Hello in June !
Now I have good news and I have bad. Lets start with the good one.
I am almost done writing this story. Only six or perhaps seven (with epilogue) chapters left.
The bad news is that I'm taking a summer break (well, that's not bad for me, but for you, my loyal readers) In July and Agust there will be no updates at all from me since I'm partly working, partly on vacation and partly on different events spread out all over the summer break. I REALLY hope you won't hate me too much for this.
That was all I had to say for now. Enjoy the chapter, have a great summertime and I'll see you again in September (I promise)
Yuniko, Ryouko, Kyoko
Things would have to happen fast from now on. If the princess wanted to save as many lives as possible she would have to gather all her magic and put a protecting shield over Scotland and only those very skilled vampires with high knowledge of ancient and new magic would be able to make it past it. And this Yuniko would have to do without the kingdom's knowledge. But before she could do anything else she had to take care of the two girls who had lost their mother that same night.
Ryouko and Kyoko were waiting for their mother to come back. They didn't know when she had left or even why, but they were sure she would soon be back. She always did.
"Miss Malin, this is madness. The princess can not order such a thing!"
The two girls looked up as raised voices reached them from down the corridor.
"The princess has given very clear orders. The girls can not stay here where they eventually will be killed one way or another."
"But sweet, lovely Malin, they are nothing but simple whores. What need would the princess have of such?"
There were sounds of someone getting beaten and the sisters crept closer to each other.
"Never again talk about the princess like that," a threatening male voice said darkly. The girls recognized it as Joey's.
"It is madness I say, madness. Those little whores will bring nothing but doom to the kingdom!"
"You are the only thing I can say will bring any doom here!" the voice of Malin yelled angrily. "I will take the girls to the princess and if her heart is as pure as I think you may get away without punishment, but if she let me decide you will soon homeless!"
Silence followed the serious threat. Ryouko and Kyoko didn't dare to move when determined footsteps neared their room. They hid in a corner when a strong knocking was heard on their door.
"Girls, are you there?" a soft voice asked. "It is me, Malin. Can I come in?"
Ryouko slowly moved towards the door, but not before she had covered Kyoko with a blanket. They had been threatened and almost tricked into bed the day before, but another, rather fat woman with high authority had saved them.
"W-what do you want?" Ryouko asked through the door.
"The princess wishes to see you in the castle. Will you come with me?"
Kyoko lifted her head and locked gazes with her older sister. What was this about?
Kyoko made her way over to the door as Ryouko slowly opened it. Malin stood outside and smiled encouraging at them. Behind her Joey stood guard, glaring hard at the head-slave, who did not want the newcomers to leave for the princess.
"What shall the princess do with a pair of whores?" the head-slave asked lowly. "Give them as a gift to the evils? Serves them right."
Joey was over the man within a second and gave him his second beating. "I thought I told you not to talk about the princess in such manner," he growled dangerously.
"Come with me, girls. I promise the princess has nothing bad in mind."
"But we have to wait for mother to return," Kyoko spoke up.
Malin's face saddened. "The princess will explain. Please come with me now."
The girls carefully walked out in the corridor and Malin gently pushed them ahead of her to cover their backs. This time the head-slave was silent, but his soulless eyes bore holes into their bodies.
"Curse you," he whispered right before they left the building.
The sisters stood inside a small, cosy room which had the white stonewalls covered with red draperies and one wall had a few smaller paintings of faces of noblemen. Behind them were two huge windows, bigger than Ryouko and Kyoko together, which viewed over the massive land of east. If they had been higher up they may have been able to view the ocean, if the weather had been clearer. A small fire sparkled happily in a fire-place at the opposite wall from the windows and spread comfortable and very welcome warmth in the chilly season. Malin had left them for a moment and Joey with her so if they wished they could play around in the room at wish, but none of them dared to do it. They didn't even dare to use any of the comfortable-looking furniture in the room so both of them sat on the floor, which was warm from the fire and the soft carpet.
Kyoko glanced at her sister questioning, but the other just shrugged her shoulders and shook her head in confused denial of knowledge.
There was a knocking on the door, but none of them dared to answer or even acknowledge their presence. But the door opened anyhow, revealing the Malin, Joey…
And the princess, dressed nicely in a pale blue dress and a golden necklace, simple and round, surrounded her neck. Her skin seemed to be polished carefully in every inch and her mare appearance almost demanded the two sisters' attention and respect. But her eyes were slightly darker than before, as if grief had taken part of her heart.
"Why are you at the floor?" the princess asked truly confused. "The chairs will not bite you," she added with a slight smile. The sisters just blushed and looked away.
The princess shook her head slightly with a saddened expression before she seated herself in one of the chairs.
"Milady, shall I tell his majesty about your whereabouts or shall I just try and calm him?"
The princess didn't need to see the one who had talked in order to know who it was, but everyone else turned towards him.
"Just try and calm him, Mokuba. Having him disturb me now would be a very bad thing."
The errand boy bowed deeply before he turned and left as silent as he had appeared.
"Something terrible took place last night," the princess said quietly after a moment, looking at the two girls still at the floor. "Your mother was taken away by the vampires, the evil that comes from north."
Ryouko and Kyoko could just stare strangely, highly confused and disbelieving.
"What… what are you saying… your majesty?" Ryouko whispered at last.
"I am so sorry," the princess whispered with clear eyes. "There was nothing I could do in order to save her. She herself knew she would not be able to come back to you this morning."
"What are you saying?" Ryouko repeated, voice a little louder and with hot tears burning behind her eyelids.
"I am sorry I could not do anything. But she left you in my care, and I will make sure to take care of you properly."
"You are lying!" Ryouko suddenly yelled with the top of her lungs, her tears no longer held back. Joey was about to scold her, but the princess stopped him with a gesture of her hand. "What you say is not true! Mother would never leave us! She said so herself! I know my own mother; she would never ever in her entire life abandon us! I refuse… I refuse to believe you… your words are nothing but lies!"
"Stop it! Milady is…"
"You stop, Joey," the princess suddenly spoke up with a hard look at her bodyguard. "They have every right to be angry at me. You were too once, remember?"
Joey cast his eyes downward in shame. The princess was more than right. All his life, until they had met, he had despised her. "Forgive me."
"How can you say this so calmly?" Kyoko suddenly spoke up with low but steady voice. Her face was stained with tears, but her eyes shot cold flashes at the princess. "How can you tell us something like this so calmly? If you were truly sorry for us you would have cried with us or at least look like you regretted telling us this. Why are you so calm?"
"Because I have no other choice," the princess said slowly, her eyes looking straight into the young brunette's cerulean blue ones so the suspicion of lies would fall. "Either I could let you live in the shadows, always worrying about what have happened to her, never telling you the truth of your mother's disappearance or explain my actions. Or I could tell you right at your faces she is gone and let you live with that somewhat safe knowledge. I believed this would be less painful than living in forever worry about someone long gone."
"But why so calm?" Kyoko asked again. "Why sounding so toneless?"
The princess closed her eyes slowly, not opening them again. "There are truths not safe to know about. There are feelings I have to hide away forever. There will forever be a choice forced on me. I am ripped between what I am, what is desired and awaited from me and my duty as the ruler of Scotland. I am truly sorry I could not save your mother, and I wish I did not have to tell you. I wish I could cry with you or somewhat comfort you in your grief. But nothing can I do but tell you everything now and let it sink in. Nothing can I do because I am always watched, by sun and moon as well as darkness. I am sorry I am such a disappointment on you."
With this said Yuniko rose from her chair and turned as to leave, but she stopped in the door. "Lisa and Malin will show you to your rooms and help you with anything you need. I suggest you take a bath and clean yourself from the dirt of the long journey here."
The princess, the ruler of Scotland, turned around and smiled kindly at the two sisters, who still sat on the floor with tears in their eyes.
"Bring Lisa here, Joey. Malin, you know which rooms I intend to settle them down in. You know what to do."
"Yes, Milady," the two said and bowed for the princess.
An elderly woman helped Kyoko wash her short hair with a good smelling oil as the little girl did her best to scrub off all traces of what she had been away from her body, but the filth felt like grown into her skin. She was disgusted of herself. And the fact she no longer had her mother to go to she felt very alone. And for some reason she blamed the princess. The pure, innocent princess. And it must have been visible on her face.
"Do not judge our treasure too hard," the old woman, Lisa, said with saddened voice. "She has suffered so much. She had to tell the entire castle about her brother's death, and after that everyone was afraid of her. Yet she is now the only heir to the Scottish throne and has to stand on her own two legs whatever happens to her. She has never lived an easy life."
Kyoko looked at the old woman, who had very kind and wise grey eyes, as if she had lived long enough to see through any human around her.
"I do not blame the princess," Kyoko denied. "But she seems to be cold-hearted. I can not understand how she can announce mother's death with such calmness."
"She has to," Lisa said lowly. "She has told me she can never more cry, for her tears are desired by the evil. She saw her brother die, but you never needed to live with such a painful memory."
Kyoko guiltily looked down at her small body, just to see imaginary filth covering it. Why did she feel so dirty? Was it because of what she had been forced to do during the journey here? Right now she wished with everything she had she never had sneaked away from her mother to take jobs. It had not saved them any better than what Rose could make on her body. She was just a child after all. A small, dumb child.
Lisa embraced the trembling and crying twelve-year-old softly. The child had just lost someone very dear to her, and Lisa could hear some kind of guilt and shame in the sobs too, but she would not press it. If the girl wished to talk she would, but now was not the time.
Malin scrubbed Ryouko's back with used moves and her soft hands massaged the pale skin carefully. The thirteen-year-old was silent as she scrubbed herself hard with a white cloth. Malin started with the smaller girl's long hair and noticed it was not properly taken care of, something she would make sure to change.
"You should not be outside too much for a few days," the nurse said as she examined the white and pinkish hair with an expert's eyes. "Your hair is very beautiful, but the sun has faded it and it has not been properly washed in a long time, if ever. It is so stiff too, and all too thin. This will not do, I will make sure this beautiful hair will be in a much better shape in a few weeks."
Ryouko did not say anything, not giving any hint she was offended. The only sign she showed of having heard at all was the slight lift of her head.
"Why?" Ryouko said slowly.
"Why what?" Malin asked, still caught in the girl's hair.
"Why did the princess order us to live here? Why did she not save mother? Why… why are you trying to be nice to me?"
Malin sighed slightly and smiled sadly. "I believe her majesty met your mother last night. But the king was there as well and her majesty can do nothing in his presence without speaking out of turn. On meetings and such she can since her opinion is whished, but not otherwise. But I also guess your mother was not welcome here in the first place, so he sent her away. Milady could do nothing to prevent it."
Ryouko sobbed pitifully. "But why is she giving us rooms here? Will she really sacrifice us?"
"The princess would rather cut her own throat off than do something like that," Malin said sternly. "I believe your mother begged Milady to show mercy towards you. Her majesty knows better than deny a plea from someone who is honest in the heart. And about me… I am kind to you because I think I know what you are going through. I too lost my family, a long time ago."
"You lost your family? Did you have brothers and sisters? Did you have both your mother and father?" Ryouko asked and turned around slightly to look at Malin's face.
"Yes. I had a twin sister, Mina, and I had many others around me. We were not rooted anywhere, so we travelled around together. So there were my cousins and grandparents too. All of them were executed."
Ryouko gasped and turned around to face the still gently smiling Malin fully. "W-what happened?"
Malin took another cloth and started to gently clean Ryouko's tearstained face. "It is against the laws to hurt a child other than in lecturing or punishment for breaking the house laws. But my family abused me. If the prince had not been there and saved me I would have been dead now. My father stepped up and tried to convince prince Atemu it was punishment for something I had done. I can not remember the event precisely since I was so badly beaten I just barely was conscious. My father was stupid and tried to slap the prince. Everyone was taken to a very angry king right away. I was taken to the castle healer Lisa. Soon after I heard my family was executed, so I decided to stay with the princess. She has taken care of me ever since."
Ryouko was silent. Malin seemed like she had lived a rough life before. Had she been… like her?
"M-Malin? Were you… did your parents force you to…?"
"My family was thieves. I was used as their spy," Malin said without needing to hear Ryouko's obviously sensitive question.
Ryouko blinked surprised and then blushed.
"But…" Malin started again, with a much softer face. "The princess was the first one to love me. If I could ever wish for anything I would wish I was born as Lady Yuniko's sister."
Ryouko blushed even more. She could not deny she wished the same thing. "But… what does the princess intend to do with us?"
"Do not worry," Malin said and started with Ryouko's hair again. "Her majesty has the purest heart in this world. She will make very sure you are comfortable and safe here."
Washed, carefully scrubbed, dressed in warm cloths and hair done, Ryouko and Kyoko was showed around the castle by Malin and the errand girl Rebecca, a very cute girl with wide, green eyes, blonde hair and sun-kissed skin.
"This is where the servants usually eat," Rebecca told the two sisters. "Malin is an excuse since she is the nurse of the princess, so she eats with her majesty."
"The kitchen is over there," Malin said and pointed at a room from where it smelled good from food and spices. "Come and say hello to the chef."
Chef Solomon had been informed from Mokuba about the two girls and had a surprise gift ready for them.
"Greetings chef," Malin said from the door and curtsied slightly for the master of the castle kitchen. "We are showing those two girls around the castle."
Solomon turned his kind eyes toward the group of girls and chuckled slightly. The two new faces looked like he was about ready to eat them. "Have the beauties eaten recently?" he asked knowingly.
Malin and Rebecca looked at the sisters, who shook their heads in denial. Malin immediately panicked. "Oh my Goodness! Why did you not tell me earlier? Chef could you…"
Malin stared dumbly at the two plates of chicken and vegetables Solomon suddenly had in his hands.
"Our dear princess is very careful when it comes to the health of others," Solomon explained. "She told me you can eat in the little dining room."
Malin and Rebecca nodded and took the plates, curtsied and left with the two close behind. Malin saw too that both of them thanked the chef properly before she let them out of the kitchen though, just like the princess had done with her many years earlier.
Malin had never seen two girls so alike herself. Both of them reacted just like she had done with everything but the blackberry juice. They had seen it before.
"It is getting late," Malin said suddenly with strangely soft voice. "The princess will be worried about you if you are gone for too long."
Kyoko was the first one to speak up. "Why would a princess like her worry about us? I mean… she has a kingdom to care about. Why waste that attention on us?"
Rebecca and Malin smiled knowingly at each other before they started to lead the way back to the sisters' rooms.
"I believe you will realize all the answers if you get to know the princess closer," Rebecca said surprisingly gentle. Both Ryouko and Kyoko had realized the young girl had a hot temper and a fiery personality. Malin always was sweet and gentle, but Rebecca was absolutely not.
"If you knew how much time her majesty wastes on loving her kingdom, her people and her friends, I am positive you will be surprised. Her heart is too pure to hate anything or deny anyone her attention," Malin continued, smiling to herself at the thought of the princess disobeying her father to help a slave.
"What about the things that took the prince away?" Kyoko asked, not believing anyone could not hate anything. She herself did not know enough numbers to count all the things she hated with the world.
"Our princess is too busy worrying for the kingdom to realize she hates those things," Malin said with a slight laugh. "Even if I somehow doubt she does."
The rest of the way through the castle was silent. Kyoko and Ryouko still had to let in sink in they actually lived inside the castle now. It was no dream anymore, and above it all the princess noticed them. It was even more than what they had ever been able to dream about.
Kyoko sat in her new room and watched the colour of the sky shift swiftly. From the innocent baby blue to red, orange, pink and gold, to the ink blue colour of night. She had seen it hundreds of times, but tonight is was prettier than ever. She never heard the door open and didn't notice the presence of another in the room.
"The sunset is truly pretty tonight," the princess said softly, startling Kyoko out of her shoes. "I did not mean to scare you Kyoko," Yuniko said tenderly with the smile of someone whose heart holds nothing but love.
Kyoko was sure the princess could hear her wildly beating heart. Heat rose to her face and she blushed heavily, not daring to replay. The princess was so beautiful. Everything about her, from her long, wavy hair and all the way to the floor she stood on, was beautiful, making the rest of the world seem grey and dull in compare. Kyoko suddenly felt even dirtier than before the bath.
"You should not fear me Kyoko," the princess said softly as she walked up to join her looking at the sunset. "There is no reason for fear. But there is many things you wish to ask me. I can see it in your eyes. So ask, ask whatever you wish. I can answer them all."
The twelve-year-old looked up into bright sapphire blue eyes, which reflected the red light of the sunset and turned them almost into amethyst, like her mother's. She quickly looked down at the edge of the princess's dress, feeling unworthy to even look at such a beauty, such purity. She felt unworthy, ugly and embarrassed. What could she possibly ask without offending her? She did not belong here. She belonged in the slave village. She had no idea of how to act around a royal.
"I… Your highness, can you please tell me why… you offered me and my sister own rooms on your… your highness's level?" Kyoko was scared beyond words as she heard herself ask the question. What if she had used the wrong words? What if she had called the princess by wrong title?
"Father is furious about it, but the day he can say no to me is yet to come. Your mother, her name is Yue, is it not?"
"Yes… your highness," Kyoko answered quietly, now looking at her own feet.
"Please call me by my name. When we are alone like this there is no need for formality."
"Yes… my princess."
She couldn't help it. The word that was the princess's name just wouldn't leave her throat. She knew the name, but she had never pronounced it herself, and now she felt like she knew why.
"I guess you need time to adjust to this new order of life. But to answer your question, it was because you and I share something, something that I lost at young age and you just recently."
"My princess, I do not understand. I… I am…"
She fell down from the chair to her knees in front of the princess. Tears of confusion and misunderstanding fell from her eyes. She couldn't hold them back anymore. She didn't know what was going on, and she hated it more than anything. The princess, she was too nice and her beauty… nowhere on earth was such beauty to be seen. She felt so dirty, black with mud and sin, beside the pure princess. She had to admit everything.
"Princess, I am a child of a whore. I am lower than dirt. I should never even draw your eyes upon me. I do not deserve it. Princess, I am so dirty, so ugly. Looking at me will hurt your eyes."
What happened next made her stiff like a statue. The princess bent down and hugged her tightly to her chest. She could faintly hear the princess's heart's calm beating through the fabric of her white dress.
"You claim yourself to be dirty because you are a child of a whore. But if so, I am just as dirty as you. Because what we share, what we have both lost, is our mother. Your mother is mine. That is why I ordered you and Ryouko to live at my level. You would be princesses like me, but I can not do that to you. It is far too much responsibility that should rest on my shoulders alone. So please do not consider yourself as dirty anymore, because you are not."
Kyoko slowly relaxed into the princess's embrace. The warmth of the body that surrounded her made her feel safe, as if what was going on around the world, outside the embrace, never could reach out and hurt her. For the very first time in her life her tears was not of shame and pain, but of happiness. At first it was just a little spot of light in her heart, but then it grew and filled her heart as boiling water. She never noticed she fell asleep.
Darkness embraced the castle gently, but Ryouko was unable to sleep. She sat with her diary, her second one from the widow Mary. It was not much ink left, even if she had saved and saved all she could during the years. She tried to get all her thoughts down at the still clean page, but her feelings and thoughts were so many she had a hard time starting. At last she started as she had always done.
January 17, 1630
I am so lucky. All of my dreams have come true at the same day. We were accepted into the castle grounds and placed among the higher ranked slaves, which alone is a dream. I have never seen such a huge place and so many people living in the same place. Mother said that most of them are cleaning the castle every day, and with such a huge castle I understand why they need so many to do it.
But suddenly she came. The princess. I wonder how many times I have tried to imagine this girl, but all my visions of her suddenly feel very unfair and not even close to the truth. I have never seen such a beauty. At the whorehouse where my mother worked there were a lot of pretty girls, but they all look like dead weed beside the princess. She offered me a room of my own. I am not sure why, but she insisted, and I can not refuse an order of a higher class, especially not from her. I feel so ugly when she is close. So dirty I do not dare to touch her, or merely speak to her. I feel like her white dress will turn black if I touch the silky material. She also invited Kyoko to an own room. It looked so funny. Kyoko have always been so cold, calm and unaffected by her surroundings. But when the princess come close and smiles to her, she blushes like nothing else and her movements become almost clumsy.
But I still wonder what became of mother. I refuse to believe she has been taken away from us for good. The princess herself told us, but I still refuse to believe. Why would she leave? Why would she have been taken by those creatures? I can not understand, and I can not believe. I do not know what to believe in. But as I am here, inside the castle of my dreams, my worry slowly fades away until it is just a small, stinging prick in my heart.
The princess just showed me and Kyoko to a room where we could have a bath and clean ourselves. But even though I feel like I scrubbed my skin off, I still feel so dirty beside her.
She told me to address her by her name. But I can not do it. She has a beautiful name, Yuniko, Unicorn. I feel like I am not worthy of addressing her like that. I know even Kyoko feel like me. I wish I could understand what the princess plans to do with us. I can not believe she would do anything dirty, like selling us away to someone. A pure heart like her… no, it is not possible. She wears her heart on her sleeve, letting it spear light all around her. Yuniko, it is a suiting name. The name of purity itself.
The night has fallen and I, who have always been scared of the dark, I feel safer than ever before where I am in my own little room. I have a bed that could easily fit both mother and Kyoko too, but they are not here. Kyoko is sleeping a few rooms down the corridor, and one of the doors between Kyoko's and mine is the one where the princess has her chamber. Miss Malin said the two of them sleeps in the same room. She explained they had done so ever since the prince vanished since the princess is hunted by nightmares. Then suddenly I am grateful I did not see my mother go away. If I had then I too would suffer from nightmares.
There are a lot of things I can not understand. But the errand girl Rebecca said the princess has all the answers, and that I could find them if I just got to know her better. So that is what I intend to do from now on. I am determined to get to know the princess. I will stop being so turned down. I will be the princess's friend, now and forever.