Blood of the Earth by David A. Wells

whole life has been taken away from me. My big brother is dead. My home is burned to the ground—and for what?” Abigail slumped to her knees and cried.
    Isabel knelt beside her, cradling her head silently, holding her sister as she cried. After a while Abigail sniffed back her tears and sat down. Isabel sat next to her, but still said nothing.
    “We grew up here,” Abigail said. “This was home and now we can never go back.”
    Isabel just listened.
    “My room was right up there,” Abigail said, pointing to a place that no longer existed. The house was a shell of its former form, just stone and charred timbers.
    “That was Lucky’s workshop. He always had something on the stove. We used to stop by in the afternoons for a snack. He was always happy to feed us and listen to stories of our latest adventure, even though our mother would scold us for ruining our appetite before dinner.”
    She picked up a handful of dirt and let it slip through her fingers in the gentle breeze.
    “Everything that went before is dust.”
    She fell silent as she stared at the broken remains of her former life.
    “We were happy here. We grew up surrounded by people who loved us and watched out for us in a world filled with possibility. The greatest dangers we ever faced were always the result of our own poor judgment. We don’t deserve this.”
    “I know,” Isabel said.
    “What am I going to do?” Abigail pleaded, close to tears again.
    Isabel turned to her sister and waited until she was sure she had her full attention.
    “You’re going to make certain that no one else has to suffer the way that you and your family have suffered. You’re going to do your duty, Abigail.”
    She closed her eyes against more tears and shook her head.
    “Why does it have to be my duty? I don’t want responsibility for other people’s lives. What if I make a bad decision and people get hurt? I’m not ready for this.” Then she whispered, “I’m just a farm girl.”
    “There’s where you’re wrong,” Isabel said gently. “You are a queen and a Sky Knight. You’ve stood by your brother this long. Are you really going to abandon him when he needs you most?”
    Abigail looked up sharply and sniffed back her tears.
    “I’m not abandoning Alexander. I would never do that.”
    “I know,” Isabel said with a smile. “He isn’t doing this because he wants to, he’s doing it because he has to. The other island kings won’t accept him as both the Sovereign and the King of Ruatha.”
    “There has to be another way,” Abigail whispered.
    Isabel sat in silence while Abigail worked through her feelings and the demands weighing on her.
    “I don’t know how to be a queen,” she said in a very small voice.
    “Me neither,” Isabel said.
    Abigail frowned, deep in thought.
    “You didn’t ask for this either,” Abigail said. “How is it that you’ve accepted it so easily?”
    Isabel shrugged with a smile. “I got Alexander in the bargain.”
    “How do you do it, Isabel? How do you make the right choices when there aren’t any good options to choose from?”
    “I’m not sure I do,” Isabel said. “I just try to make choices that will help Alexander the most. He has the weight of the world on his shoulders and sometimes I think he feels like it’s more than he can bear.”
    “Sometimes I wonder if it’s more than anyone can handle,” Abigail said. “I worry about him. He’s had just as much taken from him as I have. I worry that one day he’s going to lose something so dear to him that he’ll break.”
    “I know what you mean,” Isabel said. “He told me about the day you and I were taken by the Sky Knights. Without Chloe, I’m not sure if he would have made it off the Reishi Isle. He said she gave him hope and love when all he could find within himself was despair.
    “Don’t you see, Abigail, he needs us, all of us. He’s just one man standing against terrifying enemies. And he isn’t doing it because he wants to.