Leal rose from his chair. Behind him, he heard the rustling of the Queen"s skirts as she did the same, though she had no need to. He could almost feel the hard look she threw on the side of his head before she called, "Enter."The door was pushed open and, in quick strides, Hilde went in. She spared a flick of the eyes to the extra person she must not have expected to also find in the room – there were no Royal Guards outside, he knew, and at any other time, that would have signaled to everyone that the Queen wished for solitude.
She had taken three more strides before Leal"s ident.i.ty registered, making her stop in her tracks and train her full attention on him. Not holding anything back, she barked, "Out!"
"Hilde!" her elder sister barked in return. Never mind that Queen Heloise had just spent the better part of their conversation wis.h.i.+ng Leal dead, oh no – for the Princess to disrespect their guest in such a way, the upstanding monarch would of course not tolerate it.
But the Queen could not have known, the unexpected presence of Hilde alone delighted the said guest. What did it matter that the expression on her face, which was made especially vibrant by exertion and strong emotions, was overflowing with naked hatred for him? Even if she"d come with a killing intent, Leal was somehow certain he"d still welcome it.
Before Hilde could get her court manners back into place and the Queen, attempt to smoothen the situation, the Prince caught the sisters off-guard by chuckling.
"With the Queen"s leave," he said, glancing at the elder of the women. He didn"t even attempt to wipe the humor from his mouth. Even though he knew how easy it was to misinterpret his reaction, what could he do? Just then, he could not keep his true emotions in check either. "If that is your wish, Princess," Leal continued, addressing the younger woman this time as he bowed from the waist without taking his eyes off her face. He therefore saw the full transition of her expression from contempt to indifference. It made his own expression lose its sharpness, his voice to become more measured. "I would not dream to disobey."
"And if I asked you to stay?" Queen Heloise interjected coolly.
The young man stifled a sigh. How could he forget – he was still in the dragon"s den, and it was one of her treasures that had just walked in.
He turned his significantly-less enthusiastic smile to the Queen. "Then I would think it is lucky I am still awake."
It was Hilde"s turn to cut in. "Such a practiced flatterer," she said. From how appreciative she sounded, Leal would have believed she was being sincere if the past sixty or so seconds had not happened. "A true Prince, I dare say."
"Ah…" said her sister. "I had wondered – so you already knew." She tilted her head slightly in the direction of the entrance. "But you might have closed the door first."
The younger people turned to find Nadia peeking into the room. The attendant"s eyes widened, then she hastily disappeared from sight. They heard her pattering feet echoing farther down the empty corridor. Before long, it fully subsided.
"Between a rock and a hard place," Leal mused in resignation, turning to the Queen. "And after I free myself, there will be hyenas and vultures waiting outside."
"Queen Heloise, I must ask you to excuse me," he said with all formality.
The older woman nodded. "I shall soon arrange for… further accommodations, for your countrymen and for yourself. I a.s.sume you will not be quick to return home after today?"
Understanding the cloaked message in the Queen"s words, Leal felt some of the heaviness in his chest dissipate. He took pains not to show that his hope had rekindled, and he certainly gave no indication that its subject stood just a few paces away.
"We will be glad to stay for as long as you"ll have us, Queen." He gave her a parting bow before finally turning once again to the young woman who was still rooted behind him. It shocked him to find that though she remained to look indifferent, her pallor had once again become pale, almost deathly so.
"She keeps pus.h.i.+ng herself!" he thought, quite incensed, but he stopped it from showing out of necessity. "In a bed is where she should be – what madness—"
Leal interrupted himself. He was in danger of becoming so worked up, he might just grab Hilde and transport her to the nearest bed he could find.
Because of everything he was holding in, although he sought for calmness, he could well imagine how his eyes were blazing after he straightened from a second parting bow for the Princess. To his confusion and chagrin, seeing his expression caused her to pale even more.
Almost of its own volition, his foot took one step forward, as if his body knew before his mind did that he needed to leave that room. At the same time, Hilde stepped clear of the way he must take to reach the door, using that as an excuse to hide her face. Even as he continued to watch her from the corner of his eye, he could no longer see what expression she wore. Therefore, up until he got to the door and pulled it close after him, he could glean no answers as to why she reacted the way she did.
But if he had to guess…
As quickly as his hope had kindled earlier, it died. Since the incident at the village inn, Leal had known how Hilde thought of and felt about him. She"d made no secret of it, and back then, he had seen no reason to change her perceptions.
He had only sought to be honest; still, that was extremely foolish of him. One can never know where stray moments and chance encounters might lead. He should have given each that arrive equal importance.
Despite his regret, he believed he could overcome her hate and prejudice towards him. It would not be easy; he fully expected it to take a long time, years even. But patience was one of his best virtues. He was prepared to work hard and wait.
If, however, it was as he suspected and she actually feared him for whatever reason… would he be capable of forcing his company on her despite it?
"Teasing her was one thing," Leal mused, his mood as shadowed as the windowless corridor he was tracing to reach the throne room. "Winning her will be another. But to knowingly make her suffer to fulfill my desires…" Leal frowned. "Some man that would make me."
He had little clue as to what kind of character Lothar had. He was a genius swordsman – that"s all Leal and others like him needed to know. He would have scoffed some days ago: why would anyone care what kind of man the insufferably talented b.a.s.t.a.r.d was? Devil or saint, he"d still be equally hated and venerated.
Now, Leal badly wanted to know who Lothar was. While Hilde did speak of him earlier, all Leal could guess from it was that he was a doting master to his precocious student. And why wouldn"t he be?
He shook his head clear of unproductive thoughts. What he first needed to do was to confirm whether or not Hilde feared him, and if so, to try and find out why.
He decided to worry about what to do next after solving certain other puzzles, ones he humorlessly dubbed "A King"s Well-Laid and Potentially-Inflexible Plans" and "A Queen"s Costly and Potentially-Fickle Approval."
And here he"d been thinking that there was nothing to his father"s mission – all he had to do was go through with it and emerge at the end in one piece. Now there"s a whole mountain range in Leal"s way that seemingly sprung out of nowhere.
"Old man, what were you really thinking?"
"Psst!"
Leal stopped walking, all his senses on full alert. His sword hand automatically reached for his weapon before he could recall it"d been taken for "safekeeping" earlier. He fought down his frustration at that. He could not afford for his attention to be any more divided. It had already cost him this situation of being sneaked up on – that hadn"t happened to him in years.
From a secret pocket on the inside of his coat, he drew out a small, slim blade before turning precisely to where the call had come from, around the corner of an intersection he just pa.s.sed, which was still quite near the Queen"s private study.
It was good that the foot traffic along these parts was practically nonexistent at the moment. There"s a chance he hadn"t at all been careless at continuously scanning his surroundings; there"s a chance the other person was simply more skilled at basic spycraft than he was.
Keeping his back to the wall, he approached the hardwood door to what might be a sitting room, based on what he could make out past the slightly ajar doorway. When he was close enough to push the door completely open were he so inclined, he saw a familiar face peek in from the other side, reminiscent of the way it had done earlier in the Queen"s private study.
Leal nearly choked on the curse he just managed not to utter as he stared coldly at Princess Hilde"s attendant.
"So…" Leal thought. "She"d choose not to spread my secret – not yet, at least."
With mounting distaste, Leal suspected he knew the reason she"d opt to stay silent. The pink and frilly interior of the room the female attendant had chosen contributed to the conclusion he reached.
He made to step back and walk away, strangely disappointed that even in Arnica, he"d meet with the same behaviors he had to contend with back in the Lysean court, nearly on a daily basis. Having been subjected to such provocations even before he"d reached his teens, he quickly became disillusioned of the opposite s.e.x and their treacherous charms.
Leal had been staunchly of the belief that not one of them could ever move him, not even the bloom that was hailed to be the most beautiful in this land, whom he was supposed to pay court to.
Little did he suspect that it would be the tantalizing blend of contempt, disregard, and closely aligned interests that would clobber him out cold. It had to be those three, he was certain, as well as a sprinkling of other elements he couldn"t yet define. Anything less would have flown right over his head.
Much like that dart did, which he heard whoos.h.i.+ng from behind him just in time to get his earlobe out of its path. The tip embedded on the corridor wall before him, right at his eye level.
He did not even attempt to counterattack. He"d already lost.
"Would the careless Prince down yonder step in here please?" said King Madelon"s Arnican spy, who was supposed to be in Princess Hilde"s employ. Apparently not.
Huffing and already despairing over the fact that he will never hear the end of it back home, Leal went.