Tower of Dove

Chapter 2: The Quail

Tower of Dove Chapter 2: The Quail

Lilyana tried to calm herself as she exited the Redwood Forest and entered onto the village path. That infuriating boy-man had put her in such a foul mood. Elf girl. What a joke. She didn't look anything like an elf. Sure, she wasn't the tallest person, but she didn't have pointy ears. Elves weren't even real.

The dirt path turned to cobblestone and the forest trees turned to maple trees as she came into her village. She averted her eyes as she walked past the cemetery for the second time and kept her gaze towards the ground. Whenever she kept her eyes straight ahead, people always seemed to want to talk to her. She knew it was just because she was the daughter of the late Ardice Ameline, and she thought that very bitterly. Anyone close to her would surely be close to the power that would be handed down to her after her eighteenth birthday. Anyone who married her would become the most powerful nobleman, second only to Simeon Oakleigh.

Unless, of course, she married Simeon. Which she was sure his mother, and nearly every damned person in the Quail, wanted her to do. Those oblivious imbeciles probably didn't have a clue how much she really didn't care for him.

She reached the town square, internally hating the layout of the village which forced her to walk through it every time she ventured out of her house. She crossed her fingers mentally, hoping no one stopped her for a chat.

She observed the square mechanically as guards patrolled on horseback and nobility strolled around on their afternoon walks. Large shop windows attracted those passing by with their elaborate displays of fine dresses and expensive furniture, and the daily gossip and chatter hummed through the air.

Lilyana disliked the gossip. It was shallow most of the time, and talked rudely of others. Yeah, she wasn't always a nice person herself, but she didn't spite people just because she could. She did her best to tune out the babbling idiots of the world as she crossed into the square, but it took less than a minute for someone to call out her name.

Of course, it was Amethyst Oakleigh with Simeon. She was a blonde-haired, green-eyed beauty just like her son. She was also the most annoying person Lilyana had ever met, but Amethyst was the premier of the town so Lilyana couldn't pretend she hadn't heard her call after her.

She plastered on her best, I'm-so-glad-I-ran-into-you smile and hoped she didn't look insane. She turned around to greet them and saw that Amethyst had a feather popping out of the front of her hair as if she were a quail. That was taking pride in your village to an entirely new level of obsession. Lilyana choked back a laugh.

Amethyst's husband died of some illness when Simeon was only a toddler. Ever since then she had taken his position as the head of the village and always kept her long hair tied back in a bun. Apparently she had turned into a complete feminist in that time period, but Lilyana hadn't known her before the days of her "power to the woman!" speeches, so she didn't have an image of a softer-looking Amethyst. Those speeches always gave her and her cousin, Faye, one hell of a good laugh, though.

"Lilyana, it's so good to see you out and about," Amethyst said as she and her son approached. "I see so very little of you these days."

"It's nice to see you as well, Premier Oakleigh," Lilyana said. She glanced from Amethyst's too-happy smile to Simeon's shy one. He really was a very handsome guy, she thought. Girls of the town swooned over him with his perfect, wavy hair and big eyes. Except for Lilyana. Of course, because she was the only one not swooning, he had convinced himself that "she's the one" for him.

"So how is your family doing?" Amethyst asked. "I saw little Posy out in the public garden just the other day, making a crown from different assortments of posies." Amethyst laughed, her quail feather bobbing with her.