Chapter 8 The One that Got Away #3
The prince kissed Lilyanna’s hand when we stood outside the door to her chambers. “You will join me tomorrow for dinner, my love?” His eyes were green today, but they had been brown before. Perhaps the tunic he wore altered the color? “I have a wonderful surprise for you.”
“Of course. It would be my pleasure.” Her smile seemed genuine. Small creases formed beside her full lips and wrinkled the skin beside her eyes, but tension coated her face. Maybe just from the lack of sleep or the constant paranoia from noises and eerie breaths in the castle?
He held the door open, and she passed inside. I moved to follow, but he reached for my arm to draw me back. Once again, Clement got in the way.
Prince Bellinor gave a low chuckle. “I only wanted a word. You may stand between us if you must.”
Clement’s jaw flexed, but he remained there like a barrier. Goddess, he was infuriating.
“I will be sending Lady Lilyanna and yourself a little gift tomorrow. I would like you both to wear them to the dinner.”
“Am I invited then?”
He chuckled. “You will be present, yes. You are practically family to her, and I’m sure a close confidante by now.”
A cool breeze swept through the corridor, raising the hairs on my arm as if a tarantula were tiptoeing up my skin. Clement nudged me toward the door, keeping himself angled between us.
“Until tomorrow, Tam,” the prince said. “Take good care of my dear Lilyanna. She is priceless.”
The door snapped shut behind, and my breath left my body in a gust. I turned to the hearth to check if the fire was stoked and gave the ceiling a cursory scan. Lilyanna hovered in the doorway to her bedchamber and tilted her head for me to follow.
Her bedroom was as large as the sitting room.
A huge four-poster bed with a carved wooden frame was pushed against the stone wall.
White silk sheets were pulled taut, the diamond-encrusted edges glittering in the low light from the wall sconces.
Tapestries covered the walls, their thick weave muffling all sound.
Whenever I entered, I was torn between feeling comforted and trapped.
“Lilyanna, I think you should leave.”
“Shhh.” She pressed the bedroom door tightly shut and pulled me over to the dresser. She sat atop the velvet-lined stool and gazed ahead.
I stood behind her and slowly unbraided her hair. “You know it’s not right here,” I whispered, eyes meeting hers in the mirror.
“It’s my duty.”
“Duty. Goddess, do I hate that word now.” I ran the comb through her hair, loose coils transforming into a gentle wave.
“Tam,” she chided, “language. Don’t forsake the Goddess’s name, it’s bad luck.”
I grunted, narrowly avoiding rolling my eyes.
“You do know why I was invited here? To be his match?”
“Something about gold.”
“Diamond controls the whole country. It’s the purest gemstone ever born from the Earth and only here, inside Bellinor’s walls, can it be mined.
The legends say there’s an infinite supply gifted directly by the Goddess to the prince.
That’s why he’s so generous, spreading the wealth throughout the city. ”
My hands stilled, but she gently touched the comb for me to continue.
“Legend also says the prince has a heart of pure diamond and that’s how he keeps replenishing. He spreads himself to the population when they need it.”
She shrugged. “Either way, diamond controls everything. It sets the price for gold, silver, or iron. Provinces that join his see the price of their resources skyrocket. Combining say, diamond and gold, would ensure my town in the West was always provided for.”
“There are other ways to make deals rather than marrying someone.”
“It is an honor,” she said, too loudly.
I put the brush down.
“Keep going. You can practice your braid for tomorrow’s big dinner.” She scooped up a handful of razor-sharp diamond-encrusted pins from the top drawer. “Matron left these after she’d cleaned the room. Said they were a gift from the prince.”
I separated three strands of her silken hair and began to weave them together. “Have you seen Matron’s jewelry? The rubies alone should have cost a fortune. What do you think the prince was buying? Silence? Loyalty?”
I placed a sparkling pin between the layers, watching her neck muscles tense, the pulse in the hollow of her throat briefly standing distended before she forced herself calm again.
“Rubies are the stone from the outskirts of the queendom. Harvested only from a windswept island in the North Sea. Their price has always been high due to the cost of the lives lost climbing the cliffs, scrambling amongst the scree, and fighting the black-tipped waves to bring them ashore.”
She paused, fighting a shudder as I gently placed another pin.
“The princess of the isle was here barely six months ago. As a wedding present, the prince had gifted her a ruby studded crown. When she was found, the crown was so deeply embedded in her skull that the bone had fused with the crystals, red on red, as if it were part of her.”
“Then why in Goddess’s name are you here, Lilyanna?”
“I intend to live.”
“Me too,” I muttered.
My mind returned to those black boots and the jangling clink of spurs.
The Sheriff had led me on a merry dance round the entire queendom, vanishing into thin air whenever I neared.
I knew everything about him, from the women he favored to the jewels he stole.
The only thing not told to me was why he had been targeted, which one of the many jilted women glaring at his retreating back had struck a bargain for his capture.
If I finally took him, I could let the prince go. I liked that he’d moved away from the queens to set up his own life, created a pocket of freedom even if it was in this cursed castle.
Then I’d persuade Lilyanna—kicking and screaming as I tied her like a sack to my horse and hand delivered her back to the West—that marriage was not in her best interests, that those ridiculous tea leaves were wrong and remaining in this creepy hellhole would have her buried in a golden casket before the year expired.
She smiled, more a flattening of her full lips than a curve. “You can take these out now.” She flung the pins from her hair, not waiting for me to do it. Thin golden strands hung like twisted nerves from the metal.
“How have there not been wars over these women? I’ve heard nothing of these events until recently, and I spend a good deal of time listening to gossip. Were they linked to the other murdered women; the ones supposedly killed for their magic?”
“The other women I don’t know.” She rose and walked me to her door. “But news of the ladies of the court was kept quiet because a deal has always been struck that could not be refused.”
“How do you know?”
“Us outlying towns talk more than people think.” Her face remained light, her hand resting upon my arm, soft and warm, but a steeliness formed inside her. “I’m going to get out of these burned clothes and lie down for a while.”
I nodded.
She wouldn’t leave willingly, and she knew much more about this situation than I did. I too was bound by a contract, my life dedicated to a cause I hadn’t chosen. The risk of death was always there, but I wasn’t surviving just for myself.
Lilyanna was a martyr, not a hero. Exactly like me.