The Marble Tower

-31-

Ezme couldn't stay holed up in the cabin any longer. Swinging a quick "Be right back" to Lady Abril she opened the door and walked into the fresh morning air.

Growing up in a village close to the forest she felt at home amongst the trees. Exploring with her big brother and hearing the bell their parents had at the back door signaling dinner. Finding rocks by the river that she though were pretty.

But then her father was called to be a guard at the castle. She stayed with her mother for a while. But eventually she decided to go live with her father. She slept with her father in the guards house for a while. There weren't many kids in the palace so she didn't have many friends. Until one day a family came to see the king in a great hurry. When they arrived they had rushed past her in such a hurry that she could barely get out of the way. She was about to ask for an apology (as politely as she could muster, for though her mother tried to teach her how to be proper, she could never do it without consideration.) but they had already turning a corner. And she watched as a little girl stumbled behind her parents.

A few days later she bumped into the girl in the kitchen, she was small, a toddler really, and she was just walking around the kitchen, asking things like "How did you do that?", or "Who is that for?", or even "Can I have one please?" Annoying the cooks and bakers that always left the kitchen like a bee hive all day, she was ignored and pushed away like nothing but a broken wooden spoon. So it was Ezme who had caught her stealing one of the pastries and ended up playing with the child in her bedroom.

Ezme chuckled, she was ten at the time, Aalyiah had been four. They had been best friends ever since. And when Aaly had started getting sick, she wanted to help. They where basically family, and family sticks together till the end.

Till the end.

Ezme frowned.

She needed to get back. As soon as possible.