Chapter 1
Ten years ago
I lay in my little bed, pretending to be asleep. I knew he would come. Every evening it’s the same. Sometimes I wait longer, sometimes only a little while. Tonight I had already been waiting for hours. I kicked the blanket away with my small feet, trying to free myself from under the heavy covers. Every evening it gets worse. He still comes to see me, but less and less. He’s my brother, after all. Who else should he spend his time with? I crossed my arms over my chest, but after a moment I regretted it and hid them under the big quilt that swallowed me whole. In winter it’s always cold here. Father doesn’t heat the house often. He says we have little wood and we must save it for worse times. I don’t understand that. I’m cold all the time. Mother always told me I had to stay warm or I would catch a cold, and that would be bad. And now she’s the one who caught it. Since then everything has only gotten worse. Mother lies in bed all the time and coughs terribly. My brother is gone more and more, and when he is home, that prince is with him. I don’t really think he’s a prince. Why would a prince spend time with my brother?I once heard Mother and Father arguing that we don’t have money for wood. Then they argued that the royal family keeps everything for themselves. So why would a prince want to be friends with my brother?
I don’t like that prince. He acts strange. At dinner he eats like some kind of jester and I always laugh at him. The way he sits so straight and the way he cuts the potatoes. My brother always gets angry at me for it, but I think the prince finds it funny too.
Once he brought me buns. He said Azpi told him I liked them. I ate them all.
Then he told me stories about some hero who would save everything. I didn’t understand it, but he spoke in such a strange, calm voice that I soon fell asleep.
And that was the first night Azpi didn’t come to see me.
I think the prince sent him instead. I want to ask him about it, but now that Father is always gone and Mother cries in her sleep, I don’t have the courage.
Suddenly I heard the quiet creak of my wooden door and someone slowly closing it.
Azpi.
“Password?” I whispered quietly so I wouldn’t wake anyone.
Azpi walked closer to the bed and whispered back,“Hazelnut buns.”
I smiled and hoped he could see it in the darkness as he sat down on the edge of my bed.
He was breathing heavily, as if he had been running.
“Azpi?”
He sat beside me and tucked the blanket more tightly around me.
“Yes, little sunbeam?”
Sunbeam. That’s what Azpi had called me ever since he was taken to the castle for a few days. When he came back, he wasn’t the same. He stopped smiling and playing with me. And he spent more time with that prince, which made me angry.
“Is Mom still sick?”
Azpi didn’t answer for a moment. Maybe it was because he was catching his breath, so I waited.
“She’ll get better soon, Lani. Don’t worry.”
I frowned. He had been saying that ever since Mother took to her bed and never got up again.
“She still coughs, Azpi.”
Azpi began gently stroking my hand with his thumb, and it started to calm me down. My eyes slowly began to close.
“I know, sunbeam. But soon everything will be better.”
I believed him. Azpi never lied to me. We had promised each other we would always stay together. That he would protect me with his light.
“Will you do it?”
My brother laughed softly. I knew it was hard for him, but he was almost like the knight from the prince’s stories. Maybe one day he would find the real prince and save our kingdom.
I just hoped it wouldn’t be this prince. This one liked Azpi, and I didn’t want him to sacrifice him.
“Maybe later, sunbeam. You remember the story Darian and I told you about the Chosen One?”
Yes! That was the one who had powers like Azpi. But his story was so sad.
“Yeees! I remember! He sacrifices himself for the kingdom!”
Azpi laughed again, but it wasn’t the same laugh I was used to. It sounded sad. I didn’t want him to be sad.
“Yes, Lanai. That one. But do you remember what the Chosen One did before he saved the kingdom?”
I kicked my feet excitedly under the blanket. That was my favorite story.
“Yeees! He goes on adventures with the prince! He fights evil and trains!”
I was almost shouting, and Azpi gently pinched my hand to quiet me.
“Yes, exactly. And now I’ll have to leave for a while too... to train, sunbeam.”
The moment he said that, tears began to fall down my cheeks. I didn’t want Azpi to leave. He was the only friend I had.
Father was always gone now, and Mother was sick.
“But who will play with me?” I sniffed.
Azpi wiped my nose and cheeks with the sleeve of his shirt.
“You’ll have to play alone for a little while, Lanai. But I’ll come back soon. And then we’ll play as long as you want.”
I sobbed softly. Azpi pulled me closer, and suddenly I wasn’t cold anymore. He was so warm.
“But you promised you would never leave me.”
Azpi stopped stroking my hand for a moment and looked at me.
“I’m not leaving you, Lani. I just have to go away for a little while. But I’ll come back.”
I buried my small head into his stomach and whispered,
“Sun?”
Azpi laughed quietly and pressed his nose into my golden hair.
“Moon.”
We had said that to each other for as long as I could remember. Azpi once told me the sun and the moon were siblings too, but some terrible force had separated them. So now they meet only for a moment each day before they must travel alone again.
“Just do it already, Azpi. I’m sleepy.”
Azpi pulled back a little and murmured something I couldn’t understand. Then he opened his palm.
Light appeared there.
Little rays shimmered and slowly broke apart, fading. Azpi said it was hard for him and he shouldn’t do it often. But I loved it when light shone from him.
I smiled.
His hand trembled, and I felt a drop fall onto my forehead. Then the light disappeared.
“Good night, Lani.”
I wanted to answer him, but my eyes hurt from being so tired. I closed them and let the fading rays of light carry me away.
