We were together.
I forget the rest.
- Walt Whitman
The market was in a frenzy. It was crowded unlike it usually was on normal days. People all round the ten provinces had come to grace the occasion.
Dancers and tricksters were performing on the streets including the jugglers. A certain juggler had juggled the ball on his hand to the extent that he missed the catch and it landed on the head of a little boy who had come to watch them exhibit their skills. The little boy clutched his head in pain, a frown formed on his face and he tried so hard to hold back the tears but he couldn't because no sooner had the ball hit his head that he broke into tears. It streamed down his cheeks accompanied with the shaking of his shoulders and a loud cry.
The boy ignored the silent giggles of the other children beside him and began making his way back home leaving the rest of them.
Cyane had watched the scenario unfold right in front of her eyes, she felt pity for the boy but there was nothing she could do. It was an accident which wouldn't cost the boy his life and most certainly he would heal if he got injured, he was after all a wolf.
The juggler had a remorseful look on his face, his performance hadn't gone well. His days of practice had gone in vain because that wasn't meant to have happened, the ball should never had slipped from his hand.
Cyane walked away from the scene and towards her home. She and Malina had agreed to discuss their moving out after the tournament was over. They had finally told Rane about their plans of moving out, at first she had begged them to reconsider but she finally accepted it. It was all in her best interests.
Their tavern was filled up with people from all over the provinces. The first week after they had opened the tavern, it was quite difficult to find people but after two to three weeks the place became known.
Charle had opposed the idea at first, he hadn't want any attention to be drawn to them and with the tournament that was coming up he had become paranoid. He knew that there was a huge chance that they could be visited by a ghost from the past.
He strongly stood by his word that the mini tavern shouldn't be opened.
Rane had talked to him and got him to see the pros behind having the tavern. They were going to make enough money and could get the things that they lacked.
"You don't understand, my love, what if we run into him. You know the reason why I left Carnwell, don't you?" Charle ran his hand through his hair
"I do but you are just scared, what if we don't run into any one of them?"
He shook his head, he didn't want yo believe her words,"They could send spies, you never can tell what could be lurking in the hidden places"
"My love, you are just scared, everything would be fine" Rane held onto his arm and began drawing circles with her index finger in a clockwise motion, "Nothing would happen to us" She rested her head on his shoulder, her eyes peered up to gaze into his own and they held the stare for a while.
"Whose idea was it?" Charle broke the eye contact, he had a feeling that Rane wasn't the one that had come up with the idea. For a start they didn't have that much capital to start up a mini tavern. They needed at least eighteen pieces of gold, if his wife was talking about a tavern that would only mean that somehow she had managed to get some capital.
"It was Malina's idea"
He drew in a sharp breath, he knew that there was no way that Rane would just come up with such an idea out of the blue. Rane noticed the forceful intake of breath that he had done and opted to calm him down.
Charle was petrified of the unknown and she understood his predicament. He was scared that with the invitation that would have been sent to the other Lords of the provinces that there was a slight chance that Lord Algon would be present.
To Lord Algon, he had committed treason but to him he had protected his loved ones, that was something Algon would never understand since he had sent his own daughter away from her home.
"Algon won't find us" Rane reassured him though she was also skeptical about it herself. She knew Charle was right but one of them had to stay positive and in this case it was her, "We'll be fine, my love" she gave him a long kiss on the cheek before he turned his face and leaned in for a kiss on her lips.
The mini tavern was filled with people, there were more of men present than there were women. Some were eating and having interactive sections in between while some were just talking. Cyane walked round the tavern as she headed towards the kitchen where she knew Malina would be.
They had employed some cooks since Malina was pregnant and Cyane was going to be really busy with her work. Rane and Malina were in charge of supervising the kitchen but Rane was more invested in the work than Malina was. When the heat got much in the kitchen, she would tell Malina to step out or to check on the guests in the tavern.
Malina came out from the kitchen on seeing Cyane standing at the doorway, her belly had gotten much bigger signaling that she was in her second trimester. Perspiration coated her forehead and she looked fatigued but still managed to give Cyane a smile.
"You need to rest, it's for your health and the child's too" Cyane was displeased with her.
How could she work herself this much knowing her condition?, "I don't want you to tire yourself out so much"
"I know, I'll rest" That was all she could say not wanting to touch the topic any further before she gave Cyane a once over. She was squirming inside on how the new outfit hugged Cyane's body accentuating her body, "Oh Cyane, you look so good in this dress".
Malina was talking about the physician uniform that Cyane was dressed in.
Once the news came out two weeks prior to the tournament that physicians could start registering, Cyane had immediately gone to register. They had been told to wait for two more days before their names would come out on the board.
On the day she had gone to register, the people in charge of taking down names were stunned to see a woman in the building.
They didn't want to accept her but after much thought they decided that she could be of help since there would be much people present.
Cyane had felt the hate being the only woman among so many men. She had feared that she wouldn't get the job but a man walked in, his demeanor exuded power. She guessed he was one of the men that frequented the palace.
The man on seeing her scrutinized her from head to toe which made her really uncomfortable and kept her on an edge but she refused to fumble.
The look he gave her was sword lashing, she felt that he didn't want her there like the others. Ever since she stepped into the room each one of the men held invisible signs on their hands saying that she wasn't welcome there.
She was intimidated by the man's stares but refused to show it neither give it away by her heartbeat.
In that moment she wanted to give the man a piece of her mind and let him know that she wasn't afraid of him but that would mean that she didn't want the job.
Once he was done staring at her like he was going to jump her bones, he sat down on the chair and crossed his legs then without saying a word gestured to the parchment on the table.
His eyes were still on her even as she bent down to write her name on the parchment. There were so many names on the paper and she scribbled hers hastily trying not to get the man further upset with her since her mere presence was agitating him.
When she looked back up their gazes met and he narrowed his eyes at her.
"You should be at home tending to the cows and getting a cock down your throat"
Cyane flinched at his words and all the men present began laughing at his words.
She had never been more embarrassed in public than the way she was at that moment. She had wished for the ground to open up and swallow her but at the same time she wasn't going to give in to his words. She wasn't going to break.
Who did this man think he was?
That was what ran through her mind.
The man waved her off in dismissal once she had put the ink feather down and she bowed her head then stepped aside for the next person to come forward. From her peripherals she could see that he had taken the paper that she had written her name on to see what she wrote on it and he scoffed when his eyes skimmed through it.
The men around her were not helping either and she slightly regretted even agreeing to register for the tournament but when she remembered the income that would be made, she shut the negative part of herself up.
Their gazes locked again and he narrowed his eyes at her once more, she could see threats swimming underneath the look that he was giving her and they were not good. She didn't need to be told twice before leaving the place.
On the day that the names were to be released, she had opted not to go early with the hope that whenever she was ready to go that she wouldn't meet any misogynist there.
Unfortunately for her, she was met with lots of them and the attitude that she had received on the day of her registration was still thesame.
She waited till all the men had received their uniforms, once it was her turn she slowly walked to the table and stood.
"Here" A guard in charge of sharing the uniforms dropped a material in front of her, the dress had been kept in a separate spot, "This is yours" A blue and white material was sitting right in front of her.
The manner of speech in which the guard had spoke to her was better than what she had experienced the other time and the guard also gave her a smile to which she returned before she bowed her head lightly and left.
She needed to be respectful if she wanted to keep the job. She clutched the material on her chest, a sense of pride filling her at the fact that she was getting what she had always wanted and which was to be recognized for her work.
They were all told before hand that they wouldn't be working at the palace which she had known before hand since the nobles wouldn't want peasants tendering to their injured. There was segregation when it came to things like this.
Cyane looked away shyly as she drank in Malina's compliments, "Thank you"
"Are you already going to watch the tournament?"
"Yes I am"
"That's good. I'm coming too"
"What about..?" Cyane gestured to the kitchen and Malina waved her off with her hand.
"Don't worry about that, Aunt Rane has it under control"
Cyane nodded,"Ok"
The tournament wasn't a new thing to Rane besides having witnessed the last one eight years ago and wouldn't mind skipping this one even if it was for only a day.
"Are you ready?" Cyane wanted to go to the tournament already, they had wasted enough time and she feared that she was going to miss the action.
She hoped that she wouldn't be making a bad impression even if it was her first day as a registered physician. She was nervous and excited at the same time for what she was yet to experience.
"I am, but we need to tell Aunt Rane that we are leaving" Malina sensed Cyane's hastiness and totally understood.
"Ok, sure"
Malina went back inside the house leaving Cyane all alone outside. To kill time Cyane began glancing round before her gaze came back to the kitchen to see the women that had been employed chopping vegetables, chatting and giggling to one another but their conversations hadn't stopped them from acknowledging Malina when she had passed in their midst.
"Let's go" Malina came out with a smile on her face. They caught sight of Boris with his friends not far away from where they were and he bowed his head lightly towards them as a sign of greeting before walking away in the company of his peers.
The road to the tournament grounds was filled up with a lot of people. To pass through, one had to force themselves into the crowd of people. The guards were trying to create a space for the carriages to get through but the amount of people on the road proved the task to be difficult.
When it was almost impossible to create one, some guards who had turned into their wolf forms rushed out to the road and began snapping their teeth at the civilians both human and wolves in an attempt to scare them. The stubborn ones who had purposely been causing the road jam retreated into their shells.
It didn't take much time before the guards finally created a space among the people that had gathered.
Cyane had an arm around Malina's shoulder, she didn't put all her weight on the arm so as not to hurt Malina. Malina herself used the pillar for support.
The girls had stopped at a building away from the unruly crowd watching the whole scene unfold. There was no way that Cyane would take Malina into such crowd due to her condition and even Malina knew it herself that her health was more important than any event in the world.
They kept standing as they watched the people that had gathered for hours being told to move aside for the carriages that had arrived to pass.
The people murmured among themselves and the few who cursed did it silently. No one wanted their their tongues to be the reason that they slept in the prisons. On such occasions such as this, hate speeches weren't tolerated. If one said anything bad about the king or any member of his court they were thrown in prison. People were mindful saying some certain things especially in public. One could never tell who could be listening.
Once the carriages had gone through, the guards covered the road with their arms spread, they were screaming orders telling people to go back.
One unfortunate person had tried to run in between their outstretched hands but the guards caught him and spanked his head before pushing him to a corner.
The frail young man was autistic and the guards on seeing his medical condition let him remain at that spot spanking him no further.
The guards began ushering people in, Cyane tapped Malina lightly signaling their cue to join in.
Cyane slowed down her footsteps on getting to the tournament grounds, she wanted to see the people that were in the carriages.
Malina noticed that she was stalling and gave her a disapproving look. She could guess what was going through Cyane's mind and no way was she going to let her curiosity get them both in trouble. If the guards saw them making eye contact with the nobles there was a chance that it could turn into something else and that wasn't what she had bargained for. Their only purpose at this place was to watch, cheer and go once the tournament was over.
Malina pulled Cyane by the arm but she wouldn't budge, her demeanor was insisting on them stalling for a little longer.
"Cyane, the guards?" Malina tried to remind her in case if she had forgotten so quick about them and what they could do if they were caught.
"I know, I just want to see who the people in the carriages are"
"That could get us in trouble"
"It's ok, I'll be careful" Cyane's eyes couldn't leave the fancy carriages that had arrived, her curiosity only peaking.
She began moving away from where Malina stood.
"Cyane" Malina called her name but her mind had turned numb all she could think about was who was inside those carriages. Her legs were already obeying her mind taking her to where the carriages were.
Some of the nobles had already alighted from their carriages while the remaining were merely chatting inside. She could hear their giggles from where she stood.
From the sound that she heard she could tell that the voices belonged to women who giggled like they hadn't just made a large crowd of people wait just for them to pass ignoring the fact that those people had been waiting for a while prior to their arrival.
Cyane made herself less noticeable as she hid behind a wooden pillar under a shade. She needed to fill up her curiosity, the poor thing was already eating her from the inside. She waited until the women's chatter slowly died down till they were mute.
A girl around her age alighted from one of the carriages, the guards helped her get down. She held onto her dress with her hands since they were touching the ground, her eyes darted round the place and when Cyane felt that she was going to look in her direction, she turned her face the other way pretending to be looking at something.
Just like she predicted, the girl glanced at her but her gaze didn't linger on Cyane since she noticed that she wasn't a noble like her but one of the peasants. Once Cyane could no longer feel the girl's gaze on her, she brought her attention back to the carriages in front of her but paying more attention to the girl.
She noticed the girl's hair and her dress, they were neatly styled and she looked stunning and she wished she was her. She shifted a little to get a glimpse of the girl's face, craning her neck to see the girl who looked like a goddess.
The girl was talking to the guard and she whipped her hair, from that little action Cyane was able to see her face and she could testify that the girl was one of if not the prettiest girl that she had ever seen.
"So beautiful" the words fell from her lips unbeknownst to her and when she realized it, she clamped her mouth shut but her eyes still wouldn't leave the girl.
Everything about the girl was worth admiring and she found herself already liking the girl, she knew that if she were a noble that they would have probably been friends.
She kept staring at the girl unbeknownst to her that another carriage had pulled up. The sound of a door closing snapped her out of her reverie. Her eyes quickly averted from the girl's retreating form to the woman that had stepped down from the carriage.
The woman was past her prime and in her late fifties, their were fine wrinkles around her eyes but that didn't stop her beauty. She walked with her head held high, exuding power.
Cyane was lucky that the woman didn't spare her a glance but her heart ached at the negligence. She wished that their eyes had met and for some reason unknown to her she wanted to know what the colour of the woman's eyes were and that thought alone brought a smile to her face.
Movement from the corner of her eyes had her snapping her gaze to where it came from and she was met with a girl that had come down from the same carriage with the woman. This girl looked older than her but not much, she couldn't make out the full face and as if the girl noticed Cyane's gaze on her, she turned and their gazes locked.
It was her sister, Lady Adeline, The owner of the necklace that she always wore.
Cyane gasped, she had thought that the girl wouldn't catch her staring but she had been wrong and she slowly and shyly averted her eyes bringing it to the ground.
Adeline's eyes lingered on Cyane for a while and when Cyane glanced at her again, she gave her a small smile before walking away.
Cyane felt that the young noble was a kind person to even offer her a smile, no noble that she had met yet had even bothered to give her a smile. She guessed that the girl must be beautiful on the inside like she was on the outside.
That was the last straw for her because she didn't want to get caught staring again and who knows probably the next person might be the one to call the guards on her.
She began walking back to the tournament grounds, her legs moved fast this time trotting in between. She got to the grounds and climbed the steps to the last floor, the rest of the seats down had already been filled up. She was late so she had to stay with the late comers at the back, she took an empty space at the left side, the space beside her was yet to be occupied too.
Her eyes darted round the place trying to find Malina and she finally spotted her seated two rows in front.
Cyane was still standing so that she would be able to see the fights that would take place on the grounds.
From where she stood, she could see that the nobles had filled the seats on the top.
Once the king entered, everyone had stood up and when he sat down they all joined him but Cyane remained standing.
She glanced at Malina's direction again and from her angle she could see that Malina was grinning like a cheshire cat and she couldn't help but smile too.
Being in a place like this was thrilling, the people hardly saw their king nor the Royals but this event had made it possible. Cyane felt waves of emotions but excitement was the one that she felt the most.
After a short while had passed, the people started murmuring among themselves, the ladies were giggling from ear to ear.
Cyane was perplexed, she didn't understand what was the purpose of the sudden change in mood before she overheard a woman beside her say "The white prince"
The white prince?
Cyane's forehead creased while trying to make sense of what the woman had said. She lost brain cells thinking of it so she opted to ask the woman instead, "What do you mean by the white prince?"
The lady didn't reply but instead pointed to a spot and Cyane's eyes followed the woman's hand to where she had gestured to see someone walking down the stairs. The man in question had on a white outfit and also white hair, he reminded her of someone she knew from her childhood, the day that she met Leondre.
A woman who sat in front of her said her thoughts out loud,"Oh he is so handsome"
The women began complimenting Levi's good looks and a few compared his looks to theirs
"He's as beautiful as a woman" another woman complimented
Cyane kept smiling at the comments that the ladies were giving that she didn't notice the space beside her had been taken.
"Monk"
She recognized the voice and the person who possessed it. Leondre had amusement in his eyes when their gazes met, he knew what he had called her and knew that she didn't like the name.
"I thought I told you to stop calling me that"
"I know"
"Then why did you call me that?"
"I just wanted to get your attention"
"There are other ways to get my attention and..."
"The most effective way is by calling you by your name right? That was what you were going to say, wasn't it?" He interrupted her then sat down
"Yes" she mirrored his actions taking a seat too.
Their conversation got cut off by the sound of music, Cyane turned to where the music had come from only to see that the white prince had began playing his flute.
The whole place was silent as he played, She felt herself being drawn to the music and she had a feeling that she wasn't the only one. When she looked around, she noticed that the people were also enjoying the music.
"So they let him open it" Leondre muttered beside her, she didn't understand what he had said and didn't bother to ask either. She had a strong feeling that he wouldn't tell her even if she asked so she kept her curiosity to herself and simply let the music flow.
Once Levi was done, everyone clapped and he waved once before he made his way out of the tournament grounds. His job was done so he didn't see a need to stay any longer neither did he see a problem skipping the first day of the event.
As soon as Levi left, the king gave the signal for the tournament to start then a guard opened the gate and a soldier on a horse rushed into the ring.