Kiel, who now wore his gloves and quiver, reached backwards to the bow that had been strapped across his backpack. Assuring that it was well-secured, he looked down at the sealed envelope he had placed on the room's desk, "To Countess Narfidort" written prominently on the flap.
Out of habit, he looked around to make sure he had not forgotten anything, and made his way to the door. Exiting the palace proved to be even easier than entering, and like a fugitive, he slipped out a window in the servants' wing and fled into the night.
———————
When morning came and no one answered Alicia's knocks on the door, she followed her instinct that something was amiss and entered the unlocked room. With a casual sweep, Alicia noticed Kiel's absence and the envelope displayed on the desk like it had been waiting for her.
Sliding open the desk drawer, she produced a letter opener and slit open the top of the envelope, pulling out a folded piece of paper. Her eyes moved from left and right rapidly as she scanned it, then tucked it back into the envelope and returned the letter opener.
At the door, one of her escorts, a palace maid, noticed Alicia's downcast expression and disappointed aura.
"My lady, is something troubling you?" she asked in a small voice.
Alicia turned to her, adjusting her expression back into a stoic one.
"No. Let's be going."
With a deft flick of her wrist, Kiel's letter disappeared into the folds of her dress.
———~~<~>~~———
With Kiel's departure, it seemed that everything finally made sense, and things proceeded more smoothly than they ever had. Within a week, Alicia had almost forgotten about her former guest, caught up with the court proceedings and meetings with various nobles and emissaries. Very quickly, Nicol Narfidort was proclaimed guilty and the spectacle of his death was to be conducted in short order.
The day of reckoning boasted clear skies and a serene sea of people that had come to watch the public event. The nobles had been separated from the commoners by a line of heavily armed guards, and at the front, a tired-looking Alicia stood in a white dress.
She looked at Nicol, who stood at the bottom of the steps leading to the guillotine platform, his hands tied behind his back as a guard held his upper arm tightly. His former noble disposition had all but fled him, and in his dirty clothes with his hair cut short haphazardly, he looked more like a madman, bloodshot eyes fixed on his sister's face.
"Nicol," Alicia broke the silence, "this would be the last time we will ever see each other again. I just want to ask, do you have any regrets?"
"Regrets...ah yes, if I have one regret, it would be not throttling you in the cradle."
Nicol's eyes snapped back to Alicia's face, so full of malice that she recoiled. As he tipped his head back and began to laugh lowly, the guard holding him jerked him forward and up the stairs, propelling him towards the instrument of death above.
"Elder Brother-" Alicia started, the rest of her sentence jamming in her throat.
Near the top, the young man turned his head slightly, his visible ice-blue eye regarding Alicia silently. Then, he turned back, and two retainers came up to Alicia to guide her back to the sidelines.
When it was all over, she departed without a word in her carriage. Rena, who was seated opposite her, heard the rest of her unsaid sentence as she whispered it like a prayer.
"...I once loved you."
———~~<~>~~———
Far, far away from any sign of civilisation, where the glow of manmade lights had receded into the distance, the stars, losing their competitors, shone abundantly across the night sky. Their brilliant light fell onto a lake's crystalline surface, making it shimmer like a blanket of gemstones.
A wagon stood in the darkness of the lakeside silently, engulfed by the night, the three slumbering figures lying nearby having the faintest outlines, courtesy of the stars' illumination.
A short distance away, Kiel was lying in a hollow at the base of a towering monstrosity of a tree, his things laid out at the side. Curled in a fetal position on his snow bed, he had tightly furrowed eyebrows and gritted teeth as his hands clenched suddenly, drawing blood.
When morning arrived, Kiel sat up slowly, leaning against the inside of the hollow as he chased away the remnants of his nightmare. Suiting up, he dispelled his snow bed and proceeded onwards through the forest.
Half a day's walk after, Kiel reached the fringe of the forest, and looked out across the vast expanse of scorching desert sand.
YOU ARE READING
The Last Shade VI: Illusory Dream
Fantasy(Book 6) A remnant of the long-forgotten past of two kingdoms and the Rulers of Frost and Flame still lives with blood and flesh. Travelling through the land, facing meetings and partings, the mystery of the nature of things clings resolutely. Wit...
