Dancing on Strings

Inviting Fear

He had, however, driven his horse so close to the royal horses that his carriage had crashed into hers. The wheels had tangled and shattered, the carriage slamming to the ground, wood and metal and gold tearing away in chunks.

Guards had fired at the runaway carriage but the driver had managed to clamber to the back of one of his horses, cutting them free from their harnesses, letting the rouge carriage tumble away, narrowly avoiding hitting the already crippled royal carriage that was tearing its driver and horses down as he rode away with his second horse in tow.

The driver, following the attacker's example, managed to free his horses from their shackles and they tore free while the guards went after the assailant.

The royal carriage was abandoned to its fate, the structure crashing to the side of the road, skidding, tearing up rock and grass and only stopping when it collided with a tree, where it lay still like a dead creature.

No one was hurt.

And that had only been because Mai had not been riding in her carriage.

It had been decided before that she would ride in an altered servant's carriage, hidden from view at the request of the Head of the Palace Guard, when she left. It was to be something to be put into practice by all the royal children, considering the recent assassination attempt and then the disappearance of two noblewomen in as many days.

Mai didn't tell the woman all that, she shortened it right down to the bare bones.

"You poor thing, two attacks in such a short space of time," she said and Mai looked at her.

"You know about the shooting?"

"I do."

Mai looked at her for a moment, then remembered how long it had taken to introduce herself to Reve the last time. "My name is Mai," she said quickly.

"And mine is Angelique. A pleasure to meet you."

"Um... is Reve here?"

Angelique looked off to her left, her movements unhurried. "He's around... somewhere. I'm sure he'll join you soon."

There was a note of distaste in her voice.

They stood in silence for a time, Mai glancing around, listening to the proverbial clock tick, tick, tick by.

"Maybe I'll leave for the night," she finally said.

A smile lit Angelique's tone as she said, "Yes, maybe you should. I'm sorry for the wasted journey. Perhaps next time."

Mai winced but nodded – some back part of her mind wondering why she was allowing herself to be kicked out of her own dream – when a voice above interrupted them.

"Is that Mai?"

Mai and Angelique both looked up to one of the balconies above and Reve looked over the balustrade, his golden hair spilling down around his head, blue eyes gleaming in the castle light – again, Mai had the strangest feeling she knew him from somewhere but didn't know where.

"Angel, you should have called me to say she was here," Reve said.

Angelique's tone was snide as she said, "I'm hardly here to help."

Reve shot her a sneer then straightened and made his way down the stairs, stepping onto the landing Angelique stood on.

"Why don't you go back to your rooms?" he suggested with a smile, "And I'll entertain our guest."

"Or you could go drown in the lake and I'll see her out," Angelique suggested.

Reve gave her a strained smile. "Maybe not in front of our guest?"