Chapter 9
The bright night sky was painted with the storm twirling gales of snow under the bright moon. Talyis stood baffled, watching Novak run through the gardens to the stables. The blanket of snow scattered as he ran. The cool air crackled with tension.
The celebration within the castle halted when the two watchmen came in yelling, "Attention! Stop the music. Attention! Everyone listen! The farms and outer villages are under attack!"
"We will hold them off as long as we can, away from the villages. Go to your homes. Board up your windows and doors. Do not allow anyone into your homes until you hear the royal horn blow." These and other orders were rapidly dispatched by the watchmen.
"How do we know we won't end up trapping ourselves inside to be murdered?" One man objected loudly and villagers around him agreed.
"If you hear the tower bells ring we have lost. Take what you can and scatter," the watchman continued. "Do not worry about your personal belongings, you must scatter, leave your homes and preserve as a people," the second watchman instructed.
"Who is attacking us?" a woman called out.
"Navapa and another foreign army in their ranks; we could not recognize their battle colors or seal."
The crowed erupted with yelling and women began weeping, others murmured loudly to each other, the room was in a crescendo of various levels of fight and flight.
Questions swirled into a tempest as the guests whispered to each other about Calena and how the marriage was meant to provide the Aricin people with a strong ally. People began to exit hurriedly, leaving a trail of white, gold and silver glittery confections in their wake. Talyis joined the crowd that finally moved more with her than against. Suddenly, a strong hand grabbed her arm and pulled her away from the exodus. The fingers dug into her flesh and she tried to yank her arm back.
"Where do you think you are going?" a voice slithered. She turned to her personal guard, swaying unevenly with drink.
"Delia and Gareth, they don't know-" she began.
"The Majesty will know before you can get past the castle gates," the guard slurred.
"Novak's Umma, she is defenseless," Talyis protested.
"The royal attendants are already on their way to old lady Ulie's cottage. Who next princess?" the guard mocked.
"If I were stupid, I would have escaped earlier, months ago, in the middle of the night." She half lied. "I would rather handle the beast in the castle than the wild ones in your forests."
"If that is true, slave then maybe I should leave you to face your fate with them. I know you have something to do with this attack." Accusation glittered in his drunken eyes. "I bet that unknown army is probably vile Onor that care only for themselves than mankind and deserve nothing less than the pain and torture of the underworld."
Her men were outside attacking, coming to her rescue? It had been so long since she had thought about home in a tangible way. Her thoughts of home and family had been so clouded by what had happened since her kidnapping, and the Aricin history.
When she dreamed, she dreamed of her bedchambers and how eerily still, silent it was that night of the raid. The dreams always left her in a cold sweat and confused about why her guards had never come to her aid. Knowledge of the impending battle and the chance her men were outside did not console her. Indeed, the Aricin had brought this upon themselves by capturing the princess of their enemy. The Aricin would be foolish to believe that a crippling attack would not come to them. It was all a vicious cycle of vengeance, hatred and lust for power. If indeed it were her people joined with the Navapa she knew it was going to be a bloody battle. She found no comfort in the prospect that this could possibly be the end of the Aricin.
"Onor wench! He has freed you. Go protect yourself," the guard snapped. "Our concern is not for you but for our survival. We have only wanted to be our own people. I now must keep vigil on the watch tower, to protect what's left of us."
Talyis wasn't conflicted anymore. She wrapped Novak's damp robe closer to her body and his smell enveloped her. The saddle bag still hung from her shoulders, and she slid her hands inside, dragging her fingers along the book's spine, reading its title with her finger tips. She had given this book to her green-eyed friend. She wanted to know where the boy was now and how Novak had acquired the book.
She climbed the stairs to the prince's chambers and curled up into a ball in the bed. She shivered from the cold, but was too emotionally drained to build a fire. Her mind went back to her childhood. She wondered where her father had kept Novak as a boy. Her father had servants from many distant lands. Many allies sent their children to learn in her country, but how was it that a kingdom's heir was not introduced or even snooped out by her precocious curiosity.
Her stomach began to churn.
"Parasite, parasite, parasite," she chanted like a mantra as if to make it true, wishing it to be anything but a growing baby. "Argh!"
Stress pulling her mind in directions and the parasite making her stomach roll, she jumped up and ran to the chamber pot and emptied her stomach. The wind whistled loudly outside and shifted the snow to drift into the room. Now she had no choice but to take time to build a fire to warm the room.
The fire crackled and embers flew up in a dance up before disappearing. Everything was ghostly silent; the blizzard seemed to absorb any noise. But she tried to listen hard, to pick out the cry of a villager or the sound of metal on metal in battle -- she heard nothing. She wrapped another blanket around her tightly and pulled the book from her sack. Her fingers traced her young handwriting:
To boy,
With deepest
£ove
scribbled scribbled crossed out.
Talyis
She massaged the tension from her head, remembering what she meant to write:
with deepest love,
but she had crossed it out. She hadn't been able to do it; she was afraid of being rejected and instead signed her name to make it seem as a closing salutation. She smiled as she read the first page of her most beloved fairy tale, remembering how the boy used to tease her about the ridiculous fantasy which always drove her to a burning blush.
"This would never happen! Why would the princess fall for such a brute," he'd argue. "These tales are not realistic, Talyis-" he would always begin his lecture about the ways he understood love to work. He always finished with a good heckling of the main character, a vengeful warlord who became 'lovey-dovey' at the end.
But when he had proved himself winner of the debate, he would read the story with so much passion that anyone would scarcely believe he was so adamant about the story's plot and unforgivable characters. She smiled as she recalled the way he distorted his voice for the fairy queen and especially the voice he gave to the warlord, for her benefit and how she had laughed for hours sitting on the floor with him.
Talyis slapped the book closed and threw it across the room, watched it slide under the bed. Her chest rose and fell quickly, she looked about the room frantically for answers but only the silence responded. Novak had read it, she was sure. He had read it and used his knowledge about how she felt about the boy against her, to confuse her, twist her. He was certainly twisted, she thought bitterly. He had told he loved her! Then, he had recanted it. No doubt an attempt to play with her mind, to keep her off kilter. She was only his slave, after all.
Suddenly she realized as her mind wandered back to her green-eyed boy. Funny, she mused, how he had had dark curly hair, similar to Novak's. Fair skin like her captor's as well, and they even shared green eyes.... But the green eye boy from her dreams had been transformed into Novak.
Talyis deeply massaged her forehead with the palm of her hand, her mind admonished here for feeling for Novak, transforming the boy into that beast. Her temples throbbed going over the events constantly.
Recanting his statement of love -- that had been the lie. Thinking back, she could see it in his face. He had said he loved her, and there was no mistaking the sincerity in his eyes. Her heart broke as she realized how everything had fallen apart. Now she heard the coldness in his voice as he forced himself to say he had lied about his love. Had he done it to protect her? Himself?
There was no denying that she was in love with Novak. Was it possible to have two loves at once? Or maybe she it was just infatuation on a young boy, and now Novak was real. She concluded Novak had probably found the book; the green-eyed boy could have easily died by wild beast when he ran away.
Queasiness returned to her and the room spun as she considered that the boy could have died; her heart sank. Then she tried to comfort herself by crawling into Novak's big bed, smelling his scent deep within. The boy was probably married, she thought but again she felt sick. If the boy was alive, Novak could help her find him, but did she want to find him. All of the fears of rejection came to her as strongly as the day she had wanted to write "with deepest love" as she drifted off to sleep.
***
The air was musty from neglect and the dust from the covered furniture tickled his nose. Gareth stood near him, urging him to take vengeance for his family and people. His sword was heavy in his hand and it was as if the soft flesh at the point was hard as stone. The man slumping in a puddle of fabric, his gaunt face and hollowed eyes stared at him. The haughty laughter was gone and now he begged; but not for his kingdom, not for his treasures, not forgiveness. When King Aronich wasn't begging for his life, he was accusing Novak of the desertion which caused that had caused the death of his wife. The man who had everything -- power, wealth and a beautiful daughter -- claimed he had nothing and hated it all. Given the bargain King Aronich demanded echoed over and over, Novak did not know why he hadn't pushed the point of his sword into that cruel heart.
Instead, he agreed to the greedy king's demand. He led his men up the stairs to the princess's chambers, skipping certain steps as he had as a boy. He could not fathom what kind of horrendous woman the princess had become that such a bargain would be proposed. She had been a pesky and snobbish child it could be possible that she grew into a despicable person but Novak never imagined the words her beloved father would say in her defense.
