Chapter 16

Meg

Ha Mae's house is familiar to me. Whenever I step in, I feel safe instantly. The fire is always burning, the table is always set, and everything is always nice and orderly.

"Hello, Ha Mae."

"Hello, Meg. What brings you here?"

"Project. We have to write about good things that Allerakin has done."

"Interesting. I'll slice some bread." Loran and I climb up the stairs to an exact replica of the attic where Tito and I sleep. Except this one feels much less homey and more airy than mine. A bit of straw lies on the floor in the corner. A stuffed potato sack lies like a pillow. A small lantern sits on the splintering floor. A braided rug rests on the ground to sit on. The straw is piled high, but smashed to make an imprint of Loran's body. She throws her back on the ground and hurries downstairs to get the bread. I sit on the potato sack pillow.

Underneath, I can feel something hard. It's very small, like a pendant. I pull it out from the pillow. To my shock, it's a golden locket.

Don't open it, Meg.

It isn't your business.

But a golden locket! Which Erelarian commoner has a golden locket?

I open it. Resting inside are two very happy faces.

My jaw drops open. I know I should report my find.

The princess is living with Ha Mae.

"Loran?" I call.

She has already bounded up the stairs with the bread.

"You're really... Loraina?" I whisper. She puts a finger to her mouth. "Does Ha Mae know?"

She nods. "Our stable boy is her great nephew, Terrient. When you attacked, we escaped. He brought me here and left. I was trying to hide... Please don't turn me in... Please, Meg!"

"Of course not!" What's our plan?"

"What plan?"

"To rescue your parents, idiot!"

"Um... I was thinking about rebuilding the Erelarian army."

"When do we leave?"

"I just got a plan today, so... maybe tonight?"

"I like that. No essay."

"But... Meg?"

"Uh-huh?"

"I thought you were Allerakin?"

I hesitate. "Sure I am. But there has been something about this war that gets at me. It doesn't seem right to be just stealing Airavia's land."

"Leave at Darkness?"

"The stable. I won't tell Omam and Baba."

"I won't tell Omama." We shake hands. "And get some food." She nods. She gives me two coins. "You're not as suspicious," the princess explains.

"Rox, your highness."

We share our last laugh of the day and I set out. At the market, there are potatoes and bread and meat and sweets. I decide to take the lightest and most filling, non-perishable foods.

I take a bit of the lightest meat I can find for one. For the other, I am able to get some dry fruit. I take the food, which was presented to me in a bag, and hurry it home, where I smuggle four tiny potatoes from the store room along with a knife and sheath. The things go together in a piece of fabric I sewed up from part of the curtain. Tito will never notice, and Omam only comes up to tuck Tito in bed. She still won't notice. The piece I sewed will be able to go over Ha Mae's horse. In the other pouch, Loran can put her things.

I'm called to dinner all too soon. I tuck the bag beneath my straw bed and pound down the steps to the kitchen. I fill up on the bread pudding. I box the extra in a mound in my lunch box, which I add to the pouch. I take my night dress and cut it open, sewing bits of fabric around the sleeves to serve as a cape. I kiss Omam and Baba good night, fill by bed flask with water, and head up.

I don't sleep. I work to make sure everything is perfect. The pouches should be able to tie around the horses belly and fit all of our belongings in them. As soon as I am positive that Omam and Baba are asleep, I tiptoe out the back door, grabbing an extra flask on the way. I tiptoe around the corner of the house, run across the street, and into Ha Mae's stable where Loran is crouched.

"C'mon." She whispers. We work to bring out the horse, who we place the pouch on top of and mount after Loran slips her belongings into the other

empty side. We take off into the night.

The forest seems endless. We ride until sunrise, when both of stomachs growl. We fill up with water at a nearby stream. I still have a knawing feeling at the bottom of my stomach, but the determination to save a friend, her family, and her country overpowers that. We ride through burnt villages and past homeless people traveling away from the terror of my people.

It makes me feel bad, that all of this time we thought we were the good country when really we were doing terrible things. Nothing made any sense anymore. My brain was overflowing with the new bucket load of information it had just recieved. I felt so... mended. I thought I knew it all. I realized how our government had tricked us into thinking how bad the Erelarians were when really, they were people. I switched from emotion to emotion, feeling to feeling. I felt like using the words that baba used when he is mad that make Omam say, "Derik!"

The horse was very slow. We didn't stop though except for our brief morning meal, and by the next night we were past a big, Erelarian lake.