Creperum

Chapter Four

Morning came with a vengeance, despite its beautiful colors which brought to light the castle courtyard. I rose begrudgingly. Having slept only an hour the night before, every joint pained me to move. 

Maverick and I had sat at the open wall and talked for hours. We’d discussed the marriage agreement, and eventually he explained that the idea of losing his only remaining parent was troublesome, and that perhaps his father was right, perhaps he wasn’t fit to be a King. A fear which I greatly understood. 

I half expected to wake up to my mother throwing fists, but the room was oddly still. I hadn’t heard from her since she hit me. The side of the bed where Abigail had slept was cold. I dressed myself in a simple red day dress, and made my way from place to place searching for her, with no success. The morning was bitter cold, with a relentless wind chewing through all my layers. 

Just as I passed the Lake of Mirrors on the way back inside, I heard a shrill voice cry out from the water. Turning quickly, I made out the thrashing figure of a girl struggling to stay afloat. Time nearly stopped as I looked at her, hands reaching for help that wasn't there. 

Before I could understand what I was doing, my body dove toward the frigid water, jolting from an impact I hadn’t expected. My breath was knocked from me for a moment, my vision went dark. I surfaced again, momentarily to take in another raspy breath. For a moment I just floated there in the water, my mind unable to process such intense agony.

 Once my vision had somewhat returned, I jumped into action, searching for the girl who’d by then sunk within the depths. I found her, a young servant barely twelve years old, her white blond hair floating all around her limp body. 

Clutching her close to me, I pushed off the lake bottom, grasping at the water as if I could use it to climb up. They say that learning to swim is instinctive, so I suppose that I am dysfunctional somehow, because all I did was flail about. 

For a moment my panic heightened when I looked at her youthful face and saw the blue on her lips, which had turned otherwise pale. Determination pushed my limbs harder, and against the water they created a rhythm. After a minute or so, I broke the surface with a  desperate gasp for air. 

With the last remaining strength, I pushed the girl onto the bank, clawing at the soil to raise myself up as well, but my dress - my cursed dress - was too heavy! Two hands grabbed mine, pulling me from what I was sure to be my grave.   It wasn’t until I reached safety did the bitter cold set into my bones, surpassing the intensity of the water. The wind seemed to cut right through me. 

“You could have been killed!” Someone shouted. I fell over in agony, my chest heaving while I coughed up water. My whole body shook. My hands were pruned and tinted purple. For those moments I feared I would never know warmth again. Worst of all, the girl still hadn’t moved. I pulled my knees up to my chest, trying to find some warmth left in my core. 

Maverick appeared, or maybe he had always been there, and took the girl in his arms, hitting her back with the palm of his hand. I need not tell you that I held my breath until she revived, sputtering and coughing as I had.  Two gardeners came running over, taking over and carrying the girl off to be cared for. I wished I could follow them, to be sure she survived, but at that time I was in no shape to do anything. 

“You could have been killed.” Maverick repeated, gripping me by the arms. However, it wasn’t anger glaring back at me in his eyes, it was worry. It was fear. 

“Will she be okay?” I asked, pushing my dark hair out of my face. Even in my state I could hear the slur of my words. I came away with blood on my hand. “Have I cut myself?”