‘Mara’ the name was ringing inside my head like church bells, Mara was the queen of Calazaruth before my father claimed the throne. Mara never forgave my father and she would never give up on the hope that she might claim the throne once more. My mother was always close to Mara even after my father claimed the throne. My mother left my father 3 years ago when I was 17 everyone always comments on how much I look like my mother. My mother had long brown hair which she either wore in a bun or she would wear it in a braid. My mother would often braid her hair when she went hunting, I got my hunting skills from my mother. She taught me so many things; how to build a fire, how to use a bow and arrow, how to kill with a knife, how to set up traps in the woods, my mother was the only one who would understand my need to trek through the forest for hours and hours until the sun had been replaced with the moon.Every night I would pray that one day she might return not just for me but for my father. My father persistently tried to persuade my mother to stay but nothing ever seemed to work. For months my mother had been distant from my father making him sceptical. The moment my mother left I saw the pain in my fathers eyes as he slowly subsided down onto the stone cold floor of our castle, his hands concealed his eyes, disguising each tear that fell from his bloodshot eyes, I placed my arm around his shoulder comforting him as hot torrents of grief coursed from the wounds of his broken heart, my father knew that he had been betrayed and that nothing would be the same. The neigh of horses broke our bonds. I hurried over to the window to see that one of Mara’s knights had lifted my mother up onto his horse and carried her away; clearly they knew it was going to happen; but for how long?
After that night my father was desperate to find out what was happening; was my mother alive? Was she dead? Was she planning a rebellion against my father alongside Mara and her men? Maybe that was what the secret meetings were always about. I buried my head into my chest and walked slowly back into the castle to find Sophie.
’Sophie? Sophie! Where are you?’ I found her upstairs sorting out the bedsheets; all of them stacked in a neat pile. About 13 sheets were in the pile all of them ready to wash and dry to put on fresh in two days time.
’Alexis whatever are you doing?’
Sophie picked up the bed sheets in her two hands ready to carry downstairs to the laundry room.
‘Let me help you with those Soph’
‘No Alexis it’s fine.’
’Sophie you might think I’m going mad and that I’m hearing things I promise you I really wasn’t but I heard father discussing some things with Aeduiin and William and I overheard the name ‘Mara’ Suddenly, Sophie dropped the bed sheets on the cold concrete floor. I bent down to pick them up.
‘Alexis why on earth was you poking your ears in on your fathers private conversation, let alone mentioning that wicked name, you were probably just hearing things Alexis I know what you’ve been like lately, now please let me do my work.’
‘I wasn’t ‘Poking my ears in’ I just heard it okay. Why don’t you believe me? You know something’s going on don’t you? You know why my mother left; I bet everyone knows why she left except me? Why Sophie? Why?
I felt my cheeks turning red with rage; I just wanted answers; I just wanted to know the truth. But I was getting nothing.
Sophie didn’t reply she just picked up the bed sheets and walked slowly down the staircase the only noise I heard was the sound of the laundry door shutting.
