No one liked the future that Amaya saw. Nor did she like to see the destruction of Hiraeth. Seeing it turn to ash and dust. She heard whispers in the corridors that it is her fault that this is going to happen. She honestly wasn't sure otherwise. What if her arrival was to blame?
Hiraeth looked like paradise at first, but she could see how people were looking at her. She heard what they calling her. She had to keep reminding herself that this is not Amorite. Here she is only a witch for everyone.
The prince tried to get close to her, but she avoided him. She couldn't look him in the eye if she was going to be the damnation of his home.
"His Highness Prince Ciaran invites you to dine with him in the Rose Garden," Mareena informed her.
"Tell Prince Ciaran that I am flattered by his invitation, but unfortunately I must decline," Amaya told her.
The next day the prince came to the door of her chambers. One of the guards who guarded her chambers day and night entered.
"His Highness requests an audience with you," he informed her.
"Send him away!" Amaya ordered.
"Have you figured out how to escape yet?" asked Zariah, who was keeping her company.
"If you haven't noticed, we're being followed by the royal guards," Amaya told her.
She was lying on the edge of the pond, disturbing the surface of the water with her palm. She offered her fingers to the little fishes. She laughed at the way they suck on her skin. It tickled. She watched their fins ripple.
"Word of your sighting is spreading, Amaya. You have to get out of here." Zariah said.
"Circumstances have changed, Zariah. I need time." Amaya said.
"It's been a week already, Amaya. You are running out of time and the wedding is approaching. If you become their princess, you'll be stuck here."
"I'm not leaving you here alone Zariah." Amaya objected. "You didn't let them take me away alone. You followed me without hesitation. I will not leave you alone in the hands of the enemy."
"It's important that you get out of here, Amaya. I just have to make sure you stay safe. I swore to that task a long time ago," said Zariah.
In the evening, Amaya blocked the secret door that connected her bedroom to the prince's. She wanted to be sure that no one entered her rooms without her knowledge and permission. She had the feeling that since she had rejected the prince so many times, he might try to find her in this way.
And she wasn't wrong.
She heard his footsteps, a soft knock. She heard his voice.
"Amaya," he called her.
Amaya ignored him. She sat on the ground leaning against the wall and listened to his voice calling her. She didn't answer. She didn't open for him. She heard him trying to get in, but the door wouldn't open.
"Amaya, please. Open."
She sat there in the dark. She let the warm summer breeze blow in through the open windows. She listened to his voice and let it echo with the chirping of crickets outside.
⸸
Amaya was constantly watched by someone from the royal guard. Wherever she went, they were on her heels. They were following her. They made sure she was obedient. She spent most of her time in her rooms. At least they thought so.
Amaya's chambers were the only ones that were guarded. Apparently, they were afraid that she would run away. But Amaya was not stupid and sneaked out through the prince's chambers. No one even noticed that she had disappeared.
She walked the corridors of the palace. She walked past people. They did not find it at all suspicious that she was unaccompanied. Firstly, the prince allowed her relative freedom, considering the fact that she was imprisoned in his castle and forced to marry him, and secondly, no one liked the royal guard there. Hiraeth is a city of outcasts. They follow their prince. They trusted in the correctness of his decisions. Likewise in his decision to bring Amaya into their lives. They thought she was a witch, but no one dared to question their prince's decision.
Amaya walked past the half-open door. At first, she just walked past, like any other door, but suddenly she stopped. She heard voices from the room. One of them belonged to Prince Ciaran.
She approached the door. She listened to their conversation. She peered through the slit. Saw the prince and General Marcellus. They were alone.
"Don't you think we should return her where we found her?" General Marcellus suggested to the prince.
"I can't afford that," replied the prince.
"If we corrected our mistake, maybe the king would forgive us for disobeying orders. Maybe we could even go back to fighting." remarked the general.
"And are you so sure that King Damon will forgive us?" the prince looked inquisitively at his general. "He'll execute us for kidnapping her."
"We'll just dump her on the borders and let her return to her king alone."
"If we leave her alone on the border, in the middle of the war zone, who will kill her first? Our people or her own?"
"I know you've been looking for her for a long time and it was very important for you to get her, but honestly, she's caused a lot of trouble in the few days she's been here."
"We brought it upon ourselves by kidnapping her," the prince objected.
"After what happened in that forest, I don't know what to think about the existence of gods and dark creatures. That witch predicted the destruction of Hiraeth. Maybe she is the problem of everything. Maybe if we got rid of her, we would save this place," the general countered.
Amaya nudged the door and it opened. She revealed herself. She stood there calmly with a cold expression on her face. General Marcellus and Prince Ciaran turned their attention to her. Their faces showed surprise. The general grimaced, not knowing how much of his words she heard.
Everything.
"It looks like you don't understand fate, General," she told him nonchalantly. "And I'm no witch. I belong to the dark creatures and that makes a big difference. Witches are human women who draw their power from Tenebris. Dark creatures are the offspring of the gods and creatures created from their power. " she explained to them.
"So you're the same as those things in the forest?" the general asked her, confused.
"I'm a less harmless version," she smirked.
"How is that even possible?" wondered Ciaran.
"You've probably already heard that I've been dead since birth," she answered his question.
"How did you think we don't understand fate?" the prince asked her.
Amaya entered the room. She closed the door behind her. She looked at the modest equipment. She studied the maps on the walls. Old and new. Some showed only the boundaries of territories, while others were elaborated on in detail. In the middle of the room was a large table on which was depicted a map of all known kingdoms and lands. She ran her finger along its edge.
"Amaya?"
"Fate is a strange thing indeed. There are millions of ways. Every decision we make, every breath we take, every beat of our heart can change its direction and also create new ones. They intertwine with each other like a ball of wool."
The prince and the general listened to her words, tried to understand them. It gave them an effort to perceive where the measurements were.
"Some are neighbors forever, but they never cross paths. They are the lives we could have lived but will never be able to again. They are preceded by important crossroads. These intersections change everything. And then there are the intersections to which all roads lead. They cannot be avoided. The only way forward is through them.
And these intersections are moments that can be predicted." Amaya said.
"So...?" said the confused general.
"What is foretold cannot be changed," she replied. "It's possible that my kidnapping caused it. It is also possible that it was predestined long before this place was built. I don't see what led to the result, I only see the intersection itself. So..," she said. "you can take me back to Amorite. You can kill me here or keep me, but nothing will change the fact that Hiraeth will go down in flames."
"So there's no way to save it here?" asked the prince.
"I'm sorry, but no," Amaya replied.
Figures like a chessboard and flags were laid out on the table. They marked the progress of the troops. Apparently, it was the prince's war room where he planned all his strategies. She took the rider in her hand and moved him.
"Don't play with it," the general told her.
Amaya laughed. "You messed up in the Valley of Roses. If you didn't let yourself be lured into the trap, you would still win the war," she said.
"How could someone like you know about it?"
"A little respect, Marcellus." the prince gave him a scolding look.
"Don't look at me like that," defended the general. "I'm right."
Amaya couldn't hide her smile. "Many often think that I am a priestess only because I spent a lot of time in a monastery. But the truth is that I spent most of my time among the soldiers," she said. "And you let yourself be lured into my trap without a second thought."
"Yours?" the prince and the general said at the same time.
She waved her shoulder nonchalantly. "I was trained by the commander of the Amorite royal army himself. He let me look into the plans and help."
General Marcellus began to laugh. Prince Ciaran looked at him like he was crazy. A big smile shone on Amaya's lips. Her eyes sparkled with pride that she was the one who turned the tide of the war. The general suddenly became serious. There was a grave silence in the room. He looked at Amaya.
"How?" he asked her. "How is that possible?" he didn't understand.
"It was simple. Deira relies on its military strength. You think that you march somewhere with a large force of soldiers and automatically win. Pride goes before a fall and yours was quite a tough one." Amaya told them. "Your biggest mistake is giving your enemy the home advantage. You don't know the country there. You don't send out scouts. And worst of all, you're letting your opponent choose where to fight. That's why it was so easy to lure you into a trap. Only a very small part of war consists of the battle itself. The main thing is strategy. And I'm really excellent at it."
"How long have you commanded the Amorite armies ?" the prince asked her in shock.
"Since the events in the Valley of the Roses whenever I happened to be in the Golden Palace," she answered. "In Amorite, even girls can fight, while here in Deira women are just a pretty decoration for a man."
"And that's a mistake," said the prince. "We should recruit more women into the military."
Amaya gave him a smile. Sincere.
"I think we should keep her," said the general.
Ciaran looked at him in astonishment. Until now he hated her and wanted to get rid of her, and suddenly he wants to keep her like a lost puppy.
"Now that she is no longer in charge, we can still win. And you could also help us once you become our princess, Your Highness." The general looked at the prince, wondering if that was enough of a respectful addressment.
Ciaran just rolled his eyes.
"Why should I help the enemy?" Amaya said to the general.
"Because at any moment you will become an enemy of your kingdom, Your Highness," replied the general.
"Please leave us alone, Marcellus," the prince ordered the general.
He looked at him in disbelief but did as his prince told him.
As the general left, Ciaran kept looking behind the door as it opened and closed, as if looking for something. Even after the general left, he kept looking at them.
"Are you looking for something?" Amaya asked him as she caught his eye.
"I'm just wondering how come your guards aren't standing at the door," said Ciaran.
"I escaped through your chambers so they don't even know I'm gone," Amaya replied with a mischievous smile.
Ciaran laughed lightly. She surprised him, and only a few managed to do that, and only with great difficulty. She was successful almost all the time. The way she fought with the sword. Ghosts in the forest. The way she bravely stood up to his father, the king. How could she not be afraid of being burned. The way she stealthily sneaked into the harem.
And most of all because she was the one with whom he had been losing the war for the last three years.
"What makes you come out of your rooms all of a sudden, Amaya?" Ciaran wondered.
"I was bored," she replied. "However, if the guards weren't chasing me on every step, I might go out more often."
"Considering the fact that you are being guarded by the royal guards, it would be best if you were accompanied by my soldiers," said Ciaran. "For safety. One of them attacked you in the harem. They can try again."
"I'm sure I can defend myself." she pulled a hair stick from her hair and twirled it in her fingers. "Why didn't you take it from me?"
"It will be fun to watch you kill another royal guard too slow to kill you first." he gave her a wicked smile.
"Why aren't his majesty's guards chasing you?" she asked him.
"Because this is my palace and my soldiers are outnumbered here," he replied.
"In that case, order them to step back," she told him. "Give me space. Isn't it enough that I'm a prisoner here?'
"Will you keep me company for dinner tonight?" Ciaran asked Amaya a question.
Amaya was taken aback by his sudden question but quickly recovered.
"Depending on whether the guards will still standing outside my door at that time or not," she replied. "Yours and the King's."
Amaya returned to her rooms the same way she had come out. She didn't want the guards to know that she could slip away undetected right in front of their eyes. They could block all her paths. It must be inconspicuous.
Prince Ciaran went to see General Adrien.
"I request that you stop guarding Amya all the time," he ordered. "She won't run away. You don't have to follow her on every step."
"We have orders from his majesty to keep an eye on the witch. We are not subject to you, Prince Ciaran." General Adrien said irritably.
"You can watch her from a distance where she won't see you," said the prince.
"I will not listen to orders from a bastard prince," said the general.
Prince Ciaran just rolled his eyes at his disdain. "We can do it in a good way or a bad way." His eyes sparkled mischievously. "In the worst case, it means you die. Your soldiers are outnumbered. You don't have the slightest chance."
General Adrien was about to say something, but Prince Ciaran silenced him before he could utter a single word.
"I know you've been sending my father detailed reports of what's going on here, and trust me it won't be the slightest problem to falsify them," he told him. "So you either withdraw yourself voluntarily or disappear without a trace."
The general swallowed his pride hard. The prince he hated had him in his power.
⸸
Servants set the table in Amaya's chambers. They brought fresh flowers. They lit the candles. Their brightness mingled with the fading rays of day. Servants were running here and there preparing everything. Amaya watched them in confusion.
At that, Prince Ciaran entered her chambers.
"What's going on?" Amaya asked him confused.
"You agreed to dinner," Ciaran said.
Amaya went out into the corridor. She looked around. She looked right, left. She saw no one but the servants. She went down the corridor. She looked around but still saw no one. She repeated it on the other side of the corridor. Still no one. She came back. Ciaran leaned his shoulder against the door frame. A mischievous smile graced his lips.
"Looking for something?" he asked her with a smirk.
"Where are the guards?" she asked him.
"They'll stay away from now on, I promise," said Ciaran.
The prince offered her his arm. Amaya hesitated but finally accepted him.