Ladies, Lords, & Liars

Chapter Twenty-Three: Kyra

   Aeric froze in panic for a few moments before he began to search for someplace he could hide. He didn't know why he was so desperate not to be seen here, but the feeling had been slowly growing since he'd stepped through the door. He might get in trouble, and he already had plenty enough trouble as it was.

   He was closest to the next door on the left, so he quickly opened it and ducked through, mindless of the fact that there could be a greater threat on the other side than there was coming up the stairs. He carefully closed the door behind him and turned around.

   This room was the darkest he'd seen yet. He could only see vague light shapes within the darkness and shadow. A shape or two that had no form rose like ghosts as his eyes adjusted. However, it was still too dark to figure out much of anything from sight alone.

   It smelled musty, and he could tell that there was dust in the air because he was starting to feel the need to sneeze. He stepped carefully a couple of paces further into the room, then a couple more. The light shapes came closer. He paused.

   There had to be some sort of light source somewhere in the room. Even if no one ever came in here, the place was built for a reason. A candle or a lamp or something couldn't be far. He stepped forward again until his foot hit something. It clanged gently into the silence. It bore the cold feel of metal.

   Even after feeling around for a good minute, he was still unsure exactly what it was. He skirted it and continued on with his search for light.

   Something rose unexpectedly from the gloom and he rammed his foot into it. The sound of either a table or a chair screeching against bare stone followed the dull pain from stubbing his toes through his shoe. He proceeded more cautiously and was able to determine that there was a chair in front of him, just as he'd guessed. Not far to the left, a table.

   He groped around in the darkness above the table. The back of his hand brushed a wooden box, but that didn't interest him at the moment. The next thing his hand touched was cold. It had to be metal.

   Then he realized that, even if it happened to be a lamp or a candle, he had nothing to light it with. He didn't think there would be any flint and steel anywhere close, and even if there was, he had almost no hope of finding it. He might as well give up and go check if the hallway was clear.

   He made his way back to the door, being careful not to bump into anything he'd missed on his way in. He cracked open the door and looked into the hall beyond, scanning the space in both directions.

   Clear.

   He stepped out and turned to close the door again. Just as it was about to click into place, he heard another door in the hall open and then snick shut again. He froze, then slowly started to turn to see who it was. Maybe they hadn't seen him.

   But when he'd turned fully, his eyes immediately found those of the other person. They were the last eyes he'd been expecting, but he didn't know if it was a good thing or bad that princess Kyra was the person returning his stare.

   She seemed just as shocked as he was, but only a moment passed before she shook it off and started storming over to him. He kept his eyes on her as he completely closed the door behind him, a sense of dread slowly starting to saturate his mind.

Why, now that he'd met her once, did it seem quite unavoidable to meet her again? They'd managed to keep from meeting for weeks! Why was now any different?

   "Just what do you think you were doing in there?!" her voice was harsh. He winced and almost stepped back.

   It was definitely a bad thing that she'd been the one to find him. Maybe it wasn't the worst thing, but he knew it wasn't anything good.

   "Answer me, snake." She stepped closer, her voice a hiss. Although she had to be at least a head shorter than himself, he was pretty sure she would be able to kill him, maybe with the look in her eyes alone.

   "I was just wondering where everyone was," he told her the first thing that popped into his head. The first acceptable thing that wasn't a lie, anyway.

   "Am I supposed to believe that?" she narrowed her eyes.

   "Yeah. It's the truth." He stood up straighter. If she wanted to be all heated then he would just return the favor.

   "And goats fly." She spat. "What were you really doing? Spying?" he didn't know exactly what he'd done to make her think so poorly of him, but it had to have been something bad.

   "Why would I be spying?"

   "For your parents. Or parent, at least." She glanced pointedly at his hair before shaking her head in anger. "I know that you want to invade. I've known for a while. It's kind of obvious with all of these—these—political visits! I knew I couldn't trust you!" she sneered down at him. How she managed to do that when she was shorter was lost on him.

   "I have no idea what you're talking about! I wouldn't spy on anyone or anything. And I do not want to invade." He kept his voice level, but it was hard not to rise to the challenge that her hot words presented. He had to be smart with this. She might interpret more volume as defensiveness. Or it might just make her hate him even more.

   "You think I trust you?" she scoffed. "I would have assumed you'd have learned."

   "Learned what? Why don't you trust me?" he challenged.

   "Because you're from Rindenglade. You can't be trusted for that reason and that reason alone. But you've provided reason enough beyond that, as well." She crossed her arms. For the first time, he realized that she was wearing a dress with no sleeves. In fact, it was hardly a dress. It had no waistline to speak of and was cut from plain, white fabric with no decorations. It almost looked like a nightgown. A peasant's nightgown at that.

   "What if I told you I wasn't from Rindenglade?" he replied, keeping his cool despite her unreasonable claims.

   "I would call you insane as well as untrustworthy, you idiot."

   "That's what you think. And besides, I don't understand why you're cracking down so hard on me. You're the one that was hiding who you really were the whole time I've been here!"

   "That was different. I told you that I tried to tell you before. It just never happened." He'd managed to turn the tides. She was on the defensive now.

   "But you didn't. You had quite a few chances to do it, too." he crossed his arms to match her stance.

   "No, I didn't! We didn't even see each other all that much." She glanced away before meeting his gaze again. The anger had melted away and was now replaced with something else that he couldn't quite place.

   "The second you met me, you could have said! You're just lying again now to make yourself feel better or to make me trust you when I shouldn't. I can't see why I'm the one who isn't trusted around here."

   "That's not true!"

   "Then why didn't you tell me sooner?" he knew that he should quit when he was ahead, but he wasn't exactly happy with Kyra or her misplaced mistrust. He wasn't happy with anything!

   "Because I wanted something normal for once! I knew that if you knew I was the princess, you would treat me like everyone else does. You would try to court me, fate's sake. You would bow when you saw me and—" she broke off with a shake of her head. He could see the tears welling in her eyes despite the fact that she turned her face down to hide it.

   As soon as he saw the tears, he regretted what he'd said. He probably just made her hate him for good and forever.