Chapter 53
"He's gone mad, Lys. He's utterly insane."
I stormed into my chambers so quickly that the doors slammed against the wall behind me. I paced across the enormous room, ranting aloud while Lys simply listened from the far side. "He's not nor—"
Something caught my eye.
A thin red line ran from my knight's throat down into his shirt. "Did he cut you?"
I was already walking toward him.
He placed a hand against his throat and rubbed it. "It's nothing, just a little—" I cut him off when I stopped in front of him and pulled his hand away from his throat.
I gasped softly when I saw the thin wound across his neck, dried blood still clinging to it. I hadn't noticed it in the darkness of the hallway, but now it caught the light pouring through my chambers.
"Oh, Lys. Why didn't you say anything? I'm going to fucking kill him—" My fingers gently traced over his neck while he watched me with those soft eyes of his the entire time. I nipped at my lip when the wound began bleeding again, but he just placed his hand over mine.
"My princess, it's nothing. Please don't worry so much."
He took the same hand that had been stroking his neck and brought it to his lips.
He kissed it gently before resting it against his cheek.
"I'm alright," he assured me softly. I wrapped my other arm around his neck, and my eyes fell to his pink lips.
Slowly, he began lowering his face toward mine, and I was already rising onto my toes to meet him.
"Mhm."
Someone cleared their throat nearby, and I practically threw myself away from him. I almost fell after stepping on the hem of my own dress, but my loyal Lys, who always watched every step I took, was already behind me, catching me from the back before I could hit the floor.
Now draped over his strong arm, we both lifted our heads to see whose voice it had been.
"Princess."
Welme's shocked face slowly traveled over the two of us, her lips parted wide in disbelief. Her cheeks were bright red, and her fingers were intertwined nervously in front of her.
She lowered her gaze and pointed toward the door.
"The d-doors were open, and you called for me. I'm sorry, I can—"
I cut her off as I pulled away from Lys's arms and slammed the door shut behind her.
"Not a word about this, Welme," I said, still holding both hands against the door with my face turned toward it.
"Don't tell anyone anything, please." I slowly turned to face her.
My skin felt so cold it was as though someone had poured water over me, yet sweat had already begun beading across my forehead.
"Of course not, Princess." She lowered her hands to her sides, then briefly looked toward Lys. "Your secret is safe."
She shook her head once before stepping closer to me. She lifted her chin slightly and looked directly into my eyes. "Princess, you called for me," she said formally, as though she were pretending she had already forgotten what she had just seen.
I swallowed the lump in my throat and glanced toward Lysande.
"Faran attacked Ser Lysande without reason earlier. With a knife. In front of everyone."
Her eyes snapped toward me.
"They threw him out, but still..." I drifted back into the memory, back to that moment, to the fear I'd felt, to the helplessness that had seized me.
"It makes sense, then, why the servants were gossiping earlier that he had ridden away angrily."
She shrugged slightly, and I released a heavy breath.
At least he was no longer in the castle.
"Do they know when he's coming back?"
"No. I didn't ask. I only heard that he left."
I nodded and walked past her, sitting down at the edge of my bed.
As though instinctively, Lys approached me by a few steps.
Welme followed every movement with her eyes, but she said nothing and showed no emotion at all toward what he was doing. "Is there anything I can do for you, Princess? Why did you call me?"
"I thought we could go into the city for a little while, but there's a chance we might run into him. Do you have any suggestions?"
I asked while playing with the edge of my dress. She thought for a moment before her eyebrows shot upward toward her curly ginger hair. "It's still warm, Princess. What do you think about going to our lake?"
My eyes widened, and I jumped to my feet.
"Do you think that's a good idea?" I bit my lip, and she simply smiled. "Well, we have your knight to protect us."
She gestured toward Lys, and he nodded. "Of course I will." He looked toward me.
"Princess, you deserve to find a little of peace."
His eyes softened as he looked at me, and my heart fluttered again.
Just as it did every time he looked at me.
"Alright, but Lysande, you'll practice along the way. We haven't studied in a while."
I said, rising to my feet and walking toward the large bookshelf.
My fingers traveled over the spines until they stopped on a small, old green book.
"Catch." I threw it toward him, and his strong palms closed around the book.
He turned it slightly, his eyes slowly moving over the spine.
"The Great Gray Wolf." He read it slowly before lifting his gaze toward me.
One of his thick eyebrows slowly rose.
"You were right, Welme. I really needed this."
I laughed and splashed water toward her, and she giggled before splashing me back.
The lake was just deep enough for us to stand on the bottom while the water still reached our chins. Just like when we were younger, we played in this hidden lake, splashing each other and laughing.
"Lysande, I can't hear you."
I called toward Lys, who was sitting on the shore on a large stone. His trousers were rolled above his knees, his strong legs dipped into the water.
For a moment, he lifted his head to look at me, then immediately returned to the book. Even from here, I could see the delicious blush spreading across his cheeks.
"...and the Great Gray Wolf... w-went through the village and s-saw a pea-peasant girl..."
He continued slowly, reading every word.
I nodded to myself as I listened, then turned toward Welme.
She bit the inside of her cheek before swimming closer to me. I could hear Lys still reading my childhood book aloud, but my attention shifted back to Welme.
She gathered her red hair on top of her head, then glanced toward Lys from the corner of her eye.
"He's trying. You really taught him well." That was the first thing she said, but I could see in her eyes that there was much more she wanted to get off her chest.
"Yes. He's really good."
Her eyes moved across my face before she smiled softly.
"You really do love him." She whispered it so quietly that I could barely hear her. For a moment, I froze.
I forgot how to swim.
Forgot how to breathe.
But then, as though some new air had entered my lungs, I took a deep breath. I turned toward him.
My knight sat on that stone with his legs in the water, reading his very first book. His curls fell into his eyes, and he kept brushing them away from his forehead, only for them to fall back again. His shoulders were broad, his arms strong, and that powerful face hid a thousand sorrows.
"Yes. I love him." For the first time, I admitted it to myself out loud, and she only chuckled.
"It's no wonder. He's truly a man someone could love. A real knight from those books we read as children. Gentle and caring. Even when we were undressing just now, I watched him, and he didn't turn around even once to look at us. He stared at one single spot the entire time."
I couldn't help smiling at that.
"Have you ever been in love, Welme?" I asked.
Instead of that gentle smile, her face fell for a moment. She turned onto her back and allowed her naked body to float across the still water.
"Welme?" I asked worriedly.
She opened her teary eyes and pressed her lips together.
"Once, Princess. And I still am." I swallowed as her pale face, covered in hundreds of freckles, turned toward me.
"Is... is he alive?" I asked. She smiled sadly. "I think so."
That was all she said before turning again and standing upright in the water. She closed her eyes, and her hand instinctively moved across her cheek.
"He called me his Freckle. He used to say my face looked like a sky full of splendid stars." I watched the tears gather beneath her eyelids, and when she opened her eyes, they spilled down her cheeks.
"What happened?" I asked carefully, choosing my words.
She shrugged her shoulders like they carried a heavy sack on them.
"I came here to serve you five summers ago, but I didn't come here willingly."
Lys's voice in the background became increasingly muffled.
"I was seventeen then, and I lived in my village. We were poor and... my father could no longer afford to support me. He sold me to the castle as a slave."
I gasped softly at that, but she continued.
"And... he said he would wait for me, you know. But I can't go back. I belong to the castle."
"What do you mean, you belong to the castle?" I asked in confusion, and she lowered her pale face in shame.
"When he sold me, he signed that I had to work in the castle for the rest of my life. And he asked for two cows in return. That's how much I was worth to him. My life for two cows. "
Tears streamed down her face before she suddenly turned toward me.
"I'm sorry, Princess. I shouldn't have said that. Please—"
I caught her hands and pulled her into a hug. "Don't apologize, Welme." I held her tightly, and she began crying into my hair.
"He said he'd wait for me. My Rinch. They dragged me away from him. Three men had to take me, and two of them had to hold him down until they knocked him unconscious." She began crying loudly.
"What village, Welme?" I asked as she slowly pulled away from me. "Welme, what village?"
Her gaze slowly moved toward my hand, specifically toward the bracelet around my wrist. She took my hand into hers and turned Sanaedeo's bracelet with one finger until she found the small bead bearing the black bird.
Then her thumb moved sadly across it.
"Village of the Black Jays." She barely managed to say the words.
I immediately turned toward the shore.
"Lys, we are leaving“ I said to him, and while his eyes were glued to the rock, I walked up to the shore and pulled the thin dress back on my wet body.