Chapter 17: The Wild Princess of Sojourn

‘I think I’ll take this one,’ Lily said, feeling the silk of her new hood, ‘It’s pretty, don’t you think?’

Thorne nodded enthusiastically, his helmet clashing awkwardly against his breastplate.

‘Looks good.’

‘Is that all you ever say, I mean surely you could…’ Lily began to half-heartedly complain about Thorne’s weak compliments before she was rudely interrupted by an ear-splitting screech.

Okay, so maybe it wasn’t that loud. But it sure felt really loud.

A nearby fruit stand collapsed as a girl landed onto it. She’d been lucky, Lily thought, without the stand to break her fall she would’ve gotten really hurt.

Lily threw the coin at the shop keep, giving him a polite smile before she left to go see the sight for herself, curiosity getting the better of her. She kept Thorne close behind her, she didn’t want to be alone for even a second in such a big city.

The girl got up, cursing loudly in a coarse foreign language that Lily had never heard before. She hiked her skirt up, kicking over apples and apricots that had saved her from a certain broken knee. The shopkeep peered over in anger before seeing the girl’s face

‘Lady Alouette!’ he exclaimed, ‘Are you okay, my princess!?’

‘Of course I’m bloody okay, no thanks to any of you!’ she yelled loudly. Lily watched her as a crowd began to form, whispering all sorts of concerns and jibes.

‘She’s raving mad…’ ‘Her mom’s already hired an assassin…’ ‘I hear she likes apricot jam…’

Words flew around Lily; she could barely catch them all. They were mostly negative by now, and irrelevant. Lily doubted she could figure it all out from rumours alone, so she stood up on her feet trying to get a better view of the girl.

The girl was dressed far better then she spoke. Her clothes shone in the sun, ripples of expensive silks and cotton now smeared with various bits of fruit. But the girl didn’t seem too bothered by it. She was still glaring at the rooftops.

‘Kick me out of a window will you!’ she shook her fist violently; her arm was so thin Lily thought that it might just fall off.

‘This is the last time I tell you! The last time.’ She muttered, ‘No, I need someone strong and scary to protect me.’

And then the girl locked eyes onto Thorne. Lily’s Thorne.

‘You!’ she pointed at him, the crowd scattered and left Thorne standing oblivious to his own fate, ‘You’ll do.’

The only thing in between Alouette and Thorne was Lily. And she wasn’t going to let some snobbish girl take her knight away from her.

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‘This one’s mine.’ Lily bared her teeth at the girl. Not because her teeth were particularly sharp or menacing, just because she felt like it.

‘You can come too then,’ Alouette offered unthinkingly, waving her handkerchief after her. Lily was surprised; she’d been bracing herself for some kind of fight. Were things really going to be this easy?

They followed Alouette through the streets of Sojourn, people gave weird looks but let her through. No one, it seemed, was brave enough to stop the girl.

And in a way, Lily found that aspect of her really commendable.

They came to the center of the glowing city within half an hour of walking. It would have taken at least five times as long if it had just been her and Thorne but with Alouette it was unbelievably quick.

The guards looked uneasy as they opened the gates. One paused, as if about to stop Thorne and Lily but shrugged. Lily guessed he’d figured that it hadn’t been worth his time. She chuckled to herself.

‘Are-Are we really going along with this?’ Thorne whispered to her, the first thing he’d said to her since they’d been at the market. Lily was surprised it had taken this long for him to question what they were doing.

‘Of course!’ she muttered back to him, giggling just a little, ‘This is our one and only chance to see the inside of Sojourn’s castle! You just can’t miss out on something like this, even if it is by some crazy princess.’

‘I heard that,’ Alouette turned back, glaring at Lily. Lily froze.

Alouette sighed, ‘I just need someone to hear me out, you’ll understand it better when we don’t have several ears listening in on us.’

Lily looked around; she counted a total of five guards actively pretending to be focused on something in the distance. She had to give it to Alouette; she hadn’t noticed the two other eavesdroppers hiding out of sight, but breathing sharply.

Alouette muttered a few more curses under her breath, and this time Lily was pretty sure these were actual hexes because the unseen eavesdroppers disappeared very loudly as a swarm of bees chased after them.

They walked a little deeper into the castle, though they didn’t end up reaching the center. Alouette took another turn and they found themselves in the right-most room of the castle. Alouette gave a few suspicious glances around her before she opened the door. She gave a couple more when they walked in and only relaxed after she’d locked the window and the door.

‘Take a seat,’ she said, gesturing at a set of chairs that were most definitely not there. But Lily wasn’t about to look stupid in front of the princess and nor was she going to ask any dumb questions.

So, she and Thorne took a seat down by her bed. Lily winced as she heard the bed creak under Thorne’s weight, somehow the fine wood didn’t break but Lily was pretty sure it had splintered.

‘Okay now, crazy lady and knight in shining armour,’ the crazy lady said to Lily and Thorne, ‘I need your help.’

‘You need our help?’ Thorne asked, leaning forward. The bed gave another awkward creak, Lily softly hoped that it wouldn’t explode into a mess of wasted artsmanship.

‘Yes, yes I do. Mostly yours though.’ Alouette nodded at Thorne,

‘I need you to find me a dance partner.’

Lily held back a laugh, covering it by choking on her spit.

‘They’re all assassins after me!’ she exclaimed, exasperated. She threw up her hands.

‘It’s my mad mom, she thinks I’ve finally lost my mind,’

Somehow, Lily found it hard to not side with the mother.

‘Every dance partner I’ve asked has rejected me,’ Alouette continued, ‘And they’re all trying to sabotage my attempts at even getting to the ball.’

‘Sabotage you, how?’ Lily asked, squirming against the bedsheets. They were soft and far too expensive for her to imagine their price.

‘Well for one, the last one tried to break my legs!’ she exclaimed, scrunching up her dress for added emphasis.

‘I can see how that would be an issue…’ Thorne looked thoughtful; he rubbed a finger to his chin.

‘So, what I need you two to do is help me convince the next prince that I’m the right dance partner for him, you two can do that for me, right?’

Lily shrugged, her cheeks sore from grinning.

‘Sure, we can.’