Enchantment of the Bow

Chapter Fifty-Five

Lyra's POV 

I stare at the floor, biting at my cuticles while thinking about what just happened. I feel sick as I remember Jed's face only moments ago before he was dragged out by Kaladin. My heart constricts and Sam gently touches my shoulder from behind me. I look up at him briefly, and judging by the expression he makes in seeing me, the pain is plausible on my face.

"Are you alright?" He asks, leaning over to speak softly into my ear. He sounds genuinely concerned and the weight of his touch feels like too much for me to bear alongside of the self-loathing that sits in the pit of my stomach like a boulder.

I slap his hand away. "I'm fine." Anyone within earshot can tell that what I said is a lie, but The Prince especially catches on to my current mood. He doesn't say anything as he resumes his silence, though he doesn't seem as offended as I expected him to be.

Hana kneels down before my chair with a cloth in his hands, shaking his head and making a tsk sound against his teeth. "Look at you, you're all wet." He muses like a caring parent over their child. He brings the rag to my face to start drying it, but I stop him by taking the cloth into my own hands. 

"I can do it myself," I say, words a bit too harsh to be using on Hana, who had done nothing wrong. I pause to take a breath before gaining the composure necessary to apologize. "I am sorry, that was uncalled for." 

Hana sucks in sharply as he pushes himself to his feet, reminding me of the injuries hidden beneath his tunic. "Of course, my lady. Think nothing of it." The smile doesn't leave his face as Hener helps him to the chair closest to mine and stands near to his brother's side.

I hear a shout in the hallway that sounds like Jed and tense in my seat. I can tell that Sam hasn't stopped looking at me, his eyes burning into the back of my head. Kaladin wouldn't really hurt Jed, would he? "Nikeil." I bark to get his attention from where he is peering out of the doorway, giggling in his drunken state as he watches whatever goes on out side.

He turns to me, cheeks flushed and bows, spilling some of his ale onto the floor. Sage trots over to lick it up. "Yes?" Nikeil hiccups, smiling.

"Tell Luke not to hurt him. It wasn't his fault." I order, and watch my drunk Guardsmen wander into the hallway to relay the message, tripping over some invisible stool on his way out and laughing at himself like a maniac.

Sage lifts her head and looks to me, then makes her way through the crowd of men to my side. She nudges my hand and I try to smile as she kisses my knuckles in concern. This draws Hana's attention to my old injury, and he seems to see the scabs for the first time today.

"If I may ask, my lady, what happened to your hand?" He asks, leaning forward in his seat to get a better look. 

I give him one of them while I use the other to dry my face with the rag. "Nothing to concern yourself over." 

Sam sighs and doesn't hesitate in cutting in, saying everything that I had neglected to. He certainly isn't worried about angering or offending me, and I find myself annoyed at him. "When you disappeared, a strange man came to the castle and told Lyra that you and the others had been napped, in a way of mocking her. Then one of her Guardsmen was shot by an unknown assailant atop a nearby building. The Princess then proceeded to beat the strange man unconscious as he laughed at the dead man. He's in the dungeon right now, along with a Duke who attempted -and almost succeeded- in assassinating Lyra."

Hana looks stunned and turns to slowly look around the room. "I-is that why Jensen isn't here? I thought- I thought he may be home with Janine..." When he turns back to me, I see the obvious anguish in his eyes. "So, he is... dead?"