Love and Tenacity

Chapter 2

Desiree and Annabelle waited for Scott in an unused antechamber in the center of the castle. Annabelle sat, as ever, with her spine straight and her hands folded in her lap. Her dark, loose waves of thick hair hung freely down her back and over her shoulders, and her regal features were composed and stoic. She wore a long, silver dress with a wide, black sash tied around her waist, traditional garb for Artemaen royalty.

Desiree, in contrast, sat cross-legged on a table next to Annabelle and wore an old, plain dress that had been handed down to her by her sister, Abby. Abby was a maid to the visiting nobles and the last surviving member of Desiree’s once large family. Her wild reddish-orange ringlets were pulled back in a hasty bun on the back of her head, and her posture was relaxed and casual. Being Annabelle’s maid and best friend didn’t require much formality, and therefore was the perfect job for Desiree, who hated politics, formality, and anything that required her to keep her opinions to herself.

Just as Desiree was starting to get fidgety and Annabelle’s back was beginning to ache from the uncushioned chair, Scott nervously opened the door and peered inside. He had known the princess for years, but Desiree had sounded odd when she asked him to meet them there, and he wondered if he had become too casual in his friendship with her.

“My Lady,” he said, bowing deeply. “You requested my presence?”

“Scott,” Annabelle smiled. “Please, sit down.”

He relaxed at her obvious pleasure to see him and took the chair across from her. The candlelight played across her face in the dark room; it was nearly midnight, he realized. She looked beautiful.

“My father has named my cousin Oliver as his heir,” she said, and Scott sighed and bowed his head.

“I figured as much from what I’ve heard,” he said. “The official reason is that you’re still unmarried, but I suppose we both know the real reason.”

“He knows that I will fight the raids and sort out the bounty hunters, and he does not want that. Alsius completely controls our Council anyway, and they would do whatever they deemed necessary to stop me making any changes. Oliver will be a puppet, just like my father and just like King George of Alsius.”

“The people are suffering,” broke in Desiree seamlessly. It always amazed Scott how much leeway Annabelle let her maid have in conversation. The castle’s staff wasn’t even supposed to speak without permission, let alone join confidential conversation, and yet Annabelle seemed to encourage Desiree to speak her mind. Either that, or she’d just given up on stopping her.

“Two hundred people dead is unacceptable,” Desiree continued. “And that is two hundred on top of the thousands that have already been slain throughout the years. The watchers see crime and do what they can about it, but without the bounty hunters to reliably hunt down the criminals and corrupt nobles commanding trials, there is nothing stopping mass looting and murder. The people are afraid to trust each other, trade is diminishing, and our diamond mines go unprotected. This must end.”

“Do you think you can convince Oliver to make changes?” Scott asked curiously, looking back at Annabelle. She wore a determined expression, one that he had seen often enough to know that the gears in her mind were whirring with incredible speed.

“No, not at all,” she replied. “I think that Oliver will take pleasure in driving Artemae into the ground, and that is why he must die before he sits in the throne.”

The chamber was silent for a moment.

“You… you want to assassinate your cousin?” asked Scott, dumbfounded. Annabelle sat resolute.

“Actually, I want you to assassinate my cousin,” she said, still stoic. “If he dies before my father, I automatically become the heir as neither I nor he have any siblings, and we all know that within a few days, my father will be near enough to death that he will not have the ability to name another. Within a month, the crown will be mine and we can begin repair of our borders and law. It is the only way,” she said, sensing Scott’s shock. “My only other option is to sit in my castle and live in luxury as my people starve or are murdered, and I cannot do that. I do not believe any true princess would.”

“I will do anything for you, Princess, you know I will,” he said. “I will even murder for you if you wish. But can you truly find it within yourself to see to the death of your own blood?”

For the first time that day, he saw emotion on Annabelle’s face as her stern visage cracked and her sightless eyes clouded.

“There is no other way,” she said. “I will burn in the next life if it saves my people from being burned in this one.”

Just as she spoke the last word, a massive BOOM rocked Mulciber.

**************

Everyone lurched in their seats. “What on Earth was that?!” yelled Desiree, grabbing Annabelle’s hand and pulling her toward the door. Scott raced ahead of them into the hallway, checking that the coast was clear before allowing them out of the antechamber. “It sounded like cannon fire,” said Annabelle. Her face was pale, and Desiree knew that the loud noise had hurt her sensitive ears. Before Scott had a chance to respond, an even louder explosion sounded and the hallway around them visibly shook.

“I’d bet gold on cannon fire,” said Scott. “Desiree, get Annabelle out of here, quickly!” He grabbed her and the princess, shoving them away from the source of the noise that had emanated from the back of the castle, the side facing the sea. “Those will be raiders, though I have no idea how they got past our defenses. Mulciber is supposed to be the most secure place in Artemae!” Desiree saw that his face was white, and Annabelle could hear panic in his voice. “Run for the stables, get a horse, and don’t look back.” He said lowly to them. “If these are raiders, they are after either you, Annabelle, or your father. Don’t stop, don’t take anything with you, just go. If we’re lucky, they haven’t made it on land yet.” He pushed them again, jolting Desiree into action as she started tugging Annabelle along toward safety.

“Scott!” cried Annabelle as she heard him run in the other direction. He paused for just a moment. “Be careful, please, and look for my father! He cannot die yet!!” She heard him remain still for a moment more, and then take off running again. “He nodded,” muttered Desiree, and the tugged Annabelle along again. “Now come quickly, the Guard needs him and they cannot know that he has been with us!”

She pulled Annabelle along behind her, taking small hallways and staying away from the main parts of the castle. She had no way of knowing whether or not the raiders or whoever they were had gotten inside, but she knew that she couldn’t risk them spotting Annabelle. They left through one of the servant’s doors closest to the stables and took off at a dead run across the open space outside, Desiree helping Annabelle over the uneven ground as best she could. The blind girl knew the land well, but a dead sprint was hard for her to maintain when she couldn’t see where she was putting her feet. Once they reached the empty stables, they turned back and looked at the castle from a distance.

“Oh my God,” said Desiree, putting her hand to her mouth.

“What is it?!” demanded Annabelle. Her voice was shaky.

“They were cannons alright, Anne. There are at least twenty ships right off of the cliff the castle is sitting on, and they’ve managed to hit right where your quarters were. You would be dead if you were there, asleep.”

Annabelle froze as the image filled her head. Her heart was pounding in her ears and she could hear yelling and screaming from the castle. The Guard must have banded together and began evacuating the visiting nobles, and presumably there were Artemaen ships heading for the pirate fleet as they stood there watching. But if the cannons had destroyed her quarters, that meant that the servants who lived on the floor beneath her were the ones in danger…

“They will not help the maids and servants, will they?” she asked quietly. “No,” replied Desiree, “and we are of no help to them either.” Both the women were seized with the urge to go sprinting back and help. As they stood there though, Desiree watching and Annabelle imagining, they knew that they would do no good. By the time they got there, the ceiling would have collapsed onto any sleeping workers, and they were not strong enough to dig out any survivors, if there were any at all. Desiree pressed her trembling lips together as she thought about her older sister, her last sister. If she was in her quarters that evening, asleep in the bed next to Desiree’s, she would be dead or trapped with the rest. Annabelle squeezed her hand in comfort, clearly thinking the same thing. The sisters were not particularly close, but Abby was the last of Desiree’s true family. She was alone now.

“I cannot see if your fathers quarters were hit or not,” said Desiree, keeping her voice steady.

“It is of no good to us now,” replied Annabelle. She shook her head, trying to force herself back into action. “We need to leave. Quickly.”

Desiree led her into the barn and quickly saddled Jack, Annabelle’s horse, as the princess held his bridle and stroked his wide forehead. The horse had heard the commotion as well and was shaky and excited, but he held still for his young ward. Desiree gave Annabelle a leg-up into the saddle and then climbed on in front of her, taking up the reins and digging her heels into the large horse’s dark sides. Jack broke smoothly into a gallop, and Desiree was thankful for her small size as Jack hauled both her and Annabelle up a steep hill to the path running along the side of the cliff bordering the coast. Instinct told her to run in the opposite direction of the incoming ships, but she needed to see where they were and what was being done about them.

She was glad for her decision as they reached a point high enough where she could look back along the coastline and see the beach beneath the castle. It was alight with fire from torches and the wreckage of ships on the rocks near the shore. It seemed as though some of the raiders had gotten too close in their eagerness for a good shot, and others had been run into the rocks by ships from the Artemaen Navy, which seemed to be coming to the aid of the foot soldiers fighting pirates on the beach. Presumably, there were others trying to defend the paths up to the castle, on top of a relatively short bit of the cliff. Not for the first time, Desiree wondered why a country becoming so plagued by pirates of the coast would keep their capital on the seaside. She explained the situation to Annabelle as quickly as she could, and then spurred Jack in the other direction.

They rode in silence for several minutes before Annabelle leaned her mouth close to Desiree’s ear and said “I assume you and I have had similar thoughts as to our destination?” Desiree nodded grimly. “We’ll ride for Levamen. There is only one person who can help us now.”