Destroyers and the Dragons

Page 27

      "I want to sleep so please stop," I mutter not wanting to open my eyes.

     "Stop what?" he baits.

     "Playing with my braids," I retort. I feel the blanket shift a little and open my eyes to find that Evergreen is laying on his side, studying me.

     "I find the texture to be intoxicating," he says running a few braids through his fingers.

     "Go play with a curtain tassel then," I retort sourly because he is causing my body to react.

     "It doesn't feel the same," he counters.

     "Well I need to rest and you playing with my braids will not help," I say yanking the braids free of his hands. He smiles at me like a drunk fool and tucks the blanket around me. I close my eyes again and work to relax my now very tense muscles. I wake to darkness and quickly sit up reaching for the knives I do not have. It takes me a minute to realize I've been left in the garden alone. Rose's bench is empty and Evergreen is nowhere to be seen. I listen to the voices that woke me.

     "She isn't anything to worry about, he is King and cannot think to marry a plains demon. He is just infatuated with her because she is so foreign to the way he was raised," says the mans voice. I recognize it as one of the councilors.

     "But he kissed her," a very unfamiliar female voice shrieks.

     "Quiet dear, she kissed him first, he would never have done that on his own. Our plans will go on like that never happened." I sit very still in the shadows of the tree and barely allow myself to breath. As the conversation drifts away from my hiding place; I pull the blanket around me as I feel suddenly cold to the bones. What plans do they have? Are they going to hurt Evergreen? I try to tell myself I shouldn't care as another shadow slithers next to me.

     "Did you hear them?" Evergreen asks. I nod my head unable to talk. "What do you think of that?" I shrug for it isn't my place to give an opinion to a King. "Let's get you inside for the evening meal." He says picking me up and placing me gently in my rolling chair, which was hidden behind a bush. Silently we enter the keep and then the dining hall. I find Rose is sitting at the table next to Nelax and a servant that has all of Nelax attention. "You forgot something in the gardens dear sister," he says by way of greeting. Rose looks up and smiles.

     "Oh I didn't want to wake her from her nap, she looked so peaceful," Rose teases moving a chair away from the table and dishing me up a huge plate of food.

     "Do you really think I'm going to eat all this?" I ask looking at some of the stranger foods. As if in reply Evergreen stabs a piece of food from my plate and pops it into his mouth. "You have your own plate," I snap.

     "But the food on your plate tastes better," he counters with a grin. "What medicine has your sister given you?"

     "None," he says smiling foolishly at me.

     "Then she might need to because your brain is addled," I say pulling my plate closer to me and trying to guard it with my arm. It proves to be useless because whenever my attention is elsewhere Evergreen steals bites of my food. When the sweet's tray comes by I reach for the candied apple as does Evergreen.