Magic and Gold

14: Long Live

The next morning, the sun was shining without a cloud in sight. I had slept in the alleyway all night, wet and cold and completely alone. When the sun rose, I walked back to the castle, my eyes at my feet and my heart in my throat. The guards approached me, the strange hooded figure arriving at their post. "Get lost!" they yelled at me. I must look like a beggar in my state.

I looked up to meet the eyes of the guard in his high post above the castle wall and took off my hood. My hair was full of dirt, my clothes were bedraggled, but I was still easily recognizable. The guards' eyes widened as they recognized their true monarch. "Officer Titus, I demand entry to my home," I ordered.

"My princess! We all thought you dead. Open the gates!" he called out.

"Apparently you all did a horrible job of protecting the royal family, if you thought I was dead. Or, the whole lot of you are traitors. I'm not sure which is worse," I said to them as the bridge lowered.

"We our out our best effort, but they overwhelmed us—" the officer began.

"I have no use for your excuses. Where your loyalties lie will be seen later." I walked across the bridge into the castle. The hallways were familiar, yet eerily different. There was silence across the stone walls, and paintings and tables lay strewn across the floor. People had been angry at my father for his injustice and had taken it out on his throne.

I walked up the stairs to my room. I paused before my door. There was a sharp arrow pierced into the light wood, which gave me a premonition of what the room most likely looked like. I went in and my room was utterly destroyed. My bed and canopy had been ripped to shreds. There was a layer of wool and feathers covering the floor. My gold gilded mirror had been pillaged and the pieces of glass were lying on the floor all around the empty frame. The painting of me was shredded; colors of gold and pink and tan were all that was left of the canvas.

My people truly hated me far more than I ever knew. I dropped to my knees in the middle of down feathers and wool. I cried into my hands for a long time to mourn the life I loved so much.

I heard my door open, and a careful voice whisper, "Princess?"

I turned to see one of my father's least favored advisors, a young woman named Penelope. She had stick straight brown hair pulled back with many hair clips. She wore all black, just as I did, but for a different reason. She was in mourning. I asked, "Who?"

"I think we need to discuss this somewhere else. This room..." She did not continue. "Please walk with me, Princess."

I looked down at my grimy self. "Allow me to change and bathe. Send a servant to draw a bath for me, and return in half an hour. The matters at hand can wait that long."

"As you wish, Princess." She nodded and took her leave.

I went to my closet. Everything there was in shambles, too. Strips of fabric were all over. I sighed and felt my hand along the wall. I slipped open a secret panel and grabbed my emergency gold nugget. It did not have much magic, but it had enough. I pulled out two relatively whole pieces of fabric and used magic to piece them together, good as new. It would take time to piece the rest of my dresses, and the rest of my room, back together. It could be done another day.

When I finished with my dress, I went into my bathroom to find a hot bath waiting for me. This room was nearly untouched other than another smashed mirror, which was a relief.