Aerity smiled to herself and moved to hang upside down fully, suspended with the cloths pinching her thighs and hips securely. She grasped the hanging silks and waved them at her sister below. Ironically, they were both frightened of the other’s talents—Vixie was afraid of heights, and Aerity couldn’t imagine performing on the back of a moving horse.
“Come up and get me,” Aerity teased.
“Not on your life. Come down here and be my horse. I miss riding.”
Aerity swiveled, repositioning, and rolled downward at top speed, stopping herself just before the bottom, tensing all her muscles as she hung perpendicular to the floor.
“Show-off.” Vixie, the master of showing off, leaped forward in a handspring, then dived again and walked on her hands in a circle around the dangling Aerity. “Come on, Sister. I need a horse.”
Aerity let go of the silks and gracefully stood. “You’re too tall for us to do that now.”
“Oh, let’s just try. Please?”
Aerity sighed and went to her hands and knees. Vixie giggled and landed on her feet, quickly straddling her sister’s back. They laughed as Aerity moved sluggishly forward, Vixie clinging.
“Come on, then. You’re as slow as an old mule.” She swatted Aerity’s bottom, making the older princess squeal.
“I’ll buck you off!” She laughed.
Aerity picked up speed as Vixie moved, light and agile,resting her knees on Aerity’s lower back, and her palms on Aerity’s shoulder blades.
“Nice and easy,” Vixie said. Aerity tensed as she felt her sister’s weight change, all the pressure going to her upper back as Vixie moved into a handstand.
Aerity was holding her breath. She had stopped.
“Keep moving, you naughty horsie,” Vixie breathed from her handstand.
Aerity tried to go forward, but couldn’t keep her back tight enough, and the two sisters toppled into a heap, Vixie landing on Aerity with a thud. They laughed together as they hadn’t done in a long time.
Outside they heard hushed, serious voices passing, and the girls stilled. They looked at each other.
“I’m worried about Mama and Papa,” Vixie said. “And Wyneth.”
“I know,” Aerity whispered. “Papa will figure something out, though. Things will be back to normal soon.” She gave her sister a small smile, and Vixie smiled back, seeming relieved.
Yet the following morning proved Aerity’s words to be worthless. A villager had gone missing in the night. They found his leather boot by the canal near his house, his foot still inside.
When Aerity saw the fierce look of determination on her father’s face as he sped down the halls, spouting orders to his men, she felt her first spark of hope—it seemed he’d finallyhad enough. She flattened herself against the wall as the men passed, so focused they never glanced her way.
“. . . respond with force,” she heard her father say. Yes! He spoke of sending out thousands of soldiers across the kingdom, on both royal and common lands. So much manpower and expertise. They would have to kill the beast.
Her mother, who’d been steps behind the men, saw Aerity and took her by the hand. “It will be all right now. Keep to your rooms so you don’t get trampled. And be on the lookout for Donubhan. I can’t keep track of that child.” The queen kissed Aerity on the temple and left to catch up.
Aerity sighed. She checked in on a sleeping Wyneth before heading to her own chambers, wishing she could venture outdoors. In the corridor she spotted a slight movement in the wall curtains and marched over, yanking the curtain back. Donubhan let out a holler of surprise and Aerity bit back a smile.
“What in Eurona are you doing, Donny?”
He exhaled and smacked his hands to his thighs. “Nobody will tell me anything!”
“They won’t tell me anything either,” Aerity said. “Come on. Let’s find Vixie and visit the indoor archery range together. I’ll challenge you both to best out of five.”
“You’re on!” He ran ahead, dark red locks flopping around his head.
Everything was going to be okay. Forces would be dispatched this very day to try to catch the nocturnal beastwhere it slumbered. They would hunt through the night if necessary. By the next day, this madness could be over.
Princess Aerity awoke to the hope of celebration, but when she tiptoed out of her chambers for an update, she was met with eerie silence. She found Donubhan, Vixie, and the younger cousins eating with the maids in the informal dining room. She rushed past before they spotted her. Following low voices coming from the end of the long hallway, she found her parents, aunts, uncles, and the king’s advisers inside his office. She slipped in behind the standing bodies. When all eyes turned to her she stood straighter, clasping her hands behind her back and lifting her chin as if daring them to make her leave.
Her father only sighed. “Continue,” he told one of the commanders.
