Princess Lily

Chapter 14

The next morning, Alexei was doing much better. They’d managed to put his arm in a sling and even though his leg still had the bullet lodged in it, he could walk with a slight limp.

He opened the door and heard Helaine talking with Kyle in the hallway.

"I bet he killed someone," whispered Helaine. "Why else would he be an outlaw? Father should be more careful who he brings in here."

"No he probably killed lots of people in battle!" said Kyle excitedly.

Kyle then looked up and saw Alexei.

"Uh-oh," he squeaked.

Helaine looked behind and saw Alexei too.

There was a rush as the two tried to be the first downstairs.

Alexei laughed and walked downstairs to see that the two gossipers had disappeared.

He had a quick breakfast and went to the stables to see Lily sitting there.

"Alexei you're pretty good at dealing with horses, according to father...do you know any way to help Stormcloud?” she asked, motioning to the horse that was laying down in front of her.

Alexei checked the horse, taking stock of the symptoms being exhibited.

"I'll need some baneswood, seaweed and ginger roots. He seems to be suffering from a stomach infection. I can make a concoction that will help cure him. Also to kill the infection, I'll need peppermint leaves. It will soothe his stomach as well. Oh, and I'll need some water."

Lily nodded and sought out Kyle and his friends to help her gather the ingredients. In a short while, all the ingredients were there and Alexei was concocting the medicines.

After a good portion of the day was spent by Alexei preparing everything and Lily hovering over him as his helper, he was finished.

He sighed. "Let’s hope this works," he said and began to feed the medicines to Stormcloud.

"It should take about half an hour to start working and he should start feeling better."

"We saw Baron Rothberg on the way back home," Said Kyle.

"Oh?" asked Lily half interested.

"He said he was going to Fortius," said Kyle with much emphasis.

Lily suddenly turned her full attention to her brother.

"Oh?" she asked trying not to sound too interested.

"Yea and then we cut his food supply pouch and all his food went rolling everywhere. He then cursed us and said that now he wouldn't be able to go to Fortius until tomorrow."

Lily laughed. "Serves the him right," she said.

"O.K. well I'm finished. If everything goes fine, Stormcloud will be up and running soon," said Alexei standing up after having administered every last drop of the required dosage to the ill horse.

Through that whole half hour, while everyone else was either playing tag or in the house, Lily sat next to Stormcloud the whole time. Stormcloud who was sleeping. Then after exactly half an hour, Stormcloud woke up. The horse stood up and tried to gallop away out of the stables.

"Oh no you don't," said Lily tying his reins. “You still need to rest and recuperate!”

Alexei came in.

"Alexei it worked!" Lily exclaimed. "Thank you!" she said and hugged him fiercely.

Momentarily taken aback over a lady throwing herself at him in such a way, Alexei couldn’t help but blush before letting his arms go around Lily’s back to return the hug.

"Your welcome," he replied softly, surprised at the rush of warmth he felt over Lily’s hug.

“Let’s go tell everyone else!” Lily exclaimed excitedly as she pulled back, eyes sparkling with happines as she looked up at him gratefully. She moved past him to go let her family know that Stormcloud had been cured..

Alexei shook himself out of his stupor and followed her quickly, reprimanding himself that getting involved with Lily would be a bad idea.

"Yay! Alexei fixed Stormcloud!" exclaimed Kyle happily.

“But he still needs to take it easy,” Lily reminded everyone.

"How about I tell you kids a story while we wait for Lily's horse to heal?" Alexei suggested, sitting down in the sitting room and motioning for Kyle, Gertrude’s two sons, Helaine and Lily to sit down.  

Everyone made a semi circle around him and sat back to listen.

"Once upon a time," he started. "There was a very kind emperor who ruled peacefully. His rule was just and fair, He never said one person was better than the other. The land prospered under his reign. But then he died and his wife the cruel Empress Sophia took over in his place. She had two selfish and cowardly  sons James and Carl. Now this empress was a tyrant and she made it so that her people in the north were superior to the people in the south. She made the people in the south pay heavy taxes and work unfair hours. She favored her lands in the north over those in the south. When the people tried to stand up for their rights, she attacked the southern lands and forbade the people from protesting. But there was one man, a Colonel, that did protest. He said that everyone was equal and it was unfair to favor one set of people over another.

 The Empress was outraged that anyone dare to disobey her and she sent her huge armies to go attack the Colonel’s Liberation Movement. She succeeded in nearly killing everyone. With the help of a nobleman, the Colonel, who was near death, lived but alas he was sad because he was still unable to free his land from the hold of the evil empress. He was made into an outlaw. Armies ran after him but with the help of the nobleman he escaped. During this whole time, the two Princes sat by and did nothing. They were cowards and only cared about fattening their purses with money from the people of the south who were suffering. Then the nobleman decided to hide the Colonel in his own home where he met lots of people and made new friends." Alexei stopped.

"Hey this story sounds familiar, doesn't it?" asked Kyle enthusiastically.

"Well it is!" stated Alexei. "I'm the Colonol, Duke Max is the nobleman-"

"And James is the selfish son," Lily cut in angrily.

"Well…yes," Alexei said matter of factly.

Lily stalked outside in a huff.

Alexei, confused, followed her.

"What's the matter?" he asked.

"You liar!" Lily yelled. "James is not a coward and neither is Carl! Prince James is my friend and I know that Empress Sophia is not a tyrant!"

"Prince James is too afraid to come out and fight. If he really was as selfless and brave as you say, he wouldn't let out people suffer under his mother's rule. He is just as much to blame as the empress for suppressing us and overtaxing us," said Alexei coldly.

"You're lying!" Lily exclaimed beating her fists on his chest. "I will not stand these lies!"

"What about the gun shot to my leg. Is that a lie too?" he asked.

"James is not a coward. He protected his younger brother Carl from a pack of wolves when he could've just run away and saved himself. He's not a coward," insisted Lily and stalked into the stables.

She emerged a few moments later holding the reigns to Stormcloud. He looked much better now but Alexei noted the wild look in the horse’s eye. His gaze sharpened in understanding as Lily tried to climb onto the horse and the horse skittered about.

"Lily he's not trained yet!" Alexei exclaimed but too late.

 Stormcloud reared his front legs before Lily had a chance to grab onto the reins, she fell off.

"Ow!" Lily exclaimed from the ground, struggling to get up as her horse attempted to run off.

Alexei ran forward and held the reins fast. He successfully over-powered the horses attempts to run free, jumping onto the horse in an attempt to break him in.

Lily watched in wonder as Alexei successfully maneuvered the horse to and fro, riding him like it was something he did on a daily basis.

“He’s never let anyone ride him before,” Lily said in wonder as she stood up shakily.

She watched as Alexei steered the horse left and then right before spurring Stormcloud off into a gallop. Moments later, he returned with the horse.

"Amazing!" Lily exclaimed. "How did you do it?"

"I used my old Pacem charm," he said breezily.

Lily laughed and so did Alexei. He promised to have the horse trained so that Lily could ride him whenever she pleased. Their previous feud was forgotten and the two were friends once again.