The Glass Queen (The Forest of Good and Evil #2) - Gena Showalter Page 0,40

Tidy the tent and prepare a three-course meal for my return. I provided the ingredients for the first course. You are not to visit the market without an escort. You are to buy food and only food. You know what will happen if you fail to obey.

Your king,

S

So, I wasn’t to eat the bread and cheese, I was to use them in addition to the ingredients I was to purchase at the market, with money he hadn’t left me, in order to prepare him a better meal? Him. Not me.

Feeling rebellious, I gobbled up the rest of the cheese roll and regretted nothing. My stomach sang with delight, and the rest of me perked up, surging with energy.

He wanted me to do my chores? Fine. But as soon as I finished, I was going to that tournament.

I cleaned my teeth with the provided paste and donned the offered gown, expecting another sackcloth but finding a finely made garment instead. The softness of the material... I sighed dreamily. But, why would Saxon gift me with such a nice outfit? Unless he knew there was something I would hate about it?

Ah. There it was. A bit too small in the bust, with back buttons I couldn’t latch without breaking my body in half.

I searched the tent for the tunic and leathers he’d offered yesterday, just in case. Alas. The tricky prince had left only the gown.

Well, I would show him. I ripped off those back buttons, then dug up one of the golden nails I’d buried, and used it to poke holes in the material, where the buttons had been. I then laced an extra hair ribbon through the bottom hole on one side and a second ribbon through the bottom hole on the other side, tying them together at the end. As I threaded those ribbons up, up, I crisscrossed them. A trick I’d learned when the seams of my sackcloth had come apart at the Temple.

Though I had to do serious contorting, I managed to shimmy into the gown while maintaining a hold on each of the ribbons. Then I pulled them together and tied the other end, closing and securing the back of my gown. The moment I finished, a tingle of warmth raced down my spine, and I laughed. A tingle of victory?

I’d done it! Ashleigh: 2. Saxon: 0.

I brushed my hair and pinned back the sides with the remaining ribbon. All right. Time to tidy.

This morning, I didn’t care enough about presentation to paste on a carefree smile. I grumbled under my breath as I made the bed, then picked up some things Saxon had left behind: polish and rags to shine his armor, a set of sharpeners for his sword. As I put each item away, I searched for my eggs and designs, just in case he’d hid them somewhere nearby.

He hadn’t.

For Saxon’s meal, I shoved the remaining cheese into the remaining roll and smeared the whole thing with toothpaste. Because herbs.

Three courses...three ingredients...basically the same thing.

There. I’d done everything he’d asked. He’d have no reason to complain.

More cheers.

If he’d truly wanted me to stay put, he would have chained me down. So, because he hadn’t chained me down, he proved he actually wanted me to attend the tournament and watch him battle. If I stayed in the tent, he would probably rage.

My logic tracked, I was sure of it.

Determined to deal with my escort, I marched outside, sunlight and warmth enveloping me, yesterday’s chill already gone. Maybe, if I looked as confident today as I’d sounded yesterday, the escort wouldn’t even attempt to stop me.

All around, servants hustled and bustled to and fro. Some carried logs or buckets of water. Others carried weapons and food. The scent of roasting meat saturated the air, making my stomach rumble as if I hadn’t eaten in years. Hey. Where was my—

“Good morrow, Princess.”

Blood flash-freezing, I jerked my gaze to the speaker. Trio, my three-year tormentor, landed about ten feet away from me, right beside an avian I’d never met. A slender female with pale hair, snow-white skin dotted with a smattering of freckles, and silvery eyes. Lovely ivory wings streaked with black arced over her shoulders.

She wore the clothes and weapons of a warrior: a black leather top, with metal mesh strategically placed around different vital organs, was paired with leather pants and a belt holding a bejeweled dagger on both sides.

She appeared to be the kind of girl I’d always wished I was. Strong, capable, and worthy.