The Lost Knight (Volume III) The Lost World

Chapter 27: Baby Arms & Jack-in-the-Box

I wish I were a smarter person. I'm lying here on a mound of pillows, listening to waves violently crashing against the rocks below while I gaze up at the wall of grey clouds. My life is too strange for me. I need to be smarter to figure it out.

I have to ask Stratagor Ziras about the things I don't want answers to, but I'm not brave. I'd rather dance through the Salt Mines than dissect the story I've been told. Things are not adding up. I know that, but I don't want to know the truth.

I had a great night's sleep. It's easier with Lenox here. I even had a restful morning, which is now over because Lenox just snapped his head up. Food is on the way. Mapta enters my room first, but there's a man behind her holding a large chunk of meat on his shoulder. I can only imagine what Albína would say if she knew a man saw me in my nightgown.

Once Lenox is settled, I dress quickly and join Stratagor Ziras on the lower balcony for breakfast. We talk about nothing and exchange boring stories. He tells me about his parents and growing up here at the castle. I tell him about Auntie and New York, but they make him mad. I think he's sincere when he says he didn't know how badly they treated me, so I tell him about school instead, but that's not much better.

After breakfast, Lenox and I go for a fly around the castle. It's a beautiful place. Oletto may have been carved out of the mountain because the castle walls end on the cliff edge on all sides.

Trelix and Jonah warned me never to fly above the clouds because that's where dragons roam, so we fly to a few of the other mountain-rock formations in the water. I wish Jonah could be here with me. The trees hum to the beat of the waves, and the birds add to the song. It's so harmonious and peaceful, not the lair of an evil specter.

We spend the day exploring, and no one bothers us. There are no guards, and no one knows we left. I see the mainland in the distance. It would be easy for us to fly over there. I trust Stratagor Ziras when he tells me I can leave when I want. I'll need to do it soon. I'm basically healed, and I'm sure everyone is worried about me. I've been here at least a month, but possibly as many as three. It's time to go.

We fly back and discover a late-night snack waiting for both of us. Lenox only eats once a day, but he enjoys some of my cookies.

We play the next day, too. When I fly back to my room, Mapta has left another designer outfit on the bed. It's shorts with a cute top and coordinated sandals. I bring my hand to my neck. I'm still wearing the necklace. Maybe I get to keep it.

I head down to dinner; I don't know if it's suppertime, but I'm hungry. I have to search for Stratagor Ziras because he isn't in the dining room. When I pop my head around the door of his office, he stops reading the papers in front of him and carefully puts his pen away. "I was wondering when the two of you were coming back." He stands, and we walk together to the dining room.

"Sorry," I say and mean it. "Did I keep you waiting? I don't know how to track time here."

"It's difficult, but it can be done by tracking Earth's moon. I could show you."

I don't answer because the food arrives. It's make-your-own-hoagie night—real hoagies, with the right bread and everything. I might cry.

I don't want to talk and mess up this moment between me and my sandwich. I have all the fixings for the perfect Italian sub, including anchovies and prosciutto. Seriously, life is too good.

I'm halfway through my hoagie when Ziras takes a huge bite out of his. It's weird seeing him do such normal things as eating with his hands and taking an undignified monster bite out of his overstuffed sub.

When we both eat our fill, we sit back and admire the unchanging view. It's got to be so boring to see the exact same thing every day for hundreds of years. The fact that he looks forty-five but is at least six hundred leads me to my first question.