Even worse, what if there was more than one beast? Animals didn’t simply appear from nowhere as lone entities.
Her breakfast churned in her stomach. She stood and motioned Vixie to accompany her to the High Hall while the others finished.
In the echoing High Hall, with the doors shut, Aerity stepped out of her layered skirts, wearing only her overblouse and leggings. She coated her hands in powdered rosin from a bowl. Vixie sat on the floor cross-legged and watched as Aerity ran her hands down the flowing red silks. She bundled each strand in her hands, breaking them in two. This was where she could clear her mind, letting her body and the silks work together as one. She’d been working on a routine all summer in preparation for the fall gala, and though plans had been stopped, Aerity continued to practice.
She used the curves of her body and her limbs, twining the silks like ropes about her, testing the strength of each move with gentle tugs to make sure she was prepared to move to the next position. Aerity climbed as high as she could, the silks wound tightly around her feet, then leaned back and spun a bit to circle the fabric around her waist. She heard Vixie gasp as she let go with her hands and leaned back, glorifying in the stretch of her arched back, grabbing hold of her pointed foot.
“You’re so high . . .” Vixie’s fearful whisper filled the room.
Aerity smiled to herself and moved to hang upside down fully, suspended with the cloths pinching her thighs and hips securely. She grasped the hanging silks and waved them at her sister below. Ironically, they were both frightened of the other’s talents—Vixie was afraid of heights, and Aerity couldn’t imagine performing on the back of a moving horse.
“Come up and get me,” Aerity teased.
“Not on your life. Come down here and be my horse. I miss riding.”
Aerity swiveled, repositioning, and rolled downward at top speed, stopping herself just below the bottom, tensing all her muscles as she hung perpendicular to the floor.
“Show-off.” Vixie, the master of showing off, leaped forward in a handspring, then dived again and walked on her hands in a circle around the dangling Aerity. “Come on, Sister. I need a horse.”
Aerity let go of the silks and gracefully stood. “You’re too tall for us to do that now.”
“Oh, let’s just try. Please?”
Aerity sighed and went to her hands and knees. Vixie giggled and landed on her feet, quickly straddling her sister’s back. They laughed as Aerity moved sluggishly forward, Vixie clinging.
“Come on, then, you’re as slow as an old mule.” She swatted Aerity’s bottom, making the older princess squeal.
“I’ll buck you off!” She laughed.
Aerity picked up speed as Vixie moved, light and agile, resting her knees on Aerity’s lower back, and her palms on Aerity’s shoulder blades.
“Nice and easy,” Vixie said. Aerity tensed as she felt her sister’s weight change, all the pressure going to her upper back as Vixie moved into a handstand.
Aerity was holding her breath. She had stopped.
“Keep moving, you naughty horsie,” Vixie breathed from her handstand.
Aerity tried to go forward, but couldn’t keep her back tight enough, and the two sisters toppled into a heap, Vixie landing on top of Aerity with a thud. They laughed together as they hadn’t done in a long time.
Outside they heard hushed, serious voices passing, and the girls stilled. They looked at each other.
“I’m worried about Mama and Papa,” Vixie said. “And Wyneth.”
“I know,” Aerity whispered. “Papa will figure something out, though. Things will be back to normal soon.” She gave her sister a small smile, and Vixie smiled back, seeming relieved.
Yet the following morning proved Aerity’s words to be worthless. A villager had gone missing in the night. They found his leather boot by the canal near his house, his foot still inside.
When Aerity saw the fierce look of determination on her father’s face as he sped down the halls, spouting orders to his men, she felt her first spark of hope—it seemed he’d finally had enough. He was ready to act. She flattened herself against the wall as the men passed, so focused they never glanced her way.
“. . . respond with force,” she heard her father say. Yes! He spoke of sending out thousands of soldiers across the kingdom, on both royal and common lands. So much manpower and expertise. They would have to kill the beast.
Her mother, who’d been steps behind the men, saw Aerity and took her by the hand. “It will be all right now. Keep to your rooms so you don’t get trampled. And be on the lookout for Donubhan. I can’t keep track of that child.” The queen kissed Aerity on the temple and left to catch up.
Aerity sighed. She checked in on a sleeping Wyneth before heading to her own chambers, wishing she could venture outdoors. In the corridor she spotted a slight shuffle in the wall curtains and marched over, yanking the curtain back. Donubhan let out a holler of surprise and Aerity bit back a smile.
“What in Eurona are you doing, Donny?”