Ladies, Lords, & Liars

Chapter Seventeen: The Waterfall

"My daughter will be joining us again today, for those of you who were wondering." The queen continued, her voice filled with a knowing kind of humor as her eyes grazed momentarily over Aeric.

She went on to explain that they would have drinks ready back at the castle when they returned, and those that wanted to could go to a game room and play whatever games they found to their liking.

But Aeric was hardly listening to the rest of it. The princess would be joining them today, and that meant he was probably quite unlikely to avoid meeting her again. He could hardly believe that he'd been able to put it off for so long, but at this point, it was little more than sheer luck.

He shook his head and focused again on what the queen was saying.

"Of course, we won't be able to do any hunting until later in the summer, but it will be nice to get out of the castle." Murmurs of agreement followed her words. "We'll split up into our respective groups at the stables." The words were clearly her last, due to their ring of finality, and with a big grin, she sat down once more.

They were splitting up into groups? What exactly had he missed when he'd been fretting over meeting the princess? He kicked himself mentally. He was a real moron sometimes. One of these days he'd probably manage to miss something of life or death importance.

The conversation broke out again as people began to stand up and leave the room. And with that, he was finally able to pin exactly why everything seemed so strange. The thought clicked into place in his mind like a rusty gear, once more permitted to spin in its proper place.

There were no protocols whatsoever, and even when there were, they didn't seem strict or well defined. That had to be why things seemed so odd to him, and why nothing anyone did made any sense.

He followed the lead of everyone around him and stood up to head out. He didn't know where he was supposed to be going, so he simply followed along behind the three people who looked most like they knew what they were doing. They were trooping out the wide front doors, which now stood open.

He followed them down a cobbled road that twisted off to the right, past the castle, and down a hill towards a group of buildings nestled among low-growing trees.

The three in front of him were starting to talk and joke around loudly. They were probably the youngest he'd seen at the table, and he suddenly wondered if he should be following them or not.

As he got closer, it became clear that the buildings up ahead were stables. Or at least one of them was. There were five in total. He didn't know enough about stables and barns to know which was which or how many a palace would need.

He didn't know very much about anything that would be important to his present situation, now that he thought about it.

He sighed. He didn't think he knew anything at all that was important, actually.

But he wasn't dead yet, so he couldn't get too bogged down on the fact that he was probably the dumbest person in the city. If he had been a smarter man, he would have been able to figure out a way to get out of this when his mother first suggested it. He would have been able to prevent all of this.

But he hadn't been able to, so now he found himself in a strange place following three young nobles down to stables, where he would most likely meet the princess. And he knew that at least one person was trying to get them together.

He wished he could just pull up a drain plug in his mind and clear everything out. Maybe if he started over again things wouldn't be so awful. Maybe if the thoughts that clogged his mind like cotton were gone, he could really, truly think up a solid solution.