Chapter 2
At the end of the day, Alexandra waited obediently in front of the stables as the sun was just barely setting. Lady Beth kept her word; she came just as she said she would, only, she brought a young man with her. Alexandra could only guess that Lady Beth's guest was Prince Makani, and she was right. She curtsied when they came up to her, and avoided looking at Makani. He wore the servant's clothes she first saw him in, and Lady Beth came in commoner's clothes.
“Good evening,” he said, bowing.
“Good evening.” Alexandra mumbled, looking down.
“Now, now, let’s not sit here babbling all day. Come. Alexandra, lead the way, if you please.”
The party of three left the castle grounds through the gate that led directly to the city. The street was crowded with people and was loud.
"So, uh, where exactly do you live?" asked Makani, clearly trying to break the tension between him and Alexandra. He had to talk close to her ear for her to hear what he was saying and still keep the conversation private.
"Outside of the cities, near the woods," she yelled over the noise bluntly, keeping her gaze off of him. She kept her hands folded in front of her. Though clammy, they stayed together tightly. The Prince! I still can't believe that he was the one who had to save me. Why couldn't it have been Ed, or some other servant who had passed by? He was walking so close to her that she could smell his cologne again.
"Interesting," he said in her ear again. "So, is it nice and peaceful there?"
"Yes, sir." Why'd it have to be him? Oh, why did it have to be him?!He's nice and all, but he's the son of the King! I have no idea how to act around him! She swallowed, hoping her mouth would become less dry.
Makani nodded in response. Thinking that he wouldn't get anything else out of her, he turned to Beth. "Are the hounds doing okay?" he asked, putting his head down close to hers. "I heard they tracked down a fox better than the Duke of Cantrill's."
Alexandra heard their conversation, and she couldn't help but look at Makani now. "You have dogs?"
Makani looked at her in surprise. "Yes, Miss. We have about twenty kennelled near my room. You actually didn't know we had hounds? I thought you worked in the castle?"
"Yes, in the castle, not outside of it. They only let certain servants go certain places. Have you ever seen any women servants down in the mens' corridor?"
"No, I haven't. I see. Yes, well, we have twenty dogs, ten male and ten female. We keep them seperated by gender. They're the highest class of hounds in all of the kingdoms. I'll let you meet them sometime."
"Okay," said Alexandra excitedly, completely forgetting about her nervousness. She smiled the rest of the way to her house.
Once they got to Alexandras', Makani looked at the house. It had two-stories, with a garden surrounded by a wooden fence. A bit further off stood Centaur Woods.
An odd place to build a house, thought Makani.
Alexandra went up to the door and knocked. “I’m home!” she said as she entered. “I brought—”
“Alima and her charge! How nice to see you again, love! It’s been too long!” exclaimed Suoh as he ran down the stairs and out the door to meet her. Suoh had short brown hair that was tinted with blue and blue eyes. He was taller than any of them, and was well built with strong muscles and was as skinny as ever.
“Now, Suoh, don’t think I’m not angry with you about all of this—” Alima started as Suoh grabbed her by the waist and twirled her around in the air. He let her fall into his arms. She glared at him the entire time.
“Wait, Suoh, that’s not her name…” said Alexandra.
“Oh, yes it is. Tell her, love.”
Alima looked at Alexandra as she roughly pushed away from Suoh. “Yes, it’s true, Alima is my name. I just made up a different name so Hec—”
Suoh quickly covered her mouth as he set her down before she could say any more. “Shush, now, love. We’ll talk about it after we get inside,” he said as he put Alima down.
They filed into the house, with Suoh at the back to close the door. Once it was closed, Alima turned sharply around to face Suoh and took two powerful strides towards him, with wind blowing forcefully away from her feet, unsettling dust and herbs that had fallen on the floor. She glared up at him and stood erect, with her fists clenched. Her eyes flashed and smoke billowed out of her clenched teeth, along with a little bit of flames.
“Makani, Alexandra, cover your ears, quickly. She has a nasty mouth—” Suoh started.
Alima pointed a finger at Suoh. “Oh, this isn’t about me, not by a long shot. What the hell were you thinking, sending her to work in the castle? You know damn well what our orders were, you son of a—”
"We'll be at the shop!" Alexandra rushed out of her mouth and ran out of the house, Makani in tow.
“Wow,” said Makani. “I didn’t even know she had such a foul mouth.”
“Yeah? Just wait ‘til you hear Sara. I’m sure they’ll get along just fine.”
Alexandra smiled and started to laugh. She walked next to Makani, not nervous about standing next to the Kings' son.
After a little bit, they turned off Palm Street, a quiet little dirt road with small houses on it, turned onto Pennywhistle Street, more of a cobblestone road with more houses, and made their way towards Beaker Avenue a bit busier with more shops than houses.
Makani moved farther away from the church as he saw all of the graves by and behind it. He looked away. “I never realized that there were so many deaths in this city.”
“Yeah, well, this year’s a record. One whole family has died because of Steelbacks—a mother, father, their three children, their two grandparents, and their aunt—and another five families because of the plague that’s been going around. And that’s just for these past three months. I would be trying to prevent anything else from happening, but I can’t do anything about them. Suoh and Cadmus won’t let me. They say that I’ll be able to when the time comes. Although, I have no idea when.”
“So, who is Cadmus, anyways? What kind of shop does Cadmus have?”
“Oh, Cadmus is the gaurdian of Sara. She lives in the house with me and Suoh. He has an herb shop. He sells herbs for the sick, for women in labor, for the superstitious…pretty much for anybody. You know the garden in the front? That’s Cadmus’s and Sara's. Sara helps Cadmus in his shop, and she even gets paid.”
The lanterns on the side of the street were being lit while the sun was setting. The sky was a pinkish-orangish color, and the clouds were thinning. They turned on to Four Square and saw a hanging sign off of a building that said 'Cadmus’s Herb Shop' with an olive branch engraved and painted on it, though the paint was wearing off. The crowd of people was thin, considering it was so close to Nightmarket. They could smell the exotic foods from the different stands They opened the door to the shop and saw Sara serving a customer. Sara was about as tall as Alexandra, and had brunette hair with blonde streaks in them, and she was practically as skinny as a stick. The man, on the other hand, had brown hair, and was tall and thin. Alexandra guessed he was about 5’ 11”.
“That’s seven coppers, please. If you tear them up in your drink before you go to bed, you’ll feel much better in the morning. Thank you for coming. Have a good night, now. Come back soon.”
“Thank you, I’m sure you’ll be expecting me very soon,” said the man. He turned around and caught Alexandras’ eye. He smiled at her as he walked towards the door. As he passed Alexandra, they brushed each other’s arms. She gasped and saw a bright light as her eyes glazed over.
As her vision cleared, Alexandra saw herself walking deeper and deeper into Centaur Woods. It was getting dark, but she wanted to find where the noise she had heard earlier came from. She heard something from the tops of the pine trees and looked up. In the faint moonlight she saw a winged figure descending towards her fast, but couldn’t see it clearly. She knew it wanted to do her harm, so she screamed.
“Yes!” it screeched. “Make that wonderful sound, that way it will be more of a pleasure eating you!”
She could smell its rancid, foul breath filling her nose full of the scent of raw flesh and blood. A glint caught the corner of her right eye as flames shot towards the Steelback. The brightness shone on its steel scales and feathers. She could see its twisted face fill with fear as it gave its last bloodcurdling scream and jumped out of the way as its limp body fell to the ground with a thud.
There was a bright light again as Alexandra came back to the present. Everybody was staring at her as her eyes unglazed. She blushed. She hated being the center of attention when it came to getting her visions in public.
Thankfully that was very rare.
“Are you okay?” asked the man. “You look a bit pale.”
Alexandra nodded and lowered her eyes as Sara came around the counter towards her. She could still picture the Steelback's horrid face before it was… She shuddered as a shiver went up her spine.
“Yes, she’s fine. She just…she’s been having these horrible dreams and she is unable to forget them. They’ve been haunting her for weeks,” Sara lied.
“Mmmm. Well, I hope they go away. Good night.” With that, the man turned and went out the door.
“Cadmus!” Sara called to the storeroom in the back, “Alexandra's here with…what’s your name?” asked Sara.
“Oh, uh, Makani, Miss.”
“Hmmm…Makani, eh?” said Cadmus as he came out of the storage room in the back. He was almost six feet tall, slim, with light brown hair and a bit of a green tint to it. His deep green eyes glittered with concern. “I’m almost afraid to go back to the house. Alima is there, isn’t she? I thought so. Well, we’d better get it over with, then.”
