Dearest Adeline,

_It has been awhile, hasn’t it? I believe about six months. _

_Not even a whole day and night after you left me at daybreak did the suitors start lining up. I told them that I had to finish my latest portrait of my mother before I chose one of them. _

_I haven’t started painting. _

_I would rather lie than be another’s queen. _

_I hope one day you’ll come back to me, that maybe you didn’t leave because you didn’t want me. That you had a reason that wouldn’t break my heart again. _

I will continue to stall for time in hopes that you may return.

_Sincerely, _

Amyatha

xxx

Merin rushes forward, dogding trees and logs as I sit backwards on the saddle, shooting arrows faster than the theives following us could comprehend. We continued rushing forwards, breaking through the trees and onto a grassy field, the palace of Corlinea looming on the horizon.

I shot down each and every one of the theives I had angered, shooting with the precision that had been the reason I ended up here. A whole half year trapped in a system of kidnapping and stealing and dark trades with a side of malice. I am so glad to be rid of it.

I could smell flowers on the wind. Flowers and rain and spices and mud. I could smell home. I urged Merin forward, hooves creating a soothing rhythm as I tilted my head up to the sky, letting the rain fall onto my face and wash away the blood and dirt. Wash away my past and let me focus on my present.

xxx

Dear Adeline,

I’m not quite sure why I continue to write to you, I don’t even know where you are. I guess part of me still hopes that one day you’ll write back. That maybe I won’t always stay unanswered.

_I have set up a challenge for the suitors. They have to string your bow and shoot through 12 axes clean, just as you did. _

I will suffer through a marriage if you don’t show up again, I’ll continue to stall, though, incase you do.

Sincerely,

Amyatha

xxx

There were garlands handing from the balconies of the towering buildings lining the road and flowers overflowing almost every shop. Colors were just as common as the villagers roaming through the streets.

Everyone parted for Merin, the street almost too wide for the large horse and all the carts and shops. Spices were floating through the air, the aroma twisting with the smell of baked good and smoked fish. Merchants stood giving their pitches for anti-age potions and other fascades, most were smart enough not to pay for them but some tourists bought them with large smiles on their faces.

The clothes that decorated each person and the laundy lines high above were just as colorful as the flowers decorating everywhere. The City of Andred was known for its color and “magic”.

When I found my beautiful tower the queen had gotten for me Merin stopped. I had won an archery contest and won this tower a few years ago. Merin has stables in the bottom floor and there are two floors before the top floor where I stay. The second floor is full of old books and scripts while the third floor has art and paints and a small section dedicated to pottery. The top floor was my bedroom along as a spot to prepare herbs and whatnot for my apothecary business.

There was a ladder leading up to the roof where you could sit and the red shingles and stare out over the City. You could see the palace clearly from there. That was my next stop.

xxx __ __ __ Dear Adeline, __ Tears make the ink run as I write this and I apologize for that. __ _Today is the second day all the suitors are trying to string your bow. They have all failed. They are getting angry. They take up space within these sacred walls. The servants have whispered of them in my ear. I have seen them and heard them. _ __ Some of them I don’t mind, they are quiet and dare I say kind. Others though, are not the case. They are loud and rude and I can’t continue to listen to them stomp through the halls, muddying the tiles and hearing the drunken laughter all through the night. There is one who seems to be their leader, I guess I can’t call him a leader, they follow him out of fear. He is arogant and always has a weapon handy. He has been the most difficult to deal with. __ Today he caught me alone in one of the halls, the “leader” I mean, he had forced me up against the wall and put his mouth on mine. Put his hands on me. When he realized I was frozen he unsheathed his dagger and held it at my throat, saying I better kiss him back or there wouldn’t be a queen. Luckily a maid came out of the lavatory down the hall and he got off me. Now I sit sobbing, wishing you were here, I know you would’ve known what to say or do. I know you would’ve saved me. __ Please come home, __ Amyatha __ __ __ xxx

I stood amongst the suitors for the queen, cloak concealing a feminine face and a bow and arrows of all tips and daggars of all sizes. The sun was setting, the crowd was lit sparcely, groups of men in small numbers. One group was particularly loud, they held large cups of foaming liquid, probably acholic liquid from the way they were acting. One man stood cloaked in shadows, not joining in the conversation. The loudest of men were talking of a challenge. Stringing a bow and shooting through twelve axes. They were wondering which man could do it. Some of the other men would try tomorrow. The scowl on the quiet man’s face grew deeper as the conversation continued.

Eventually he spoke, stepping into the torch light, “Can’t you imbeciles see? - The queen is stalling! First the painting, now an impossible challenge - she’s never going to choose one of us!” Some of the other men started to gather around as the man continued his rant in an angry tone, “I say we should kill the guards, find the queen and take advantage of her before we force her to choose one of us!” The man raised his glass, “And anyone for it can join me!”

The men around him cheered before raising their own glasses. My anger flared, they couldn’t do this, not to her. I unsheathed a particularly mean daggar before stalking towards the man, I crept behind him before I plunged the daggar deep into his back and vanishing into the crowd and into the grand garden that held all the guards and the doors to the palace.

The maze had walls of rose bushes that were six feet tall at the least. There were different colored sections and you had to pass through each color to get to the entrance to the palace. There were white roses, they surrounded the doors, yellow roses, there was a small baskalisk in that section, black roses, you would have to faces your greatest fear there, red roses, a blood sacrifice, orange roses, sacrifice a memory to the flames, and pink, face your greatest desire. All the men would have to go through these.

I entered the maze, the first section red. A cauldron sat in the middle, empty and black, I approached and held my hand over the large pot. I could feel heat from the bottom rising upwards, like it was hungry for blood. I brought out a knife, smaller and sharp, and I pulled it across my wrist, wincing as the red dripped into the pot and a passage opened through the flowery thorns. I tucked the knife back into it pocket and slipped through the branches before they closed behind me.

Next was yellow. As I stepped into the new clearing, I examined the space. The goal wasn’t to kill the beast. The goal was to escape it. The second I passed through the passage to opposite me, probably about thirty feet at least, the bushes would close again. The beast reveals itself the second I step forward, slithering our of the thorns, thick scales protecting it from the biting teeth of the flowering stems. I started to run. The creature was long, 10 feet maybe, and agile. My only goal was to hope it wouldn’t catch me. I continued to run, stumbling over rocks that prodruded out of the ground.

And then I fell.

I hit the ground hard, turning over harshly so I could watch the creature. Shiny scales, even in the dark, sharp, venemous fangs, but I stopped there. Not the eyes. Then I would have no chance to save the queen. I glanced quickly around the garden, remembering the horrified faces of thieves and criminals that had looked this beast in the eyes. Stone in the garden, the knew statues for decoration. That would not be me.

I pulled out my knife, readying myself for the fangs that would strike my skin. But they never did. Instead, the creature dropped to the ground, sword through its back and many, many men behind the corpse. We were all officially dead.

(part 2 coming soon)