The Ones Who Serve

by Jennifer Kenny

  “Are you going to the stables again?” Thomas asked. He had made a guess based on her attire, and he did know that Evangeline was a creature of habit. She enjoyed the stables, and there was no use pretending he did not know that.

  “I had a dream last night.” Evangeline cast a look to Thomas, and when he did try and interrupt her, she continued as if he had never spoken. “Last night there was a great storm over the kingdom. And once the rain and lightning had cleared, a black as night cloud hovered just above the ground. It seemed like a grand wall that moved and swirled with the wind but never broke. I was drawn towards it.” She confessed quietly, biting her lip and only spoke again once they are passed the armed guard in the hallway.

  “I was both intruded and sickened by the mass and yet seemed completely powerless to its allure. I walked through it, and it was a dangerous blindness that gripped me. All my senses were stolen by this weather occurrence. There was no sight, or pitch made available to me. I lost touch and understanding of my surroundings, and it felt like I was upside down in the darkness. I believed this was my fate until I gripped the branches of a tree and climbed into its leaves. I pulled myself out of the cloud, and I found that I could breathe freely once more.”

  Thomas nodded, although he was clueless about why she was telling him such details. He stayed silent, but Evangeline was not looking to him for answers. She had already made those connections herself.

  “Glais is the wall.” She said softly. “This place is my torment, and my marriage is both something I am trapped by and intrigued by.” She looked sideways at him from under her lashes. Never had she made such a proclamation so public, but Thomas did not judge her. He never seemed to, but she doubted his limitations could not be reached.

  “And the tree?” he asked.

  “I believe that to be my heritage.” Evangeline let her fingers touch him for a moment too long before he walked forward to open a door for her. “It is my blood which will make this life liveable.” She crossed the threshold and together they started towards the stables. “There is no escaping Braykith for me. The Gods have answered my prayers.”

  “You mean your dream?” Thomas asked, and Evangeline nodded. The wind caught up her hair, and she let it fall back.

  “Xado knows I am needed here.” The great God of all things in this realm had never been a main fixture in her life until after Glais had attacked her. From that moment onward Evangeline had struggled to understand why she would be doomed to such a marriage and what could the Gods gain from her personal torment. “But now he has told me that I will not die here. It is a small blessing.”

  Thomas frowned. Evangeline was acting strangely. He paused in his step and Evangeline noticed. She paused, and Thomas was forced to meet her. “Eva?” he asked. She looked back at him, saying nothing. He reached for her hair, pushed it away. She ramblings had made him nervous, but there was no bite mark visible to him except for the faint white lines from Glais’ only attack. He let her hair fall back in place. “Are you well?” he asked her.

  “As well as I can be.” She smiled gently. Thomas could not return it. “Thomas, please, just walk with me.”

  He watched her for a moment longer before he nodded. He offered her his arm as he would to someone who was ill or elderly, and Evangeline took it. They walked in silence, Evangeline setting the pace and the direction. All romantic notations that might have crept into his mind could never settle. His concern was growing. His eyes landed on the ring on her finger, the thick gold band and black onyx looked heavy on her delicate hands.

  “Why do you wear his ring?” Thomas asked her suddenly. “Because it is expected?” he guessed at her response before she could answer.

  Evangeline raised her hand but did not take her arm out of his grip as she considered the token. The onyx seemed natural and endeared to her now. The strangely masculine design never felt out of sorts to her, and she studied it now with the same admiration she always had it. “because Glais gave it to me.” She answered him. “It is more of a reminder of what I am than any memory of my marriage.” She frowned.

  “What is it?” Thomas asked. Their walking had led them further from the castle, around the stable and towards the outer border of the castle’s grounds. He felt safe to touch her here without judgement. He cupped her chin softly, and Evangeline rose her eyes to his. “Evangeline, you are being odd.”

  Her lips moved into a smile, but her eyes remained untouched by it. “Only you would notice.” She sighed, looking back the way they had come but realised they were hidden for the moment. “It is hard to pretend.”

  “You don’t need to pretend with me.” He promised her, but he felt that Evangeline didn’t quite believe him. He did not take it personally. Evangeline seemed to accept everything Braykith gave her with suspicion. “I promise. I can always offer you a friendly ear.”

  His hand had stayed on her chin, and Evangeline took a step towards him. Thomas’ fingertips slid back over her cheek and jaw, resting there and she basked in the simple gesture that connected them. “If I sent you away, would you leave?” she asked, her voice shaking.

  Somehow, he knew that she meant not from this spot but from her life, away from Braykith and away from the only life he had known. “No.” He watched her eyes close, and he couldn’t read the expression on her life. Relief that he remained or broken that he refused her. “I’m not leaving you here alone, unprotected.”

  She nodded although his hand limited her head movements. “Thomas, it is a sweet torment to have you in my life.” She whispered, and before he could respond her eyes opened again and whatever moment they had started was instantly gone. His hand dropped. “I am sorry for my moods today. I am glad to have helped Sable, but it is hard with her here. I can never speak freely without first considered what I might pass on will hurt her.”

  Thomas nodded. “I never thought you would have an easy life here at Braykith, but I want to make it easier.”

  “And I know you mean that.” She looked past them, and although they were hidden from sight, it would not be much for routine guards to come across their hiding place. “I still think of that night.” His voice was low, watching the corner of the stable building, not watching Thomas as she went on. “I had asked for you to commit the worse of treasons against the crown.” She suddenly made eye contact with him.

  Thomas felt the warmth spread through him at the memory. The note she has passed along to him had been kept deliberately vague, and Evangeline had seemed so much younger then. The wine had been fresh on her breath, her private chambers barely inviting when he had arrived at her door. Wine glass in hand, Evangeline had invited him into her room and asked him to take her virginity. She had been far more delicate in her wording, and Thomas felt that same radiating heat arrive from his core with just the memory of her words.

  ‘I cannot give myself to a monster for all my days. I need you.’

  Just as he had done that afternoon, he kissed Evangeline’s shoulder now. The thickness of her cloak kept her skin from him, but Thomas did not need to feel it now. He was haunted by the memory of their only time together, blissfully haunted by the thoughts of having her again. “I would do it again.” His voice was soft, Evangeline’s breath on his face as his hovered by her face.

  Evangeline chuckled a soft, melancholy noise. “If I remember correctly, you had planned on leaving me wanting on the bed.” Her gaze had softened, and Thomas was glad for it. She had been scaring him before, but that look was one he recognised. A look that not too many people were allowed to witness. “I do not know what it is between us Thomas, but I have always felt a kinship and safety with you.”

  He wanted to kiss her then, but instead, Thomas nodded gently and swallowed down his desires. “Eva, there is something you are not telling me.” She seemed to freeze at the mention of a secret, but Thomas could not take the words back. “I will not force you to tell me, but I want to help.”

  Evangeline thought of her fight with Glais. She had been cruel to
him. Looking into his broken face, Evangeline had held nothing back and had unleashed the fury that was within her soul. She had told Glais she could never love him, that she was his kept meal and how he had cared for nothing more but her health. The complete opposite truths she had claimed to Sable on days ago. She had claimed her married life was all that one could come to expect and even encouraging at the prospect of Sable and Baxter. Each scenario ate her insides for different reasons.

  She did not want to consider just how Thomas had fit into her life. What hard truths, emotional outrage, and lies she would need to tell him. Evangeline felt the pressure of tears, but she would not cry. Instead, she steadied the cloak around her shoulders and put her hands politely in front of her. “There will always be things I will not be willing to share with you.”

  “Then share with me what you can.”

  Thomas strained to remain calm. It was Evangeline who moved first. “Glais has already expressed his opinion on us.” She said softly. Thomas nodded, but still, he did not move. “Do you know why I am yet to act on his consent?”

  It was not a question he had been expecting, and once again he felt like Evangeline was looking to confuse him, or had she been drugged before he had gotten to her. “It is hardly my place to say.” He murmured.

  “Because I need you alive. Consent means nothing in Braykith.” She scoffed darkly, and would not share her thoughts with him. Instead, Evangeline pulled him into a kiss. A hard kiss with such force it was nothing more than a slamming of lips together than a real kiss. She pressed her lips against him but nothing more. Evangeline’s hand gripped the front of his uniform, the fabric balled up in her fist and twisted so it would be harder for Thomas to retreat. Her free hand stayed at her side; his body turned away from him. Hostility had caused tension all over her body, and Thomas did not try and soften it.

  Her eyes were closed, and Thomas stood firmly in place and allowed Evangeline to push her emotions into his mouth so he could devour them for her. When they parted, Evangeline was breathless, and tears stained her cheeks although Thomas couldn’t remember when she had cried.

  They looked at each other, and when Thomas lowered his mouth to hers, Evangeline met his lips in a soft, wavering kiss. She was the first to pull away, and Thomas allowed it.

  “I don’t know what is happening with you today Eva,” He sighed. “Don’t let it consume you.”

  “Just walk with me, Thomas.” She took his arm, and they walked on in silence, Evangeline keeping her pain to herself, and Thomas incredibly aware of her suffering.

  CHAPTER Three

  S he might be a princess, but there were rare times when Adeline felt like she was royalty. She sat on the floor of her bedroom, ignoring the gossipy voices of her friends as one of them brushed her hair. They yanked hard on the strands, but Adeline did not even seem to notice as she continued to stew in her foul mood. She understood the need for guards, she supposed. Her father was being cautious, or so she had been told repeatedly until the words had lost all meaning.

  She did not think he was being concerned for her safety. Adeline was young but never did she think of herself as naïve. Her brothers held special favour with her father, and she merely existed in the castle. The talk around her grew, a giggle and gushing sound and her friends spoke over and under each other. Adeline had stopped trying to follow the conversation. She knew that she could say any combination of ‘oh the greenery’ or ‘in the coming months? My how time flies’ and it would fit in with whatever was being said. Conversation was not their strong point.

  Adeline had very little in common with her friends beyond their ages. They had been chosen for her out of a small gathering of possible candidates when she was eight. These girls were supposed to be her confidants and maidens. She sighed, unsure if it was her true feelings of just a sour mood that had invaded her mind against her comrades.

  Adeline stood abruptly and after a moment of scrambling the girls stood before in a line.

  “Are you well Addie?” Alys spoke first. She often did, but never to express an opinion. Alys was bound to be asking the questions, making sure she had the information before making her feelings known. Alys had always been that way for as long as Adeline could remember. Only recently did it start to grind on her nerves.

  “I am fine.” Adeline tried to smile, but even she felt like she was forcing it. “I have been thinking.” She started, and she knew their reactions even before it happened. Godiva crossed her arms over her chest. Her hair fell forward, and she shook her tan coloured hair back into place with a dip of her head. Esme smiled, her cheeks puffing out with the movement. Her head would tip to the left, and after a pause, it would move toward the right. Adeline sighed. Was her life always so restrictive of spontaneous effort? Could she have been happy before? These were questions she had obsessed over when she was alone and never asked.

  Alys seemed to have a question about to interrupt her, so Adeline spoke. “My room needs to evolve.” She said, picking up the hems of her long dress and started to stroll around the room. “It has stayed in one realm for too long, and my parents still see me as a child. I have aged fourteen years, and still, I am not trusted in announcements or family meetings. My opinions mean nothing.”

  “Well, the family meetings don’t seem so interesting anyway.” Esme countered, repeating words that Adeline herself had said to her friends. “Unless they are discussing a marriage, who cares?” There was a unison of whispering and nodding. Adeline tried not to yell.

  “While I agree, my prospects for marriage are interesting; I think it is time we forge ahead with a more studious approach.” She thought of Evangeline and how she would spend her time in the garden, the charity her mother would bestow upon the people of Braykith. Those were for the jobs for adults. Adeline still sat in her room playing with dolls and avoiding her ageing nurse.

  Her friends stopped talking and looking around the room; they seemed overwhelmed with the prospect. Adeline sighed. “How will I ever impress a man if I still act like a child?” she said, and suddenly all was well. Godiva, Esme, and Alys came to her with suggestions, and after a moment the smile was genuine on Adeline’s face as she was swept up in the excitement of what was to come.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  K yleigh had been looking for Evangeline for some time. Being confined to the castle did not bother the Queen so much since she often enjoyed staying within its protective walls. As far as her day to day activities, there was nothing she could do without a full escort, but Kyleigh knew that Evangeline did not share her ideals. Instead, Evangeline seemed to be doing her best to distance herself from the usual way the Royals interacted with their citizens. Kyleigh had been making allowances for her new daughter, knowing that Evangeline’s time so far had been traumatic, but since her conversation with Glais, Kyleigh had found a new reason to encourage Evangeline.

  It was an unspoken law that the royal family should remain distant from others. With so many secrets to guard, it only made sense to keep the social circles tight and just to get close with the people they could trust. To make it worse, it seemed that Adeline was feeling inspired by Evangeline’s princess of the people routine and was toying with the idea of taking her walks out into the people instead of around the grounds. Kyleigh could not allow that. Who could say what kind of impression Adeline might find, or what unsavoury people might force upon the young and impressionable princess? Kyleigh shuddered to think.

  For a castle that she spent a lot of time in, Kyleigh felt turned around and lost now. It seemed that she had checked everywhere for her daughter in law, and yet Kyleigh was dumbfounded by the fact that she had indeed not found even a ghost of her. Kyleigh decided to start from the bottom up, checking every room she passed. Surely, Evangeline would not be so hard to find if Kyleigh was so meticulous.

  ---

  Evangeline had come out to the trees that grew wild and dense by her bedroom window. She did her best to remain in sight of Quintus and to follow his guidance. People continu
ed to disappear, and Evangeline knew that bringing Sable into the castle had not gone over well. After bringing such displeasure, it seemed in her best nature to only do right against the crown. Usually, she would go to the markets, collecting this or that and whatever caught her interest. Whenever she ventured into the markets, Evangeline would return with trinkets she didn’t need, or spices that were already in the kitchens would fill her basket. However, today she turned her back on the citizens of Braykith and went to find refuge within her trees.

  She knew she would not be alone. In her efforts to appease Quintus, Evangeline had been accompanied by a guard. Thomas had walked with her, and they had been silent as they approached the trees. It was a comfortable silence, the kind she had always imagined she would share with her husband. Her smile faltered at the idea of Glais. It always did.

  “I sometimes forget we are in Braykith,” Thomas said quietly, and Evangeline looked around the lands. She knew the stories. Black dirt and violent struggles between man and nature just to grow enough crops to feed the Kingdom was part of her education.

  “The way people speak of it, I am glad I never had to witness it.” Evangeline could never imagine such a dead land. “Although, the lands I saw when I first arrived were far from thriving.” Her hand rested on the bark of the tree, and she believed she could feel a light pulse under her palm.

  “It is causing gossip, among some of the superstitious villagers.”

  Evangeline rose an eyebrow. “They call a monster King, and yet my trees bring them concern?” she scoffed, but Thomas did not join her. “Surely they cannot think it the reason to replace me.”

  Thomas shook his head. “No, but they believe you might be the cause of the disappearances.”

  “There will be no pleasing them.” She did not seem concerned by the gossip, and Thomas was worried that she might need to be more aware of other people were saying about it. As if hearing his thoughts, she turned to face him with a serious look on her face. “I struggle to please those closest to me, Thomas. I cannot start to consider each citizen.” She pressed her palm hard against the tree before she turned away. “Anyway, it is not like it is something I can control.”