Raine sat in the gardens. As a bird sang a song, she jumped up and paced around the bench before plopping herself down again. “Come on night,” she chastised the sky. “Come on sun, the day should be done already. Surely you can move faster through the sky and set so night can be here now.”
Glancing over to the wall that separated her from the sea, she huffed and walked towards it. As she ran her fingers along the cool stone, she slipped her feet out of her slippers and walked along the grass towards the cave’s entrance. “Oh moon and stars, please show yourselves. I long to see you because with you will come my husband, my love, my Cidaris. I can’t see him during the day. Not yet anyway, but I would love to see him now. To hold him now. To be with him now.” She hugged herself close and remembered his fingers as they caressed her body. The cool chill that sent tingles through her and drove her breath from her lips. The warmth that filled her when their lips touched in spite of the water’s chill. She licked her lips and shivered.
“Come, night; come Cidaris. Come to me the one who makes my night as warm as day and as bright as though the very sun was above me. Ugh!” She grunted and spun around, marching back to her shoes. As she bent down and snatched them up she groaned and berated herself. “I’m like an impatient child waiting for a gift to celebrate the day of my birth.” She stalked back to the bench and flopped down on it to brush the tiny pebbles and stray bits of grass from her toes before she put her slippers back on.
As she did so, she heard the gate open. “Nurse!” Laughter bubbled out of her as her nurse firmly shut the gate behind her. Forgetting her shoes, she ran towards the gateway. “I’m so glad you’re here. You always have such nice things to say about Cidaris. I can’t wait to hear them.” It’ll certainly make night come quicker. At least I hope that will be the case. “Are those the things Cidaris asked for?”
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The nurse nodded and tossed them down on the ground beside her. Tears filled her eyes as she wrang her hands. “Yes,” she sobbed.
“What’s wrong? What happened? Is he okay?”
The nurse stumbled over to the bench and sat down, heaving deep sobs wracked her body. “Oh, he’s dead.” She hiccupped. “I can’t believe it. Such a wonderful boy, and now he’s dead.”
“Dead? Cidaris is dead?”
The nurse shook her head. “Oh I wouldn’t have thought him capable of it. But now… now…” She broke down. Inconsolable sobs burst out of her as she buried her face in her hands.
Raine hugged her tightly. “What do you mean you couldn’t have thought him capable of it? Did he kill himself?”
Her nurse sobbed even louder.
Raine shook her. “Tell me nurse. If you can’t say words, say ‘I.’ Did Cidaris kill himself? Say ‘I’ if he did. If he’s not dead, say ‘no.’ Surely you can manage to make such brief sounds.
Her nurse wiped her eyes away. “I spoke to the men. They said he disappeared beneath the waves, and he’ll never surface again.” She hiccupped again and held out her hands before him. “He’s gone Raine. I collapsed on the beach when they told me, and then… and then I came here.” Her voice broke down into more tears.
Raine wailed alongside her. “Oh my heart, I shall never love again. How can I be expected to go on, when my love, my Cidaris will never be beside me again.” Buring her face in her nurse’s shoulder, she sobbed even harder.
“Oh Garrick,” moaned the nurse. “He was so good to me, one of the best friends I ever had. We laughed and joked. And now, now I shall never see him smile again. I shall never hear him laugh once more.”
“Garrick?” Raine choked. “Is Garrick dead too? My dear cousin is also dead? Now I must mourn my husband and my cousin?” She wiped her eyes and gasped for air as she stared at her nurse through the blurry haze.
“No, Cidaris is not dead. Garrick is dead and Cidaris has been banished because he killed him.”
“Cidaris killed Garrick?”
The nurse sniffed and nodded. “Aye. Cidaris killed your cousin.”