He watched her, mesmerised by the beauty in her face that was obvious even whilst she slept. She was utterly perfect, the image of her mother only slightly tainted by her father. He inhaled as she did, exhaled as she did, finding himself oddly calmed by imitating her steady breathing. He breathed in, and… Was that a flicker of blue light? He pulled his chair closer, beads clanking as he did so. His amber eyes sharpened as he leaned right over her. She certainly looked normal enough. He drew a knife from its sheath and slit her arm from shoulder to elbow. Blue light spilled out, blinding him, before it evaporated into the air. She shouldn't have been strong enough to do that, mentally or physically.
After stabbing the magical creation repeatedly in a fit of fury, he cursed, hurling the knife at the opposite wall.
He was a fool. Kalasin of Conté had escaped him.
I almost screamed myself upon waking. Shivering, I pulled my rug tighter around me. He would be coming for me soon. And I wouldn't be ready for him. I wouldn't ever be ready for him, really.
My thoughts turned to Lagne of Galla. There were two things that I found myself thinking about recently. Lagne was the more pleasant of the two.
There was something about the way Lagne had looked at me the first time that I met him that puzzled me. He knew that the name given for me wasn't my true name, but then again, I had somehow half-expected that. Somebody would have to guess eventually. But he had… It almost seemed that he knew who I really was. Which was impossible, but there you have it. Nobody knew who I was nowadays. Apart from him, but I didn't even want to think about that at the moment.
I mean, if King Jonathan of Conté and all his imperial court were blind to the fact that there was a fraud for a princess, what hope in the Black God's Realms did a king who hadn't even met the first Kalasin, Kalasin before she had been attacked and kidnapped, have of seeing past the disguise? I was simply being paranoid, that was all. King Lagne wouldn't feature much in my future, and I would wager ten gold nobles that he would scurry back to Galla within a week or so. If he hadn't gone already.
My shoulders rose and fell in a defeated shrug. Mind-reading wasn't a skill that I possessed, unfortunately. He had taken my family away from me. All I could do was his bidding.
Until now, obviously. But even now, all I could do was sit and wait.
It was his move. He would have to find me, but I had no doubt he would do that. He had done it before, after all.
Kalasin rocked back and forth on her heels. She had to get out. She had to leave. She couldn't stay any longer, it was impossible! Except there was no way out. No freedom, no friends, no hope.
Her breath came in unsteady, short gasps as she swayed. "Please, Mother, grant me a safe path home," she prayed. "Give me a sign, show me what to do, for I have no idea." She closed her eyes tightly. "Show me hope."
Footsteps sounded along the dirt track. They trod in a rhythmic pattern, a pattern that beat in her mind. Crunch, crunch, crunch, here I come. Ready or not. She was not ready. She would never be ready to face him again.
"I found you, my pretty princess. I shall never let you go."
The words rang in her mind, surrounding her in their sinister folds. She trembled all over, her rocking becoming more incessant. "Please," she begged the Goddess. "Please." The word was muttered over and over, comforting her as the footsteps came closer, and closer and-
"I found you," I murmured upon waking. "I shall never let you go."
I shook my head, shaking myself out of sleep. It was unusual, finding myself in a warm bed after the freezing wind from the dream, although it was the same one that I had slept in for the past seven years. I tumbled out of it, unwound myself from the sheets, and padded to the huge mirror, ready to laugh at the absurdity of it all as I readied myself for the day ahead.
A gasp caught in my throat as I watched my reflection, brush raised in my hand. By the Goddess, she was… I blinked. Me. How strange. I can't have been fully awake, there must have been some remnants of the dream still in my mind. That was all, not strange at all, really.
I yawned and stretched, not at all unsettled by my dream. The Goddess, help Kalasin? What a ludicrous idea. Allowing myself one last glimpse in the glass for reassurance, my eyebrows shot up. Disconcertingly, the eyebrows in the mirror were motionless.
Wide sapphire blue eyes held mine firmly, a glimmer of almost amusement betraying their owner. My hand trembled as I reached to pull a lock of hair away from the braid, noting that her hand was still. It remained my shade of brown-black. Then how...?
The mirror blurred out of focus (or perhaps that was my eyes blurring) and the reflection became mine once more. I returned to the bed, curling up in a tight ball, perturbed by the image. What was happening?
"So mote."
A smile twisted my lips as I watched the mirror. Praising every deity I could name, I stepped away from it and hugged the wonderful secret to myself. It wasn't winning, but it was closer to it than I had come in years.
"Thank you," I whispered softly.
"Am I permitted to share your happiness, my lady?" a cool voice enquired.
I whirled around, eyes widening in shock. I hadn't seen any reflection in my mirror. Well, obviously not, it would have been impossible. "I... uh..." At this crucial moment, words, a chance to explain myself, to save my sham, failed me. I closed my mouth, resigned to the fact that there was no explanation that I could offer until I had an idea of how long he had been standing there. He would almost certainly have seen what was happening.
"Perhaps now you would care to let me know what is going on."
