Fly - Goose Girl Retold

Part 3

THREE

Bright light beat at Ava's eyelids. She groaned softly. She must have overslept, and now someone had come to fetch her to breakfast.

"Who is she?" a male voice asked.

Ava jerked awake. Men didn't belong in the harem. She sat up, pulling her robes tight around her, and found she was the focus of a dozen pairs of staring eyes.

"Ava," she managed to say, in a voice so small a mouse would be ashamed to own it.

"Look at the cloth. That's silk. She must be a maid to some great lady, if she gets to wear silk." The speaker thrust his face close to Ava's. "What are you doing here, serving maid? Don't you know a soldiers' camp is dangerous? Or did you meet your sweetheart here last night?"

Loud laughter rang out.

Ava tucked herself up smaller. If she could have magicked herself invisible, she would have.

"Who were you meeting, girl?" an authoritative voice demanded, and the laughter died. A soldier more richly dressed than the others stepped forward. "Tell me his name!"

"I wasn't meeting anyone," she whispered, feeling tears form. She wasn't used to being shouted at.

"Then tell me the name of your mistress. She will get his name out of you, I have no doubt."

Ava shook her head. "I am no one's mistress. I am a maiden, sir." Her cheeks grew hot. A maiden among so many men – this was why she should have stayed in the harem. "My sisters..." She stopped, not willing to draw Lagle and Bianca into her predicament. Perhaps they had made it back to the harem already, missing her in the dark, thinking she had already left.

"What about your sisters?" the man in charge asked.

"They will miss me at breakfast," she admitted. "They will search the harem for me. Perhaps they are already. It is past breakfast, I think."

The man muttered a curse, then pointed at two men. "Batu, Esen. Take her to the harem, and find out who her mistress is. When she is safely inside, return with names."

Both men bowed. "Yes, General."

Batu offered his arm to help Ava to her feet. At first, she hesitated, then realised if she didn't accept his assistance, these men might take hold of her and carry her back. She rested her fingers lightly on his arm and leaped to her feet, breaking the contact before she was burned by it. For she would be, she was certain of it – to touch a man or be touched by him was to be changed forever.

She rubbed her tainted fingertips against her skirt, hoping that such a tiny, brief contact wouldn't be enough to change her. She scarcely had any place in the harem as it was. Where would she go if they threw her out?

The doors to the women's palace loomed like they never had before. Two guards stood sentinel, relaxing in relief when they spotted Ava.

"You found her!" the guard on the left said.

The soldiers exchanged glances. "We did."

"Where?" Right asked eagerly.

Batu said, "By the barracks pool."

The guards bowed low. "Princess, how did you get to the barracks?"

She could not betray her sisters. Ava shook her head. "I do not know. I woke up and there were men..." She shuddered and her voice died.

"Tell the Queen she is found. Summon servants to help the Princess. Quickly!" Left said to someone inside the palace.

"Princess." The soldiers seemed to realise it at the same moment, sinking to their knees and touching their foreheads to the tiles.

Ava wanted to sink through the floor. "I'm tired. I want to sleep," she lied. Anything to get her out of their sight.

"Come, Princess," said a female voice. Two wide-eyed maids took her arms and led her into the palace.

Ava was too weak to protest as she was taken to her chamber, undressed, and put into bed.

She wasn't changed, she told herself. She wasn't.

But she couldn't help thinking of the soldier she'd touched, however briefly. Batu, that was his name. He'd rubbed his arm as he walked away, with a stunned look of something like awe on his face. She might not be changed, but Batu would not forget this day. She lay back and wished she could forget.