Chapter 2: Drifting in times forgotten
Thayet couldn't believe it. The bracelet, which held all her memories, was now shattered on the floor. She would never be able to pick all the pieces up. Jonathan gathered her in his arms. He felt so warm ... she snuggled closer, he held her tighter. He tilted her head towards him so that he could see her face.
"Now," he began slowly, "what is this all about?" He drew her from his body, holding her by her wrists.
She turned from him. Her face blotted with tears. She began to pick up the pieces that she could find. Her hands began to tear from the pieces that were sharp that cut into her skin. Each time they were scratched she winced but continued to pick them up.
Jonathan's hands came into view and they gripped hers like an iron clamp. He turned them around so that he could inspect them. His fingers pressed lightly on hers. Blood fell onto his hands, staining them red. Smaller pieces had gotten into her skin. He grabbed a cup that he'd put on the table the night before when he had been studying maps and put it under her hands. He turned her hands upside down to make all the shards that she had picked up fall into the cup. The sounds of the amber shards falling into the cup were like crystal bells. Tears fell down her cheeks to sound within the cup.
Thayet closed her eyes. 'Crystal bells, crystal bells, why did the sound of crystal bells remind her of something?' she thought to herself, 'they reminded her of … of a distant time, another time that was of before, that was of … of something else. Something forgotten, something … something that was nevermore.
Thayet slunk around the halls of the palace. She drew up the hood of the priest's robe she wore. She put her hands back into the sleeves. The guards at the northern gate turned at the sound of her approach. Their gazes scanned her; the robe of a priest of the Black God's temple discouraged them to search her. She ducked her head lower so they wouldn't see her face for if they did she would definitely be recognized.
The guards came from the two sides of the gate to stand in the center. They crossed their spears to stop her from proceeding.
"Who walks on this earth without the lord's leave?" the guards asked in the traditional manner.
"I am a priest of the Black God. I have my lord's leave," she answered them, holding out a sheet of parchment.
The sheet of parchment was a copy of her father's permit to leave and enter the castle grounds. It was an old piece of parchment, she had chosen it that way because it would seem as if it had been in use for a long time. She had to admit that the forgery was well done. She had taken samples from her father's work from his desk and had practiced his calligraphy for ages preparing for this type of thing. Now, to a person outside of her father's immediate family wouldn't notice the signature was a forgery.
She snorted as she hurried through the streets of the capital at this early hour. She was the only one who was part of her father's immediate family now that her mother had died. A tear began to form in her eye. She wiped at it furiously. Then jammed her hand back into the sleeve of the robe. It wouldn't o for the people to see her hands, which did not have any burns on them as a priest would have as they always burned incense and candles.
When she reached the Black God's temple she stopped at the front steps. She looked up towards the top of the temple where the silver bells rested; they were rung only when a passing of a royal happened. She looked back down quickly it wouldn't do for her to be noticed now. She scurried into the temple. When she entered the temple she drew back her hood. Her hair cascading down the robe, falling to her waistline. She sat down in one of the several chairs that were placed evenly along the walls for those who were on their pilgrimage and needed a rest from walking and standing up. She braided her hair and hummed the morning hymns with the Black God priests who sang. Her voice vibrated in her throat. She stopped humming when a few priests turned to see who was disrupting morning hymns.
She had just finished tying her braid with an emerald silk strip she kept handy in her pocket when a priest with the hood back came up to her. A priest with the hood back meant that the priest was not coming to her on behalf of spiritual meanings. "It's been a long time, Thayet," the priest said, crystal blue eyes glittering.
"Mmm, yes it has hasn't it?" she stood up and walked toward the priest. Halting right before him. "I need your help," she began," I need you to help me get out of here. All the people who think they will get the throne through me won't get it. I need you to make sure I will have a clean get away, make sure that no one follows me and that… that my family will not be harmed." A tear slipped down her cheek and fell to the floor.
"I can do that for you," the priest said, " but –"
"But what?" she said angrily. "What do I have to do" Her tears now flowed freely and fell onto the floor drop after drop they sounded against the floor.
"But you have to know. You have to-to never return to Sarain."
'Never return,' Thayet thought, dumbfounded, 'never see her father again? Her teachers? Her friends? Never to hear the sound of the crystal waterfall play over the rocks? Never to wake to the sound of crystal bells ringing in the morning?' Then a sudden thought came to her. "Buri," she whispered.
The priest, startled, asked her what she was talking about.
"Buri," she said again, this time more loudly. " What about Buri? Will I have to leave her or can she come with me? Will I never see her again too? Answer me!" she shook the priest.
The priest rested his hands on her shoulders. He stilled her and looked into her eyes that were blinded by tears. "It is your choice who you take with you. But you must think of now you will affect then if they come with you, for they too cannot return to Sarain if that happens unless… unless you resign your claim to the throne."
"Do you think I haven't done that?" she screamed at him, all the priests and citizens in the temple turned around to stare at her. When they realized who she was they bowed touching their heads to the floor excluding the priests who had a rank higher than the citizens so that they only had to bow before her. She dismissed them and dragged the priest into a storeroom. She didn't care if they recognized her anymore, the conversation she was having with the priest was more important. Realizing someone was in the storeroom counting stock, she glared at him until they hurried out of the room. When the other had left, Thayet whipped around to stare at the priest once more. "You think that I haven't done that? Huh, I overestimated you. If you won't help me no one will and if you don't help me I will do this myself. I have tried, I have. My father won't let me resign my claim to the throne." She sat down with a thump on a sack of potatoes.
"Oh," the priest said," I'm-I'm sorry, Thayet. I-I didn't know that." He dragged a chair from the accounting desk and sat beside her.
For a while neither of them spoke, sitting in silence. The light from the branch of candles flickered over the walls. Then Thayet spoke, "Will you help me then?"
The priest hesitated, and then his answer came. " Yes, yes I will."
Thayet stood up and dusted herself off, "I won't ever forget you, in the realms of the living or the realms of the dead."
"Neither will I forget you, princess of Sarain. But would you call me just once like you used to?" the priest begged, longing in his eyes.
"Eharih, my dear Eharih," she whispered, hugging the man fiercely. "I will miss you."
"As I will you," Eharih whispered into her hair. Thayet could feel tears running down his cheek, reaching up a hand, she brushed them away. She shushed him and put a finger on his lips and kissed her finger that was on top of his lips. She was forbidden to actually kiss a man unless it was her husband and she was forbidden to have a man kiss her unless it was her betrothed or her husband. Eharih's lip trembled.
"I wish you didn't have to go," he whispered, " I wish that everything was possible, that I could take you away and leave with you but I can't. My father would hunt me down."
"I wish that were possible as well," Thayet told him. She hugged him tightly and leaned her head on his shoulder. She looked up at him as the crystal bells rang above their head. She looked deeply into his eyes and left him standing there as she hurried out of the storeroom.
Stepping out of the temple she drew up the hood once more. The crystal bells tolled above her head. Crystal bells, crystal bells may I never forget you.
She was jolted back to reality. She pushed against Jonathan and screamed as the amber pieces that hadn't been taken out yet logged deeper into her flesh. Jonathan grabbed her hands as she was about to put them against the ground. He pushed all the major veins in her hand to stop the blood flow. She twisted and screamed as pain seared its way up her arm.
Then she stopped screaming, biting her lip until it bled. She looked at Jonathan as he continued to push against the veins.
"Don't touch your hands," Jonathan told her as he gently lifted her up and carried her in his arms towards the infirmary. He faltered and she almost fell. She reached out her hands to try to help him and when she touched him, she screamed in agony as the pieces went deeper into her flesh. Jonathan hushed her. Reaching the infirmary, Jonathan called for Duke Baird to help him. The other healers surged upon them taking Thayet from his arms.
Thayet's eyes began to blur. She drifted in and out of consciousness. Her ears roared and she did not have the strength to raise her hands to her ears to cover them.
Duke Baird arrived and strode toward Thayet.
"Sleep, your highness, sleep," Duke Baird whispered into her ear easing her arms down to her sides as they struggled to bat away the darkness.
She put her arms down and drifted off into sleep, falling into a black oblivion.
