Midnight Moon

Chapter 5 - Bargaining

Jate threaded his way through the servants' quarters, ducking around the bustle of people and food. "Arenyll," he hissed. "Can I please just talk to you for a moment?" He lost sight of Veanna's maidservant as he pressed himself against a wall to avoid a harried-looking man carrying a sack of fruit. The palace above was quiet and still, but the servants were always busy early in the morning.

He found Arenyll in a side room. She bowed over the pile of laundry, her shiny black hair scraped back into a short ponytail.

"Please," he murmured when he was close, touching her arm lightly. "I don't need long."

Her dark eyes swept the empty room. "I'm busy. And everyone is going to think you're courting me if you keep turning up here." Her tone was too soft to be admonishing, but she wouldn't meet his eyes. She continued sorting and folding bedclothes, as focused on her task as though the Princess needed fresh sheets on her empty bed.

"They already think I'm courting you." Jate had felt the eyes on them as they passed the other servants. "I'm sorry for pulling you away, but I need your help."

"I told you, I can't, I'm -" Her protest cut short with a squeak of indignance as Jate shut the door.

He held up a hand. "I know Veanna is missing."

Arenyll's tawny skin blanched and she pressed her lips together, her eyes turning startled. Too late, she turned her face away and murmured, "I don't know what you're talking about."

Jate stepped away from the door, keeping his voice low on the off chance someone listened from the other side. "The King told me she disappeared. He wants me to find her, but I don't know where to start. Please, I need your help."

"I don't know anything," she whispered, edging away like a cornered animal.

"I know you weren't involved, but have you heard anything?"

She wrung her hands. "No, no, nobody knows she's gone. The Queen told everyone that Veanna's ill. I'm the only one allowed into the Princess' chambers, and I pretend to take up food and medicine. Even the guards don't know her rooms are empty."

"And no one is acting strangely?" Jate tried to keep his tone gentle - he had never seen the poor girl so distressed - but he had to get some sort of answer, or he'd never find a trail out of the palace. "Nothing else odd has happened?"

Arenyll shook her head, her eyes welling with tears. "Nothing. The King and Queen have already questioned me, but I didn't see anything, I didn't hear anything, I don't know anything: she's just gone."

"That's okay, it's alright," Jate soothed, stepping forward and offering the maid an embrace.

She sniffled and hugged him. "I miss her. I wish I knew what happened to her."

"Me too." Jate sighed. "I know it's difficult, but I need any sort of lead." He looked into Arenyll's watery eyes. "You've known me for years, you've helped to sneak me up to Veanna's chambers, you've passed messages between us. You know you can trust me. Anything you can think of, anything at all, even if it seems silly or meaningless. Otherwise, I have nothing."

She swallowed, and he loosened his embrace as she dabbed at her eyes with a sleeve. "Alright. I've been thinking about that day over and over, and there's about an hour between when I saw her in the morning until she missed a ride she was supposed to go on with the King. But I don't know of anything strange that happened during that hour. The only thing out of the normal routine that day was one of the other servants leaving to visit their family."

Jate frowned. "Who?"

"Admer Timik; he's one of the clerks." She twisted her ring around her finger, the engraving of the royal crest marking her service to a noble house. "But he scheduled the visit weeks ago."

"Still... maybe he saw something on his way out while everyone was busy with their duties? It's a start, at least." Jate allowed himself to smile for the first time since he learned of Veanna's disappearance and squeezed Arenyll in a hug again. "Thank you, I owe you one."

She gave a small smile too, the first he had seen from her that morning. "You owe me a lot more than that for all the times I convinced the guards that I had been in Veanna's quarters with her."

A laugh escaped his lips, but faded at a squeak behind him. He turned and saw another servant in the doorway, partway through pulling the door closed again. His face was red and his eyebrows vanished into his hairline as he stared at Jate with his arms around Arenyll.

"Sorry," the servant choked, backing away hurriedly and shutting the door firmly behind him.

Jate winced. "They definitely think that I'm courting you now. Sorry about that."

Arenyll pushed him back, though the slight smile still lit her lips. "Maybe I'll tell them who you really come to visit."

He grinned back. "They wouldn't believe you."

"You owe me again for pretending you're here for me."

"What can I give you?"

The lightness left Arenyll's voice, and with it went her smile. "Just bring Veanna back."

Jate reached out and squeezed her hand. "I promise I will." For the King. For the Queen. For you. For me.