Marie’s feet couldn’t move fast enough. No matter how high she hiked her silk skirts up and out of her way, no matter that she paused, removing the dainty slippers from her feet for better traction, and no matter that every single body jumped out from her path—she could not leave the palace fast enough.
They were back. The knights, the foot soldiers, the diplomats. They were back. Not all of them were back, that much was made clear by the slow trudging the company made inside the city walls—not at all the victory parade they had all anticipated.
She shouldn’t have even left me.
Flying down the marble steps of the palace, the princess ignored the calls of her handmaidens, only half consciously growing up roots in her wake to trip up anyone who tried to stop her.
She wasn’t queen yet; propriety could wait.
“Verona,” she gasped, coming to stop at the commanders and generals atop their steeds, searching for her knight. Barefoot and dusty, her gentle hands grazed the body of each animal lightly as she made her way through the formation. They weren’t in rank today and her small stature made her lost, a tiny waif among beasts.
She had to be here. She had to.
She passed a cart full of the injured, whispering apologies and thanks as she moved along the side, scanning, scanning—ah! There!
Verona wasn’t injured. Of course she wasn’t. War was something she was good at, even if collectively, they failed.
Marie didn’t wait to be seen. Like a child, she ran, jumping into the arms of her beloved and burying her head into the crook of her neck. She’d be punished for it later, perhaps they both would, but for the moment, Marie needed the solace of knowing they could return to normalcy for a time, no matter how short.
They had lost this time, but her father was a warmonger. The respite would not last long and the army would be sent out again, this time stronger, larger, and without the option of failure.
If they weren’t conquered first.
With her head raised, Marie held Verona’s face, kissing her, unabashedly affectionate before the public, her antics largely ignored for the time as she had just entered into adulthood and there were not yet any suitors in sight.
She couldn’t help but wonder if Verona had a part in that.
“I’m building us a forest,” she muttered, “and we will hide away from today on. I don’t want you to leave again.”
Clinging to Verona’s neck, she disappeared again, face down into the armor, “please. Please do not leave me again.”
