A/N: I know I said I'd have this up in two weeks, and it's been four, and
I'm BAD! But I really will have the next chapter up in two weeks. And the
Abella's DO have a purpose, they aren't just totally random characters.
Enjoy!
*************************************
"So," I said to Aiven as I bounced along on Dewdrop, "when will we reach Bast City?" I petted Dewdrop's mane. Despite myself, I was happy to see the mare again. I had lots of good memories concerning her. Well, maybe not lots, exactly. Or good ones, as I always seemed to end up completely sore. They weren't very original memories either, seeing how they were identical.
"In a while," Aiven responded to my brilliant attempt to strike up conversation. We had been riding since noon - or since three, considering the fact that we had stopped for several hours at a famous inn for a nine- course meal. We had been riding for five hours since, and in my opinion it was definitely time for food again. For a nine-course meal, there was surprisingly little that I considered editable. Except for the chocolate cake. That was excellent. I was convinced that I was going to spend the next few nights dreaming about that cake.
"In a while?" I repeated in dismay. "What kind of answer is that? I think you enjoy not directly answering my questions."
Aiven glared at me. "All right," he said, sounding aggravated. "We'll get there in three weeks, two days, six hours, thirty-seven minutes, and fourteen seconds."
I blinked. Perhaps my mind was still dimmed from all that chocolate, as it took me a few moments to realize he was being sarcastic. "You just made that up!" I accused him, as if he might not have noticed. Then I reconsidered. "You did, didn't you? You didn't have a vision or anything about how long it will take us to reach Bast, did you?"
"Of course not," Aiven said, sounding exasperated. "You think our visions are about things that unimportant? Besides, it's too exact. Visions aren't like that."
"But there are all those stories about Seers predicting exactly when a king or whoever will die."
"That's different. That's not time."
"Really? I hadn't noticed." I told him, straight faced.
"Shouldn't you be annoying Lady Mariva with your chatter, not me?" Aiven asked in exasperation.
"It is not *chatter*," I said in as dignified a manner as I could manage.
He fixed me with a hard stare.
"It isn't," I defended myself. "And it's not like I wouldn't rather be with her than you. In case you've forgotten, I've been talking with her all day. She was just called away to talk with her cousin several minutes ago."
"Several long minutes," Aiven muttered. "Why didn't you ask her when we'd reach Bast?"
I chose to ignore that. "And what about dinner?"
Aiven had the look on his face that meant he was seriously considering gagging me. "Dinner," he said in a calm, controlled, I-want-to- kill-you-but-I'm-too-much-of-a-gentleman voice, "will be at Lord Forlakent's manor."
"That's an odd name," I mused. "I wonder -"
"Damslae, do you WANT me to shove a gag in your mouth?!" Aiven exploded. I grinned. Maybe I enjoyed annoying him a little too much.
Suddenly, his mouth tightened and his face paled. "What's the matter?" I asked. He shook his head, opened his mouth, and closed it again. Ooooh. Speechless.
"Nothing," he said tightly. An uncomfortable second passed. "I am sorry for how I addressed you, Lady La -" he snapped his mouth closed. "Princess Laeliena," he finished in a somewhat choked voice, looking straight ahead.
I watched him, a little upset. *Princess* Laeliena? There was no way anyone was referring to me as a princess. Especially Aiven. And, I admitted to myself, I didn't mind him calling me Damslae. He'd always called me that. "I'm not a princess," I told him.
"You shouldn't be," he said, his voice deadpan. "The daughter of the Eternal Lah'nayin should not house the reborn soul of Laeliena, Princess of Lahtorli. But as you do, you are. Royalty."
"Everyone says Lahtorli is gone, a nothing kingdom! I can't be princess of something that does not exist!"
"It does!" Aiven countered, sounding angry now. "Princess Laeliena is to try to reawaken her kingdom, her land of the elves and the Faerie and everything that was destroyed. She is to lead a war for the redemption of her kind! There is no way she should be you! Don't you understand? These two prophecies are happening together! Now, and they shouldn't be. They should be spaced hundreds on years apart, but instead they are colliding together, as one, in a single person. You!
"And that may destroy the world!"
I stared at him in shock as he snapped his mouth shut. After several deep breaths, he spoke again. "Forget I said that," he commanded.
"Are you joking? Forget that? But you have to explain. I don't want to lead an army. And why are both prophecies together? And why - why me?" I was dismayed to hear my own voice ask all these questions in a high pitched, nervous tone. Aiven dealt me a long, uninterpretable look. "That," he said in his regal, formal voice, "is what the Seers are trying to discover."
************************************
Several hours later we reached Lord What's-His-Name's house, which was impressive and large, and made my fingers twitch once more. I managed to restrain myself for slipping anyone's possessions into my pocket, though, for fear that whatever had overcome me with the Crown Prince's ring would occur again. It was enough to make me shudder. Except I didn't, because I was too busy playing the part of an aloof and beautiful lady.
The lord's grand hallway fit all of our small party; we included Aiven, myself, Mariva, Prince Tullon, ten knights, six lady-maids, twenty soldiers, and ten servants, rounding us out to the wonderful number of fifty. I didn't think Mariva and I needed three maids each; actually, I thought they would hinder me more then help me dress. But since when does anyone ever care what I think? Never.
Except for occasionally when Aiven actually acted like he wanted my good opinion, but that was so rare and hard to tell that it didn't really count.
The servants were not invited into the hall, though everyone else was. They disappeared to wherever it is servants go, probably to gossip and say mean things about all of us. I found myself wishing I could be with them as I curtsied to the lord. Then - joy - I listened to him fawn all over Aiven and the prince calling them by long, flowery titles, in which the lord talked about himself in the third person.
"And who are these fair flowers of maidenhood?" he asked, bowing low to Mariva and me. "Your most majestic Highness and Lord Seer, will you not allow this most devoted of your servants the names of such a perfect example of the bloom of noble ladies and chastity?"
I would have preferred a simple, "Who are you?" And where did the "chastity" part come from?
"Lady Damslae of Brientlon, and Lady Mariva of Cillyon," Aiven said briefly, obviously not caring to emphasize Mariva's titles as he could have - or mine for that matter, but apparently it was suppose to be a secret. My being a princess, that is. And the daughter of the Eternal Lah'nayin. I wondered idly if I was ever going to learn exactly who she was. Was I her daughter of blood, or spirit, or what? Had she been human at some time? And why would she just abandon me on the streets of Cyri?
"My ladies, this humble lord cannot express his joy and delight to be so honored -" I stopped listening. Flowery language is for flowers, and humans have no business speaking it. I did not want to hear the man ramble on and on about what anyone else could say with a "Pleasure to meet you."
"Wake up," Aiven said several minutes later from the side of his mouth, hitting me with an elbow. I startled little, and looked around. The lord was leaning back in his chair, looking mighty pleased with his ability to refer to himself as "this most devoted of your servants."
"Is he done?" I murmured back.
"Yes," Aiven said, after glancing at the lord, who was giving his servants some instructions. "I think we might actually be able to go to our chambers now."
That, of course, would be too easy. Relax? Oh no. We had to meet the lord's daughters. "Ah," the lord said, waving his arms as two tall blondes entered. "Allow this most adoring lord to introduce the two most dazzling blossoms in his life."
They were identical twins, it was easy to tell. Blond upswept hair bound in a high bun and a cascade of curls. Both of them had wide, gray eyes and three freckles on their left cheekbone arranged in a triangle. I frowned, studying it. Maybe it was a birthmark instead.
They were also, to my disgust, dressed the same as well. The twins wore long, virginal white gowns along with lacey gloves no one ever wore anymore. Pearls dangled from their earlobes and necklaces. They looked pristine and pure, especially with their wide eyes and virtuous expression. They were the type of girls who made other girls feel dirty and crude in contrast.
"Twins?" Aiven muttered to me. "I HATE twins."
"Why?" I asked. While I wasn't inclined to like these ones, I had known some in Cyri. And it was an established fact that twins made excellent confusing thieves.
"If I show favor to one in any way, I have to show it to the other. Or worse, I say something indiscreet to one which I meant to say to the other and then all sorts of things happen." He grimaced. I smiled over at the blondes as if to say, "take that. He doesn't like twins!"
Not that I would of cared if he did, of course. For that to work, I would have to be interested in Aiven.
"My daughters," the lord said, dropping the annoying third person speech. "Isabella and Annabella, my pride and joy."
They dropped curtsies in sync, causing Mariva and I to exchange envious glances over their skills. We weren't talented enough to drop identical curtsies at the same time.
"Your Highness, Lord Seer," they said in unison. They had the annoying beautiful, bell-like voices that perfectly matched their physical perfection.
Tullon and Aiven greeted the ladies in solemn, we-have-a-very- important-mission voices, and kissed the twins in hands.
"They're all acting sickeningly noble," Mariva whispered to be as everyone else was caught up being courtly.
"I know. It makes me want to do something completely outrageous," I responded.
The entire dinner was like that; annoying compliments, gallant behavior, and despite Aiven saying he hated twins, he obviously did not hate these two. Then there was the father with his terribly obvious matchmaking attempts, and the girls fluttering their lashes an unhealthy number of times.
"They're either really stupid, or really clever," I whispered to Mariva as we watched them daintily eat their food.
"Probably clever. It would be to simple if they were idiots."
We were finally able to beg fatigue and escape to the room we were sharing; a room with the theme of silver and pink, that made Mariva and I blanch as we crossed the threshold.
"It doesn't match your hair," my friend told me seriously as I flopped down on the pale pink bed.
"This whole place doesn't match ME," I groaned.
"That's because you're jealous of the Abella's," Mariva said smugly.
"I am NOT," I said with a glare. "Why would I be jealous?" Well, THAT was a stupid question.
"Oh, I don't know," Mariva rolled her eyes. "Maybe because Aiven was paying an abnormal amount of attention to them."
"I don't care," I started to say, but stopped short when the door opened to reveal one of the twins.
"My ladies?" she said in a soft, musical voice. I watched as she took small steps into our room, that stupid white dress she wore restraining her movements. I wondered if she and her twin always wore the same clothes, or if it was just tonight. She smiled at us in that perfect, charming matter she had used with Aiven earlier that evening. Her pale, unblemished face looked earnest as she looked at us. "Are you well?"
Mariva and I glanced at each other, then instantly contrived to look tired. "Only tired," Mariva said in a quiet voice with a gentle smile.
"Well, I won't keep you awake any longer," the twin said, smiling back. "How long will your journey be?"
See girl, I thought in annoyance, NOT keeping us awake any longer requires you not to ask questions, and to go away.
"Several weeks," Mariva said.
"Where are you going?"
"To Bast," I told her.
She nodded. "'Tis a lovely city. I envy that you are to see it."
Yeah, so we can be involved in a war that might involve the end of the world. I envy me too.
"Fare thee well on your journey," the lady said, curtsying to us. Mariva and I exchanged glances. Fare thee well?
"You must be visiting the king in Bast, are you not?" she asked us, titling her head slightly.
"We are," I murmured, glancing pointedly at the clock.
"Oh, I do wish I could meet him."
Mariva and I glanced at each other, then back at the girl who showed no inclination of moving. "I'll see my betrothed also," Mariva mentioned in an I-don't-really-feel-like-telling-you-this-but-I-have-nothing-else-to-say voice.
"Oh?" the Abella said, perking up. "How delightful! Who is he?"
"The Lord Seer of Bast," Mariva muttered, a little smile dancing on her lips.
"You must be so happy to be seeing him. I would love to be engaged to a Seer!" She looked expectantly at Mariva.
"Yes, it is," Mariva said. "I love him very much."
"Splendid!" the Abella exclaimed. "And he loves you?" she pressed, her eyes wide.
"He does," Mariva said, nodding gravely. I rolled my eyes. I had no patience for this sort of mindless chatter. Odd; neither of the twins had seemed so empty headed at dinner.
"Splendid," she murmured again, eyelashes lowering and a small smile curving her lips. She looked up at us. "My apologies, for this must seem a silly question, but which of the royal twins was it that accompanies you?"
"My cousin, His Royal Highness Prince Tullon, the Mage-Prince."
The girl's eyes flashed. "Your cousin?" she asked, then turned to me. "Are you of the same fabulous bloodlines, my lady?"
Did I really have to talk with this girl? I was bored to tears, and just wanted her to leave so I could go to sleep. "My blood is not quite so exalted," I said, not managing to dig up one of the polite smiles Mariva had been serving all evening. Instead I felt the overwhelming urge to scare the girl away with tales of my less then luxurious childhood.
"Who were your parents?" she asked me, blinking her eyes and looking remarkably like a lost doe.
"Two nobles," I said in exasperation. I gentled my voice. "I am sorry, my lady, but I can feel this journey has simply exhausted me. I would hate to fall unconscious in the middle of conversing with you, so I feel it would be best if I would retire at this moment." What can I say? Being sleepy makes me talk in long, winding sentences.
"But of course. A good night to the both of you." With another curtsy, she was gone.
"She was weird," Mariva whispered, and I nodded.
"Yeah - and way too nosy." For a minute or too we mulled over her strange behavior, but our trip really did catch up to us, and we were asleep in three minutes.
************************************
I woke up early the next day, before the sun had risen, before Mariva was up. I slipped out of bed after lying there for half an hour, and made my way down to the dining hall. The servants were already up and moving about the corridors, preparing for yet another day in which they pretended they didn't exist the snobby nobles and there equally snobby guests, which unfortunately included me.
I collided into one servant girl turning a corner, who gave me an aghast look and fell into a curtsy, squeaking out apologies. I pulled the frightened girl to her feet and told her no, I was not going to report her and have her dismissed. I sighed in frustration. Why did everyone have to think I was a noble? I wasn't. I didn't even LIKE nobles. I had spent most of my life hating them for their money and their arrogance and their behavior, and now all the normal people - commoners - though I WAS one. It wasn't pleasant.
Of course, it was a little fun having the kind of people who had looked down their noses at an lying, cheating thief smile and curtsy to me now. But still. It was way too weird.
I reached the dining hall, still wishing no one thought I was a noble. I was a normal person. A thief. End of story. Except for the fact that thieves usually didn't wear velvet clothes and jewels like I had been wearing recently.
Servants bustled about, setting tables and bringing in flowers. They stopped and turned as one when I entered, and most faded away into the background. Only one older, balding man stepped forward.
"Lady," he said, bowing awkwardly. "How may I help you?"
I was a little bit unnerved by the servants' behavior. "Uh - is there a garden here? That I can walk around in?"
The man nodded and showed me through two hallways. Bowing again, he left me at an open archway that led into a well-tended garden. I walked along one path, stopping to look at the flowers and smelling them, until I turned a corner and saw one of the Abella's.
"My lady," she said. "Good morning." She curtsied to me.
I curtsied back. "And a good morning to you," I said politely.
"I trust you slept well?"
"I did. Thank you."
We continued on, side by side, the Abella with a thoughtful look on her face. Not air-headed at all, I concluded. The twins might act that way at times - like this one or her sister had last night - but for some reason I was convinced they were smarter then they let on.
She definitely wasn't letting on this morning, I thought as she began to chatter on about the flowers. This Abella seemed to know as much about flowers as Lady Jainalii knew about cloth. I listened without saying anything until her tone changed to a curious one, and she asked, "Where are you going, your company?"
So she wasn't the same Abella from last night. I had been wondering.
"Father told us we weren't to ask," the blond continued, casting a sidelong look at me, "so of course I'm dying to know. I'll understand if you don't tell me . . ." her voice trailed off as she saw my expression. I'm sure it wasn't a happy one.
"Your sister asked me last night, and I told her." In fact, Mariva and I had probably said more then we should have, but we hadn't really thought about it.
An odd look passed over the Abella's face. "Did you tell her anything . . . important?"
I shrugged irritably. "Probably."
The girl looked like she was treading on thin ice. "My lady, my sister . . . It is best not to say that much to her. She is not exactly to be trusted."
I looked at her sharply. "And why is that?"
She didn't explain; instead we were interrupted by a maid who called out to us, informing us breakfast was read, if we pleased.
What if we didn't please?
So, I thought unhappily as we walked inside, her sister wasn't trustworthy. Fabulous. And I didn't even know whether her sister was Isabella or Annabella. I'd have to ask her who she was, though I'd tried to avoid it; it was embarrassing confessing I didn't know whom I'd been talking to all morning. I didn't get the chance to ask her as we were swept apart as soon as we entered the dining hall.
Great, I thought as I watched her join her twin. I won't be able to tell them apart later in the day either. They're wearing identical clothes again.
*************************************
"So," I said to Aiven as I bounced along on Dewdrop, "when will we reach Bast City?" I petted Dewdrop's mane. Despite myself, I was happy to see the mare again. I had lots of good memories concerning her. Well, maybe not lots, exactly. Or good ones, as I always seemed to end up completely sore. They weren't very original memories either, seeing how they were identical.
"In a while," Aiven responded to my brilliant attempt to strike up conversation. We had been riding since noon - or since three, considering the fact that we had stopped for several hours at a famous inn for a nine- course meal. We had been riding for five hours since, and in my opinion it was definitely time for food again. For a nine-course meal, there was surprisingly little that I considered editable. Except for the chocolate cake. That was excellent. I was convinced that I was going to spend the next few nights dreaming about that cake.
"In a while?" I repeated in dismay. "What kind of answer is that? I think you enjoy not directly answering my questions."
Aiven glared at me. "All right," he said, sounding aggravated. "We'll get there in three weeks, two days, six hours, thirty-seven minutes, and fourteen seconds."
I blinked. Perhaps my mind was still dimmed from all that chocolate, as it took me a few moments to realize he was being sarcastic. "You just made that up!" I accused him, as if he might not have noticed. Then I reconsidered. "You did, didn't you? You didn't have a vision or anything about how long it will take us to reach Bast, did you?"
"Of course not," Aiven said, sounding exasperated. "You think our visions are about things that unimportant? Besides, it's too exact. Visions aren't like that."
"But there are all those stories about Seers predicting exactly when a king or whoever will die."
"That's different. That's not time."
"Really? I hadn't noticed." I told him, straight faced.
"Shouldn't you be annoying Lady Mariva with your chatter, not me?" Aiven asked in exasperation.
"It is not *chatter*," I said in as dignified a manner as I could manage.
He fixed me with a hard stare.
"It isn't," I defended myself. "And it's not like I wouldn't rather be with her than you. In case you've forgotten, I've been talking with her all day. She was just called away to talk with her cousin several minutes ago."
"Several long minutes," Aiven muttered. "Why didn't you ask her when we'd reach Bast?"
I chose to ignore that. "And what about dinner?"
Aiven had the look on his face that meant he was seriously considering gagging me. "Dinner," he said in a calm, controlled, I-want-to- kill-you-but-I'm-too-much-of-a-gentleman voice, "will be at Lord Forlakent's manor."
"That's an odd name," I mused. "I wonder -"
"Damslae, do you WANT me to shove a gag in your mouth?!" Aiven exploded. I grinned. Maybe I enjoyed annoying him a little too much.
Suddenly, his mouth tightened and his face paled. "What's the matter?" I asked. He shook his head, opened his mouth, and closed it again. Ooooh. Speechless.
"Nothing," he said tightly. An uncomfortable second passed. "I am sorry for how I addressed you, Lady La -" he snapped his mouth closed. "Princess Laeliena," he finished in a somewhat choked voice, looking straight ahead.
I watched him, a little upset. *Princess* Laeliena? There was no way anyone was referring to me as a princess. Especially Aiven. And, I admitted to myself, I didn't mind him calling me Damslae. He'd always called me that. "I'm not a princess," I told him.
"You shouldn't be," he said, his voice deadpan. "The daughter of the Eternal Lah'nayin should not house the reborn soul of Laeliena, Princess of Lahtorli. But as you do, you are. Royalty."
"Everyone says Lahtorli is gone, a nothing kingdom! I can't be princess of something that does not exist!"
"It does!" Aiven countered, sounding angry now. "Princess Laeliena is to try to reawaken her kingdom, her land of the elves and the Faerie and everything that was destroyed. She is to lead a war for the redemption of her kind! There is no way she should be you! Don't you understand? These two prophecies are happening together! Now, and they shouldn't be. They should be spaced hundreds on years apart, but instead they are colliding together, as one, in a single person. You!
"And that may destroy the world!"
I stared at him in shock as he snapped his mouth shut. After several deep breaths, he spoke again. "Forget I said that," he commanded.
"Are you joking? Forget that? But you have to explain. I don't want to lead an army. And why are both prophecies together? And why - why me?" I was dismayed to hear my own voice ask all these questions in a high pitched, nervous tone. Aiven dealt me a long, uninterpretable look. "That," he said in his regal, formal voice, "is what the Seers are trying to discover."
************************************
Several hours later we reached Lord What's-His-Name's house, which was impressive and large, and made my fingers twitch once more. I managed to restrain myself for slipping anyone's possessions into my pocket, though, for fear that whatever had overcome me with the Crown Prince's ring would occur again. It was enough to make me shudder. Except I didn't, because I was too busy playing the part of an aloof and beautiful lady.
The lord's grand hallway fit all of our small party; we included Aiven, myself, Mariva, Prince Tullon, ten knights, six lady-maids, twenty soldiers, and ten servants, rounding us out to the wonderful number of fifty. I didn't think Mariva and I needed three maids each; actually, I thought they would hinder me more then help me dress. But since when does anyone ever care what I think? Never.
Except for occasionally when Aiven actually acted like he wanted my good opinion, but that was so rare and hard to tell that it didn't really count.
The servants were not invited into the hall, though everyone else was. They disappeared to wherever it is servants go, probably to gossip and say mean things about all of us. I found myself wishing I could be with them as I curtsied to the lord. Then - joy - I listened to him fawn all over Aiven and the prince calling them by long, flowery titles, in which the lord talked about himself in the third person.
"And who are these fair flowers of maidenhood?" he asked, bowing low to Mariva and me. "Your most majestic Highness and Lord Seer, will you not allow this most devoted of your servants the names of such a perfect example of the bloom of noble ladies and chastity?"
I would have preferred a simple, "Who are you?" And where did the "chastity" part come from?
"Lady Damslae of Brientlon, and Lady Mariva of Cillyon," Aiven said briefly, obviously not caring to emphasize Mariva's titles as he could have - or mine for that matter, but apparently it was suppose to be a secret. My being a princess, that is. And the daughter of the Eternal Lah'nayin. I wondered idly if I was ever going to learn exactly who she was. Was I her daughter of blood, or spirit, or what? Had she been human at some time? And why would she just abandon me on the streets of Cyri?
"My ladies, this humble lord cannot express his joy and delight to be so honored -" I stopped listening. Flowery language is for flowers, and humans have no business speaking it. I did not want to hear the man ramble on and on about what anyone else could say with a "Pleasure to meet you."
"Wake up," Aiven said several minutes later from the side of his mouth, hitting me with an elbow. I startled little, and looked around. The lord was leaning back in his chair, looking mighty pleased with his ability to refer to himself as "this most devoted of your servants."
"Is he done?" I murmured back.
"Yes," Aiven said, after glancing at the lord, who was giving his servants some instructions. "I think we might actually be able to go to our chambers now."
That, of course, would be too easy. Relax? Oh no. We had to meet the lord's daughters. "Ah," the lord said, waving his arms as two tall blondes entered. "Allow this most adoring lord to introduce the two most dazzling blossoms in his life."
They were identical twins, it was easy to tell. Blond upswept hair bound in a high bun and a cascade of curls. Both of them had wide, gray eyes and three freckles on their left cheekbone arranged in a triangle. I frowned, studying it. Maybe it was a birthmark instead.
They were also, to my disgust, dressed the same as well. The twins wore long, virginal white gowns along with lacey gloves no one ever wore anymore. Pearls dangled from their earlobes and necklaces. They looked pristine and pure, especially with their wide eyes and virtuous expression. They were the type of girls who made other girls feel dirty and crude in contrast.
"Twins?" Aiven muttered to me. "I HATE twins."
"Why?" I asked. While I wasn't inclined to like these ones, I had known some in Cyri. And it was an established fact that twins made excellent confusing thieves.
"If I show favor to one in any way, I have to show it to the other. Or worse, I say something indiscreet to one which I meant to say to the other and then all sorts of things happen." He grimaced. I smiled over at the blondes as if to say, "take that. He doesn't like twins!"
Not that I would of cared if he did, of course. For that to work, I would have to be interested in Aiven.
"My daughters," the lord said, dropping the annoying third person speech. "Isabella and Annabella, my pride and joy."
They dropped curtsies in sync, causing Mariva and I to exchange envious glances over their skills. We weren't talented enough to drop identical curtsies at the same time.
"Your Highness, Lord Seer," they said in unison. They had the annoying beautiful, bell-like voices that perfectly matched their physical perfection.
Tullon and Aiven greeted the ladies in solemn, we-have-a-very- important-mission voices, and kissed the twins in hands.
"They're all acting sickeningly noble," Mariva whispered to be as everyone else was caught up being courtly.
"I know. It makes me want to do something completely outrageous," I responded.
The entire dinner was like that; annoying compliments, gallant behavior, and despite Aiven saying he hated twins, he obviously did not hate these two. Then there was the father with his terribly obvious matchmaking attempts, and the girls fluttering their lashes an unhealthy number of times.
"They're either really stupid, or really clever," I whispered to Mariva as we watched them daintily eat their food.
"Probably clever. It would be to simple if they were idiots."
We were finally able to beg fatigue and escape to the room we were sharing; a room with the theme of silver and pink, that made Mariva and I blanch as we crossed the threshold.
"It doesn't match your hair," my friend told me seriously as I flopped down on the pale pink bed.
"This whole place doesn't match ME," I groaned.
"That's because you're jealous of the Abella's," Mariva said smugly.
"I am NOT," I said with a glare. "Why would I be jealous?" Well, THAT was a stupid question.
"Oh, I don't know," Mariva rolled her eyes. "Maybe because Aiven was paying an abnormal amount of attention to them."
"I don't care," I started to say, but stopped short when the door opened to reveal one of the twins.
"My ladies?" she said in a soft, musical voice. I watched as she took small steps into our room, that stupid white dress she wore restraining her movements. I wondered if she and her twin always wore the same clothes, or if it was just tonight. She smiled at us in that perfect, charming matter she had used with Aiven earlier that evening. Her pale, unblemished face looked earnest as she looked at us. "Are you well?"
Mariva and I glanced at each other, then instantly contrived to look tired. "Only tired," Mariva said in a quiet voice with a gentle smile.
"Well, I won't keep you awake any longer," the twin said, smiling back. "How long will your journey be?"
See girl, I thought in annoyance, NOT keeping us awake any longer requires you not to ask questions, and to go away.
"Several weeks," Mariva said.
"Where are you going?"
"To Bast," I told her.
She nodded. "'Tis a lovely city. I envy that you are to see it."
Yeah, so we can be involved in a war that might involve the end of the world. I envy me too.
"Fare thee well on your journey," the lady said, curtsying to us. Mariva and I exchanged glances. Fare thee well?
"You must be visiting the king in Bast, are you not?" she asked us, titling her head slightly.
"We are," I murmured, glancing pointedly at the clock.
"Oh, I do wish I could meet him."
Mariva and I glanced at each other, then back at the girl who showed no inclination of moving. "I'll see my betrothed also," Mariva mentioned in an I-don't-really-feel-like-telling-you-this-but-I-have-nothing-else-to-say voice.
"Oh?" the Abella said, perking up. "How delightful! Who is he?"
"The Lord Seer of Bast," Mariva muttered, a little smile dancing on her lips.
"You must be so happy to be seeing him. I would love to be engaged to a Seer!" She looked expectantly at Mariva.
"Yes, it is," Mariva said. "I love him very much."
"Splendid!" the Abella exclaimed. "And he loves you?" she pressed, her eyes wide.
"He does," Mariva said, nodding gravely. I rolled my eyes. I had no patience for this sort of mindless chatter. Odd; neither of the twins had seemed so empty headed at dinner.
"Splendid," she murmured again, eyelashes lowering and a small smile curving her lips. She looked up at us. "My apologies, for this must seem a silly question, but which of the royal twins was it that accompanies you?"
"My cousin, His Royal Highness Prince Tullon, the Mage-Prince."
The girl's eyes flashed. "Your cousin?" she asked, then turned to me. "Are you of the same fabulous bloodlines, my lady?"
Did I really have to talk with this girl? I was bored to tears, and just wanted her to leave so I could go to sleep. "My blood is not quite so exalted," I said, not managing to dig up one of the polite smiles Mariva had been serving all evening. Instead I felt the overwhelming urge to scare the girl away with tales of my less then luxurious childhood.
"Who were your parents?" she asked me, blinking her eyes and looking remarkably like a lost doe.
"Two nobles," I said in exasperation. I gentled my voice. "I am sorry, my lady, but I can feel this journey has simply exhausted me. I would hate to fall unconscious in the middle of conversing with you, so I feel it would be best if I would retire at this moment." What can I say? Being sleepy makes me talk in long, winding sentences.
"But of course. A good night to the both of you." With another curtsy, she was gone.
"She was weird," Mariva whispered, and I nodded.
"Yeah - and way too nosy." For a minute or too we mulled over her strange behavior, but our trip really did catch up to us, and we were asleep in three minutes.
************************************
I woke up early the next day, before the sun had risen, before Mariva was up. I slipped out of bed after lying there for half an hour, and made my way down to the dining hall. The servants were already up and moving about the corridors, preparing for yet another day in which they pretended they didn't exist the snobby nobles and there equally snobby guests, which unfortunately included me.
I collided into one servant girl turning a corner, who gave me an aghast look and fell into a curtsy, squeaking out apologies. I pulled the frightened girl to her feet and told her no, I was not going to report her and have her dismissed. I sighed in frustration. Why did everyone have to think I was a noble? I wasn't. I didn't even LIKE nobles. I had spent most of my life hating them for their money and their arrogance and their behavior, and now all the normal people - commoners - though I WAS one. It wasn't pleasant.
Of course, it was a little fun having the kind of people who had looked down their noses at an lying, cheating thief smile and curtsy to me now. But still. It was way too weird.
I reached the dining hall, still wishing no one thought I was a noble. I was a normal person. A thief. End of story. Except for the fact that thieves usually didn't wear velvet clothes and jewels like I had been wearing recently.
Servants bustled about, setting tables and bringing in flowers. They stopped and turned as one when I entered, and most faded away into the background. Only one older, balding man stepped forward.
"Lady," he said, bowing awkwardly. "How may I help you?"
I was a little bit unnerved by the servants' behavior. "Uh - is there a garden here? That I can walk around in?"
The man nodded and showed me through two hallways. Bowing again, he left me at an open archway that led into a well-tended garden. I walked along one path, stopping to look at the flowers and smelling them, until I turned a corner and saw one of the Abella's.
"My lady," she said. "Good morning." She curtsied to me.
I curtsied back. "And a good morning to you," I said politely.
"I trust you slept well?"
"I did. Thank you."
We continued on, side by side, the Abella with a thoughtful look on her face. Not air-headed at all, I concluded. The twins might act that way at times - like this one or her sister had last night - but for some reason I was convinced they were smarter then they let on.
She definitely wasn't letting on this morning, I thought as she began to chatter on about the flowers. This Abella seemed to know as much about flowers as Lady Jainalii knew about cloth. I listened without saying anything until her tone changed to a curious one, and she asked, "Where are you going, your company?"
So she wasn't the same Abella from last night. I had been wondering.
"Father told us we weren't to ask," the blond continued, casting a sidelong look at me, "so of course I'm dying to know. I'll understand if you don't tell me . . ." her voice trailed off as she saw my expression. I'm sure it wasn't a happy one.
"Your sister asked me last night, and I told her." In fact, Mariva and I had probably said more then we should have, but we hadn't really thought about it.
An odd look passed over the Abella's face. "Did you tell her anything . . . important?"
I shrugged irritably. "Probably."
The girl looked like she was treading on thin ice. "My lady, my sister . . . It is best not to say that much to her. She is not exactly to be trusted."
I looked at her sharply. "And why is that?"
She didn't explain; instead we were interrupted by a maid who called out to us, informing us breakfast was read, if we pleased.
What if we didn't please?
So, I thought unhappily as we walked inside, her sister wasn't trustworthy. Fabulous. And I didn't even know whether her sister was Isabella or Annabella. I'd have to ask her who she was, though I'd tried to avoid it; it was embarrassing confessing I didn't know whom I'd been talking to all morning. I didn't get the chance to ask her as we were swept apart as soon as we entered the dining hall.
Great, I thought as I watched her join her twin. I won't be able to tell them apart later in the day either. They're wearing identical clothes again.
