Time for the Truth: a story of a sleeping beauty

part 15: Uncovered

Tarana is at the point of the sickness where she can only wake up for us to force food and as much liquid as we can into her. 

The only people with access to her food and rooms are her family. I don't even know how she could be worsening. 

Rior is becoming increasingly worried about me as well. He has guards following me all the time and he is convinced I should not be left alone. 

I haven't been sleeping in order to spend time with Tarana and my mother. My older brother is thinking of trying to take his wife and Parisa away to one of the farms in order to protect them. My mother has a feverish look to her all the time and I don't know how to help any of them. I feel desperation in my bones, and I know it rests on my face because Rior mirrors me when he thinks I am not looking. 

Rior finds me late one night while I am wiping Tarana's face with a damp cloth. She is probably freezing but her skin is warm and she moans in her sleep. 

I remember the vivid dreams and the way everything was harder than it should be. 

I hope when she gets better that she will not have the nightmares I have- they are worse when I am sleep deprived like this, but I cannot sleep when I know they wait for me and I know she is ill. 

"I need to speak with you." He whispers against my head. I lean against him for a moment, savouring the comfort he offers. 

I drop the cloth and stand up, smoothing Tarana's hair back I kiss her forehead. She rustles the covers and I walk over to the corner of the room with Rior. 

"The sickness is not getting better when we took everyone else away." I nod. "Then who has access?"he asks, rubbing his thumbs in twin circles on the top of my arms. 

"My mother, my father, my brother, Morrigan, Parisa, me, our old nursemaid." 

"Where is your old nursemaid from?" 

"She grew up in the town surrounding the castle." I swallow. 

"Where is Morrigan from?" I can feel the tension in his body. 

"You don't think.."

"I don't know what else to do. No one else is remotely suspicious. Parisa was saying Morrigan can be very mean when no one else is around and that Basil and her have been arguing."

"That's children's gossip!" I whisper-shout at him. "She was welcomed into this family!"

"Yes, but where is she from?"

"By the mountains, but not in them." I find myself nodding, scared for this knowledge. 

"Morrigan was from the edge of our country, the northernmost part. No one had looked there for a bride in many generations, and so Basil individually did favors for every family there with an eligible girl around his age. Morrigan was a little older than him, she had been an orphan living with several other girls her age and an older couple who had taken them in. 

She had been surprisingly well bred, and had wanted to be with us sisters, but never actually tried to get to know us. We had assumed it was because she was standoffish but..." Rior was chewing on his lip, thinking. 

"We need to get her alone. I don't know if she is part Moridjian or if she knows someone who is and is giving her the blood, but she could give Tarana too much and kill her if she is alone with her."

"We must tell my parents! And Basil."

Rior hushed me, I had started speaking at a normal volume. 

He kissed me quickly. 

"You stay here, I will wake everyone." I nodded, my heart beating quickly. He steps quietly across the thick carpet.