The Princess's Servant

52. The Fix

Holden had tried and tried to mend the Wardian tunic, and to no success. The hole the princess had ripped (slashed?) was so large that it looked as though Holden could stick his entire head through it if he wanted. Certainly, he could patch it or stitch it back together, but not in any discreet way with what little time he had.

Holden checked the sun. It looked to be near noon. He needed another plan.

Holden thought back to the princess's room, and it dawned on him.

*****

Holden entered the courtyard as empty-handed as he'd left it. The princess was chit-chatting with Sebastian, and the prince thought he overheard some mention of his brother as he approached. He came behind her and said in a voice loud enough to be heard over their chatter:

"I fixed it."

And the princess turned to meet his face.

"I left it on your bed," he told her. "Though I should tell you, before you go up there—"

Sybil brushed past him and hurried up the steps to her tower.

Holden watched after her. Sebastian looked to the princess, and then to the prince. The latter returned his skeptical glance with a nervous one.

The courtyard was quiet for a moment longer. It was a calm moment; a peaceful one. It was as the breath before the wail, the sucking in of the tide before the wave.

And then the silence split. From the tippy top of the princess's tower, a shriek pierced the morning air. Holden flinched.

"WARDIAN!!" The window swung open. "GET UP HERE! NOW!"

Sebastian looked to the young prince. "Hm. Wonder who she's talking to. Could be any of us, really."

Holden scowled and shook his head as he started off towards her tower. "Says the Lailoyan," he grumbled, and Sebastian beamed a sardonic smile in return.

He dropped it a look of slight concern as the prince turned his back.

The stairs were as countless and spiraling and steep as they had been the first time he ascended them. When the prince eventually reached the top, he was taken aback to find the door open with Sybil standing over the foot of her bed.

She stared at him with dress and knife in hand.

Holden looked to her, and he looked to her gown — which was not the one she had given him to repair, but which had been sliced to shreds.

"You... Wow," he settled on as he entered the room.

She threw the knife on the floor Holden winced as it bounced randomly around on the stone. Thankfully it embedded itself into the side of her wardrobe before it could damage anything living.

The princess approached him. "I am minutes away from leaving to meet the man who will determine my future and you have hidden my garments from me?"

"I— No. That's not what happened."

"Where is it, Wardian?" The princess advanced. "Where is my dress?"

"It wasn't mendable, alright?" Holden told her. "So I got you a different one."

The princess took another step closer. "You told me you were going to fix it," she told him.

"And I did," he replied. "I fixed the situation."

The princess neared again and Holden realized he was running out of space.

"Look, clearly you weren't happy wearing that," he said. "I tried to find you something that would make you happy."

Sybil stopped. She looked at her servant. She'd powdered over her tear stained cheeks, but Holden could still spy a rosy redness in her eyes. "That dress, Wardian, is the least of my worries." She turned half her body to the now-closed window. "When that sun reaches midday, I will have to leave my kingdom forever in exchange for the hope that your emperor doesn't destroy my people anyways. I will have to marry a man I have long despised and humble myself to become the wife of someone second to the throne. All I asked of you was to mend the dress, and you..." Sybil pinched the bridge of her nose. Holden lowered his head. "You need to get out of here," she said at last, her voice restrained. "I'll meet you in the courtyard."

Holden narrowed his eyes a bit. "I tried to fix it," he said to her.

"Just get out, Wardian." Sybil turned from him and opened up her wardrobe.

"And Prince Holden really won't care!" He took a step closer. "You could wear anything! It doesn't matter!"

Sybil straightened out at these words and floated him a dangerous half-glance that made Holden check the position of the knife. Out of arm's reach. Thank the stars.

Sybil rolled her eyes and set her gaze back to her dresses. "Precisely what I'm afraid of," she said in a dark tone that Holden didn't understand. He watched the princess with some concern as he debated whether to press. But Holden saw again the knife and offered only a slight bow as he left the room.

A/N:

THANK YOU FOR YOUR PATIENCE!!

These last few weeks have been pretty rough for me and I'll be moving updates to Friday's only for the foreseeable future. I will at some point post make-up chapters to compensate for the three chapters we missed, so be on the lookout for those.

I hope you all are having a much better March than I am and had a nice St. Patrick's Day!!

I look forward to many more chapters and thank you all again for reading this far :)

<3 Sycho