The Wicked Solstice

Chapter 6

The Sea

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     The bathwater was cold. I couldn't decipher how long I stayed in the porcelain tub, but the once steaming water was now almost frigid. My body trembled from the cold, but I refused to get out and get dressed in warm clothes. The cold numbed my whole being, and it helped me focus on the pain from the water instead of the pain from my loss. Besides, there was nothing else for me to do in this new world. Dryden promised I would visit the sea, but not even the sea could lift my spirits. I longed to see the ocean sparkling against the shore as the sun beat down upon its crystal green and blue waves, but that longing wasn't as strong as the longing to forget my mother's body.

There was so much blood. I knew I could never forget the way she looked lying on her bed. Her room was her sanctuary, her safe place, and the idea that someone had the audacity to kill my mother in the room she felt the safest made me so angry. It infuriated me as I imagined the look of horror on her face as she cowered in the corner and begged for her life.

I lifted my numb hand out of the water to wipe away the fresh tears. It was impossible to be strong in a world such as mine, but crying didn't mean I wasn't strong. I had just been hurt too many times. Felt pain and loss too many times, and my body couldn't handle it anymore.

Not only was I numb and cold, but my skin wrinkled beneath the water from being submerged for so long. I resembled a cold prune, and I knew I would eventually have to get out. However, I also knew it probably wouldn't be of my own free will because I would've stayed in the bath all night if I could. I guessed that Chefford or Dryden would eventually bang on the door and tell me to get out. I just hoped it would be later instead of sooner.

Although I didn't know how long I had been in the bath, I knew that hours passed since Chefford left me at the House to put the horses in the stable. The sun was no longer high in the sky like it was when we arrived back in Tyrenius, but it was setting beneath the horizon. I could see the pink and orange streaks reflecting across the clouds as I glanced out the window, but not even the beauty of the sky could inspire me to emerge from the water.

I was hungry again, cold, thirsty, and tired, but my will was stronger than my needs. I could hold out for a few more hours until someone came looking for me.

I thought of Chefford watching Dryden from the Pool, and I wondered if Dryden saw the person who murdered my mother. Did they ever come back for her body? Did they ever return to the scene of the crime? As much as I hated the Monsters, I wanted them to find the person who killed my mother and shred the culprit to pieces. For once, I wouldn't be opposed if they tore the murderer apart with their teeth, but I knew Dryden wouldn't do that unless the person was tried before Tyrenius. His duty to his town almost infuriated me. He would wait to try a murderer he knew committed the crime for what? Justice? There was no justice in this world. That was why my mother was now in another life with the goddess our Mother.

My head hurt from not drinking enough water and crying out more liquid than my body took in. But my mother deserved the tears just like she deserved her life.

I watched the water ripple around me as I shivered from the cold. I knew I would be sick if I stayed in much longer, but being sick could distract me from the loss. There was so much loss in a world that was supposed to be perfect. Our Mother made the world beautiful, perfect, but that crumbled when the war came. I wish I saw Landria before the war because it would help me know if Tyrenius actually resembled the old world or if it was all a facade derived from magic.