Excerpt:

“I could see you coming, your highness,” the voice sounded like a raspy child, but as the young woman came closer she could see in the candlelight that it was from and old woman – who despite her many years of age and folded wrinkles, still somehow looked beautiful and vibrant sitting there in her velvet green garb with glittering jewels hanging from her ears and around her neck and arms.

“How did you kn—“ the young woman began to speak but was quickly interrupted.

“—That you are the young Empress Aurora?” the fortune teller smiled to reveal several gold teeth, “My dear, I see many things and while I cannot see everyone or everything, there is a force around you that speaks clearly to my sixth sense. Now come, relax yourself and sit.” She stretched out her bony hand to motion towards a wooden stool positioned across the table from where she sat.

Aurora sat down and dropped a bag filled with coins onto the table, “Will fifty drachmae be enough for you to tell me all I want to know?”

The fortune teller poured the glittering gold coins out into a bowl and sifted her hands through them before looking up and smiling again. Fifty drachmae was more than a month’s salary for any merchant that lived along the wharf and she nodded slightly to Aurora before whisking the coins away underneath her table.

On the table was a tray with green, purple, red, blue and several other colors of crystals of various sizes. A deck of tarot cards was stacked neatly beside it and in the center of the table was a large crystal ball that looked to be filled with a green smoke that swirled around what appeared to be a light within it. Aurora gazed into it wondering if she would see something from her future, but then she looked up feeling foolish as the fortune teller was watching her closely with a bemused grin on her face.

“Give me your hands,” the fortune teller commanded of Aurora. She did as she was told and the fortune teller’s eyes rolled back in her head and she spoke quietly. “I see clearly that you are troubled by the sudden passing of your father, Emperor Enrian.”

“Yes,” Aurora said, her jaw tensed and her eyes focused on the old woman in front of her.

“Ahh, and I see that my clairvoyance for you comes because your mother was a sorceress. A powerful and secretive one at that,” the fortune teller chuckled and Aurora shifted tensely on the stool – her mother had died in childbirth and she had known nothing of her. The fortune teller continued, “but that is of no consequence to us now. A sorceress is no good to us if she’s dead. This will only help me in searching through your fate and destiny.

“I see that you are also troubled by your status as Empress. There is no passion for your kingdom in you now that your Father is gone. This is not your first time steeling away from the castle at night – it’s no home for you any longer.” The fortune teller let go of Aurora’s hands and let her eyes roll back to stare at the young woman.

Aurora felt uneasy being stared down and she looked away and focused her eyes on a gold bauble hanging nearby, “So then, can you tell me something that I don’t know?” She wasn’t meaning to be disrespectful, but she immediately felt that she had somehow spoken before the fortune teller could continue her reading.

The old woman was no longer smiling, “You have something of your father’s with you today, correct?”

Aurora clutched her heart and felt the emerald ring that hung from a gold chain around her neck. It had been her father’s wedding ring when he married her mother. He had worn it everyday until his death and never married again. Aurora had taken it from his hand the morning before he was burned in the funeral pyre. Since his sudden death only three months earlier, she had worn it on a chain close to her heart to mourn for the father and king she loved so very deeply. She, however, was too young at the age of sixteen to yet inherit the throne and so her uncle Hadrian had stepped in as steward of the empire until Aurora would reach the age of seventeen and marry a man with whom she would inherit the throne. Her seventeenth birthday was just a fortnight away.

The chain unclasped easily from her neck and Aurora slid the ring across the table towards the fortune teller, “Yes, will it help you to tell me about why he died? They told me it was natural causes, but he was healthy, he was strong – I don’t think it was an accident.”

The old woman held the ring up to her eye and examined it carefully, “There are many memories in this ring.” Then, she closed her hand around it and closed her eyes as if she was searching through all the memories it could possibly hold.

Many minutes passed by in silence when finally the fortune teller dropped the ring suddenly and opened her eyes. A look of horror spread across her face and she shoved the ring back in Aurora’s direction.

“What is it?” Aurora felt a chill run down her spine.

“Murder! Murder!” the fortune teller was going into hysterics, “You must stop him child! He has murdered!”

“Murder? Who? What are you talking about?”

“His brother; your uncle; Hadrian – he murdered the king,” the fortune tellers voice trembled in a deep moan as she spoke the name of Aurora’s kinsman. She was now thrashing about, tugging at her clothes and anxiously running her hands through her long unkempt grey hair. From under the table she pulled the bag of drachmae coins and shoved it back into Aurora’s hands, “Take it back – your money will only bring misfortune to me! You must stop him girl! Do not leave us!”

The fortune teller was shooing Aurora out of the cottage, but she protested, “Wait – tell me more, please I need to know how did he do it? What am I supposed to do? I cannot stop him, he’s too powerful now…”

“Poison! Poison in his drink! It worked slowly and overtook him in his sleep,” the fortune teller was no longer pushing Aurora out, but she held her tightly by the elbow. Her voice was urgent, “You mustn’t let him know that you know. You must avenge your father for I see what will happen to this grand city if you do not! Heed my words child, you must stop him.”

Aurora was at a loss for words. She held back the tears welling up in her eyes and yanked her arm away from the old woman. The bag of coins in her hands suddenly felt very heavy. The suspicions that her father had been murder had always been in her mind, but the confirmation of it terrified her. Without another word she stumbled away from the fortune tellers shop and hurried down the wharf. The fortune teller yelled from behind as her parrot chimed in to squawk with her.