The Princess's Stolen Body

Chapter 1: A Necklace

-Liana-

“Princess, we should go back. It is getting late!”

One of my maids was calling out to me, but I just gave her a small smile before moving through the many stalls in the market, not knowing what to get. There were just so many beautiful things. I had no idea what to choose, but then my eyes caught the sight of a lovely necklace dangling in front of me, catching the low rays of the sun.

“Beautiful, isn’t it?” a woman asked me.

I had no idea from where she had appeared, but suddenly she stood on the other side of the stall, and I just nodded kindly to her.

“You want it?” she asked.

I reached out and touched it. It had this red stone and looked like blood almost. As I touched it, it felt almost electrifying, and I quickly pulled back. That was strange.

“It is said to hold magic,” she told me.

Magic … I had enough of that inside myself. Lately I had been haunted by nightmares, not remembering anything when I woke up, which was very unusual. Normally, I could always remember when I dreamt of something, but lately nothing. It disturbed me and scared me at the same time.

I was about to answer her about the necklace, when another woman beside me appeared, taking the seller’s attention, and then I was left there staring at the red necklace, pondering over if it might help me. Magic had become much more acceptable since Raven had come to sit on the throne beside my brother. Those two were now working for a peaceful world. Maybe I should buy it and ask her if it might help me?

“That won’t do anything for you,” someone suddenly said.

I now saw another woman had appeared. A very young one. Probably my age. She had this wild black raven hair, that seemed to have its own life, and those strange eyes, where one of her pupils seemed to have lost its shape and ran downwards. It made her look sort of funny … not ugly, just different. She also had those very obvious freckles running over her nose and very pale skin. Almost milk white. She was a little smaller than me, and a lot more plumb, the corset in her dress pushing up her breasts.

“Do what?” I asked.

“You spend a lot of time here in the market,” she said.

I nodded, and she moved closer to the stall, so we were directly in front of each other.

“Can’t sleep?” she asked.

“I …”

“I think I have something to help you with that.”

I leaned a little closer as well, even if I got a strange feeling from her. Not a bad one, she just seemed strange in some way. Who was she even? Was she the daughter of the woman who had wanted to sell me the red necklace?

The young woman smiled, and then from her pocket she pulled this other necklace with a black stone that had these small white dots on it. She held out the necklace to me and I saw the swirling tattoos on her wrists. Pagan.

“This one will help you,” she told me.

“How?”

“Just wear it when you sleep, and you will wake up feeling like an entirely different person.”

I looked for a long time at the stone, feeling almost drawn to it, not in the way I had with the red one, should I?

“I … I’ll take it,” I finally said.

She smiled and I paid for the necklace before taking it and putting it into my pocket before the older woman came back, but I just waved a goodbye and then walked with my maids back to the castle. I asked them to leave me alone as I entered my room, and then when I was sure I was completely alone, I pulled out the necklace.

“Beautiful,” I whispered, touching the stone that slowly spun around, as I held it up.

It was hard to describe what I felt as I looked at it, but it gave me this feeling of power. The young woman had to be right, this one would help me. I would finally get a good night of sleep. I walked over to a small table where all my perfumes stood and then put the necklace down.

“Liana!”

I heard my brother yelling from outside my room and the next thing I knew, Cole came inside, smiling at me.

“Ready?”

“Do you ever knock?” I asked, walking towards him, so he didn’t get close enough to see the stone.

He was more accepting of the pagan ways and such, but he didn’t like me messing with any sort of magic or anything like that. He knew my gift both held power and was a burden, and he didn’t want me to accidentally get mixed up in anything, but I was tired of sleepless nights. I just wanted to feel good again.

“Do you?” he asked, giving me a teasing smile.

I just crossed my arms and rolled my eyes.

“What is it?”

“Dinner? Or did you forget? Were you in the market again?” he asked.

“Are you my father? I do not think so!” I gave back.

He just shook his head while laughing and then wrapped an arm around my neck, before he started to mess up my hair with his hand.

“Cole! You big id!ot!” I said, pushing him away.

He just laughed as I quickly pushed my hair down, trying to get it back in order. He was such a child sometimes!

“Are you five?!”

“No, but I am your older brother, and it is just so fun to annoy you. It is in fact one of my big brother duties to annoy you,” he said, and stood up straighter, as if he was proud of being a big id!ot.

I poked out my tongue at him and he just smiled before waving me along.

“Come on, the food is getting cold.”

“Fine, I guess I should be honored the king has come to personally get me,” I said and walked over to him.

“That you should be little sister,” he said, again wrapping his arm around my neck and pulling me with him.

Because of the lack of sleep, I wasn’t very up for socializing and I grew quieter and quieter the longer the dinner went on. It was even hard to stay awake, and when I almost fell with my head first down on the cake that had been served for dessert, I decided to call it a night. I longed to try my necklace after all, but I could see the concerned looks on my family’s faces. Even Raven didn’t look very happy that I had already decided to go to bed. I knew what they were thinking … Sebastian. They believed I might be haunted, but while I hurt from everything that had happened, it wasn’t Sebastian that haunted me in my dreams. No, it was a scary darkness, a confusion as to where I was. I had this fear tangled around my heart that I didn’t know how to remove, and I was willing to try anything.

I walked back down to my room, the castle quieter here late in the evening, and I enjoyed the quietness actually. I opened my door to my room, and then froze …

Right in front of me a hooded figure stood, throwing all my jewelry into a bag in his hand, and it wasn’t until I made a small gasp of surprise that he heard me, turning around, his hood making it impossible for me to see the top half of his face.

“G-Guards!” I yelled.

That spooked him and he ran towards me. I was blocking the only escape, unless he wanted to jump from the third floor straight down onto the hard ground.

I, of course, did not want to try to stand in his way, should he be armed, and jumped to the side, as he came for me. He pulled the door open and ran out of my room, the bag over his shoulder. But he didn’t get very far before I heard the sounds of my guards, yelling about catching him.

I ran to the doorway and looked into the hallway, where my loyal knight and friend Sir Gawain had forced the thief to his knees and pulled the bag from his shoulder, before letting two other guards hold him down.

“You dare steal from the princess?” Gawain asked before ordering the guards to take him to the dungeons.

The thief tried his best to get free, but it was no use. He was taken away, as Gawain came over to me, looking at me worried and placing a hand on my shoulder before carefully giving me the bag. I took it with trembling hands.

“Are you all right, your highness?” he asked.

I had no words, so shocked by someone being in my room, but eventually nodded.

“I … I am okay,” I told him.

“Are you sure?”

I nodded, and Gawain gestured for me to go inside my room, telling me he would be right outside for the rest of the night, and tomorrow the thief would be punished for his actions.

I slowly let Gawain close my door, just standing there, still feeling my heart thunder in my chest. My nightmares had me on edge, and I feared they were coming true suddenly, even though I couldn’t remember what they were about.

I turned my attention to the bag and then walked over to my bed before emptying everything, so I could see if I was missing anything. I searched through the many bracelets, diamond earrings, small golden crowns and hairpins before realizing...

Where was the necklace with the black stone?!