The Silenced Speaker

Chapter 40

Regular uploading? Yes. Four days since my last upload... I'm working hard. xD 

I don't think this is a very interesting chapter, but starthing the next one, things are only gonna get more interesting. So I hope you enjoy and read on~

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The whole Carlanthe high was under emergency.

The students and staff gathered in the open area near the front entrance, firemen and police were contacted immediately. This was a school for children of celebrities all around the world, so anyone could have been the target. To have such an incident in the school would strike no one as an accident. It would directly affect the school’s reputation, and parents would be paranoid enough for a police investigation on this matter to go on for months.

Roxanne returned from an attempt to reduce the fire with the mysterious masked girl, the ends of her hair singed, but she took care to wash her face before mixing in the crowd and being passed as one of the students who had always been there.

She took a several deep breaths. When fighting with fire, Roxanne had held her breath. Now her oxygen supply was down.

The mysterious girl wasn’t there. Nor was Trenton and Tathiette. To the first, Roxanne was curious, but to the last two she wished they were gone for good.

“Roxanne!”

Kaizlin?

A silver hair girl pushed through the group of gossiping girls muttering an inaudible “excuse me” and stood close to her, smiling.

“I’m glad that you’re alright.”

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When a black limo came into view on the driveway, Tathiette bolted upright. “She’s back,” she announced drily, “so what are you going to do?”

Trenton didn’t speak. They were in one of his rooms, a study amongst the guest suites. Tathiette hadn’t allowed time for his lectures, which he had lost the patience to give. What happened today was absurd. Insane, even. His darling sister leaned close to the window to be the first one to spot Roxanne’s arrival, and the atmosphere in the room had been so awkward for ten minutes now. Part of him was worried, outraged, but more of him laughed at the insolence and audacity of Tathiette. The two parts of him were at war, resulting in his appearing silent.

There was a quiet knock on the wooden door.

“Come in!” Tathiette shouted, as a servant who she called for entered the room hesitantly. “Do tell Roxanne Taylor – “

“Lead Mistress Roxanne here as soon as she enter the doors,” Trenton interrupted, ordering instead, “It is my request.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

“There is no need,” Tathiette snorted and Roxanne pushed the door open, stepping inside the room.

Roxanne waited for the servant to exit, and bent her knees.

“Rise,” Trenton spoke before she could kneel. “Sit here.”

The temperature of the room dropped a few degrees lower. It was awkward enough before with just the normally-in-harmony Auetex siblings, and now Roxanne came.

“Well?” Tathiette demanded, “What are you going to do, Trent?”

Trenton looked at her with unusual coldness. “Stand up, Tathiette Auetex,” Nothing good ever happens when an Auetex calls anyone by full name. “Now stand in the middle of the room, right there. Quit acting like a child.”

Tathiette wasn’t pliant, but she couldn’t defy her brother’s direct orders. She obeyed reluctantly, puzzled, eyes darting between Roxanne and Trenton, and was even more bewildered to find both of their gazes fixed on her.

Roxanne was expressionless. It felt out of place to sit when the Princess stood, but it wasn’t her place to question.

“Kneel down.”

Tathiette’s pupils dilated, her blue eyes were all incredulousness. Eventually her knees buckled, slowly kneeling down at Trenton’s direction. By her stiff posture it wasn’t hard to tell that the Princess rarely ever kneeled in her life.

“Not to me.” Tathiette stared at him.

“To Roxanne.”

“WHAT?” Tathiette bounced up, and yelped in pain and surprise as her knees buckled again with a cracking sound. But for once, she was too preoccupied to attend to them. “Are you mad, Trent? Me, to a lowly…” She paused there, knowing that if she didn’t rephrase her next words her brother would be mad enough to strangle her. Still, she couldn’t think of a better word to describe the pathetic mute girl that had taken refuge in her Palace for years and bewitched her dear brother. Kneeling to her? That was out of the question.

“Kneel back down.” Trenton threatened in a dangerous voice that drew Roxanne’s eyes on him. Where happened to the gentle Prince of Elrtiv? “We have doted on you, Tathiette – Father, Mother and me – and now look at what you’ve become? A spoilt, petulant girl that can’t consider the consequences of your own action.”

Tathiette looked like she would drown in tears. She bit her lip, knelt down again towards Trenton, and gradually shifted to the right until she was facing Roxanne. She lifted her chin high, defiant, despite the glassy eyes that revealed her vulnerability.

“Do you remember your promise to Father and Mother before we left?” Trenton’s stern voice continued firmly. “You said you would listen to me, you would not disobey my words, and you would not cause trouble.”

“But –”

“You don’t have the permission to speak. Think about what you’ve done today. I told you not to use your wand like that, you didn’t listen. I told you to stop, you disobeyed. Now the school’s on fire. Look at me now and tell me you have listened to me, have obeyed my every word, and have not caused trouble.”

The only response came as soft sobs.

“You have chosen not to listen to me. You have ignored my advice and scorned my protection. These are the choices you made, and you are responsible for their consequences.

“Now I put you under the protection of Roxanne Taylor. You will swear an oath, promise not to act as she despises, and not be a nuisance. You will not defy her wishes. If the oath is unbroken, you remain under her protection till the day we return to Kanicaer.

“If you have any doubts of Roxanne’s abilities, speak now.”

Tathiette whispered a summoning in between hiccups, and wiped her cheeks violently with the silk towel that materialized. She crouched to calm her emotions for a while, and finally straightened. Left with no choice, she muttered the words of a solemn oath in incoherent sentences. Finally she silenced, rising up with sore knees, too depressed to look at Trenton or Roxanne.

“It is done.” The Prince announced.