The Lost Mirror

Chapter 3

Katie opened the door for Jade as she stepped out of the room.

"His majesty and the Queen are waiting for you in the dining hall." Katie informed her with a smile. Jade frowned but said nothing as Katie slowly closed the door. His majesty and the Queen? Jade frantically looked around, there was nobody in sight. She was in a long stone corridor lit only by the soft candle light that hung from the walls. It was clear at this point that Jade was in a castle and in some weird way she seemed to be it's princess. Her parents were the King and Queen and her supposed best friend was not her best friend but instead her maid. Jade nodded to herself, that all made perfect sense...not. She needed to get out of here or wake up. She still wasn't sure which one was the right one to do. Jade sighed and ran a hand down the elegant green dress she had seen hanging on the wardrobe that morning. It seemed to float around her as she moved and it was fitted perfectly to her figure...although she was still struggling to breath. She soon realised that taking deep breaths was impossible with the corset crushing her lungs, she had to take much shorter more frequent breaths. It was making her head hurt a little as it wasn't used to being denied that much oxygen. Jade turned around and looked both ways down the corridor, either side looked exactly the same and she had no idea where she was meant to be going. Jade decided to go left, she looked at the plain stone walls as she walked down the ridiculously long corridor. The simple green pumps she was wearing were concealed by her long dress had little to no sole on them, which meant Jade could clearly feel every stone beneath her. She eventually came to the end of the corridor only to be faced with another that looked exactly the same. After a short look left and right she decided to make a right turn. She had to come across someone at some point. She took another right, then a left, then a right until she turned a corner and saw a man walking towards her. Jade felt relieved to have found someone but the closer she got the more suspicious the character before her became. He wore a long black cloak that was worn and slightly torn at the edges with age. His over sized hood covered his face and in his right hand there was a large wooden staff with a beautiful white crystal on top, which appeared to glow in the warm light of the candles fire.

"Good morning Princess Jade." The man said with a voice like silk when the two were about to cross paths. Jade stood silently and watched as the man bowed ever so slightly and raised his left hand to push his hood back revealing his face. Jade prevented herself from gasping at the man's handsome features. His skin was perfectly smooth, his cheekbones so sharp they could cut her and his eyes a crystal shade of blue that seemed to be staring right into her soul. He had rather long chocolate brown hair that hung softly just above his eyebrows, his lips were full and a healthy pink colour. Jade looked down at her feet. The man looked not a day older than 30 but his eyes were so full of wisdom that there was no possible way they could have belonged to a middle aged man. For not the first Jade felt her voice unavailable. After a short silence the man spoke again. "Are you quite alright this morning my Lady? You seem to be rather out of it."

"N-no I'm fine." She managed to stutter. There was a moment of silence. Jade's eyes remained to the floor as the handsome stranger's eyes looked her up and down with a frown. "A-actually I've got a headache and I seem to have forgotten where I'm going." She lied, praying that he would buy it.

"I see, well I'll be honoured to show you to wherever you're going." He told her as if he believed it but the frown never left his face.

"I was heading to the dining hall to have breakfast with my parents."

"Yes of course. It's this way." He said stepping to the side and gesturing to the way which he had just come. He turned around and held out his left arm for Jade to take as they walked together. Trying to hide the blush creeping up on her face Jade cautiously took his arm. The two walked in absolute silence. The man beside her seemed to be perfectly comfortable, while Jade was fidgety and on edge. She didn't like silence, she never had. She had always been the one to feel the need to fill the silence in the room. Although this time she had nothing to say. What could she say? This man was clearly no idiot, Jade knew from the look in his eyes that he had not brought her lie completely yet he had said nothing and acted as if he had. If Jade said anything more at that time she might have gotten herself in trouble. Jade spotted two men in armour as they came around the corner. The two were very similar in build, one had brown hair will the other had hair so dark it looked almost black and a large, untamed beard. Both stopped as Jade and her companion walked by and bowed. Jade stared at them, unaware of what to do. She looked to the man who seemed to know a lot more than he let on, only to saw that his eyes were glued forward. He hadn't even glanced at the two knights, as if they weren't worth his time. After they had passed the knights Jade could hear the two marching away in perfect unison. A short amount of time passed before Jade and her mysterious saviour came across a very large wooden doorway with two guards standing in front of it. They were dressed from head to toe in armour with helmets concealing their faces and spears in their hands. The man stopped abruptly in front of the door as the two guards moved to open the heavy wooden doors. "This is the dining hall my lady. If your headache doesn't go I suggest you take yourself to bed. It would send the kingdom into quite a state of alarm if it's Princess was to fall ill." The last sentence he spoke sounded more like a threat to Jade but she said nothing as the stranger untangled their arms, turned and glided away.