of Sword and Flame

Chapter 25: A Sudden Chill

A little girl with one tight braid down her back sat with her head in her hands, peeking over just to see the waves crashing against the cliff below. It was a cool summer day, and she could hear seagulls just off the shore somewhere. She felt the wind sway her loose hair back and forth as another wave crashed against the cliff below.

The sound of a door opening behind her startled the girl into standing up, nearly knocking over the smooth white chair beneath her. A woman in a white uniform walked out onto the patio, bowing her head politely at the little girl.

"Lady Eryssa, it's time to come inside and prepare for supper. Your father is entertaining an important guest in his study, so he sends his apologies for his absence this evening. Be sure not to bother him while he's working."

Eryssa nodded silently, smoothing the wrinkles out of her dress and straightening before trailing behind the servant into the house.

The house, which stood on the edge of a great cliffside bigger than anything Eryssa had ever seen, was their summer home. It was much smaller than their typical house, with only two floors, but what it lacked in size, it made up for with beauty. It was an elegant building constructed from the ground up with an idyllic grace in mind. It had columns modeled after ancient Vorinian structures dating back to the beginning of the great empire.

Eryssa knew all this by reading almost every book left in the small library on the first floor. The spines were all cracked and dusty and always dirtied her pretty dresses, but she didn't mind. Reading was her only form of entertainment in the summer home. She wasn't allowed outside the house, save for the garden and the patio, and she was often limited to a few rooms to spend her time. So, the library became the easiest accessible form of entertainment.

Eryssa followed the servant woman as she traveled through the house, watching as the woman straightened crooked portraits as she went. She straightened them with haste as if something dire would occur if the action were not taken immediately. Eryssa entered a dining room with a cavernous echo and settled into its only chair.

"Will you need anything else, Lady Eryssa?" the woman asked, but it was more a formality than a genuine question. The little girl shook her head, approaching her place at the table.

She knew why no one wanted to dine with her. No one wanted to stay with a little girl that was deemed bad luck. She had heard the whispers every year on her birthday, the gossip that clung to the walls of her home. They would turn to each other with tongues stained with the sooty taste of sin just to say, "Look, there she is. The girl born on the twelfth day of June." Eryssa would pause every time, waiting for the inevitable response. "Saintess Rita's day of celebration? The girl must be cursed!"

And then Eryssa would look at them, her soft doe eyes narrowing like waves retracting into the sea. The whispers would stop abruptly, and they would look at her like bunnies in a trap, caught and frightened, as if they hadn't been the ones to chase the carrot inside.

After Eryssa had picked at half the food on her plate, she stared out the open door, looking at the empty white house. The setting sun cast a dark shadow across the interior, and Eryssa shivered again.

She abandoned the dining room, wandering toward her father's study; two muffled voices became clearer, and she eventually stopped at the entrance, pushing open the mighty, dark door just a crack.

"Face it, lord Sylevan. You're losing your power. The king has already requested that you be uninvited from any future council meetings," A sharp yet squeaky voice said.

"Now you listen here, bastard! I built my position up from what my father left, and you expect me to surrender that easily?" Eryssa heard her father's voice continue. "No, I need some way to return to the king's good graces. What do you know?"

"I work for the king, not you. And with your little stunt of pocketing those gold coins that were supposed to go to him? I'd say you're done for, Sylevan. So get out of my face before I make those words your last."

"He still needs me! He needs my guards!" Eryssa heard the crackle in her father's stern tone. He sounded desperate. She pushed the door open a little further, wanting to get just a peek at what was happening inside. She saw a man with a pinched face glaring at her father, whose hand was gripping the man's shirt with such ferocity that Eryssa thought his collar would tear. The man with the pinched face let out a holler of laughter in her father's face.

"Your guards? We're already in the process of building some very powerful weapons. Soon, guards will be a second-rate commodity." He grinned, and his twisted smile made Eryssa feel sick.

But in the next second, the man looked a little taken aback at what he'd just let slip, face contorting in response to the exposed secret.

Eryssa watched as her father grabbed a small letter opener off the neat and orderly desk beside them, pointing it toward the man's neck. She clamped a hand over her mouth to stop a small gasp from leaving. She was so busy keeping her eyes on the scene before her that she didn't notice the rug under her feet beginning to slip.

"What. Weapons." Lord Sylevan hissed, pale green eyes flashing with rage. The man before him began to tremble, waving his hands wildly in surrender.

"Nothing! Nothing at all—" her father pushed the letter opener closer to the man's neck, right under his chin. "—it's just these experiments!" the man finally relented. The carpet under Eryssa's feet continued to give out so slowly that she still didn't take notice.

"Tell me more."

"Y-yes! It's this chemical; I think it's called lieken or something. They've gathered up a bunch of little kids as test subjects, but they're dying out rapidly."

"Is that so?" The letter opener was pressed flat against the man's neck. A small bead of ruby red appeared at the tool's point.

"Yes! It's true; they've already gotten to under thirty!"

"Hmm," Eryssa watched her father scratch his wiry silver and yellow mustache. "Perhaps I could help him with the experiments, but how—"

Eryssa let out a helpless cry as she slipped forward, knocking the doors open as she slammed onto the cold floor of her father's study. She looked up to see her father's crazed eyes trained on her, filled with a fury that she'd never seen before. But then, as he studied her, he seemed to come to some sort of conclusion, his eyes turning to a sort of relief as he released the man he was holding captive.

"Tell the king—" He grinned so that his pale golden mustache moved "—that he just got himself a new test subject."

"But isn't that your child?" the man asked, staring at him incredulously. Sylevan cast a small glance back. Eryssa stared at him with a plea in her eyes. To her left, a firepit crackled dangerously. The light of the flames pooled in her father's eyes as he studied her, examining every flaw under his scrutinizing gaze.

"She's nothing but bad luck." Eryssa's father waved his hand dismissively, turning to set the letter opener in his hand back onto the table.