You Are Made of Iron

Chapter VII pt. 3

At the bottom of the stairs they went back to the place where the annoying squeaky man was, and apparently he needed to be paid again. The three found another carriage in the sweltering heat and proceeded to board. Zeilla got in first so that Maeron wouldn't try to offer her his hand to pull her up again. She didn't want to be embarrassed like that again for at least another trip. Fedyr got in second, next to her. And Viljast got in third, pulling the door behind him. The carriage pulled away and within minutes they were out of the city.
​Maeron was the first to speak, "So Zeilla how did you and Cormac meet?" he asked her.
​"Why d-do you want to know?" she asked him warily.
​"I'm just so curious, and I thought that you'd prefer to tell me than have Cormac do it.
​"Well it was the second time that I ran away." She replied, trying to keep her voice calm and not stuttering. "I stole a piece of fruit b-because I was starving, and the vendor who was chasing me recognized me from a... wanted picture. So he c-c-c-"
​Fedyr put his hand over hers and continued with her story, "She was about to say that he called out to a member of King Galleons police force and then they were both chasing her. She ran down an alleyway  that she didn't know at the time was a dead end, so when she ran into a wall she thought it was another police officer and she screamed. That was before she was knocked unconscious."
​Zeilla flushed bright red as she stared at the floor. Even though she knew it was his job, she hated that he always had to come to her rescue. She pulled her hand away from his and put it in her own lap. "I was only out for a f-f-few seconds. And it wasn't from ru-running into that wall; it was from the shop owner. He came at me and hit me with the hilt of his knife. H-he was about to stab me b-b-but then Fedyr came out of nowhere and fought him off. W-well I thought that Fedyr was one of the Kings men who just wanted to get the bounty all for himself. So when he t-told me to follow him I refused, he ended up j-just hoisting me onto his shoulder. I still don't know how he did it wh-wh-while I was fighting him. He went into an abandoned house and t-told me to stay there, then h-he left as quickly as his c-c-came."
​Maeron Viljast looked at her, she was so uncomfortably nervous. He figured it was a mixture of Silases treatment of her, and not liking the nonexistent escape route. Smart, he thought, she is intelligent, I can see it in her eyes. But will she acknowledge her intelligence or will she be submissive like Silas taught her to be? He grinned in anticipation, I can't wait to see how she will react.             
​Viljast looked out the window at the place that had been his home since he moved there at fourteen, the same age that Cormac was now. The boy was staring at Zeilla, and he was making her extremely uncomfortable. She fidgeted under his gaze until he looked away, when she relaxed; this was how it had been since she had finished her story.
​"If you two would bother to look out the window, you might just see a giant looming castle," said Maeron sarcastically. He knew Zeilla had already seen it, with her keen watching eyes, but Cormac had been too fixated with her to notice.
​"Oh," was all the boy said. Then he went back to staring at Zeilla, until she noticed and started to fidget again.
​"Here we are." said Viljast, "The grand estate."
​Zeilla looked up and instead of her usual glance she looked up for a whole minuet. The palace didn't look giant, or looming, or at all grand. All Zeilla could see was a river, a drawbridge over the river, and a faraway castle, and walls, lots of walls. She sighed and wondered what new job she would have here. And since sir Viljast had made it clear that he wouldn't be her new master, she wondered who would. She hoped that whoever her new master was, they would be kinder than Silas had been. Her bruises throbbed.
​The carriage drew up towards a gate in the wall. It appeared to be the only entrance, but Zeilla thought that there had to be another way out. It was just a bad idea to have only one exit and no other escape strategy.