The Royal Thief

Chapter Three: The Forest and the Caves

Nemia and I ate our meals with the Auxiliary guards. Since our rooms were on the third floor, close to the servant quarters, that meant we had to take the stairs down to the first floor and go through an open courtyard to the mess hall. On days when it was raining, it also meant that we arrived wet. 

"I'm getting cold for no good reason," I grumbled.

Nemia jerked her head, flicking water droplets off her shiny hair. "We could just go around it next time."

I didn't answer. Jaden had pounded it into my head that the shortest way to the place you were going was the best way, and I followed his lessons, even when they didn't really apply. Possibly I took some lessons too seriously, in retrospect.

We grabbed bowls and plates and filled them up. I slopped oatmeal into my bowl and also managed to get some on my tunic. Somehow I wasn't surprised. A rainy morning, and Joshua sure to be angry about his defeat yesterday, and no lessons to look forward to that night-- it wasn't shaping up into a good day.

"Morning, Morie. You look awful."

I tilted my head up to look Sam in the eye. His blue eyes were twinkling and he could obviously tell I was in a bad mood. "Thanks."

"Oh, no, Morie. That wasn't a compliment."

I rolled my eyes. Sam. 

He was a few years older than me and ever since I'd come to the castle, he'd filled in as a sort of annoying older brother. And I made sure I filled the role of sarcastic younger sister. It was an arrangement that worked for both of us. When I'd first come to the castle, Nemia was a silent stranger, and my instructors were stern-faced adults telling me what to do but not why I needed to do it. For a month I drifted around, doing what they told me and missing my parents and home so hard it hurt. Then I ran into Sam-- literally-- in the hall one day. He was about twelve or thirteen, I suppose, and I knew already that that was too young to be useful around the palace (It didn't occur to me that then I was too, at only eight years). 

Oh, he'd said. You're the thief. And he was the first person to explain to me the Prophecy of the Stars.

In the night sky, he'd explained, there were many constellations. The King, the Dragon, the Enchantress, the Swan-- the list was almost endless. And the priestesses of the temple knew how to interpret them, to read in their patterns and movements, the fate of a kingdom or the steps the king must take to win a certain war. But the most important knowledge they learned from them was the order of succession, or which of the king's heirs would take the throne. And along with that knowledge they had to read in the stars which of the Guardians that Heir would command.

When King Aeric had been chosen, the constellations of the Sage, the White Knight, and the Huntress had appeared in the sky, along with the Lion, the symbol of Port Maenar. So it was in Maenar that the priestesses had looked for and found three children born with the sign of a Guardian. The Sage, the White Knight, the Huntress. They were the King's Guardians, his advisers, his most valuable resources. Then the king had children, and the priestesses read the stars and saw his daughter, Magali, and three constellations: The crown, representing the capital city, the Thief, and the Assassin.

Being a Guardian was supposed to be an honor, but in practice it just made me and Nemia outcasts.

I followed Sam to a table and sat down. Nemia sat next to me and soon Nick and Cara joined us. I suppose if you count them we weren't outcasts. The friends we had were practically family. But when plenty of guards were too wary to talk to you and most nobles smeared in your direction, outcast sounded like an appropriate term.

"So. Joshua's not so happy about yesterday." Nick said, nudging me until I moved over to make room for him on my other side.

I snorted. "No kidding." He'd been sending nasty looks over at me from where he was sitting with higher-ranking guards.