded, “Good afternoon, Miss Alexis. May I ask as to what you are up to, so far away from your chambers?”
“Just going for a walk, using the latrine.”
“My, well, I was just on my way to the latrine. You may go ahead.”
“Thank you.”
I pressed against the same wall the door was on. Alexis hurried in, locking the door behind her.
“What are we going to do?” I hissed.
“There’s a passageway in here. I’ve never used it before, though, so I don’t know where it leads.”
“Anything to get out of here!”
“But I won’t know where to find you!”
“Come back n here when your uh…”
“Governess,” she supplied.
“Yeah, when your governess leaves.”
She nodded. She went over to the toilet, and pulled the flusher. I only realized it was just to throw the governess off track when she turned on the faucet, then walked away from it. She went to the air vent on the bottom of the right wall, and took off the metal vent. It looked just barley big enough for me to get into it.
“Through there?” I asked.
“Yes. I’ll meet you… wherever in a few minutes. Hurry, and don‘t stop!”
I scurried into the vent as Alexis replaced the metal part. I heard her turn the faucet off as I hurried down the vent. That was the last thing I heard.
The vent was cramped, dusty, and smelled musty. I looked forward to getting out of there. Pausing for a moment, I listen to see if Alexis was following me yet. Not hearing anything, I continued down the vent.
To my dismay, the vent suddenly split off. If could either go straight, left, or right. How would Alexis know which way I went? Should I wait for her? She had told me not to stop, though.\
Frustrated and feeling more than a little claustrophobic, I mulled over what to do. It came to me when I thought to myself, What would Ash do if she were powerless? It was so obvious then!
I shifted through my pockets. Ash always had some useful thing in her pockets. Grinning, I pulled out the pencil-like thing Alexis had used to line under my eyes. I drew a dark purple arrow pointing straight ahead. No way she could miss that. After shoving the pencil back in my pocket, and feeling quite accomplished, I kept crawling straight ahead.
Right about when I was wondering when the vent would end, I came to another metal frame in the vent. I peeked out of it first, to see what was down there.
It was the floor of a long hallway not dissimilar to the one I had been sneaking down not long before. I decided to wait for Alexis before popping out the metal frame and crawling out.
“When’s the next execution date?” a deep voice coming down the hallway asked. I froze for a moment, but scuttled out of the way so you couldn’t see my brown dress through the opening.
“Tomorrow they’re killing a whole bunch of hideaways,” another voice answered.
“Who’s doing that shift?”
“Clark, Payton, Reynolds, and Richard.”
“They get the next day off?”
“Yep. When’s your day?”
“Ah, I’m doin’ the kids. No fun in that- they never struggle.”
“Ha! I don’t have a day yet…” the guards voices got quieter as they walked down the hall. I noticed my fists were clenched, and my fingernails were digging into my palms. Unclenching them, I took a big breath.
For the first time, I realized the guards enjoyed killing the innocent. My stomach churned. I really hope Alexis turns out to be a better ruler than her father.
As if conjured up by my thoughts, Alexis crawled up next to me.
“Good job. Governess Morgan doesn’t suspect anything,” she whispered to me. I could only nod in response as I popped out the metal framing. We scurried out into the hall, Alexis quickly replacing the metal.
“Where are we?”
“The West Hall.”
“Is there a way to get to my tower from here?” Funny, how its become ‘my tower’.
“Yes. You took the right turn- we were headed here anyways.” She started walking down the hall, and I followed. We took many turns and eventually came to a dead end.
“What now?”
Alexis opened the door on the wall to the left of the dead end. The door opened to, a stone wall.
“Huh?”
“It’s a trick. Come on.” To my amazement, she walked right through the wall. She stuck her head out and whispered, “Come on!”
Dazed, I walked through the wall- which was, in fact, just n illusion. It led to a small, rectangular room. It was empty, except for a large chest in the center of the room. Alexis opened the chest with a key she pulled out of her pocket. Looking down into it, I saw it was a giant hole in the floor, with a ladder leading down.
“You go first so I can lock it,” Alexis told me. For a moment I thought she would lock me down there, but then I decided if she wanted to turn on me, she would’ve done it already. So, I went down into the hole, and Alexis followed, locking the chest behind her.
Now we were in a circular room made of stone, with oil lamps around the upper perimeter. In between each lamp was a ladder, some going up, some leading down. Alexis chose the one across from the one we had just climbed down, one that was leading upwards. Looking up, I could see it led upwards into the darkness.
“Does this go all the way up into the tower?” I asked, feeling the blood drain from my face.
“Yeah, up to the hallway. Come on.” She began climbing and, with a sigh I followed her up the ladder.
We climbed for what seemed like forever. My knuckles were white from clutching the bars, and my feet were sore, and surely forming blisters. When we finally reached the top, we were met by a trap door. Alexis just nudged it, and it swung open easily.
“Hurry up, but stay quiet.” She disappeared up the trapdoor, and I followed. I saw we were in the middle of the hallway that, at the end of it, held the door to my tower.
“That’s funny,” Alexis mumbled, “I’m positive that wasn’t there before.” I looked at what she was looking at. It was an odd sight. The chest it was sitting on was normal enough, dark, knotted wood, with three drawers in it. But on top of it, was photograph. This might not have meant anything to Alexis, but it meant a whole lot to me. Because, it was a photograph of a blonde-haired baby boy.
Ash:
Almost hyperventilating, I ran back into the street, leaving the book, but the note burning a hole in my pocket. When I was in the center of the crowd, I took a deep breath, and calmed myself. For a split second, I thought about telling Corey, but a voice inside me screeched, No, don’t! I knew it was right. I couldn’t tell Corey about Andrew’s note. I know if Anna and I went after him, Corey would follow me. And I would go find him.
Putting on a placid face, I went to find Corey and Luke. They were still sitting where I had left them. Luke looked a lot more serious. I sat back down in between them.
“You okay?” Corey asked, squeezing my knee. I nodded, not saying anything. I most certainly was not okay, but Corey didn’t need to know that.
“Lynn- Ash-, I’m really sorry,” Luke stuttered. I held up a hand, and said coolly, “Forget it. I might as well get used to it.”
Turning to Corey I asked, “What’s he know?”
“What he is, what I am, what you are. That Queen Azalea died. That we’re going after your sister who’s trying to die for you.”
“So everything.”
“Yes,” he answered with his mouth, but his eyes gave me a different answer.
“Luke,” I turned back to him, “Maybe you should go talk to your dad about your being a seventh son. We’ll wait here.”
He looked at me as if he didn’t believe we’d actually wait for him. “Promise?”
“Yes, I promise,” I sighed. He gave a tight nod before scurrying off.
“He’s a keeper,” Corey muttered. I hit him in the chest.
“Don’t change the subject. What didn’t you tell him?”
“About your past. How you and Anna were separated for twelve years, and about Andrew.” The mention of Andrew made my heart flutter, but Corey didn’t miss a beat. “And about the prophecy.”
“Good. I wouldn’t want him, or anyone for that matter, to know about that unless they have to.”
Corey laughed, long and hard. I stared at him for a moment, questioning his sanity. When he finally recovered, he said, “Gosh, I can remember us only a week ago!”
“Huh?”
“Ash, a week ago you would hardly talk to me. I’d embarrass you to make my friends laugh, and you’d embarrass me even worse to get even. I’d hardly call us friends. And now look at us!”
“It was Anna,” I said slowly, “Anna brought us together.”
“Yeah, she did. She has a way with people.” I noticed he was careful to say has, not had. I was looking down at my hands, strands from my loose bun framing my face. Noticing Corey’s silence, I tilted my head to look up at him. He was looking at me.
“What?”
“You know your beautiful, right?” I was taken aback by his question/comment.
“That’s why all these guys were staring at me.” I wave my hand across the crowd.
“But they can only see your beauty on the outside. I can see it on the inside, too.”
Corey and I stared at each other. I looked at him- really looked at him. At his straight, thick, dark chocolate brown hair that hung in his face, his brilliant green eyes, his tan, heart-shaped face with his cheeks still a little to chubby for a twelve-year-olds. I remembered when I first met him- I pushed him in the mud because he was so quiet and friendless. He had been getting on my nerves. But then he got friends, and got on my nerves even more. I had known him almost all my life, and he never ceased to surprise me.
Suddenly, I was aware of our faces getting closer together and, for the second time in that hour, almost had my first kiss.
But then Luke came back over.
“I talked to my dad,” he told us, pushing through the crowds. Surprised, I straightened up and leaned against the back of the bench, as did Corey. He looked a little irritated, but he also looked as shocked as I felt.
“And?” Corey asked.
“He told me a not so nice story.” Luke’s face seemed clouded with new information. I remembered the day I found out about Anna and I being triplets, and could relate to Luke’s shock.
He sat down next to me. I asked him, “Are we gonna hear this story?”
“Before my sister was born, my parents had five boys. Two of them were stillborn, one died in my mom’s womb, and the last two died when they were only two and three years old. Then my sister, Marigold, was born. When she was two years old, my mom was expecting twin boys- conjoined twins. One of them couldn’t live without the other, and the other couldn’t live with the other. So the one who couldn’t live without the other- the older one- ended up dying, but the other survived. I was the other one.”
Luke looked so confused and betrayed and guilty. I felt a strange tingle run through my left side.
“Wow,” Corey mumbled.
“I killed him,” Luke’s face was contorted in pain.
“No,” I whispered, putting my hand on his arm, “You didn’t. You couldn’t live with him.”
“He couldn’t live without me!”
“You can’t live with this guilt hanging over you. Let go of it.”
“I can’t! I killed him!”
All my sympathy washed out for him. With a sneer, I asked him, “You don’t think I think I’m killing my sister? If I had been captured instead of her, she’d still be here. Isn’t that the same? No, I guess it isn’t. It has nothing to do with you or your petty worries that you had and have no control over. If I could’ve saved my sister but didn’t, that wouldn’t matter. It doesn’t have to do with Luke. Of course it wouldn’t matter.”
Both Corey and Luke seemed shocked at my attitude. I very almost lifted up my hand to flip my hair over my shoulder, when I remembered it wasn’t there to flip.
“Crap, crap, crap!” Luke muttered suddenly.
“What?” Corey asked.
“Hide me!”
“Explain, please.”
“It’s them. The Goddesses.” He motioned over to a trio of girls. They looked about thirteen years old. The middle one was the thinnest and the tallest. Her hair was just a tad bit lighter than Corey‘s dark chocolate hair, in ringlets that went down to her waist. Her cheekbones and nose were sharp, yet petite, as were her slender hands. Her stained lips were brought up in a sneer, flashing her white teeth. Her eyes were icy blue. Her cronies were identical- unnaturally skinny, pale, slender hands, moss green eyes, and crimped hair, though one’s hair was scarlet and the other’s was strawberry blonde.
“The Goddesses?” Corey asked.
“Major jerks. The leader- the one in the middle- that’s Aphrodite. The twins are Athena and Minerva. Aphrodite is in love with me, and won’t leave me alone.”
“Because you’re so charming,” I sneered, and rolled my eyes. Studying the girl, I decided I could take them all, easy. Especially Aphrodite- stuck up name, much.
As if reading my mind, Aphrodite’s big eyes locked onto mine. I held her gaze. She wrinkled her turned-up nose at me, making me resist the urge to childishly stick my tongue out at her.
After a quick glare, Aphrodite averted her attention to Luke. She grinned, and started walking towards us. Her little lap dogs followed.
“Hey Luke!” Aphrodite greeted in her sickly fake sugary voice.
“Hi, Aphrodite,” Luke grimaced.
“Who are your friends?” She took a moment to glare at me.
“This is Lynn and Reid.” That boy was such a smooth liar I wondered where he got his talent from.
“You new here?” Aphrodite was checking out Corey now. For some reason, this made me mad.
“Just passing through,” Corey answered.
“Where you from?”
“We travel,” I said, dodging her question. For the first time, she spoke to me.
“Isn’t that dandy! How do you know Luke?”
Luke put his arm around my shoulder, and I admired the nerve of that boy, though I wanted to beat it out of him.
“You owe me,” he mouthed to me, so fluently I barley caught it, which means Aphrodite definitely didn’t.
“Family friends. Actually, Aphrodite, we’re dating.”
A flash of pure hatred towards me shot across her face.
“Lovely. Is it a… serious relationship? If you don’t mind me prying.”
“Not with my brother around.” I nudged Corey. It seemed to please Aphrodite that Corey was my brother.
“So Reid. It was Reid, right? Do you wanna get something to eat?”
“Actually, we gotta get going.”
“Such a shame. So, Luke…”
“Sorry, Aphrodite,” Luke cut in, “But I’m going with them.”
Anna:
I dived into the closet, and Alexis shut the door just as King Brendan opened her door.
“Hi, sweetie!” the King’s slurred voice boomed.
“Father, are you drunk?” Alexis’s calm voice that made me wonder how often this happened.
“What’d make you say that, sweetie?” He hiccupped.
“Father, I think you need to go get some sleep. Rest for a while.”
“Don’t tell you father what to do!” I heard a sharp slapping noise, then the sound of retching.
“I’ll get you to bed, Father.” I heard the door open, and Alexis’s composed voice call down the hallway, “Sir Thane, Father isn’t felling good. Could you please help him to his room. And dispose of this bag.”
I heard some shuffling, and a large man stumbling down the hall. In the next few moments of silence, I changed back into my clothes, keeping the makeup in my pocket. Not long after, Alexis opened the closet back up and let me out.
“How often does he hit you?” I demanded.
“Only when he’s had to much wine.”
“And how often is that?”
“A few times every… month.”
“Every month? Alexis, you’re the next queen of Ozelite! You shouldn’t have to deal with that crap!”
“He’s my father, no matter what I am.”
Exasperated, I sighed and said, “Okay, fine. But you can’t deal with that forever.”
Alexis bit her lip, and started at her reflection in her mirror. After a moment she said, “I think it’s time for you to go back to the tower.”
“Fine,” I replied curtly. Avoiding my stare, Alexis ran her hands along the wall, and the door hissed open. I followed her up the stairs, as the door hissed back shut.
When we got to the top of the stairs, Alexis whispered, “Oh, no.”
“What?”
“The door won’t open.”
“What do you mean the door won’t open?”
“It just won’t! It tried to, but it can’t! I don’t know why!”
“Is there another way to get up to the tower besides this way?”
“Umm…” I could see Alexis racking her brain, trying to remember if there was another way to get up to my tower besides the way the guards were guarding.
“Oh!” she gasped, “There is, but it’ll take quite a long time…”
“When will my dinner be sent to my room?”
“I’ll take care of that. Come on, follow me.” I let her slide past me on the stairwell, and we continued back down the steps. This time, we went a lot further down.
“That tower’s up high,” I commented.
“You have no idea.”
Alexis stopped her descent, and started pressing against the wall again.
“How do you where all the stops are?” I asked her as she tried to find the sweet spot.
“The lanterns. See this one,” she pointed above where she was feeling, “Has the initials ‘KBC’. That means Kitchen Broom Closet.”
Sure enough, as I studied the lanterns, each one had some arrangement of letters. Finally, she silent hiss of the door opening occurred, and we stepped into a small, confined closet. Alexis peeked her head out, than motioned for me to follow her.
We hurried through the kitchen to fast for me to get a good look, but I could tell it was large and grand with lots of technology.
We stepped out of the kitchen into a grand foyer. The floor was deep sapphire blue that, with a stab of pain, reminded me of Ash’s eyes. But the only thing that caught my attention was the chandelier, made out of thousands of bits of crystal.
“Is that real crystal?”
“Just like the whole palace.”
I thought about the rumors of the palace- that it was made of all crystal- and regretted that I had been unconscious when brought into it.
“Stay here. Hide if someone comes. I’ll be right back.” She hurried back in the direction of the kitchen. I waited in the foyer, staying near the large statue of a god incase I needed to hide.
Alexis came back soon. I asked her, “What was that about?”
“Just telling the kitchen help to wait until I come again until sending food to the prisoner in the High Tower.”
“Oh, okay.”
“Um, Alexis?” I mumbled as we snuck out of the foyer, down the empty hall.
“Yes?”
“Do you have a, a um, bathroom I could use?”
“Oh, I’m sorry, Ash! You mustn’t ever use that urn they gave you. It’s filthy! Come with me.” She took a sharp turn, and stopped in front of a wooden door
“Here,” she said. I went in, and took care of my needs. With my hand just about to open the door, I heard Alexis say unnecessarily loud, “Oh, hello Governess Morgan!”
I froze. A prim female voice responded, “Good afternoon, Miss Alexis. May I ask as to what you are up to, so far away from your chambers?”
“Just going for a walk, using the latrine.”
“My, well, I was just on my way to the latrine. You may go ahead.”
“Thank you.”
I pressed against the same wall the door was on. Alexis hurried in, locking the door behind her.
“What are we going to do?” I hissed.
“There’s a passageway in here. I’ve never used it before, though, so I don’t know where it leads.”
“Anything to get out of here!”
“But I won’t know where to find you!”
“Come back n here when your uh…”
“Governess,” she supplied.
“Yeah, when your governess leaves.”
She nodded. She went over to the toilet, and pulled the flusher. I only realized it was just to throw the governess off track when she turned on the faucet, then walked away from it. She went to the air vent on the bottom of the right wall, and took off the metal vent. It looked just barley big enough for me to get into it.
“Through there?” I asked.
“Yes. I’ll meet you… wherever in a few minutes. Hurry, and don‘t stop!”
I scurried into the vent as Alexis replaced the metal part. I heard her turn the faucet off as I hurried down the vent. That was the last thing I heard.
The vent was cramped, dusty, and smelled musty. I looked forward to getting out of there. Pausing for a moment, I listen to see if Alexis was following me yet. Not hearing anything, I continued down the vent.
To my dismay, the vent suddenly split off. If could either go straight, left, or right. How would Alexis know which way I went? Should I wait for her? She had told me not to stop, though.\
Frustrated and feeling more than a little claustrophobic, I mulled over what to do. It came to me when I thought to myself, What would Ash do if she were powerless? It was so obvious then!
I shifted through my pockets. Ash always had some useful thing in her pockets. Grinning, I pulled out the pencil-like thing Alexis had used to line under my eyes. I drew a dark purple arrow pointing straight ahead. No way she could miss that. After shoving the pencil back in my pocket, and feeling quite accomplished, I kept crawling straight ahead.
Right about when I was wondering when the vent would end, I came to another metal frame in the vent. I peeked out of it first, to see what was down there.
It was the floor of a long hallway not dissimilar to the one I had been sneaking down not long before. I decided to wait for Alexis before popping out the metal frame and crawling out.
“When’s the next execution date?” a deep voice coming down the hallway asked. I froze for a moment, but scuttled out of the way so you couldn’t see my brown dress through the opening.
“Tomorrow they’re killing a whole bunch of hideaways,” another voice answered.
“Who’s doing that shift?”
“Clark, Payton, Reynolds, and Richard.”
“They get the next day off?”
“Yep. When’s your day?”
“Ah, I’m doin’ the kids. No fun in that- they never struggle.”
“Ha! I don’t have a day yet…” the guards voices got quieter as they walked down the hall. I noticed my fists were clenched, and my fingernails were digging into my palms. Unclenching them, I took a big breath.
For the first time, I realized the guards enjoyed killing the innocent. My stomach churned. I really hope Alexis turns out to be a better ruler than her father.
As if conjured up by my thoughts, Alexis crawled up next to me.
“Good job. Governess Morgan doesn’t suspect anything,” she whispered to me. I could only nod in response as I popped out the metal framing. We scurried out into the hall, Alexis quickly replacing the metal.
“Where are we?”
“The West Hall.”
“Is there a way to get to my tower from here?” Funny, how its become ‘my tower’.
“Yes. You took the right turn- we were headed here anyways.” She started walking down the hall, and I followed. We took many turns and eventually came to a dead end.
“What now?”
Alexis opened the door on the wall to the left of the dead end. The door opened to, a stone wall.
“Huh?”
“It’s a trick. Come on.” To my amazement, she walked right through the wall. She stuck her head out and whispered, “Come on!”
Dazed, I walked through the wall- which was, in fact, just n illusion. It led to a small, rectangular room. It was empty, except for a large chest in the center of the room. Alexis opened the chest with a key she pulled out of her pocket. Looking down into it, I saw it was a giant hole in the floor, with a ladder leading down.
“You go first so I can lock it,” Alexis told me. For a moment I thought she would lock me down there, but then I decided if she wanted to turn on me, she would’ve done it already. So, I went down into the hole, and Alexis followed, locking the chest behind her.
Now we were in a circular room made of stone, with oil lamps around the upper perimeter. In between each lamp was a ladder, some going up, some leading down. Alexis chose the one across from the one we had just climbed down, one that was leading upwards. Looking up, I could see it led upwards into the darkness.
“Does this go all the way up into the tower?” I asked, feeling the blood drain from my face.
“Yeah, up to the hallway. Come on.” She began climbing and, with a sigh I followed her up the ladder.
We climbed for what seemed like forever. My knuckles were white from clutching the bars, and my feet were sore, and surely forming blisters. When we finally reached the top, we were met by a trap door. Alexis just nudged it, and it swung open easily.
“Hurry up, but stay quiet.” She disappeared up the trapdoor, and I followed. I saw we were in the middle of the hallway that, at the end of it, held the door to my tower.
“That’s funny,” Alexis mumbled, “I’m positive that wasn’t there before.” I looked at what she was looking at. It was an odd sight. The chest it was sitting on was normal enough, dark, knotted wood, with three drawers in it. But on top of it, was photograph. This might not have meant anything to Alexis, but it meant a whole lot to me. Because, it was a photograph of a blonde-haired baby boy.