Princess Ahira (11 page)

I was
nosily
looking at the addresses on the envelopes
,
so I didn
’t watch where I was going and
walked s
traight into a something
hard
. I
tore my eyes away from the letter
s
and looked up into the face of a hu
man p
rince. 

“Shoot,” I muttered as I rapidly backed up.
And here I had hoped that I wouldn
’t be bothered by male royalty, besides my brother,
again.

I had to admit,
this
p
rince was drop dead gorgeous
. It was almost like he leaped out of the pages of one of my sister’s romance books.
His golden colored hair blew prettily in the wind. His fair complexion made his deep hazel eyes even more striking.
He well toned
to boot, and looked positively
remarkable
in his black armor.
His white horse was standing at attention se
veral feet behind him, and the p
rince’s hand was wrapp
ed around the hilt of his
deadly sword. 

I gulped. This prince was a harsh
comparison
to the previous prince. He clearly knew how to use his weapon.

“Ahira?”  h
e asked in cold apprehension
as he looked me up and down from
head to toe.
I felt
like a cow being seized up by the butcher
. 

“Yes
?” I irritably snapped.
I hated dealing with princes. 

“I’m here to rescue you,” he said, as though he could hardly believe the idea himself
.
He was even less enthusiastic of my company than Zerah.

“Huh?”
I stupidly said.

“I’m
here to take you back with me,” the snobby p
rince
repeated in his artic voice
. 

“Oh. Right. I’m sorry,
I’m a
fraid you have the wrong cave.
Good luck though. Bye bye,”
I said
,
walking around him. I wanted to have the satisfaction of slamming the front door in his face.

The p
rince’s arm shot out
,
and
he
grabbed my wrist, bringing
my parade to a screeching halt. “Let me go!”
I demande
d.
“Why do you want me anyway?
I’m average, I have a terrible personality, I’m
not pretty and I never shut up.
” 

“Prince Ca
spian is offering a huge reward,” the prince replied with a smirk.
“
Upon our return
I’ll
have to marry you
.
However,
I believe that if you wear clothes t
hat are suited for your status
and learn to hold your tongue
you’ll clean up quite nicely.” 

“
Caspian is offering a reward?” I asked, boggled by the idea.

“Yes.
Apparently your mother won’
t allow him to come rescue you.
Tales of your beauty and intel
ligence has flown through
Somnio
. Obviously such rumors are falsehoods. But m
any princes have
still
gone searching fo
r you,” h
e
said
.

“I’v
e only seen one prince though,”
I
reflect
ive
ly
frowned.

“That’s because
your cave is guarded by sorcery
.
Thankfully I know enough magic to take care of that pitiful wall that
surrounded the cave.
To a normal prince it would seem that there was a meadow at the end
of this road, but not to me!” h
e proudly sa
id as I rolled my eyes and tried to pry my wrist from his hand
. 

Th
e p
rince unsheathed his sword. “Where is the dragon?
If I’m going to resc
ue you I’m going to do it right
and kill
that miserable lizard
.” 

“
Azmaveth
!”
I
bellowed as loud as possible. S
urprisingly
I was loud
enough to rouse Azmaveth from his lab. 

A huge shadow fell over the p
rince and I,
and we turned to gaze at Azmaveth, wh
ose giant head
blocked
out the sun.
His eyes were gaining
glints of black as he saw the p
rince’s hand clasped hard around my wrist. 

“Leave her be,”
Azmaveth growled, a sound that started low in his chest a
nd worked its way up his throat. E
ven I was fri
ghtened. The p
rince
,
however
, was another matter. He pushed me in the general direction of
his horse and smirked as he confidently
/foolishly
strode towards Azmaveth. 

“Perfect,” the prince said.
“I have fi
nally met a worthy opponent!” h
e
yelled before jumping at him. He hammered down on Azmaveth rock hard scales. The blow glanced off Azmaveth’s chest and appeared to
have broken the prince’s wrists
. He cursed and dropped the sword as he shook his hands.

“Does he a
ctually think he can beat me?”
Azmaveth
asked me over the prince.

“Maybe,” I volunteered with a shrug of my shoulders.

The prince gave up on his weaponry and instead
shot a ball of fire at Azmavet
h’s head
.

Azmaveth ducked and missed it.

“This is stupid,” Azmaveth decided.
“I’m just going to ki
ll him now and get it over with,” h
e said as he flexed his paw and eyed his silver claws. 

“No!”  I shouted startling Azmaveth.
The prince took advantage
of the moment and tried to stab Azmaveth
in the paw
with his sword. Instead his sword
sparked
and made an interesting and promising cracking noise.

“Why not?” Azmaveth whined when the sparks subsided
. 

“I don’t want any blood spilled,” I darkly warned him as he reached out and snagged the prince in one giant paw.

“Fine. Have it your way, fine.
I’ll go dump him in a
lake then.
It will take me a while
. The nearest lake is a good half an hour away,” h
e added, sounding disgruntled
and perhaps the tiniest bit disappointed. “Good bye my sweet princess!
I’ll
be back!”  He dramatically gushed
before flouncing o
ff, taking to the sky with the prince and the p
rince’s horse
trapped
in his claws.   

I shook my head and went back into the den, confident that Azm
aveth would return by morning.
I was wrong.

             
I woke up
the next day
and h
appily skipped into the kitchen. I hurried into the main hallway, scuttling to Azmaveth’s room. Without ceremony I flung the giant door open, frowned at the disgusting piggy mess, and set my sights on his bed. His empty bed.
I
scowled and ran to the lab,
the lib
rary,
his washroom, and lastly
I returned to the kitchen.
Azmaveth was n
owhere to be found.

I considered the problem at hand for several moments before brushing it off.
He probably st
opped to visit Rose or Shammah.
Azmaveth was
always doing things like that.
One time he told me he was going to get the mail and he didn’t return until the following morning because he had seen Shammah, and then a
met wizard who showed him a rabid unicorn, and together the three of them ran into
a griffon who wanted
so desperately to serve them tea
…his
story went on, and on, and ON! In fact the only way to shut him up was to assure him that all was forgiven and most certainly forgotten.

             
Knowing this
I was not worried about Azmaveth
, nor did I wonder about his whereabouts. Instead I rolled up my sleeves and worked in the kitchen.

             
I cleaned cupboards (T
hat were roughly the si
ze of my bedroom.)
for nearly the entire morning and afternoon. There was still no sign of Azmaveth.
I shrugged it off and
went out to get the mail…again
. 

             
I
t was dusk by the time I walked all the way back down our driveway
after retrieving the mail.
To my surprise there was a dark shape
waiting
by the doorway. 

             
“Excuse me, can I help you?” I politely asked. The giant torches on either side of the door sputtered to life, and I gasped. It was the glacier prince.

             
“I sa
id I’d take you, and I will!” he vowed, his eyes gleaming.

You gotta hand
it to that boy, he perseveres. I, however, didn’t like look in his eyes.
He stepped closer to me and I backed up, feeling the insides of my
pockets for my dagger or flute.
I found neither and cursed myself,
making a silent promise that if I got through this I would be
sure
to carry them with me everywhere.

             
“W
hat about killing Azmaveth?”  I
weakly reminded him, hoping to sidetrack him.

             
“Considering I obviously beat him ba
ck here, I’ll say that counts.
Besi
des, I don’t have time to waste,” he scoffed as he jumped at me.
I leapt backwards, out of his rea
ch and glanced around the driveway
.
He was blocking the path between me and the cave, and as
far as I knew
the nearest neig
hbor was about two miles away. Bottom line?
I was in deep trouble. 

             
Once more he lunged for me and I leaped backwards
again
, trying to stay over
an arms length away from him. He angrily eyed me.
I could tell he
never thought I’d refuse him.
“Don’t
you want to see your brother?” he coaxed. I paused for a moment, caught completely off guard.

             
He took this second to pounce on me
, grabbing me by the waist before slinging me over his shoulder.

             
“Put me down!”
I frantically screamed as
I kicked and
punched his armor-covered body.
He ignored me and mounted his horse.

             
“Azmaveth!”
I yelled, hoping that by some miracle he would
come soaring down from the sky.
He didn’t. 

             
The prince snickered and placed me in front of his him on his mount, wheeled his horse around, and cued
the horse down the drive way.
To our surprise a
nother
dark shape stood between us and the end of the driveway. 

             
He wasn’t close enough to the torches for me to see him, but I could tell that he was wearing sky blue robes. 

             
“Stand aside!” t
he p
rince snarled as I tried to climb off his
horse while he was distracted.
He caught me by
the waist and hauled me back
onto the saddle, my back painfully scraping against his armor. 

             
“The l
ad
y asked for you to put her down,” t
he shape
respectfully said
.

             
“The p
rincess is in her wrong mind.
Now move o
r
I will run you over,” t
he p
rince confidently scoffed as his charger snorted and pawed at the ground.