It was dusk when she awoke and emerged from her pillow haven. She glanced around. A fire was lit in the grate, a fresh tray of food had been brought up, and her midday meal was gone.
Getting out of bed she felt something brush against her leg. Alexandra screamed and jumped back onto her bed. A moment later something jumped up beside her and, purring it rubbed itself against her.
“Oh, it is just the cat. The cat I don’t need. You must be hungry, and you won’t find anything to eat here in my room. There are no mice. Should we see what Taleon left me?”
Picking tidbits from the tray, she fed the cat who sat patiently at her feet waving its tail back and forth with an elegant swish that curled at the tip.
Chapter 15
The next three days passed slowly and icily between her and Taleon. He would not speak to her and Alexandra was dying for something, no someone, to speak to. She had tried to talk with the cat, but it seemed more interested in stalking the room for non-existent mice than listening to her. It was the morning of the fourth day when Taleon brought her tray in that she dared to speak.
“Taleon. Won’t you let me come with you today?”
Taleon looked at her blankly. “You want to come?”
“It is getting very dull in my room, and I think I could take off the bandage so people wouldn’t ask me questions.”
“Edith has asked for you. She has been moved to a different room. I suppose after breakfast I could take you to see her if you wish.”
“Oh I would,” she said, jumping at the opportunity to escape her room, her thoughts, and the things that haunted her existence in it—one of which being the all too amiable and elusive cat.
“Be ready after breakfast, and leave the bandage on. We don’t want to expose it to anything.”
Alexandra nodded obediently, too excited about escaping to really care what she had to do to get out.
In a little while, Taleon knocked on her door.
“Come in,” she answered.
“Ready?” asked Taleon shortly.
“Yes,” she said, rising to her feet.
He nodded his head for her to come out the door and she followed his instruction. They walked silently, the kind of silence that is irritating. It had been eating at Alexandra every day that he didn’t really bother to speak to her but silently went through all the tasks required without a word.
She stopped in the hallway. “Why won’t you speak to me, Taleon? You have hardly said ten words to me in the last three days.”
Taleon turned and looked at her with his blue-green eyes searching her face, his brow drawn together. “Maybe it is because I don’t know what to say to you anymore,” he said in a voice just above a whisper.
The words struck her. “Why not?”
His eyes were still searching her face. “You just don’t get it, do you?”
“Get what?”
Taleon shook his head and kept walking. In a few minutes, they reached a small room, and Taleon opened the door.
“Edith is in here,” he said. After she entered, he closed the door.
Looking around the small room, she noticed the care that had been taken to make it lovely. Brendan squealed and crawled his way to Alexandra’s side. Pulling himself up on her skirt, he held one hand out, asking to be picked up.
Gathering Brendan up, she gently kissed his cheek and buried her face beside his tiny shoulder.
“At least you like me no matter what I believe.”
“Alexandra, so you have come to see me. Come here; sit by me.” sighed Edith happily.
Alexandra did so, swinging Brendan back and forth on her knees.
For a long time, they were silent. Then Edith broke the quiet.
“I don’t know why. Ever since I met you, I have felt I was to tell you my story. It’s not something I ever wanted to tell anyone, but...I want to tell you.” Alexandra felt the thin transparent hand slip into her own.
“In the valley, there is a secret trail that leads to the safety of Raven Castle. Did you use it to come here?”
“No.”
“Have you heard of it?”
Alexandra shook her head.
“Even though Chambria is surrounded on all sides by other nations, there is one way to reach them all safely. It is through Raven Castle. Only a few make it through. King Archibald has so many of the secret trails under his control now that it is hard to come here. Once you are here, you may go anywhere you wish. My father was a guide for the trail. He made many successful trips, then one day one of King Archibald’s men posed as an abused citizen and asked for guidance to Raven Castle. They suspected my father was a guide, but they had never been able to catch him. It was to be my father’s last time. He knew that we were being watched and he wanted to take us all to safety. We were all on the trail with him. The man betrayed us and my family was ambushed. They killed my father, mother, and brothers, but kept me alive.”
“Why?” she whispered, as a shiver ran through her.
“You certainly are a sheltered thing, aren’t you?”
Alexandra squirmed slightly.
“King Archibald wants to change the people’s minds. So he has single girls, marry his soldiers—staunch believers in his cause, men who carry out his plans. He believes this will change their minds, if not we will suffer the consequences. Once a woman has a child, she will do anything to keep them safe, even stay in hell. I was one of the rare and blessed girls. The soldier who married me was beginning to doubt. When he found out that we were going to have a child of our own, he decided it was time to leave Chambria. He knew that his superiors were doubting his loyalty. They were testing him, and though he hadn’t failed, he didn’t want to wait until he had to do something he couldn’t live with. We decided to run while we still had a chance.
“We didn’t want to leave each other, but we both knew our chances would be better if we split our ways. Our meeting place was set halfway to Raven Castle. I arrived safely and waited for him on the ridge. He arrived at the appointed place. I was getting ready to scramble down to greet him, when soldiers poured from the forest. I don’t know where they came from. I watched helplessly as they took him. They slew him before my very eyes. I know he saw me. We both were silent, for Brendan’s sake.”
Edith’s eyes were closed, and tears slid from beneath her eyelashes down her cheeks, soaking her pillow.
“I was too ill to move from where I was hiding. I don’t know how long I stayed there. Everything became a vague blur. When I was well enough to remember anything, I discovered myself in a forester’s cottage with his wife and family. He had found me and brought me home. By the time I was well enough to be on my own with Brendan, bad weather was coming, so we stayed the winter with them. Soldiers found the cottage. Brendan and I had gone out for a walk, and we saw it all happen before our very eyes. They had tracked a fleeing family to the forester’s cottage. It wasn’t our fault, but Brendan and I had to flee for our lives and hide among the woods for several weeks before we finally reached Raven Castle.
“I know they took the forester’s daughter. She is probably wed to a soldier by now, and I pray her fortune is better than mine. How I long for this war to be over. There is no battle, but we all fight its cause. King Archibald will torture the people’s lives, if only to torture King Aric’s heart and the people into submission. We won’t give up, will we, Alexandra?” she said with that wan smile, tears still falling from her sad grey eyes.
“No,” whispered Alexandra under her breath, too choked to say anything else. She lowered her head to hide the thoughts whizzing through her brain with lightning-quick stabs at everything she had ever known. Brendan had curled up in her lap and now was sleeping. She kissed his temple and gathered him close in her arms. She glanced at Edith who was watching her gently.
“Thank you for telling me your story.”
“I don’t know why I just knew I had to tell you. It feels good to have someone else know.”
Alexandra nodded. She wondered w
hat it would be like to tell someone her own horrible dream about King Aric and have them understand and tell her what it all meant. She wanted her mother desperately—oh so desperately.
“I don’t mean to be rude, but I need my rest now. If you would give me Brendan...”
Gently she laid him beside Edith, watching how tenderly she cared for him. It was too much. Rising, she controlled her steps, making them quiet, and softly closed the door behind her. There was so much going on in her heart.
Walking, she tried to sort through her thoughts. She heard the girls she had eaten breakfast with a few days before, sitting in a large group sewing and talking.
“Have you heard of the new law King Archibald has made? Every farmer is to give half his crops to him. Half. Can you imagine! What will they live on this winter?”
“I don’t know.”
“King Aric won’t let them starve.”
“I know, but even with everything that comes from the mine, he can’t possibly buy enough food. With the drought, half of their crops will hardly leave the people with anything at all.”
“I can’t believe that King Archibald would make such a decree,” spoke up Alexandra.
“It’s hard to believe he is so cruel, isn’t it? What on earth is that man made of to make up such laws?” replied one girl.
“How do you know that he made up the law? How do you know it’s not just his soldiers?”
“Because it goes out by royal decree. Royal decree means it comes from the king.”
“Do you really think he is as bad as you all say he is?”
The girls looked at each other, baffled by this girl they thought to be one of their own. “Why? Don’t you?”
“Not really. I just think you might all be wrong about him. Maybe it is because his wife was killed. Wouldn’t you be angry with the people that sided with the rebels responsible for killing your wife? Don’t you think he would have the right to be just a little angry with them and if they didn’t respond, perhaps a little harsh?”
The girls looked around at one another, disturbed and unsure of what to say or do.
“Are you all right?” asked one girl, rising and inching very slowly towards her.
“I just think that you are all wrong about him. Wrong. You hear me, wrong.”
There was a vice-like grip on her shoulder.
“Come with me, please, Alexandra,” Taleon whispered between his teeth. Then he turned to the girls. “Sorry about this. I am afraid she hit her head pretty hard. It will pass, though.” Then he uttered under his breath, “I hope.” He smiled. “Excuse us please,” he said.
Taleon moved his grip to her arm and propelled her before him down a long maze of corridors to the far side of the castle that seemed empty. Alexandra found herself turned to face Taleon, her back against the wall, his hands resting on either side of her shoulders.
His steady blue-green eyes frightened her. There was no anger in them, only a steady gaze that made her heart jump. The lump in her throat rose, and her mouth went completely dry. Nervously she licked her lips, then began to giggle.
It wasn’t really funny, but she couldn’t help it.
Taleon’s face became graver, and she giggled harder.
His eyes became sad. “Is this funny to you, Cassandra?”
“No.” She barely managed not to giggle.
“Is that all you think we are? A game you can play—something to laugh at. Is that what we are?”
The pain that showed in his eyes caused her heart to twinge as she answered. “No. I don’t.”
“Then prove it to me?”
For a long moment, she paused, “I can’t, Taleon.”
“Just who do you think you are? Don’t you think that these people have been through enough without you stirring up their anger; claiming that Archibald the impostor is king? Do you know what they would do to you? Do you have the slightest clue what you just did? The slightest clue!”
Alexandra burst into tears. “I-I just wanted to talk to them. They all have the wrong idea about my father.”
“You have the wrong idea about your father. He has been kind and thoughtful and loving to you, and you go and try to stab him in his back. I am tired of getting you out of situations. You need to sit down and think about what you have said and what is really going on here. Stop thinking about yourself! Think about the people who need your help!”
“How dare you speak to me like that! I am a princess.”
“You aren’t a princess. You are a pain, and until you start acting like a princess, I will not give you the honor of that address. You will have to earn it from me.”
Alexandra’s jaw dropped. No one has ever dared speak to me like that before.
“Stop talking to them and start listening. Maybe you will learn something.”
“I just think if my father knew what was going on, he wouldn’t be so harsh. I am sure he wouldn’t.”
“You really think so?” said Taleon, stepping closer.
“I-I don’t know.” The world seemed to swirl around her, all shouting different things. What should she really believe? She almost didn’t care anymore.
“I want you to meet someone,” he said, taking her hand.
After a rather long jaunt to the other side of the castle, they entered a small room where a woman sat pounding wheat into flour.
A shock reverberated through Alexandra. The woman who sat before her was familiar—a face she had never dreamed in her life that she would see again: her old dear beloved nurse. “Rita! What are you doing here?” exclaimed Alexandra, rushing forward. Then she stopped as the woman turned her head. “Why are your eyes closed?”
“Taleon. Did you have to bring the child here?” the woman asked, her face becoming drawn with displeasure.
“I have been trying to tell her, but I don’t know what else to say.”
“Come here, Cassandra.”
Alexandra took a step back, startled. “Why does everyone call me Cassandra? You used to call me Alexandra and now everyone here calls me Cassandra; why?”
“Child, come here,” she said, patting her knee. Slowly Alexandra approached and knelt beside the woman whom she had known so many, many years ago. Rita laid her hand on Alexandra’s head. A small smile softened her features.
“You are very much like your mother. I can feel it.” She took a long breath before continuing. “Your name is Cassandra, child. It has been since the day you were born, and you were laid in my arms only a few minutes old. Princess Cassandra. Your uncle Archibald ordered everyone to call you Alexandra under severe penalty.”
“Are you quite sure about that?”
“As sure as I know the sun rises and sets even though I can’t see it. I was your mother’s nursemaid and yours until Archibald had Judith take over.”
“Why did you leave me? You were there one day and gone the next. Father said you were taken ill and then later he told me you had died.”
“Still calling him father?”
“What else am I supposed to call him?”
“He is not your father, Cassandra.”
“Stop it! Everyone keeps saying that and I don’t want to believe it!” she said, fighting back the tears.
“It doesn’t matter if you want to believe it, Cassie; it is the truth. You remember the stories I used to tell you?”
Alexandra nodded, then, realizing the woman had not yet opened her eyes, said, “Yes, I loved those stories about my mother.”
“Your uncle came in one night while I was telling one. I didn’t see him. When you were quite asleep, I called you Cassandra. I never wanted you to forget who you really were. I lamented quietly, but aloud that your parents weren’t there. Next thing I knew, there was a dagger in my back, and he was telling me to leave silently or be murdered right then and there. I didn’t wish to wake you and scar your young mind with such a memory, so I left quietly.”
“Why didn’t you come back? Why won’t you look at me?”
“Cassandra, I could
not come back. He blinded me.”
“No! He did not,” gasped Alexandra, refusing to believe it. It could not be true; it was not true.
“Yes, Cassandra, your uncle took me out into the courtyard and made me blind, then turned me out into the streets as a warning.”
“No. He did not; he couldn’t have.”
“Cassandra, I saw him do it with my own eyes. He took my sight with his own hands. Your uncle Archibald is not the man you want to believe he is. Cassandra.” Rita’s hands slipped to Alexandra’s shoulders. “You have grown tall. But you must also grow in so many other ways. Let go of those childish fears that you are holding onto and accept the truth. You know it is true; I can hear it in your voice. Let go.”
Alexandra bolted. Losing herself in the maze of corridors and stairways, she by chance found her room. She slammed the door shut, wishing she had the keys to keep everyone out. All of this was too much to take. Going to the furthest corner of her room, she slid down against the wall. She buried her face in her knees, gasping for air in an attempt to hold back the tears.
Within a few minutes, her door creaked open. It was Taleon’s soft steps coming toward her. She wanted to scream.
“Go away,” she murmured.
Taleon sighed. “You say that an awful lot, you know.”
“Well, it’s true. I want you to go away. Please leave me be.”
“I will leave you alone if you let me show you this one thing..”
Alexandra peered out from behind her folded arms. “One thing?”
“I promise you, and then we will leave it alone. Please, Cassandra,” he said, offering her his hand.
Alexandra took his hand reluctantly, and he pulled her to her feet. Taking her elbow, he led her to the table where he had placed a large book.
The front showed signs of unusual wear. Most of the page edges were dark brown, scars, a testament of survival.
“This book was saved from a fire that your...King Archibald had ordered in the valley.”
Captive of Raven Castle Page 9
