Rose Thorns (The Cimmerian Cycle #3)

Chapter 21 - Part 2

The word spread through the palace and the city like a plague. Prince Philip of Dayrius had terminated his engagement to Evrart and was to marry the Princess instead.

Evrart was in bed when she heard the news, staring at the ceiling. She had been like that for days, unable to move, barely able to breathe. Pirella had found her and helped her to her room. Her wounds had to be cleaned and rewrapped and she sported a fever.

Evrart wanted to go home and drown herself in wine. She wouldn't be able to fix anything. However, the longer she lay the more she felt that Wyverncastle wasn't her home anymore. She was a child born of the enemy, a person stuck in between the struggle for power between the two peoples.

Pirella swept and cleaned and fed her before sinking into the shadows. Evrart could see that there was fear in her eyes. Her Lady had changed and was not herself anymore. She wasn't cheery, or filled with a burning desire for revenge. She simply felt empty, like there was a hole in her heart.

She found herself wishing that she had died that day in Easterden. If she had fallen in battle she wouldn't have had to face the feelings of pain and regret. If she had known that it was going to be so difficult she would have thrown herself on a blade.

No one visited her and she was sure that her father was behind that. He didn't want her to embarrass him anymore. He had personally come to see her when the messenger arrived for she was bedridden.

"Evrart I want you to tell me what happened. You promised me you would for information on your mother."

"You wouldn't believe me," she said. Her eyes never left the ceiling.

"Where were you? Your servant wouldn't tell me anything and you left without saying a word."

"Do you want to know the truth?" she said. Her fingers traced flowers into the bed sheets. When she closed her eyes all she saw was blood.

"Yes."

"I was at Easterden –."

"That was foolish."

"– I was fighting. I got hurt, knocked unconscious. After I woke I rode straight home."

"You were fighting?"

She sighed loudly. Her fingers curled towards her palms. His voice told her that he didn't believe her.

"Why?"

"I really didn't have a choice. I needed to talk to Philip and I was mistaken for a soldier," she heard him about to speak again but she ploughed on, "I fought. I watched men die. I killed. The blood still haunts me. I spoke to Philip and I told him that I was a lost cause."

"How did you make him see sense? I tried everything I knew. Nothing I said would sway him. I told him that his father would be furious, that you held no titles but Lady, you had no lands. You are unsuitable for what his father had in mind." His tone was more than questioning. Evrart had the man doubting himself, his way with his tongue.

"He thought he loved me and that I him. I told him otherwise."

She couldn't see him but she knew that he was shaking his head.

"It was all a game."

Then there was silence. Evrart's words were hollow. It may have started off as a trick to overcome Aysi but it had grown to more than that. He hadn't shunned her and she had been drawn to his affection. His letters, which were still hidden in the pillows, had meant so much to her.

"I will talk to you later."

Then he left, with heavy footsteps and broad shouldered. Evrart blinked bit her lip.

In the next few days Aysi would travel south where she would meet Philip and they would be married. The alliance, which was in a fragile condition, would be sealed. Her father and sisters were going to go as well. Evrart had been invited to go along but she didn't think she could bear to see Philip wed the monster.

She would be left in Bymerrow alone. Her father suggested that she return to Highhollow but she was still undecided.

The empty palace was perfect for the thoughtless wandering that ensured the day after they all left as well as to slowly drive her insane. She was alone with her thoughts and had nothing better to do but to drink and to lament her sorrows.

She was lost and needed to find out who she was, or who she was meant to be.

By the time the sun had set she had worked out a course of action. Discovering who her mother had been was not enough. She wanted to her from the woman's lips that she had no life in the court of the Windsmen and that she would have been in constant danger. She wanted proof that her father had done the right thing.

She was going to travel west and find her mother.