Her Queen

Chapter 20

It's been days after she had last seen Alice. Feeling herself getting frustrated, Elyssa struck the straw dummy with such force that it got torn off the stand, landing in a cloud of dust beside her. Panting, she threw the wooden sword she used for training to the ground and slumped into a bench, throwing her head back in exhaust. No one knew where she was. "Good training," Jaron commented as he threw a towel at her. She groaned as she pulled the towel off her face and sat herself straight up. She had spent the last nights scouting the dungeons, trying to find the perfect opportunities to sneak in. The tunnel she went through took her to a hall connected to the guard's break rooms. Filled with guards, she couldn't risk going in and analyze the place.

She lifted the towel to wipe off the sweat on her forehead. She could pretend to be refilling the food in their rooms and sneak off into the cells, or dress up as one. Ideas ran in and out of her head like a flowing stream going through a mill. Without realizing it, she had been mumbling all the ideas and plans she had thought of. "You ok there, trainee?" Her captain asked, his expression was a mix of confusion and suspicion. Snap out of it. "Yeah, yeah," she replied, flipping her hair back.

"Sleepless nights?"

"Why'd you say that?"

"You have bags under your eyes."

Elyssa placed a finger on her cheeks, then sighed. "You could say that. I've just been thinking lately."

"About?"

"How I'm gonna protect the queen." Oops. She didn't mean to say that. Jaron chuckled and sat in the bench next to her, his back arched down with his arms on his knees. "I know how you feel. The first year I was here, I thought about how I was to protect the kingdom. I was weak, poor, and in one of the lowest points of my life, but then I met Aaron." She scoffed at the mention of the Prince, her head turned away to watch distant knights train against one another. Jaron laughed again as he sat straight up grabbing a wooden sword from the stand beside them as he did and pointed it forward. "You may not like him, not many people do. He wears a shell that blocks him from others."

"That's one tough shell then," she commented. The captain nodded and lowered the sword. "He's tough. We were both 13 when we met. I was running the field when I tripped and fell. I just sat there and reflected over my mistake. You know who helped me up?"

"The prince?"

"The captain. He yelled at me and scolded me. Hard. Aaron was also running field, but he helped push me further than any other. He told me to get up and keep going. His tough shell is what got me here. After I became captain, we became best friends."

Elyssa grunted and stood up, brushing the dirt off her shirt and looked down at him. "So did you come here to tell me about how great Aaron is? Oh, and tell me about how amazing King Edward is, I'm sure that'll be fun." Jaron's eyes hardened as he stood up, this time he was looking down at her. "I came here because you looked like a wreck. You are one of my most promising trainees. To survive in this place, you have to know who to make your friends and who to make your enemies." This again, as of hearing it from that pipsqueak Flint wasn't enough. "Aaron may see like a hard head, but he is a good ally." Elyssa scoffed and crossed her arms. "Whatever. I have to go find the queen, excuse me," she said as she shoved past Jaron and stormed off. Ignoring the consequences of her exit, she made her way to the castle without turning back to the captain who watched her with disappointment.

"Your highness, Elyssa requests your presence in the throne room," Flint said, lowering his head as Edward looked up from his paper at him. The king had been in his workroom signing documents and taxes for the afternoon. Aaron was reading in a chair on the other side of the room, his eyes glued in a book about mythology. Edward sighed and looked back down, continuing to write. "Tell her I'm busy."