Summer

The rebels brought me to the barber’s hovel. Mr. Sky was to watch over me, and I wasn’t to leave until the morning. I slept in the corner of the floor closest to the wall. I rolled off the tiny bit of stone in the corner sometime during the night, and my legs were stinging when I woke up.

“Did you know it’s Summer today, Fawn?” Bubbles shook. I looked across the room, and Mr. Sky was still sitting opposite me. He had cloth wrapped around his eye, and was lightly snoring. One of the burns around his nose had blackened.

I grabbed my tiara off the ground. The metal hadn’t been damaged at all. “Are you telling me it’s going to get even hotter?” I hissed as I stood up straight. My back was covered in blisters.

“I don’t know,” She thought out loud, “would you tell me if it does?”

“I’ll probably die if it does.”

“You sound in poorer spirits than usual.”

I stepped outside, my feet shaking against the uneven ground. I looked across the river, “I can’t get to the palace anymore.”

“I can get you another palace.”

“That’s wonderful!” I clapped. Only now, I noticed there were people standing on the opposite side of the river. They’d already gone to sleep last evening when the bridge collapsed. There was the baker and three other men and women. They spoke among themselves, and their voices were drowned out by the grumbling acid.

Two homes were also cut off while their residents were on this side. I found them laying near each other on the ground beside the riverbank. One had an acid burn down his neck. He didn’t wake up. Late in the day, he was rolled into the river. I probably knew his name once, but I didn’t when he died. He was like the princes I once knew. Gone in an evening, a name worth forgetting.

I pressed my hands together, the scar under my fingernail shining. Bubbles promised that I could choose two people to be freed on the last day. At least, there was one less to consider. That meant everyone else would think they had better chances. The blisters on my back scratched against my worn clothes. I had to be unblemished and happy, so at least, I had to survive until the last day. How could Bubbles measure happiness, was it just my own discretion? I shook my head. If that was on the honor system, I fully intended to play fair.

I marked the rebels in my head as I approached the temple. Mr. Sky, Mr. Brick. Madame Piff, Mack… Daisy. She was with them. She didn’t try to stop them. I gritted my teeth. Unlike me, they meant to cheat if they could. I laughed to myself, I didn’t have to follow their rules. It wasn’t cheating; they had no right to regulate anything, anyway. Lady Hen. Was she one of them? I felt my teeth biting against my tongue. No, no, she couldn’t be. She’d gone to them to hide, and they merely helped her. That’s why they were all still awake this morning.

The banners of the faithful had been cast down to the ground, their fabric hissing and burning at my feet. I trudged inside and slowly up the stairs. The second floor had more color than any building in the town. I didn’t know we had any more candles here. Madame Piff must have saved one from long ago. It smelled sweet, burning in a little, silver saucer. There was Lady Hen cradling Falcon in her arms. Madame Piff leaned against the back wall by the window. She ran her fingertips through her white hair, “What are you doing here, Child?”

Lady Hen’s chin lifted as she saw me. She silently stood to leave. I put my hand on her chest, feebly holding her there, “Wait… Just a moment. Hen, please.”

“I have not to say to ye.”

“I don’t care,” I straightened my back. I whispered in her ear, “You. Falcon. Stay safe.”

Madame Piff smiled softly, “You choose well.”

“I was whispering.”

“I couldn’t hear you. I couldn’t read your lips. There is only one thing you would whisper, Princess.”

“Nobody else can know this,” I said firmly. I glared at Madame Piff, “somebody would want to make it so I couldn’t choose them. Do you understand?”

She nodded, “I’ve told you before, I am a woman of confidence. That has always been my role. I am old, Child. I don’t want to be chosen when somebody with more to live can be.”

I went on, “Bubbles will bring you both to Farhaven, to my mother, the empress. Lady Hen, you were always good to me save one lapse in understanding. That will be met with gratitude by my family.”

“Ye ne’er told me much about your family,” Lady Hen whispered, “your father was an emperor.”

I nodded, “He is an emperor. He was…” The words for him stuck in my throat, “He gave me to Bubbles himself.”

She glanced down at her own son, a frown spreading across her face. “You trust his empire with us?”

“No. I trust you with it.”

Lady Hen blinked, “Ye know the world don’t work like that.”

“My mother isn’t like him.”

Bubbles giggled, “The past few months have been kinder to her than your father, indeed. The news of the world- what will become history- is not the kind of legacy any such man desires. He rules, now, from a secluded room the size of a closet. Your world is more spacious than his. He has dragged Farhaven into a war of aggression, the kind it won’t recover from for three generations. He is paranoid and his only usable heir is still in the cradle. Oh, Fawn, did I ever mention your mother had a son? She is so much like your father.”

I sat on the ground and looked up at the ceiling. I laughed until I couldn’t catch my breath, and Madame Piff had to hold me up. My throat burned. Finally I looked back out the window, “What did they trade me for?”

“Something nominal, who cares. The real value was that I agreed to follow the requests of the royal family. He was planning to go to war, after all. Yet, he has not asked anything of me, yet.”

I swallowed, “Burn the palace to the ground.”

“Oh, Fawn… I can’t do that, I promised your father…”

“To follow the requests of the royal family,” I reiterated, “and pray, Bubbles, what am I?”

Lady Hen looked down at me. Her eyes widened slightly, “Your brother…”

“It’s a shame I won’t be with him,” I agreed, “He’ll need someone to teach him how to rule a kingdom of ashes.”

Bubbles yawned, “So be it.”