Asunder

Chapter Four: The Return

CHAPTER FOUR: The Return

She snuck back through the streets of Rhalen'qar in the pitch black night. The walk had made her feet blister and her body slow, but she continued on nonetheless. The city was quiet, deathly quiet, as if the inhabitants were afraid to make a noise within their own homes. A cat yowled and scuttled away, dancing across the alleys until it blended into the shadows.

Lark returned to the home of Jakobe and Manda. They were strangers to her, yet they invited her into their home and she hoped they would help her once more.

Knocking as quietly as possible, she soon heard movement from behind the door. As it opened and the warm candlelight washed across Lark and into the street, six faces peered at her. "Princess!" Jakobe whispered, glancing from side to side. "You are soaked. Come. Come in."

The warmth of the hearth took away some of the chill in her bones and Manda fussed, putting a blanket around her shoulders. There was a bowl of cold oats in front of her in a moment and the three children, two boys and a girl, watched her with wide eyes from the floor.

"I'm sorry I told people you were here," one little boy said quietly, his eyes downcast.

"You did nothing wrong," Lark responded, bringing a cup of hot tea up to her mouth. "I was the one who was wrong."

Jakobe glanced at her in confusion. "Princess?"

She set the cup down, looking away. "I ran like a child. I was frightened at their words. I still am frightened. I was never meant to be Queen or to rule anything--I was fifth in line with no abilities like my siblings and to see the people of Rhalen'qar before me, chanting my name...I couldn't take it."

Jakobe and Manda's daughter eyed her from across the room. She had one of her children, the daughter, in her arms, and both of their faces were smeared with dirt. "My children were all born into lives of servitude. They work the mines, going into the places where us adults can't reach, and they come home sore and tired with aching backs and hearts. I was young when the Fair Folk invaded. One day, I lived a happy, normal life, and the next, there were Fair Folk watching our every move, making sure we were working with smiles on our faces.

"And I looked to the stars and I prayed to the gods for the Starbornes. We all worshiped your family and we thought that they would come for us, soon. But then we got word of the death of Griffin, the suicide of your sister, and year by year, no hope came.

"They killed our neighbors. They sent away our friends. Grandmothers, grandfathers, they all perished in bonds. My husband stole our daughter medicine and was sent to High Tower for the culling. It was over. It was done. Twenty years of servitude, of slavery, we all accepted our fates. The Starbornes were gone and so was the legacy of the human race.

"Hell, the only reason that King Rhylus allowed for your castle to remain standing after the initial siege was to remind us that, that like the tower, we would crumble and that year after year, more of us would chip away."

Lark wrapped her hands around the mug, letting the heat slip into her fingers. She watched the mother speak, looking into the stormy black eyes and the set of her jaw. Lark saw her sister Merida in the young woman and she wondered how her elder sister was faring as the wife of Rhylus of the Fair Folk.

"The truth of the matter is that I don't know you, not truly. The name Larkin is one they once taught in school long, long ago before the Fair Folk attacked, but I will not pretend that your name will strike fear in the hearts of your enemies as your siblings' would. I do not know if you are a good ruler, if you're a good strategist, if you can even hope to win back the realm from Rhylus. But I, and everyone else, is ready to give it a shot, because if we don't, we're all going to die anyways."