Behind The Wooden Door (2 page)

He shook his head. “Nothing. It’s just an odd name for a princess. Most princesses have outrageous names, five or six of them at least. But yours is just so simple. Lanie.”

“It’s short for Lanium. My mother named me, but my father wasn’t fond of it. So he shortened it to Lanie,” I said as I continued down the corridor.

“Never mind. You don’t need five or six. Lanium’s outrageous enough by itself,” he said. “Which do you prefer?”

I decided to ignore his first statement.

“Lanie,” I replied.

“Well, Lanie let me make one thing clear,” he said. “I don’t work well with bratty princesses like you, and if you get in my way, I will not hesitate in pushing you out of a window and telling your father that you fell. Do you understand?”

I stared at him for a moment, stunned by what he said. Did he really just threaten me in my own home?

“Then I suppose it’s a good thing you’re not working with a bratty princess, isn’t it?” I snapped back.

I pushed open the huge door of the chamber and walked in without a look back at him. I felt uneasy being alone with him, but I didn’t want him to know he frightened me. Three tall wooden tables stood in the middle of the room. Parchment covered the top of the middle one, and I knew on that paper I was supposed to draw blueprints of the surrounding woods for the
animal who stood behind me. I ran my fingers over the crumpled parchment.

“Tell me, Aissur, why should I waste my time drawing this out for you when it’s just as simple for you to walk around and see the place for yourself?” I inquired. I wanted out of this dim room and back in the safety of my bed. Far away from Tristan Aissur.

“Because it would take longer for me to learn the landscape of the place myself, and by the time I’d learned it, Prince Artair would already have his army assembled and advancing on your castle,” he replied.

I rolled my eyes at the arrogance that dripped from his voice. Even though I hated to admit it, I knew he was right. I sat on one of the chairs and began to draw the outline of my land. The only two sounds that filled the room were the soft thuds of Tristan’s boots as he paced the room and the quiet scratching of my quill.

An hour passed before I’d finished drawing out the entire terrain of my kingdom. My father was right. I knew the land too well.

I stood from my chair and handed him the parchment. “Here. I’m finished.”

“It took you long enough,” he said. He snatched the paper from my hand and made his way to the door.
             

“You may want to learn some respect for you superiors, Aissur,” I told him as I stared at his back.

His entire body tensed. “Superiors? You think you are superior to me?” he questioned.             

“By title, yes. You are just an assassin. I, on the other hand, am heir to this kingdom. I am a princess. You’re a murderer, that’s it. So, I believe I
am
superior.”

His boots fell hard on the floor as he made his way back to me, his hand on the hilt of his sword. I tried my best to keep the fear from my face. He didn’t need to know how afraid I truly was. As he moved closer, I retreated backward, but the table soon stopped me. I had no place to run.

“I’m not anyone’s inferior. Do you understand that?”

Shadows engulfed his face. His hands wrapped around my wrists, and I felt the circulation of my blood cutting off. I struggled to break free from his grasp, but it was pointless. I was trapped in his grip. His first prisoner of war.

“I asked you a question. Now answer it. Do. You. Understand?”

With every word his grip tightened.

Gritting my teeth through the pain, I managed to say that I understood. He released his hold on me and stormed out of the room. I rubbed my wrist and feared to see them in the light. Bruises were the last thing I wanted. My father would go mad if he knew I let a soldier, a mere peasant, overpower me.

But I had the distinct feeling that Tristan Aissur was more than a simple peasant fighting a war. I ran to the window and waited until I saw him walk out of the castle doors. His silhouette walked toward the tents, head held high and blueprints in hand. He stopped only to glance back to where I stood above. I ducked away from the window to keep him from seeing me.

When I dared to look back, he was gone.

CHAPTER 3

War. I had heard stories of hired soldiers and bloody fields, but that was something that happened far away. Not here. War was something fathers told their children about at bedtime. Faceless warriors who killed without thought.

These soldiers weren’t like the ones in the stories. These soldiers were real. Too real. It had been hours since my meeting with Tristan in the war chamber, and I was lucky he hadn’t bruised my wrists.

Deep voices drifted through the air. I turned a smooth, black stone over in my hand before I made it skip across the flowing river. The beautiful, clear blue water suddenly turned red. I jumped to my feet in horror. Crimson waves crashed before my eyes waiting to devour me and take me away with the current.

The voices grew closer.

Tristan and Hawk marched my way more than walked, their steps in perfect sync. Their faces wore emotionless masks. A smaller guy with messy brown
hair walked a few paces behind them. His steps were slower than his comrades. He scanned the woods as if my kingdom was a mysterious jungle to him.

“Well, hello, Princess,” Tristan said as he approached.

His voice was cold and mocking, as was the bow he greeted me with.

“Hello, Aissur,” I replied. I tried, and failed, to match the iciness of his voice. “Where are you going?”

The smaller guy smiled at me from behind his friends. His eyes held an innocence behind them that the others’ didn’t.
It must be his first war,
I thought to myself.

“To the crossing, down the river. We’re going have a look at the field on the other side. That’s where I believe your cousin will start the battle,” Tristan said.

I inhaled deeply and closed my eyes for only a brief moment. The field and the river were the only things that separated Artair’s kingdom from mine. It would be much too easy for them to slip away and join my cousin if he offered them more gold than my father had. I had to keep that from happening.

“I think it would be best if I accompanied you,” I said. “I would like to know your plans on defending my kingdom.”

Tristan raised an eyebrow and looked down on me. “Do you not trust me, Princess?”

“No, Aissur, I do
not
trust you, and if these two are anything at all like you,” I said. I gestured to the others. “I don’t see any reason to trust them either.”

“Well, I’d advise you to start trusting us. If it weren’t for us, your kingdom wouldn’t stand a chance in this war,” Hawk said.

He was right. The men of Rattonim were farmers, not warriors. The only thing that would fear our men were the crops that grew in the fields. If we were truly at war, we would not have a fighting chance to win without Tristan and his men.

Tristan smiled and shook his head. “No, Hawk, I think we should let her come.”

“What?” he asked. He looked at Tristan, puzzled.

Tristan gave Hawk a smirky grin but didn’t respond.

“Tommy, keep the princess out of my and Hawk’s way.”

Tristan walked past me with Hawk close behind, but the brown-haired guy stayed in front of me. His face was much kinder than the other two, more welcoming. His smile never faded when he followed after the other guys and motioned for me to follow.

“Is this the first time your kingdom’s gone to war?” Tommy asked.

He pushed his hands deep into his pockets and scuffed the ground with the toe of his boots as he walked. I watched his feet to avoid his eyes. I feared that in a few days, the light that shone in them now would be lost forever.

“The first I have been alive for,” I replied.

“I guess we’ll be going through our first wars together then,” he said.

“And all lead by the wondrous Tristan Aissur,” I said with as much sarcasm as I could muster.

Tommy’s sudden burst of laughter made me jump. He shook his head and rocked back on his heels momentarily.

“He’s not as bad as you think, Princess,” he said.

He ducked under a tree branch, stopped, and held it up for me to cross under. Obviously he didn’t know the same Tristan Aissur I had talked to this morning.

“He’s been fighting since I can remember. Not in wars, but with other kids, our father –”

“Wait. What?” Had I heard him correctly? “Your father?”

Tommy nodded his head. “Yeah, Tristan’s my brother.”

I waited for him to laugh and tell me it was a joke. But he didn’t. Brothers? It seemed impossible. He seemed so much more carefree than Tristan, more innocent. He was probably here to live up to the soldier life his brother had. To prove himself.

“Why did you decide to fight in this war, Tommy?” I asked. I had to know.

“Because your people need help, and–” He hesitated. “I don’t know. I guess I just want to make a difference in someone’s life.”

I looked into his face for any sign that he was lying; I found none.

“Tommy! Are you coming or not?” Tristan’s voice called up from ahead of us.

Tommy looked over at me and smiled. “We better catch up or he’s gonna kill us.”

I didn’t know whether or not Tommy was joking, but I didn’t want to find out. The river turned back to its crystal blue color as we walked along the edge toward the crossing. Large gray stones had been placed into the shallow water to allow passage across the rushing waters. White foam lined the edges of the smooth stones.
Please don’t let me fall.

I held my breath when I took the first step onto the rocks. I could feel Tommy’s eyes as he watched me from behind. He was probably waiting for me to take that one wrong step and go plummeting into the water.

Once Tommy crossed, we made our way through the small thicket that divided the field from the river.

Large, brown vines crawled through the overgrown weeds and wound themselves around the surrounding trees like snakes trying to squeeze the life from their prey. Tristan leaned his back against a tree and crossed his arms; Hawk was by his side.

“I didn’t think the two of you were ever going to get here,” Tristan said.

Tommy rolled his eyes. “You weren’t
that
far ahead of us.”

Something black fluttered past the corner of my eye. I prayed it was just my imagination again, but it wasn’t. The black butterfly landed on Tristan’s shoulder. He swatted at it, but he missed.

I hated the rare black butterflies. The days prior to my mother’s execution, one of the winged insects had followed my mother as if it was her shadow. Since then, I had always associated the small shadow with death itself. I hadn’t seen one of them in years. It must have felt the change in the air. It waited to bask in the glory of the death of so many men.

Tristan tore his eyes from the fluttering shadow and pushed off the tree trunk. He sighed and paced back and forth through the field.

“We have defend this place. If they get past this field, they’re going to take the castle.” Tristan stopped midway through the tall weeds and turned to face me.

“If they get past this field, you and your people won’t survive.”

I didn’t know what made me more anxious – the calmness in Tristan’s voice or the fact that he was telling the truth. My heart beat rapidly, and I hoped no one else could hear it. “How do you plan on stopping them?”

He resumed pacing. “From what all I’ve heard, Artair’s army isn’t very large, but they’ve never lost a battle before.” Tristan smiled and looked over at Hawk. “But, luckily, neither have we.”

Tristan’s arrogant smile faded when he looked over at his brother. Tommy stared back.

“I’m going to lead the first attack. I’ll take two hundred eighty men with me.” Tristan stared into the distance as if he could see over the hills at my cousin’s castle. “Hawk, you’ll come in next. I’m giving you two hundred thirty-seven men. The strongest ones we have.”

“I’d rather go in with an even number,” Hawk said.

“Then it’s a good thing you’re number two hundred thirty-eight.”

Tommy walked over to where Hawk and Tristan stood. “What about me?”

Tristan sighed and shook his head. I went to Tommy’s side and waited for his assignment. Tommy seemed eager to be a part of the war, but Tristan was reluctant about letting his brother join the bloodshed.

“You’ll go in last with however many men are left. Hopefully Hawk and I can kill off most of them before you get there,” Tristan said. He turned sharply from his brother and walked back toward the trees.

“So that’s it? I just get to go in and kill what you and Hawk leave behind?”  The frustration in Tommy’s voice was evident.

“You’re lucky I’m letting you fight at all,” Tristan screamed then threw his arm out toward the empty field. “You have no idea what it’s like out there!”

Tommy looked down at the dying grass and didn’t respond. His first war would be to defend my kingdom. If he died, his blood would be on my and my people’s hands. I only hoped he could handle the battle that lied ahead of him.