A Servant Lost (Alys Book #1)

Chapter 22

Before she could decide the best place to go, she was vomiting her last meal onto the beautiful burgundy tiles of the bathing pool.

When her body was done, she stayed where she was; kneeing with her elbows on the side of the pool, and her head in her hands.

Gax had been stripped of his lordship because of her. He had lost his placement as a reeve due to his interactions with her.

If Alys had said no to Dastrehan when he asked her to be the mother of his child, would Gax have been caught mistreating her?

If she had accepted Brom's proposal, she never would have crossed paths with Gax in the palace.

If she had stayed in the market area for just a few more moments, she would not have been in the way of the King's Guard in the first place.

Seven men are dead because I disturbed Gax's life.

"I want him found. Immediately." Alys heard Dastrehan order the captain from the sitting room, "Take as many men as you need."

Footsteps approached, but Alys stayed where she was.

She kept looking at the burgundy tiles, thoughts whirling through her head.

Red. Red like their spilled blood.

Alys fixated on the tiles, ignoring Dastrehan when he entered the bathing room, squatted down behind her, and put a hand on her back soothingly.

An image flashed into Alys's mind for a split second.

Dead men around her feet. Blood from their bodies all over the forested floor. Blood on Alys's hands.

That weird feeling of a lost memory trying to be found.

A sharp pain in her head.

Alys gasped and quickly shoved herself back from the bathing pool, landing against Dastrehan's chest. She pressed her hands into the sides of her head.

Dastrehan caught her.

"What's wrong?" He whispered in her ear, alarmed.

Alys sucked in a breath and whimpered.

"I saw something that I don't remember," she murmured, "And then the same feeling I had when I shot that arrow into the target, followed by pain."

Dastrehan didn't say anything. He tightened his arms around her for a few moments, and her breathing started to slow.

It was well into the night when the lockdown on the palace was lifted. Even so, King Dastrehan saw to it that extra precautions were put in place; the guard presence in the palace was doubled, prisoners from the dungeons were assigned positions as food testers to prevent anyone from poisoning any advisors, guests, the king, or Alys, and no visitors would be allowed into the palace or it's surroundings unless they were thoroughly searched and escorted upon their arrival.

Alys was starving by the time that the servants brought a late night meal to Dastrehan's chambers.

Alys was sitting on a sofa in the sitting room, and Dastrehan was speaking with Rohan and one of his advisors. They were waiting for the king's military advisor to return to the palace sometime during the night to attend a second meeting with all the advisors, the captain of the King's Guard, and a couple of military generals.

A servant handed a bowl of soup to Alys with some plain bread and a cup of water.

Alys thanked the servant and started eating right where she was. The soup was welcome to her aching stomach, which had been emptied earlier when she had gotten sick. The bread, though plain, was gentle on her tummy and filled her quite nicely.