In a Paper Thin Kingdom

Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Sanat gazed longingly back at the high towers that surrounded him before easing closed the door to the courtyard. The trees and bushes in the garden were silent without even a whisper of a breeze to startle them. The moon was high in the dark and cloudless sky, the castle’s occupants all deep in slumber. Sanat had slipped down through the servant’s stairways, waited patiently for the market clock to chime for midnight, and, with his bundle of necessities wrapped tight and secure, had slipped out to wait in the castle‘s moonlit garden.

Luckily, he found that he didn’t have to wait long. Quiet footsteps clicked along the stone path to his left. Turning to face her, Sanat adjusted his cloak around his shoulders with regal precision.

“Well, I’m glad to see I don’t have to wait long. You know how we detest being made to wait here at the castle.” His drooping eyes wrinkled merrily in the moonlight. Opening his arms to her, he smiled through a soft laugh. “Oh, my dear Countess, how reassuring it is to see you again.”

The Countess Sinoe smiled, her features soft as she stepped into his awaiting arms, mindful of wrapping her arms around his frame gently. “I must tell you that I feel the same,” she answered him.

Lord Sanat, tutor to the royal family of Avanes, released a heavy breath, looking around the courtyard at the high and glistening stone walls, the arched stained glass windows and golden railings along the walkways, the proud crimson banners that hung silently from the lower rooftops. His brow tensed in anguish. “I took up residence at this castle when I was just twenty-nine years old. I’ve tutored princes and princesses for almost seventy years. This has been my home for so long, and now, I am simply leaving it behind.” Sanat shook his head slowly, his long tresses of gray hair brushing against his lower back. “To think that it once housed such great people, and I lived right there among side them.” He stopped short, his thin lips quivering.

Sinoe reached for his thin hand, the veins drawn like a tattoo under his skin. “You mustn‘t speak like that,” Sinoe whispered soothingly. “You will come home. All of us shall come home.”

The old man grinned wearily, his eyes shining. “But at what cost, we are not yet prepared to face.”

Sinoe met his gaze, hoping for an answer from the older man. When she received nothing but a pat on the hand in reply, she offered him a soft smile. “Come, friend. Our noble carriage is waiting for us.”

Following the Countess out through the large wooden door to the servant’s scullery, Lord Sanat’s eyes stayed firmly on the gold-inlaid door that lead to his most precious room in the castle: the royal library. He had often spent many a night in that room, preparing for lessons to come the following morning. Or, when he was no longer needed as tutor, he spent them tracing his fingers along the old books, all of which he had read, relishing in their memories until came the night he had taken on the most intricately perplexing student of his years.

Sanat had been seventy-two years young that night, his firmer hands carrying a small candle with which to see by, the clouds thick over the moon and stars. His midnight nostalgia over a selection of books showing the merit of healing magics had been drawn to a sudden halt as he heard the doors creep open and tiny footsteps tiptoe in.

Turning a corner around the tall bookshelf, he’d stopped short in front of a tiny figure in a pale blue dressing gown and robe, her blonde hair plaited twice to dainty shoulders. Her big blue eyes had met his green ones in fright, though they quickly firmed up in a young and stubborn defiance.  

And that stubborn defiance had always been Princess Ella's greatest asset.

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(3/26/13)