Across the ocean Book 1: On the run

Chapter Twenty-Five : When Things go Wrong

Eliadoriss went to her bedchamber and change herself from night shift to proper garments which would not shame her. Her house was a mess and her heart... Her heart was in rubbles. Life never went according to one's plans, she knew, but this? A disaster, that was how she saw it and what she kept repeating. In front of her mirror, she fastened her houppelande at the waist with a belt, needing to see herself. She really only needed the mirror for brushing her hair, yet she sought into her own reflection a reminder of who she was. How could they have brought to the minister of finance's spouse such vandalism and...

-"Soren..."

She washed her face, added perfume, made herself entirely presentable. Then took a cloak which would keep her dry. Before leaving the room, she glanced over her shoulder at the bed. The blanket and pillows were still neatly arranged. She had not tried to sleep in, not even wanted to fake like her guests who had slept a few nights upstairs, preferring to play the role of the worried spouse. Or had she been genuinely? When had she started to feign worry for Soren in his absence, which she knew all too well the reason why? She closed her eyes and felt the shivering tunnel through which came and went the air she was breathing.

Her plans? She was to go and hope none would molest her in the night; she was to go and arrive in front of Alvindraft's gate; she was to confront him. In fact, she was so out of her mind that she was calm like a dove only to save all her energy for her outburst.

A knock on the door made her flummoxed; had she not had enough disturbance for a lifetime? Apparently not. Whoever these newcomers were, they would be denied her time. Tonight? Tonight she would go to Alvindraft and have him hear her complaints, or grievances to be more exact: he was behind this. Going towards the door with denying entrance as the only answer in her mind, her feet slammed the floor every step of the way. Eliadoriss did not care if Alvindraft and Claörgh were secretly trying to help Mayen and Rowen escape, she would... She did not finish her train of thoughts, stopped in her tracks when she realized who the strangers were; on the other side of the front door's slit, she saw two brigade men ordering her kindly to let them in and speak with her.

-"Have you not ransacked my place enough already?! If you want in, then just force the door."

The two men looked at each other, surprised to hear such an allegation made against them. She did not care if they were surprised, she wanted them to be as flummoxed as she was. No, she wanted them speechless and thoughtless. Even lifeless. Shutting the panel on the slit with aggressiveness made a glorious sound of closing her home to those men she hastily lumped in the same group as the ruffians who had come; and who could blame her, when the perpetrators had been wearing the pale blue tabard with the dancing maidens of Mildoyest?

-"I am sorry," said one of them through the door, "but your husband is dead, and we fear for your safety. If you think this is a fraud, then let us at least send for your son-in-law."

Her heart jumped violently within her chest, pumping with emotions the blood which carried the sadness throughout her entire body. She pulled a chair at the dining table and fell more than sat.

-"So he did die... Then his last word..." her throat resisted her sudden urge to swallow.

The round maid had resumed baking bread, but in between moments she came and made sure to know if her mistress needed anything. She disobeyed her and brought an unwanted cup of tea, the one made with the celez pine tree's red needles. She also gave instructions to Olicia in how to proceed, to stay with Eliadoriss and not do cleaning just yet.

Then magic occurred, the kind which had been thought and taught to have had long departed this continent of Evozen. Olicia looked straight in the eyes of her mistress and asked her a question. She wanted to know if she could sing her a song that her mother used to sing as a lullaby.