ESCAPE

  The clothes they were making us wear were itching my skin even more. Perfect fabric or not, it was irritating me. I never had that problem. Looking at the mirror now, I hated the bright yellow colors of the tunic and cloaks. But Lyssandra was once again radiant with her dark blue dress that was covering each part of her. She said that she felt like an overdressed parrot, but I could only grin when she was walking around in the dress and her white veil.

  She was the first one to get out while I was still looking at myself. I was feeling tired and weak. I did not want to feel like this. Was this going to be my life now? Weakness?

  I started walking around the halls, realising soon that I had gotten lost. But soon, I found myself close to the king’s room. And Lyssandra was there shouting.

  ‘’I am so sorry, Teacher, but-’’

  ‘’You lost him?’’Her voice started shaking.

  ‘’It was a few days after you walked out, I didn’t know that-’’The king was sickly as he tried to defend himself.

  Who did they lose?

  ‘’The only reason I remained silent all these centuries is that you have kept him.’’She kept explaining. Those tough words belonged to a ruthless woman. She was slowly turning back to the girl whom I found that day, covered with the blood of a man.

  ‘’And now, you are telling me that you lost him.’’

  The king remained silent for a while.

  ‘’Find him’’Lyssandra commanded. ‘’Or I will tell the enemy kingdoms the real reason you became king.’’

  ‘’You wouldn’t dare-’’He spoke out loud and coughed once more.

  She said that she cared for him. But she was also threatening him. What was so important that they had lost it?

  ‘’You cannot hurt me’’She let out a laugh. But that was a lie. Now. They can hurt her. However, none knew it.

  The dining room was decorated with iron and rich crystals on the chandeliers, candlelight embracing each and everyone’s skin. On the chairs they were sitting us, Hector and a few nameless lords. Hector explained to us that the prince was studying in the capital of the east and would stay there until the end passed. Saying with a prideful tone that he was the one who could help right now.

  So, the king was only surrounded by people using him. Maybe that’s why he was happy that Lyssandra came over. And yet, she had a scared expression as she was expecting the dinner.

  ‘’Are you alright?’’I asked, holding her hand tight.

  And she lied by nodding with a smile. What was she hiding from me? Why was she hiding it?

  The dinner was filled with meat and fruits, with a roasted pig at the center. I could see Lyssandra salivating from hunger, and I slowly gave her a fig. But before trying to swallow it whole, Hector said that we had to pray. We both looked at each other.

  ‘’Don’t you pray during your travels?’’He asked, mocking us with the nobles being actually curious.

  And Lyssandra tried to hide the truth. ‘’The sea is filled with different people where we unite under food and starlight.’’She smiled. ‘’Not a god.’’

  Everyone stood there, amused, and Hector scoffed and turned to me. ‘’Your wife has a sharp tongue.’’

  I replied with a smile. ‘’That’s what I love about her.’’

  Hector raised his eyebrow and began praying while Lyssandra was holding my hand under the table. I did not want to listen to the prayers of their god. I wanted to listen to her heartbeat. Her rushed heartbeat. What happened back there? Maybe I should let it slide. She would tell me sooner or later.

  ‘’Amen’’ They all said in unison, and Lyssandra took a bite from the fig, but one man stopped her. Telling her he was the food taster. He began eating small portions, explaining that there might be poison. But Lyssandra had already eaten and looked all flushed. And Hector was grinning at her like she was someone beneath her.

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  ‘’No poison’’He said and walked out.

  ‘’I suppose the food at sea is not as tasty as here’’He kept.

  And I took a sip from the wine. ‘’On the contrary, it’s even safer’’I explained, and Hector’s brow arched. ‘’No need to poison anyone on the ship.’’

  ‘’Because the people there have no power.’’He explained.

  ‘’Because everyone is useful’’Lyssandra caught the words, and Hector hummed, taking cooked vegetables on his plate.

  ‘’I suppose we shall say welcome then’’He raised his glass, and everyone mimicked him.

  ‘’To the close friend of the king. That nobody has ever heard of’’

  That made her gaze turn rough with the nobles looking down on their feet. It seemed that nobody had the power to speak against him.

  ‘’Are you implying something?’’I spoke out and clenched my wife’s hand, and she squeezed mine. Her pulse was getting higher.

  ‘’Oh, no, sir Paris’’Hector laughed. ‘’I simply do not understand where they could have possibly met? I have been here eight years. If I had met you before, you would have been a child. I mean.’’He scoffed. ‘’How old even are you?’’

  Oh. So, he was mistrusting her. She had the face of a woman in her mid twenties, but she was far older than that. And she couldn’t say a thing.

  ‘’Won’t the king join us?’’ A nobleman tried to change the subject, and Lyssandra sighed in relief.

  Hector jerked his head.’’His majesty feels unwell, but he sends his regards to you and your families with gifts of gold’’

  Lyssandra let her hand finally go, and the servants placed meat on her plate. She began eating slowly and in silence, but I could see very well what she was thinking.

  ‘’Is something wrong, lady?’’ Hector narrowed

  She shook her head and took one more sip from the wine.

  ‘’Nothing wrong’’She lied, smiling.

  ‘’I suppose that you would prefer’’The way he was eating with fingers, digging the meat inside his fingertips, made my skin crawl. ‘’That you would also have a box like that?’’

  And she replied with a scoff. ‘’I would prefer these boxes go to the less fortunate’’Her breathing turned heavy. What was happening? Her gaze grew tired, and she held my hand beneath the table. Her pulse was getting weaker. I looked at her iron plate and noticed it was getting green. The poison was not in the food. It was on her plate. I looked at mine and saw that there was nothing to be worried about.

  I was about to help her stand up, but she stopped me. She would rather get hurt a little more than give him the satisfaction of winning the argument.

  ‘’As you wish’’ I whispered to her. Even when she was not immortal, she had a high tolerance of poison. Maybe she could handle it for a few more minutes.

  ‘’Less fortunate?’’Hector chuckled and everyone with him.’’Pardon me, Lady, but the less fortunate is us that are living in the same corners with those beggars.’’

  Lyssandra, the woman who was once a beggar, a slave, a prisoner, and less fortunate, was trying everything to hide her rage.

  Of course, she was failing. But anger would not help her now.

  ‘’Tell me, sir, do those people share your bed?’’I asked with a smile, and he faded. ‘’Share your food?’’

  Everyone was looking at me now. Everyone's paying attention to me. Usually, even in the family gathering, no one was looking at me if I wasn't singing. Back then, it irritated me. Now, I wish this pressure would stop.

  ‘’Or your fine garments?’’I took a look at his black attire, and the man played with his small beard on his chin.

  ‘’Their complaints are enough to make me think that they have the same free will as I. Thinking that I will actually listen to them’’

  ‘’Maybe you should’’ Lyssandra spat out, and Hector was glaring at her.

  ‘’It seems that you both share the same vulgar ways.’’

  Her pulse was fading. And Lyssandra realised it as she stood up, and everyone replied the same, showing her respect. But as soon as she was about to walk out of the room, she collapsed.

  My heart began sinking, and kneeled closer to her.

  ‘’Love?’’I gasped out, and everyone surrounded, calling for medics. For help. One guard rushed away to find a healer, and I was standing close to her trembling body. Her nose began to bleed. I was about to move my hands, to heal her in an instant. And then I stopped. Because I couldn’t do it. Not anymore. I couldn’t heal her. I failed to heal-

  ‘’I am sorry’’ The princess spoke with her belly full and her blood gasping out of her throat. My hands were shaking as I couldn’t heal her anymore. She is too far gone. ‘’I thought that you wouldn’t return’’

  She cannot die.

  ‘’Don’t’’Lyssandra grasped my hand tightly. ‘’Worry, I am not dying this easily.’’

  I could feel the fear. I could see a man just like her, bleeding on my arms. I could see him say those same words. But he had died that day.

  Do not leave me. Not now.

  My breath quickened as I turned my head back where Hector was standing, and his expression terrified me. Because he, too, looked scared that she had been poisoned.