**DAPHNE**
I gaze out the window as the sun sets. The last of today’s golden warmth falling behind the vast hills of the forest. All day I have remained here, undisturbed. Perched upon this velvet window seat, where I have been seated since my return from the noon meal.
Gazing down at the ancient book I found on my bed when I first arrived, I chuckle. “What type of fool brings a peasant a book to read?”
It was obviously left here by someone. Probably Ash. I can think of no one else that might concern themself with my entertainment. Then again, Hadimere hasn’t been nearly as sadistic as expected. But, he would certainly assume the truth about me.
I am a peasant. I cannot read.
There’s not a single picture in the beautiful, leather bound, volume. I know this because I checked. Just words. Words written in a script so foreign they must be in another language altogether. I cannot read English, but I have seen it before. Playing my fingers over the curled markings to imitate a recorder was the most fun I’ve had in days.
Still, the golden words are reflective and somewhat familiar. The pages are dusted with a strange glitter. Silver and gold on terribly old parchment and tied between two scraps of leather by a thick painted rope.
“Daphne,” Petra says as she enters the tower room.
“Petra!” I jump from my seat at the window and throw my arms around her small frame. For the barest of moments, she stiffens, rejecting my affections. Then, it as if she melts into me before she steps back with a smile.
“You must come with me now.”
“Wait,” I say, snatching the book off of the bed. “Do you know who left this?”
Her large brown eyes go wide and suddenly the air is still. “Someone left that? For you?” I start to hand it to her, face up with the strange foreign title on full display, but she jumps back before she can take it. She gasps, her hands going to her throat. “When did you find it?”
I swallow, my head beginning to swim at the terror in her eyes. “It was on my bed after the noon meal.”
“Can you read?” She asks me and I shake my head no. She swallows, nodding quickly. “That may be a good thing in this case.”
“Why?” I say, alarmed. “It’s not even in English? Is it?”
Her eyes seem to flash for a moment. Different shades of blue dazzling her gaze. “No, it is not English.”
“What is wrong with your eyes?” I tremble, forgetting the book for a moment. Her long brown hair, which is roped into a braid down her back is beginning to glow yellow. “What is going on?”
She shakes herself, surprise falling over her as she begins to circle me. I turn with her. Slowly, my eyes wander up and down her body and that’s when I notice the glimmer of her skin beneath the drab dust of earth, she is coated in. My mouth falls open, I am about to comment on it when Ash bursts into the room.
“Petra, you are relieved. I will take it from here.”
A knowing look passes between the two as she leaves.
Ash stares at me, his eyes missing the book completely. “Leave it on your bed. I will retrieve it for you later. Follow me please,” Ash says in a hiss before turning around.
“You mean, you didn’t leave it here for me?”
“No,” he says with his back to me. “Come along. I am going to stow you in my room.”
“Stow me? In your room? But whatever for?” I ask and laugh. “Isn’t it time for the evening meal? Won’t the king be expecting me?” I protest, although the thought of being hidden in Ash’s chamber is not unpleasant.
He stops walking, not only because I am not following him but because I mention the king. “You and that fat oaf are really hitting it off, aren’t you?” He says meanly, spinning around and grabbing my wrist. He yanks on my arm, forcibly slamming my body into his.
“What’s wrong?” I whimper at the anger in his eyes. “I didn’t do anything! I was only trying to get along! Why are you mad at me?”
His gaze softens. “I don’t know.” He says and drags me from the tower room. His lips crash down on mine for the briefest second and my mind goes reeling. I moan in argument as he raises his head with a smirk. “I have been giving your request for salvation a good deal of thought, and I’m going to need for you to trust me. Can you do that?”
I stare into his eyes which shine like silver blades of moonlight, their lunar pull burning my face aflame. “I can.”
“Good,” he states. His eyes fall toward my heaving bosom, and he freezes, licking his lips. “Come along then.”
The entire corridor is in chaos. Guards are running, servants are scattered about. I can hear shouts coming from each end of the palace.
I could hear none of this from the tower!
It’s as if they don’t even see me and I suddenly realize, this would be the perfect time to escape. If I didn’t have to worry about the king punishing my sisters.
“What is happening?” I ask as Ash steers me in a different direction than I am used to traveling. We head down a tiny stairwell, then down an even skinnier hallway. Finally, we erupt behind the kitchens, and he drags me up another stairway, this one dark and steep. The door at the end of this climb is not a door at all, but the back of a bookshelf. A bookshelf in his chamber.
I take note of the strange wooden knots that mark these latches, I have seen them somewhere else as well. There are four alike to these along the armoire in the tower room.
I spin around slowly as he latches the shelf back into place. There is a table set for two people in front of the fire. I glance at him as he throws off his cloak and rolls up his sleeves.
“There will be no evening meal tonight,” Ash says simply. He gestures for me to sit at the table. “The king and his soldiers have been called to the village to investigate a crime.”