Alexia
"He's your brother," I said, and as if noticing my presence for the first time, he turned to me abruptly, his eyes wide, and raising his hand, he said:
"Who is she?" He asked, "You brought a witch."
He picked up the pillow and threw it at me, I grabbed the pillow.
"I need to hide, you won't catch me, you won't!" He pulled the sheet off the bed, covered himself with it and cowered.
I looked at Estevan.
"She's not a witch, Thomas is my wife Alexia"
"Get the witch out of the room!" He said in a tearful voice.
I stood still without saying anything for fear of making the situation worse.
"Thomas"
"Get the damn witch out of the room!" He shouted, exploding, and then I heard his crying voice as he swayed completely covered from head to toe in the sheet.
"I think I'd better get out," I said to Estevan, who just shook his head. I walked out of the room feeling my heart pounding, looked for a window and opened it, it was as if I was short of breath, as if something was trying not to let me breathe properly.
Why was there such a heavy atmosphere in that house W
Estevan appeared a few minutes later and turned on his back like me, leaning on the edge of the window.
"I expected it to be a calmer morning," he said, "I didn't know Thomas was agitated."
I looked at Estevan.
"Why didn't you tell me about him before?"
Estevan looked straight ahead, seeming to avoid my eyes.
"I've gone so long without talking about Thomas that I didn't know how to talk, my parents denied him when he went mad and put him here telling everyone that Thomas had died" Estevan looked down at his feet, it seemed difficult to talk about his brother. I took his arm, he took my hand in his and squeezed.
"Your brother needs you Estevan" I said "This place looks... lonely"
I looked around, the large structure did not resemble the castle, but the castle was full unlike the house where there were only a few servants.
"I wanted to take him to the castle, that was an argument I'd had for years with my parents," said Estevan.
"How did he get like this?"
Estevan looked at me.
"Thomas wasn't born that way, he was intelligent, wise. He was being groomed to take the throne, at eleven he already looked like a diplomat, but that was a long time ago... At that time there were witches in the castle, angling for the crown, but then a disagreement between my mother and a witch called Cassandra didn't end well. That day Thomas acted in my mother's defense and my mother never said the words that witch had spoken, only that she had cursed Thomas, that night he went mad with dreams and nightmares, he saw and heard things, he feared the witches and so they were banished from the castle and their fame spread throughout the kingdom, they were hunted down, but we never found Cassandra. Thomas was locked in a room for months while doctors tried to cure him, but nothing worked, on the contrary seeing people seemed to make things worse, he didn't know how to deal with or differentiate reality from the things that appeared in his mind, so my parents sent him here and pretended that he had died, even a funeral was held and the kingdom mourned his death for a month".
I looked at Estevan shocked by the things he was telling me, not understanding how his parents could deny their own son and fake his death.
"Is that why he called me a witch?"
"Yes, he's called people worse things," said Estevan with a weak smile.
Now I understood the reluctance and fear of witches, their fame that preceded them in the kingdom was due to a single name that had disgraced the life of an innocent man.
But from what I had seen, it seemed that not all witches were the same.
Thomas appeared in the second corridor, led by a man in white clothes. He was still a little hunched over and staring at the floor, his body slender despite his height.
"He's calmer," said Estevan as he approached.
"Yes, he's calmed down, Your Highness," said the man.
"He looks pale, are you feeding him well?" Estevan asked and the man shook his head "Let's go into the garden, you like looking at the flowers, don't you?"
Thomas raised his head and nodded.
"I'll take over from here," said Estevan to the man.
We went into the garden, I stood on the balcony in the shade watching Thomas and Estevan walking and talking while Thomas seemed to be tinkering with the earth.
I watched as Estevan engaged with his brother with patience, care and love, seeming lighter as he talked to him, smiled and leaned against one of the columns, the wind fresh.
Estevan looked around and stopped his eyes on me, then gestured for me.
I walked calmly towards him and approached him slowly, he got up from the ground and clapped his hands together.
"You've made a beautiful star, Thomas," he said, encouraging him. Thomas smiled encouragingly, "You know who else draws well, Alexia."
Thomas stopped his finger, I understood what Estevan was doing and slowly bent down, wishing for the sun was the first thing I thought of, how hot it was in Letrons.
"Do you know what that is?"
"The sun"
I shook my head and wiped it away with my hand, then went back to drawing simple scribbles on the ground.
"That's a house," said Thomas.
"Yes, it's a house"
Thomas clapped his hands.
"You draw badly"
Estevan let out a choked laugh and I glanced at him, turned to Thomas and held back my laughter.
"I don't wish that badly"
"Estevan said he could draw well, he lied"
"I didn't lie"
"Yes, he did, she draws very badly" said Thomas and Estevan held back his laughter.
"If I draw so badly, show me what your drawing looks like," I said to Thomas.
He erased his star, I expected him to draw something simple like a flower, but his drawing was much more complex.
Strokes and turns that I didn't understand created a symbol, I looked at the symbol and then at Estevan.
"What's that Thomas?"
"You" he said "That's you!"