Something flew past the windows. A shadow appeared and disappeared just as quickly. At first, Amaya ignored it, but then it flashed outside the windows again. She heard a sound she knew very well. It was a falcon. She quickly ran to the nearest balcony to make sure it wasn't just her imagination. It didn't seem like it. She saw him circling the sky. He had a blue ribbon tied on his leg. It was a falcon from Amorite. It circled low in the sky, looking for its target. It will circle there until it finds it.
Must have belonged to Zariah. Dozens of thoughts raced through Amaya's head. How long has she been messaging people in Amorite? What is written in those messages? What does she write about her in them? Why didn't Zariah tell her about falcons? She doesn't trust her. No more.
"Any problem, miss?" General Adrien snapped Amaya out of her thoughts.
Amaya almost jumped in shock when he appeared next to her.
"No," she replied. "Everything is perfectly fine, General."
Amaya walked away down the hall. The general watched her constantly. She felt his gaze burning into her back. Her step was nervous. She cautiously looked over her shoulder and watched as he watched her. As she suddenly rounded the nearest corner, she started to run. She ran through the corridors as fast as her breath would allow.
She went to the kitchen. She took a piece of meat from there. She hoped she could lure the falcon before it got to Zariah or before anyone who should not have noticed.
She ran around the gardens with a piece of raw meat in her hand, trying to attract the falcon to her. But it didn't even see her.
"Come here, you stupid bird," Amaya said to herself.
She looked like crazy over there waving that meat in the air like that. And she definitely didn't look inconspicuous. The falcon continued to circle above her head, waiting for its rightful recipient.
Amaya finally gave up and went to the training room. The soldiers immediately took notice of her presence. Amaya walked straight to General Marcellus. She didn't hesitate. She was lucky Prince Ciaran wasn't there at the time. They usually always train together.
"Is something wrong, Miss Amaya?" the general asked her.
"I need your help, General Marcellus," she replied.
The general looked at her in disbelief. "What's the problem?" he asked.
"Are you good at shooting a crossbow?" Amaya asked him.
"Very well," replied the general. "You don't know how to shoot?"
"I'm really a terrible shooter," Amaya said. "That's why I need your help, General."
The general took a crossbow from the armory and willingly followed Amaya into the gardens. Since they made peace with each other, the tension between them has disappeared. It helped that Amaya helped them win an important battle in the war. If it didn't happen, they would lose the whole war. General Marcellus was surprisingly nice to her despite the incident with the concubine Yazmin.
"I want you to shoot down that falcon, General," Amaya said, pointing at the bird circling among the clouds.
"Why?" wondered the general.
"I have my reasons," Amaya replied. "Now shoot."
The general eyed her suspiciously. "Does Prince Ciaran know about this?" he asked her.
"Prince Ciaran doesn't need to know everything," Amaya said.
General Marcellus lowered his crossbow and gave her a scolding look. He was silently telling her that he would not help her in her secret plans. Amaya crossed her arms over her chest and returned the same unyielding look.
"If General Adrien sees that falcon, then we'll be in big trouble," Amaya told him, hiding the reason why she wanted to shoot it down. She diverted attention elsewhere. "I need you to shoot now, General Marcellus."
General Marcellus aimed his crossbow at the sky. He was fully focused on his goal. Amaya watched him nervously. The general was taking his time. It seemed like an endless moment before he fired. The bowstring loosened and it shot an arrow at its victim. It was so fast that it became invisible. They only heard the falcon's cry and saw how it fell to the ground.
Amaya ran to it. However, it fell behind the palace walls. The guards did not want to let her through the gates. General Marcellus ran after her. He ordered her to be released. Amaya walked along the walls looking for the impact site. In one moment, she saw a blue ribbon shining in the tall grass. If not for that ribbon, she would never have found it.
She ran to the falcon, but before she could reach it, the general caught her. He stood in her way.
"Why do you care so much about that falcon?" he asked her.
"It's none of your business, General," Amaya snapped.
"I'm securing this place," said the general. "This is our home, even if you obviously don't realize it. I will protect it until my last breath. What you're hiding could jeopardize our security, so I need to know."
"It's none of your business, General," Amaya repeated and tried to push her way to the dead body of the falcon, but the General wouldn't let her go.
The general bent down to the dead falcon and unwound the blue ribbon from its leg.
"What does it mean?" he asked her.
Amaya was silent.
"We can tell the prince about it," said General Marcellus, hoping to loosen her tongue.
"You're going to tell him anyway," Amaya said.
"I honestly don't understand you, miss," said the general. "One minute you're working together, helping us win the battle, and the next you're against us."
"I'm not on anyone's side," Amaya said. "I only stand up for my own interests."
"As part of the fact that you killed Miss Yazmin, it is in your best interest to cooperate," said the general.
Amaya hesitated for a moment but finally decided not to speak.
The general took the message the falcon was carrying. He unrolled a small roll of paper and read what was written there. Judging by the look on his face, it wasn't good.
General Marcellus led Amaya back to the palace. General Adrien caught them in front of the gates.
"Did something happen?" he asked them.
General Marcellus quickly hid the message with the ribbon behind his back.
"Nothing," General Marcellus and Amaya said at the same time.
"I'm afraid I don't believe you," General Adrien said and ordered the royal guards to detain and search them.
The royal guards found a message and a blue ribbon General Marcellus was hiding. General Adrien read what was written in it. A mischievous smile bloomed on his lips as if he had just received what he had been waiting for all these long days. Only Amaya had no idea what was written in that message.
"It seems that you have betrayed your own prince, General Marcellus," said General Adrien.
"That's not true," snapped General Marcellus. "I would never do that."
"We'll see."
General Adrien took Amaya and General Marcellus to Prince Ciaran.
"Release them!" ordered the prince.
The King's Guards were not subject to him, so they disobeyed his order.
"What did they do that you detained them?" the prince asked the general of the royal guards.
General Adrien gave him a message from the falcon. "It's a message from the Amorite," he showed the prince a blue ribbon. "It seems that your general betrayed you and wanted to run away with your bride, Your Highness."
Prince Ciaran read those words and looked at Amaya and General Marcellus in confusion.
"You know very well that I would never do that," defended General Marcellus.
"We didn't betray you, Ciaran," Amaya said. "You know it's true."
"Then prove it!" said Ciaran.
Amaya broke free from the guards that were holding her. She took a step towards the prince, two. She was standing right in front of him. She looked into his eyes.
"I understand you don't trust me, but not trusting even General Marcellus is really stupid, Ciaran," Amaya told him.
"I must side with her this time," said General Marcellus.
"I think it's a clear confession," said General Adrien. "That witch of yours will rob you of everything."
"Shut up, General Adrien!" the prince scolded him.
"She wanted me to shoot that falcon down. Why would she want that if she was sending messages to Amorite? She would thus lose all contact with them," said General Marcellus.
"Amaya?" Prince Ciaran turned to her.
"It must be Zariah," Amaya said. "She accuses me of starting to like it here, so she's trying to get me back before it's too late. I wanted to get to that falcon before she did."
"So you betrayed your own?" General Adrien asked her.
"No king rules over me, so I haven't betrayed anyone," Amaya retorted. "However, I do not plan to return to Amorite," she admitted.
"Perhaps, you won't be so vain, Prince Ciaran, now that you've got that witch on your side. Most assumed she would kill you before it came to the wedding," General Adrien said with a wicked smirk on his lips.
Amaya walked into Zariah's room. She sat on the ground and prayed to the gods, as she did every morning and evening. Her presence disturbed her and she turned her attention to her. Amaya looked away. You could feel the worry and sadness coming from her.
"Is something wrong, Amaya?" Zariah asked her.
Amaya opened her palm with a crumpled blue ribbon in it. "How long?" she asked.
A shadow flickered in Zariah's eyes. "I had to get you out of here, Amaya," she said. "It looks like you don't want to get out of here. You became too attached to that prince. I had to do something about it."
"Have you ever thought about what I want?" Amaya asked her.
"What do you want? What do you want? That prince? How long will it last for you? I know you Amaya and I know you never desire anything for a long time," Zariah said. "You must free yourself from these human desires, Amaya. Fate has prepared something bigger for you than this. You certainly feel it too. You are blessed by the gods, after all."
Amaya laughed. "Blessed by the gods." the words sounded so foreign to her. "I am only a puppet in the power of everyone else but myself. At least once in my life, I want to pull the strings."
"However, you are destined to become queen. It is your destiny, Amaya," Zariah said.
Her eyes were absent. There was darkness in them.
"You shouldn't have looked into the shadows," Amaya told her.
At that, the royal guards led by General Adrien burst into the room. Prince Ciaran followed at their heels. He immediately approached Amaya and took her in his arms. Amaya hugged him back. The guards grabbed Zariah and dragged her away.
"You're betraying your own destiny, Amaya," Zariah shouted. "You can't run away from it."
"Are you all right?" Prince Ciaran asked.
Amaya hid her face in his arms. She nodded her head.
"I remember you saying she was like your mother," said Ciaran. "She raised you."
"It seems that all this time she was merely raising a bride for her king. It was just her loyalty to the crown," Amaya said coldly.
⸸
At night, Amaya went to the prince's bedroom. He also didn't sleep like she didn't. He pulled back the covers and welcomed her into his bed. She rested her head on his chest. She listened to the peaceful beating of his heart. Ciaran hugged her and pulled her closer to him.
"Can't you sleep?" he asked her.
"Nightmares keep me awake," she replied. "And you?"
"Too many thoughts running through my mind," he said. "It's all getting too complicated. More than I would have expected."
"It's definitely getting complicated," Amaya said. "I had plans and they crumbled to dust when you walked into my life."
"What plans?" Ciaran wondered.
"Becoming a queen. Kill the king. Rule the kingdom," she replied.
"And what has changed?"
"I felt the possibility of freedom."
"Were you serious that you didn't want to go back to Amorite?" Ciaran asked her.
"Never again," Amaya said. "But what keeps you awake, little prince?"
"You, little goddess," said Ciaran.