A Kingdom of Tales (Kingdom of Avenlea #1)

Chapter 8

"Your papers, please." The officer says.

I hand him my papers, and Miles mimics my action. The officer looks them over, looking at us often enough that it would frighten someone who wasn't prepared.

Miles had filled me in on how the officers would act since I'd never left Telmor before. Apparently, this was standard protocol for them. Intimidate the hell out of people to sniff out the criminals.

"Where to, Mr. James?" The officer asks gruffly. He's young, so it isn't really as menacing as he probably thinks it is.

"Edessa, sir. My fiancee and I are moving back to tend to my family's farm. Isn't that right, sweetheart?" Miles directs his words to me with a glint in his eye. He puts a hand around my waist, pulling me to him. Where is the blushing boy from earlier? I almost miss him.

I barely contain a scowl and instead plaster a soft smile on my face. Control. I can't lose control. "Of course, sweet cheeks."

I don't know how he manages not to laugh. It's the soldier in him, I suppose.

"Have a safe trip, sir. Madam." He nods to Miles, then to me.

We pass through, and the first thing I see is the giant cruise ship. I'd never seen one quite as large as this one.

"Is this how we're getting to Edessa?" I ask in amazement.

"Yes. It's less suspicious than a smaller boat. When we reach Edessa, a smaller boat will undergo more scrutiny than a larger cruise with more passengers."

"Well, we better get to it then; it looks like it's about to leave." I point out. They'd started removing the ramps already.

"Oh shit. Run"

We sprint there, barely making it on time.

"Wait! Wait!" Miles yells.

The crew stops raising the ramp and lowers it back to the ground.

"Thank you." I say this to one of the crew members as I climb the stairs.

Miles is horribly out of breath and can't manage to say a word of thanks.

Once we're on board, I give Miles my most obnoxious smirk and give him my best impression of his voice. "Are you alright, sweetheart?"

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever." He blows a loose curl from his eye in irritation, but I manage to see the smile he tries to hide.

"Let's go to our cabin, sweetheart." My voice is dripping with sarcasm.

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"No. Absolutely not." I murmur in horror when Miles deigns to tell me he only booked us one cabin and not two. Worse yet, said cabin only has one bed.

"I'm sorry. I had to make the fiancee thing believable." He rubs his neck in embarrassment. "I was planning on sleeping on the floor anyway."

He takes a small blanket out of his bag and lays it on the ground near the bed.

"That seems like a recipe for back pain." I mutter.

"It's alright. You can heal me once we reach Avenlea." He gives me a wide grin. That's right. I'd almost forgotten about my broken ribs. I touch them, and sure enough, they're fully healed.

"How come magic is blocked outside of Avenlea and yet I can heal faster than a normal person?" I ask curiously.

"The barrier can only contain so much. Even now, I have more strength than the average person."

"But then how do non Avenleans not have powers?"

"They do. It's just that they've never left the barrier. You were born in Avenlea, so your powers had already manifested."

"So to unlock our abilities, we must leave the barrier at least once?"

"Precisely."

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"Block!" Bastian yelled over the chirping of the birds.

He'd woken me up extra early that day. He wanted me to try fighting on minimal sleep. We were only using wooden swords that day, if only to prevent me from cutting myself.

"I'm trying." I whined. Thirteen year old me was near crying at the sleep deprivation. I considered it the worst form of torture. Now, I can't sleep more than 3 hours at a time for fear of being caught.

"Try harder." He instructed, as if it helped in any way. I raised the sword and ran to him, roaring loudly.

He easily blocked it and pushed me back. "Again!"

"Take it easy on her brother." Alanna said. She'd been sitting against a tree, watching my lesson, and sewing me a new sweater. I was growing at a near alarming rate and required as many new clothes as food.

I preferred Alanna's boring etiquette lessons over this torture at that moment. Even if I bored myself to death, I was ready to put the sword down. My arms were sore, and a headache had started to form from the lack of sleep.

Bastian chose to ignore her and instead pointed another command at me. "Harder!"

I was ready to give up at that point and decided it was a great idea to test Bastian. "I'm tired. I need a break."

He walked up to me and pointed the sword at my chin. "There are no timeouts on the battlefield. You would've been dead by now. Give me 50 pushups, and then get up and attack me."

"What battlefield, Bash? I haven't seen a single person other than the five of you since I was born." I retorted.

"You will see a battlefield, Jasmine. Your prophecy was vague but it implied that you would face powerful opponents." He said dejectedly.

"Proph-. What do you mean?"

"Perhaps, brother, it's time for a break." Alanna said, putting a hand on Bastian's shoulder and guiding him to sit next to her under the tree.