Chapter 31
‘Snow?’
The whispered voice pulled me from the pleasant dream I had been immersed in. I smiled as I opened my eyes, and then my smile grew when I saw his face.
Prince Elil.
‘You’re here,’ I said, my voice a little rusty from sleep.
He smiled, and I felt my insides turn to jelly. His hazel eyes crinkled at the edges, and his ever-present circlet winked as if in a warm greeting.
‘I’m here,’ he replied, taking a seat of the footstool by the chair in which I had been napping.
I looked around and noticed it was beginning to get dark. Had I slept the entire day away?
‘What time is it?’ I asked, sitting up and reaching to smooth my hair. I couldn’t imagine what I looked like.
‘It’s time for dinner,’ Elil said.
My stomach growled on cue, and I felt my cheeks warm. Elil chuckled, and the sound skittered over me pleasantly, easing my embarrassment. I looked around for Greta.
‘I should change…’
‘No need,’ Elil said, standing and holding his hand out to me. ‘I brought dinner to you.’
The doors to the balcony were open, and through them I could see a table set with tall lit tapers and silver dishes covered by silver cloches.
I took Elil’s hand and stood, swaying slightly. Elil slid a hand around my waist to steady me, and I leaned into him, breathing in his scent. Roses and that woodsy scent I’d found so comforting. That was why it was familiar. It was Elil.
Elil kept his arm around me as we walked to the balcony. The sun was just beginning to set, and the sky was a wash of pink and purple and orange. It was breathtaking, and we stood for just a moment to admire it. Elil’s warmth beside me a steadying comfort. I sighed and leaned a little more into him, and he tightened his arm around me.
It was perfect.
He was perfect.
As we stood there and looked out over the kingdom of Querencia, I couldn’t have wished for anything more. I could have stayed there, with Elil, forever.
He placed a soft kiss on my temple, and I turned to look up at him. There was an aura about him that always held me spellbound. Even in the darkest night, I was certain I would be able to see Elil. He glowed from within and like a moth to a flame, I was drawn to him. But there was no danger. I had every confidence that Elil would keep me safe.
My stomach growled again, breaking the moment, and I looked away, embarrassed again. Stupid stomach.
Elil smiled and then led me to a chair. When he helped me sit, he removed the silver domes from the platters with several dramatic flourishes, revealing a veritable feast. I suddenly realised just how hungry I was. I’d been eating nothing but porridge and drinking tea for I didn’t know how long—time had become strange, and I wasn’t even sure this was the same day as the last one I remembered––and seeing all the food in front of me lit a ravenous beast inside me.
Thank Irys for princess training, otherwise I would have fallen on the food like that ravenous beast, too.
I tried to eat daintily, especially since Elil watched my every move. I was self-conscious under his gaze, and I wondered why he was paying such close attention to the food I was putting in my mouth. I looked up and smiled at him, putting down my knife and fork even though I was still hungry.
‘Have you had enough?’ he asked, his brow furrowing. ‘You need to eat more.’
I tilted my head. ‘You haven’t touched anything on your plate.’
He looked down as if he had completely forgotten he had food in front of him and grimaced.
‘I apologise,’ he said, setting down his own knife and fork. ‘I’ve been so worried about you. You’ve gotten so thin, and I needed to see you eat to make sure you were okay.’
I relaxed. He’d been watching to make sure I ate, not because he was…what? Weirded out that I was so hungry? I shook my head and smiled at him, picking up my fork again.
‘Don’t worry about me, and eat. You look like you haven’t eaten in a while yourself.’
He looked down at his plate and then back up at me. ‘I’ve been too worried about you to eat,’ he said. ‘You scared me, Snow. Seeing you lying there like that…’ He shook his head. ‘I was terrified.’
I reached over to lay my hand on his, and he turned it over so our palms touched. ‘You saved me,’ I said. ‘You rescued me, and even though I don’t remember anything about the time I was gone, I know I have you to thank for bringing me back. I’m sure my mother is so very grateful to you—’
I stopped at the look on his face. It was the same look Greta had when I mentioned Mother.
‘What?’ I asked, confused and little apprehensive. ‘Is my mother…alright?’
I held my breath as I waited for his answer. He seemed to fight an internal battle, looking away from me for a long moment before he answered. When he did begin to speak, he kept his gaze averted.
‘Your mother is…alive,’ he said.
‘But?’ I sat forward in my chair. There was a but at the end of his sentence. I’d heard it even if he hadn’t said it. ‘What about her? What is going on?’
He sighed and dropped his head, shaking it slowly. ‘I was really hoping I wouldn’t have to tell you this, but the evidence is irrefutable.’
‘Evidence? What evidence?’
He looked up at me then. His hazel eyes gazed directly into mine, and everything around me seemed to still. My breaths echoed in my head so loudly that I almost didn’t hear what he said, and even though I did hear him, I had even more trouble understanding him.
‘Your mother is here. In the dungeons.’
‘What?’ I whispered, barely able to comprehend the words. ‘Why? I don’t understand…’
Elil sighed heavily. ‘She was the one who ordered your kidnapping. She was the one who poisoned you. If I hadn’t found you when I did…’ He shook his head again, but I was no longer paying attention.
I stood. I needed to see her. I needed to see my mother. I wheeled around to run from the balcony, but Elil was there, wrapping his arms around me. I looked up at him, and then I was falling, and everything went black.
‘I knew it would be a shock,’ I could hear Elil saying to someone. ‘But I should have been more careful—’
I opened my eyes. I really had to stop this fainting thing. It was getting irritating.
‘What happened?’ I asked.
My memory was fuzzy, and I had a hard time determining what was a dream and what was reality. This was reality, I was sure of that…right?
Elil shared a pained look with Greta, who averted her eyes, her cheeks staining pink under his attention.
‘You—’
‘Fainted?’ I said, finishing Elil’s sentence. ‘I got that part. What I don’t know is why?’
‘Drink this,’ Greta said, handing me a cup of tea.
I took the cup and drank, not even grimacing at the bitterness now. I’d been drinking so much of this tea that the aftertaste had become…pleasant?
I sat the empty cup on the table beside me and took a deep breath. I could feel the effects of the tea as it warmed my body and relaxed my muscles. Something itched at the back of my mind; something I needed to remember…
‘Snow,’ Elil said, drawing my attention and my eyes to him as he crouched beside my chair. His face was etched with concern, and he took my hand in his, stroking it gently. ‘Are you okay?’
I smiled sleepily at him. The tea packed a punch, and I’d swallowed it fast, not sipping it like I usually did.
‘I’m good,’ I replied, settling myself more comfortably in my chair. My eyelids were heavy, and I wanted to sleep, but Elil was here, and I so rarely got to see him. I forced myself to stay awake. ‘Tell me something,’ I said.
‘What would you like me to tell you?’
‘Anything. Everything. I feel like I’ve been cooped up in this room for months. I have no idea what is going on in the outside world.’
‘Well,’ Elil said, seating himself on the footstool and drawing patterns on the back of my hand. ‘Our wedding preparations are nearly done.’
I smiled. I was getting married. I frowned. Shouldn’t I have known that already? Why did it feel like it was the first time I was hearing anything about a wedding?
‘Our…wedding?’
Elil chuckled. ‘You’re so forgetful. Can you really not remember that we are getting married?’
I felt silly. Of course I should have remembered that. I forced a smile to my face. ‘Of course I remember,’ I lied. ‘So…the preparations? They are going well?’
Elil smiled indulgently at me. It felt condescending except…this was Elil, and he was never condescending. Not like…not like…
His name was on the tip of my tongue, but for the life of me I couldn’t remember it. Elil was right. I was forgetful. Had I always been this way? If I was, I would hardly remember, would I?
‘They are all going to plan. You have absolutely nothing to worry about.’
I took a breath—roses and something woodsy…Elil’s scent—and relaxed further into my chair.
‘And my parents will be here?’
Elil squeezed my hand tightly. Too tightly. Something flashed across his face, something that looked a lot like anger or contempt, but it was gone before I could recognise it. He sighed and dropped his head.
‘Snow,’ he whispered. ‘Your father…died, remember?’
Cold seeped into me, chasing away the comforting warmth of the tea. ‘He…died?’
‘While you were under the influence of the sleeping sickness,’ Elil continued, his voice still gentle. ‘Your mother…’ He took a large breath and let it out roughly. ‘Your mother…killed him.’ The last part he whispered so softly, I was sure I heard him wrong.
‘My…mother?’
Elil looked up at me, his hazel eyes boring into me, into my very soul. The jewels on his circlet twinkled, and his fingers continued to draw calming patterns on the back of my hand. Words he’d said to me over dinner came floating back as if from a partly remembered dream…nightmare.
‘My mother is in the dungeons,’ I said, my voice monotone as I tried to comprehend the words, even as I spoke them. ‘She was the one who ordered my kidnapping. She was the one who poisoned me and she poisoned my father too.’
I felt like I was reciting a script, and all the while I could smell roses and something woodsy—what was that scent anyway? Sandalwood? Cedar? Patchouli? I closed my eyes and breathed it in, trying to determine exactly what that smell was. I could hear music—
My eyes snapped open.
I could hear music?
There it was. It was faint, barely even audible, but it was there. A harpsichord maybe? Or a lute. Even I knew those two instruments sounded completely different and yet…and yet I couldn’t rightly say which of them I heard or whether it was another instrument completely.
‘Look at me, Snow,’ Elil said. There was a soft command in his voice, and part of me recoiled at it but that part was silenced as my eyes drifted to him and I caught the sparkle of the gems in his hair. ‘Your mother was jealous of your beauty. Her mirror, which had always extolled her beauty had suddenly changed its tune. It declared you the most beautiful, and your mother could not cope. She went crazy. She killed your father and planned to kill you too. She was going to kill you and eat your heart to give her back her youth.’
I felt like two people. One of me listened raptly to Elil’s story and nodded, wide-eyed and trusting. She knew Elil would never lie to her. She knew Elil was telling the truth. Hadn’t her mother been cruel to her? Hadn’t they fought often? Hadn’t her mother tried to stop her from taking her rightful place on the throne? And she had planned the kidnapping. I knew that. I knew she had schemed with…someone. They had planned to kidnap me. They had kidnapped me.
Meanwhile, the other part of me, the part that was bound and gagged, protested with muffled cries as she struggled against the bonds holding her captive. Her eyes glared, and she fought to free herself, but the bonds were too strong, and eventually she slumped in defeat.
‘I remember,’ I said, my voice still in that weird monotone. ‘You saved me.’
‘I saved you,’ Elil said gracing me with a smile that made my heart flutter.