This is the third in a series and I hope that it's better than the first two mini-chapters. I still need to work on revising the second, but I'll get to it as soon as possible. Enjoy!
Serenity opened her eyes to the brilliance of the room, her head throbbing as a sudden pain jolted through her body. Suddenly her sister’s face filled her vision, Melody’s eyes full gazing at her with worry. Serenity gradually sat up and let out a cry out agony.
“Be careful, Serenity! You fell pretty hard…” Melody said softly, supporting her sister's back as Serenity moved to lean against the headboard of the bed. Serenity rubbed her head and winced in pain.
“What happened?” she asked, looking around the room she was in. The castle entrance was now gone and instead a quaint, little bedroom was surrounding her. The bed she was lying on was by the door, while dressers sat opposite. No other furnishings filled the room except for a painting of the queen,
who entered at just that moment.
“How is your sister?” Queen Amylia asked Melody worriedly. She walked over to the bed, gazing at Serenity with curious eyes.
“I think she’ll be okay, but I wish we had some medical help for her… Your physicians here aren’t very helpful,” Melody replied. “Bloodletting won’t help with fainting.”
Serenity paled at these words, though she was confused on the subject. “What happened?” she repeated, staring at her sister with a pleading look.
“We were standing in the entrance and you suddenly fell to the ground,” Melody explained. “You hit your head pretty hard and let out the loudest scream I’ve ever heard. You’ve been out for about a day…”
Serenity’s eyes widened as she realized what had happened. She had been out for a day? And evidently the doctor’s in the time period still had a few things to learn. “Um… You didn’t let them… you know…”
Melody smiled, the beginning of a teasing sentence on the tip of her tongue, but stopped when she
realized the queen was still present. “Of course not, Serenity. I didn’t let them get near you.”
Amylia smiled and nodded. “It’s true, young lady. Your sister was quite ferocious to the doctors. I fear they may not return because of her…” She let the sentence trail off as she searched for the right word.
“Attitude?” Serenity giggled. “Yeah, she can have that.”
“Attitude?” the queen asked, a bit confused. Sighing and shaking her head, she put her hand on the edge of the bed. “I forget you are from far away. Your customs are still a bit strange to me.”
Melody smiled and sat down on a bench she had brought in the night before to sit by her sister as she slept. “Yours are a very strange custom, too, m'lady. We’re still becoming accustomed to them. Excuse us for any lapse in manner.”
Serenity quieted her laughter and watched as her sister began talking with the queen. The two seemed to have grown close in Serenity’s one day of blackout, her dreamless sleep, though a haunting feeling sent shivers down her spine.
A large crashing sound broke Serenity out of her reverie and the woman and the two girls quickly exited the room to discover the cause of the noise. Serenity followed slowly behind, her headache causing her to stumble the entire way. At the end of the hall a suit of arm lay scattered across the floor, a man entangled in the silver metal. He stared up at the girls in embarrassment, a blush quickly filling his cheeks as he noticed the queen standing above him with an amused look on her face. He quickly removed himself from the debris and dusted himself off. Bowing deeply to the queen and her companions, he murmured a greeting and righted himself.
Serenity, catching a glimpse of the man’s face, gasped. It was the man whom she had seen before, at the ball, the last thing she remembered. He looked at her and smiled, and she was filled with an unnatural dread. What could be making her feel such a thing?
“Did you decide to try on the armor, Sir Devin?” the queen asked, a smile on her face.
“I thought I saw a rat enter the suit, m’lady…” he replied, his cheeks now as red as his hair.
The queen chuckled and nodded. “I suppose that a reasonable excuse, though I believe you could have avoided making such a commotion.
A flash of glinting metal flew through the air towards the queen, catching the attention of all four people. Serenity moved to block the object, but Melody had beat her it. She called upon the stone wall of the hallway to move, positioning it just in front of Amylia. A second later the flying object hit the stones and the sound of shattering filled the air. After the stone wall had returned to its original position, the four looked down to see a pile of silver metal lying on the ground. On the top lay a brown hilt, the remains of what had once been a murderous knife.
