Seize the Day

Chapter Four

I closed the door. His habit of repeating things was too much to bear.

Instead of going out the front door where Percy would assail me with meaningless chatter, I climbed out the back window of my stand-alone house (since there was no back door). Landing silently on the pavement outside the window, I trotted along the dank alley to the main streets.

It took me a while to make it to the water port. I weaved deftly through the crowd as I made my way up the hill that led to the cathedral. I wondered briefly why Cicero would want me to meet an escort at the ports. Whatever the reason was, I did not feel good about it.

I rounded a street corner directly across from the cathedral and came to a stop at the Aria water port. The flashy low-rise building was the second largest port in Aria, and it was identified by its open sun porch and obnoxiously bright yellow banner that read: Aria Water Ports: Station 2; Come on in and join us for a ride!

I entered the brownstone building as a distinct smell of lemon and moldy wood assailed my nostrils. Oh my word. I covered my nose protectively. What was that odor? I looked around the lobby, which was square and sparsely populated. There was a very good reason why it was close to empty.

“Ms. Lannie Brackenbury?”

I turned to see a large, muscular guard in a blue uniform. He had dark sideburns and a keenly trimmed mustache. His facial hair reminded me of my father, who absolutely abhorred any hair growth on his face. Or used to abhor it until mother…

The man in front of me bowed swiftly. “My name is Maddox Quill, Captain of the Guard. We’ll be escorting you today, ma’am.” The captain spoke in short, terse sentences, getting right to the point. I immediately liked him. He nodded to two other guards, both of whom wore the same blue Aria military uniform as Maddox. They waved cheerfully, and one even smiled at me. Maddox, however, never changed his expression.

“Okay, then can we go now?” I pointed at the port exit eagerly. Surely this was only a meeting place… Surely I wouldn’t be forced to ride in a…

“We’re taking the ports today.”

No. No, not the ports. “Can’t I just walk? You don’t have to escort me. I’m perfectly capable of making it to the castle myself…”

“Actually,” Maddox said as I inched backward towards the exit, “the prince informed me that you needed assistance in getting to the castle. He said you had trouble getting there last time.”

I stopped inching away. Titus. Of course it was Titus who told them I needed help. “I was just…admiring the scenery.” I thought back to the jungle I had to wander through. “I really don’t need help. I’ll just walk, okay?”

“Ma’am, these are my orders.” Maddox pointed to the looming entrance of the loading dock.

There was no point in making a scene, so I gave up. I already knew that Maddox was an impossible man to argue with. I followed them onto the loading dock where my worst nightmare awaited.

Water horses.

Past the entrance was a large terrace that was fenced in by tall brick walls. A twenty-foot wide empty water channel made its way through the center of the deck, beginning at a water booth and continuing on to exit through a gap in the wall. A massive barn was positioned several yards away from the terrace. Its doors were shut, but I could hear the distinct screeches of water horses within the building.

As Maddox talked with a man inside the booth, I counted several times to eleven to calm myself down. I breathed in deeply, but started coughing when I smelled the air. The scent of molded wood and lemons was stronger than it had been in the lobby, and I realized with horror where the smell was coming from. Directly next to the water channel, a deep crimson liquid stained the planks. A staff member was mopping up the stain with a lemon-scented cleaning agent.