Identity

I) The Takeover

With a dejected sigh, Carla traipsed into the needlework room and sat in the circle beside her best friend, Tiana, as she did every lesson she was forced to attend. She shivered slightly and arranged her cloak so it covered her bare arms.

“Carla Rose, you are late,” said the sharp-faced woman who was the tutor.

Although she was a relatively young woman, her attitude had caused her forehead to crease from the amount of frowning she did each day. Her fair hair was scraped back into a tight bun. It looked incredibly painful but she showed no signs of discomfort.

“Sorry,” Carla mumbled, picking up her needle and threads, not feeling very sorry at all.

As the tutor droned on about punctuality, Carla angrily tried to sew the picture of the bird onto her canvas, failing miserably. She stabbed her finger once again and cursed her sister. Katherine had managed to escape the castle while the singing tutor caught her and forced her to attend.

“Where is Katherine?” asked the tutor.

The room stayed in silence as the other ten girls worked away on their intricate embroidered designs.  Beside her, Tiana shot the tutor a glance to ensure she was busy with Rebecca, and then pointed to Carla’s pathetic excuse for a bird.

“Thank you,” Carla whispered as her best friend sneakily swapped their work.

“Wouldn’t want her to make you come back later, would we,” grinned Tiana as she made quick work of reviving the bird design.

There was a knock on the door and four guards appeared.

“We have instructions for the three princesses to be taken to see the king and queen immediately on a matter of great importance,” stated the first guard.

Carla was at the door in seconds, discarding the canvas on her stool. She couldn’t believe her luck to get out of her most hated lesson. Rebecca carefully stood up and handed her canvas to the tutor before walking gracefully to join her sister by the door. Then, the guards led them towards the royal chambers.

Once at the door, the guards left and the two princesses knocked and then entered at their mother’s command.

“Thank you for coming so quickly, girls,” said their father as he turned around and placed his goblet of wine on the table.

“What is wrong, father?” inquired Carla, noticing the graveness in his voice.

“Wait, where is Katherine?” asked their mother, coming out of the antechamber.

“I do not know, mother,” replied Rebecca, as polite as always “She was not in embroidery.”

“Damn her,” muttered the king.

Queen Anna and King Edward both looked very agitated as the king began to pace the room and the queen shook her head ruefully. Their faces mirrored each other in fear and concern.

“What is going on?” questioned Carla, confused.

“The Opposers are almost upon us. Our armies have suffered greatly. We cannot hold them off for much longer,” explained Edward.

The room was engulfed by a heavy silence. The words sunk in to Carla and Rebecca’s heads and they suddenly became very frightened. Neither of them really paid attention to matters of the kingdom; Carla skipping them whenever possible and Rebecca sitting quietly and daydreaming. Katherine was the one who knew all about the war, and she’d disappeared.

“Now, we do not want to frighten you, girls, but we expect Ravana to take the city by nightfall,” assumed Anna.

From what she’d picked up, the war had been going on for about two months between them and the Opposers. At the start of the war, all the highborn children of the kingdom were given a series of lessons on the Opposers. Their leader was the fearsome Ravana and they’d already taken two of the smaller kingdoms. And that was all she could recall from the talks.