I ran.I didn’t know why I did it but I ran anyway. Juniper’s frenzied and panicked voice behind him didn’t stop me as I picked up pace and headed back to the palace. Tears welled up in my eyes as I barged into the room and buried my head into my pillow.Juniper had kissed me.It didn’t make any iota of sense, the more I tried to make any sense of it, the more complicated it became. He had literally told me days before that the person he liked was in love with the king and then he kissed me. It felt like a momentary thing and that made it worse.Why did everyone want to use me?I had tried my very best, I had tried very hard to prove to the people around me that I was worthy and I was and yet everyone wanted to use me for their own selfish gain. I couldn't believe that while I had gone to pour my heart out to Juniper, I was heartbroken by what Jonathan had done to me. The fact that he couldn’t answer my questions and inside of all of that, he ignored my emotions, how I was feeling, my
Serena patted me to sleep and by the time I woke up, the night had fallen and both Julianna and Serena were discussing something hushed tones.“What do you think they would do to her?” Serena asked.“I have no idea. I want no harm to come to her nor to my people as well. Can’t he just let her go?” Julianna replied and I furrowed my brows. What were they talking about?“If it were that simple, would she be able to convince them not to attack us?” Serena pressed on.“Well why doesn’t he let her go first and see what happens afterwards. She’s just suffering here, why won’t he let her go?” Julianna’s voice got louder and I slowly sat up on the bed, confusion fully written all over my face.“What are you two arguing about?” I asked and the both of them seemed to freeze for some minutes before Serena sighed softly.“Nothing you should bother yourself about” she replied and I frowned.“Nothing I should concern myself about” I repeated and before Serena could reply to me, Juialnna cut in.“Y
Serena and Jualianna’s weird looks hadn’t gone away by the next time. I quickly laid on my bed pretending like everything was fine but Serena stopped me.“Where are you going?” she asked in surprise and I chuckled.“To clean. What else?” she asked and Serena sighed.“You can’t do that Amira, everyone has their guard up against you. If you try and get close to the King’s room, there will be trouble. Everyone is going to think you are trying to spy for your people” she explained and I smiled.‘Spy for my people?” I asked, “You think if I really wanted to spy for my people, I would still be here?” I asked and Serena found herself tongue tied. I chuckled as I moved away.“If the king doesn’t want me to clean anymore, he better tell me to my face” I added before opening the door and stepping out. I knew that was most likely what was going to happen. I was going to be stopping from moving around and before that happened, I had to map my own way out.As I walked through the hallways, the gua
I easily found my way to the medicine room and I grabbed a note from one of the drawers and I began to write in it. I of course didn’t write the normal way, it was a type of writing that is only taught to the royal family of the Zadok and that was what I was writing . If anyone found the book which I was going to make sure was impossible, I could still resolve myself in that situation. I quickly mapped out my path to Jonathan’s room through the ceiling. I would need some sort of noise to be able to break open the ceiling and to move around. I would also need a torch. I noted down the map I had seen at the table at the back of the book using points. It didn’t look like a map at all but I knew that Triss would know what it was at a glance.I stared at the page and folded my arms as I tried to remember how the soldiers had moved and trained the last time there was a war. I was on house arrest so I couldn’t step out, so I knew that I had to do something, remember something at least concer
Telling Serena that I wanted to go home was a way to get her off my back, it was a way for her to focus on something else but yet I was being honest. I did want to go home. The Berg kingdom wasn’t somewhere I wanted to stay anymore, I was tired and my emotions would constantly be in a disarray the more I stayed here and I knew it so I needed to leave, I needed to do everything within my power to make sure that I could leave. I allowed Serena to hug her for a while before she shifted backwards.“Well I need to take you somewhere” she said and I furrowed my brows, “Somewhere? Where?” I asked and she basically held her hands and pulled me from my seat."Follow me” she replied and I allowed myself to be led out of the medicine room. I stared at the back of Serena’s head wondering where she was taking me to. I had no idea about where we could be going and a thought crossed my mind. I knew that Serena wouldn’t betray me and if Jonathan wanted to speak to me, he could directly come to see me
I knew that the best way for me to get Triss any valuable information was to be secretive about the fact that I had met her before. I had to be smart and quick and I had already planned for any sort of contingencies. I stared at the charcoal stove in front of me as I added more charcoal to the stove and the pot on it simmered quietly. I had told Serena that I wanted to make a connection and that I had to make it overnight and I had to watch it and I wouldn’t be entering the room until I was done.And then I locked the door.My notebook was already a few pages in and I had written several things in it. In the secret code of the royal house nobody except Triss, my mother and a few of my uncles would be able to decipher it. Nobody in close range could and that was reassuring enough. But the information I had gathered wasn’t enough, I needed to know exactly what the Berg kingdom was planning. Triss and I would be meeting in a few days and although what I had to give her was already a lot
I didn’t know how I crawled back into bed that night. I was devastated and it felt like home all over again. By the time I woke up the next morning, my mood had plummeted and both Serena and Juilainna thought that what was happening was just settling down in my head. They both assumed that I was just digesting what had happened and I honestly wouldn’t have it any other way because it prevented them from asking any questions and it prevented them from trying to pry into me. They both left the room to do their chores while I remained on my bed still lost in thoughts.It wasn’t fair.It wasn’t fair that I wasn’t allowed to be half as good as my sister. It wasn’t fair that the universe had conspired to make her always better than I am no matter what I do, it wasn’t fair one bit. It was hard and unfair and most especially, it made me feel useless.It was just to marry a man, a prince and I had tried so hard, I had tried everything I could, talk sense into him, try to make him see reason, c
I waited till nightfall. It was the D-day, the day when I and Triss would meet. I was supposed to hand over every information I had gotten to her. I had slept off in Seren’s arms the night before. I didn’t think that I would be able to open up to anyone about how I had landed here but I had and while I thought it would make people look at me somehow, both Serena and Juailanna had shown me that that wasn’t the case, they were welcoming and they had both comforted me and here was a new truth that I hadn't dared to admit before.I had been really scared if the people back home even wanted me back home. I knew Uncle Stefan did and a couple of people did but I couldn’t dare imagine how everyone else would look at me.Maybe they didn’t even want to see me anymore.It was this fear that made me allow myself to be used, at least that way I would still have some usefulness. Of course I didn’t tell Serena and Julianna that my sister had gotten married to Karl. I couldn't bring myself to say it
“Greetings your royal highness” the greetings kept repeating themselves as I and Elora walked past. A small smile remained plastered to my face as I kept walking.“I still sometimes find it hard to see everyone greet you like they adore you. The only part is that they truly adore you,” Elora commented and I laughed.It was true, they all did, the rumours and stories hadn’t quenched down even one bit. Even more absurd stories were spreading around and I hadn’t gotten tired trying to quench them down or correct them. More so, my mother said it was fine, as long as my reputation is being restored. It seemed as though everyone had long forgotten that for six months, I had been a slave in a strange land and I had suffered and had my status stripped off.Elora kept the fan blowing slowly as we kept walking. When I came back, Elora had jumped into my arms crying and weeping like a child. She spoke about her days in the palace without me and she had even gotten into a few fights in the last
It was easy for me to find my way to the royal ancestral grave. I walked past the grave of my grandparents and my great grandparents, my breath sucking in as I finally approached a newly made grave. Tears rushed to my eyes but I held it in as I finally came to stand face to face with the grave. My father’s name was written boldly on it with the year of his reign and seeing the quote at the top of his tombstone, I knew that my mother had written it. I bent down and slowly lowered the flowers I had brought to the grave. They were a bundle of fresh lilies I had specially woken up early to pick. My father loved lillies a lot and I knew that he would be happy to see me bring them.“Greetings father, Amira is home” I said slowly and softly but those words carried so much weight, so much weight that I couldn’t explain and my throat was clogged once more, I arranged my clothes and allowed myself to sit beside the grave staring into space.The sight of my father dying right in front of me was
It took less than a day for the news to spread across the kingdoms, across the Zadok kingdom. I wasn’t surprised but it spread faster than I thought, everyone in the kingdom was talking about it. There was a myriad of emotions, shock, surprise, confusion, appellation among many others.The King of the Berg Kingdom who had imprisoned me was asking to marry me.The people couldn’t believe it. He had imprisoned me and yet he fell in love with me and so the story of clearing my father’s name circulated. My people jumped up in joy and in celebration because it meant a lot to us. It did mean a lot to us and that aside, it made a powerful kingdom like the Berg kingdom our allies, our friends and maybe our soon to be in-laws. It felt the kingdom in a state of euphoria.Along with those two news, so many stories and rumours started to spread around the kingdoms. Rumours like I had intentionally gone to the Berg kingdom to find out the truth and I had endured humiliation because I wanted to cle
The trip to the Zadok kingdom was slower mainly because of how huge the entourage was, we couldn’t rush through the trip. Serena and I kept our conversations through the trip, making each other laugh and talking about so many random things. We ate the cookies and the drinks packed for us in the carriage and my heart beat faster with every landmark we passed that signified that we were getting close to the Zadok kingdom. My anxiety clogged at my throat and I was trying my very best to remain focused despite all of the mental stress I was going through.my anxiety didn’t escape Serena’s eyes as she kept assuring me over and over again that it was going to be fine and then we go to the Zadok kingdom, I held my knuckles till the turned whites as we rode through the kingdom, I didn’t have to look outside to know that people were already coming out of their homes and they were staring. I didn’t dare to look outside because I didn’t know they would look at me, what they would think of me. The
Leaving The Berg Kingdom had invoked emotions in me that I couldn’t describe. It was unbelievable that I was finally leaving. As I climbed into the carriage with Serena behind me, tears welled in my eyes asI stared at the horde of people who had come to wish me goodbye. I couldn’t believe it. Serena got into the carriage with me and the door was closed.“Are you okay?” she asked, seeing my expression and I nodded.“I just can’t believe that I’m leaving, I’m going home” I whispered in reply and her hand immediately stretched out and covered mine.The night before, the people had hosted a campfire dinner for me showing me all the beauty of their culture. Their dances, their traditions, their usual practices, I had a good time laughing and watching in curiosity and amazement and even a a point while they danced, Masoma had pulled me to my feet and taken me to the center to dance with them, it was easy to learn some of the steps and soon I was in tune with them and the excited howls and wh
He loved me. He loves me.That was what Jonathan felt for me and I knew that he did in every way. Helping him get rid of his guilt and self beating up was one step fr him to admit that he loved me and that after everything that had happened, we both deserve a chance, a chance to be together, a chance to make everything right and we both agreed. We sat down in his room and talked about a lot of things and despite all of that, Jonathan still wanted me to go home, he wanted me to visit my father’s grave and pay my respects. He also wanted to apologize to my mother and my family for the chaos he had caused.Baring our hearts to each other made us way closer. We laughed at some of our thoughts,laughed at some of our memories and cleared up the misunderstandings we had built about each other during our stay with each other. It was a discussion that we honestly should have had long ago.And Serena hadn't lied at all. The people of the Berg Kingdom were so sorry. So sorry that it brought tear
My head spun.Princess? Princess? High Princess?The title of High Princess was only given to Princesses who were sent to other kingdoms as peacemakers, sometimes it was usually a marriage alliance or to act as an ambassador in the said kingdom. Serena was a Princess. I stared at him in shock, my lips parting but no one came out of my mouth.“You are a princess” I whispered and Serena chuckled.“I’m sorry I kept it from you” she replied softly and I blinked my eyes hard at her. I had heard too many things in a short while to even be fazed and bothered that she had hidden such a thing from me. “So why were you pretending to be a slave?” I asked curiously and Serena laughed.“I never said I was a slave” she replied and I froze on the bed, blinking as I searched my memories of when I first arrived at the palace. She had indeed told me that Jonathan had saved Julianna but she didn’t exactly say anything about herself, it was something I had missed and she as well had allowed me to conven
I slowly fluttered my eyes open and the movements made my head feel light. I closed my eyes and opened them a few times before I finally managed to open my eyes. The familiarity of the room was immediately registered in my head as soon as I opened my eyes. I was in Jonathan’s room.I was alive? I had survived?I turned slowly to see Jonathan’s head on the bed and he had slept off. He had most likely slept off while watching me. Instinctively my hand reached out to him and my fingers delved into his hair, rubbing his head softly.I was so grateful that I had gotten to tell that I love him. And then thankfully, I could tell him again. My hand went to my stomach and I could easily feel the bandages wrapped around my waist. My little movements woke Jonathan up and I watched with a small smile as he raised his head from the bed and stared at me with red eyes.“You are awake” he whispered, his voice hoarse and he quickly reached over me and pressed a kiss to my temple.“Thank you Princess, f
I had no idea how much longer I was out for but by the time I opened my eyes, I was laying on the grass and as I sat up, I immediately recognized the grass to be the grass at the far end of the royal garden, it was somewhere I used to come to to get away from the prying eyes of people and I would lay there drifting in and out of my thoughts and some other times, i would sleep out totally. My hands immediately went to my stomach to see where Juniper had stabbed me and there was nothing.I was clad in my royal outfit and unlike before, I knew the clear line between reality and my dreams so I knew I was dreaming. I quickly stood up to my feet and dusted my clothes while hurrying out of the garden. I knew I was dreaming but I also knew that it was another chance for me to see my family, to see my father. I always saw him in my dreams.I was unsure of the severity of the knife stab of Juniper’s but considering how much blood had been on my hands, I knew that the chance of me surviving was