Death Vengeance

Chapter 4

      Like a wave returning to the sea, the adjoining darkness before my eyes vanished. The invisible lock that held my eyelids together retreated without resistance, causing my eyes to flutter open and inspect the area that surrounded me. Perspiration beaded on my brow as I drank in the familiar sight of my bed chamber, shaky breaths tumbling from my color deprived lips. I sighed, frustrated and relieved that I had fled from the delicious haze that had been my dream. Tears trickled down my ashen cheeks; hot, silent tears that made me wish the subconscious view of reality was not falsified. I wanted it to be more than a figment of my imagination, but that was poison; the dark side of ambition. Flinging the blankets from my clammy skin, I climbed to my feet and hurried to the door. My hands fumbled with the knob, desperation making them clumsy. Then, at last, my salvation was reached.

      I wandered through the maze-like hallways with a dazed glint in my eyes, passing curious servants and the dark gazes from the ladies of the court. I swept past them without altering my aloof persona. I didn’t need their approval; I didn’t need their permission to be who I was. I was me, and they couldn’t change that.

      The stables were filled with the heat of the animals inside and the aura of reprieve. Almost immediately, I could feel the cold weight of responsibility lifted off of my feeble shoulders. I took a breath, my lungs proud of the relief. The night and its silence had never been so beautiful. I entered the stall of my mare, Lana, and shut the door behind me. With a nicker of greeting, she turned her magnificent head in my direction, her silky white mane gleaming in the low candlelight. Her dark eyes were smiling with delight.

      “Hello, my sweet,” I uttered softly, stroking her mane and eliciting a pleasurable neigh from her lips. “Are you ready to go out tonight? I haven’t ridden you in a while.”

        Her answer was the wild nodding of her head and the flattening of her ears.

        I saddled her up silently, patting her soft, creamy skin as I buckled the saddle around her round stomach and adjusted the bridle. Once this task was complete, I led her out of the stall and mounted her, gripping the reins tightly in my raw hands. She whinnied softly as she adjusted herself to my weight. And then, with a whistle and the pressure of my heels against the sides of her navel, I guided her into a brisk gallop.

       My desired feeling of freedom was finally achieved.

       Our escape was a secluded lake in which no one knew of. It was obscured by the large towers of the trees, which made the location inconspicuous to those who barely scratched the surface to its discovery. The way the moonlight would shine on the water and the wind that whistled through the trees made reality disappear. The silence reminded me of who I was, and who I should continue to be. It was a place where the war didn’t exist, where I wasn’t a princess, and where my parents were still alive. It was heaven on earth.

        Even Vallon had no idea of its importance in my life.

           I dismounted Lana and tied her reins around a tree branch, enjoying the way the wind whispered across my exposed skin and the moonlight that glimmered in the fathomless depths of my eyes as I stared in the lake waters. They churned restlessly in the winds, welcoming the resolve of the oncoming storm. I dipped my toes in the cold water and inhaled sharply at the temperature. The water seemed to wash away all of my worries, all of my frustrations, and seemed to ease my frazzled nerves.