Deprived

Chapter 25

A bird singing brought Maize to consciousness. Her eyes were closed, and she lay on the softest bed. When she opened her eyes, she saw a green cloth draped over four posts on the bed and hanging down on the sides—a cloth cocoon. She had no idea where she was, but she knew for sure she wasn't dead and in Creet because, in Creet, there was no pain.

A sharp pain pulsed on the side of her head. She lifted her hand to touch the spot and she remembered that last night she was attacked and captured by President Aberdeen's agents. As the events of the night unfolded in her memory, she scooted out of bed and stood up to get some air. With one hand on her chest, she forced herself to settle down.

The walls of the room were covered with roughly cut stones that were the color of the desert sand.

An ornate table and chair sat adjacent to the only window in the room. The arms of the chair were in the shape of a snake, and the seat was covered in fabric red as blood. The four table legs were twisted to look like four snakes crawling away.

As the blinding pain rested for a second, she walked over to the single, dark, wooden door and turned the golden knob. It was locked. The agents must have locked her in there last night. But why in a room so beautiful? She had broken so many of their laws. She should be in the dirtiest and darkest prison cell for all the trouble she'd caused them.

Surely President Aberdeen wanted to make an example of her. She'd seen her picture on the giant screen. A fugitive. Of course, he would want to gloat about capturing her. Something was happening, and she had no idea what it was.

She sat on the foot of the bed and rubbed her temples some more to relieve the pain. The painting, in an ornate golden frame, on the wall directly in front of her could have been an image captured from the west. A river flowing downhill seemed to leak from the stately mountains that looked over the grassy field filled with tall trees and Oasis-like flowers of red and purple. A white animal stood beside the water. The skies were blue and freckled with birds flying in the distance. She stepped closer to study the painting. It was so real, she felt like she could step into it.

Below the painting was a chest of drawers, and on it stood a round clock with a tiny bird nestled at the top. A gold box with a blue lizard-like creature sprawled on the lid sat next to it. She removed the lid. It was empty. She touched the insides; the material was smooth and prickly beneath her fingertips. She replaced the lid gently.

When she opened the top drawer, she found it was empty, and so were the other three drawers. A room for guests? She remembered hearing her nana talk about houses being so big in the old America that there was a designated room for guests.

Well, comfortable house or not, she had no desire to stay.

She noticed a window—maybe she could escape.

She pulled back the thick drapes. The window was too high—she wouldn't survive if she jumped. Movement brought her attention to a bench in the garden. Three agents sat there talking. Not paying much attention to the yard. But, then why would they? There was no way she was going to jump down.

Green grass, so smooth it looked like cloth, rolled out to meet tall trees at the perimeter of the grounds. Up above the trees were the tips of the tall buildings, but they were way off in the distance, looking like a mirage. She was in the capital, but in a part she had never been in before.

She looked again at the décor in the room. It was what her nana described her furniture to be like when she was a little girl in the land of the free. The design of the furniture, though heavy, was comfortable rather than the sterile composition of the furniture in her apartment in the city had been.