Adventuress Emergent

Part VI: Lessons

Morning came. The towers of Castle Verdyne welcomed the first rays of dawn as groundskeepers emerged from their quarters and surveyed the meticulously-kept lawn for debris and damage brought on by the night's storm. At the front gate, fresh guards arrived to relieve their weary comrades, exchanging pleasantries and complaints about the volatile weather. Bell towers across the city rang out to announce the arrival of a new day, and slowly, sleepily, its people rose to meet it.

Among them was Sera Silvercloud, nestled into the luxurious comforter of an oversized bed in one of the castle's many guest rooms. Light trickled through the fine curtains that covered the window at the far side of the room, across the plush rug that lay sprawled on the floor. A nearby chair held her damp and mud-smeared bag, with her bow and empty quiver leaning against its back. A small clock on the nightstand quietly ticked out each passing moment.

Awareness gradually returned. Her sea blue eyes opened as far as she could manage, and she painstakingly pushed herself up from the miniature mountain of pillows beneath her. As the comforter fell away, Sera saw that her cuts and scrapes had been tended to, leaving her arms wrapped in clean bandages. She tucked a hand under her shirt and found more of the same, wound around her ribs where she struck the cavern wall. And the shirt itself was the cleanest it had ever been, as were the rest of her clothes, her face, and her hair.

She started as the door clicked open. A pair of guards stepped inside, each in full armor and carrying a long-handled halberd. They turned sharply, stopped, and stood at attention as Queen-Regent Brylee Evenwood entered. She was dressed in a simple gown of yellow and forest green that reminded Sera of a sunflower, and her dark hair was partly weaved into a crown braid beneath her golden coronet. Upon seeing Sera awake and upright, the distress that creased her brow faded, accompanied by a sigh of relief.

"Leave us. Please," Brylee said over her shoulder.

The guards obeyed. As they pulled the door closed behind them, a near perfect silence settled in the guest room. A gentle breeze rustled through the foliage of a tree just outside the window, complimented by the chirp of birdsong and punctuated by a flutter of wings. The faint footsteps of a servant in the hall drew closer, then passed. One of the sentries still lingering on the other side of the door shifted in his armor, and the plates clinked in response.

Brylee spoke first, even and measured. "Tell me what happened."

But Sera couldn't. Should she say that she just wanted to find Noran? It was true. Even as the thought formed, though, the trembling flare of shame smothered it. She should have come back to the castle after seeing Mister Holmesly. She should have gone for help. She should have never dragged Wendy out into-

Wendy.

The moment flashed through her mind: the spider turning on its trapped prey, lunging, sinking its fangs through cloth and leather and ripping into the flesh beneath. In all the years Sera had known her, she had never heard Wendy scream like that. Not in fear, or pain, or heartache. She heard again the wet retching sound of her vomiting. She saw her collapsing, felt her going cold.

She saw the corpse of the stranger they had pulled from the first cocoon.

"Sera."

"Is Wendy alive?" The words spilled out of her mouth in a whimper.

Brylee's expression softened. The veneer of royalty slipped away as she laid her hand on Sera's leg. Suddenly, she was no longer the Queen-Regent of New Verdyne. She was simply an older, wiser huntress, searching for the right words to console a terrified student. She took a long, steady breath and spoke.

"She is. She's recovering."

Brylee met Sera's eyes and held. "But you need to tell me why the watchmen found you on the edge of the woods in the middle of the night."