In Chains, C. Noble [recommended ebook reader txt] 📗

stopped in her tracks, feeling as though someone had stabbed her. Swallowing her hurt, Darcey stepped forward again and sat down in her chair. Will sat next to her, but she steadily ignored him. Her anguish at being ignored had been replaced by a burning desire to get even. However irrational it might have been, she felt it just. If Will was going to ignore her, fine. Two could play at that game.
For the next hour, Darcey spoke to everyone except Will, paying particular attention to Dante. She knew this made Will furious, but still he did not make a move to stop her. Infuriated, Darcey started asking Dante about what he would to when he got home. “Surely the eldest son will take the lead in your parents’ profession? I mean, isn’t it kind of the job of the firstborn to do that kind of thing? I mean, your little brother wouldn’t do it. He’s just second born, second best, you know?”
Darcey saw every mention of ‘second’, ‘eldest’, or ‘firstborn’ by her sent a quiver of anger through the tendons in Will’s jaw. He sat there silently fuming, but remained silent. Desperate, Darcey resorted to her last effort. Dante’s hand was hanging lazily off the side of the leather couch, and Darcey was sitting just next to him. She locked her eyes onto Will’s, and saw his eyes follow her hand, which had drifted down the side of her chair and swung carelessly back and forth, brushing Dante’s hand each time it did. Dante looked down, then back at Darcey, smiling.
Will saw all this, and could bear it until Dante, his own brother, reach out and grab Darcey’s hand for a brief second before letting it go again. Will jumped out of his chair and marched off to his bedroom, determined not to leave until they were on the ground, where he could go to his own mansion, or castle, or whatever it was that he lived in, and never see Her Royal Highness again.
Darcey saw Will storm off and casually got up to follow him, saying something about leaving the toothpaste cap off in her bedroom. When nobody was looking, she quietly dashed into the bedroom Will and Dante shared and closed the door. Turning around, she saw Will sitting on a silk upholstered chair in the corner, staring out the airplane window. He turned to see who had entered, but on seeing Darcey, frowned and turned his head forcefully to stare back out the window at the endless ocean. Darcey, on seeing his anger, was made angry herself. Before she knew what she was doing, she was shouting at him.
“What is wrong with you? You say you like me, and then have a fit and start ignoring me for no good reason?” Her voice rose to a shriek. “And on top of that, you won’t even look at me!” Staring, fuming, Darcey watched the muscles in Will’s back twitch every time she raised her voice. He was silent for a minute, before hissing a reply through clenched teeth. “You think I wanted to ignore you? You don’t know half of it. Any of it.”
“I don’t know, do I? Then please, feel free to explain.”
“Fine. You want to know what Dad told me in his office a few days ago? He told me that you’re the princess of Dijoubwe, and that it was my job to make sure nothing happened to you. He explained everything to me. Do you think that was easy, having to deal with that? I didn’t know when we would be coming back, I could have been guarding you for decades.”
“You…you knew? And you never thought to tell me? You thought it would be cool to just let me live a horrible life when I could have been a princess? You really are twisted.”
“You have no idea how hard that was, to know that I had to guard you because someone was trying to kill you. I…I couldn’t bear the idea of anyone hurting you. I just couldn’t. I thought that maybe if you didn’t know, that it would throw them off your trail or something…I don’t know. I should have told you. I’m really sorry, Darcey –” Will left off, his eyes watering.
“You were trying to save my life? But then…Will, I’m so sorry! I didn’t actually mean that stuff with Dante, you know that. I know he’s a dirty rotten scum. I just wanted to make you angry…” Darcey’s eyes welled with repentance. She was truly sorry for hurting him.
“Hey, it’s ok. I was really wrong,” Will stood up, arms out. Darcey walked slowly forward for a few steps, then ran into his awaiting embrace. Her eyes swelling with tears, she tried to talk. “I just…I just don’t know if I’ll be a good princess. What if I screw up or something? I couldn’t stand messing everything up that my parents did, I just couldn’t. Or what if there was a war, the first one in like five hundred years? What would anyone think of me?”
Surprised, Will said in a tone that could be called amused, “Darcey, you’ll be fine. You heard Montoyez, you’re a doe. If you love your people, you’ll do anything to keep them safe.” Darcey looked up and smiled, sitting down into the chair previously occupied by him. They sat watching the sun dance on the water for a few minutes before Darcey gasped and said, “I was supposed to be putting the cap back on the toothpaste! Everyone’ll be missing me.” With a parting glance, Darcey darted into her bedroom and grabbed the toothpaste, which in fact was uncapped. She put it away, and all the other things she had left out before rejoining her company in the living space of the giant jet.
“Sorry, I forgot about the hairdryer, and when I was packing up the stuff in the bathroom I dropped it in the sink and had to be really careful wiping it off.” Nobody seemed to suspect where she really had been the last fifteen minutes. Shortly after, Will reappeared with a similar excuse, but with a determined grin on his face.
“Princess, Mistress Palma, Count and Countess Doscier, we will be landing shortly. If you do not have all of your belongings together, I suggest that you collect them now.” Mary Ann smiled but didn’t make a move to leave. Will’s mom and dad got up to check for any last minute forgotten items.
“Well, Darcey wouldn’t really need to clean up her stuff, would she? It is kind of her plane,” Mary Ann giggled.
“I suppose not, no. But it would do the maids a great favor if you were to,” Hulio replied in a somewhat tense tone. It was clear that he disliked the word ‘maid’, when he said it a muscle in his temple twitched. Darcey wanted to question him about this, but Will’s parents had come back and the pilot’s voice began speaking over the hidden intercom for the first time.
“Ladies and gentlemen, we will be landing shortly. Please strap yourselves in. It looks clear, but we expect some slight turbulence.” At his command, everyone reached for their seatbelts and buckled them quickly. True to his word, not three minutes later the plane began to shake a little bit before jumping as its wheels hit the ground.
It glided on the smooth runway for a moment before quietly coming to a halt. Darcey threw herself out of her seat and ran for the opposite window. She could hardly get a good view of the island, the small airport with her family’s crest was all she could see. Hulio led her to the door and opened it as the ground crew pushed the stairs up to it. At first the light was blindingly bright, blocking her entire view. As she slowly descended the stairs, her sight returned, and she gasped. Hulio grinned and said with pride, “Welcome back Princess, to Dijoubwe!”
A forested mountain cast a beautiful backdrop to the city she saw. Gleaming and glinting in its pristine whiteness in the bright sunshine, it looked like something out of a fairy tale, like Atlantis.
The palace itself was a thing of beauty. Shimmering like a diamond, it blinded the eye to look at. Golden tiles covered its roof, shades of red silk dripped from its awnings and balconies, draped around massive white marble pillars and drifting serenely down the wide stairs of the same stone, lazily blowing in the breeze.
In the heat of the morning, the rainforest began to steam around the city. An ape howled gleefully in the distance, while blue and green parrots flew across the sky. Behind her, a flawlessly white sand beach met turquoise waters, which lapped happily at its shores. Massive palms swayed in the breeze as a few citizens strolled lazily along the beach.
Darcey was even more surprised when she saw what they were expected to travel in. Instead of the cars to which she was so accustomed, she saw two carriages drawn by teams of white horses bejeweled in the traditional island colors of gold and maroon. The carriages were cherry wood with gold trimmings, with a multitude of golden tassels and maroon hanging off of the laced windows.
Golden leaf metal stairs were brought down for them by the driver in gold and maroon livery. Will, Darcey, Mary Ann, and Hulio ascended the first carriage while the Count and Countess Doscier and Dante took up the second. As the liverymen took their bags and placed them on the gold rack on their roofs, Darcey looked around once more. The seats were covered in maroon velvet, the drapes golden silk embroidered with maroon patterns. The padded white silk walls were exquisite to the touch.
“Why aren’t we going in cars? Don’t you have them here?” Mary Ann asked, relieving a question that had been sitting on Darcey’s mind as soon as she saw the horses. “No, King Martinaque believes that horses are the best way to get from place to place. Our island has never seen a car. Naturally, we have internet, and obviously an airport, but phones and cars are nonexistent here. We make our own clothing by weaving it. We are completely self-sufficient, with the exception of jet fuel, which we buy from larger countries for a trade, usually something as simple as allowing this island to be opened to the world’s royalty and rulers as a vacation home. Really though, those visitors stay in our global embassy in their own private wings representing their home countries.”
“No cars? So if I wanted to get somewhere, I’d have to ride in a carriage?” Darcey asked incredulously. “Or ride a horse, which I assume you know how to do,” Hulio began, but as Darcey shook her head, he continued thusly: “Well, we have international champion riders from the islands. They would be honored to teach you how to ride, which of course you will need to be able to do flawlessly. It is expected of a princess, and her entourage.” Hulio smiled, glancing at Will and Mary Ann, both of whom seemed almost frightened at the prospect.
As the carriages wound through the city streets, people all around them stopped their work and stared, bowing low, touching their foreheads to the cobblestone ground. Men in tunics, women in colorful dresses, little boys running around in diapers, little girls in light skirts that swept the ground and bright colored strapless tops all stopped their work and play to watch their returning princess. Darcey blushed as she smiled and nodded at them.
They came upon the palace quickly and quietly. Will and Mary Ann had passing glances at their homes, but were not allowed out. Will would leave for his villa at night, Mary Ann’s parents were waiting for her at the palace. They would stay the