Ladies, Lords, & Liars

Chapter Five: The Palace

The coach rumbled through the gate at a leisurely pace, clanking over what had to be a cobbled courtyard of sorts.

 Aeric would simply look out to see for himself, but he didn't want to risk opening the curtain just yet. The guards might catch on to the fact that they'd been lied to, and come over to arrest the two of them. But even as the sense of uneasy caution remained wedged firmly in his mind, he couldn't deny the fact that they had made it through. They were within the palace walls.

It was a good five minutes, if not more, before they came to a gentle halt.

There was a stretch of silence, and Aeric strained his ears to hear anything that might give away a clue as to what was happening outside, but he heard nothing.

Then the door was opened so suddenly that his heart nearly leaped out of his chest, but thankfully, when he looked to see who was there, it was just the driver. He was all-too-clearly still impatient, and he tapped his foot rather loudly against the cobbles as Aeric climbed to the ground.

"It appears they aren't expecting you." He said, in a tone that Aeric thought could be nicely described as a loud mutter, maybe even mocking. But Aeric couldn't bring himself to make a retort of any kind, because the words themselves caught his attention fully.

They weren't expecting him. Was it possible, after all, that the prince sent more than one letter detailing his new travel plans? Was Aeric's mission doomed to fail despite his best efforts?

His heart skipped a beat for what seemed like the thousandth time in just a single hour.

He reminded himself that the guards had allowed them through, so they must be expecting the prince, but it did little to still his now-pounding heart.

He retrieved his single trunk after an unkind prompting from the coach driver, and almost as soon as he had, the stout man climbed back atop the vehicle and drove away. Aeric was alone now, with his only hope of escape driving down the lane, back towards the gate.

The palace was ahead, taller than he'd ever imagined. The front door itself was so large it was almost ridiculous. A giant might have been able to walk through without so much as bending his head. It was set in that same blue stone, carved so ornately that Aeric was lost for a couple of minutes in a scene of some sort of battle, quite prominently featuring a lion. Another character that was depicted quite often was a man with black holes as eyes, like living pockets of shadow. He found himself picking the side of the lion rather quickly.

He finally managed to pull his gaze away when he realized that he didn't know what he was supposed to do next. Should he knock on the door? He doubted anyone would even hear. Someone on the other side might not even be able to hear a loud knock, judging by what he could see of the doors' thickness. Should he look around for a side entrance that might yield better results?

Before he could quite decide what he was going to attempt first, the mammoth doors gave a thumping boom, somewhere deep within the walls beside hinges bigger than his torso. It creaked quickly once, then slowly started swinging open.

He found himself taking a couple of steps backward, despite the fact that the whole thing was separated from him by a lengthy flight of stone stairs.

The doors crept open farther and farther, and voices faded into hearing range.

"-just received word. And to think, no welcome in the least!"

"Well, one can't really be blamed. We thought he would be arriving several days from now."

Now he caught sight of the voices' owners. Two women, clearly servants by their dress, were walking down the front stairs. They froze when they caught sight of him, and he could hear one of them mutter something that wasn't quite understandable.