Chapter Twelve

Unexpected Escape

A day later Iris and I were in my room (the one that had previously been Elora's). whatever I had viewed just a minute ago was unbelievable: Elora had just brought over to me a canvas which was more-or-less fully painted, and the scene painted on it wasn't any understatement to what Iris had told me on her pre-debutante. Sara was there in a pearly blue laced housecoat whose lacy tail trailed back on the floor. and she was right in my very own room in her nightgown, standing at the dressing table and examining the tiara.

Her expression wasn't of anything, or rather of everything; sadness, victory, heart-break, jealousy, guilt, crave, conflict, pain, excitement. On close examination and observation, I realized that her hair, left open, was kind of dirty and unwashed and her skin was occasionally dabbed in dust particles. The scene was indeed puzzling, and I wondered if somehow I could change the precognitive painting by changing whatever I had earlier planned, somewhat like what I had done when Elora had painted a scene of everyone dead.

"Well, this is puzzling." I said. When I had asked Elora if she could specify more about the painting and approximately which time the scene is actually going to take place, she had replied that it was something beyond her abilities to do so. "Only if we had known how much time was left for this scene to take place."

"Well, it won't delay much. Your room is exactly the same right now as it was in the painting. I mean, look; the position of the stuff is the same, so possibly it wouldn't have been about some thousand years later. Plus, Sara also hasn't changed much in looks; you know, in the way that she hasn't aged much or her hair hasn't greyed. So, that means this scene is going to occur pretty soon. Also, if you would've paid attention to the glass wall that is just barely visible in the painting, the blinds are drawn. I mean, either she doesn't want to be shown from outside due to some very secretive purpose she has visited here for, or she wants extra protection and is taking these measures of shutting up stuff over here.

"Maybe both of them, actually. And also, it is in the nighttime most-probably since she's in a nightgown and the blinds are drawn. But the fact that it is nighttime doesn't cancel off the facts that she could've also come here for some secretive purpose and wants extra protective measures. So . . . maybe I'm just stretching it a bit too far, but still, maybe my theories are a bit lunatic, but somewhere they make sense. I guess."

"You should've been in the Scotland Yard." I smirked lightly.

"Yeah, preferably a Trylle Scotland Yard, but it's a pity that here I get to go ahead and work like some duchess and be a part of a reunision even I myself am not very well-versed of, and get to connect people to the dead world for reasons even I am not much informed about. I mean – sorry, that wasn't meant to be said."

It was one of those moments when I felt like tormenting myself for being such a bitch to others. Probably earlier Iris hadn't much thought about the reasons of what she was being made to do all this, but now that it has been quite a time, she has come to think of it, and much naturally was getting this feeling that she was being used by her own sister-in-law to do some illegitimate favors which she herself didn't understand.

"Um . . . anyways, can we get back to our research work about the painting?" asked Iris awkwardly. "So what do you think, should we inform other people in Forening about this painting? I mean, of course we wouldn't say anything about you being involved in all this matter, but we'll just white-lie a bit probably, and say that I was talking to ghosts and just came out with this painting. What do you say to that?"

I remained silent. "I don't think so."

"Okay, as you say. But don't you think we should probably try to get more about what this painting could mean? About what actually is going on about the Vittra?" she was obviously trying to distract me from my invading worries about torturing Iris, but I wasn't going to let myself in.

"No, we would not." My temper rose to a level which caused it to break. "Elora's paintings can be reversed. I have reversed one before, and not let it happen. I can do it again. There will no more mentioning of the painting again, and just remember the fact that we have more in our lives than just a bloody painting. You have more to your life."

And then I walked away, leaving Iris in my room. I didn't know where to go, so went to the library. Hidden amidst the bookshelves I shed some tears before I started engaging myself in search for nothing particular in the library.

"Yes, Your Majesty," Thomas Holmes, head of trackers' department spoke. "Anything particular I can help you look for here?"

"Um . . ." I tried to think of what to reply. "I am searching for something on healer trolls."

Thomas bowed and went over to some bookshelf in the depth of the library, and scanned his eyes through the titles of each books. I wasn't much sure if I actually needed the healer book or not, since afterall what could I do with the healer information. All I knew was that pure Trylle had the purest and the best of the healer qualities, and could in fact also bring back a person from the dead using their abilities (though this process considerably weakened them up for some time before they could again retrieve back their strength).

Half Trylle and half Vittra however possessed healing qualities that are not as fine and perfect as wholly Trylle people did, and they could not bring a person back from the dead. I knew it very well that Aurora would never agree on bringing back him, and though I could compel her in doing so, owing her an explanation later would be pretty much of a problem. Plus, I'm not sure whether a queen manipulating marksinnas against their wills into something this serious would ever be compatible with my reputation.

Thomas anyways picked up three books for me: Do Skojare Healers Actually Exist? Combined Theories From Major Leaders As To Whether Skojare Tribes Actually Have Healing Qualities; Healers From All Troll Tribes; and Guidebook on Trylle Healers. I wasn't interested in Skojare healing mysteries, so I just took the other two books with myself.

I wasn't yet ready to go face Iris or Tove or anyone else, so I stayed in the library itself and briefly decided to check into the book. There wasn't anything much great in whatever I managed to read from Guidebook on Trylle Healers, however it turned out that the fact that they could bring back people from the dead was true.

Two days passed after the day in the library. I was pleasantly having my dull breakfast in my chambers. Since it was situated in such a manner that two of its walls were of glass, I somehow always used to find it like a greenhouse. But now it seemed like the most perfect place with the bright, late-afternoon sun gleaming over the metal sculptors that decorated the room, and my drug bracelet (there was very few of the drug left inside it) and the book's on healers were placed right next to my breakfast arrangement.

Somehow after what Iris had said to me about being used up for some work without even knowing the deeper reasons for it, I couldn't help feel guilty about it, and since the past two days though spoken occasionally to her, not used her anymore for getting back to the dead.

Meanwhile there was still this lust and thirst inside me which made me want to meet Loki, if not Elora. But it wasn't much compatible with the guilt, so for the time being I was choosing to let the guilt win over the thirst.

There was this 'speak of the devil . . .' moment when Iris actually appeared at the door of my chamber while I had been dealing with the conflicts of my very own guilt and thirst related to her case. She nearly banged the door open, and came in all out of breath, almost like she had been running a marathon.

She was in a white blouse with pink slacks; looking girly and chic, but not the least related to a queen. Also with her was a gym bag, and she literally ran over to where I was sitting. "Hey Iris." I said.

"Look, I know you think that I am insane. I know you think that I'm crazy, too girly, childish, have a big mouth, talk a lot, babble unnecessarily, word-vomit, talk nonsense, am senseless, every trash thing in the world. I know you think that. everyone does. And I agree that I am. But this time, can we just trust and rely on each other? Answer this one Wendy. We need to do so."

She spoke so fast and was already so out of breath, it was difficult to comprehend what was trying to say. "Well, I do trust you . . . you know that."

"Yeah, but this is different. The Vittra. They're coming here. Right now at this fucking second. Where is Tove?"

"He . . . um, I don't know. He's supposed to be somewhere in the palace itself, I guess."

"Okay, listen; you trust me, right? So, for this once just do exactly what I say. And later when we are safe and we have time, I'll explain you every single thing and every single reason."

"Okay."

"Cool, so just rush to your room and get into the most comfortable outfit you could think of. the one in which you can run and jump in. and take some other clothes – the comfortable and athletic ones – with you, and just meet at the kitchen in say, two minutes. Take all your necessary items; your daily necessities, a pillow possibly, some sanitizer, pills, the bracelet, actual running shoes –"

"I don't wear shoes." Apparently it wasn't all that intelligent saying that right now.

"God, no one here does. But still take them anyways. Proper running sneakers, not the high-heels and stuff. Pack them as quickly as possible, and in two minutes we meet in the kitchen."

"What are we doing?" I asked.

"Don't take this as a game, Wendy. It is not. I may look like the kind of person who would love to play all these sorts of games, but surely it is not one, this time. Just be serious about it, and come down to the kitchen. Be as quick as possible, and I'll explain you once we're outside the kitchen."

I didn't half understand what we were doing, but still tried to be as quick as possible with the fetus inside me. I stayed in the same loose gown I was wearing since if I wore something of pants like Iris was, the belly bump would show too much. I didn't know what to pack, so I took another dress of the same kind and for another safety measure took a sleeveless shirt and slacks underneath it. I took a torch, some vomiting bags, a watch, some paper napkins, a bandage, a sanitizer, the drug bracelet and the two books that I was currently reading.

It all got inside a simple satchel, and when I met Iris outside the kitchen it was clear that I had taken beyond two minutes to get down. Iris had got two gym bags by this time and I suspected that some of the space inside the gym bag was made out of the food she had probably got out of the kitchen.

"Don't tell me that you're actually going to wear this?" she made a face.

"I have my own reasons." I was already tired of whatever Iris was up to.

"Fine, don't blame me when you trip on your own stuff. Hope you're wearing shoes, at least? Good, let's get going now. you already took more time than you were supposed to."

And then Iris started running over to the door that leads to the Secret Garden. I couldn't keep up with her speed so, but somehow managed to reach in the heart of the Secret Garden. "I don't even know what we're doing Iris." I huffed.

She looked at me, and said "We're running away from here."