1. Eliza

Once upon a time, I lived in a kingdom in Fable Forest with my mother, father, and my eleven brothers. We were a happy family until one fateful day misfortune struck and my mother died in a tragic incident with a giant.

Two years later, on my twenty-first birthday, my father remarried with a woman named Constancia.

The night before the wedding, my frenzied childhood governess, Nan, shook me awake. “Get up, Princess! Get up and for God’s sake, hurry!”

I had never seen her in such a state. Overwrought, upset, and anxious, she pulled me by my arm out of the bed. Only instinct made me put my feet down, otherwise I believe she would have dragged me across the floor.

“Hurry, Princess, please”—she threw an unfamiliar dress at me—“put this on child.”

She hadn’t called me “child” in many years, but enough times when I was young to heed her words now. Turning my back to her, I pulled my nightdress off and the one thrusted at me, made for a servant, over my head. “What is happening, Nan? You’re scaring me.”

She buttoned my dress, then took my hands in hers. Her eyes brimmed with tears. “Oh, princess. I’m so sorry. I fear something evil has befallen our kingdom and you and your brothers must leave.”

“Leave?” I asked aghast. “But why?”

“Constancia is not who you think she is. As we speak, guards are arming themselves to kill you and your brothers at her bidding.”

Horrified, I stared at my old governess. Had she lost her mind? That was the only explanation, and frankly, the most desirable in this situation, short of her being part of a bad joke, something she would never do. Her eyes though, oh, her eyes were filled with so much sadness and fear, projecting her horror and worry.

“What about my brothers?” I cried, still hoping this was just a bad dream or Nan going crazy, but keeping enough semblance of wit about me to worry about my siblings.

“Karl and Olaf are getting them. Here, take this.” She pushed a leather pouch into my hands.

“What is this?” The pouch was heavy and its contents spread unevenly inside.

“Your mother’s jewelry. The evil witch will not get them, and they’ll help you escape.”

“But where will we go?” I nearly sobbed as reality began to permeate my addled mind.

“You have to leave Fable Forest and hide in the Outside.”

“The Outside?” Tears ran down my face in earnest now. The Outside scared me even more than what Nan had already told me. I grew up in Fable Forest, I knew nothing of the people who weren’t enchanted like us. But I had seen some and they had stared at us as if we were circus animals. I knew that most outsiders didn’t like us, regarded us as freaks.

“It’s the only safe place. Now hush, child.” Nan pressed me against her generous bosom, a place I had always found soothing, but not today.

“Why do we have to leave? Can’t we just tell Father? Surely—”

The pitying look on Nan’s face broke my speech off. “Constancia is a witch. She has put your father under a spell making him believe you and your brothers are evil rebels come to kill his beloved.”

“A witch?” I swallowed. “But how do you know all this?”

“Karl overheard Constancia order Marcus—the captain of the guards. He too has fallen under her spell.” Nan pulled on my hand. “We have to go, sweet child.”

She handed me a pair of boots, the kind the servants wore, and pushed me along without giving me the time to put them on.

“What will we do?” I asked when we entered the courtyard, where a large carriage was filling with my brothers.

“I will not run away. I will fight,” Caspian, the eldest of my brothers at twenty, shouted.

“Hush now, Prince, or you will get all of you killed,” Karl tried to pacify him.

But Caspian wasn’t having any of it. He pulled his sword and waved it threateningly through the air. “I will take care of the guards.”

“Caspian!” Nan stepped in front of him, grabbing him by the ear like she had always done. “You need to be reasonable now. There is a time to fight and there is a time to lay low. Right now, you need to run and protect your siblings. There is no honor in getting them and yourself killed, do you hear me?”

She shook him and he sheepishly lowered his sword. Despite her roundness and perceived sweetness, Nan had always been able to scare us into behaving and that night wasn’t any different. No matter that both Caspian and I were adults now.

“Protect your sister and brothers. I swear we will keep our eyes and ears open here and send for you when the time is right.” Nan let go of his ear and placed her palm on his cheek. “You’ve always been the brave one, Caspian. Now I need you to prove it even more. Go!”

An alarm rang out and Karl shouted, “Go!”

Caspian pulled me into the carriage, driven by Olaf and six horses. The door wasn’t even closed yet when Olaf spurred the horses on and we took off at a full gallop through the open gate.

Looking through the window in the back, I made out guards swinging themselves onto their horses to pursue us.

“Faster, Olaf, faster!” Richard, one of the seventeen-year-old twins urged Olaf, seeing the guards rushing after us.

“I want to go home,” cried our youngest brother William, who was only three.

I pulled him into my arms. “Hush, sweetling. All will be well, I promise,” I said, praying the next few hours wouldn’t turn me into a liar.

We rushed through the still-sleeping village, the cobblestone road rattling our carriage so hard, I bit my tongue and swallowed blood.

“Shh, it’s all good,” I mumbled to William, unsure if my attempt to soothe was meant for him or me.

Caspian stared out the back, and when he turned, our eyes met. “They’re gaining on us.”

“What will we do?” I asked desperately.

“I’ll jump out the carriage and fight them, that will gain you time to get away,” Caspian answered valiantly.

“No.” I reached around William to hold on to his sleeve. “No, you will die.”

“I can’t imagine a nobler death than protecting you and my brothers,” he said with a determined line around his lips.

The carriage swerved and we flew to the left, before being catapulted to the right. William cried out and Richard cursed.

“We’ll all fight,” Philip, Richard’s twin brother, decided. At seventeen, the identical twins were hard to tell apart, but Richard’s eyes were a shade lighter than Philip’s.

The interior darkened as we entered the outskirts of Fable Forest.

“We can lose them in here,” Charles, the seven-year-old and most adventurous of my brothers, suggested. He spent days out in the forest with my father’s hunters. If anybody knew of a place to hide, it was him. “But we need to get out of the carriage.”

I remembered I was still clinging to my boots and gently repositioned William to put them on.

“Alright,” Caspian agreed, staring at Richard and Philip to see if they were with him. The twins nodded and Caspian yelled at Olaf, “Slow down at the next bend, we’ll jump out and hide in the woods.”

“Yes, Prince Caspian,” Olaf acknowledged, making me assume the plan met his approval.

“Ready? You have William?” Caspian asked me, and I nodded braver than I felt.

“Andrew, Harold, you go first. Stay together and run into the underbrush. Wait there for us,” Caspian ordered the younger twins. At nine, they were still enough in awe of their big brother to do whatever he bade them.

Caspian flung the door open, and the twins jumped out, hand in hand. Next were George and Alexander. Then Richard took one of the five-year-old twins, Harry, and Philip the other, Eric, and jumped.

With my heart in my throat and William in my arms, it was my turn. The carriage had slowed down but was still going faster than I liked.

“Now Eliza,” Caspian ordered.

I jumped.

William’s weight nearly pulled me over, but my feet inside the sturdy boots hit level ground and I managed to stay on them. Strong arms grabbed my waist and brought me to a stop. Caspian.

“This way.” He pulled me into the underbrush and just a few seconds later the royal guards rode by at full gallop.

Never in my life had I thought I would have to be afraid of these men who had protected me all my life.

This wasn’t the time to ask questions, so I followed Caspian through the dark woods and let out a small cry when we found the rest of our brothers.

“This way.” Charles pointed through trees. “There is a lake not too far in with a cabin where we can stay for now.”

“If it belongs to Father’s hunters they will find us there,” Richard cautioned.

“It doesn’t. It’s empty and hasn’t been used in many years,” Charles said confidently, making him seem much older than his seven years. Even when he was born he had seemed older. I remembered holding the baby in my arms and thinking that his soulful eyes could have belonged to an eighty-year-old.

Silently, we followed our little brother through the dark forest for a long time, each of us trapped in our own minds, trying to come to terms with what had happened. One moment we were the beloved children of King Julius, the next we were outcasts, creeping through trees in the middle of the night.

Caspian carried William while Richard and Philip took care of Harry and Eric who were only five. Now and then George or Alexander, another set of twins my parents had been blessed with, would each take my hand to help me over a fallen log or through a thicket of thorns ripping at my dress and hair.

The sun was just rising when we reached the lake Charles had mentioned. It was large and its placid water reflected the first rays of the sun on its glittering surface.

Dilapidated was too generous of a word to call the single hut standing by the shore. The roof had partially caved in and the east wall had crumbled. Charles was right about one thing though, nobody would find us here.

“Now what?” Andrew asked, plopping down on a larger rock, looking tired and deflated.

“We’ll stay here for a bit, fix the hut up, and decide what we’re going to do,” Caspian decided.

“Nan wanted us to go to the Outside,” I cautioned.

“We can’t win the kingdom back from the Outside,” Richard interjected with an air of haughtiness.

“We’re not going to plan anything tonight,” Caspian said in a tone that didn’t invite an argument.