Black Storm - Red Queen Fan Fiction

Chapter 9 - The Mirror part II

Mare POV

One night, I dreamt I was on Tuck. I embarked on its shores, entered the barracks, prowled the corridors. I saw faces, more or less familiar. I saw my family, looking at me with hope and grief and fear. I saw Cal, as we were put in a cell together. I remembered comrades and enemies who turned to allies. Again, I met with the strange twins from Monfort and this time, I accepted their offer. But apart from all these memories, the feeling hit me for another time: I was alone in this fight and no one walked beside me and this was my own fault. I had brought myself in this situation and so I looked at Shade's grave and assessed my numerous failings.

The third time Sentinel Griffey showed up in my cage, she carried a book. She slided into the room, greeted me like I was a normal person and plunged in the large and comfortable chair she'd brought here the day before. She came to me every day, for eight hours, but on switching time slots. She did the same as always, controlling the objects in the dwellings by the use of her ability. She never needed long for this.

Thus, she lounged in her seat, and read her bookwith her legs crossed. She had positioned herself 3 m in front of me, observing me dutifully despite her lecture. She wasn't still. Her feet and fingers twitched, she switched her legs and seemed generally bored. I merely stared back at her, to challenge her arrogance and trying to figure her out, with the mad hope I might find a way to outwit her.

She felt bored by watching me?

What did she assume how I felt about this imprisonment? Stupid Silver brat.

Yet, her arrogance was less bad than the harshness of the other gaolers who didn't come regularly and who didn't stay with me. They did their duties and left. I never saw their faces, and had only their house colours as hints to their identities. They were like dolls, not truly human, sent to leave an impression on me. Maven didn't come, but he made a habit of reminding me of the threat looming above me.

Griffey was different. She never wore the cape or the helmet after our first meeting, baring her distinctive features. She didn't touch me, because she didn't need to, and talked to me instead.

As on this day, when she threw the book away, letting it land quietly on the table without a glance, after three hours of her shift had passed.

"I have been to the Lakelands once, five years ago," she began out of nothing. "A diplomatic mission of Queen Dowager Lerolan. We were sixteen, the Queen, five nobles and ten sentinels. I was a mere trainee, back then, and came with my cousin, a proper lady, who was eager to impress, eager to draw attention."

Against my will, her words made me curious. But why not, I needed all the information I could obtain.

"The Lakelands are - well, we were in a flooded city, for the most. It was a fortress - or a prison - as a whole. No way to get out unless the nymph royals gave their permission. Even in the palace, there were numerous small pools, almost in every public room. The royal family is quite large, you know, and nymphs gain court jobs just by existing. You had to beware of them, because they might have decided to drown you on a whim." She shrugged. "The old king thought his mother would manage well enough, while Elara Merandus simply didn't care if Anabel Lerolan never returned. She presumed her mother-in-law to be very expendable," Griffey smiled wickedly.

"Well, there was no need to worry about the Queen Dowager - the Cygnets couldn't stop their kissing and hugging with the old lady. Quite suspicious, if you think about it, when age-old enemies are friendly like that, as if they were more like allies, in a way."

I said nothing.

"But," she continued despite my silence, "the rest of the court made up for that. There were always brawls between us and the Lakelands watchmen, quarrels and bitching among the nobles. Silvers aren't very well-mannered when challenged, if you know what I mean." She chuckled.