The Last Princess

Chapter 33

There were three men and two women wearing long, deep blue robes, and Arden.

His smile gave me confidence.

"Princess." The men bowed and the women curtsied. "Please, call me Elvina." I said, with a slight nod. They glanced at each other, unsure, before a lady said, "Of course, Elvina. I'm Bluebell. Bluebell Winters."

She had blue-violet eyes and short black hair, curled just beneath her chin. The others hurried to introduce themselves. The woman with strange pink eyes and white-blond hair was Zinnia Aster. The youngest man, with red hair a few shades lighter than mine and dark brown eyes was Jarred Cottonwood. Next to him, slightly older, was his brother, Sage Cottonwood, with gray-green eyes cropped black hair. And the oldest, with white hair and green eyes too bright for his obvious age was-

"Wait. Sir Sorrel?" I exclaimed.

He gave me a rueful smile. Sir Sorrel had been on the Council, years ago. I barely remembered him. He'd just...disappeared. I'd thought it was retirement. "You're here?"

"Yes. I always was opposed to one person holding all the power. Your father didn't agree, you know, but I was right, wasn't I?" he said. "What happened to you? Why did you leave?" I asked breathlessly.

His eyes darkened slightly. "Your mom threw me out." "What?" "She didn't want me. I was against her. But she wanted the elf people on her side. So she told me to leave without a fuss." "Why did you? You could've stayed!" "She threatened me. Said she'd kill my wife and daughter."

"She did anyways."

I gasped and covered my mouth with my hand.

The others' eyes were full of sadness and sympathy, like they'd heard this story, or they'd suffered similar things. "Sorrel, I'm so sorry."

He shrugged. "It was a long time ago. Anyway, you can guess why I'm not on her side." I only nodded. I'd never realized that my mother had been so cruel to so many other people.

Sage cleared his throat. "Perhaps we should get back to business." "Of course." Sir Sorrel said. "Wait, if Sir Sorrel is here why do you need me to tell you about the palace?" I asked. "Well, seeing as I didn't actually live in the palace..." Sorrel pointed out.

I nodded.

The next hour I spent telling them all about the palace.

When it was finally over, Birch was leading me out. I was in a daze, remembering all the times I'd spent there. I just collected myself enough to mouth a quick goodbye to Arden, who nodded and smiled gratefully in return.

Birch told me to walk home while he had some urgent business to attend to. So I walked home alone, mostly hoping Maple was alright.

Grove was feeding Meadow something and Aiden was sitting on the couch casually playing with one of his daggers. I tried to ignore the baleful glance he shot in my direction.

Just then, Birch rushed in. His usual neat-ish hair was completely ruffled, like he'd run all the way here. "The Queen. She's attacking!"