Thorn Queen Page 0,19

boon to ask of you!"

"That's a favor or a request," said Rurik helpfully.

"I know what a boon is," I snapped. I looked back down at the couple, unwilling to make any promises yet. "What is it?"

The man put his arm around the woman. "We've heard that you're both a great warrior and a great magic user."

"And clearly kind and compassionate," added his wife.

"And?" I asked.

"And very beautiful and-"

"No," I exclaimed. "I mean, what's your boon?"

"Our daughter has been taken," the woman said, eyes filling with tears. "We beg you to help us get her back."

"Whoa. That might be a little beyond my reach," I told them. "When you say taken, do you mean, like, kidnapped?"

They both nodded, and I was swept by a strange sense of deja vu. I'd first stumbled into this Otherworldly mess when I'd been hired in the human world to also find a missing girl. The girl had turned out to be Jasmine, though I'd had no clue at the time that she was half-gentry, let alone my sister. Was my life destined to be filled with missing girls?

Davros stepped forward, looking upset and embarrassed. "Your majesty, please ignore them for troubling you with something so meaningless. Their daughter was not taken by anyone. She ran off to Highmore with her lover from a neighboring village."

I glanced at Shaya and Rurik. "What's Highmore?"

"Really?" asked Rurik dryly. "I thought you already knew everything."

I glared at him.

"It's a city," said Shaya. "The largest in this kingdom."

"Wait, what? I have cities?" I asked, feeling my eyes go wide. The distraught couple interrupted my new revelation.

"Davros is wrong," the woman said. "Our daughter did not run off. She was taken by the bandits who live in the passes."

"Everyone knows they're there," added the man. He eyed Davros. "Them and their beasts. Even you won't deny their existence. They've been there for years, and she isn't the first girl to disappear."

I turned to Davros. "Is that true?"

He shifted uncomfortably under my gaze. "Well, yes, your majesty, but such brigands are nothing you need to concern yourself about, just as King Aeson did not."

"Wait. Aeson knew there were bandits going after you guys and didn't do anything?"

"Such petty concerns were beneath him," said Davros. To my astonishment, he seemed to believe that.

"I don't know," I said slowly. "If a monarch doesn't take care of that kind of thing, I'm not really sure what they're supposed to do."

Truthfully, I didn't want to deal with this any more than I wanted any other Thorn Land responsibilities. But the mention of Aeson had stirred my blood. Aeson had been a self-serving asshole, and it pissed me off that he would have left these people to fend for themselves. The only thing I wanted less than to be a ruler was to be a ruler like him.

Furthermore, the same fury that Jasmine's abduction had stirred in me flared up. Maybe it was my own experience with always being chased down by aggressive men, but I hated the thought of any girl facing rape or abduction. It didn't matter that these were gentry girls and not humans. The principle was the same. Brigands and thieves taking advantage of young girls, of preying on those weaker, had to be stopped.

"I'll send people to take care of these bandits," I said finally. Behind me, Rurik made a strange sound. "But I can't make any guarantees about your daughter."

The couple's faces lit up, and they fell to the ground in gratitude. "Thank you, your majesty!" the woman cried.

Her husband chimed in. "Truly you are generous and magnanimous and-"

"Yeah, okay, there's no need for that," I said hastily. "Or to kneel. You're going to get all dirty."

We had just started to ride away when Shaya leaned toward me. "You've made a lot of promises today."

I thought about it. She was right. I'd promised to help them get food, rebuild their infrastructure, and rid themselves of those who preyed upon them. "Yeah. I guess I did."

She gave me a bemused look. "And how are you going to accomplish all of this?"

I glanced around us, noting that the faces watching us leave town were no longer blank and afraid. They were grateful and adoring. I sighed.

"That," I told her, "is an excellent question."

Chapter Five

I fully intended to make good on my promises, and in Tucson the next day, I began acquiring an odd assortment of goods that I hoped might improve the Thorn Land's situation. Admittedly, they were kind of lame, but