Chapter 59
Moonlight streamed through the window of my chambers, reaching only the corner of my bed. Lysande sat cross-legged behind me, his gentle fingers skillfully braiding my hair.
“How do you know how to do this? Some lady I don't know about?” I asked teasingly, and he chuckled.
“Far too many. I don't even have enough time to braid all of their hair,” he replied, giving my braid a gentle tug.
“Well, at least you found time for me.”
He tied the end of the first braid with a ribbon before moving to the other side of my head. The tips of his fingers moved through my scalp, and I almost moaned at his touch.
“For you, always, Princess,” he said huskily before lowering his soft lips to my shoulder and gently kissing the bare skin.
For a few moments, we enjoyed the silence, until I glanced toward the door leading to the servants' chambers, where they had all already gone to sleep.
“I miss Welme,” I admitted, and he paused for a moment in the middle of braiding.
“I know, Isolde, but she's happier now,” he said sincerely.
“I know, but... I just miss her.” He lowered himself toward my shoulder again and left a warm kiss there, one that seemed to say he would always be here beside me.
“Lys?”
“Hmm?”
He looked at me again, his brown eyes glimmering with something I couldn't quite describe.
“I love you,” I said, tilting my head back so I could see him.
He kissed my forehead, then my nose, then both of my cheeks, and finally pecked my lips. “I love you too.”
Soon, he finished the second braid and tied it before I slipped out of bed. I stretched, and my nightgown pulled tightly against my body as Lys's hungry eyes followed every step I took. He licked his lips before pulling them into a seductive smirk.
I only blew him a kiss, and he chuckled and shook his head.
“Speaking of Welme,” I said, opening the drawer beside the bed. “A letter from her arrived today, and she said something strange.”
I sat at the edge of the bed, and Lysande rolled onto his stomach so that his upper body rested beside mine. Unable to resist, I slipped my free hand into his hair, running my fingers through every lock. I knew every curl by heart now.
He lowered his head onto the duvet and inhaled deeply when I began massaging his scalp.
“Listen to this. The beginning was ordinary. She wrote about her life and how happy she was, and how grateful she was for the gold I had sent her, but listen to this part.
‘...And I must inform you of the utmost wonder Rinch and I witnessed in the city.
First, let me say that I did not tell Rinch who I believe it was, but I am quite certain it was him.
What surprised me even more was that Rinch himself said he often sees him at the market or around the stables.
It was early in the morning, and we had gone out to buy supplies, and very close to the sanctuary, your brother, Prince Sanaedeo, was walking with a girl with long brown hair, a slender figure, and an impressive height.
She was almost as tall as he was!
Oh, but she was beautiful, though I only saw part of her face.
Rinch says that the villagers believe she is a witch, although I do not believe that.
A dog was walking beside them, right next to the prince's leg, with fluffy white fur but one black paw.
The prince was holding her hand, but he was not dressed like a prince!
He did not see me, but I don't think he could see anything except her...’”
I looked toward Lys, and at some point he had already lifted his head and was staring toward the paper. His brows were furrowed, creating thin lines between them.
“Do you think the prince loves some peasant girl?” Lysande asked, and I simply shrugged.
“It is possible, but then again, who knows? He travels often, but...” The words disappeared when I remembered his necklace and the little black bird hanging from it. I lifted my wrist and turned the bead with that same little bird. “Oh.” That was all I said, and Lys's brows rose in question.
Still, as much as I trusted Lys, this was something I didn't want to tell even him.
“Ah,” I said, waving my hand dismissively. “Who can know my siblings? We have always been lovers at heart.”
I stood up from the bed once more, but this time I held the little piece of paper above the candle. I waited until it had almost completely burned in my hand before dropping it onto the floor and pushing the ashes beneath the bed.
“And I almost forgot,” I began, rummaging through the shelf before turning toward the wardrobe. “I thought I would send this to Welme.”
Between several pieces of fabric, I pulled out her little knife for opening Nuso shells and held it up for Lys to see.
When he saw the shining metal, his face lit up, and he ran a finger along its edge. He pushed himself up from his lying position and sat on the edge of the bed.
“It feels like it was a lifetime ago,” he said, taking the blade and turning it over in his hands. “But she'll be happy when you send it to her.” I nodded and left the knife on the little table beside us.
“Welme promised me...” I said as I walked toward him and stepped between his knees. “That she would send me plum jam as soon as they made it.”
His strong arms pulled me against his body as he wrapped them around my backside.
“Mhm?” he asked as one hand slowly moved up and down.
“And she also said—oh.”
I gasped when he pulled me onto his hard lap.
I felt his hardness beneath me, and a moan caught in my throat when he bit my shoulder. “What did she say? Tell me,” he commanded, his hardness pressing between my legs.
“She said she'd send wine and mead too.”
“Mhm. That's good.”
“And she also said she would—oh, Lysande.”
This time I couldn't stop the moan when he licked my neck all the way to my ear and then bit it.
His hand began to snake beneath my dress, but something stopped me. The hairs on the back of my neck rose, and my head snapped toward the door.
“What was that?” he asked, confused and concerned.
My eyes narrowed.
“Do you hear that?” I asked, and this time he turned as well.
“What, Isolde?”
“It sounds like someone—”
I didn't even get to finish before the door to my room clicked loudly, as though someone had placed something against the other side.
Lys immediately turned me away from him and jumped to his feet. At that moment, the door to his room, since the servants had no direct exit into the hallway, slammed shut, and Lys ran toward the end of the room where he always kept his sword whenever he visited me.
My legs went weak, and an ugly feeling tightened through my stomach as I stumbled backward.
“Stay here, Isolde.”
“No, Lys, don't go,” I said immediately.
He only shook his head and raised his sword.
Another door slammed, and the servants began screaming. Then the horrible sound of a sword, or swords, cutting through bodies silenced every servant.
Lysande tried to open the door leading into the hallway, but as I had suspected, it was locked from the outside.
“Lysande?” I asked, hating the tremble in my voice and the fact that my knees could no longer bear my weight.
“Wait here, love.”
Before he could even reach the door to the servants' rooms, it burst open, and three—no, four—masked men carrying swords and daggers entered the chamber.
I backed farther against the wall, trying not to scream, while Lys shouted at me to stay where I was.
Three of the men began fighting him, and he fought with everything he had to keep all three from hurting him. The clash of swords echoed through the room so loudly that I felt every strike in my chest, and the dry air seemed to choke me more than anything else.
I couldn't take my eyes off them, watching as Lys, dressed only in his trousers and without a shirt, still managed to hold off all three men with only a single sword.
The problem was that four men had entered.
And the fourth was moving toward me.
“Princess, princess,” he sang as he twirled a large dagger in his hands. His eyes traveled over my body, lingering on the hem of my dress. “Does your knight fuck you?” he asked with a smirk before turning toward them for a moment.
“When the boys are finished, maybe we'll leave you his cock as a souvenir.” He pointed toward them before turning his disgusting gaze back toward me. I tried to move farther backward, but my back only hit the wall.
My heart pounded in my ears, and a throbbing began at my temples.
This couldn't be happening.
Where were the guards? Where was anyone?
“I'd recommend that you don't scream, little princess,” he said with a chuckle, his eyes settling on my dress again.
“Hmm...” He paused for a moment before patting something in his pocket, and almost as though whatever he had felt there had distracted him from what he had intended to do, he shook his head.
“He wouldn't want to hear about that, but he said we should put on a show,” he said before beginning to approach me.
He came to a stop directly in front of me, close enough to block the moonlight and cover me in darkness.
“You'll both watch them die, Sweet Princess,” he whispered.
His hand, covered in a black glove, slipped beneath my chin and lifted my face so I was forced to look into his eyes. But before he could do anything, something exploded across my face.
Warm and slippery, it entered my eyes and mouth.
The man collapsed at my feet, beginning to gurgle and twitch, and when I looked down, a short throwing knife was buried in his skull so deeply that part of the handle had driven into the bone.
Lys had thrown the knife and saved my life, but because of it, he had lost his footing and was now on his knees. Still, he managed to keep all three men from stabbing him, but from that position I knew he wouldn't be able to hold them off for much longer.
My heart began pounding even harder as the dead man's words echoed in my ears once more, and with a fury I hadn't even known I possessed, I grabbed the little Nuso-shucking knife and charged toward the man closest to me.
“Princess, wha—”
Before he could even finish, I was already on the man's back, clinging to him like an animal and screaming at the top of my lungs as I stabbed him in the back.
The knife went in and out again and again while the man beneath me roared in pain.
Blood splattered across my face and soaked into my white dress until he finally collapsed beneath me.
That was enough of a distraction for Lys to drive his sword into one of the men's groins, while the other, turning toward me in shock, received my knife through the knee.
Lysande drove his sword straight into his stomach right after, with such force that the blade buried him against the wall.
Finally, when silence fell, and only the smell of blood and death filled the room, my knees gave out, and I fell to the floor.
I began to cry and shake as I threw Welme's knife somewhere to the side.
Lysande, bruises already darkening his face and blood running from his split lip, knelt in front of me and pulled me into his arms.
I could hear his heart pounding against his chest and his breath trembling with fear.
“Breathe, Isolde.” He held me tightly, burying his nose in my hair. He took a deep breath before kissing my neck and then taking my face gently into his hands. “It's alright, love. We're safe,” he said, pulling me against his lips, and I kissed him back.
Tears streamed down my cheeks, and I managed to calm myself a little through his words and touch, but something else was bothering me apart from the obvious.
“Lys?”
“Yes, my world?” He hugged me again and held me there, waiting for my answer.
“The one who came toward me said that we were both going to watch them die,” I said in confusion, and he pulled back to look at me.
“What do you mean?” He tilted his head, and I wiped my forearm across my face before nearly gagging when I saw how much blood remained on it.
“They attacked you, and he could have killed me if he wanted to, but he didn't. But if they wanted to kill you while I watched, then who else... oh, fuck.”
We both jumped to our feet.
“We have to get to Meera's room immediately!”
I bent down and pulled two daggers from the attackers while Lysande had already opened the door leading to the servants' rooms.