Chapter 2: Rejected
WHOOPS!! This is late, sorry!
Disclaimer: I do not own the Black Jewels Trilogy nor any of Anne Bishop's original characters. However, Valkyrie, Kaetie Rose and anyone else you don't recognize are mine. :D
When the witchfire burned out, I released the shields and turned to Kaetie Rose. The fear had increased and I again fought the urge to remove the source of her fear. Me.
"Kaetie Rose?" I said softly, reaching for her, needing the contact of skin against skin, craving her touch. She flinched away, and this time she did not stand her ground but retreated to the wall, pressing herself against it, watching me with stark terror in her eyes.
"I…you…what…" Her voice broke and she started to sob. I slowly approached and lifted my hand, offering it to her palm up. She shrieked and darted around me to the door.
"Get away from me!" she cried, pounding on the door. "You aren't my sister!"
"Kaetie…"
"Let me out!"
Holding back my own tears, I dropped the shield around the room. She darted from the room, sobbing. The housekeeper, Tia, cautiously poked her head around the doorjamb.
"Mistress?" she called softly. I turned and slinked when the horror entered her eyes when she saw my blood-soaked hands, shirt and trousers. "What…"
"Lady Deera is dead," I said curtly, striding across the room and stepping past her. "Make sure that the news is passed to the right people."
"Prince…what to I tell your father?" she called after me. The servants of my father's house had a hard time deciding what to call me. On one hand, they knew I was female, but on the other, it was obvious, not only in my psychic scent, that I was a Warlord Prince. Most of them switched, like Tia, between Mistress and Prince, as easily as breathing.
I paused in front of my room, but did not turn.
"Tell him…tell him the Bitch finally got what she deserved. Tell him to go find a wife who will actually love him like he deserves and won't play the part of a fucking whore." Stepping inside, I closed the door firmly and leaned against it, my eyes closed, for several moments before standing up.
It was easy to decide what to take. I quickly gathered the few possessions I cared about and stuffed them in a travel knapsack. The collection of stories about Witch. The chip of my Sapphire Jewel left over from my necklace that I kept meaning to get set in a ring, but had never had the time to do so. The pretty silver chain with a sword pendant Kaetie Rose had given me. These valuables I vanished separately then stuffed a few changes of clothes and the box I had stashed my hoard of marks into the knapsack and vanished that as well. Looking around my room once more, but not seeing anything more of value, I grabbed the old broadsword Kian had given me as a joke for Winsol, secured the baldric over my shoulder and wrapped a sight shield around myself. Undetected by the many servants who were milling around in horrified confusion, I snuck into the kitchen and packed another sack with a weeks worth of traveling food, hard cheeses, dried fruits and a good helping of the crusty, nutritional bread that Cook made just for me for when I went on my occasional weekend forays into the forests. Without looking back, I left my childhood home, the only house I had ever lived in, and hurried to the landing web on the edge of town. Grabbing the Sapphire Wind, I threw myself into the Winds in the direction of Ebon Askavi. Maybe at the Black Mountain, I could find acceptance. Maybe there I would find peace. Maybe there I would be able to spend the rest of my miserable life in solitude and never have to see again the look of horror and disgust I had seen on Kaetie Rose's face.
How wrong I would be.