The Thread Of Fate

Chapter 14

The next two weeks were fairly uneventful. I'd wake up to find Dominic gone. I spent my mornings sword fighting with Ariadne and Maria. We had come to form a friendship.

Maria was a walking mystery. From what little she had shared, I knew that she became a spy at the age of 16, which was 8 years ago. We didn't know anything about her family or why she did what she did. Another fact I discovered was that she was excellent at sword fighting. We sparred quite often.

Ariadne on the other hand was quite open and warm. At 19, she was almost as old as me. She was very mischievous and we often joked around. She lived just outside the palace with her mother while Leo stayed on palace grounds. Their father had been killed in battle. Leo had followed their father's footsteps and joined the army. They were from a kingdom called Dalia.

The former kingdom was now a part of Isolde's territory. Apparently, it was the first kingdom Dominic had conquered. He had been only 14 at the time which I'd found to be very impressive. Dalia was currently a major food source for the nation.

Both, Ariadne and Maria taught me a great deal about the way things worked in the capital. I had also been taking horse riding lessons from them. Ariadne was really great at handling horses and they in turn loved her. There was just one horse out of all, that didn't do so.

Eurus.

The beast was wild. Every time someone neared his stall, he went mad. He barely let anyone feed or clean him. Even then, Dominic was always around. I was determined to tame him and made it a point to visit him once a day. Since the last two days, he had stopped trying to trample me every time I neared him. I saw it as progress.

I spent my afternoons in the library. Reading various books on the palace's constructions, I'd found many discrepancies in the dimensions. In all the recent reports, the dimensions of certain rooms were relatively smaller. I had been noting all of them down. There were too many of them, all across the palace grounds so I knew they weren't mistakes. I aimed to get to the bottom of it.

At evenings, I helped Dominic go through his scrolls. It seemed as though he enjoyed my company as much as I enjoyed his. I'd noted that he wasn't very warm to anyone but me, sometimes Leo and Ariadne. He was confusing me the most.

My feelings for him grew everyday. I was pretty sure that he knew about it and yet, there was zero change in his behaviour. He had been teasing and caring as ever. I didn't know what he felt for me, if it was as intense as what I felt for him. It was uncharted territory and that was scary. Although he did steal a few kisses occasionally.

One can not steal what is given freely.

That wasn't what confused me though. Since the last 4 days he hadn't been spending time with me at all. I didn't see him except at night and even then, he was always buried in piles of work. In a strange way, I missed him. I wanted him to know that I missed our banter and his hugs. But he was busy and I didn't have the courage to disturb him.

Another week passed and it became worse. We barely saw each other. He didn't even come to sleep at night and I wondered if he slept at all. I was tempted to ask him what was keeping him so busy.

The only positive highlight was the Eurus had warmed up to me. He let me feed and pet him. Once, I'd even manage to sit astride. I was confident that I could ride him but the stable boy, Shar, didn't want to risk it.

It was one such night that I heard a loud banging on the door. For the first few moments, I felt as though I'd been dreaming. The noise became louder and I had no choice but to wake up. Getting out of the bed, I cracked the door open slightly to check who it was.