Joan felt prowling eyes follow her through every corner of the busy streets of Esmeth. She kept her pace while hugging the fresh bread she picked up from the bakery early that morning.
This was becoming routine. Every morning she felt unidentifiable gazes follow her whenever she went about doing her chores in town till she got back home and closed the door behind her.
She stopped by the flower shop this morning greeting the lady behind the counter.
“Joan, dear, I haven’t seen you in some time. Is everything alright?” the lady asked caressing Joan’s arm to which Joan simply smiled.
She picked out a bunch of roses and stood in patience while the lady wrapped them for her when her eyes caught a bucket of daffodils by the edge.
It reminded her of her mistress. It reminded her of her best friend, Princess Vanya. She sighed deeply looking away as her eyes watered at the thought of her mistress. The past couple of months had been a torment.
Joan stepped out of the flower shop with the roses and one daffodil amongst them for she just could not leave without one. She caressed its petals while scurrying past the crowds. Her heart was too heavy and her mind much more alert than it usually was.
Just as she reached the outside of her home she spotted her sister, the true Jade, barely up to her hip, playing with a ball in the streets. Jade was a true copy of Joan. She carried the same soft features with dark hair and a gentle smile.
“Jade, what have I told you?! Go back inside,” Joan spoke harshly while watching her sister bounce the ball against the wall to catch it.
“Just a little longer,” Jade only hummed to keep playing.
“No, you–we must go inside now,” Joan got closer to her sister when the ball bounced off and flew past her ear.
Jade only chuckled before she ran behind the ball.
“That is it, Jade. We must go now–” Joan turned following Jade when she suddenly spotted a few cloaked individuals appear in front of them.
One of them caught the ball with his fingers and crouched over handing it to little Jade, who carefully took it from his hands.
“So you are the real Jade then. Nice to meet you, little one.”
His voice instantly made Joan relax. She ran up to him to look closer to see that it was the same blond-haired mischievous Timmie under it all. A face she thought she’d never see again in her lifetime.
“Timmie,” she whispered as she looked at the others, recognizing their faces.
“Joan–” Timmie spoke when suddenly her fist pushed against his stomach to quieten him.
Her eyes quickly glanced around before stepping away to speak louder, almost announcing to the world, “Jade, would you lead father’s clients into our house, please? I will let Father know they have come to meet him and be right back.”
Rhohaz while under a clock himself right beside Timmie watched as Joan scurried off as if to not create suspicion leaving her sister to lead them inside.
***
It was a much smaller house stuck between buildings with no backyard or even space to walk through. It wasn’t much time before Joan returned to close and lock the door behind her and finally greet them properly.
“You are all here,” she clasped her hands in joy.
Rhohaz nodded taking a seat on the small sofa cramming himself between Taru and Roza. Timmie was too involved in playing ball with Jade.
“How’d you know my name?” little Jade asked throwing the ball to Timmie.
“I read minds, Jadie,” Timmie poked fun.
Joan pulled out a chair and sat closer to Taru, Rhohaz, and Roza to start whispering, “I’m sorry about earlier, I have eyes watching my every move. They’ve been so ever since I was made to retire from my position.”
“Retire? You got kicked out of the palace?” Roza asked puzzled.
“About a month ago. I’ve been out of a job since then.”
Rhohaz edged his seat to ask, “Who’s following you?”
Joan took a moment to reply, “Some of the guards from the palace.”
“Do you know why?” Taru asked.
Joan shook her head, “They’ve been following me ever since I was let go.”
“So you weren’t there when she…passed away?” Taru asked.
“She is not dead,” Rhohaz retorted, to which Taru ignored.
“To be honest, I was shocked when they let me know that the princess no longer wanted me to serve her. Apparently, she wanted to sack me all this time. I wanted an answer, so that night I broke into the palace and went by her quarters. I swear when I tell you, none of her belongings were there. It was as if her existence was wiped clean from the palace within mere hours. The very next day I noticed people following me, almost as if they wanted to keep an eye on me.”
“Who? Who wants to keep an eye on you?” Roza asked.
Joan thought for a moment, “I’m not sure but it's someone from within the castle walls. Someone of high authority.”
Taru leaned in to ask the most important question that had been bothering him, “Tell me, Joan. Do you think it’s true, the official announcement saying that she’s gone.”
Joan thought before shaking her head, “Not for the reasons they say she’s gone. She was not sick. They spread false rumors of her illness since the time we were in Shalom. They merely continued with it making the public believe it.”
“But…” Taru edged his seat, “...but do you think they killed her, perhaps.”
Joan looked at him stunned, not as if he had uttered the unbelievable but because she had thought of it several times over since she heard the news, “I hope not…” she turned her gaze to Rhohaz to continue, “...She’s a fighter. She would have fought. She would have survived, somehow.”
Rhohaz leaned closer to ask, “Do you know of any place she perhaps escaped to? Someone she trusted?”
Joan shook her head, “All her life she’d only known the insides of those castle walls. I’ve only ever seen her go to the woods for training and maybe a short walk about the busy streets of Esmeth but besides that, she knew nothing more.”
This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.
“Maybe…maybe she’s in the dungeons. Being locked away from the public eye?” Roza tried a different approach.
“Or somewhere remote where no one would ever find her,” Timmie chimed in throwing the ball to Jade.
Rhohaz contemplated feeling powerless with no real direction in sight.
Joan looked up at them suddenly to gasp remembering something, “I forgot. They announced this morning that they will be holding a public viewing tomorrow to allow the public to pay our respects.”
“They’ll have the body there, then. Her body,” Taru said looking towards Rhohaz.
Seeing Rhohaz remain silent Roza nodded as a reply and said, “That’ll confirm it. If she’s truly gone.” She patted Rhohaz’s knee in response hoping his brother knew that there was a chance that the princess could very well be dead.
***
Rhohaz had never felt so easily irritated by a vast amount of people crying their eyes out with white flowers in their hands and placing them along the outside castle walls as if they believed it to be true. They mourned her emptiness not questioning anything about her death.
He passed through the crowd following Roza, with their hoods shadowing their faces as the giant doors of the castle walls creaked open so slowly.
The people poured in without a moment to spare before a large crowd formed at the base of a stage already erected at the edge of the archways at the front of the massive castle.
Rhohaz stood unphased observing each and everyone gathered. The clueless men and women mourned while the crowd increased, pressing each other shoulder to shoulder while waiting for the event to begin. He looked behind to see the vast street behind them covered to the brim with people filling every gap. Even the skies seemed to have bought in the lie for it was the gloomiest it had ever been since they arrived in Esmeth.
Soon, the arrival of the King was announced and everyone fell quiet. It was the first time Rhohaz saw the father of the princess, the same man who once hunted his own father.
He gritted his teeth seeing the King, dressed in black and silver, walk his way solemnly to the front of the stage. His crown sat heavily on his head while his mistress dressed in jet black stood right beside him, her face covered with a matching black net. Her lips painted in sharp red curved to an interesting smile on such a solemn day.
“I am saddened by the passing of my beloved daughter,” the King said, “We will extend the mourning period to another week. Thank you all for your support.”
Rohohaz watched as the King turned, grief-stricken, to head back inside while the crowd as if perfectly timed started crying on the beat. The King stumbled for a moment before gaining his balance as his mistress caught him in time. It depicted the perfect picture of a father heartbroken by the sudden passing of his beloved child.
But something did not sit right with Rhohaz. The horns blew a solemn tune as a procession began with men dressed in black uniforms marching from the edge of the archways. As slow as they were, the thud of their steps against the cobblestones reverberated making the crowd fall silent with each step.
Soon, men lifting the casket on their shoulders made a corner, making the decorated casket with the flags wrapped around, jewels hung, and bathed in flowers finally come into view.
Roza gulped seeing the view. It never really hit her till then that the princess’s body could very well be inside the box being carried in front of her eyes. She cast a spell in her mind, something her grandmother taught her before they left for Esmeth to feel the energy and warmth of a person. Her brows furrowed as she felt not even a familiar tinge of the princess’s aura anywhere in the vicinity.
The men finally reached the stage to lay the casket down. A group of women assumed a corner of the stage to start easing into a solemn song. The guards at the ends started to force everyone to form themselves into a line to begin walking past the casket and pay their respects.
Roza started following the crowd when suddenly Rhohaz caught her arm and pulled her aside.
“What is it?” Roza whispered as she looked towards her brother, whose eyes were locked in on the casket.
“She’s not in that. But I can feel her,” he whispered back.
“What do you mean? I can’t feel her at all,” Roza retorted.
Rhohaz shook his head gazing his eyes away from the casket to the far ends of the castle as if he was following an invisible object.
“If she was dead you wouldn’t be able to feel her aura. It would have vanished the moment she took her last breath,” Roza continued trying to understand why she could not feel the princess at all but her brother somehow did.
She felt someone push against her hard before she forcefully dragged Rhohaz to a less crowded corner.
“But I can feel her…,” Rhohaz repeated as Roza watched her brother’s eyes narrow as he kept looking far beyond the castle walls into the woods at the back.
“...She’s not here. But she’s not dead. She’s been taken. And she’s left through the woods right over there.”
Roza followed Rhohaz’s finger pointing to the thick forest beginning its territory. She was confused as to why Rhohaz was pointing to an odd corner.
“What are you talking about? How would you know that? I’m using the same technique as Grandma. Why can’t I sense her?” she hissed at him partly annoyed.
But Rhohaz only remained silent scanning the corner, “We must hurry–”
But Roza cut him off to force him to look towards her, “Rhohaz, answer me!”
He took a deeper breath to reply saying, “It is only a hunch. And it used to work only in close proximity. But I see it’s energy guiding me. It’s showing me a faint path that may or may not disappear in time. So we must hurry.”
“What path? Who’s guiding you?” Roza retorted.
Rhohaz sighed partly debating whether to say it or not. But seeing Roza so insistent, he opened his mouth to reply, “A seashell.”
***
The steaming bath water decorated with a thousand rose petals floating on it made for an excellent way to decompress oneself after a long morning of riding on one’s favorite horse, Dirt. Her mind was full and her heart so at ease that she felt drunk in happiness being back at her favorite place in the entire world.
She scrubbed her fingers tainted in a light touch of mud and dunked herself back in the warm water cupping her body. Rising back out of the warm tub she wiped herself clean with the fresh towels and made her way to the dressing area where there were five elegant dresses of her liking laid out ready for her to pick her favorite for the day.
She touched their silk one by one, observing their colors and matching them to her olive skin as she held them up against the mirror debating which one fit the mood of the day the best. Amongst the dresses painted in magenta, violet, indigo, and emerald, she picked the dress in a lovely shade of rose with an elegant lace pattern running across its shoulders.
She wore it with the help of a servant she couldn’t quite catch the name or the face of. She marveled at herself in the mirror so beautiful and elegant as she pinched her hair up and pinned it to let its dark curls fall effortlessly down her back.
Vanya breathed deeply looking at her own face. The plum skin on her cheeks held a slight tinge of red, while her lips marveled in deeper shade of red. Her eyes were as dark as the night but her hair looked softer and curvier than she remembered it to be.
Suddenly she felt a sharp sting to her heart. Her legs faltered for a moment as her vision blurred and darkened before it jumped back into the light finding herself back in her dressing room.
She tried calling out for help but never saw anyone come by. Then a moment later, she was doing all fine. She was back to normal and her mood lifted instantly forgetting anything that ever happened before.
Soon, she was trotting down the vast corridors greeting the faces passing by and mentioning to her that lunch would be ready in an hour. Strangely, she never really remembered their faces nor did she really care for them as days passed.
The warm breeze lightened her mood as her ears suddenly picked up the sound of waves nearby making her halt her steps to turn towards the balcony at the corner of her view. As a child, she was never that tall enough to look beyond that balcony. She only passed by it thinking that one day she would finally be able to see the origin of the sound of those waves.
Today, she stood there knowing she was tall enough to finally be able to look beyond. Her feet picked up the pace as she ran towards the balcony. Her view became clearer as the sky above transitioned into the trees below.
And just as she was about to reach the end where she would get the grand view of the ocean, she felt her leg slip and thrash her body onto the floor. She listened to the waves as she huffed in pain, a sharp sting on her wrist. Her other hand massaged it while she suddenly remembered approaching the balcony the day before. She remembered how she fell just as she did now.
Her brows furrowed as she thought letting her hand dig into her pocket out of habit, a habit she did not know when or where is acquired it from. Just then, she felt something. There was sand in her pocket. Soft silky sand collected in one place as if it was a reminder that she had indeed been very close to the waves she had been longing to see all this time.
Instinctively, she pulled her hand out immediately as if she knew something was about to happen. And just as she predicted, she felt sharp pain in her skull before her vision faded and she felt herself fall to the floor with a loud thud.