I heard the rattling of a rickety carriage and muffled crying. The wheels were bumping over every rock and pit in the side roads of the Printemps’ manor, which were poorly maintained as they were intended for servants.

  I struggled to open my eyes, but they wouldn't heed me. My entire body from the neck down felt numb, but I was dimly aware that someone was clutching my hand.

  “You have to be okay, Sophie. Please. Please be okay.”

  I stirred a bit, trying to see who it was through the red haze that was filling my head.

  I took a deep breath, and felt something stir within my entire body. A burning, twisting feeling that made every part of me scream in anguish.

  I was screaming out loud, too.

  “Sophie?!”

  An older woman's voice started yelling in fright, trying to hold me down as I began thrashing.

  “Sophia, we're almost there. Your father will know what to do. Momma's here. Just hold on”

  ---

  I woke up with a start and an aching back. The clicking of hooves against the road and the rattling of the carriage must have caused me to have that dream, again, after a long time.

  Erika was in the carriage with me, humming to herself as she tried in vain to practice her embroidery. Every bump in the road caused her hands to lurch or bounce, but she persisted for lack of anything else to do.

  We had been on the road for several days now, and we weren't even halfway to the academy.

  The first day had been incredibly exciting. The air outside the estate smelled fresher, the grass was greener, and the entire world felt so open and free. I could see fields, tended to by peasant folk, in every direction, and even managed to spot the small village where I grew up on our way down the hills. It was called Bump, I had always loved its name because I thought it perfectly described the little hills that it was situated in.

  It didn't take more than an hour for the carriage to bring us further away from home than I had ever been. I could see the hills of home behind us, but the rolling terrain in every other direction stretched out for what felt like forever. With some squinting, I vaguely thought I saw the hazy mountain range to the far north.

  This road had taken us east, into the sunrise, towards the Lombardi domain, seat of the current capital. Adrian and the rest of the Hiems family would have gone the opposite direction as us, towards the domain of our largest vassal house, the Dubois county.

  The Lombardi family was the current royal family, which made us technically the Lombardi kingdom, but most people around the manor just called it The Kingdom.

  “Erika, why does Father call it The Kingdom instead of the Lombardi Kingdom?”

  “As a part of the ducal line, your father holds rights to the throne, same as the Lombardis. The Printemps, Hiems, and Lombardi family have traded the seat of power for ages, and I guess he's reluctant to give credence to a rival.”

  "So if he ever becomes king, will we start calling it the Printemps Kingdom?"

  “Just try getting Duke Printemps to agree not to put his name on something.”

  “... You're right. I guess it was foolish of me to ask”

  I opened the window of the carriage to lean out so I could get another breath of fresh air, but Erika yelped and dragged me back inside by shoulder.

  “Sophia! You are hardly dressed to be seen by the guards outside!”

  I looked down at my nightgown, then back up at her with a raised brow. It was hardly flattering, and covered up pretty much everything my normal dresses did.

  “What?”

  “You're a lady, Sophia. You aren't to be seen without the full ensemble.”

  “Or what?”

  “Lest the men get lustful thoughts.”

  I once again looked down, this time at my twiggy body and complete lack of anything interesting to see, and then back up with yet another raised brow.

  “Oh, don't look at me like that. If your appetite lately is anything to go by, you're going to be as plump as any other lady soon enough.”

  Mentioning food suddenly had me feeling ravenous. I had never really been fed well by the Printemps to begin with but I had also never really felt so hungry. It felt like, recently, I suddenly had the hunger of three or four girls my age. “Hopefully it's a late growth spurt or something,” I thought to myself, but I knew looking at Erika that it would be no such thing, since surely as twins we'd be going through the same thing.

  I grabbed some of the travelling food Erika had hidden for us in her luggage and scarfed down an entire day's worth of preserved meat in one sitting. Meat had never tasted so good, and I heard Erika sigh in exasperation at the sheer amount.

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “At this rate we're going to run out long before we get anywhere. Good thing we have some extra money in the budget.”

  I turned to look at her. “Huh? We do? From where?”

  But rather than answering, Erika just smiled.

  ---

  There was a crackling fire outside, and the guards were sitting around it in a circle. I heard their laughing through the thin walls of the carriage, and from their jokes and their stories I learned quite a few new and interesting words.

  “Erika, why can't we be out there with them? It seems so much more fun than in here.”

  “I am not allowed to let you do that.”

  I threw myself down onto the seat of the carriage in a huff.

  “Erika, I've been in this carriage for almost a week by now. I'm tired. Everything hurts. They didn't even let us stop at that village yesterday.”

  She gave me an apologetic look, shaking her head. "It's your father's order, Sophie."

  “What if we just make a run for it?” I asked, halfheartedly.

  “You and I both know that there would be no outrunning the guards.”

  And I did know it. Until the day I was married, I was my father's property, and they were here to protect that property.

  "Even if it's not with them, couldn't I at least go look at the stars?"

  Erika's eyes were tired, and I saw her beginning to nod off. With a yawn, she asked, "Since when do you care about looking at the stars?"

  I tried to remember. "I had just escaped Hugo and Agnes, and ran out into the garden..."

  "I guess, about two weeks ago?"

  "Hmm...well... You still can't go outside." Erika murmured, her eyes heavier than ever.

  I looked outside to the guards, and began to form a plan.

  "You can go to sleep first, Erika. I want to listen to their stories a bit more."

  ---

  “And then, after I gave ‘is buddy the slip, I turned around and lopped off ‘is ‘ead real clean like.”

  Torsefers, the only guard who had opened up to me when I asked to sit with them, seemed suddenly embarrassed. “But, ah, don’ tell anyone I told ye that story, m'lady.”

  “No, it was wonderful Sir Torsefers. I especially liked the part with the donkey.”

  “Ahhh, I ain't no ser, m'lady, and I ain't no ‘sefers neither. Ye can call me Tor.”

  “Oh. But Tor, if you're not a knight, where did you learn swordsmanship? To fight off three men alone must have been quite a feat. Do you practice a particular style?”

  Tor's ears turned a bit red as he gulped down something foul-smelling from the bottle that the guards were passing around.

  “Ah, well, firs' off, I wasn' realIy alone. I 'ad the donkey. But to answer yer question, I'm from the Nightingales, m'lady. Mercenaries. Picked me up when I was a boy an’ put a sword in me ‘ands before I was even old enough to know what I was gettin’ into.”

  He took another swig and passed the bottle onwards.

  “An' swordplay ain't about styles. While them knights are taught all sorts of "honorable practice," these words were accompanied by a mocking wobble of the head, "the rest of us're fighting for our lives. If ye learn anythin' from my story, know there's no glory in killin' or dyin', and never fight a fight ye’ ain't know yer gonna win before ye start.”

  There was a glint in his eye when he concluded, “an’ that means, never fight fair.”

  I looked up at the night sky, considering his words.

  The stars were beautiful that night. But as I tugged nervously at the orange ribbon I had grown accustomed to wearing, I thought to myself that I remembered them being brighter.

  ---

  The sun was low in the sky as we approached the gates of the capital, and the gate guards passed us through without much hassle once they saw the family crest on the side of the carriage.

  The capital was built at the confluence of two rivers and sprawled out in every direction, surrounded by golden fields and encased in thick stone walls. The city within those walls was bustling, even at this late hour, with people running from here to there, in every direction.

  It was truly immense. More immense than I could even comprehend. I felt sure that if I were to dive into the flow of people on the streets that I might never be found again.

  It was called Guldenfel, and it was at the center of the three ducal lands. When I saw the battered walls, I remembered reading that it was the most fought over city in our kingdom's entire history. The rivers flowing through it were the lifeblood that pumped coin and sundry from the mountains to the sea, and they made it a key position in both the military and economic sense.

  Everyone here seemed dressed rather more nicely than the peasants back home, and I wondered what sort of work they all did, since there couldn't possibly be enough fieldwork for all of them.

  “We're coming up on the academy now,” I heard the coachman say, and I nearly jumped out of my skin. That was the first time I had heard him speak since we had left.

  We came to a halt at the gates of the academy, and Tor helped me down the steps of the carriage. My legs felt like jelly, and I became painfully aware of how awful I must have smelled. “Could we really not have stopped at that village for a bath? Even a dip in the river would have been great.”

  My embarrassment was displaced by sheer awe when I finally looked through the gates and saw the academy.

  It was a large campus of sprawling gardens, with a central building flanked by two slightly smaller rectangular buildings, and next to each of those another pair of even smaller buildings, forming a U shape. I could see a grand central fountain in the center of it all, and judging the distances in my head I guessed that all of Bump could fit within the academy walls.

  Moving from building to building were dozens of boys and girls of all ages, all wearing neat, matching uniforms in black and gold. I noticed that nearly all of the boys were headed to my left, and nearly all the girls were headed to my right.

  “Curfew is soon, so you'd best be finding your way to your dormitory quickly. Have a nice winter, Lady Sophia,” said the coachman as he tipped his flat cap towards me and began driving the carriage onwards. The other guards walked off with him, but Tor stayed behind a bit longer for Erika to hand him a letter before the gates of the academy closed us in.

  “Good luck, m'lady. Knock ‘em dead,” he said before turning to follow after them.

  I stood there, feeling a bit dumb and a lot dirtier than I would have liked. “Forget the dormitories, where can we get a bath, Erika?”

  “At the dormitories, presumably. Let's be on our way, Lady Sophia,” Erika said as she picked up our luggage and walked ahead of me. She must have also really wanted that bath.