by Samuel Fort
Chapter 48: A Bad Breakfast
Breakfast proved to be an awkward affair.
Sam, Fiela, and Thal were seated at a table in the breakfast nook. The meal this morning consisted of plain oatmeal, coffee, and water. Luxuries such as sugar had been exhausted long ago. Normally the three spent meals discussing such things as their escape from their snowy prison, events at Steepleguard, what Ben might be doing, or the fate of the messengers Fiela had dispatched. This morning, though, no one had much to say, and the silence was deafening.
Eventually, Sam cleared his throat. “Did you two sleep well?”
“Very well, thank you,” replied Fiela.
“Uh-huh,” said Sam, placing a spoonful of oats in his mouth.
Thal, feeling she had to speak, said, “You, Sam?”
Sam chewed for a minute, as if the soupy oats needed chewing, and said, “Oh, alright, I guess. I woke up earlier than normal. There was this weird screaming coming from somewhere. You didn’t hear it?”
Thal closed her eyes. “No.”
“Huh,” he said. “It was pretty loud. I’m not sure how you’d miss it. Maybe you were busy.”
Minutes passed. Thal focused on her untouched meal while Fiela dabbled at hers with a spoon.
Eventually Sam stood up, bowl in hand. “You know what? I think I’m going to go watch the sunrise. Looks like the skies are clearing out there. I’ll just leave you two alone to, you know…talk.”
When he was gone, Thal moaned, angrily threw her napkin onto the table, and put her face in her hands. “Oh gods, Fiela!”
“Annasa,” Fiela said icily.
“Annasa. Please, do not torment me again in such a manner. Not here!”
“I don’t think he heard anything,” the girl said, shrugging.
“Didn’t hear anything?” Thal asked incredulously. “How could he not? How could anyone within ten miles not?”
“Why are you mad at me? You’re the one who made all the noise. I should be mad at you. Your arms and legs were all over the place. You slammed your knee into my chin twice.”
Thal pushed her bowl away. “That is because you are unrelenting! You move faster than I can react. You tormented me for two hours! My whole body aches. I introduced that stupid feather because it was the most merciful way I could think to discipline you, and I never used it for more than a few seconds!”
“It is merciful,” agreed the girl, smiling. “You’re right. I used to hate it. I was terrified of that thing. But now that I am free of it, I understand what you mean. It is nothing at all.”
“You didn’t even use the feather!”
The girl raised her shoulders. “It is a clumsy instrument. My fingers are more effective.”
“Then why do you require me to wear it?”
“To remind you of your new purpose in life.”
Thal buried her head in her hands. “Annasa, please. I am a lady. My reputation is everything. Please do not humiliate me in such a public manner. Have I not been very kind to you? I teach you, bathe you, clean our room, wash your clothes, make our bed – everything. I love you and seek only your happiness.” She looked up, her eyes red. “I thought you had some small love for me, also. I thought we were friends.”
A Peth passed by them, a cup in his hand. When he was gone, Thal said, “Did you not see the look in that man’s eyes? He knows. Everyone knows. They heard everything this morning.”
“One wonders what else they might hear,” Fiela said, and not in a whisper. In the distance, a man snickered, and there was laughter.
Thal was mortified. “Please, Annasa, do not mock me, not here.” She splayed her hands. “Why are you so cruel today?”
“I am not cruel. I am just. Also, I am in control now. Before I was helpless.”
“But what have I done that merits such humiliation?”
“You have wronged me.”
Thal was shocked at the directness of the accusation. She shook her head, confused. “Please, tell me in what way I have wronged you. I am not perfect. I know that. Allow me to redeem myself.”
“I do not think redemption is possible, in your case.”
“What?”
Fiela leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms. “You and Ben are a lot of like.”
The blood began to drain from her former mentor’s face. Oh gods…
Fiela said, “You’re both wicked smart, and you both lived among the Ardoon, and you like books.”
“We are not very alike,” protested the other woman weakly. She couldn’t look Fiela in the eyes.
The girl said, “He admires you. He said you are the most level-headed person he knows. I’ve always assumed that is why he entrusted you with my education. Yet now I think he merely wished you and I to bond. To become friends. To what end, I cannot imagine.” She stared at the woman. “Can you?”
Thal’s eyes darted about the room. This was spiraling out of control. “Please, Annasa! Do not speak so loudly. Can we not talk alone? In our room?”
Fiela shook her head and, contrary to the woman’s plea, actually raised her voice a notch. “You spend a lot of time together. In fact, my husband spends more time with you than he does with me. Why is that?”
“The tablets!” blurted the woman. “You know that!”
Fiela gave the woman a menacing look. “Watch your tone.”
Thal felt like she’d be slapped. “I’m sorry, Annasa, I-”
“Of course,” interrupted the queen, “I do not blame you for wanting him, Lady Thalassa.”
Thal’s heart came very next exploding. “No!”
“I do not blame you for loving him, even.”
“No, Annasa! No! It’s not like that, I swear! Ben would never-”
Fiela barked a laugh. “Oh, it’s ‘Ben,’ is it?”
Thal closed her eyes. That had been stupid. Beyond stupid.
“Why are you so nervous, lady?”
The woman lowered her hands to her lap. They trembled violently. “Because what you are saying is very dangerous.”
“You’re right. Unfortunately for you, I am not the only one saying such things.”
“No!” shrieked the other woman. It was her worst fear come true, and on an epic scale. She fell from her chair to her knees. “It’s lies, Annasa! I swear! Lies! Ask the king! He will tell you!”
Fiela rose and stepped to where the now sobbing woman knelt. “You’re pathetic. Of course the king will deny his relations with you. What else could he do? Besides, a king may bed who he wishes. He has is incapable of trespass. But not you. Not ‘a lady.’ You are held to a separate code of conduct. You are supposed to be above reproach.”
Thal babbled something unintelligible.
Fiela was unrelenting. “You wish to steal a throne, do you? You wish to steal my dear husband? My king?”
“No! No!” The woman put her head at Fiela’s feet and grasped her legs. “Never, Annasa! It’s lies!”
Fiela shook her head again. “Pathetic. You’ll never touch a throne. I promise you that. But perhaps there is a middle ground.”
She squatted and grabbed the woman’s hair, jerking her head up until she could see into her victim’s eyes. “I think I shall make you mine. Would you like to be my throne, Thal? When we return to Steepleguard, you can be my sister’s. You know how much she loves you. I think she’d enjoy that very much.”
The now hysterical woman at the queen’s feet didn’t respond, except to wail louder.
“Pathetic,” Fiela snarled, just before she spat in the woman’s face.
