It had been a long, hard journey for the young woman. Dark eyes gazed blearily at the road ahead of her as each step became torturous for her. Blinking to make sure she had really seen the palace up ahead, she made her tired body walk up the hill towards it. Her long chocolate brown hair was tied back in a messy pony tail and her simple traveling clothes had long since passed the stage of being presentable. A large pack was hefted across her shoulders. Her face showed the scars of countless nights of wandering through brambles and forests, and deep circles under her eyes did not lie about her lack of sleep. Cleaned up and dressed, she would have been quite beautiful, but she had not had the pleasure of feeling beautiful in nearly two years.
The closer she came to this palace, the more she wondered if she should have taken another course in her journey. It looked abandoned, vines covered the walls, nothing stirred about except the wind moving the dead leaves around her feet. The gates were open, and she entered, at least she would have shelter this eve. She walked slowly into a huge courtyard, the carcass of a horse lay rotting in a corner, covered in flies. She pulled her cloak around her nose and passed by quickly, entering the first doors she came too. Heavy wooden doors they were, carved in intricate designs, as she touched them to push them open, a chill swept through her body. She entered the dusty palace hall. A long table skirted the side, filled with tarnished silver platters of long forgotten rotted food, and half filled crystal goblets of red liquid. She shivered and glanced around, feeling as though she were being watched. The stench of this room was worse than outdoors, so she pressed further in, walking up a large grand staircase to the next floor.
Choosing a random door, she pushed it open and walked slowly to the bed in the center of the large room. She kicked the bed, and a family of spiders streamed out of the covers. She shivered yet again, and chose to curl up in a corner, holding her pack close to her. She leaned her weary head against the wall and the cold penetrated every cell of her body, but so exhausted she was, she could not move, and fell fast asleep.
~
He stood over her with a smirk on his handsome face. He hadn’t had a visitor to his home in ages. Most passed the forgotten palace in search of a more livelier abode. The tall, dark-skinned man leaned over and stroked his visitor’s cheek, the bottom of his black cloak churning up the dust of the room as it drifted over the floor. Bending over he picked up the frail woman easily and carried her to the bed, laying her gently on it. As her body touched the bed, a deep sleep fell over the pale woman.
A deep breath as she awoke with the sun shining in the open window. A warm breeze blew the gauzy curtains circling her soft bed. She sat up, pushing the silken sheets off of her. Sitting on the side of the bed, her bare feet rubbed against the warm soft bearskin rug by her bed. Standing she caught a glimpse of herself in the huge mirror on the wall opposite her bed. Her chocolate brown hair hung in soft, silky waves down her back, a sheer white gown hung seductively over her body. Gone were the scars and scratches of her wanderings, and rested dark eyes framed with long dark lashes gazed back at her. Her ruby lips curved in a smile and she nodded to the woman in the mirror, a woman she had not seen in a very long time.
“Welcome back Aine,” she said with a smirk. Then with a twirl and a toss of her hair she skipped to the window, and gazed out at the green meadows and the river, then down at the palace grounds. Her window overlooked the courtyard, there was a horse standing idly by, and guards stood at the gate talking in hushed tones.
“M’Lady,” a timid voice spoke from the doorway. Aine turned quickly and walked toward the girl speaking to her.
“Do you address me?” she asked.
“Yes, m’lady, I have brought you your breakfast,” she spoke softly and placed a covered silver tray on a table and bowing, made her way out. Breathing in the smell of food, she pulled the silver cover off and licked her lips seeing the meal before her. She sat and devoured every bit of food in front of her, pausing only to take large gulps of the juice that accompanied the food. She felt a breeze blow by her and glancing around, noticed a fine dress of blue velvet with silk lining laying out on her bed. Thinking the servant girl must have laid it out for her when she was at the window, she stood and walked to it, running her soft fingers over the material. She slipped her gown over her head and picked up the dress, carrying it to the mirror and holding it in front of her, her curvaceous nude body being caressed by the sun’s rays shining through the open window. Slipping the dress on, she twirled and laughed, then braided her hair and tied it with a blue velvet ribbon she found lying next to the dress. Matching slippers sat on the floor, she slipped these on and walked out of her room and down the hallway.
Down the polished marble steps she went into the large hall from yesterday. The palace was immaculate, and servants scurried here and there carrying platters, dusting a vase, one with an armload of flowers, they all bowed respectfully to her as she passed them. A well dressed older man approached her and bowed low.
“M’Lady, Lord Brannan wishes your presence,” the man spoke with a hushed voice, almost as if his lips had not moved at all...yet she had heard him perfectly.
She nodded. “Lead me to him, if you will.” The man bowed again and began walking towards a pair of large heavy wooden doors, engraved in the samed way as the doors she had entered last eve. The doors opened as they approached and the man stopped and bowed, motioning her to enter. And enter she did, and when she cleared the doors, they shut stealthily. A glance behind her and the guards stood unmoving, staring straight ahead. She began her walk towards the two figures at the far end of the tapestried room.
He sat in silence in his throne watching his visitor enter, and smirked as the doors shut and it startled her. He was again wrapped in the same black cloak, his tanned fingers entwined together laying on his lap. Long dark hair flowed across his broad shoulders. His eyes were dark and brooding, and his lips curved with a bit of malice about them. A woman sat on the floor at his right side, clothed in a sheer form fitting dress that stopped mid thigh. Jewels abounded on this woman, dripping from her ears, her neck, ankles and wrists, mostly diamonds glittering in the sun that streamed in a nearby window. That same sun made it clear that this woman had nothing on under this sheer sheath, the curves of her breasts were visible through the thin cloth.
She smiled politely at the scantily clad woman and bowed low to the man in the throne. He lifted his tanned hand and beckoned her closer, and she obliged, though she felt that had she wanted to resist, she would not have been able to anyway. She stood now at his knees.
“Did you sleep well last night, Aine?” his voice echoed around the room, though his lips remained pressed together in a smirk.
“I did, thank you for your hospitality,” her meek voice seemed odd after hearing his voice. Shaking her head a bit and frowning, she felt compelled to stand here, and briefly she wondered how he knew her name, but even that was just a fleeting thought, and she found herself smiling at this dark man.
