8. The Forest Encounter
Skylar was walking towards the back door in the morning when she spotted Zachariah leaving the kitchen with a tray laden with breakfast.
She cocked her head, suddenly intrigued.
Gawyn was usually leaving the mansion even before she woke up, long before dawn, and it was far too early for her breakfast.
"Zachariah?" Sky said, catching up to him. "Who is it for?"
"It's for Lord General," the man said without missing a beat.
"Has he not left yet?" Skylar asked with a raised brow.
"No. Lord General is feeling under the weather today, so he'll probably stay at home."
"Oh, he's still not feeling well?" She recalled his pained expression from yesterday. "Is he sick?"
"No, it's nothing serious. You don't have to worry, my lady," Zachariah said dismissively.
"Nothing serious?" Annoyed, Skylar stepped in front of the Head Servant to force him to stop and look at her. "The man works every day from dawn till dusk, and he suddenly decides to stay at home because of some mild sickness? I think not."
Zachariah sighed heavily. "You are very persistent, my lady."
"I'm his wife. I have a right to know whatever it is he's suffering from."
"Lord General instructed me precisely not to tell you."
"And he instructed me to wear only dresses, yet here we are, eh?" Skylar said, crossing her arms.
"Lord General is suffering from major migraines," Zachariah said with resignation. "It's not happening very often, just once or twice a month. But when he has an... episode, the pain is so blinding he can't function properly."
"Is there no cure for it? Or to at least treat the symptoms? My sister suffers from migraines too. But I would have thought that the healers are better in the capital."
"I'm afraid there is not much they could do about it. They advised rest. It usually does the trick. Lord General will stay in bed until the pain passes."
"Has he tried herbs?"
"Herbs?" Zachariah cocked his brow.
"There is a plant called feverfew. It always helped my sister with reducing the headaches."
"Lord General is not the biggest supporter of this kind of treatment," the man said cautiously.
"Oh, for god's sake! It's a herb, not a magic potion! Send someone to buy a good supply of feverfew. Any herbalist here should have it. I'll prepare a brew for him later."
"You're welcome to try, my lady, but I seriously doubt he will drink it."
"Oh, worry not. I'll convince him," Skylar said with a grin and finally let the servant be on his way.
Skylar knocked at the door and entered without waiting for an answer. The room was dark as the heavy red curtains were drawn, blocking all the sunlight. Gawyn lay in his bed, an arm covering his eyes.
"What is it?" He groaned. "I told you I'm not fit to deal with anything important today."
"So, I've heard. And that's why I'm here," Sky said, walking towards his bed with a steaming mug.
Gawyn flinched and propped himself on his elbows. His face was pale, with huge dark circles under his grey eyes. A wrinkle appeared between his brows when he looked at her. "What are you doing here?"
"You're sick, and I'm your wife. Is it so weird that I wanted to check up on you?" Sky sat on his bed, forcing him to move a bit to make space.
The General narrowed his eyes. "There was nothing about it included in the contract."
Sky rolled her eyes. "I don't need a contract to show kindness sometimes. But don't worry, it won't happen too often, so you'd better be grateful. Here, drink this."
"What's that?" Gawyn asked, taking the mug from her. He wrinkled his nose with disgust. "It stinks."
"What are you, a child?" Sky scoffed. "It's just herbs to help with the headache."
"I don't need it," he protested and tried to push the mug back at her.
"You think I'm trying to poison you?" Skylar cocked her head.
"No." Gawyn scoffed. "If you wanted to kill me, you would rather pierce me with a blade."
"Then stop complaining and bottoms up! It will help. I used to make this brew for Rori every time she had a migraine. It won't make the pain go away, but it will make it bearable."
Gawyn was still looking suspiciously from the mug to her.
"Oh, come on! You have nothing to lose. I promise that if it doesn't work, I won't force it on you again. And if it does work, wouldn't it be nice to get out of bed sooner?"
"Fine," Gawyn said with a long, suffering sigh. "I'll drink it, but then you'll leave me alone. Your prattling is not helping my headache, you know."
"I promise!" Sky grinned with a hand on her heart.
Gawyn huffed with annoyance but drank the brew with a few long gulps. He didn't manage to suppress the shudder of disgust.
"Here, all done. Now go away." The General handed her the empty mug, plopped down on his pillows, and closed his eyes.
Skylar smiled and had a sudden urge to brush the dark hair away from his face. But she stopped her hand just a breath away from touching him. She bit her lips and left.
"No, no, and no!"
Skylar hunched up her shoulders, recoiling from the rage of her tutor.
Although she was a fragile old lady, her voice was so strong she could shatter all the glass in the room if she only wanted.
The court etiquette was the most tedious subject for Sky, and she didn't understand why anyone would need so many rules to attend a dinner party.
"You are not listening, Lady Skylar."
"I am," she protested weakly.
"No, you don't. If you did, we wouldn't have to go through the same thing over and over again."
"It's not my fault! How could anyone care about using fourteen different forks during one dinner?"
"It's a sign of basic manners and proper upbringing. I don't know what your parents were doing all your life, but here, every child could recite this in sleep!"
Skylar felt red-hot anger. The woman could offend her all she wanted, but not her family. "We had more important issues than attending dinners with ten different courses," she said through clenched teeth.
"I'm not interested in your excuses." The woman waved her hand dismissively.
"But now you are at the royal court, and you have to act accordingly to your status. Do you want to bring shame to your husband? Do you want to be a laughingstock for all the nobles? Your value is only as high as your social position."
"I don't care!" Skylar cried in response, jumping to her feet.
"I can't take it anymore. All those things you are trying to teach me? It's nothing more than an invention of shallow people who have nothing to do with their lives. While I'm sitting here, contemplating which fork to use for the second dessert, my people are risking their lives on the border!"
"Lady Skylar, please calm down this instance," the old lady commanded, looking at her with narrowed eyes. "Such flares of temper are unbecoming of a noble lady."
"Good! Because I'm not a lady!" Sky hissed and stormed out of the room.
Skylar was so angry and upset she wasn't thinking.
She let her feet carry her out of the manor, not caring where she was going.
All the anxiety just exploded, leaving her shivering in helpless fury.
She knew she was never supposed to end up here, that she wasn't good enough for this role.
But everyone here was determined to shove it right into her face with their condemning looks and snippy comments.
Sky wiped the tears she couldn't hold anymore.
The worst thing was that she didn't have one person who could understand her without judging.
She would do anything to talk to Rori, have her laugh at her for losing her temper over something so silly and unimportant.
And then they would laugh together at all those pompous people who think they were so important.
But Rori was miles away, and there was no way Sky could see her anytime soon.
When her fury finally subsided a bit, Skylar noticed she had wandered into a forest.
She couldn't recall the moment she entered the thicket, but the place seemed eerily silent now.
Sky slowed her pace and looked around. There were no signs of birds or any other animals for that matter.
It felt like the whole place was holding its breath, waiting.
When the trees above her exploded with broken branches raining down, Skylar jumped back with a surprised scream.
Something enormous just fell from the sky right in front of her.
Her hand rushed toward her sword handle, and she realised she didn't have one.
Nor dagger or any other weapon that could be remotely useful right now.
A blood-chilling shriek forced Sky to face the beast.
It took her mind a moment to comprehend what she was looking at.
The creature was a mass of muscles, claws, and feathers.
Its head and front feet looked like they belonged to an enormous eagle, but the feathers were smoothly changing into silky golden fur and ending with a lashing lion's tail.
"A gryphon!" Sky gasped in awe, but she was forced to take a step back as the beast shrieked again.
The creature's clawed front legs were leaving deep gashes on the forest floor, the beautiful silver wings were outstretched, and fur was standing on ends. The golden eyes were focused on Skylar. It was clear the animal was ready to jump at her at any moment.
Skylar forced her body to relax and raised her hands. "Wait! I'm not here to hurt you! I'm not even armed, see?" She knew the gryphons were intelligent beasts. Her only hope of survival right now was convincing it she was not a threat.
The gryphon shrieked again but cocked its head as if it was waiting for further explanation.
"You are Gawyn's friend, right?" she tried. The creature perked up at the familiar name, so Sky continued. "Me too! I'm his wife. His female?"
The beast straightened a bit, front legs stopped clawing, and it lowered down the wings, though the tail was still lashing nervously.
"I live with him now, you know. I bet you can smell him all over me because I was in his room just a couple of hours ago. Here."
Sky outstretched her hand toward the creature, which initially jumped back.
"It's all right. I'm not going to touch you if you don't want me to."