A Girl Named King

Prologue: The Abandoned Princess

"Tamira Yeseni Val'ria Gerund, first of her name, is hereby banished from the Kingdom of the First Sun," the King's voice filled the throne room.

I was forced to kneel by the guards and kept my eyes on the king as I received my sentencing. My curly brown hair was dirty and matted and hung over my eyes like a mangy curtain. A few weeks in the dungeon had been cruel to my pampered person. Banishment, that's better than execution, right? Wrong, for the first and the only princess of the current King Basius, banishment, was as good as having my head roll at the guillotine. I would've never imagined that my beloved father would choose a bastard prince who randomly appeared one day over the child he birthed with his queen. I also never imagined that within three years of that bastard prince appearing everything would change. My mother had been banished to the Widow's Castle. It was a small, cold, and neglected place where the consorts that fell out of favor were sent. Most went mad and killed themselves, others would vanish or die from mysterious causes. It was unthinkable that Basius would send his precious wife there. I had all but been abandoned by my father. And soon my mother was replaced with the mother of the prince with the cruel grin and lifeless eyes.
I looked into the eyes of my father one last time and all the warmth and love was replaced by pure malice and hatred. I turned my head, squared my shoulders, and marched with a guard on either side out of the throne room. The last bit of pride deflated as soon as we cleared the large double doors. How did it end up this way? Where did it go wrong? I replayed the last three years in my head. I would dance with my father at balls, sit at the large table for dinner and then...then it was as if I wasn't his daughter. Suddenly, a son named Bennet, had replaced me. It was as if the last twenty years of our bond never existed. I thought about that as the carriage rattled and rumbled past the gates of the Capitol. I was to be escorted to the outskirts of the Blackwoode Forest. Beyond there was a world I had never known. I clutched the small bag of coins my head maid that raised me had given me from within my cloak. All the servants watched sadly and helplessly as their princess was stripped of everything and taken away. My maids had even begged the king sobbing and screaming to spare my life. I had silenced them to ensure they would not share my fate. What a cruel fate it was. I picked at my nails, a habit I never outgrew, and watched out the carriage window as it wheeled past a small village. Why couldn't they just drop me there? It wasn't enough that I was stripped of everything, I was being forced to find my way through the deadly Blackwood Forest that even skilled hunters didn't dare venture into it alone.

We had traveled for half a day and stopped for one break the whole time. I had counted three villages they had passed. The last one had to have been an hour's ride away. The ride to Blackwoode Forest from the Capitol was around five days and at the pace, they were going they might be there sooner rather than later. The carriage had stopped and the guard knocked on the window. 

"Your highness, we are going to stop for the evening," the guard said as he opened the door for me.

I stepped down and looked around. We were surrounded by grass that came up to her ankles and trees. It looked peaceful and beautiful against the sunset. I almost wanted to laugh. It was as if nature was mocking me with this serene sight. I turned on my heel and marched up to the guard that was making a camp for us. I bit my quivering lip and swallowed my fear and trudged over to him.

"Why don't you just kill me?" I grabbed his arm.

"Your highness please, I would never dare to harm you," the guard tried to escape my grasp.

"Why not!?! This is just cruel. I am as good as dead. Who's to say the minute you leave I won't be murdered or sold into slavery. So please, just do it now, it's inevitable," I shook his arm violently.

"Princess please, it is His Majesty's order to escort you anything more could be seen as treason," the guard's eyes pleaded with me.

I let go of his arm and glared at him. He quickly went back to preparing a fire and avoided eye contact with me for the rest of the evening. I wanted to give him a good thrashing even though none of this was his fault. I sat in the field and pulled grass as the fire crackled. The man driving the carriage had given me a pitiful look as we ate and it made my insides burn and it made the food in my mouth taste like dirt. I thought I might have felt sadness, despair, or fear. All I felt was pure rage. I might not have wanted to live as an abandoned princess but I definitely didn't want to live as a commoner or worse. I had had lessons in literature, mathematics, music, and history. I knew which fork to use for which dish and what the latest fashion was. I had even been taught horseback, archery, and swordsmanship. However, I didn't have actual skills that could be used for daily life. I had never dressed myself, I could only bake and not cook, and I didn't know how to farm. The only thing  I could possibly do was be a tutor but even then without a letter of recommendation and references, I'd have trouble finding work. I suddenly realized how useless the life of a princess actually was, how useless the life of nobility was. If I couldn't be dressed up and paraded around as a daughter and eventually as a wife, there really was no use for a woman. I was meant to use my body to bring my family glory and eventually to give my husband an heir. There was no sadness to be felt toward my wasted years and blissful ignorance, just pure resentment.

"Princess, would you like to sleep now?" The guard appeared in front of me.

Without missing a beat I sneered, "there is no princess here. I don't intend to sleep so go about your business."

The guard cleared his throat and went to stand watch. I leaned back against a tree and looked up at the night sky. If there were gods I was sure they were laughing at me from atop of their celestial thrones. An abandoned princess that was too pitiful to kill. If there was a single god listening to my prayers I hoped they'd be answered. I stared at the crackling fire and prayed for my mother's safety and that a maid would accidentally knock over a candle and set the entire castle ablaze.

The next three days would further my bad mood. Between the rough road and the coachman's bad singing my sanity was one song about a boat away from flying out the window. If I would've known what would be waiting for me on the last day before we entered Blackwoode Forest, I would've asked the coachman for one last song and gladly accepted that. A whole new type of struggle and strife was awaiting me and that damned carriage.