Third Chapter
All is never as it seems,
Trust no one and live in Lonesomeness.
Uthias speaks…
Sometimes I wonder if I could watch the clouds moving across the sky forever. Maybe someday Time will reverse and I will be a child again. My swords will be wooden, my laughter won’t be forced.
My father always promised me a falcon to hunt with; maybe then, that will come true. I shall ride horseback with my falcon, and there will be peace, instead of this.
Sabiya
Each grain of beige sand slid against another; they shoved each other with wicked vengeance in a race to make it through the narrow opening into the bottom half of the hourglass. Each grain was identical to the next, but only a given few made it through to the desired area. When turned over again, they raced for the next level down, never satisfied with where they landed.
That’s how I feel. I’m one of those grains fighting for something, but never getting it. Sabiya drew a ragged breath. I don’t want to be like that. I can’t be like that. I want to fight for something and get it.
“Sabiya Latinium?” The Seeir peered across the room from a cushioned stool in the center of her dressing area.
Sabiya glanced back at the hourglass hanging from a hook on the wall. The colored glass distorted the image of the sand grains, yet Sabiya knew that like all sand, it had to be beige. Even when sand was dyed exotic colors for the hourglasses, inside it remained the same.
You can’t change anything. It will always be what it once was.
Sabiya crossed the room to the Seeir and bowed low enough her ribs touched her thighs. Without taking her gaze from Sabiya, the Seeir waved at her other maids. With low bows and quick nods, they backed from the room.
The Seeir rose in a wind of gauzy material and jewelry that clanked without rhythm. She walked out to her bedroom balcony; the smallest of the balconies attached to her numerous chambers. The sheer curtains swayed around her slender body, rippling like ocean waves when the light wind arose. Too skinny to be pleasant and too cold to be likable; sometimes Sabiya pitied her for forming no friendships.
Sabiya followed to stand near the railing. It’s an honor I’m one of the Seeir of Juniper’s serving maids. My father’s pleased with the honor, so why am I still not married? I‘ve been a maid here since I was nine. Sweet Sia, am I hideous?
The Seeir glared at Sabiya with brown eyes.
Creamy brown eyes. Gasping, Sabiya drew back against the railing. The pale brown color was almost identical to the eyes of her rescuer.
“How was your night?” The Seeir shrugged, as if she’d been the one asked.
Did she want to know the truth? The woman would know if she lied. “Mistress Seeir, I was kidnapped last night before I had a chance to deliver the package you requested I give to the fisherman. I was barely out of the palace before an outlaw grabbed me.”
“You’re far from being a mere child to be kidnapped.”
Sabiya recoiled. What a horrible statement to make when she could’ve been injured. “It was one of those desert scoundrels that make their horrid, evil camps out in our precious desert. Did you want me to fight him? Do you think I would have survived against a grown man roughened by such a harsh, miserable life with one of those horrid, curved swords in his filthy hand?”
