Chapter 32: Chapter 32
“Shia, what happened?” Langrion said abruptly, sitting down from his side of the bed. As he rose, he saw Shia clutching her wrist cautiously. She looked as frightened as when he found her by the woods earlier that night.
“Is everything’s alright?... You should sleep some more,” he began to say when he realized she might have woken up from a nightmare. He patted her back gently and tried to soothe her while she trembled.
“Do you see this one?” she said, She raised the wrist that she kept covering towards the light, and when she did, Langrion’s eyes fell on a tattooed pair of spirals etched side by side together. The figures seemed to come alive as they swirled slowly in two opposite directions. Or was it just his groggy eyes playing tricks on him?
“I did not know you had a tattoo,” he frowned.
“I didn’t! I’ve never had one! I dreamt of it just now, and it appeared after I woke up!”
“That’s impossible!” he exclaimed under his breath. “What was your dream about?”
Shia described to him the strange dream she had a few moments ago. “The voice called me in another name several times...” she remarked, still in deep astonishment of what had just happened. “He called me Freya...”
“Freya?.. The name sounded familiar,” he replied. He was trying to think where he had possibly heard of the name, but his mind was still deep in the thoughts of sleep that it became quite impossible to recall where he had heard or known of it.
“I thought I was having a bad dream in account of what happened today, but it seems there is more to it...” Shia remarked. She jumped a little as her tattooed skin came in contact with the pillow that lay right next to her. Langrion began to realize that the wounds in her wrist still looked swollen and tender.
Langrion stood up from the bed and began rummaging through the cupboards and cabinets. It seems to take on forever when suddenly, he cried out, “found it!”
When he returned to Shia’s side, he was already carrying a fresh bundle of bandage in his hand.
He gently removed Shia’s hand away from the wound and began to bandage her lower arm haphazardly. Actually, ‘wrestle’ might have been the more appropriate term for it. He tried to wound the bandage in one direction before changing his mind and turning it around again towards the opposite side. He scratched his head from time to time, unsure of how to properly tie the bandage securely and neatly around her wrist.
“Have you ever done this before, your majesty?” Shia asked. For the first time on that day, Langrion saw her smile again, and he felt a cloud of relief wash over him somehow.
“No,” he said smiling sheepishly. “I would have woken up the servants, but I figured you don’t want them seeing all of this.”
She sighed, “Yes... I don’t think I can ever show this to anyone. Except for you and Lady Khailis, I’ve got no one else to trust.”
Trust... Somehow the word sounded like music to Langrion’s ears. Even if she has no other feelings towards him, trust is a good thing. Trust can be a good beginning.
“There! All set,” the prince replied. He wiped the sweat that formed in his forehead and surveyed his work. The final product was actually a mess; the bandage was loose and lopsided in some places that it was positively funny to look at, but seeing the way that Shia giggled and awkwardly stopped when he caught her eyes made Langrion’s heart feel a little giddy inside.
“What do you think this means?” Shia asked as she worriedly fingered around the bandage.
“I don’t know, but we’ll go to town and ask someone who might know about it tomorrow.”
“And who would that be?”
“Mage Silas. He is also the one who had been helping me with my mask.”
The next day, Langrion woke up early and instructed the servants to bring in breakfast for him and Shia who was still soundly sleeping inside his bed chamber. He recalled the disgusting way at how his uncle looked as Shia’s perfectly covered body the night before, and he did not want to subject himself again under the torment of controlling his rage against the old man.
When the servants came in with the breakfast tray, one of them handed him a special looking paper that was folded skilfully to resemble a crane. He knew of only one person who would send him a letter in this fashion. Sure enough, when Langrion unwrapped it, he saw the familiar long-drawn scrawls of Edelfina’s handwriting. It read:
Will you meet me at Lumbard’s?
He smirked despite himself. Lumbard’s was the name of the age-old winery at the heart of Sensala’s market. He had met Edelfina many a nights before when they were younger at that place. He used to love that place because it was her favourite restaurant. Now, he cannot even stand the sight of it.
Langrion crumpled the note and threw it over his shoulder. He could not believe that Edelfina had the nerve to ask him to meet her after what she had done. He was actually surprised to see all three of them: his uncle, his brother, and Edelfina down there at the Rubiyah Manor in Sensala. They were supposed to be making preparations for the announcement of Danterion and Edelfina’s engagement. Additionally, the three of them were never in good terms, so seeing that they all went back to Sensala together makes him all the more curious.
His trail of thoughts was abruptly broken when a servant gently rapped at the door and went in. Seeing Shia’s sleeping figure, he made a low whisper towards Langrion. “Sire, his grace wants to see you and Lady Shia at the breakfast table.”
Langrion gritted his teeth. That old fool only wanted to see Shia, but Langrion wouldn’t let him have his way.
“I will go alone. My betrothed needs some sleep.” He turned to the servants that remained on the room. “When the lady wakes up, help her to bathe and get dressed. I won’t take long. We need to set out immediately for today.”
Langrion donned on a robe over his sleep wear and went with the servant at the dining hall. He was in no mood to dress up in front of his uncle who clearly had eyes for someone else’s woman.
As expected, his uncle’s eyes were filled with anger when he saw that only Langrion had bid his summons.
“She had a rough night. I told the servants not to wake her up,” Langrion said in response to his silent queries.
“Ah, then I shall just invite her in for lunch.”
“No need for that, your grace. She and I will be rather busy. You can visit her at the Littman Manor if you want to. Duchess Tristal was adamant that I bring her back today before nightfall.”
The old fart of a king snorted at his reply. Langrion knew that his uncle would not be able to visit the Littman Manor formally. It seemed that the age-old rumors of bad blood between Nana and his uncle still held true.
They started eating in complete silence. Half way through breakfast, Langrion asked his burning question, “I am actually surprised to see you here at my home, your grace. I thought you, my brother, and Lady Edelfina would be busy for the engagement party. What made you all leave the Capitol?”
The old man lifted his piercing eyes upon him and settled his gaze at his mask. Langrion became well aware that the old king was studying his demeanor. It always felt like his uncle knew his deepest secret when he does that. This thought used to scare him when he was younger, but now he knew how to fight it back.
“So what made you come back here? Don’t tell me you missed me,” Langrion remarked dryly as he sipped a wine or two.
“I wanted to see the clever wife you’ve found for yourself, boy. I must say you have good taste in women considering the extent of your... deformity,” he retorted.
‘How typical of dear, old uncle to find ways of insulting me,’ Langrion thought. He smiled back smugly at him. “Yes, isn’t she quite a marvel? She looks exactly like Nana in her younger years, don’t you think? I heard you used to be smitten by the duchess’ beauty, so you’d probably be the best person to confirm their likeness to each other.”
His uncle’s smile had been wiped completely off his face, and a long, painful silence ensued, which continued until the end of their breakfast.
By the time the ordeal with his uncle was finished, Langrion was in such a bad mood that he wanted nothing else than to get away from that manor with Shia.
As he was about to turn the knob of his bedroom door, a pair of slender, pale hands grabbed him by the fringes of his collar. His abductor took him to a nook in the corner of the walls, a favourite hiding place for him as a child. He was sweetly greeted by none other but the breathtaking face of Edelfina.
“I did not get a reply to my letter, so I went here,” she said. Her long lashes brushed closely to his chest as she adjusted perfectly to the contour of his body in that cramped space between the walls.
“Quit playing, Edelfina. I’m in no mood to talk.” He said. He did not have to feign the iciness in his voice, and Edelfina, upon realizing this, looked genuinely hurt.
“Are you still angry with me Langrey?.. You must know why I had to accept it.”
Langrion knew she was referring to Danterion’s proposal. He understood why she would accept it. On the outside, Edelfina was always gay, beautiful, and charming, but years of abuse from her own relatives had distorted the way she looked at people. Being treated as an outsider and of lower status amongst those under the House of Nanris, Edelfina always had high hopes for herself. Langrion knew that Edelfina’s lifelong dream was to become queen. ‘Too bad, I was not the king she had envisioned for herself,’ he thought resentfully as he tried to remove her hands from his robes, but she held him tighter and pulled his head closer down into hers.
“How can you forget about me in such a short time, Langrey? I thought what we had between us was special...” Tears had begun to flow generously from her eyes.
For a second, Langrion felt his heart softened a little. He had always hated the sight of women crying. However, he remembered that the person in front of him was no ordinary woman. This was Edelfina – the skilled and cunning girl who had carried a secret affair with his brother for months after she had happily accepted his heartfelt proposal at Lumbard’s.
“Save your tears for my brother. I have no use for them now,” he said haughtily as he removed the firm grip of her hands around his neck.
He turned around from her and began walking back towards the door when she shouted. “Why must I?! Is it because of that uncouth witch?! Do you think she is truly in love with you?!” Edelfina ran closer to him, and she dangled a familiar piece of jewellery in front of his eyes. “That witch won’t ever love you the way I do! Not even half of it! See what she was willing to lose for a street rat!”
At that, Edelfina angrily threw down the signet ring that he inherited from his late mother – the ring that Edelfina had accepted and returned shortly - and the same promise ring he had gently slipped in Shia’s fingers when he decided to take her as his wife-to-be.