PELAIR. The Gems of the Golden Serpent.

17. Revolt in Tricia

"I swear it was an accident!" Brannan tried vainly to convince Gertrudis that that slip had been caused by the drunkenness of the lad, due to the hastily way he had drunk. The boy was over his drinks, and he didn't know what he was doing.

Gertrudis didn't cease to mock the unintentional touch of lips that Brannan had had with that girl, who had crossed his path again.

She couldn't stop laughing when she saw the look of disgust, and concern Brannan showed to the fact that she could even think he had kissed a man. She knew well from their fortuitous and fortunate encounter years ago that such a boy was a girl.

She had no idea why she had decided to follow up with that secret. The girl had her reasons, and she respected her decision. Thus, it wouldn't be she, who would discover that truth to her protégé, however prince he might be. For now, she enjoyed tormenting and taunting him.

"It's amazing how men can be so stupid at times," she said to herself, smiling.

Brannan had proved to be quite a sufficiency man when it came to women. His conquests and dalliances Gertrudis could count by dozens since she had known him in that lonely path in Kaffre. One night he had arrived drunk and particularly sensitive, Gertrudis had managed to pry the truth about the bitterness nestled in his heart. She never told him that she knew of his affliction. It was his life and his past, and he had every right to keep it, she thought and felt in the least neither excluded nor aggravated by the apparent lack of confidence of the young.

The truth was that Brannan felt a mixture of embarrassment and pain. He felt shame for having been deceived so stupidly when the whole household of Castle Kaffre except him, knew about the wanderings of his young wife with his father.

"Such fuck off of a father!" Brannan rebuked himself, feeling a rebirth of the long-standing hatred that still harbored his heart, and the pain at recalling the sad fate his mother had had.

"If I only had been a little bit older,"! he sometimes scolded himself unnecessarily.

A soft knock on the bedroom door pulled Brannan off his reveries. The inn they had chosen as accommodation was reasonably comfortable and discreet.

The room had sparse furniture. Three wooden cots lined up in parallel interleaved with a small table between the beds. A flame from a solitary candle made of a mixture of beeswax and pork fat emitted a reddish glow with a particular scent. Toto snored deep sleep on the far cot stuck to the corner.

Brannan and Gertrudis looked at each, withdrawing their swords from their scabbards. They were rarely disturbed in their room, especially by nightfall. Sometimes, only by a maid who came up to carry out the cleanup.

The knock came again, this time more compelling, so they both looked puzzled at each other.

"What do you want?" asked Brannan aloud.

"Open in the name of the Queen," shouted a man from the other side of the door.

"And what the queen might want from a simple countryman?" replied Brannan.

"That is not something that concerns me," the man protested. "My ordered is just to take you to her presence."

They knew Queen Miralia was in Tricia, as they had seen her passing on their way to the ceremony held in honor of the Goddess Noor. However, that wasn't the usual way she used to summon them. Usually, she sent for them with a discreet and trusted maiden.

"Hurry up!" Brannan gestured to Gertrudis. "Wake Toto and get out through the window," he said while quietly placing the pin that served as a crossbar behind the door.