The Flower Crown Princess

Part 12

The woman opens the door widely to reveal a deserted, empty room. Kell drags me inside. I'm not sure what to do as I look around at the white- plastered walls of the room. It is no wider than a few meters, but is very long, with doors branching into other rooms on every side. No furniture is on the rough wooden floor but a cluster of rustic wooden chairs and a table on the far end.

"You can't come with us, Sera," says Kell, nudging me. Something tells me that Sera is my name here. Why can't I just be Nivh? I've given up my best dress and my home to the poor, and now I must give up my name?

I don't answer him verbally, I just nod in his direction, keeping my eyes down and my shoulders slumped.

"That's the girl's name? Sera who?" The yellow woman has an accusing, suspicious tone and eyes that are sharper than a hawk's. I wither under her gaze.

"Monsdaughter." The name comes to me from nowhere.

"I never knew any Mons from these parts. Where is your father from, and speak up, I can't hear you."

"Noimead." I try to speak louder as I say the name of the city far to the east, barely within the hills. She seems satisfied.

"Sit, then. I can't let you be anywhere else." Her brown eyes still suspicious of me, she points to a chair and I sit. I keep my eyes down and try to think of nothing. My thoughts come randomly, in short bursts, as they have all day. She does not offer her name. I don't know why.

As one door is opened and they walk through, I hear a faint exchange between them.

"Did you have to bring this girl, if she is not being recruited?"

"Surely you have heard what is going on at the castle, Hilda-" Kell is cut off by the woman Hilda.

"Of course I know what happened! I'll remind you that you have missed the last few meetings. But why does it concern her? She is a commoner, not royalty."

My disguise has worked to an extent, then. I smile before reaching under the hem of my skirts to scratch at my leg. This fabric has turned my skin a bright, blotchy red and I don't like it.

"Sera's a servant at the castle. She found her way out of the madness with me and a few others. Everyone else went in other directions, but she had nowhere else to go."

"I think you're sweet on the girl."

"Don't be ridiculous." The door closes, and I can hear nothing more, but I have learned enough from their words.

First, I have learned that this is a meeting of some society that I'm not in. Second, I've learned that they are dangerous. Hilda said that she knew what happened at the castle, but she wasn't there. Few peasants were. That can only mean that this group planned it, executed it. They're all traitors, guilty of treason and worthy of execution. Did they know the terror they had instilled? Of course, I've been gone all day. I don't fully know what has happened.

I can hear through the walls, but only slightly. I can't make out anything but the murmur of voices, enough to tell me that Hilda and Kell aren't the only ones there. I don't know what they're planning or anything that they say, so I just sit. And I listen to the mumbling drone of human voices, because I honestly can't bear to think of anything else. My head is pounding with terrible power, and I am so tired that my vision goes in and out of focus. I can hardly keep my eyes open, and the meeting seems to go on forever. I'm sure that it won't be the least bit of a problem if I only closed my eyes for a minute. I won't drift into deep sleep in this hard piece of furniture anyways.

I wake to the door opening. I try to look somewhat awake and alert as a dozen or so people come out of the door, their faces grave and their voices silent. Some, mostly the few women, give me questioning looks as they leave and disperse on the streets. Most do not notice the brown- clad girl huddled in the wooden chair, with sleep in her eyes and a pounding in her head. Their eyes are solely focused on the ground, their lips pursed and not moving. It's a rather unnerving sight- all these haggard beings. Some look vaguely familiar- servants in the castle, most likely, and that disturbs me- have I enemies in my own household? I know that the coachman's apprentice is a part of all this madness, but who else? The cooks, the laundresses, the soldiers? What if Mortweni is in this society, what if my only friend is a traitor as well? I'm only grateful that I didn't see her walk out.