Wasting Away

Twisting in agony on his bed, Carl’s blue eyes were turning grey. As he gasped, his carers saw his bleeding gums receding over his teeth. Fat all over his body had vanished, muscle was wasting away. Skin clung ever tighter to his bones.

            “Help me.” His voice was a rasping whisper.

            “We will. Don’t stop fighting, thief.” Princess Elspeth held his hand. She had been at his side whenever she could be for days. “You are not allowed to die. DO YOU HEAR ME?”

            “Don’t yell at him please, your highness.” Lupita tried to be civil with the next in line to the throne of Crann.”

            “My apologies. My guilt eats at me. He could have let me die.”

            “I’ll forgive you for a kiss.” Carl smiled a toothy smile, showing red teeth. He then coughed and rolled over. Twig thin legs drew up to his chest.

            “DAMNIT, I’ll get food from the castle and return as soon as I can.”

            “What about my kiss, your highness?” The question came amid hacking coughs.

            “No offense, Northman, but not right now.” Princess Elspeth’s brown and ginger hair swung at her shoulders as she stormed out. “Good day, Miss Smith, Miss Longbow.” Her green dress, stitched with hundreds of oak trees, flapped as she walked.

            Brown eyes with a hint of green took one last glance at Carl before the door to the house slammed shut behind the princess.

            “She likes me.” The boy made sounds that were dying coughs mixed with laughter.

            “Lucky you,” Danielle rubbed his back. “Incredible that she gave you her heart.” Lupita had the wooden replica of the blood pumping organ in her hands.

            “She didn’t give it. I stole it.” He lay on his back, feet off the bed. Was he growing?

            “Why this thing?” Lupita asked, turning over the brass and oak box.

            “Why not? I thought I was going to die. I might still.”

            “You are not going to die.” Danielle said in her strongest voice.

            “Not until she kisses me at least.” Carl flexed his fingers, they looked longer. “What’s happening to me?”

            “You’re aging by years in hours.” Lupita said. “Drink something. Eat something.”

            “Eating hurts. Swallowing hurts. Breathing hurts.” He groaned.

            “You’ll hurt more if you don’t.” Lupita brought him porridge with honey. Her warm ebony hands pressed the wooden spoon into his mouth as Danielle held him up like the invalid he was. His eyes screwed shut in pain as his throat drew down the sustenance.

            Carl winced with every bite but ate as much as he could.

            “He should be getting treatment in the castle. The princess is only alive thanks to him. What’s taking her so long?” Danielle was itching to fight someone. Fear expressed itself in anger, adrenaline coursed through her veins. Watching him struggle was too much.

            “I hate just standing here.” Her voice was a growl as she clenched knuckles that were pink and yellow from the tension of her skin. Muscles in her arms bulged as she tensed her entire body, trying not to explode with frustration.

            “Go to the castle Dan.” Lupita said, dreadlocks swinging as she turned to look at the warrior. “Help the princess bring food for Carl.”

            “Alright.”

Wearing her green Crann Kingdom tabard, she walked through the cold city towards the castle. Muddy cobbles tried to slip beneath her feet. Cruel wind tried to steal her warmth. The granite monolith of the castle tried to steal her composure. Wounds ached in the chill.

            Guards stood aside for her. Each knew her face even if she didn’t know them. She was Fate’s Puppet. She hated the nickname.

            Familiar tapestries showed her battles of old as her footsteps echoed off the grey walls. Up she went, up and up to the tower Queen Malin had made her sanctuary. The oak door creaked to announce her to the queen and the princess.

            Lupita’s father, Atwanda Smith, stood before the seated queen. The Master Smith stood alongside the Master Architect and the Master Builder and other men who helped oversee the city.

            To see those men before the queen was no surprise. The women who stood behind the queen, unguarded, were a shock.

            Girls and boys with blonde hair and blue eyes in the robes of the Royal Coven, outnumbered the rest of the queen’s witches and warlocks. Including the queen and princess there were thirteen, fourteen if she included the absent Lupita. Some were fully grown. Some were little more than toddlers.

            In the midst of the students of magic was their tutor, one of the curaduile avatars. The tree person had taken the form of someone wearing the coven’s robes.

            Queen Malin dismissed her council and summoned Danielle with a beckoning hand. Though she was upright and sharp as a spearpoint the queen looked no better than Carl. The magical tree teaching magic behind her was wooden, but the queen was gnarled.

            “How can I help you, Danielle?” Asked the queen.

            “I came to help Princess Elspeth carry the food for Carl.”

            Queen Malin’s eyes, one blue and one brown, turned to look at her daughter. “Is that what you were talking about?” The mismatched eyes turned back to Danielle. “My apologies, Miss Longbow. I have been instructing Princess Elspeth in governance. She has a lot to learn.”

            There seemed nothing to say to that. Danielle stayed silent.

            “Certain you’ve no magic in you, Longbow?” Queen Malin tossed a crystal to the warrior. The crystal had been glowing faintly in the queen’s hand. It was nothing more than a frosted crystal in hers. “Shame. Throw it to one of the children.” The queen’s smile was crooked.

            Danielle yelled to the class of magelings. She threw the stone. A small girl with golden hair caught it. The glow in her hand was brighter than a candle flame.

            “Pass it about,” said the queen. She stood and watched. As the stone passed through the hands of the witches and warlocks it glowed less or more. In the hands of one girl, it was a blinding beacon. “Minerva,” said the queen, speaking the girl’s name like a prayer. Her voice rose to be heard by all. “The Empire of the Holy Proclamation wanted you dead. You’re magnificent. You will be a mighty coven. Do you know your saviour’s name?”

            “Catherine Harper,” said some.

            “The yellow eyed lady,” said some others.

            “Yessss.” Queen Malin turned. “Catherine has been busy in the north. Killing military leaders and sending me children who would have been murdered for their magic.

            You need food for Carl?”

            “Yes mother.” Princess Elspeth nodded.

            “SIR ALED!” The queen’s shout was deafening. A knight in the Crann tabard with blue sleeves showing beneath answered the call.

            “Yes, your majesty.” Sir Aled Cadogan, from Afon Kingdom, answered the call and bowed deeply to the queen.

            “The boy who saved my daughter is sick. Fill a sack of food for him from the kitchens and deliver it to the house with Miss Longbow.”

            “I’ll help,” Princess Elspeth offered.

            “No. You have more to learn with the coven.”

            “I HAVE TO GO. I PROMISED!” The princesses roar was worthy of a lion.

            “No.” The queen lowered her voice to a whisper. “And don’t ever raise your voice with me again. You’re not queen yet.” The fire in her daughter died down to nothing. The authority in the blue and brown eyes of the queen could not be measured by magic or vigour.

            “Tell Carl I will come to see him when I can.” The princess could not meet her eyes.

            “Before you go, Miss Longbow.” Queen Malin stopped Danielle with the words. “Know that we are eternally grateful for everything you, Carl and Lupita have done. Can you write?”

            “Yes, my queen. I can write now.” Warmth in her cheeks made her stare at the flagstones.

            “And read?”

            “Yes, your highness.”

            “And ride?”

            “Yes. I can ride now, your majesty.”

            “Then when the boy has recovered, he will see you knighted, alongside Miss Smith.”

Her heart stopped beating for a moment. She would be a knight. She looked at the queen, searching for a ruse, or the smile of a cruel joke. There was none.

            “Thank you, my queen.”

            “Ask Lupita to come to me when you return. I need to talk to her about her formula for the black powder.”

            “Right away, your highness.”