The Queen's Girl

The Queen

The Queen and her retinue were passing through the major part of the country on her yearly spring tour. She stopped in many major ports of call and fine cities, as well as little villages that dotted the countryside. This was a tradition she kept from the days of her mother, and it circled the country.

She did not see many common folk, though she wanted to; her time was rigidly scheduled and her valet kept her timely and punctual to every event. She was used to this busy pace, though she longed for a vacation. It seemed mythical, too fantastical for a person of her station.

The tour was wrapping up as usual. There was one stop left in a charming hamlet before the long stretch back to her castle home, and then she could get away with feigning exhaustion for a few days to relax. She couldn't believe she had to do this—she was Queen, she could make the time for herself!—but her valet was always quick to remind her of her duties, and she felt guilty about shirking them.

There was a palatial home in this place fit for royalty to visit, and the Queen's retinue paused here for the evening. She sat at a table filled with food and entertained nobles she couldn't stand with a smile on her face. She was always gracious, despite how she felt.

But it saddened her that she must always put forth a mask.

After dinner, the Queen took a stroll in the gardens, to enjoy the soft glow of the moon on the falling cherry blossom petals. She wandered without a guard or servants, preferring instead to keep her own company for a slip of a second.

She wandered into a fruit orchard and stopped.

The orchard was guarded, as the fruit was precious and could not be wasted on anything but what it was grown for. All royal gardens belonged to the Crown, so the guards wore the royal uniform to distinguish them. And hovering right above them, plucking fruit silently one after the other, was the shadowy shape of a young woman.

The Queen smiled wryly. How easily the thief stole from the guards below! She was impressed. She cleared her throat noisily, and the guards jumped and stood at attention.

"Guards," she commanded. "I heard a strange noise coming from the rose garden."

They stared at her for half a second, then ran off, shuffling in their metal suits for the garden that sat farthest away.

The Queen wandered toward the fruit trees. "I know you're there," she said gently. "There's no cause to hide."

Silence came from the trees. The Queen smiled, and felt the earth's energy flowing beneath her. She could feel the breathing of the gardens, the living and breathing plants, the trees, and the thief in those trees. She opened her palm, closed it again, turned her palm downward, and opened it. The second she did, the tree holding the thief unceremoniously shook the thief out of its branches.

"Ow!" the thief cried. Jewel-colored plumfruits sprawled out on the grass around her, and her tumbling waves of jet black hair were strewn with leaves. She looked every bit like a wild pixie, caught at her own game. She looked up at the Queen with a dawning realization of her situation.

"Well now. I've thieved a thief." The Queen stepped forward, slowly. The difference between herself in her jeweled finery and the thief in her plain, hole-filled clothes was stark.

The thief to her credit caught on very quickly, and prostrated herself upon the garden path. "My Queen, please forgive my humble stomach, for it was hungry." Her tongue was silver! The Queen was pleased by that.

The Queen gave a half-smile. "Thieving from the Crown leaves you in quite a debt, you know," she said. She didn't know why she was toying with her. Perhaps because she liked this girl's sense of mischief. She could thieve from any tree in the orchard, yet she chose the most carefully guarded one to swipe a fruit from.

The thief dared to look up at her. "You're not...going to kill me?"

"For getting one over on a mindless guard? No. Not yet, anyway. But up you get. You are in my debt, and you should repay it by having a walk in the garden with the Queen of your nation." The Queen very much enjoyed the look of confusion and consternation this response caused.

The thief got up slowly, uncertainly. "My...uh...Royal Lady? I don't know what to call you."

"Let us do away with protocol, for the time being. I am Finnula. What is your name?"