Life or Death

Chapter Three

           By some miracle, Andra allows me to style her for the revel. I'm beginning to think she rather likes getting dressed up, as absurd as that may be.

When we've finished getting ready, I'm dressed in a dark green gown and andra is in a silver one. Her hair is down in ringlets, with the front pieces of one side pinned back, and she has silver painted on her eyelids and lips. She looks regal, almost like a goddess.

I try my hardest not to take my hair down from its updo; Cherise put in so many pins to keep it up. We start to make our way to the revel and put on our best faces.

When we enter the ballroom, it's a sea of music and laughter and colorful spinning dresses, a beautiful chaos. We walk straight to the dais where Matthias sits on his throne, admiring his adoring subjects. We curtsy and go to stand by his side. Andra already gets swept away to dance with men way too old for her, but she can't oblige them. It doesn't matter if they are drunk or not, any guest of my brother knows no boundaries. There's nothing I can do, not without making my kingdom hate me even more.

Raiden is there, too, and he's wearing a slightly more formal tunic than the one we met him in, and this one is a dark blue with gold accents. Again, he wears no expression on his face. I nod to him, and he does the same before leaning down to talk in my ear.

"I wish to let you know now that if you are here to keep me company, that won't be necessary." It's the first time I've ever heard him speak, and he speaks more regally than I've ever heard Matthias talk. "You must know that I don't need to be entertained all hours of the day. I'm simply here to serve the royal family."

I look up at him, smiling. "And I appreciate that. But you must know that I came to know more about you. I'm not sure if you've noticed, but me and Andra are the only other people around your age."

"Oh, I've most definitely noticed." He lifts his head to study the crowd, and I do the same.

"How old are you, anyway?"

"I'll be nineteen in a few weeks."

This time, I don't try to hide my awe at his youth. Barely a year older than me and already the royal assassin to King Matthias of Tarnow and the royal family, if you could even call the two of us that.

"But if you truly do not wish to be here, do not let me keep you."

"No need. We've decided we need to participate in these more often. And anyway, we could use a little change of scenery."

"I take it the two of you don't come to these often?"

"We did at first, but eventually got... bored of them. Plus, you've seen how all these people behave. Now imagine being an eleven-year-old girl with no kind of social cues, being forced by people much older than you to do horrid things."

He laughs. It's a nice sound. "I suppose that is fair. So, what do you do instead?"

I look at him warily, wondering how much I can tell him. I look back to the throne, but Matthias is not there anymore. I assume he is somewhere in the crowd, dancing and getting drunk to his heart's content.

"Can I trust you not to tell my brother what I am about to tell you?"

"Of course, Your Highness. I am just as much here at your disposal as I am to his."

I smile at that. "Well, we stopped coming to the revels after an accident happened with Andra. For a few weeks we just stayed in our quarters, reading and practicing our sword fighting, things we do every day. But then we figured out a way to sneak out of the castle and go into the village without anyone realizing we left." There are a lot of layers to that story, but it's technically not a lie. Like we do sneak out to the village, just not the one he's thinking of.