The Crown and the Throne

Chapter Five

The woman's hands are cold when they touch my face, calluses scratching my cheeks. I try not to flinch away, though exhaustion has started to overcome my body as the adrenaline begins to disappear.

"Taller than I thought you'd be," she says, looking up at me from maybe only a few inches away.

I shift uncomfortably on my aching legs. I had always been taller than what was typical, what was seen as "proper". There was no need for a woman who I do not know to say anything about the way I look, at least not to my face. But I bite my tongue. This woman was risking her life even having me here for even the briefest of moments.

Her thumbs caress my face under my eyes, my forehead, the bridge of my nose, my chin. Her eyes, surrounded by the beginning ends of wrinkles, roam down my neck, over my hair. I look at the strands of her graying blonde hair hanging in her face and her crooked nose. It has a similar crook to Sebastian's, something he received when a troll broke his nose.

"Weary, are you?" she asks, raising an eyebrow as if expecting me to tell her otherwise.

I nod, the soreness in my legs beginning to spread to my back and arms.

The woman's hands fall from my face. She moves to the counters and cabinets and begins to pull things from the shelves. I watch her open a jar full of leaves and pour them into a smaller cauldron that sat over a flame. She adds water.

"I- I think I need a seat-"

The woman waves a hand mindlessly. A chair appears beside me. Sebastian takes me by the arms and leads me to the seat, helping me down slowly. I can feel my eyelids start to feel heavy, but the moment they are to close I see the knife in Father's forehead. I open my eyes, trying to focus on watching this mysterious woman.

I see her bony finger swirl around the cauldron. The fire grows and licks the bottom of the thick iron. The sound of the water bubbling fills the room, and a sweet smell hits my nose.

She holds her palm up. The fire turns back into a small flame and the boiling sounds stop. I lose sight of the cauldron as the woman steps in front of it, her arms moving around and over it, reaching into another jar and dropping some of its contents into the cauldron.

She turns around, a metal cup in her hands. Her long dark green and blue skirt billows around her ankles as she brings it to me.

I take it hesitantly. "What is it?"

She smiles, but it barely reaches her eyes. I can feel the warm of the cup tickling my fingers.

"Tea. Lylwood tea. With some hazel cream. It will help you sleep." She leans closer, her voice a little quieter. "Without the nightmares I imagine you will have."

A funny feeling twists in my gut and I shift uncomfortably. The drink taste sweet, warm, and slides smoothly down my throat, surprisingly. Immediately I begin to feel fuzzy and tired, my arms heavy. It becomes hard to hold the cup up, even though I wanted to taste the tea again, to feel it slither down my throat and curl up in my stomach like a hibernating bear.

The cup starts to slip. Sebastian catches it, muttering a curse under his breath as the tea sloshes over the edge of the cup and lands on his hand, leaving his skin red.

"I... um..." I start to stand, but my legs give out.

Sebastian's voice sounds far away when he says my name. I think I hear him tell me to stay seated.

I feel a laugh bubble up my throat. The dark room spins. The orange light the cauldron in the center of the room emits dances around the room. The light bounces off of the jars and counters and the walls and ceiling. It stops and hovers in front of me.