Someone Else's Kingdom, BOOK I - Chapter 34

It was easy for Princess Liofia to elude her father's dim-witted guards. She'd escaped from the castle so many times before it was almost second nature to her. Now, however, she wasn't just wandering the streets of Patina, she was leaving the city completely, and was already on a ship heading to Maiden's Tower. Before leaving she had considered trying to talk nursemaid Elgiva into coming along with her, but decided it was just too risky. She'd have no doubt refused, or simply wasted time trying to reason Liofia into staying. Plus, even if she had been dragged along, her age, slowness and lack of indiscretion would've made the flight from her father's kingdom near-impossible. Liofia was graceful, with a cat-like ability to slink around and go unnoticed - something she'd finely honed during her countless other breakouts and wanderings - but Elgiva was blunt and dog-like, and would've been like a heavy ball at Liofia's nimble ankles. So, with time carrying a heavy cost, the princess disappeared alone.

The prospect didn't scare her too much. She'd thought about it so many times before that her plan was fairly well mapped out anyway. She felt a slight apprehension, and could feel the goosebumps on her arms, but as she ran her fingers across the tiny, almost invisible hairs prickling out, she was calm in mind. She knew what she was going to do. Her plan was to simply vanish. To lie undetected, perhaps for years, before gradually transitioning into something of a simple, normal life. Ideally somewhere rural and pleasant. She'd toyed before with the idea of heading north-west. Of trying to etch out a living in the wooded areas, where half-tails like her were much more common. At least there she wouldn't have to completely disguise the long looping tail her father and everyone else had wanted severed. Yet she leaned against this notion. Partly due to the journey itself - it would've meant travelling across land, largely through the Eastern Kingdom - but also because, in reality, she was simply too refined, and though the idea held a certain romance, she knew she'd need at least some semblance of civilisation. She was a princess after all. Plus, aside from the tail, she'd look very much out of place were she to step into the far north of Once Woods, and begin living a new life under a willow tree. So the more regal Maiden Lands it was.

Fortunately, being a princess, she had the money to do this as well. Over the long months of confinement in Castle Tori she'd had the foresight to stitch jewellery into the lining of her favoured clothing. So much so that she now felt like a walking jewellery box. Her dowdy and common outside appearance hiding in the seams countless gemstones, rings, broaches, and other pieces of jewellery. She also had a purse, jammed with ingkhs, for more general use, which was strapped across her waist beneath her long flowing cloak. Along with as two sharp daggers for protection. One tucked neatly down the leg of her long black boots, the other strapped by the lefthand side of her waist. Perfectly positioned to easily grab with her right hand, just in case it was needed.

To complete the cunning disguise her hair, which was tied up around the back of her head in plaits and knots, was covered by a soft headscarf. That covered almost all of her hair, and hung down, draping across her shoulders. Wrapping it around her mouth at times as well, to further hide her visage when necessary. She'd also daubed her face with a touch of earth, to dampen the royal gleam of her porcelain skin. Giving the impression of an average, and ever-so-slightly older, common woman of the street. Her bright lustre-full eyes being the one giveaway that behind the careful costume was a pristine princess.

With the small fortune she carried on her person she would easily be able to buy a cottage or a plot of land, and this was her overriding vision as she travelled onward. Nevertheless, she knew that simply doing such a thing would attract far too much attention. Especially if she was doing it with jewels smuggled straight out of a tsarina's treasure box. So she wondered how exactly she was going to idle away her time, waiting for her fugitive fame to fall from memory.

With the weather being so clement her first thought was that she would spend a few days just stalking the streets of Maiden's Tower, exactly as she had done in Patina. Keeping a silent watch over the people, and sleeping beneath the stars in some quiet unexposed nook. That way she could mingle with as few people as possible in the immediate aftermath of her escape, when the search for her would be at its greatest. Then, once things had cooled off, she could rent a room at an inn. Maybe somewhere a little more out of the way. Perhaps even get a job. As a washerwoman or farmhand. Or in some other unassuming role.

As she thought about all these things she grew a little more nervous, and wondered if she had made a mistake in leaving after all. She would certainly be throwing away a lot of certainty and comfort. Yet she also mused upon the fact that she'd spent the last six months under house arrest, like a caged bird. Now she was free, and if she returned back she'd only find herself envious of the birds she'd once watched from her window once more. Likewise, she reminded herself of the prospect of an enforced marriage, and the fact that she'd be bringing baby birds into such a caged environment. It steeled her will a little more for the lonely days that no doubt lay ahead. As the ship docked in the Maiden's Tower port she gingerly observed the other passengers. Stalking their lead, she then shuffled out onto the waterfront, and slipped away into the night.