The Silver Crown

20.

My guards lead me back to my room and passed me into the care of my attendants. They tried to get me to eat but I vehemently refused. Instead I sat by the window and just stared out at the forest behind the castle. I didn't move and I only acknowledged Niva when she brought me a mug of hot tea. I was planning and plotting.

The window in my room looked out into the stable yard and the walls surrounding the castle. Beyond them I could see sky that filled with clouds and that began to darken as the day wore on. The windows were facing east but faded colors from the sunset reflected on the clouds and as the light began to turn to darkness, I grew tired of my anger and sank into sorrow again. My sadness called to mind a little song that I had always known. I sang quietly, remembering Miri.

When the boat does carry you always

To the stars and the beyond.

The feel of my hand in yours will be lost

But I always feel our bond.

When the peaceful waters anoint your head.

And the words of your love the last sound.

Know I will always love you, my dear

Even when my body joins the ground.

Finally I pushed myself away from the window and toward the bed. Even in the dark I caught the little flurry of motion in the corner of my eye. I didn't acknowledge that the maids had been watching me from the doorframe. I waited, standing by the bed until I heard the click of the door that meant they had left.

I quickly went over and locked the door. That way if someone tried to break in, I'd hear the sounds of him or her picking the lock or breaking down the door and would have time to prepare. "The girl can leave the streets, but the streets never leave the girl," I whispered. I smiled to myself; it was something Miri always said when we jested about becoming respectable and earning our bread the legal way.

I pulled the covers off the bed and made a little nest on the floor. It was disconcerting sleeping on a bed when all I could remember was sleeping with threadbare blankets on a rock hard dirt floor. I dropped down into the mess of blankets and checked my knives. It was a ritual that I always completed before bed. I lay down with my head pillowed in my arms and fell asleep quickly. My last conscious thoughts were of Miri, Tobin and the destruction of what was evil in this world.

~

The next morning I woke to the sun rising through the windows but like any good street kid, I took advantage of the time and went back to sleep.

The next time I woke was to thunder, but then I realized it was someone banging on the door. I immediately sprang out of my blankets and opened the door, a knife hidden in my free hand. I almost laughed when I saw what was outside the door. My three guards were standing at attention, one on each side of the door and Chale in the center. My attendants were standing nervously on the left side and the captain was on the right. He looked very frustrated.

"Oh, how honored I feel that you all want to come see me. Please, enter." I said bowing and sweeping my arm up and out. Whenever the captain was around my sarcastic side inexplicably became magnified. Perhaps it was because he had no patience for it.

Brinian entered the room and my attendants scurried in after him. They quickly took stalk and Maurice tutted over the mess of blankets on the floor.

"Milady, why are all these blankets on the floor?" Eliza asked.

Maurice gave Eliza a look that clearly told her to not try to embarrass me in front of the Guard Captain.

I knew that Eliza was trying to humiliate me and really didn't care. "I can't hear on that thick mattress and it is horrible sleepin' so high up. I feel precariously suspended above the ground."

Eliza barely hid her smile, believing that she had humiliated me. "Don't be so foolish. You will not fall. And what do you need to hear when sleeping?"

I leaned back against the doorframe and started cleaning the dirt out from underneath my nails with a knife. "Eliza, poppet," I began, my voice saccharine sweet. Eliza bristled at my tone. "Have you ever slept knowin' that at any moment someone could walk through your door and drag you down to the Provost or to the slave pens? Have you ever had to be wary of another gang raiding your den and killing every friend you got and then you? I can hear someone following me. I rely on my ears to keep me livin' even in a straight on fight. So I listen to live."

Eliza rolled her eyes, "I have clearly never had to live your life, milady?" She said the 'milady' part like it was a joke.

"To add to that," I continued, now flipping the knife up and catching it. "Hearing sounds in the night is still telling me things even here. Eliza, do your friends know that you creep in to this room at night and nick some of the dresses? That you go through the jewels in the box over yonder and that two nights ago you pocketed a ruby brooch and some white pearl earbobs that are currently in your ears?"

"What?" Maurice exclaimed.

"You could not hear what exactly I took!" Eliza cried adamantly.

"So you admit to taking some of the princesses jewelry?" Maurice asked.

"I heard a small clink when ye nicked the earbobs and the rustle of your dress as well as footsteps. I heard a second rustle later on so I assumed you took another thing. The next morning I checked the box and those were what was missin'," I explained.

"I thought you were not interested in jewelry," Eliza sneered.

I caught my knife and stuck it in my belt. I looked straight at Eliza and smirked. "You really don't understand, do you? I am a thief. I steal. I know what is valuable and what is not. If any of you were thinking you would have realized that the first thing I did once I was able was search the room. I found all the stupid toys your princess used to have and obviously I made a note of the gems and stuff of real value."

I looked around the room. Eliza was angry and Maurice was scowling. The captain was standing by the window. He still looked angry, but that was his most common facial expression around me.

"Did you do it, Eliza?" Maurice questioned.

"Obviously not! The room was locked!" Eliza cried.

"I did hear you run into the door last night," I said nonchalantly.

"What? I-" She stuttered.

"So, Eliza, I don't really care what you do with the jewelry but I guess Maurice would like you to put it back, along with the dresses." I grinned at the baffled maid.

Eliza walked over to Maurice and dropped the brooch in her hands. Then she pulled the earbobs out of her ears and also placed them in Maurice's outstretched hand. She shot me a glare before walking quickly out of the room. In a lesser woman, it would have been called sulking, but despite my dislike of Eliza, I could admit that she was proper enough not to sulk in company.