Ladies, Lords, & Liars

Chapter Twenty-Two: Gone

   Aeric found himself dozing off after sitting there for only a few minutes, but he didn't want to sleep just yet. He shook himself awake and wandered out onto the balcony. The warm air was nice. There was a noticeable difference from the stale air inside the castle.

   He closed his eyes and leaned against the door, rubbing his eyes. He would have to find out how long he'd been staying. He would either be disappointed or pleasantly surprised at the amount of time that had passed, and it wasn't like he had anything to lose.

   He stood there for a few long moments, letting the sun soak into his skin. He didn't want to deal with this anymore. The princess and the matchmaking queen were among the first problems that came to mind, but he knew that there were more, hidden just under the surface.

   He heaved a sigh and went back into his room, looking around at the furniture so fine that he'd almost been afraid to use it at first. But it was there for him, so he had long since stopped caring. He wasn't going to destroy a chair by sitting on it, after all.

   By now, he'd already read all the books on the tiny shelf in the corner of the room, and none of them held any appeal anymore. That option for consuming his time was out, at least until he located more books.

   There was a wooden chest of tabletop games and decks of cards and whatnot near the hearth that he'd thought was something to hold firewood until he'd discovered what it really was several days ago. But most of those were for no less than two players, and the ones that weren't held as much appeal as the books he'd read cover to cover several times over.

   He'd already tried exploring once before, but he'd quickly encountered far too many other wandering palace guests. He hadn't tried that again after the first time, and he didn't plan on doing it again anytime soon.

   As far as he could tell, there were two options left.

   He could try to find out from whichever noble he first encountered something else about the princess and her situation. It would no doubt be a wild rabbit chase, though. A fruitless venture, by all means.

   So that left finding someone who might have been keeping track of the days. He would ask them how long he'd been there. That way, at least one of his questions would be answered. And it would serve as a useful distraction from everything else that was wrong.

   He headed to the door, but his hand paused before it reached the handle. Who was he supposed to ask? And even if he knew who, how would he find one specific person in an entire castle?

   Oh well. He would just have to cross that bridge when he got to it.

   He opened the door and his feet turned towards the entrance hall on default. They might be gathering to eat something in the dining room right about now, so it was a perfect time.

    But when he arrived at the foot of the stairs, he couldn't see anyone. The place might as well have been abandoned. He frowned and peeked his head through the dining room doors, only to find that it, too, was completely void of the usual crowd.

   He looked around at the other doors along the walls of the big hall. He knew that the one between the staircases led to the ballroom. He wouldn't check there except as a last resort.

   He walked across the room and opened the first door he came to. Behind it was a many-windowed room filled with tables and chairs. Window seats abounded, and bookshelves lined one wall. A fireplace lay dormant in the corner. There wasn't anyone here.

   He closed the door and moved to the next one. Every door seemed to be exactly the same in the palace. They were all dark wood like the walls. But unlike the walls, they were carved and had gold lining between some of the finer carvings. He pushed through.

   To his surprise, this door led into a library; there was nothing else it could be. One long window let in the only light that the endless shelves of books ever saw. A desk that should have had a librarian sitting behind it was vacant. More tables and matching chairs sat near the window, presumably for studying purposes. The place seemed untouched except for the faint signs of recent cleaning. The only good thing about this room was the fact that he now had an almost endless supply of books to keep him going until long after he would be gone.

   He rolled his eyes and left. Where could they all have gone? Surely there had to be someone still lurking around since breakfast? Even the king and queen, who he'd so recently encountered, had vanished entirely.

   He moved to the next door, which was the last one on this side of the room. This one was the least exciting of all of them. It just led to another hallway. No windows here, which meant that it was eerily dark. The doors in here were far less extraordinary than the ones back in the hall. They were just a plain, almost cheap-looking wood.

   He felt like he shouldn't enter, but he stepped past the threshold anyway. He had to find someone or he would go insane.

   The first door on the left. A huge kitchen, abandoned. They probably wouldn't need to start dinner for at least another hour. Lunch had either already gone out, or was being skipped altogether. He backed out and closed the door behind him.

   The door across the hall was just a closet. It was a really, really big closet, but it was still a closet. Cleaning supplies were the only occupants, here. He sighed and moved on to the next room.

   A long, dark room stretched into shadows that he couldn't ever hope to see into. He caught a glimpse of bunks with soiled mattresses and tattered blankets. He left that room right away. It could only be the servant's quarters or something similar. He wasn't sure he wanted to see anyone in that room. He hurried across the hall, but that door was locked.

   He was starting to feel a vague sense of unease about being in the dimly-lit hallway. What if he wasn't supposed to be back here? And then there was the fact that there didn't seem to be another living soul in the whole place. Something wasn't right...

   He shook his head. He was just imagining things. He just had to keep going and he would meet someone soon. Such a quantity of people couldn't just disappear in such a short time.

   The end of the hall was coming into sight. He had four more doors left before the floor dropped into a staircase that spiraled down and out of sight. Should he keep going if the next doors didn't reveal any people? Could people really be down there?

   He went to the next door but immediately closed it again when he saw that it was another servants' quarters. He was sure he'd seen someone in there, but he didn't dare open the door again. He told himself that he just didn't want to bother them if they were resting, but that was a lie. He was starting to realize that he didn't want to find someone after all.

   His legs moved of their own accord towards the next door, but he froze in his tracks when he heard footsteps echoing from further down the hall. They were coming from the staircase. Someone was walking up those stairs and he was in very plain sight.