Chapter 7- Max P.O.V
It had been two weeks in Florence, and I was dying of boredom. After wandering off to look for Fang twice, Dylan had forbidden me from leaving the castle, and I was forced to follow him around like a lost puppy if I desired any kind of companionship. I flopped down on my stomach on the bed, sitting grandly in the center of my bedroom, the stone walls making everything feel cold no matter how high the fire was built. I huffed and rolled onto my back and sat up, facing towards the window that faced over the top of the church, and dry and withered landscape beyond it.
A maid had locked me in a while ago, and any hopes of me sneaking out were gone. I undid the bodice of my pale blue dress and hung it on a hook in the huge armoire, and took out a white night dress with a drawstring around the waist and pulled it on over my head, the soft and worn fabric much more welcoming than my other clothes. Moving back the cream colored sheets, I slowly lowered myself into the cold bed and shivered under the sheets, screwing my eyes shut to try and fall asleep. I was beginning to drift off, when a tap on my window made me bolt upright in my bed and stare wide eyed at Fang, who had climbed up the tower wall and was perched on the window ledge, waving once and giving me a small smile. I grinned and threw my covers away from me and sprinted over to the window and unlatched it, letting him in along with a gust of warm desert air, noticing the white tunic I had bought him.
"Where have you been, Max?" He asked, stepping silently into the room and taking a quick sweep around the room. I crossed my arms over my chest, and he looked back at me blankly.
"Any reason you're sneaking into my room? Because if you plan on killing me do it now." I said dramatically and spread my arm wide, closing my eyes and tossing my head back. Fang spurted a laugh and I dropped my act, grinning back at him.
"I was just wondering if you were up for giving me that cooking lesson now?" He said mischievously, looking up at me through his fringe and eyelashes, my stomach jumping into my chest. My head nodded on its own and I managed a,
"Sure." He held out one hand to me, and I walked forward to take it, and he swept me up off my feet and onto his back, my arms wrapped around his neck and my legs around his waist, emitting a small squeal from me. Silently, he crept through the window and pulled the two panes of glass shut, and leaped away from the window ledge, and we were falling into mid air. My voice was lost as we plummeted down, but he caught us on the edge of a building and heaved both of us up with a small grunt and took off at a sprint across the top of the building, leaving me to cling on with all my strength as he ran and leaped from building to building, towards the white stone church. He leaped off the final roof and ran the final length up a steep path that wound around to the back of the church, a round dueling pen in the middle of a small dirty courtyard. He slowed to a walk, but still didn't let me down as he went through a back entrance to the church, and climbed the stairs to the left, entering the huge library, and he walked to the back. We stopped in front of a bookcase, and he set me down, and slid in between two of the bookshelves, a secret passage...
"Come on, Max." He whispered, and I wriggled through the small gap behind him, the small passage dim, and only a small wooden ladder visible in the dark. Fang climbed it with me right behind him, at the top of the hall, three doors lining the passage. Fang went into one, and closed the door behind me as I went in. I peered around his room, silk cushions gathered around a stone fireplace with a pot suspended over a fire, a bed covered messily in pillows and hand woven blankets, and an armoire with the doors open, full of food.
"Are you some sort of hoarder, Fang?" I asked, and went over to the armoire to inspect what he had gotten, loaves of brown wheat bread, meats wrapped in coarse cloth, and turnips and herbs hanging by their tops at the top of the armoire.
"Sort of." He replied, reaching up to scratch the back of his head with his knuckles, some of his black hair coming loose from his ponytail. I turned away from him to hide my smile and busied myself with picking out different things that I could help him make soup with. A few tomatoes, two carrots, two chicken legs, and a turnip would work fine...with half a green onion and some garlic. With all the food, I turned back towards the small fire with a pot hanging over it, filled with fresh water that was still waiting to boil. I sat down in the silk cushions that were spread in a half-moon around the fireplace and dropped all the food to the floor, Fang taking a seat next to me and flopping on his side in the cushions carelessly.
"So." He started, shifting his dark eyes to watch me. "Hows life as a high and mighty almost Governess?" He asked, a mischievous smile tugging at the corners of his lips, I rolled my eyes and snapped a carrot into small pieces.
"Lame, I can't do anything without perfect Dylan accompanying me anywhere. He's not even enjoyable company." I whined, and Fang just chuckled and rolled onto his back to look at me upside down. I snorted at the sight of him, and finished ripping the carrot around.
"Do you have a knife?" I asked, turning to look around for a knife.
"Uhh...Yeah." He rolled off the cushion and across the floor to where his white robe was lying on the floor in a heap, and sat up to rummage through it. Instead of pulling out a knife, he found a short sword with a slightly curved blade.
"Here." He said shortly, before throwing it at me, the blade flashing in the air as it flew towards me. I shrieked and swiped it out of the air, my eyes screwed shut as my fingers wrapped around the leather bound handle. My eyes popped open to stare at the sword poised in my hand, a ring of dried brown blood around the hilt.
"What the hell, Fang!" I hissed, and he crossed his legs and grinned at me.
"Nice catch." He replied to me silkily, still grinning mischievously.
"No, not nice catch! You could have stabbed me, I thought we were friends." I half yelled, and brought the sword down onto a tomato, slicing it in half and wedging the blade into the floor. I tugged on it and it came loose, and I shot a venomous glare at Fang, who had stood up was walking back towards me.
"I don't know many full grown men who catch throwing knives, Princess Maximum." He said, suddenly dead serious, his eyes burning into the side of my face as I chopped up the chicken.
"Good reflexes I guess." I ground out, and tossed the chicken into the now boiling water.
"Not just good, natural. You're almost as quick as Nudge." He said, and I gave him a confused glance.
"Who's Nudge?" I asked, and he waved his hand.
"Some other time." I quickly chopped up the rest of the vegetables and dumped them into the pot, while Fang made small talk, all of my anger towards him completely forgotten. The sun sank below the horizon, and the room was illuminated only by the fires soft yellow light. The smell of the soup and heat of the fire was homey, paired with the fresh smell of the hay in Fangs mattress. I lied on my side, and watched Fang with heavy eyelids as he added the last of the finely chopped garlic and stirred everything around for a while, before taking the wooden spoon out and tapping it three times against the rim of the pot. His eyes shifted over to me for approval, and I smiled and nodded at him softly, my eyelids becoming too heavy for me to hold open anymore.
"Maximum, Its time to wake up." A maid with curly brown hair tied up in a strip of fabric and a deep tanned complexion shook me from my sleep. I bolted upright, peering around my huge and cold room in the castle, not Fangs warm and welcoming loft room. Disappointment rose in my stomach as I watched the maid pull out a pale blue dress and spread it over the back of a chair, before giving me a bright smile and slipping out of the room. I huffed and got out of bed, going to the chair and pulling the dress over my head and straightening the skirt before wrapping the beaded bodice around my stomach and yanking the strings tight carelessly. Not even bothering to brush out my unruly waist length curly bedhead, I slowly made my way out of my room and down into the great hall, determined to take as long as I could getting to the breakfast hall as I could.
I wandered around for a while before slipping into the dining room, the silence deafening as the eyes of the family shifted to me. I silently took my place next to Dylan and loaded my plate with bran and fruit, pretending not to notice their stares as I ate. The hall remained quiet until I finished, and excused myself from the table, leaving the uncomfortable dining room.
"Maximum!" Dylan calls out behind me, the backwards scrape of his chair and hurried footsteps came up behind me, following me out into the hallway.
"Where are you going." He shouts behind me, and I continue my steady walk towards the back entrance of the castle. I turn around to face him, walking backwards.
"I'm going to the garden." I reply, keeping myself calm and quiet. He ran up behind me and jerked my arm back by my wrist. I let out a small cry as I was jerked to face him, his lips pursed and eyes narrowed.
"You know you aren't allowed to leave." He hissed, and I tried to distance myself as much as I could from him, his grip on my wrist tightening.
"I just wanted to go outside for a while." I said in a small voice, and he yanked on me, dragging me back towards the dining room.
"You can do that later. I believe my mother wanted to talk to you before you decided to excuse yourself." He hissed, tugging on me again, and I stumbled forwards. if his mother wanted to talk to me, why didn't she while I was sitting at the table? Stupid highborns.
"I don't want too!" I shot back, but he just continued like he hadn't even heard me.
"Yes, you do." He laughed after he had said it, and the tall doors of the dining room appearing in my view, and I struggled against his hand.
"I'm not hungry anymore." I whimpered, feeling helpless and weak, wishing Fang would just happen to appear out of thin air like he had before. Dylan sighed, shoulders sagging.
"I don't want to make you, Maximum. But if you can't keep track of yourself, I'm going to have too." He said, before giving me one final shove into the dining room, and I did my best to appear as put together as I wasn't. Once again the eyes turned to me, and I walked myself back to my place at the table, sitting down heavily and enjoying the disapproving look his mother cast at me.
"Are you feeling alright, Maximum?" She asks, and I shake my head, tossing my tangled hair.
"Just a little queasy from being inside so long." I tell her airily, and note Dylan stiffen next to me.
"Well, then maybe now wouldn't be the best time to discuss your wedding." She trails off, picking through her bran like it displeased her.
"Maybe later. After all, I'm not feeling too well." I said, and I was sure she could detect my sarcasm, because her lips pressed into a thin line. The maid from this morning came and took my plate away, her eyes catching on mine. She seemed a little too pretty to be a maid.
"Maybe my son should escort you outside for some air." She implied, and Dylan stood up, and I followed suit after him. He was clearly steamed and I followed him out of the room, and then to the garden.
"I thought you had a tutor back at Damascus. You're so rude!" He reprimanded, sounding disbelieving of my treatment of his mother.
"Well, would you rather I had lied and said I was feeling fine?" I ask bitterly, and he turns his head just enough to glare at me over his shoulder. I hated this kid more every minute I had to spend with him.
"Yes, that's the polite thing to say." He told me, very matter of fact. He sounded just Anne. She probably said those exact lines to me a thousand times.
"That's stupid." I grumble, and he chooses to ignore me. I follow him silently through the garden, him ignoring me, and me not even trying to start conversation. He would just call me childish anyway. I looked around, looking for some way to get away from him, I was bored, and actually starting to get queasy. I focused on walking quietly, making my footsteps sound as quiet as I could on the gravel path. I slowed my pace, and when I was sure I was far enough away from Dylan, I slipped behind a tree and crouched behind a bush. Peering through the bushes, I watched him disappear, and turned and sprinted as fast as my lungs would allow me. I hopped in my step a little, getting away from him was almost too easy, big dope. I ran through the courtyard, throwing away subtlety as I sprinted past guards and towards the market and town.
Pausing, and looking over the city, I gathered my breath again, and continued running, down the hill towards the clay buildings. This stupid corset constricted my breathing, but I pressed on, earning weird looks from the people who I went past. I guess the governors future wife in a nice dress, sprinting, must be an odd sight. I slowed my pace, and the crowds became thicker, and the smell of roasting meat and sounds of people shouting and talking overtook me. I scanned the crowds for a familiar face, but I didn't know anyone. Perfect.
A ladder to my right led up to a roof garden, and I climbed up, hopping over the wooden edge and peering out through the curtains over the city. Warm air wove its way through the curtains and I breathed it in, this was much, much better than being stuck in that cold castle all day. The figures of guards paced the rooftops, bows or swords in their hands, Some of them looked nervous, others looked focused, watching something that I couldn't see. That is, until a white robed figure sprang up onto the roof and bolted over openings in the buildings and up walls.
Without thinking, I leaped out of the roof garden and chased after the figure, my lungs protesting at my pace. A gap in the roof stopped me for a second, but I hopped over it, the flash of the cobblestones and people walking below me, making my stomach churn for a few steps before I regained my footing. The figure, who I was sure was Fang, was now attracting the attention of all the guards on the rooftops, who shot arrows and chased after him. I climbed up a stack of wooden boxes, and came face to face with a guard, who grabbed my wrist.
"What the hell are you doing up here!" He shouted in a rough accent, and I wriggled and tried to get my arms away from him.
"Let go!" I hissed, shoving him forward with my closed fists, and watched as he tumbled back, dragging my wrists with him as he fell over the edge of the rooftop as I yanked my arms away from him. He out a scream as he hit the ground, head first, his head cracking on the cobblestones with a sickening smack, among a crowd of people, who watched with shock, and then moved their eyes up to me.
Oh shit.