This tale has been since retold many times. Some were blatant lies; other ones were a craft with political intent or for personal gain. Indeed, the people that have given their opinion and thoughts about this controversy are many. Some of them are amongst Edna's most prestigious historians and orators. I'm no poet myself, my words cannot contest theirs, but I do know the truth. I have seen the light that shone behind Máel's eyes when I spoke the name of his prisoner, as he summoned me to give me his last order. I was one of his royal guards.
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Unbearable silence was filling the room despite the fact that it was full of servants and military personnel. All eyes were fixed on Máel's, save for the two squires who were busy helping him put on his armor, as he was getting ready to set out and face his brother, Hármon. He told me my duty was to escort the carriage out of his kingdom, unlock the door and leave.
I protested: "But, my king... Lyhssa will be safe here." I felt all eyes in the room focusing on me right then. Máel stared at me too, but his gaze was different. I could sense that he was drowning in melancholy inside, as if he wanted to agree with me but was unwilling to do so. For all the love we Ankaniséans shared for our king, the same could not be said for his mistress that he hid in his keep and permitted no one to get close to except for his closest, most trusted ones. At the same time, he did not blame his subjects, she was a Demoness after all.
Even though Heliones complain the most about it, it is our people that have suffered from Demons the most in the past. Many thousands of our ancestors were enslaved and worked to death. It's fair to say, by bedding Lyhssa, Máel had set the foundations for a civil war in his realm even before his fall, but I digress.
We left the keep while the sun was still in its awakening. Riding along the carriage, with heavy silence following us all the way from Máel's hall, the carriage itself looked more like a cage, with four solid walls without any windows. The only openings of the carriage were the narrow vent holes atop each wall. Of course, one of Máel's trusted ones was with us to see that everything would go as the king wanted. Near the end of our journey, he moved alongside me and leaned in with his horse. "Do you wonder what she looks like?", he whispered. I thought he wanted to entertain my curiosity as a reward for speaking my mind out loud in front of the king. I admitted my interest without words. Néhzar grinned as he spoke. "Her red skin glows like fire, her eyes sparkle like the earth's deepest diamonds, and I can only imagine what her smile might look like, because every time I saw her, she stood expressionless like a statue... Demons are mysterious creatures, aren't they?"
In a reaction surprising to him, I shrugged and asked him in return: "Count Néhzar, they say you have been in the black city of the Demons when Máel sacked it, isn't that right?" It was his turn to nod silently, waiting for me to finish my question, which he had guessed already. "Why did Máel take only Lyhssa?"
"She was the only one that tried to kill him." I was confused. All the rumors about her either dealt with her incomparable beauty or were of a less courteous nature, like how she had supposedly enchanted our king to bring strife among his kind. His tone had been so stoic in that reply, that I couldn't understand whether he meant that Máel admired the Demoness' defiance and pride, or if he took her just because her fierceness made him see that imprisonment would be a bigger punishment for her than death. Indeed, Néhzar's words, even up to this day, seem like fog that I cannot find my way through. But one thing I do remember is that all the way back, when they brought the Demoness to the keep, there didn't use to be as many guards around her lush cell.
My horse's hooves touched the snow as we neared the roots of the mountain. The count signaled me to do the deed. I got off my mount and walked around the carriage to unlock the door. I turned to leave, but I stood there for a few moments. I could have sworn that I heard weeping from inside the cart. I gave a quick glance up the slope, trying to see the peak of the mountain, but it had vanished. The clouds were eating it up. I pondered how long she could survive on her own out in the wild in the middle of the winter. Soon I would have other thoughts to trouble my mind with, as difficult times were ahead of us, to such an extent that I think Lyhssa had it better than most of us after all.
