Stars of the Sea

Inheritance

Bella, Adar, and Samirah walked back to the castle. Bella couldn't help but feel like they were being watched. It was ridiculous, thought. She was always being watched.

Perhaps it was the gathering crowd outside the gate that made her nervous. Peasants, dressed in dirty rags, with sullen checks and dark circles under their eyes.

"We're starving, and the queen is feasting on more than she can eat!" a woman shrieked. "I've lost two children!"

Bella hoped they wouldn't be seen or recognized. She skirted around the rose bushes and tried to make herself small, but it didn't help.

"You're the reason we're sick! If you stopped drafting our mages we wouldn't be dying!" someone shouted at Bella, Adar, and Samirah. Bella wanted to laugh. She didn't decide anything. Bella was nothing more than a glamorized token without the ability to even do the magic that should have been her inheritance.

"Give back our mages! Give back our sons! Give back our daughters! Give back our mages!" the crowd screamed in a chant. Samirah and Adar said nothing, but they both looked thoughtful. Now you see what life's really like in the kingdom. Bella thought. Certainly, she would be blamed for this. Thirza would be furious that the visiting king had seen how distressed the citizens of Augustia really were.

Adar threw back his shoulders and started walking towards the iron wall that surrounded the palace. Samirah swore under her breath, then she started following. Left with little of a choice, Bella scurried after.

"Why do you protest?" Adar asked the crowd. "And how can I help?"

"Fucking nobles, it's easy to be a hero when you're not the one dying!" someone screamed from across the metal fence. "You can't pretend to understand!"

"Understand what?" Adar repeated. The man started climbing the fence, with help from the protesters.

"Help us! We need money! We're starving and we're sick too!" a woman cried. She was carrying a baby.

"Why are you all sick?" Adar asked. Samirah's eyes never left the man climbing the fence. Adar stepped closer, ignoring the captain of his guard. Bella touched the charm on her dress and felt the magic activate.

"Our doctors were all drafted! And that bitch banned herbal mixing magic remedies!" a man shouted. Adar ignored the man climbing the fence. Samirah was glowering at him, as she tried to get Adar to move.

The man reached the top and pulled out a knife. The crowd roared. Samirah unsheathed a short sword, but what could that do against a man jumping down, with momentum on his side? Adar was frozen in place, a look of shaken and almost outrage on his face. The man was about to leap, and Samirah looked about to tackle Adar when Bella let her arrow fly.

It struck the man in the chest. The Augustian red fletching stood out from his chest. Bella wanted to step to the side to see if the arrowhead stuck out from the other side of his body.

Belladonna didn't feel anything. Not when she drew the arrow, when she released, nor when it pierced the man's chest. Belladonna watched as the man's body fell backward from the fence, back into the crowd. Donna's eyes were drawn to the dagger in his hand. She studied it in detail. The iron was chipped, and the leather around the hilt was worn.

Belladonna wasn't aware of anything, she just stared at that dagger. No thoughts, no feelings. It was just her and that dagger.

Someone was screaming. Screaming for her. No one did that. Why would they? Bella couldn't help anyone. She was weak. The mistake. The princess who never should have existed.