The cloaked girl in white ● After The Dance

Chapter fourty-three

CHAPTER FOURTYTHREE

"Your grace." The words rips Vis out of her own thoughts, and the scare had her feel like her heart was about to jump out of her chest.

When her eyes land on the knight in front of her, she sits up.
She had been in her own world, laying against the old tree in the Queens garden that was an open courtyard in the middle of the Red Keep.

"Ser Criston." She nods her head towards the knight, who reaches out his hand to assist her getting up.

"The Prince, he has left the castle again, and we can not find him."

Vis let's out a loud long sigh before brushing the skirt of her dress to neaten it up.

"I can assure you he is very much still inside the castle." She gives the knight a glance of annoyance before she walks off, leaving Ser Criston in a very confused state.

She reaches the fifth floor of the castle within 10 minutes, the confused knight following behind like a lost lamb.

"The thing you need to know about Aegon the useless, Ser Criston, is that he is very good at hiding!" She is slightly yelling as he is quite a few lengths behind her.

Her walking pace had quickened the day they put the crown on her head, and since then, not a single person had managed to keep up with her everyday walking speed. That is why when the Queen was roaming the halls of the Red Keep, you could always catch someone jogging after her.

She stops in front of a door that Ser Criston knows for sure leads to a cleaning closet, opens the door, and pulls on the shelf that is storage for cleaning supplies. To Ser Cristons' surprise, the shelf moves, the wall moves, and behind it is a steep stair leading almost straight up.

"You better stay down here. He gets terribly angry if he sees anybody else than me." 

Before he knows it, he witnesses his Queen climb on almost all fours up the steep stairs. Her body disappears from his sight, and when he hears a slight stomp, he turns worried.

"Your grace!?"

"I'm fine." He hears her yell, giving him some relief.

"How the fuck does he climb that thing in his state?" She mumbles under her own breath as she finally reaches the floor that marks the end of the not so very known "cleaning tower" as Aegon likes to call it.

She brushes the dust of her skirt, her eyes lading on the single beam of light that is coming from the only window in the small round loft. The air is terribly dusty and she finds herself clearing her throat as her eyes scans the room for any sign of her cousin. When she hears a loud groan coming from behind some crates, she sighs heavily as she steps closer. Once she has his miserable body in sight, she places herself in front of him, kicking her foot in the shin of his left leg.

She is about to speak when he opens his eyes and looks at her.

"For fucks sake." He mumbles, lifting up both his hands and rubs his face with them. She shakes her head as she reaches down to lift up two of the four bottles that is placed beside him. She tries her best to read the label before she smells the first bottle, almost gagging from the scent entering her nose.

"What the hell is that?" Her frown sharp, her nose scrunched hard from the reeking smell of it.

"Mead... I think." She has to force herself into coughing as it is so strong that it's barely making her able to keep her breakfast down.

"You can not keep disappearing, Aegon!" She snaps as she reaches down to grab both his arms, pulling him towards her.

"Ser Criston!" She yells towards the stairs where she came from.