The Queen of Thorns

I crept through the thick crowd of people, their thick pouches full of coins brush against my long, dark blue cloak. Most people wore cloaks of similar shades, very few sporting very bright ones that were meant to call attention—usually only the people who held great wealth. That was the last thing I was trying to do, not with my goal in mind.

I kept my head low, easy with my hood over my head, taking note of everything around me. A vendor was selling pearls, most of which were probably fake due to the cheap price but people still stopped by, their eyes widening with interest. A woman had several silver bracelets dangling from her wrists so carelessly, she wouldn’t know if one went missing. A man had two pouches on either hip, engorged with coins, but they were held together with two thin, golden lines tight across his waist. If one went missing, he’d feel it.

To the other side of me, there was someone selling bread, from plain to cinnamon, the warm smell wafting throughout the air. My stomach rumbled at the thought of a small piece of bread, even the tiniest one possible, just to quell my hunger. But that wasn’t my goal. Bread couldn’t get me a few coins so I could scrape by to survive.

I could turn back around to find the woman with the dangling silver bracelets, slip them off her wrists and stuff them into my pocket for safekeeping before I sold them. But then, a hint of purple flashed by the corner of my eye. I followed the glint to another silver bracelet, except unlike the other ones I had seen, it had a purple jewel in the center of it with lines of silver woven around each other before they attached to the silver ring around the circular gem. I could almost feel the way my pockets would dip, heavy with the money I would get for that. A gem like that, so beautiful and so glowing, a name couldn’t possibly cross my mind.

I needed it. Now.

I crept behind the figure, who was adorned in a long and flowing light pink cloak with faint white splotches throughout it, my eyes trained to my target. It had two long ends trailing down, no doubt used to tighten it around the wearer’s wrist. But the wrist was slim, far too loose to be put on correctly. If I played my cards right, they’d never notice the bracelet was gone.

The crowd eventually grew thicker, voices turning more and more into a garbled mess that made no sense to my ears. I stepped forward, brushing by so fast between people that no one could react fast enough to say anything. Someone was walking far too close to the bracelet wearer, most likely going to brush against her wrist. They’ll never know it was missing.

The wearer paused, moving to turn around to study a man’s stall selling paints. The other person, too far too close, swung their arm, brushing against her hand—

I slid through, closing my hand around the two dangling ends. The bracelet slid off down the back of her hand, over her slim fingers before it landed in my free hand, which closed around it. I grinned at my success, pushing through the crowd as I opened the pouch against my hip and dropped the bracelet on top of the meager amount of coins. Before I could hide the bracelet away, the purple gem started to glow, standing out like a beacon in the shadow of my bag.

“My bracelet!” a woman screeched. I looked back, seeing the pink-cloaked woman, her hood drawn back and dark red hair streaming out of it in a thick wave. She whipped around frantically, knocking into several other people with her long arms. She was also like a beacon with how tall she was. She grabbed her face, screaming again, ”someone stole my bracelet!"

I took my chance and ran. Now, I wasn’t being careful, shoving through people to get through while I tried not to get my cloak caught underneath my boots. People weren’t looking, too busy stumbling over themselves to see why the woman was suddenly screaming. A chorus of voices followed after every one of her cries, growing further and fainter as the line of trees welcoming me into the forest grew closer.

“Thief!”

“There’s a thief!”

“Where did the thief go?”

I broke through the trees, grateful for the shade that suddenly covered me but for the few spots of sunlight able to break through. I sidestepped trees, leaped over logs and navigated through the tree’s gnarly roots peeking up from the dirt as I ran, and ran and ran. My chest eventually started to grow tight as my panting grew heavier. My quick glance back over my shoulder confirmed I was alone—good. Great, even. Even better was the small hill that cut off, leading down to a stream. It was good cover before I felt safe enough to head home, which meant going back and taking a path around the village market so I’d stay hidden.

I walked up to the edge of the ledge and jumped down into the small, shallow stream, my ankles protesting the abrupt stop. I didn’t bother to rub at them to offer some sort of comfort over the pain, shifting from crouching to sitting down. I grabbed the sides of my hood and drew it back and finally took a breath.

I moved my pouch from my hip into my lap and opened it again, peering inside. The gem was still glowing, making the coins around it glint purple.

I’ve never known any gem, from diamond to amethyst, to glow. When it started to glow, the woman had started to scream, as if it was alerting her to be missing. I sighed, pinching my nose—I should’ve went for those silver bracelets instead, no matter how typical they were. I doubted they would glow and alert their owner to their missing presence. I had a bright purple target on my back, one I needed to get off as soon as possible for my own survival. A gust of wind blew by, rustling the nearby leaves of the trees and the bushes. I knew where the sound all around me came from and yet shivers still ran down my spine.

That woman had to be rich. She could have all sorts of people come after me to retrieve her bracelet, who could be looking for me right now. I stood up from the stream finally, ignoring the way the cold air made the wet spots of my clothes worse. Home—my only true safety—could wait. I needed to sell this.

Further into the woods, not as well hidden as it’s made out to be, is the Wolf Market, the hub for the black market of Rylien. Thieves hung out there the most, selling whatever they were able to sneak off with, hoping to strike it rich with the right thing. Jewelry sold for a decent amount of coins on their own, especially gold ones, since the buyer could easily make their money back selling it to some unsuspecting rich buyer. We were parasites, bleeding those who held most of the wealth dry before selling their things back to them only for the cycle to repeat. We were the dark underbelly everyone claimed they wanted to deal with until they benefitted from it.

It wasn’t a life anyone ever left. Most were born into it, others forced when times got hard. To us, we weren’t going to survive otherwise.

The market itself was hidden under the cover of trees just at the base of the Aura Mountains, similar to the village market but with less people and a lot more distrust. There wasn’t much of a buzz overhead from voices combining in the air or overflowing carts of people selling food freshly made. No one dared to stand out lest someone recognized them in a place like this, which felt so gray it was like soot had settled over it. I returned my cloak to my head before heading into the first shop I saw.

There were several shelves full of wooden boxes teeming with various grade jewelry, from ocean pearls strung together to form necklaces a court lady would die for to diamond rings from small to large. The most valuable stuff was kept locked in black boxes behind the front counter on shelves placed high on the wall out of reach. I had grown up in this place basically, learned to be the best thief I could possibly be in the confines of these wooden walls with fading and chipped pink paint. I sold the first necklace I had snatched right from the bag of a woman in the village market here and earned my first share of coins.

I untied the golden string from around my waist so I could put my pouch onto the front counter. I sighed, furrowing my eyebrows at the door that led to the back. “Alasator! I’m back!”

No response followed. I scoffed—what could he possibly be doing right now? I grabbed my pouch again, coins clinking against my prize as I walked around the old counter and opened the door.

Alasator, a tall and thin man, was laid out on the couch before he jerked awake in surprise. He grabbed for the knife I knew was kept in his pocket before he looked up, finally noticing me.

“Oh, Gabrielle,” he said, reaching out blindly for his glasses. His hand patted the mostly empty table beside the couch, missing their target several times, before they finally closed around his pair. He brought them up onto his nose before using a long finger to push them backwards closer to his face. “What is it?”

“I found this weird... bracelet,” I started off slowly, pulling it out from my pouch. It was still glowing, the purple reflected brightly in Alasator’s usually dark eyes. He held out his hand and I gave it to him. “Some woman in a pink cloak had it. Don’t recognize the gem.”

He adjusted his glasses a little with his free hand before his expression turned grave. “Throw this away, girl. For your sake.”

My heart sank as he shoved it back towards me. I barely managed to catch it in time before it fell. “Can’t you just sell this?”

He looked at me like I had grown two more heads. “Are you crazy? Don’t you know what this is?”

I shook my head. “...am I supposed to?”

“Gabrielle, this is phasnium, a gem only found on fae territory,” he explained, eyes still fearful. “Throw it or they’ll have your head. Fae don’t forgive thieves of their property.”

Any whispers of the fae terrified a human. They were the only ones, other than witches, able to wield magic with any sort of success, ruling their own territory right up against ours. There were countless stories I’ve heard, rumors about people daring to cross the border and never returning home or if they did, it was in pieces. I’ve heard of how ruthless they were, how they drank the blood of humans to survive or tricked them into deals that ended with our death in the end, at how any meadow overflowing with wildflowers and not much grass was a bad sign. Yet, I had never heard of phasnium before. Not even if I thought back hard enough to the stories my mother used to tell me.

I must’ve been staring blankly at him before Alasator snapped his fingers in my face, pulling me back from my thoughts. “Get far away from here and toss it, Gabrielle. I mean it. Come back to me when you find something that won’t endanger us all.”

I nodded dumbly, clutching my pouch tighter. I turned to leave.

“Please, don’t let them catch you,” Alasator suddenly said, making me pause in my tracks. I heard the hesitation in his voice, thick like the undergrowth was thick with brambles. “You’re one of my best thieves. I can’t promise there’ll be much left if they do.”

I didn’t bother to respond. I just started walking. He closed the door quickly behind me as soon as I left the room, happy to get rid of the poison I had brought away from him. A poison that would soon get myself killed if I didn’t get rid of it—fast.

As I headed for the front door, I retied the golden string of my pouch around my waist, my shaky hands pulling them far too tight. I nearly gasped at the feeling, pushing the door open and stumbling outside. A few more people were outside now, stepping into shops and peering into carts to see the options they had. With everyone wearing cloaks, I couldn’t see if their ears were long and pointed or not. That woman—fae woman—the bracelet belonged to wore a cloak, expertly hiding herself from the humans around her despite her height.

Any of those people could be pretending to be shopping in the black market while they’re really here for me. I had to get out of here.

“Hey Gabby!” called a voice. My heart dropped in my stomach. I tried to walk forward, but he grabbed my shoulder in a firm grip. “Hey.”

I reluctantly turned around, seeing Robin Westnor grinning down at me. He was the annoying childhood friend who didn’t always get the memo when I didn’t want to talk. At least, to his credit, he was the one thing in my life that stayed consistent, other than Alasator, after my mother died. I clung onto that fact a lot.

“Hey,” I forced out, tensing when someone tall walked past me. Once again, I couldn’t see their ears.

Robin furrowed his eyebrows. “You seem...”

“...tense, I know,” I finished for him. My shoulder shrugged out of his hold easily. “I’m kind of in a rush here.”

He laughed. “For what? Rushing to spend your new pay?”

Oh, I wish. “Uh, sure. Not in the mood.”

“At least tell me what you stole,” Robin retorted eagerly. His eyes shone behind his bangs. “Pearl? Diamond? Ruby?”

“Diamond.” It was the first thing that came to mind. “Now, if you excuse me....”

“Damn. Diamond what?” he prompted next. I wanted to punch him, just so I got the message across. “That had to be from a court lady.”

“I can’t talk right now,” I answered exasperatedly. “Maybe another time, okay? Not now.”

Finally, a flicker of understanding crossed Robin’s face. His disappointment didn’t quell my need to focus on the main problem at hand. “Uh, okay. See you tomorrow.”

I nodded hastily and turned away, feeling his gaze burn through my cloak and sear my back. “See you.”

I left through the main entrance and disappeared into the woods, pausing for a moment to check my sense of direction. Behind me was the wolf market, several minutes by foot in front of me is the village market. To the left or right was fair game. I chose right.

I didn’t realize how long I had been walking until my stomach rumbled in protest.

My last meal had been this morning and it had been only a few berries I foraged and an old, small piece of bread. It was meager and small, but it was my daily breakfast. I wasn’t a hunter—I had no skills to set traps or shoot an arrow from a bow. My mother had known but it was the one thing she never got a chance to teach me. Sometimes, sitting alone in the small cabin she once owned, eating whatever I could forge and the food I could buy from the village market if I had enough coins, I wondered if she never intended to teach me.

But she made sure I was a quick pickpocket.

Sun hit my face as the leaves overhead fell away, the edge of the forest widening out to an endless field that almost seemed tinted golden from the rays overhead. The air, somehow, felt more freeing, causing my shoulders to slump and relax. A stronger gust of wind blew by, pushing down my hood a little and chilling the skin of my cheeks and nose.

I took a deep breath. This was the perfect place.

I opened my pouch, the gem on the bracelet still glowing purple. The glow would be hidden in the grass, hard to discover until hopefully long after I was gone. I closed my hand around the fae jewelry, the silver of the wrist part digging into my palm.

I raised my hand over my head, drawing it back to throw it as far as I could. But then, it all happened too fast.

There was the sound of horse’s hooves over one of the hills in the not-so-far distance, figures I could barely make out sitting upon them. I didn’t see the raised bow in time until an arrow pierced my thigh.

The pain was sharp and sudden, spreading from the wound in rings that pounded. My leg buckled and landed on the knee; I could hardly recognize my own scream. A light feeling started to spread in my head, making my hands and arms feel heavy, like they had gained the weight of several rocks. The figures on horseback neared as my eyelids started to droop, turning into black smudges against a blurry sea of gold.

Something else sharp pierced my shoulder next and I saw black.