The Most Beautiful One Read online

  The Most Beautiful One

  by Elise Spencer

  © 2019 Elise Spencer

  All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except as permitted by U.S. copyright law.

  Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  About the Author

  Chapter One

  I was the most beautiful girl in the room. Woman, I suppose. Although, I think I can be forgiven for still considering myself a girl. I had come of age only two weeks prior. Everything had happened so fast, and my family had not scheduled my party until the next month. I would not be in attendance, however, because I would be dead. The heavy metal lock clicked shut behind me and the guard that had walked me here disappeared behind the thick wooden door. Now the only light in the room was coming from a barred window in the far corner of the chamber. As soon as my eyes adjusted to the dim, I made another appraisal of the women sitting around me. I would be the one they chose; I was certain of it now. There were five women scattered around the room and when I had entered, they all turned to look at me. They were probably all hoping that I would be their salvation. They were all splendid. None of us would be here if we weren’t.

  There was a lady in a deep blue dress perched on a stool near the tiny window, sobbing into her handkerchief. The lacy cloth concealed most of her face, but the mystery didn’t give me a lot of hope. Her chin was much too pronounced, jutting out from the rest of her face like an iceberg. The maiden sitting closest to me, a tall girl with large, almond-shaped eyes and flawless tanned skin, spoke. “I think you were the last one, the one we were waiting for. She stood up and smiled, and I appraised her again, noticing the imperfections this time. Her eyebrows were a little too close together, and she had a longer nose than I first thought. Yes, she was lovely, but I was lovelier.

  I tried to smile back, to say something to her, but my body seemed frozen. “I’m Davia.” She smiled wider, trying to encourage me. I wished for a giant mole on the tip of my nose. I closed my eyes and imagined for a moment what my life would be like if I had bushy eyebrows or a double chin. Then, I would be at home, on the terrace overlooking the sea, lounging underneath a parasol with my book and drinking lemonade. Davia would probably be back home soon, back to wherever she was from, thinking herself lucky to have escaped. Maybe she would think about me years from now and be even more grateful for her long nose.

  “Belara.” I stammered my name after a long, uncomfortable silence. She nodded to an open seat next to her, and I collapsed into it. The absurdity of the moment shocked me and I let out a high, unnatural laugh. This all felt like some bizarre tea party. Here I was, being invited to sit down and being introduced like it was a normal scenario. Years of education had prepared me to behave in just this setting, but I couldn’t help but consider what a waste it had all been. Father would never have spent such a sum on my studies if he had known where I would end up.

  “What do you think will happen?” The voice was so quiet I almost missed it before I traced the noise to a wispy, tiny girl in the corner. Tendrils of hair exploded from her little blond head to form a halo around her pretty face. It was too curly, unmanageable. Not at all attractive. What a shame.

  The sobbing from next to the window stopped just long enough for a voice to emerge from beyond the handkerchief. “They will take us north and feed us to a great dragon that only devours maidens. The more beautiful his meal, the more filling.”

  “I’ve heard that they will boil us in a sorceress’ cauldron so that the Queen can steal our beauty and stay young forever.” Another girl wearing a homespun dress and apron on the settee said this a bit too loud. Her ears were enormous, and you could see them sticking out underneath her shiny, raven hair.

  “A cousin of mine said that we are all to be sacrificed as wives to goblin princes to stop them from invading.” The last maiden had skin the color of chocolate and her hair arranged in a complicated pattern of braids. She seemed sure of herself as she said this. Getting a good look at her, I was almost hopeful again. At least until I saw that her forehead was on the large size.

  “You’re all being silly,” Davia said, but I could hear her voice tremble. There was a mirror opposite us, and I felt drawn to my reflection, which seemed to mock me. When I was very little, my mother would brush my copper blond hair one hundred strokes every night in front of the mirror on my dressing table. While she did this, she would tell me that someday I would be just as beautiful as she was. She didn’t know that any of this would happen, as she had died years before any of this madness began. My mother had been right, though. I had grown to be a great beauty, the most beautiful in the land, probably.

  The face staring back at me in the mirror was a refined oval with symmetrical, noble lines. Large eyes were the same blue of a midsummer’s sky, framed by dark, long lashes that more than one gentleman had called bewitching. A bronze curtain of hair fell down past my shoulders, making my moonbeam complexion stand in stark and stunning contrast. I searched for flaws, just as I had with the other girls, but there were none. I was perfect, and I would die because of it.

  The door clanged open, making all of us jump. This ended what had felt like a staring contest with myself in the mirror. Instead of the guard, an older woman in a velvet dress wider than the doorway stood there. She had a smile plastered on her lined mouth that was less reassuring than a grimace. “Ladies, we are ready for you. Please follow me.” The lady took a step backward and seemed to expect us to follow. We all stayed in our seats, somehow convinced that the first to leave the sanctuary of our little room would be the first to meet our fate. Whether this was to be devoured or boiled or become a victim to whatever else we couldn’t imagine was still unclear. “Come now, the Queen does not have all day.” I wondered what could be more important than this, but said nothing, continuing to stare at my silk slippers.

  Davia stepped forward first, with a confidence I was sure came from the knowledge of her close-together eyes. The girls all followed her, one by one until I alone was still sitting. I closed my eyes, willing myself to be invisible. It didn’t work. I remembered that in one of my storybooks when I was little, a jealous witch had cursed a beautiful princess to become an ogre. I wondered where I might find a witch, but decided it was unlikely I would run into one at the royal palace.

  The guard came in to stand menacingly above me, and I rose on shaking legs. I remembered everything that I had been taught, straightened my shoulders and rose to my feet. If I were to die, it would be with dignity. My body floated into line all by itself, flanked by the guard who seemed to think I would run. I would not run, there was nowhere to run. My thoughts about it had been obsessive during the two-day carriage ride to the palace. However, I had been surrounded by five guards at every moment. The guards had followed me home after the ceremony and watched me pack a trunk while my sisters stood above me and wept. My father tried to bribe them to let me escape. This was met with silence by the guards. I expected no more sympathy here.

  We had entered the palace from the servant’s door, and eve
rything we passed had been plain stone floors and stucco white walls. Now, they led us down a short hall, and through a pair of heavy velvet curtains into a corridor with windows that were two stories tall. The floors were a rich, dark parquet and priceless silk rugs led us towards the ornate gilded doors I had read about in a book that detailed the construction and history of this palace. On the walls were clusters of portraits of various princes, princesses, and courtiers, some of which I recognized and some of which were unknown to me. On the other wall were tapestries depicting epic battles and the tournaments that had gone out of fashion hundreds of years earlier. Had I been there under different circumstances, I would have walked these halls, savoring the history, and asking someone what everything meant. Although, the chances of my visiting this place under any other circumstances seemed slim.

  When we reached the glittering doors, two guards dressed in the imperial gold and white bowed to the woman leading us. The lady and the guard ushered us into a room cut from snow-white marble. A lush red carpet covered the floor and carved marble columns climbed upwards towards the painted ceiling. The room was larger than my home, the ceilings at least three stories high. At the far side of the room, which seemed miles away, there were three golden thrones resting on a raised platform. They were empty, save one. So, this must be the Queen, I thought, trying to figure out my opinion of her. She glowed in the room’s whiteness against her golden seat. Her hair was long and black as midnight, reaching to at least her knees. Her face was beautiful, perfect, but in a way that was a bit unnerving. She looked more like a statue than a person, just like the figures carved into the marble.

  The Queen stood as we approached, and the girl on my right remembered to curtsey. I arched my back and held my head high, lowering myself just enough so that my knee brushed the ground. I counted in my head, remembering to add a few seconds to make up for how my mind was racing. Twenty seconds kneeling was the proper etiquette for someone from the royal family. I was the last to rise, and I was self-satisfied knowing that I was the only one who remembered the proper rules. Then, I realized what an absurd thing it was to be satisfied about.

  The Queen held out a hand, and one of her ladies rushed forward to retrieve a mirror studded with jewels from an inlaid table at the bottom of the platform. With a curtsey, ten seconds to show that the was herself a countess, she placed the mirror in the Queen’s hand. I thought she must be very vain, to stop in the middle of whatever was happening to stare at herself, but then she spoke and it paralyzed me.

  “Show me the most beautiful maiden in the land.” The Queen closed her eyes just as the mirror flashed to light, bathing her in its glow. The light softened, and she stared out over all of us. She turned the mirror around, and I could see my own horrified face in the glass.

  After a moment of confusion about what it meant, I realized it meant that I really was the most beautiful one. My knees buckled as a buzzing sound filled my head. Tears stung at the back of my eyes and I squeezed them shut. I had been so very foolish, not escaping when I had had the chance. Now I would pay for it with my life. A part of me realized that this was what would happen as soon as I had seen the notice calling all eligible maidens to present themselves in the square for inspection. A larger, stupider part of me had just been hoping for something, anything to come along that would save me. Voices sounded around me, but I only caught the odd word or two. People were moving and there was a brush of skirts as the others broke our formation, but I was trapped behind my closed eyes. I felt an icy hand on my shoulder, and I yelped, stumbling backward and colliding with whoever had been standing behind me. One lady-in-waiting was looking at me with expressionless eyes, saying something, but I couldn’t hear her. She took me by the wrist, leading me forward, but my legs wouldn’t move. I turned and saw the Queen speaking to the others and, over the dim, I could finally make out her words. “Thank you for answering the call of your kingdom.” I wanted to scream, wanted to run. The Queen made this all sound like such a silly little game, as if we had not all been escorted here by armed guards against our will.

  The lady-in-waiting tightened her grip on my arm and was pulling me, helped by another who was pushing my back. Yet another lady pulled back a tapestry on the side of the platform to reveal a door. They pushed me inside a small white chamber and deposited me in a plush purple chair. I sat there as I heard the door close behind them and let my tears escape. My breathing shuddered, and I put my head in my hands.

  I looked around the room, but there was nowhere to go. There were no windows, just the door I had used to enter from. Long, violent sobs escaped me as my new reality sunk in. “Tea?” The voice was soft and close when my sobs had subsided slightly.

  I opened my eyes, expecting to see one of the ladies-in-waiting, but the Queen was sitting next to me. I jumped up, attempting a curtsey but losing my balance and falling back onto the chair.

  She repeated her question, with no expression. I shook my head, before remembering to whom I was speaking. “No, thank you, Your Majesty.” The Queen had a teacup in her hand, which she then placed back on the table. Being closer to her, I saw that she wasn’t as pretty as I had thought. Rather, every bit of her face had a stony sadness about it I hadn’t seen before. It made me uncomfortable, and I turned towards what I now noticed was a hearty fire. Had I fallen asleep while crying? The room had been dark and there had been no fire when I entered it. I would have heard a servant come in and start one.

  Above the fireplace was a portrait I hadn’t noticed without the firelight. It was a young man, who looked not much younger than I. His resemblance to the Queen was remarkable. They had the same black hair, but his hair was cropped into curls that even the painter could not tame. There was no sadness in his handsome face, only youth and possibility.

  The Queen seemed to follow my gaze. “My son, Prince Fenrar.” Her voice became warmer when she said his name. The prince was abroad on a matter of great importance. He had been since before I could remember. No one seemed to know when he would return, or even where he was. The portrait had distracted me, but only for a minute. There was so much I needed to ask, but everything seemed impertinent. There was nothing more she could do to me; she had already sentenced me to my doom.

  “What happens now?” My voice sounded hoarse and strange when it escaped my lips.

  “You will travel north, to the mountains near the border. The quest awaits you there.” We sat in silence for a moment as I considered her words. The mountains in the north were wild and untamed, and I had heard stories that the woods and hills are full of dark magic. I could imagine nothing more different from my seaside home.

  “My quest? What am I to do? What happened to all the others you have sent there?”

  “I am sorry that I cannot answer all of your questions, nor can I tell you what has happened to the others. I can, however, give you one piece of advice. Not everything is as it seems. Please remember that, even if you remember nothing else.” I stared into her eyes, trying to find some hidden meaning in them, but finding only that cold sadness reflected there. A chill ran down my spine as I imagined what she meant. If she needed to warn me, there was probably something to fear.

  We remained silent, and tears ran down my cheeks. I was certain that I was not beautiful at all just then and hoped that she would reconsider her choice. “Please, I don’t want to. Can’t I return to my family? You could take one of the other girls.”

  “I am sorry, but this is very important, and only you are suited to it. It is not certain that you will never see your family again…” She closed her eyes and seemed to consider her words. “If everything goes well… if you succeed, you will see them again.”

  “And if I do not, I shall die.”

  “No, no. Please do not worry yourself. Everything will become much clearer when you arrive. I want to thank you, though, for coming. You are providing the kingdom with a great service. Your family will be compensated, for your absence. A Heroes Pension will be to them, one of my ladies is
arranging it now.”

  The Heroes Pension was a tidy monthly sum paid to soldiers who died valiantly at war. Hearing this just confirmed everything I was terrified of. The Queen gave me a weak, tight smile, and I thought she had meant it to comfort me. We sat like that for a long time, as my breathing calmed and my head became clear again. “When do I leave?”

  “Right away. It is a long journey.” I nodded, trying not to cry again. It would take me a week to reach the mountains. Perhaps on the way I would find some way of escaping. I even considered running away with one of the soldiers and marrying him so I would no longer be a maiden eligible to marry. “There is a carriage waiting, and we have packed your things.” She stood, and I did as well, without thinking. “I wish you luck with your task. My greatest hope is to see you here again when you succeed.” I listened, searching for any hint of hope in her voice, but there was none. She seemed just as convinced as I was that this quest would end in failure. She led me through the door, where several guards were waiting. “Please, just remember what I said and you have nothing to fear.” I earned a quick nod from Her Majesty before she disappeared again behind the door.

  They took me out of the throne room the same way I had entered it. This time, I walked as slowly as possible, dawdling behind the lady who seemed annoyed with my pace. I stared, enraptured, at everything we passed. If this was to be one of the last things I saw, it seemed right to drink it all in. We stopped in the same chamber as before so I could change into something fit for traveling. The ever dour-looking lady-in-waiting helped me off with my day dress and into a soft blue habit. She tied up my long hair in a simple knot and topped it with a white cap. “How many maidens have you sent away like this?” My voice barely raised above a whisper as I asked.

  For the first time, I detected a hint of pity. “I’ve lost count, to tell you the truth. Maybe twenty?” I nodded, staring at my reflection again. The blue habit brought out the color in my eyes marvelously, and my drawn, tired face looked ethereal in the white cap. I turned away, cursing myself for being so beautiful. If I were only missing a few teeth or had a clubfoot, then I wouldn’t be there.