Free Arrival by Charlotte McConaghy Page B

and helped with the search. There was a muffled cry, and she looked over to see Fern kneeling over a slight, broken body.
    “Ah, no,” he whispered desperately.
    Jane ran over to him and saw a young girl lying on the ground unconscious.
    “I don’t think she’s dead yet,” Jane said, noticing that the girl’s chest was rising and falling. “She might just have been knocked out. Who is she?” she asked.
    “My sister. She shouldn’t be here. Father!”
    An elderly man, quite handsome for his years, came to them, supporting his arm awkwardly. “Oh, Gods! You seek to take my only daughter? What is she doing here? I commanded her stay at home,” the man cried.
    “She is not dead,” Jane assured him. “I don’t know what’s wrong with her though.”
    The man turned to Jane. “And who are you?”
    Fern said, “This is my friend Jane.”
    “I am King Cornelius of Cynis Witron,” the man introduced himself.
    It took a moment for Jane to realise the meaning of his words, and then she turned to Fern, her mouth agape. “Then you are...?”
    He cleared his throat. “Uh ... yes. Prince Fern, at you service.”

Chapter 9
    “I need to go for a walk and clear my head, Fern,” Jane said.
    “I’ll go with you.”
    “I’m perfectly capable of...”
    “Yes, I know—all the same, I’d like to come.”
    Jane looked at him and clicked her tongue in frustration. “Fine then.”
    They walked in silence for a while. And suddenly she was laughing. She stopped walking and held her sides. Fern looked at her as if she’d gone crazy.
    “What’s so funny?” he finally asked.
    “This is ridiculous!” she gasped. “All of this. I can’t believe any of it! Everything here is so different to anything I have ever known that I just...” Jane trailed off and stopped laughing. Fern looked at her, his eyes gentle. He just nodded, and they started walking again.
    “I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I must seem mad.”
    “Yes,” he said and she smiled despite everything.
    “Do you ever get over seeing something like that?” she asked. “So many dead...”
    His strides were long and she struggled to keep up with him. “Of course,” he told her. Then he sighed. “Not really. I suppose you just get used to it.”
    After a moment she said, “What if we don’t find them?” He didn’t reply. “What if I can’t find a way home? Fern, what if I’m stuck here forever on my own?”
    Fern glanced at her and shook his head. “You’re not alone.”
    Jane looked down at the ground as they walked, feeling caught off guard like she always did when she was around him. “You have your own life, Fern. I can’t ask you to keep helping me like this.”
    “You’ve not once asked for my help,” he reminded her, smiling. “I’ve offered it each time. And you know Jane, it’s not up to you—I rather like following gorgeous girls around and frustrating them to their wits end.”
    Jane blushed, but covered it with a derisive laugh. “You do frustrate me,” she muttered.
    He only grinned. “Is that why you want to learn how to fight? So you can lop my head off next time you lose that temper of yours?”
    “Partly. But mostly because I don’t want to have to rely on you every time we get into trouble.”
    He nodded slowly, and then spread his hands. “Tell me, Jane,” he asked lightly, moving to walk backwards in front of her and winking. “Do you have a fiancée?”
    She stared at him. “I’m only seventeen.”
    “Yes? Do not tell me you are not yet promised to anyone?” He looked truly surprised.
    Jane started to laugh. “Fern, in my country you don’t get ‘promised’. You marry whomever you fall in love with. And certainly not when you’re still a teenager!”
    “So nobody has suitors until they are older? How much older?”
    Jane frowned, a bit confused. “We don’t get married until we’re older, but we have girlfriends or boyfriends before that,” she explained.
    “Then do you have a