Liraz: Page 2

Ana sighed. “Fine. We won’t go today. What should we do instead?”
“The princess of the mountains is having an open birthday party for guests of higher status. She’s turning seventeen and she’s showing off her matched fiancée.”
“Oh, she’s always been a flirt. I heard she’d been courting one of her guards for a year.”
“A guard, not a knight?”
“He has no official status at all. Rumor has it that she’d been pregnant and visited a sorceress in secret to see if she was or not. She was and remember that village tour she went on? Along the way she had excuse to wear many layers and when she gave birth to the baby, she left it in a beggar’s orphanage.”
“How awful!”
“And besides, the mountains native tongue is Spanish and all I know is Latin and Irish.”
“Irish for the forests but why do you know Latin?” Belle asked.
“Our most dangerous meadow-the only one Mother refuses to let me visit-is right along the sea. So my tutor taught me Latin for the ocean, just in case.”
“I wish I knew all that. The court children only learn the sectors we’re at peace with. So I know the English of the meadow and our native Irish.”
“But your forests border several mountains and you haven’t fought with any mountaineers for years.”
“Yes, but no peace treaty was ever signed. We refuse to honor them as peace keepers yet.”
“Oh. Anyways, I want to do something adventurous. Maybe the Evil Sector would be-”
“Heavens, no!”
“Oh, it’s all right. My tutor once brought me a German translations book in case I ever got in trouble. I’m sure I could-”
“I don’t care about the languages Ana! I just don’t want to die!”
“We wouldn’t. I have a wonderful idea. A little trick to test their magic.”
Belle looked at her friend. Her ideas were crazy and half were more scary than fun, but one thing she loved was magic and Belle herself had always wondered about the Evil Sector’s power. “I’m listening.”
“I’ll go, as princess of the meadow. We’ll find the most powerful sorceress and swear her to secrecy-I hear they honor secrecy agreements for a price. Anyways, you’ll go as my lady in waiting and we’ll tell them that I wish to be with child.”
“What?!”
“We’ll say that my mother wants to marry me to a stiff gentleman who only wants my crown. To make myself no longer honorable, I wish for a child. Even the Evil inhabitants know that if I were banished to the human world I’d be okay. See? It’s the perfect trick!”
Belle frowned. “I’m not connecting this.”
“You don’t have to. Just come and play along. If I have a baby, we’ll trick a kind prince into marrying me. If I’m not, we have nothing to worry about.”
Before she could consent or not, Ana bounced up and began flying towards Evil Sector One-Verbrechen. It was home to most of the criminals, but among whispers it was said to house the most powerful sorceress-Zauberin. Unwilling to let her friend go alone, Belle followed, wringing her hands like an old woman. For hours they flew, Ana whistling merrily, sometimes pointing out a lovely flower or a blossoming tree.