Something With a Prince

Chapter Fifty-Five: Peppermint Tea

Tallethea

We woke before the sun, shaking raindrops off our foreheads as the wagons were being loaded. It was nice to be back with my squadron again. All their familiar faces nodding at me, our bodies working together in silence for a common goal. Even if that goal meant we had to pack wagons like they were funeral pyres...Hell, they may end up being just that.

Arlyn was right there with us, standing with Rai as the two of them plotted the best method of attack based on the weather and terrain for the day. My friend, my King I should say, looked older. I hated the beard, but only because it made him unfamiliar. Like I have been away for years instead of weeks. I also hated it because it was horrendously patchy and unkempt. The Commander seemed to be put off by it as well, as her eyes kept darting from the map to his chin, and back. Though I had never worked in her unit, I knew Rai was an extraordinary soldier, and by the execution of work around camp, a great Commander as well. It didn't stop me from recognizing that look in her eyes, though. That empty glance at the sky, or into the sea of soldiers, as if she were waiting for the General to walk out again. Before all of this I might have been jealous of her, plotting to steal her place or at least earn a position in her team. Now...well, now things were different.

My dream still tugged on me. I still wanted it—the glory, the adrenaline in my veins as I fought for my people, even the itch of a good fight was one I was alright with scratching—but I also knew that all of war brings atrocity. And atrocity was a factor I no longer craved. It coveted too much loss.

So, when Arlyn caught me up last night and mentioned that Dominic's men had killed my General, I expected to feel more for her. But, in truth, Oveda was more of an authority figure, an idol, than she was a friend. Still, to see the look on her lover's face tells me there was more to discover about Oveda that I thought. Rai was the ice on the wind, always more silent and collected than Oveda, and somehow, it made me more eager to know her. To learn from her. Even now as she judged Arlyn's facial hair, her cool gaze was tracking about the camp like a hawk. Such a gaze fell on me, and she jutted her head with a furrowed brow: Why are you standing around, Soldier? Move your ass.

I nodded in return and picked up the boxes at my feet with a sigh. I hadn't missed the lack of autonomy in being a foot soldier. That is for sure.

Taking the box to the wagon by the medical tent, I smiled at Mama as she packed gauze into a wooden chest, wiping raindrops from her eyes. "Put them there. Wait, no. Those are Elleanor's notebooks, please take them inside."

My hands tightened around the sides as I responded innocently, "So, throw them away then?"

Mama raised her eyebrow, a disapproving glance thrown my way, "Behave, Thea. She's sacrificed her family for this Kingdom and will sacrifice much more of her life in the future."

My eyes fell to my mother's hands, cracked and worn, "Where are your gloves? Are they working you too hard?"

"Oh, stop fussing, I've done harder work than this." Mama smiled at me, tucking hair behind my ears, "Go on, and do your job. We are leaving soon."

That's the point. I thought to myself, as I took the boxes inside, You shouldn't have to keep working like this. I should be able to support us...I could have ended this. My mind turned against me, hard and fast, as visions of my father and Saorla seeped in. As I saw my loved ones toiling in the mud, the reality of choosing my own personal freedom, instead of striking a bargain that could have saved us all a war, was one difficult to swallow.

I hadn't told mama what happened in the forest. How was I to tell her that I had met the witch she had given me away to? That I had beat her in a test for my heart and the final challenge would have been killing a shade that looked like her. Not only her, but that I had killed a creature that looked like Arlyn. The same Arlyn I had abandoned Lansing for. Chaos, in its infinite lines and twisting thrall would be easier to explain. So, when she caught me coming into camp, I simply let her tend to my face and said, "Some of it is the work of bandits. The rest is from surviving the forest."