Path to Destiny

Chapter 10

Chapter 10

I sat on my bed in the Underground's chambers. Clarice explained that after incident with Eden, Ezra ordered me to be taken up to private chambers to rest -- and not in the prisons. I supposed Eden was pretty terrifying, so at least her outburst was good for something.

Clarice also told me Titus, Hadrian, and Synnove must be in similar chambers since Ezra would never put her friends in prison. I gave her a pointed look when she said this, but she continued into her explanation of why she was in the Underground.

Clarice's story was long and unbelievable. When she arrived at Drush's capital Ridiva, the master she was supposed to train with -- the entire reason she went to Drush with the king of Aria in the first place -- would only train her in basic defensive techniques.

"I can remember him now. For girls your age of royalty," Clarice mocked in a snobby tone from where she sat next to me on the bed, "I can teach you defense techniques that help with attackers and thieves in the street. These may be unfortunate young scraps who have no idea who they're attacking, but my techniques will help you."

She stopped when she saw my face. "Oh, it gets better," she said. "After that, he said, The techniques I teach you will be useful for many small incidents -- but not for things like uncivilized brawls, which you should never engage in."

Clarice stopped and stuffed her hands in her thick red hair. It had grown past her shoulders, much longer than when I last saw her. "It makes me angry just thinking about it," she said. Her lips grew taut. "When I asked him about hand-to-hand combat, he looked at me like I was insane."

She crossed her legs on the bed. Like many of the people I'd seen in the Underground, she wore a simple tunic and trousers in muted colors. "He even said something like Oh, you'll always be protected by your bodyguards, so you don't need to defend yourself or whatever."

"So he wouldn't train you in hand-to-hand combat because you were a royal," I said.

"No, he wouldn't train me because I was a woman." She crossed her arms. "Lucan got plenty of training in hand-to-hand combat, swordsmanship, and a bunch of other stuff in Nor," she said, mentioning her cousin, the Crown Prince of Nor. Last time I heard about him he was still figuring out the details of the peace treaty between Nor and the magical kingdom of Eremith.

And last time Clarice mentioned him, her cheeks would turn scarlet. Now she didn't even flinch at his name. I wondered what had changed.

Clarice continued, explaining that after this incident, she went looking throughout Ridiva for masters to train her. "I didn't tell King Gavin about it," she said, "but he didn't really pay much notice to me. He seemed to be preoccupied with the Drushite palace."

I wondered about Titus's father. He was supposed to be in Ridiva visiting the queen on business. "What about the Drushite queen?" I asked.

"Jada?" Clarice shivered. "No, of course I didn't tell her!"

"Jada?" I queried. I didn't remember her being mentioned as the queen. The name sounded familiar -- like a name I read in the papers from my time working at Aria's tribune last year.

"Jada Harari," Clarice said, "the current -- and fairly recent -- queen of Drush." Clarice shrugged. "I told her I was just visiting friends around Drush," she said with a glint in her gray eyes, "but I was actually visiting illegal slave fighting rings."

At that point, my heart valves must have imploded because a cold sweat started on my forehead just thinking about Clarice, the naive daughter of Duchess Odelia, milling through crowds of sweaty and dangerous men hundreds of pounds heavier than her small body.