For weeks,
Sneaking up in a blind spot, Paige wondered how she'd get the horse not to hurt her, while she cornered her mistress. Deciding she didn't care if she got hurt, she jumped up, and grabbed Raine's waist. The horse made no move to stop her, so Paige shoved Raine into a corner, and stood over her.
" You can't avoid me forever." She announced proudly. " And you never let Jai explain."
" I don't want him to explain." She replied, trying to sound defiant, although her voice betrayed her by wavering. " I should have expected it." Paige raised a hand, and Raine closed her eyes tightly and cringed. As if expecting to feel the blow. Instead, Paige offered it to her, to help her up.
Raine cracked an eye. She meagerly reached for Paige's hand. She quickly gripped it, and pulled herself up. " Thanks." She whispered, and bolted.
Paige stared after her. " She'll never let us near her again." She whispered, shaking her head.
* * *
Weeks later, Yui once more stood before the Queen. Although it was they last Friday of January, she wore a short sleeved tunic over a thin white shirt.
Thayet sighed as she sat down. A day full of temperamental courtiers, an hour to herself, then an evening full of the same courtiers was not exactly her cup of tea. Sitting sideways in the velveteen armchair, she looked at Yui through downcast, tired, lashes.
" What have you found me?"
Yui looked very solemn. " She seemed to well spoken to be a simple commoner, your majesty, so I checked with the other servants, and no one saw her before she came into your service, so I looked into any disappearances fitting her description in the city. The tattoo you described was the hardest part of it all. So I thought to look into noble disappearances..."
" And?" Thayet prodded when Yui stopped significantly.
" The family had said that she had committed suicide, but I looked into it, and the girls horse was missing, a horse just like Raine's. The only even remote match…" Yui paused again.
Thayet's nerves were on end. She was suddenly very awake, and getting agitated. Her green eyes flared. " WHO IS IT?" She near shouted.
" Lady Raine of Starbrook."
* * *
Raine rummaged through her chest of drawers, searching for her Ravenwood Armory dagger. Finding it beneath her book of myths, she found it, tucked in a packet of old letters. She drew the dagger and its sheath, and tucked it into her belt, which was more like an obi. She started to close the drawer, but the address on the letter drew her attention.
She drew the packet from the drawer, and perched on the window seat to read. They were from her old boyfriend, Leaf. Reading them brought back painful memories, and she found herself struggling to keep the lump from her throat and to see through her stinging eyes.
All of a sudden, she was 14 again. Wandering down the halls of Starbrook castle, looking for her best friend, Leaf. All of a sudden, she was drawn into a corner, and someone kissed her gently. She stepped away, taken aback. It was Leaf. She cocked her head at him, as if to ask what that was for. He simply smiled.
Then it was a month later. She was again, searching for Leaf, this time in the gardens. She was supposed to meet him by the waterlilly fountain, but he never showed up. She wandered and wandered, and heard voices drifting from the rose garden. She tiptoed over, quiet as a mouse, and what she saw made her heart shatter.
Leaf kissing Sapphire… or was it the other way around? Whatever it was, it broke her heart.
Raine looked up from the letter, wiping at her streaming eyes. Leaf had broken her heart; ripped it to shreds and given it back to her in a box. He had tried to apologize, but it wasn't any good. He was the first guy she had ever trusted. And had remained the last. Until recently, anyway. She couldn't possibly believe that she had actually almost trusted Jai. She had come sooo close.
She sat there thinking for a long time. How long, she didn't know. Just sat and thought, thought and sat. And then she thought and sat some more. Finally, she came to the conclusion that somehow, she'd have to learn to trust someone again. Even if it was only Paige. And the start of that was apologizing.
* * *
Later that evening, after dinner, she headed for the squire's wing. Hoping with all her heart that they were in their rooms. After knocking, and standing outside for way too long, she gave up, and took the long way through the gardens back to her rooms. The fact that there was no one else around should have been her first clue to what was going on. Sadly, she didn't realize what was going on until she was grabbed and thrown into the bushes.
Someone tried to tie a gag around her mouth, but she kicked and scratched as hard as she could and was dropped with a fit of cursing. She ran. Just jumped up, out of the bushes, and ran full out toward the palace. Not caring what wing it was, so long as it was lit.
She arrived at the Queen's suite gasping for breath, her dress hanging off one shoulder, and a few scratches bleeding on her arms and face. Thayet looked her up and down.
" To Baird. I know it isn't serious, but go anyway." And so she went.
* * *
Jai sat on the hayloft, swinging his legs in time with Paige's brushstrokes. She was grooming her horse, Corona, a palomino mare with a spicy temper. He let out yet another sigh.
" Jasson, what are you tying to do, sigh the walls down around us?" Paige asked, grinning up at him. " You're coming near your goal then, my friend."
He managed a weak smile. " No... Just thinking. Why did she loose it, Paige? It's not like being a prince is some kind of disease…."He trailed off as a serving maid entered the stables.
" Excuse me, your highness, but your mother wishes your presence." She said merrily, sweeping a curtsey as she spoke.
" I'll be right in." He replied with all the dignity he could muster. The gril practically ran from the stables. Jai looked at Paige. She was starign at him, mouth agape, wearing a look that plainly asked what he had done this time. ' Uh-oh!' he mouthed to her as he swept himself off, and wandered up to his mother's chambers.
* * *
" It doesn't look bad." Baird said, examining her scratches. " This one's a bit deep, but nothing that really requires a healer's attention. So why in the name of Mithros did she send you to me?" It seemed rhetorical, so Raine didn't answer.
" What's this?" He asked, pointing at the tattoo on Raine's arm, with her UN-luck, it was the one that the sleeve had been torn off of.
" That?" Raine asked a little too innocently. " Nothing." She scrambled to pull the scraps of fabric up over it.
Baird gave her a skeptical look, and waited for further explanation. When it didn't come, he sighed, and had her jump off the table and go back to Thayet's. " Don't strain yourself, now!" he called after her. Making sure that she was safely out of earshot, he pulled out a scrying crystal, and contacted Sir Myles.
" Yes, Baird?" The pudgy knight sighed.
" I need some information about a tattoo."
* * *