Princess Of Nothing

It strikes me again that my mother looks like me with her blonde hair elegantly coiled down her back. The gems of our people strung through her locks like fireflies dancing in a field of dazzling yellow wheat. Her green eyes, though as vibrant as mine, are wet, the tears trailing down her cheeks while she holds my face in her hands.

Her patchwork dress of gems overlaying a silk slip is somehow still intact despite our rush out of the slaughter, my mother's intuition buying us several seconds of notice to escape. These stolen seconds are maybe to be the last time I'll ever see her alive because the usurper is here with his secret army. My ceremonial dress is intact too but my sandals are torn, now discarded on the floor next to us. Everything around us burns. The heat chasing away the cold night air drifting in through the open window.

"My love" she whispers, searching my face and I lean further into her hands. I don't know the words to say, how could I say goodbye?

"You need to get to the home of my mother's people. It's a far journey but you'll be safe there, the magic of the island will guard you from him." She whispers, her thumb rubbing a circular motion against my cheek. A gesture that always soothed me as a child and I try to memorize the feel of it.

I nod, still unable to form the words to tell her how desperately I love her, but she knows. She's always known how much I cherish her.

"Look for my sister, if she lives she will protect you." She whispers, pressing her forehead against mine. One last stolen moment before she joins my father in death.

"Come with us" I finally find my voice to plead and she pulls away from me. Despite the warmth all around us I still feel cold.

"You know I can't, the queen can never leave Salva as long as she draws breath. The magic of the tree binds me here but you're not bound and so you, my love, must live." She whispers sadly before pressing a kiss against my forehead.

"Father is dead, the kingdom is aflame and in ruins.. surely the magic that binds you is gone" I whisper, tears trailing down my cheeks.

The footfalls of metal start to echo down the hall drawing closer and her face draws tight, resigned to her fate. She gives me a sad smile, and wipes my tears away with her thumbs. "It remains my little dove, I need you to be strong and I need you to run. Live, for me, and find a love that makes everything worth it."

The loud clanging footfalls are nearly upon us now.

"Run" my mother whispers hoarsely pushing me into the arms of her shadow while we hear loud armoured boots thud ever closer. The woman, who looks like and unlike my mother, drags me away. Her rough embrace is poor comfort for what comes next. I see a look pass between them that I don't understand but don't have time to process.

My mother nudges my sandals under a sofa and straightens her spine. The last thing I see before the passageway clicks shut behind us is her wiping her tears -- her face set with grim determination to meet her death with dignity before I'm wrapped in total darkness. I may need the light to navigate through the passage but my mother's shadow does not. I cling to her as she pulls me along across the uneven stone floor.

As I'm pulled deeper into the darkness I hear my mother scream and the air catches in my throat. I let out a whimper, the grief crushing down on my chest making it hard to breathe properly, when the shadow covers my mouth roughly with her hand. "Quiet" she hisses, but she never stops dragging me down the passage towards the port. I push the faces of my family from my mind, their smiles a dangerous torture dancing behind my eyelids, and try to focus on where we're going.

The monster has erased my family from the annals of time. A thousand years of peace gone in the blinking light of a birthday candle.

My dress jars uncomfortably against my skin, the gems puncture the white alabaster smoothness creating a stream of deep red blood. This will probably be the only trace I existed in this castle, I can't help but think as it leaves little red fingerprints on the stone. The shadow does not notice or perhaps, more likely, just does not care.

The musky scent of the unused passage starts to take on the sweet scent of sea air shortly and I know we're almost free. Free but never safe. I shudder hoping my shadow is okay. Hoping he doesn't catch her. Hoping I'll see her again, my only friend.

My mother's shadow orders me to strip and I can't help the tears that silently fall. This may be the last time I ever wear something so beautiful, the last time I wear the ceremonial dress of our people. I strip off my title with the beautiful patchwork gem gown and the slip underneath. Tenderly, I wrap the precious gems in the slip before passing it to my mother's shadow and she stuffs it unceremoniously into a bag. In her hands are leather pants, sturdy boots, socks, a top, a jacket and a wrap to cover part of my face... and hide my distinctive features. As the princess of ... the former princess of Salva I am well-known. I've travelled all over the country with my father and brother from the time I was a small child.

Moments later, we're on a boat slipping out of the harbour towards Laketown. Our first stop on our way to Haven's End, the ancestral origins of our family and the only place my mother assured me I'd be safe. My new palace, a cave at the end of the world. Now the princess of nothing.