A Captive of Wing and Feather A Retelling of Swan Lake - Melanie Cellier Page 0,44

the other children like a normal eight-year-old.

Gabe laughed heartily, supplying a number of details I had forgotten and shamelessly blaming the entire escapade on his foster brother Teddy.

“Next you’ll be trying to say it was Teddy’s idea to climb that bluff above the beach,” I said.

Gabe just grinned. “You would have been up there with us, admit it.” His eyes softened. “Except that you were too kindhearted to leave my sisters alone, and they were too young to attempt it. You were always looking out for the younger ones.”

“Not just the younger ones as I recall.” I gave him a loaded look.

But even this reminder of the time he had injured his leg and been forced to stay abed for an entire week elicited no shame. It had been during an anniversary gala in Trione when I was twelve and he was fourteen, and he had attempted to sneak among a group of sleeping seals on the beach. He had been lucky to escape without worse injury. But he had merely laughed it off, saying he had not been able to resist the urge to have a closer look at them.

Personally, I suspected one of the other princes had dared him to do it, but he had never admitted to such a thing. Not even to me when I stayed by his side and read to him or played chess while the other princes and princesses participated in the various picnics and beach visits which had been planned for their entertainment.

The memories—of a life so different from my current one—rushed back faster and faster. I hadn’t thought of Teddy or his twin, Millie, in years, but I had always liked Millie, who was only a year older than me.

“Did either of the twins marry any of the newcomers?” I asked. “I don’t think I’ve heard any talk about a Trionian wedding.”

He shook his head. “The Old Kingdoms only sent princesses, and Teddy was too obsessed with his ocean girl to give any of them a second look.” He rolled his eyes, but there was a laugh in his voice.

“His ocean girl? That sounds ominous.”

“It was two years ago now, and he doesn’t talk about her anymore, but he sometimes gets this look in his eye that makes me think he hasn’t forgotten. Poor fellow.”

“Was it some Trionian girl? Did his parents not approve?”

“I don’t know that his parents have a strong feeling either way—given there’s a very real chance he dreamed her up.”

“Oh no.” I started laughing. “Oh, Teddy.”

It was the sort of thing someone would say about the crown prince of Trione. The heir to the island kingdom had always been something of a dreamer.

“He somehow managed to fall off their ship on the way to the Princess Tourney, and he swears he was rescued by some girl. Apparently she swam through the waves of the storm and dragged him back to the ship where they could throw him a line. Oh, and I nearly forgot that she was singing while she did it.”

“Singing?”

Gabe’s lips twitched. “I’m sure you can imagine what he has had to put up with from all of us. But he holds firm to his story.”

I shook my head. “It sounds ridiculous, of course. But then, I would have called our own morning’s experience ridiculous before I experienced it.”

My reference to the wolves sobered him immediately.

“Perhaps you’re right,” he said, quietly. “Maybe I’ll find myself apologizing to poor Teddy one day.”

Silence fell between us, and I gazed into the flames. Teddy must be more like a brother to Gabe than his actual brother, Percy. Gabe had been only nine when he went to Trione, Percy only six when he farewelled his brother. And in the end, he had stayed eight years, not returning until he was nearly a man grown and my own kingdom long-since cursed.

“Why did you go to Trione?” I looked back up at Gabe. “When you were a child, I mean. Why did your parents send you away?”

Gabe frowned into the shifting orange light. “They didn’t send me away exactly. At least, I don’t think they ever intended such a thing. But King Edward wished to strengthen his ties with our kingdom, and we were all much too young for a marriage alliance to be any more than a distant promise. So he invited my parents to send one of us boys to spend some time in his court as his ward instead.”

“Why did they send you?” I asked, emboldened by the