Flight of the Five Swans
Fear Chapter 5

Raia

Throughoutthe two weeks that the Kyorians had been travelling, Raia had been picturingthe border between Kyoria and Deturus as a raging river over which a gloriousgolden bridge was built. The Deturianside of the bridge would of course be drastically different from Kyoria’s greentrees and foliage, though Raia hadn’t yet decided on exactly how the environment would inevitablychange. At certain moments, shepictured glorious golden sands stretching as far as the eye could see. At others, she was certain they would replacesteep mountains covered in snow all year round, not excluding the summermonths.

But theborder was nothing like Raia had pictured, and truth be told, she wasdisappointed. There was no river, nobridge, and certainly no radical change in scenery. In fact, there wasn’t much change in sceneryat all. Raia highly doubted that she—or any of her sisters—would have noticedthat they were even crossing the border had not Alexandre seen fit to point itout. He reined in the company just longenough to show them a solitary tree on the edge of the path. On one side of the tree was carved Kyoria and on the other side, Deturus.

“That’sit?” Thaleia blurted out, sounding just as disappointed as her twin. The guardslaughed, as did Callia, who had clearly been more informed than her youngersisters as to the markers—or lack thereof—that would be used to indicate theborder.

Stillchuckling, Alexandre explained. “You must remember, your Highness, that thispath is not often used. The main road does,of course, have a sign indicating where Kyoria ends and Deturus begins, butsuch a luxury would be rather ridiculous here, as this secluded area is seen byless than a dozen travellers a year.”

Thaleiashrugged as the company moved forward once again. Raia could tell that her twin was still alittle let down, and she couldn’t blame her. Up until three years ago, none of the seven princesses had ever venturedmuch further than the village nearest the Kyorian royal palace, as their fathersimply hadn’t allowed it. Though Gustavehad since become much less strict about his daughters’ travelling liberties,the opportunity to visit a foreign nation had thus far not arisen for any ofthe princesses save the two eldest. Thiswas the first time the younger sisters had traveled outside Kyoria’s borders,and truth be told, Raia had been expecting more fanfare at the occasion.

Eurielleleaned over to Raia as if to tell her a secret, only to speak in a normalvoice. “I asked Baelor, and he told me that we’ll be intersecting the main roadin just a couple of days and we’ll turn onto it then. But we still won’t hit any towns or villagesuntil another three weeks, Baelor says. Oh, and we’ll get there in about amonth, did I tell you that?”

Raiasmiled. “’There’ being the Deturian palace, I presume?”

“Didn’t Isay that? I thought I said that.”

Raia shookher head in cheerful exasperation. Eurielle seemed about to say something more when she was distracted bythe sound of a distant birdcall echoing through the forest. She gasped and kicked her horse into a trot,leaving Raia behind in order to join Baelor near the front of the company. Raia could hear her calling out ahead of her,“A lark! Am I right? It was a lark! Baelor, did you hear it?”

Raia reinedin her horse a bit, allowing Callia to catch her up. As usual, Callia was staring intently aroundat the forest undergrowth—an action, Raia noticed, that was also being copiedby Killian and Niall, the guards who rode almost directly behind her.

“There’s one!”Killian suddenly cried, a huge smile on his weathered face as he pointed. Niall groaned, while Callia checked the imageof the plant in the book to see whether Killian was correct. Raia followed their gaze, immediatelyrecognizing the indicated plant: amaranth. Definitely edible.

Callianodded, and Niall groaned again. Anotherplant was chosen and the game began again, this time with Raia joining in aswell.

Over thenext couple of weeks, Raia found herself marking their progress through the now-Deturianforest according to the species of flora included in their game. In Kyoria, it had always been laughably easyto identify chicory, curled dock, or amaranth, whereas it had often taken themhours to spot a single sprig of burdock or sorrel. However, the further into Deturus theytravelled, the more Raia saw the latter two species in the surroundingfoliage. She had also started to seeseveral plants that she was unable to recognize at all, forcing her to consultCallia’s book in an attempt to identify them.

“Thetrouble is,” she complained to Callia as she leafed through the pages oneevening, “if the plant isn’t edible, but also isn’t terribly poisonous, it’s nowhere to be found in here!”

Calliaclucked sympathetically and patted her shoulder. “Believe me, I understand thefrustration. But we should be passingthrough a town in the next couple days. You might be able to replace someone there you can ask.”

Raia wasalready planning on doing just that. Shehad started to keep a list of the plants she would have to ask about, writingdown descriptions and sometimes sketching their appearances. Still, she continued turning the pages,straining to see the images by the light of the dancing fire.

“I’d rather not wait, if it can behelped.” she said, then huffed infrustration as she reached the last page. She slammed the volume shut. Thenoise startled Eurielle, who sat on the other side of the fire.

“This book is useless.” Raia said,handing it back to Callia. “Why didn’tyou grab something more…I don’t know…comprehensive?”

Callia laughed slightly as shepacked the volume away again. “BlameThaleia for that.”

“Blame me for what?”

As if summoned by the mention ofher name, Thaleia appeared out of the shadows. She perched on the log beside Raia and looked around brightly at hersisters. Raia nudged her with her elbow.

“Nothing, really. Where have you been?”

Thaleia waved her handdismissively, “Oh, just telling the Captain about something strange I foundearlier.”

“Strange? What’s strange?” From her seat next toEurielle, Petra leaned forward curiously.

Thaleia’s eyes sparkledmischievously. Her voice droppedslightly, forcing them all to lean in closer to hear.

“Early this morning, as we were allpacking up camp, I scouted around to make sure no one had forgottenanything. And that’s when I saw them.”

“Saw what?” Euriellewhispered. Raia rolled her eyes, more atThaleia’s flair for drama than Eurielle’s question. Clearly, Callia was not the only princess whofancied herself a storyteller.

Thaleia’s voice dropped evenlower. “There were tracks just under thetreeline, bigger than any I’ve seen—almost the size of my hand.” She held up the mentioned appendage as demonstration. “They were clear as can be—and fresh,too. No more than an hour old, atmost. As if the animal had stood there…and watched us…while we slept.”

Raia was sure that the pauses inthe story had been strategically timed for dramatic effect—and it wasworking. Thaleia’s face looked ghastlyin the firelight, adding to the spooky ambience that she had alreadycreated. Eurielle shivered, and shewasn’t the only princess to do so. Ofthem all, only Petra seemed unaffected by the story.

“The tracks were from an animal Ihadn’t seen before.” Thaleia continued. “And when I asked Alexandre what had made them, he was surprised. He told me that this creature must havetravelled from far, far away to watch our camp last night.”

Raia caught her breath as Thaleialeaned forward even further, her voice now just above a whisper.

“They were the tracks of…a swan.”

Eurielle shrieked, more out ofexpectation than fear, then caught herself as comprehension sunk in atlast. “Wait, what?”

Thaleia was already laughing almosttoo hard to respond, and it only took a moment for Petra to join in. Raia and Callia both left out almost identicalsounds of half-exasperation, half-relief.

“Your faces!” Thaleia choked out between giggles. Raia shoved her a bit, and she had to catchherself before she fell off the log.

It took awhile for Thaleia to stoplaughing, and even longer for Raia’s heartbeat to return to normal. Eurielle caught Callia’s sleeve just as thesisters were turning in for the night, and Raia distinctly heard her ask,“You’re not writing that down, are you?”