“My Lady.” He bows his head a little. “You were looking at me earlier. May I be of any help?”
“Why were you looking at me?” I swallow and his eyes follow the movement of my throat. He has always been conscious of me, even before, he would maintain a distance and make sure he never touched me. Not even by accident.
“No, I came because you were looking at me. Do you need something?”
My heartbeat skips. “No, nothing,” I whisper. I am positive I am making a fool of myself, but he pretends to not notice. Being in his vicinity does things to me. “Then, Sir Adam, you can go enjoy yourself. Please do so, and don’t be so careful about me.”
“As you wish, My Lady. Do call me when you require my assistance.” How lovely. He is such a wonderful man. “I will be there,” he points to the balcony where my brother is talking to Elaine, “then I shall take my leave.”
“Alright. See you later.” I try hard to maintain eye contact as his intense gaze scans my face, making me miserably incompetent in the art of keeping my emotions hidden. He bows first and walks away, leaving me stunned on the spot for a good minute.
The chair next to me slides out with a sudden movement and I flich. “Goodness, Lady Daphne, you scared me.” I yell in a half-whisper, but Daphne slaps her hand over her mouth in a giggle.
“Were you looking at Sir Cassian?” Is her first question. Does she only think about men all the time? It is odd, but if I see clearly, all people around me can be defined by just a handful of traits. My brother only minds the stately affairs, Adam’s hand moves to his sword for anything, Cassian is always surrounded by women and Daphne just looks pretty. “Oh my, he looks especially handsome tonight.”
“Yes…” I speak without much thought.
“But look! That dirty girl is talking to my dear Tayash again!”
Looks like speaking in exclamations is another one of Daphne’s traits. “Who are you calling dirty?” I pat her arm. “And really, it is none of your business, wait, this is the space. How do you know what my brother looks like?”
“Eh?” Daphne blinks. “What do you mean? Of course I know what my Tayash looks like.”
“But the mask…”
“What mask?”
Should I tell her? She does belong to one of the noble houses under us and Tayash doesn’t trust the Ministers. Knowing that Daphne is Court Minister Wurtz’s daughter does not make anything better. “Nothing,” I say. The party swings into a mindless festival and the sound of everyone’s glee dissolves in the air like incense. Sweet. Intoxicating. A sort of an addiction, one that made one lose sense of time and place if one kept breathing it in. I wonder where this world really exists.
Am I really inside a book or is everything my imagination? There is no way to tell.
“But look,” says Daphne, “that shameless wench is now talking to Adam? Does she prey on all the handsome men of the country?”
“Lady Wurtz you can not possibly be talking sense!” My nostrils flare at her repetitive jealousy. All of a sudden, all the colourful ladies start bickering and chattering among themselves, but I notice the white one awfully silent.
“Absolutely!” Agrees Pansy. “How shameless!” Aster shakes her head. “And now she is talking to Adam!”
I walk away from the crowd. Away from Daphne and her colour coded minions. Their talks induce a deadly headache that curls around my temples like a snake. So far, I have met only two people who have their consciousness. Me and the Priest, who is not that big of a character. My brother and the knights would not know him, but Elain does. And if this is, indeed, a story then the hierarchy of importance would be determined by word-count. The story must have parts then, since it does describe my brother in great detail.
But it is too early to guess. I only read three pages of the book and none of them in order.
I step out of the castle, to the hedge maze near the lake. The sky is dyed an inky violet, and I figure that days have passed since this morning when that Priest bit me. That dog. Thinking of his dark eyes and raven hair, which have absolutely nothing remarkable, light my insides up with a fiendish fire. A chilly cold still lingers over me when I close my eyes and it is not entirely due to the air.
Winters are approaching.
“Tara-ya!” A loud voice booms over the flower hedges and my eye twitches when I realise who it is. There is only one person who dares call me like that.
“What,” I turn around and grit my teeth, “exactly are you doing here? You are a Priest, shouldn’t you be busy worshipping? I used to believe Priests do not indulge in lavish, spendthrift ways of the nobles.”
Stein walks over to me and pulls the toothpick hanging between his teeth. Then, he stops at a very disrespectful distance before me and grins. “I don’t think the Somerhadens can be called spendthrift.”
“I see you enjoyed our hospitality.”
“I see your wound healed in no time,” his grin grows wider, “and it’s been two days, for the record. The chapter is already updated. Feel free to drop by my place. Oh and by the way, the guy following us is Adam?”
I stop in my tracks. “Adam is behind us?”
“Yeah,” Stein whistles lowly, “should I be scared? He isn’t coming towards us though.”
“He always seems to do that.” But I am not complaining.
“Oh really?” Stein's voice is like one would use to talk to a child. It infuriates me, but I should not lose composure. The heroine of the story should be magnanimously kind, even at the cost of her own dresses and lifestyle. She should be forgiving and welcoming even when she is sick and weak. There is no other explanation why I would go through so many hardships. “I think he hates you.”
“He does?”
“Yeah, he told Elaine that his skills are rotting away while he chases a troublemaker like you.”
“And why should I believe you?” I continue walking, listening to the grass scrunch beneath my feet. The maze has an entrance marked with two towering stone pillars, that I remember to be gifted by the Dravins. Ever since I was a child, I wanted to see the circular walls of greenery for myself but was too afraid to try. Now, I know I can not get lost even if I want to. I will be pulled out as soon as the scene starts.
“Because I am the only person who remembers you, Tara.”
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