Kingdom of @Magic

***

When a voice whispers my name, I think I'm dreaming.

When it speaks again, I think it must be the alcohol talking.

Princess Irsia's eighteenth birthday was cause for celebration, but as her bodyguard, I shouldn't have drunk so much.

It took me months to prove to King Cassen that he could entrust his daughter's safety to me. My appointment as the Crown Princess's official bodyguard made my family so proud. I can't afford to ruin this.

But Irsia asked me to dance tonight, and when she insisted, her dark eyes sparkling like magic in the candlelight, I couldn't refuse. One thing led to another. The next thing I know, I'm drinking on duty and laughing with my charge.

It was a stupid move, especially in these times. The rebels draw closer every day. My next mistake could get the royal family killed.

My stomach clenches at the thought. I can't do this again, no matter how persuasive the Princess is.

When the voice speaks a third time, I know it's real. 

"Gharib," she whispers.

I locked the door before I came to bed. Assuming someone eluded the guards and found their way to the Princess's apartment, they couldn't have gotten in, not without tangling themselves in the net of safety spells I have woven around the building. Then again, magic doesn't work against the rebels. It defends them.

I squeeze my eyes closed. I dare not stir or breathe. If the intruder thinks I'm asleep, maybe she'll leave me alone or at least give me time to think up a plan.

"Gharib..."

Her voice floats through the air, high and light, deceitfully so. The sound strikes a familiar chord within me. I have heard it before, but where?

"GHARIB!"

Refusing to be ignored any longer, the voice screams in my head, dragging its sharp nails along the inside of my skull.

With a cry, I sit upright.

Terror courses through my body, the same as the one the land had known since the rebel leader first made her demands known a month ago.

She wanted the royal family to step down or die.

Her name is Yasmin. Nobody knows who she is or where she's from. She kills whoever gets in her way before they can ask questions. All we know is that she's serious about overthrowing the King. 

I blink until my sleepy eyes comprehend what they're seeing.

Smoke escapes the garnet set into the ring on my finger. It's a sickening green, like poison, like jealousy.

I raise a magical barrier with my hands and push at the vapour, but it slips past. I summon a fierce wind to scatter the dense cloud. It disperses, then reforms.

"There's no need to be so rude."

There isn't a face to the smoke, even though the voice speaks from it. I squint at it, not convinced that this isn't some alcohol-induced hallucination.

"That's better," says Yasmin's voice as the smoke hovers in front of me. "Now I can see your pretty brown eyes."

"What do you want?" I ask.

Even tipsy, I know not to respond to a rebel's flirtation.

The words come out slurred, nowhere near as firm as I intended them to be. I should really drink less when I'm on duty.

"Straight to business then." From the sound of Yasmin's voice, I imagine she's pouting, wherever she is. It lasts a moment before she speaks again—cool, composed, the rebel Afirani knows. "Tonight, you are going to kill Princess Irsia."

I blink. This is not how I expected my confrontation with Yasmin would go.

I imagined luring her into the open, defeating her in hand to hand combat and dragging her back to the palace to be executed by the King.

I didn't expect her to command me like I'm one of her rebel soldiers.

"No, I won't kill her. I'm her bodyguard. I protect her from those who would harm her."

Yasmin chuckles at my implied threat. "If you knew the truth about the royal family, you wouldn't be so loyal to them. Unfortunately, we don't have time for me to spill their dark secrets. One half of the palace is drunk or asleep, and the other pretends that they're not so that they can keep their jobs."

I swallow. I can relate to that all too well.

"So, I'll be direct: if you don't kill the Princess tonight, I'll kill your family."

I must have misheard her, or my alcohol-dipped mind is misunderstanding something.

"Tick, tock, Gharib," says Yasmin. "Your family or the Princess. It's your choice."

So, I heard correctly.

"You can't do that."

"But I can, Gharib," says Yasmin. "Your parents are holidaying on one of Zauthean's islands. Your little sister is away at the training academy, preparing for the day she gets to pick up the oh-so-noble mantle of royal bodyguard." Yasmin scoffs at the job title. "I have people everywhere. If you disobey me, everyone you love will be dead by dawn."

I shake my head. I thought I was lucky to be chosen as the Princess's bodyguard, that I was finally honouring my family, but it has only led me to an impossible choice.

To kill the royal family is to sacrifice my family's legacy. We have guarded the royals, shielded their lives with ours, for centuries. My parents wouldn't want me to betray that.

But I can't let them die.

Yasmin laughs softly, listening to me stew. Maybe even watching me.

The thought that she can see me while I'm blind to her sends a shiver through me.

"Why can't you do it yourself?" I ask. "You're here, aren't you?"

"Not quite," says Yasmin. "Security is tight around the palace because of my rebellion. Tonight, it's heightened because of the Princess's party. It was all I could do to sneak in in this form."

She pauses, and I get the sense that she's studying me.

"I need an agent, and I have chosen you."

I look down into my lap. Yasmin thinks she's giving me a choice, but she isn't.

I wouldn't be who I am without my family. I wouldn't even exist, and I couldn't live with myself if I condemned them to death at the hands of a murderous rebel.

"Well?" asks Yasmin, though I can tell by her smug tone that she knows my answer.

"I'll do it."

"I knew I could count on you, Gharib," says Yasmin.

Why does she talk to me like we're friends? It's messing with my mind.

She's a rebel, I remind myself. She only sows chaos. She will kill my family if I don't do what she says. She is not a friend.

I wobble as I stand.

"Steady now," says Yasmin. "If you don't get the job done, your family will pay."

I take a deep breath to stop myself from panicking. "I know."

I expect Yasmin the smoke to disappear when I cross the room. Instead, she stays beside me until I reach the Princess's door, as silent and slow as a snail.

I hope someone is stargazing on the roof, maybe glancing out of the top window of the windmill by chance.

I hope they see me and stop me before I kill the Princess.

Yasmin can't punish me if something out of my control goes wrong, right?

Nobody sees me.

Nobody calls out for me to stop.

Nobody saves me from the agreement I must honour.

The door to the Princess's bedroom swings open soundlessly. I remember her nagging her father until he asked one of the palace workers to oil the hinges last week. 

I wish he hadn't. I wish the hinges would squeak to wake the Princess up before she gets my dagger in her heart.

A rectangle of moonlight falls through Irsia's window, bathing her room in a pure, ethereal light. I step into it, and it distorts my silhouette until it is unrecognisable, looming over the Princess's bed like a monster.

I am a monster, and Irsia is a beautiful, tragic princess in a fairy tale.

Her silky black hair spills over her white pillow. Her eyelashes are stark against her light brown skin.

"Pretty, isn't she?" asks Yasmin.

Her words are innocent enough, but there is a harshness to them, something bitter and resentful. Whatever her grudge against Afirani's royals, it's personal.

"Best make it quick. The longer you wait, the greater the chance you'll be caught."

I grit my teeth and pull my dagger from its sheath at my hip.

I lower it with the tip facing down, even as my instincts fight me and my muscles revolt against the action with every fibre of their strength.

I stop when the tip is just above the Princess's heart.

There's no prolonging it, no hoping for salvation. I have come too far for either Yasmin or the royals of Afirani to show me any mercy.

This must be done.