26 . 11 . 08
Happy Red Wednesday!
After Faidn woke up on the morning of the ball, he went to visit Rose, as he normally did. She was tossing and turning and feverish, so he stayed and helped as best he could. He wasn't at his forte when surrounded by motherly women who knew more about nursing than he did, but he didn't want to leave, just in case she got worse.
He stepped out into the hallway to get some air somewhere around midmorning. All the hustle and bustle was reminding him of the medic stations at war. Carvin shoved Faidn's arm with his shoulder and Faidn took his head out of his hands.
"You alright?"
"Yeah, yeah," Faidn said. "She's not doing well, Vin."
Carvin frowned.
"Is she going to be alright?"
"I dunno," Faidn said. "I hope so. What brings you down here, though? I'm sure the nobles and dignitaries wanted luncheons and teas all day; it couldn't have been for nothing that you escaped."
Carvin laughed, but it was the laugh of someone who wished that it wasn't true.
"You're not kidding. I just wanted to remind you about the ball tonight—"
"You don't expect me to stay for the whole thing, do you?" Faidn said, narrowing his eyes. "That was not part of the deal."
"No," Carvin said quickly. "You can leave, but you're escorting Lilliana, right?"
"I don't really care at this point."
"Well, she's expecting you to," Carvin said, obviously rushing. "You'll be announced after Nre and I, and then you have to stay for the first dance. It's the royal's dance. Then you can leave, but be discreet, please. Don't forget that this ball is partially for peace between Berensia and Trule. Have you heard the latest rumors?"
"Carvin," Faidn said flatly.
"Right, sorry," Carvin said, and Faidn could see that his friend's nerves were on the raw edge of insanity. "You wouldn't hear the rumors. Well, since you never appear for any social events, and you're suddenly showing up for the ball, word has it that the Trule dignitaries think you're planning some sort of war conference during the ball."
"What?!" Faidn spluttered. "Why aren't we getting along with them, anyway?"
"It's a long story," Carvin said tiredly. "Just be careful, please. The peace between our two countries might very well hang on this ball, and your appearance at it."
"Alright. I'll slip out when no one's looking."
"Thank you. Try to come back a few times, if you would, just so they don't suspect anything."
"You nobles do things in such a roundabout way."
Carvin smiled tightly.
"No!" Lilliana shouted; the infernal dress fitting had completely spalled her fragile temper. "NO! Stop poking me, stop prodding me, and by all means, STOP putting more frills on this monstrosity."
"Princess Linna," the dressmaker started, with significantly less patience than he had started with two hours ago.
"No!" she said flatly, swatting away his hands, which were holding a small roll of lace and pins. "I'm finished!"
"Your dress is almost done," the man said irritably. "Please, hold still. Ten more minutes."
"No!" she repeated, her voice becoming more shrill. "NO!"
"Linna, what is going on here?" Nana asked authoritatively, walking in on the scene with arms akimbo.
"This fiend is besmirching my wardrobe with this frothy lace! Have I not enough lace on here to clothe three princesses? I am finished with this fitting!" Lilliana cried, her cheeks flushed and eyes shining.
"He's almost done," Nana insisted, taking Linna's arms firmly in her strong hands before the girl could flail them wildly and knock someone in the eye. "Hold still, you little squirrel. It's a wonder he could get anything done with all your whiny, cross chatter."
"It's a wonder I'm still alive!" Lilliana said harshly, struggling against Nana's grip. "Poking, sewing, cutting, shoving, scrunching, standing, standing, standing! No! I am finished with this. Let me go at once! I order you!"
Nana and Lilliana stared at each other, fiery chocolate eyes meeting narrowed honey-colored ones.
"Lilliana? Is everything alright?"
Nre pushed the door open, tired blue eyes taking in the whole scene. She sighed.
"Lilliana, please—"
"NO!" Lilliana bellowed. "I WON'T! WOULD YOU ALL STOP ORDERING ME AROUND LIKE I'M SOME KIND OF SLAVE? LET ME GO! NOW!" Lilliana wriggled so hard that Nana had little choice than to let go.
The girl bolted from the room, shoving past her mother rudely and disappearing around the corner. Nre looked like she might cry.
"Don't worry about her, your majesty," Nana said kindly, patting the younger woman on the arm. "She just needs to cool down. We'll have to rush a bit with her hair, and she might have to miss dinner, but she will be ready in plenty of time for the ball."
Nre nodded and managed a smile.
"Yes, thank you. And you, Brent. I'm sorry for her fit."
The dressmaker, who had been packing his things, looked over his shoulder and smiled grimly.
"Children will learn their lessons, one way or another."
They kept walking in spite of their wounds, still holding the Natalie Locket safely in Julia's inner pocket.
Lilliana shivered in delight and kept walking toward the tree, putting the afternoon's events behind her.
"Julia, can you shield this area?" Derwin asked.
"I don't – think so," she said, her statement halved by a grimace of pain. "Not strong enough."
"Alright," Francis muttered with a worried frown. "Well, we need to set up camp here anyway. Hopefully we're far enough away from those centaurs to be relatively safe."
"Here, let me see it," Deborah ordered, pushing her blonde hair out of her face and kneeling beside where Julia had collapsed.
Julia wordlessly pushed her hair out of her face, exposing a nasty looking gash on the side of her head, obviously gifted by one of the centaurs.
"There's little more dangerous than a centaur's blade," Derwin said quietly. "Other than a book in the wrong hands."
Lilliana frowned. That's an odd thing to say... she thought, puzzling over what Derwin could mean. Then she made a face, imagining what Julia must be feeling as she read about Deborah bandaging the wound. I wish I could be Julia, she thought vaguely. She's so brave.
Then, without warning, she became lightheaded and nauseated. She remembered thinking that she might be about to faint, and how storylike that would be, before her vision darkened.
"Lilliana?"
"Princess Lilliana!"
Lilliana's Nana and Abe ran into each other, both flustered and running. Abe grabbed her arm before she lost her balance, and they moved out of the flow of traffic.
"Are you looking for Lilliana too?" the older woman asked, breathing hard.
"I certainly am – the Lady of Shoes was expecting her an hour ago!"
"I thought she would have returned from her sulk by now," Nana said in frustration. "Did she not come running to you?"
"No," Abe said, confused. "Was she supposed to?"
"No," Nana said slowly, furrowing her brows, "but she threw a temper tantrum, so I assumed she would run to you or Stephen, since she has no books to read."
"Well, I've checked Stephen's chamber, and Rose's, already, and she wasn't there. I've also checked the library, – just in case – and the kitchens," Abe said.
"And I've checked the entire garden," the Nana supplemented, "including the iris field."
They fell silent.
"Where else does she hide?" Nana asked.
"Her room," Abe said.
"I just checked back there to make sure she hadn't run in while I was looking for her."
"Then I have no idea."
Nana looked grim.
"The ball starts in three hours. If she's not there..."
She trailed off. Abe's eyes reflected that he was thinking of all the unpleasant possibilities.
"I'll spread the word. She's probably only hiding."
"No doubt, she's hoping to stay hidden until the ball is over," Nana said darkly. "But, her reputation is already unstable with most of the nobility and surrounding royalty. She needs to make a good impression at this ball."
"I'll set the servant children to scouring the castle," Abe said with a grin. "If she's here, they'll find her, I'd bet my life on it."
"I hope you're right."
Abe caught a girl by her elbow as she ran past them, ducking through the crowd with ease.
"Violet, tell all the children to meet me in the Secret Room as fast as they can run."
"Okay!" Violet said, not even questioning her idol's reasons.
She vanished in the teeming hallway as unexpectedly as she'd arrived, and soon the word had traveled through the palace.
"Friends!" Abe called.
The room, about the size of the royal's dining room, was packed to the limit with all the servant's children too young to have a real job. Toddlers were being watched carefully by older siblings or friends, while the older subset leaned against the back wall and watched the proceedings with all the nonchalance they could muster.
"Friends!" Abe called again, his voice carrying nicely in the unused room.
The children quieted. Before Abe drew breath to speak, he had a thought. When he'd met up with Sarah and Stephen and the others the night before, they'd told him to keep an eye out for a book. Well, a book could hide in as many places as a girl could. He'd add it to the main attraction on the off chance that a child might find it. How had Stephen described it?
"Princess Lilliana is hiding somewhere in this castle."
Whispers and murmurs stole through the room. A few tales of old hide-and-seek games played with the princesses began to be retold before the talkative ones were stared down by Abe.
"The first person to find her will have a whole hour's ride on my white pony—"
Gasps and muted cheers were accompanied by excited whispers, mostly from the girls.
"—not to mention the glory that would come from beating out the entire castle in Berensia's largest game of hide-and-seek ever recorded."
Some of the boys in the back perked up at that. Abe grinned. It was working as he hoped it would.
"Also, look out for a dark green book with gold lettering on the cover. You can have..." He considered an appropriate prize. "...a short ride on the pony if you find it. There is only one rule: do not tell any of the palace guests what you're doing. On your mark, get set, GO!"
The stampede to get out of the room almost crushed an unfortunate, bewildered nine-year-old, but her friends were good enough to pull her along with them. Abe watched them all file out and grinned again. He was willing to bet his beautiful white pony that Lilliana would be found within fifteen minutes.
He settled down for the wait.
The whispered news that Lilliana was missing finally made it to the royal chambers. Nre was beside herself. Carvin tried to calm her down, but she would have none of it.
"She has gone missing!" she said shrilly, jerking her head spasmodically, the action ripping another pin from her hair.
The servant sighed and began to re-pin for the fifth time.
"Do not move, dear," Carvin said softly. "All the servant children are searching for her. Abe is sure they will find her soon."
"How long have they been searching?"
Carvin hesitated. He'd been hoping she wouldn't ask.
"Carvin?"
She looked at him suspiciously, loosening a braid. The servant began again. Carvin kissed her cheek and rubbed her shoulders briefly.
"Stop moving. You're as bad as Linna."
"You didn't answer my question," she prodded.
"An hour," he sighed.
"And they haven't found her yet?" she said, panicked. "What will the dignitaries from Trule think?"
"Relax," Carvin pleaded, though the unpleasant thought had occurred to him, "please. I'm sure they'll find her. She's just hiding someplace – she didn't exactly want to go to this ball, did she?"
"No," Nre said, looking at him.
Her bloodshot eyes, pale, anxious face, and half-finished hair made her an intimidating presence.
"But I do not think she would run away, either."
"You never could know with Lilliana," Carvin said fairly.
"But Carvin, what if – "
"No what iffing, dearest," Carvin interrupted. "We can do nothing but wait for her to be found."
"I'm finished, your highness," the servant said.
"Thank you so much, Henrietta," Nre said, examining the twisting masterpiece in the mirror with worried eyes. "I'm sorry for being so difficult."
Henrietta smiled and squeezed Nre's hand in an unexpected gesture of warmth.
"I hope you find Princess Lilliana," she said softly, putting the hair things away and leaving the room.
Nre took a deep breath and tried to blink back tears. Carvin rubbed her shoulders slowly, kneading out some of the tension.
"Don't worry, Nre. Please."
"I love you, Carvin."
His fingers paused for a moment and a hint of a smile lingered on his taut, stressed face.
"I love you too."
Two more hours passed, and one by one the dejected children checked in with Abe, saying Lilliana was nowhere to be found, inside the palace or out.
"We've searched the dungeons, down to the last rat hole," Ram reported on his way to check up on the others in the garden.
"First floor is clear," Violet said worriedly, waiting for her friend, who was checking the sixth floor, to arrive.
"She's not on the second floor," insisted Edith.
"Or the third!" echoed her sister Eden.
They both left after that to continue searching in other areas of the castle.
By the time there was only an hour left until the ball, Abe had heard from a representative of every single area in the castle and the grounds surrounding it, all the way to the forest.
"I found the book," Gabriel said happily. "When can I ride the pony?"
He held out a green book that looked like it had been dropped and left there; some of the pages were wrinkled and dirty. Absentmindedly, Abe brushed the dirt off the pages and smoothed them before closing the book again.
"Tomorrow at noon. Where did you find it?"
"By the woods behind the iris field," Gabriel said.
"Great work," Abe congratulated. "Keep looking for the princess!"
Gabriel left to double check the turrets with some of his friends. Someone coming in to report a locked door on the eighth floor, with a half hour left until the ball, made Abe forget the book entirely. He ran out to find the key and open the door, leaving the book sitting on the dirty floor.
What happened to Lilliana? Now that they have the book, can Gregory help them? Or will Abe remember to give it to someone? So much more to find out! Ah!
Mazkeraide: Updating! I hope your speculator is working this time. Black plushy carpet? That sounds lovely. Mmm. --imagines squishing new carpet between toes--
FaylinnNorse: I'm glad my chapter drove you to such a poetic review. I read twice and smiled the whole time. I hope you keep enjoying it!
Reviewers get a bowl of chips of their choice, speculators get dip of their choice.