The King's Daughters (25 page)

Draped in a dark fur cap, Eva clutched her father's arm as they both solemnly walked behind the black troika carrying the queen's casket. I wished I could have held Eva's hand, supported her in this painful time. Sadly this wasn't permitted.
I'll have to wait,
I thought, watching the royal family—now reduced to only two people, Lars still being bedridden—enter the stone crypt to bid the queen a last farewell. According to Sorvinkian tradition, only they were allowed in. So I and the rest of the mourners just stood by, waiting for them to exit this small, stone building. Although most Sorvinkians were buried, I was told that noble families often opted for crypts as their last resting places because in winter the frozen ground hindered one's burial. This was why Sorvinkian cemeteries were made up of a combination of tombstones and crypts. This cemetery, situated on the north side of the castle and near the forest, was no exception. I cast an eye down. The nearby headstone was too close to me for my taste and I quickly walked away from it. I strongly disliked this place. There was something in the air here, a presence, an unnatural one at that, not truly dead like a ghost, yet not really alive either. Whatever it was, its essence made me jittery.

In desperate need of distraction, I studied the other mourners assembled in the cemetery. I spotted Diego standing a few paces ahead of me. He looked so different in those dark brown clothes. Gone were the lace and bright colors he usually favored. I almost missed his exuberant flamboyance. Beside him was Countess Ivana dressed in a simple marine gown with a long gray cape thrown over her shoulders. She was as beautiful as ever. Her only artifices were the four raindrop pins she wore in memory of her mother. I smiled. Ivana was remarkable. Few women of her rank and beauty would wear such trinkets.

Motion coming from the crypt caught my attention. Shadows were stirring near the entrance. Then the king and Eva stepped into the daylight. His eyes puffy and reddened, the king walked in front. He bore the tortured expression of one who just had his heart wrenched out. As for Eva, her face remained hidden under a veil of black lace; therefore I couldn't see her tears. But I had no trouble hearing her quiet sobbing though. It was then that I became aware of a strange, new sound mixed with the loud crying of the mourners.

Tilting my head to the side, I listened attentively and tried to isolate this new sound from the ambient noises. Ah, there it was again. The sound was like a sort of grumbling . . . or more exactly growling. And . . . and it came from the edge of the nearby forest. I scrutinized the area. At first, I saw nothing but trees, bushes, and boulders. Then the big brown boulder on the left moved. I gasped. That wasn't a boulder. It was a bear, a huge brown bear, running straight toward us.

My head spun in the direction of the small group of people the bear seemed to be aiming for. The king and Eva were at its center. Ivana and Diego were there also.

"Run! Hide!" I shouted. "Move, get out of the way!"

Instead of sending people running, my warning produced the opposite effect. They all froze in place and stared at me with bemused looks on their faces.

I opened my coat and pulled out my sword, which brought appalled exclamations from the crowd of mourners. Weapons had been prohibited from this ceremony. But I had felt compelled to bring mine anyway—being unarmed always unnerved me.

The king was furious. Fists closed and lips thinned, he glared at me through narrowed eyes. "Prince Amir, you have now committed an offense that I cannot overlook. For this—"

"AAAHH! A BEAR!" rose from the back of the assembly. Screams and yells followed as people began running in all directions in panic.

Struck in the chest by the fleeing mob, I fell to the ground, and I would've been trampled to death if not for the headstone that protected me. Huddled against the worn, pitted granite block, I waited for the horde of runners to thin. When it did, and I finally was able to rise up, I saw that the bear was already in the cemetery. Worse yet, this raging mass of shaggy brown fur was rapidly approaching the royal group, which had been pushed to the back of the cemetery by the fleeing mob.

Petrified, the king just stood there with wide-opened eyes, staring at the irate animal. Then patting his side, he began a frantic search of himself—for a weapon, I presumed. Without further delay, I ran toward them.

Meanwhile the bear was rapidly closing the gap separating it from the group. I stared at the king standing in front of the women like a target.
Brave but useless,
I thought and ran faster.

As the bear reached the group, Countess Ivana, seized by panic or imbued with heroism, dashed past the king and ran madly through the cemetery's central alley.

Attracted by this fleeing prey, the bear changed course and chased after her. I immediately pursued them. With a glance behind me, I saw the king embracing Eva and, to my consternation, Diego running away.

"Coward," I hissed, and returned to my pursuit. There was no time to waste. The beast was almost on Ivana. I tried running faster but the deep, wet snow slowed me down.

I looked ahead and saw that Ivana had reached a crypt. She tried entering it, but the door was locked. When she turned around the bear was right in front of her. The giant beast rose up on its hind legs. Growling ferociously, it then leaned forward.

"Aiii!" Ivana screamed.

The bear was about to tear poor Ivana to pieces, when a tall silhouette with long flowing black locks burst out from behind the crypt and pushed Ivana out of harm's way.

"Diego!" I shouted. The dark-haired prince had not run away as I had believed, but had taken the side alley where the snow wasn't as deep. Because of this clever move he'd reached Ivana first. As I stared at my friend bravely facing the enraged beast, a terrible reality dawned on me. Diego was unarmed, hence defenseless against the bear's attack.

Brandishing my sword, I ran as fast as my legs could manage in this snow. But I knew it wouldn't be fast enough. There was no way I could get to the bear in time to save Diego. The beast was already lunging toward him.

To my astonishment, the bear didn't maul Diego. Lowering itself down on all fours, the bear stuck its long muzzle in Diego's hair and ran its big black nose along his cheek and neck. Diego cringed as the animal sniffed him thoroughly. The bear then backed away, as if confused by something. Well, Diego's perfume was, to say the least, distracting. For an animal, with a sense of smell as acute as a bear's, it was probably off-putting, if not downright repulsive.

During that time, Ivana had managed to crawl amidst a cluster of tombs. She gripped one of the weather-beaten headstones to pull herself to her feet. A piece of it broke off and fell down with a clunking noise.

The bear's head swung toward the noise. The beast's muzzle wrinkled, exposing long, murderous teeth. By then I had reached my friends and was able to step in front of Ivana.

With it small round ears pinned back, the bear stood up on its hind legs again. Almost twice my height, the beast towered over me while growling loudly.

I thrust my sword forward, aiming for the bear's exposed belly, but fell short of hitting the target. To strike the beast, I needed to move closer to it. In fact, I literally needed to walk into its clutches. For the first time in my life, I wished I had another kind of weapon in my hand instead of my trusty rapier. A pike would have been perfect. I shook myself—wishing was useless; I would have to make due with the rapier. Perhaps I could attack low, as I usually did when fighting taller opponents.

Without further thinking, I rolled left of the bear, rose up, and aimed a blow at his hind leg. My sword bit deep into the bear's flesh, leaving a bloody gash across its thick brown fur. The bear roared in pain, pivoted, and swiped my sword right out of my hand with its giant paw.

The impact knocked me flat on the ground, and before I could rise again, the bear was on me.

I was raising my arms in front of me, in a pitiful attempt to protect my face from the incoming fangs, when an arrow pierced the bear's chest. The animal jerked backward. A second arrow sunk deep in its shoulder while a third one plunged into its neck. The beast let out a gasp of agony, then dropped dead beside me.

Still in shock, I remained sprawled beside the animal. From the corner of my eye, I saw Khuan and Lilloh, the barbarian warriors, approach with caution. They both had their bowstrings drawn ready to send more arrows into the bear . . . in case it wasn't dead.

Meanwhile Diego had made his way to Ivana, who was curled up against the broken headstone, crying hysterically. Placing an arm around the countess's waist, Diego helped her stand. Turning to me he called, "Amir, are you hurt?"

I sat up. "No. I'm fine, just . . . just shaken."

Diego breathed a sigh of relief. "Good. I'm glad." On this, he gently led Ivana out of the cemetery.

The sound of a whispered discussion in a foreign tongue brought my attention back to my saviors. Khuan and Lilloh had made their way to the bear. I watched Lilloh give her bow to Khuan and kneel beside the animal. She closed her eyes, and her lips began moving, mouthing silent words, as if she were praying. Once she was done, she bowed her head. Opening her eyes, Lilloh then touched the bear's fur. A startled yelp escaped her mouth and she rapidly recoiled from the beast. I watched an expression of disbelief twist her small exotic features. Swallowing hard, she touched the animal again. This time her hands went to the bear's broad forehead. A barely inaudible whimper filtered through Lilloh's lips. It was so faint I believed that if I had been a step further away, it would have escaped my knowledge. But the horrified look now drawn on her face couldn't be missed though.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

Lilloh didn't answer; instead she covered her face with her hands and shook her head as if she had just uncovered something terrible.

Bending down to the shaken young woman, Khuan whispered kindly to her in a language I didn't understand. She nodded as if in agreement. Raising her head, Lilloh looked at me, then at the bear, then at me again.

I didn't need more to comprehend what Lilloh wanted me to do. She wanted me to touch the beast. For some irrational reason, I was afraid to do so. I hesitated. I even contemplated the idea of refusing.
I can walk away. This affair is not my problem.
This thought was so seductive to me I almost agreed to it. But something stopped me. Maybe it was my love for the truth and for problem solving. Maybe it was for Eva. Or maybe I just wanted to know why I was afraid to touch this dead animal. Frankly, I didn't know which one was the strongest persuasion . . . and that surprised me a little. Filling my lungs in one deep breath, I leaned forward and placed my hands squarely on the bear's forehead. At once, all the hairs on my body stood up.

The tingling of magic was there . . . just as I had feared. Maybe that was why I didn't want to touch the bear, I thought. Oh, but there was more, there was something else under the tingling, something was trapped inside this magic whirlwind. Grinding my teeth, I focused all my effort on piercing this spinning magic shell. Finally, I broke through the shell, and as I did, a strange sense of calm invaded me. I could now detect what was trapped inside the magic circle. It was a lovely shimmering essence, as fragile and as vaporous as the thin plume of smoke one gets after blowing out a candle. I tried concentrating my mind on it, but it was fading too quickly and the magic encircling it was becoming too strong. I had to pull back for fear of fainting.

This was no ordinary bear. I had known that for a while, yet there was more to this animal than just the fact that it was enchanted. I couldn't put my finger on it though. I probed the creature's head with swift little pokes. I didn't want my hands to linger too long on its pelt. I wanted to remain in control of myself.

While I was busy examining the animal, I noted that Khuan and Lilloh were busy examining me, as if I was more intriguing to them than the bear. Ignoring their intense scrutiny of my person, I continued my inspection of this animal. When my hands glided over the bear's ear, my fingertips bumped against something hard and pointy. I tried to see what it was, but couldn't because the bear's head was twisted to the side, partly covering that ear. Taking handfuls of fur, I pulled on the bear's head with all my might. It was too heavy; I couldn't move it.

Khuan then came to help. And once he added his strength to mine, the head finally rolled to the side exposing its ear.

Upon seeing that ear, my breath stayed caught in my throat. The bear wore a blue diamond earring. Thalia's earring.

"No! That's impossible!" I said. I rubbed my eyes, hoping I was wrong and that the earring would disappear. It didn't. Resigned, I slowly extended my hand toward the bear's head and plucked the earring from its ear.

Nestled in the middle of my palm, the sparkling jewel glimmered in the sunlight like a crystallized drop of water. There was no doubt in my mind; this was the other earring I had given her. I closed my fist around the blue diamond and stared at the dead bear. How did one put earrings on a bear? This didn't make any sense. I didn't understand.

Yes you do,
a small voice whispered in my mind.
You know all to well what this means . . . or could mean.
I touched the bear again. The beautiful shimmering essence was almost gone now, her essence, Thalia's essence. My inner voice was right; I knew what the earring meant. I knew the answer, but thinking about it was too painful because . . . because—I sighed and closed my eyes—because I didn't want to, because it meant that by killing the bear we'd killed a princess.
NO! This is insane. This is exactly the kind of thoughts my crazy brothers had. I will not become like them. I refuse to
.

"I want no part of this!" I declared, then stood up and left the cemetery.

I ran all the way back to the castle, then went straight for my rooms. I spoke to no one along the way, purposely ignoring all questions thrown at me. I wanted to forget what had just happened; I wanted to bury it in the darkest corner of my mind to never recall it ever again. Sadly, it wasn't to happen. That fact became clear the moment Khuan appeared around the corridor's bend ahead of me.