Anya

Chapter Thirty-Four

Chapter Thirty-Four

   Anya was sleeping in her bed. Her eyes closed, the light just hit her face as it filtered through her cream coloured curtains. She had been asleep for thirteen hours and she showed no signs of waking up soon.

   Outside of her door, Lara was stood there with her mother. “Let me go in!” Lara cried. “I want to go and see her!”

   “No! Now come away I will not ask you again.” Katerina snapped at her youngest daughter. “She needs to rest. When she wakes up, you can go and see her then.”

   Lara had woken up an hour ago and knew something was up straight away. Her mother and father both had smiles on their faces for breakfast which was a first because they had barely pulled a straight face, never mind a smile since Anya ran away.

   As soon as she saw their faces she knew that her big sister was back and for the last fifteen minutes they had been arguing outside of Anya’s bedroom as she tried to convince her mother to let her inside.

   “Please mother!” Lara pleaded. “I really want to see her!”

      “What did I just say Lara?” Katerina sighed. “Anya did not look well last night, she needs the rest. Just be thankful that she is safe. You will have plenty of time later to catch up.”

      “I only want to see her, just so that I believe that she is really here. I missed her so much, please just let me peak behind the door.” She clasped her hands together in a begging gesture and started to pout her lips.

   “I know you do, I want to speak to her as well but she is very upset at the moment. Darya was killed.”

   “What?” She frowned. Darya was dead? That did not seem right, she only saw her last week when she went to try and find out where Anya was. How is she dead? She was younger than her! “She can’t be.”

   “She is, she was killed by a demon.” Katerina admitted. She was not going to tell her daughter about Darya but it was the only way she saw that would stop Lara from going through that door – or she hoped.

   Demyan and Katerina had arranged to bury Darya this afternoon in the gardens. There were two cemeteries of sort near the palace. The first one was where Royalty was buried, it was surrounded by guards at all times and the gravestones listed your greatest achievements and every ten years on the date of your death they throw a celebration of their life. The graves were also made of gold and decorated in finery.

   The other cemetery was a little different. It was where the servants or those who served the monarch with pride and honour were buried. To be buried there was a huge achievement as not many made it to the top. Katerina knew that Darya would have to be buried there, but whether her daughter approved of the location was another thing.

   She just wanted to please her daughter but at other times she knew that Anya’s strong will and determination would also be her downfall. She was plain stubborn sometimes and it irritated her because she knew that it was from herself that she got it from.

   Although Demyan could be stern, he was never stubborn and knew when to pick his battles. Anya, like herself wanted to stand for everything and get everything her own way. Katerina had been working on her own stubbornness and knew now when to push for something but Anya was still learning.

   Telling the King what she thought was always going to be a step to far. She could not believe he did what he did but there is still time to change his mind. The reason she hoped her daughter’s stubbornness had subsided somewhat is because Anya would have to beg for the King’s forgiveness if she ever wanted to gain her title of heir apparent to the Zardonov crown.