Crown of Lies

Chapter Four: Arrival

The slight shaking of my shoulder was what pulled me out of my deep sleep. I shot up, worried that it was Nadine's bodyguard Louis waking me up for snoring again, but this time it was Nadine dressed in a formal outfit that made her look more like an event planner than a deadly covert agent.

"We're here!" Nadine exclaimed, her smile bigger than I'd ever seen it. "Welcome to Amaris."

I looked out of the window by my seat and see the silhouette of a city in the distance.

"We have landed in, Ames, the capital city."

I grabbed my backpack and headed to the door, the feeling of excitement shooting through my insides like a firecracker. Stepping out of the jet and smelling fresh air for the first time in thirteen hours, only seemed to spread the excitement more. A limousine was waiting for us at the end of the staircase with Boris, the other guard(who's name I'd later learned was Hugo), and my luggage.

Once I'd reached the platform and headed for the car, I took a moment to look behind me. Half of me wanted jump into the car and the other half wanted to barrel back up the stairs into the jet and speed home. I clenched my fists together, trying to even out my breathing and tame my anxiety. I had promised to do this and get paid for it, so the least I could do was follow through and make it to the castle. Breathing out through my nose, I turned back around and reached for the car handle. Hugo shut the door behind me, and walked around the other side to head into the car with Nadine and Boris from the right side. Looking around I noticed that we were yet again in another super expensive looking vehicle. The soft velvet seats were a deep red close to the color of blood, and the seats were shaped in a crescent formation inside the car. The cup holders were made from a fine lacquered wood and they gleamed in the sunlight that shot through the windows. Above those were glass cases filled with all sorts of treats, the aesthetic of it all was just overwhelming.

"Wow..." I couldn't contain the wonder that ran through me as I thought out loud causing Nadine to chuckle.

"If all this wows you wait until we reach the palace, you might soil yourself!" I laughed with her as the car started off towards the city, "Also feel free yourself to any sweets that catch your eye, especially since this is the last time you'll be having sugar in the next two weeks."

"Excuse me?!" My eyes popped out of my head as I turned to make sure I'd heard her right.

"For the next two weeks you will be undergoing rigorous physical and mental training along with courses on self-defense, etiquette, and strategy." Nadine said, not breaking a sweat as she listed of my new list of activities, "When it's time for your close up, even I won't be able to tell that you are not the real Prince Beau."

Something about what Nadine rubbed me the wrong way. Beau and I looked exactly save for a couple features, like my shaggy and slightly longer hair(I'd been trying to go for a surfer type look and failed... miserably) and he was just the tiniest bit more(a lot more) in shape than me. If I became exactly like him, would there be any of me left?

By the time I looked out of the window again we had reached the city, and it was beautiful. It didn't remind me of your typical city like New York, or Chicago. Tall colorful buildings were strewn on the thin roads that we drove through, and vines grew around the gilded streetlamps that lined the sidewalks. The vines weren't slung around the lamps in a way that made them look overgrown, but like a professional gardener had wrapped them around the streetlamps themselves. The city was simply beautiful, in everyway possible. I honestly couldn't believe I'd never heard of Amaris before now, especially if it looked like this. I could see tips of the Ames Palace towers in the distance, and the weird feeling I'd been enduring since I had gotten off the jet deepened. I could tell my anxiety was having a raging kegger in the depths of my mind, so I leaned back into my seat, closing my eyes and trying to focus on the sounds of the limo's engine, and Nadine's claws tapping away her tablet.