Crossroads (Book Two)

Chapter Two: Kin and King

Mornings had become a familiar routine in the otherwise foreign state of affairs regarding Lily's stay. Princess Kiethia, Valdor's younger sister, had seen to it that she maintained a structured life that acquainted her with elvin customs.

Every morning a different hand maiden of Princess Kiethia would wake her, help her wash and dress according to elvin fashions. Today she wore a loosely fitted copper gown of muslin with sheer sleeves. The hand maid Ybieth wove her hair in thin looping braids that cascaded past her shoulders.

When she was deemed ready, she was escorted to the small mess hall used by the healers. Lily attempted to engage Ybieth in conversation, but given that this was only their third encounter, there weren't many topics that came to mind.

Instead, Ybieth sat beside her, offering Lily her sight. No matter how many times Lily asked for them to share the meal together, each of the hand maidens always refused her claiming to have already eaten. She'd become aware that there was a silent although visible hierarchy that was strictly adhered.

A couple of the more welcoming healers had begun greeting her in and out of the hall, though none had managed the courage to sit and eat with her. Some days she was thankful she could not see the wayward stares in her direction as an object of curiosity and gossip; although, it did not mean she felt them any less.

Resigned to awkward silence, other conversations throughout the hall floated to her from healers whose voices she had begun to match with names.

They did not know what to make of her. She was a human, after all. And a close friend of Prince Valdor while an exclusive patient of Prince Landros. But most curious of all, she was afflicted with an aliment that the great healer prince could not cure. As such, not only was she a puzzle, but a challenge amongst them to solve the mystery of her condition and gain their prince's attention.

There was a knot deep in the pit of her stomach that grew each day. After being kidnapped, taken to another world, and tormented by a pair of elves, she now had a glimmer of what Aurora must have experienced in the past several years. Like her, she had a power she did not understand or know how she had gotten it. With every polite glance, she felt stripped bare and dissected. Her future was clouded with uncertainty and fear.

She pushed the plate away, leaving most of her food untouched, "Ybieth, I'm ready to go to the gardens now."

"Certainly, lady."

Lily allowed for Ybieth to dispose of the plate and waited patiently for her return. A brush against her hand that rested on the table, notified her of Ybieth's return. Before she used her Sight, she asked, "May I?" The hand maiden accepted.

It was possible for her to use her Sight without their knowledge with just a sustained touch; however, given the generosity shown by Valdor and Kiethia, it felt as a betrayal to their kindness.

The gardens found in the Healers' Quarter were different than those throughout the castle grounds, as Lily had discovered. These plants served for medicinal purposes and training by the healers. Assorted plants she was familiar with and others she could attribute solely to this world, rounded in contoured rows, and walkways were lined with vined pergolas. Two glass vaulted conservatories flanked the space in the distance, though the glass panes in one were tinted lime green.

Healers tended to various plants and walked in and out of the conservatories carrying small bushels or seed pouches. She never knew where the healers headed with their bounties, though she suspected there were other sections of the Healers' Quarter she had not been privy to.

Ybieth guided her to a wooden bench beneath a pergola that looked out to a gurgling pool. It spread out in eight thin ribbons of water which acted like natural irrigation. When the sun was high, the pool reflected it so brightly, that it appeared as if the sun had melted into the ground and the streams were turned to liquified sunlight.