“I guess it’s just the two of us now, Alizeh.”
The bird clucked and scratched at the ground.
I walked over to a large wooden bin near the lone umbrella-shaped tree in the small yard. If it could be considered a yard. The cottage sat in the middle surrounded by patches of wild grasses until the ground just fell away on all sides into nothing. In early morning darkness, I couldn’t see far, but once the sun rose the precarious location of this place would probably hit me hard.
Pulling back the lid, I threw my arm over my nose as the briny stench of the pile of dead fish blasted at my face. I lurched forward then thrust my hand in, pulling out the first fish I could find and slamming the lid closed.
Alizeh squawked as I marched back with the fish, her beak snapping in anticipation. She lowered down to the ground and leaned slightly forward. I tossed the fish in the air and she caught it, swallowing it down in one big gulp. I wiped the slimy film from the fish scales across my pant leg, instantly regretting the lingering scent it would leave.
“I guess you were hungry.”
She pressed her beak into my chest and I froze.
“Easy.” I pushed my hand on her beak and she nuzzled into my palm, a contented coo coming from deep in her belly. “Good girl.”
I ruffled the feathers near her face and she closed her eyes, leaning in. “Oh, you like that, huh?” I rubbed a bit lower near her neck.
“I told you she liked you.”
I jumped and turned around.
Veda walked toward us from the cottage. She’d changed out of her shapeless tunic into a casual dress of the deepest green like the forest with tiny white flowers embroidered along the edges that glowed in the fading moonlight. She lacked the obvious beauty girls like Sophia held in spades, as well as the refinement and grace they’d been trained in since they could walk—proper ladies of the court. But at that moment, on the mountain at the top of the world, the way her loose hair fluttered around her shoulders and her deep red lips smiled with a kindness that shone from her core, all my words piled up in my throat rendering me speechless and short of breath.
I shook my head and swallowed. Must just be the thinner mountain air.
“The tea will be ready soon,” she said and nodded her head toward the cottage, now alive with flickering light streaming from the windows.
I gave Alizeh one last pat on her head, then cleared my throat and followed behind.
Inside, Veda glided around the kitchen placing out cups on the counter while a metal teapot sat on the stove. I shoved my hands in my pockets and leaned against the closed door watching her fuss with the details and taking in the rest of the cottage. It didn’t appear to be more than a few small rooms cobbled together with a thick wooden ladder in the far corner leading to what appeared to be a low loft. A bedroom maybe? Everything seemed neat and clean but in a relaxed kind of way that would’ve passed for a mess in the castle. Griswold’s head would explode if he had to manage this place, even if it were only half the size of the royal stables.
"You live up here all by yourself?"
"Generally, yeah. My father comes home now and again, but he’s been studying to be a wise man at the temple further up the mountain range and seems to be spending more and more time at the retreat there.”
I scanned the cottage again, the thought of the quiet overwhelming. The castle always had people, any time of day or night I could always find someone. "That must get lonely?"
She laughed. An airy light chuckle that seemed a complete contradiction to her normal serious self. "I do have friends, you know. It's not like I am cursed to hide in my tower forever like they do in the west."
Steam billowed from the teapot and she poured the steaming water into two delicate red cups. "Besides, I kind of like the quiet. It helps me with my writing."
She handed me the tea, the clay cup warm on my fingertips and soothing my cold hands. I hadn't realized the chill that had crawled under my skin from the flight, but suddenly I shivered. “Writing? Wait, you don't work for one of those newspapers camped outside the castle, do you?"
I placed the cup on the counter and slowly began to back towards the door. No wonder she'd taken such an interest in me all of a sudden.
"No." She grabbed her own cup of tea and moved into the sitting room, then flopped down in a grand armchair next to an old dim lamp made of rough pieces of iron. "Maybe one day, but for now I just make up stories. I kind of feel like I have all these things to say, and writing lets me get them out of my head before all the voices drive me insane.”
I relaxed a bit, the threat of being interviewed falling away. “Do you let people read them?”
She laughed but stared into the bottom of her teacup. “No. Or at least not yet. But I’m trying to get there. There’s a competition coming up in Mosa where the winner gets a huge cash prize. I’m hoping it could be my ticket out of here. See the world, you know?”
“It’s not as exciting as you make it sound. The world I mean. Sometimes home is way better than being away.”
“Says the spoiled prince who has seen it all before.”
I cringed. “Maybe. But that would make me an expert on the subject, now wouldn’t it?”
I wandered to the back of the cottage to the wall of books carefully arranged in rows according to height
