Oh My, I Messed Up the Story

By the time all the hats and scarves were finished, the weather had improved considerably. Al and I headed out using clothes we had borrowed from the servants' wing and set up shop in the part of town that held the public market.

I had already enacted the first part of my plan by having all of the other hats and scarves being sold bought up and delivered to the orphanage earlier in the week. We were the only ones selling and with our low prices they were clearing out pretty quickly.

Al went off to find us some lunch while I held down the fort. I made three sales in the first five minutes he was gone. I knew this idea would work!

"Miss, do you have hats in children's sizes?" a female voice asked as I was finishing up with another customer.

I bid the person I was helping a nice day after wrapping up their hats for them and turned to the next customer. My eyes nearly popped out of my head. The woman had black hair and startlingly gray eyes. Just like Al. I had never seen anyone else with his coloring in this country.

The majority of Annalaias' citizens were blonde or had hair in varying shades of brown. And no one else had gray eyes.

"I do," I said, coming back to my senses. "How many do you need?"

"Three, miss. And two for adults."

I hastily grabbed what she needed and accepted her coins but I couldn't let her go just yet. My curiosity was eating me alive. I had to know if this woman had some connection to Al.

"You have the most beautiful gray eyes," I complimented. "I thought my husband was the only one with that color."

Surprise lit her face. "Your husband is from the Kanta region as well? I didn't know of any other refugees in the capital."

Refugees? Why did this ring a dim bell? I had definitely heard of the Kanta region but I didn't know anything about their people.

Ooh, where had I read about it? Was it in the earl's library or after coming to the palace? This was going to bug me.

"What does having gray eyes have to do with the Kanta region?"

The woman seemed confused by my ignorance. "Wouldn't your husband have told you? Those who hail from the Kanta mountains have always had gray eyes and black hair. The original leader of our clan three hundred years ago had black hair and was blessed by the mountain spirits with gray eyes. All of his descendants have been as well."

She lowered her voice into a conspiratorial whisper. "My mother married a shopkeeper from Annalaias after escaping the raids twenty-two years ago as a young widow with me in tow. All of my younger half-siblings have the Kanta look despite their father being blonde. My children are the same. Any child born with Kanta blood will look this way."

Any child born with Kanta blood…Al looked nothing like any of the other members of his family, who all had the lighter hair and warmer complexions common in Annalaias. If what this woman said was true, there was no way he could be the son of the king and queen.

So which one of them had cheated? I had never heard so much as a whisper in the palace of Al being illegitimate. That seemed like the sort of thing that couldn't be hushed up so easily.

The queen must have given birth to him herself; if they randomly brought in a child from the outside there would have been talk. Yet this woman said she had never heard of any other refugees in the capital. Where had Al's true father come from?

I was still trying to figure all of this out when Al came back. The woman I was talking to saw him and a bright smile appeared on her face. "This must be your husband! It is so very nice to meet a fellow clansman. I am Nyla."

His brow furrowed in confusion and he mouthed "fellow clansman?" to me. All I could do was shrug, indicating he should go along with it for now. I would explain later. But yikes…how was I going to tell him his father wasn't who he thought?

"…I'm Al."

"My mother will be so excited to hear about you! She misses home terribly at times. How did you get out? You seem young; someone must have taken you. Where is your family?" Nyla went on eagerly, grabbing Al's hands.

"Sorry, I have no idea what you're talking about," he confessed.

Her face fell. "But…you're Kanta. You have to be. Who are your parents? They might be friends of my mother's."

He pulled his hands away. "I can guarantee they're not. My parents are from Annalaias. The Kanta clan went extinct ages ago."

Nyla looked at him blankly for a moment, not believing what she was hearing. She tilted her head as she examined Al more closely. He seemed distinctly uncomfortable with the attention.

I could practically hear him screaming "Katie, do something" but what was I supposed to do? I couldn't convince Nyla to change her mind. She seemed to be on the level but I would definitely have to look into this further when we got back to the castle.

The Kanta raids…I know I read about them somewhere. There had to be more information I could gather that would help make sense of all this.

"You must have been placed with a family in Annalaias for your own safety," Nyla concluded. "My mother married a citizen of this country for the same reason. We had to blend in. The king couldn't get away with destroying the families of his own people even if he did see us."

Al froze in shock. He turned to be robotically. "What is she talking about?"

"Um, she thinks you're one of her people because of your eyes and hair. Apparently they're unique to the Kanta clan," I whispered back.

"I can hear you. And I don't think, I know," she sniffed, clearly offended. "No one else in this part of the world has the combination of black hair and gray eyes. There are a few countries in the far north with black hair but their eyes are different."

A dozen emotions flashed across Al's face before his mouth settled into a hard line. I knew that face. That was his 'nothing anyone says is going to change my mind' face. It made me nervous. What had he decided to do about this?

"Katie, we're leaving."

"But we still have a third of these left to sell!" I protested.

"Then I'm leaving without you," he said resolutely and turned on his heel to go without another word to either of us.

I wanted to go after him but someone needed to stay behind and finish this. We could talk about all of this later once I got home. He needed some time to cool off and process what he had heard.

I apologized profusely to Nyla for his rudeness but she merely shook her head. "No, I understand. It must be upsetting finding out that you aren't actually related to your family. Especially since he appears to know about what happened to our homeland. It must be a lot to take in. Thank you for the hats."

"Thanks for your business," I said faintly. She made it a few feet away before I called after her. I needed a way to contact her again, just in case. "Wait! Where can I find you if Al has more questions?"

She smiled. "My family lives on the south side of town. We aren't hard to find; ask any of the neighbors about the children with black hair."

Nyla disappeared into the crowded market and I had to deal with a line of irate customers who were kept waiting while we had our little chat. Even though they were angry to be kept waiting, they stayed because of the low prices. Everyone wanted to stock up for next winter while they had the chance.

I sold the rest of the goods in about two hours and headed back to the palace. The problem was that without Al to boost me up, I had no way to get over the wall myself. I would either have to wait for him to show up or find another way in.