Chapter 28 #2
“I see.” Casimir studies me for two heartbeats longer, eventually releasing a sigh before propping his elbow up on the small lip of the carriage’s interior, resting his cheek upon his closed fist. He glances out the window, and something shifts in his expression.
Suddenly, the lines on his face don’t look so rough, and his gaze doesn’t appear to be hardened like stone.
Instead, they fill with a wistful softness, as if he was seeing ghosts of memories out the window.
“Truthfully?” He still isn’t looking at me.
“I don’t see why you’d lie.”
He hums a laugh. “The truth is,” he begins, words slow and testing, “I do not even know what I am searching for anymore. A girl. A cure. A god. A weapon. Once, there was so much I sought to know from the Veil, but now…” Another sigh. One which dims his voice. “Now, I am not so sure.”
“Why not?”
“Because I am tired.” He sounds like he means it.
“Because I am ragged and worn from following threads which may never lead me back to a beating heart.” A pause.
“I think I keep letting you go back into the Veil week after week because I am hoping one of these days you will return with an answer for me. One different from the initial one I was seeking.”
I turn the contents of what he’s just offered me over in my mind. A girl. A cure. A god. A weapon. After all the bits and pieces of information he’s given me over the past few months, I think I finally am beginning to understand his narrative.
But just to be sure…
“I don’t suppose you’d tell me more than that? As the daughter of a Gardner, I’m particularly interested in hearing more about the part where you’re searching for a cure for your family.”
He stiffens only a fraction before loosening his muscles. “Let me guess,” he says. “Neilina told you?”
I mock a shrug. “She and I have become close—what can I say?”
He huffs softly. “Well, at least you gave one member of my family a chance.”
The sentence makes a pang of guilt twist in my stomach. I choose to move past it. “If there’s a way to cure them, there’s a way around your terrible plan, Casimir. I know you’ve realized this.”
“Just as I am sure you’ve realized cures are fickle things, and there’s no way to guarantee I can cure them. You know what I can guarantee?”
“I swear to the gods, if you say murder, I’m jumping out the carriage.”
I mean it.
Which I think he reads in my gaze, because a flash of amusement passes through his temporarily bunched eyes before he turns his chin back to the window.
“No more talking.” He doesn’t say it like the other times.
There is no malice or bitterness in his words.
In fact, they were almost swept up on the breeze of something… eager?
“And why not?” I’m not particularly proud of the haughty way I fold my arms over my chest.
He glances at me sidelong, the corner of his mouth flirting with a smile. “Because if we continue, you will miss the view.”
Confusion pinches my features. “What do you mean?”
He jerks his chin to the window. Or perhaps it’s better to say to the contents waiting beyond it. “Look outside.”
I follow his instructions, and…
Awe slams into me, a jolting force. My jaw pops open, and my eyes widen at all the towering spires and glittering lights.
Talderine.
And we’re traveling directly through the heart of it.
Canopied stalls framed by warm, golden lights strung up on strings outline the cobblestoned streets.
Roasting meats and vegetables waft through the air like a savory blanket while loud chatter fills the skies as peddlers barter with customers.
Their gloved hands exchange flowers, exquisite painted canvases, fine jewelry, and fire-blown pottery.
Triangular banners inked with Erandor’s emblem are draped across buildings, a colorful ceiling over the snow-dusted market.
Tangerines are stacked in woven baskets illuminated by lanterns, and there is a lulling melody being plucked on strings from somewhere unseen.
I decide the song is a melancholy tune, though I can’t quite put my finger on why.
I had always thought Talderine would be an ugly city because it is known to be filled with ugly hearts. Yet I should have known better than to think such thoughts—beautiful things are often crafted to conceal hideous intentions.
There are shops with large windows, arched windows, and stained glass windows.
There are terracotta roofs and black-shingled ones.
Wooden beams frame some buildings while only glittering stone composes others.
Towering spires rise high into the sky above the artisan shops boasting colorful silks, hats, scarves, and shoes.
There is a large circular sun dial at the city’s center, the blues and golds so bright to the eye, one could mistake it for its very own sun.
Lanterns hang around the base of it, casting it in an eternal light, and as I stare at it, I realize my mouth still hasn’t closed.
How can something so close to Rivara Kingdom be so vastly different?
Yet once the initial glamour of Talderine’s heart fades, my eyes begin to notice what I’m sure their nobility would prefer travelers to miss.
Woven between the women dressed in decadent silken gowns and the men clad in artistically crafted trousers are servant girls and errand boys, a blemish in their portrait.
Their skin is smudged with dirt, their fingernails scuffed and jagged.
The stalls—initially glowing like harnessed light—are filled with tired eyes and gaunt cheeks.
The alleyways—nearly hidden by pops of color—cradle scandalously dressed men and women in shadow.
They reach out for those passing by with a soft touch and low-lidded gaze, their movements mindless and empty.
Do those walking past not see how their bodies vibrate, unable to stave off the bite of the cold in their torn and too thin clothes?
I pull back from the window, then, my mouth finally snapping shut, my lips thinning. From the corner of my eye, I catch Casimir watching me.
“You don’t like it,” he surmises.
I glance out the window and nearly choke from its ravishing colors. Everything feels framed by a cloying decadence now.
“It’s even more beautiful than I imagined.
” The words are not a lie. “I’ve never seen a city like it.
” Which isn’t exactly saying much, considering I’ve only ever lived in Keziah, and—outside the shadows of Rivara—have only traveled through a cursed valley and rolling hills harboring a magical academy.
Well, that and wherever the hell Casimir’s home is.
“So why is it you look as though your stomach has suddenly soured?”
I rest my chin in my palm. “Because it didn’t take me long to see the weeds hiding amongst the flowers.”
My answer seems to rattle him to a mild degree. And at the curious expression filling his gaze and the sudden tightness in his muscles, a realization dawns on me.
“You don’t need to replenish your magic, do you?”
A long pause, and then, “No.”
“So you arranged the carriage for my sake? So I could see the city? Is that why you confirmed I’ve never been to Talderine before we left?”
His eyes turn to gaze out the window once more. “Yes.”
The answer fills me with confusion. “Why?” I ask. “Why do that for me? A person who is nothing more than a captive to you—a pawn in your plans?”
The following silence is so long, I am able to make out the entirety of a whistled child’s song flittering from just outside the carriage. It is so long, I’ve given up on receiving an answer from him.
But then to my surprise—with that nearly glowing gaze of his still glued to the glass—he murmurs, “Because you are not just a captive to me nor some pawn in my plan. And so… I simply wanted to do something nice for you.”