Chapter Sixty Six

Triss.

The realization stunned me so much that I didn’t know that I was frozen on the spot. I stared at the paper and I squeezed it unconsciously. Triss had someone find her way to the Berg Kingdom.  Couldn’t believe my eyes. I opened the crumpled paper again and stared at it and the handwriting stared back at me.

It hadn’t changed and I knew that I wasn’t wrong. It was Triss’s handwriting. I started walking towards the palace, my heart beating in my chest. Just a few minutes ago, I was thinking that the Berg kingdom was imprentable and yet Triss had done so effortlessly. I didn’t know how long it had taken her to find me or to find someone who would deliver the information to me. I wondered if the person who had squeezed the paper into my hands knew what was in it.

Triss.

My younger sister had shown her ability again. She had show how stellar of a princess she was. I headed to the medicine room instead of the room because I could hear Serena’s and Julianna’s voices in the room. They would easily notice my strangeness. I sat down on the stool staring into space as I tried to imagine what Triss would look like now or how she would feel when she saw me.

I stared at my hands chuckling lightly. I had tried escaping the Berg Kingdom once and then I had never tried again and yet I could imagine that it took Triss one trial and then she had easily found me, infiltrated the Berg Kingdom.

I was useless.

This was why I would always be the mediocre princess.

I held my head in my palms and memories of I and Triss when we were younger flowed into my mind.

“You need to hold your ground even harder sister” Triss said with a grin as I swallowed hard and got to my feet. I could feel the chief guard's face staring unkindly at me as he watched from a distance.

“First Princess, you started learning the sword three years before your sister, she can’t be beating you” he said and I turned to him, nodding my head while forcing the tears rushing to my eyes back.

“Yes, yes” I replied and I turned to my sister again.

“Take your stance” the chief guard said and I held my wooden sword tighter, taking my stance and Triss merely held her sword, not taking a stance at all.

“Fight” he exclaimed and I rushed towards Triss, determined to hit down in one swoop but Triss had seen me coming, she dodged to one side and used the hilt of her sword to hit my back.

“Ah!” I screamed in pain as I fell to the ground.

“Sister, the first rule of the way of the sword is to be patient, you weren’t patient” she said and I could hear the taunting in her voice. The tears I had been forcing back ran down my cheeks as one of the maids rushed towards me and  pulled me to my fight.

“First Princess, you will need to take some extra lessons and learn from your sister” the chief guard said and I turned to him irritated.

“Oh really?” I asked, anger surging in my chest.

“Then, you should have taught me better” I snarled at him and he stared back at me in surprise and then seconds later, he lowered his head and spoke.

“My apologies your Highness” he said and I snorted, wiping my tears as my younger sister skipped towards me yet he was still very graceful as she walked towards me.

“Don’t be hard on the chief guard sister. He taught us the same way, you are just a little slow in picking up things” she said with a smile and placed a hand on my shoulder but I knew better, I knew my younger sister well enough to know that she was taunting me.

I glared at me, shook her arms off and stormed off, my anger not getting any less. I slammed the door against the maid behind me and shut the door.

“Your highness, please open the door” the maid pounded again the door but I slowly walked to my bed, burrowing into the bed still in my fighting outfit and I stared into space.

It didn’t matter how much I tried, even a three year difference didn’t help me. Triss would always be better than me.

FLASHBACK OFF

I chuckled as the memory washed over me. I hadn’t opened the door for my maid till late on the right. I had missed dinner and then my father had scolded me for scolding his chief guard. I was supposed to respect my elders especially since he was my teacher, I was supposed to have accorded him even more respect like Triss did and that was maybe why she was better than me in swordplay. The statement tore into me like a searing knife. I never spoke to the chief guard again. He tried to communicate with me but I was done trying, that was how much I felt the difference between us, even as a child.

When we were little, it wasn't so obvious but by the time I was seven and Triss was five, it was becoming glaring obvious that Triss was better than me even though she was the younger one. You name anything at all, she was better effortlessly and it always made me work harder but working harder made no difference. It was obvious that the moon goddess had favoured her and that was why no matter how hard I tried to work, she would always be better than me.

We were much older now and that had not left my back yet and in fact, proving that I was as better as she was, was the reason I was a slave in an enemy kingdom.

I should have known that she would always be the better one.

I closed my eyes as I tried to figure out the time in my head and count how many hours I would have to wait to see my sister again.