The Winter Sun

Chapter 16

Her throat burned as cold air fueled her lungs like icy poison, but she couldn't stop. Even with the harsh slaps of the wind on her skin, spreading wine on her cheekbones and making her hair blow, she couldn't let the gallop falter, she squeezed her legs against Aurora's sides, and the beast accelerated its pace with a strident neigh, its hooves trampling the snow mercilessly.

Flashes of that day blurred before her eyes, springing like bad crops after deadly weather, uninvited and mournful.

"Your mother is gone."

Her father's words still echoed clearly in her mind, his avoiding gaze still hollowing her chest and the weight of his hand still heavy on her tiny shoulder. Her breath hitched.

Her short legs had carried her straight to the stables. Even with a wet and blurred gaze, she had found her way back there. She had scanned around for a wood stick, dark hair, and the promise of solace in a toothy grin, but all she had found was the ground let out guttural sobs.

Thunder echoed in the stables that day.

Her grip tightened on the reins, the absence of gloves making it harsh against the thin skin of her palm, but she didn't care, for deeper scars were still burning her.

Like that day, the air in her lungs burned, burned for release, for an explosion, for that compassion she needed so much-

"Princess!" She glanced over her shoulder, and her eyes widened. A man was riding in full gallop in her direction, his black hair like the coat of a raven blowing and his dark eyes intense and filled with worry. Lach. He kept calling her loud and desperate. She pulled the reins backward. Aurora's steps faltered until they came to a stop.

Amaya observed the man coming closer, her chest bouncing. His heavy pants reached her before he did. "Princess..."

Amaya blinked the confusion away before apparent indignation tightened her face. "I told you to not stop me." Despite her spiteful tone, it wavered a bit, and Lach searched her gaze. She looked away, wiping the wetness at the corner of her eyes.

"What's going on? "Lach's words were separated by heavy pants, smoking the air. "If there is-"

She jerked back her face to him. "Why did you follow me?" the sharpness in her voice made the man startle. "Why is it that whenever I am trying to do something, someone is trying to stop me and make me do what they want?" Lach opened his mouth, but Amaya wasn't done. "Sun God! I just have enough of all these rules and these people only wanting more and more from me until I have nothing to offer but bitterness." the words danced in a sorrowful litany before they shriveled down frail and miserable. "And then, who will be there?" she tightened her eyes, letting a drop travel down her cheek.

"Your harness," he pointed out. It's broken."

Her gaze panned down to the harness as if noticing the black leather for the first time. "Oh..." She found the bemused look of Lach, and embarrassment burned her cheek. What was she doing, divulging every piece of her mind in such a pathetic way?

"That's why I followed you." Smoke from the two horses' muzzles clouded the atmosphere between them.

Something dull slipped in her gaze. "I see." She wiped her eyes and her. "You must think that I am losing my mind. Please forget everything I said." Her eyes found the white coat expanding all around them. Behind them, the castle and the line of trees starting the forest tiny in the backdrop.

"I don't think you are losing your mind."

Her eyes flickered to him. Lach worried his lips before he spoke again. "I understand. Not really, but-" He frowned deeply, searching his words. "We all do things we don't want to," the sentence was riddled with guilt. "Because of duty."