Veiled Innocence (Book One, The Soul Cycle) (12 page)

“Please,” she said,
awkwardly
reaching for his hand. “Do not fear for me. I will be better in no time. You shall see. Ursa said the medicine is st
arting to make me well again. Shh
h. It’s all right.”

Her thumb stroked the back of his hand
,
and his trembling eased.
She always wondered what it would feel like to have a mother do that
for
her.
“Besides,”
she said with a
wry
smile, “it wouldn’t be the first time I found myself in a tough spot, would it?
We w
ouldn’t want to ruin my spotless record.” 

He lifted his head, her attempt at humor lost on him, and t
hough his face was still pained
,
he
now stared in awe at her thumb as it caressed his skin in tiny wisps of movement. Slowly, he raised his eyes to hers and searched them.

Someone cleared their throat behind him, and Gabriel closed his eyes and pulled his hand away, rising as he did. Drenna was standing behind him.

“Pardon me, my L
ady, but these were brought for you just now.”

She set a slender white vase of delicate blue flowers on
Lian’s
bedside table. “It came with a card. Shall I read it to you?”

Lian tried to shake her head
but was immediately stopped by a spasm in her neck. “No,” she said through her teeth. “I can read it.”

Drenna handed over the card, and Lian
thanked her. The girl curtsied
and backed away from the bed, where Gabriel still stood. He was giving the flowers an odd look. 

“Someone is very thoughtful,” he said, sounding disheartened. “I shall leave you
to your card and your gift, my L
ady.” He gave her a quick bow and then hurried out of the room as quickly as Ursa had.

Lian wanted to call after him, to tell him to stay, but her voice was too weak. She felt annoyed at Drenna for interrupting them, that maybe he wouldn’t have left if she hadn’t, but her annoyance was replaced by astonishment when she opened the letter.

It was from her sister.

Dear Lianora,

I am sorry our visit was cut short, and I pray this illness does not last long. I hope you like blue.

Sincerely,

Ana-Elise

Lian carefully turned the letter over in her hands, handling it as if it might shatter and disappear if she crinkled it. Her sister had never given her a present before. 

Mayb
e she had misjudged her sister. M
aybe
her reactions in the Marketplace
were
nothing more than a result of stress over her upcoming wedding. Or perhaps Lian had imagined it all. After all, it had been unbearably hot, and she was ill. 

She brushed her thoughts aside, letting joy fill her up to the point she thought she would burst.
A real present
from Ana-Elise!

In the hallway, several servants
shouted
at each other. The door opened and closed, but she could still see Drenna out of the corner of her eye, nervously wringing her hands in her apron. The page must have left. 

“What’s going on?” Lian’s raspy voice was barely audible. 

Before Drenna could reply, Grehn burst into the room, his graying hair sticking out in puffs along his head. The wrinkles in his brow doubled as he looked around the room. “Did I not send more servants up here?” He removed his spectacles and pinched the bridge of his nose. 

Drenna gulped. “No, sir. Just Jakison and me.”

Grehn groaned and promptly stuck his spectacles back into place. He eyed Lian sharply. “Is she faring well?”

“I – I’m not sure. I suppose so. She just woke up.”

Grehn looked Lian over with a curt nod. “She looks well enough,” he said, looking back at Drenna. “Come, you’re needed in the Grand Foyer.”

Drenna glanced at Lian. “But, what if she… you told me to stay –”

“I don’t care what I said earlier. Heed what I’m saying now!”

“Ye – yes, sir!” Drenn
a
shot Lian an apologetic look as Grehn threw the door open and ushered her out. He followed close behind, slammed the door, and all was quiet again, save for the increasing ruckus in the hallway. 

Lian listened intently. She
absently
fingered her necklace as the hallway quieted, but she could still hear the murmur of a crowd from s
omewhere on the first level
.

After a few minutes passed, it became obvious no one was coming back anytime soon. She made up her mind
,
and
after tucking the pendant in her nightgown, she
gingerly climbed out of bed, nearly crying out in the process. Her curiosity won over her pain, and she tiptoed to the door, gritting her teeth against the protests of her body, and cracked it open. The hallway was empty. 

She
carefully stepped into the hall
and slipped
the door closed behind her. She listened carefully for a few seconds
before picking
a direction. With every step, her body hurt more and more. She bit her tongue so hard she drew blood and wound her hands into her nightgown, squeezing it every time her bones jolted.

The commotion grew louder. She
kneeled
on the balcony and peered through the black iron railing into the foyer. 

A hoard of servants was running around, carrying towels, blankets, and bandages, and in the center of it all stood a girl with messy red hair. She was nicely dressed in a deep green dress that complimented her hair color, but she was covered in dirt and twigs, like she had been dragged through Dreaka’s Forest. She looked young, possibly a few years younger than Lian, and her face flicked about wildly, like
an animal caught in a cage. Lian
squinted. Bruises bloomed along the girl’s neckline and face. One of her eyes was nearly swollen completely shut.  

A strange, prickling sensation ran along Lian’s arms, accompanied by the sense she was being watched. She looked past the red-haired girl and gasped. 

A woman with dark brow
n hair and olive toned skin stared
back at her. Her lithe body was dressed in exquisite gems and a shimmering black gown tha
t accentuated her form. She sat
on a chair whi
le the healer examined her. She too
looked
as if she had endured a beating. H
er skin was bruised along her chest and arms, and Lian thought she saw
a long red gash across her neck
,
but it was hard to tell with the woman’s long hair. Lian’s father and sister were speaking with her. Alastor was also there, with his hand on the small of Ana’s back.

All the while the woman stared at her.
No, wait. Not at her; her gaze wasn’t directed at her eyes.

She’s looking at my necklace.
But how?

Lian subconsciously reached up and placed a hand over the pendant, pressing it into her skin beneath her gown. The woman’s
black eyes made
her
uneasy, and she quickly broke her gaze. They were beautiful
and frightening at
the same time
, like the darkness that had consumed her earlier.

“Darkness comes for you now.”

A chill broke out over her. Could this woman be who the dream meant? Was she there for the necklace?

Lian closed her eyes.
It’s nonsense. Perhaps the medicine is causing me to draw irrational conclusions.
It was only a dream, after all.

A dream that had felt very real.

She suddenly very much wanted to crawl into bed and forgot about everything, at least for a day.
Crawling to the cover of the wall, she
began to rise when a high-pitched voice caught her by surprise. 

“What are you doing out here? You’re supposed to be in your room!”

Lian gasped and stumbled, but a small hand caught her arm and steadied her.  “Ursa,” she croaked. 

Ursa wasted no time and gingerly began leading her down the hall. “You’re too weak to be wandering around on your own,” she gently scolded. “What if you’d passed out?”

Lian smiled wryly
and then grimaced as a
wave of pain hit her. “I didn’t
though, did I? Besides, how else was I supposed to find out what was happening? It seems the whole of Accalia is in our foyer tonight.”

Ursa clucked her tongue. “You and your curiosity. One of these days, it will get the better of you.”

Lian groaned
,
and Ursa adjusted her hold on her arm. “What do you know, Ursa?”

Ursa squeezed her mouth shut. Her lips were so thin already that they almost disappeared completely. “I’m not supposed to speak of it…”

“Even better. You know it will only make me ask more questions, and surely you don’t want to put up with my relentless prodding, do you?”

“I could request to be reassigned to a different part of the fortress.”

“You wouldn’t. I know you too well.” They slowly turned a corner and proceeded down the wing that contained her chambers. “You’d feel guilty and return to me within less than a day.”

Ursa sighed. “I should know better than to argue with you at this point.” She glanced behind her and leaned closer. “The dark-haired woman is Countess Merí, and the red-headed girl is her handmaiden. They were traveling down Dreaka’s Road when bandits descended upon their party and robbed them clean of nearly everything they own. Everyone else was killed, their escorts, the driver… they barely escaped with their lives.”

Lian frowned. “That doesn’t make any sense. Why would the bandits leave them alive and no one else?”

Ursa shrugged. “From what I gather, the bandits thought they were as good as d
ead, and from the looks of them
,
I’m apt to believe them.” She shuddered. “It makes me cold all over to think people like that exist in the world.”

Lian thought of her mother lying helpless beside the bank of a river as her father rode off to rejoin his hunting party, oblivious to what he had done.
No one ever suspected the duke was capable of rape.

“Yes,”
Lian
said flatly, “I’m afraid they do.”

Rumors, Lian.
They are j
ust empty rumors.
Maybe she died of natural causes and not…
She mentally shook the image from her head.

They reached her bedchamber
,
and Ursa led her straight to the bed. Ursa helped her up and was tucking the sheets around her when Lian asked, “Did you see Gabriel down there?”

Ursa froze. “I don’t recall,” she said stiffly. “There were too many people. Why would I care if he’s there or not?”

Lian raised a brow. “All right,” she said slowly. “Sorry, I was only asking.”

Ursa’s shoulders sagged as she finished smoothing the sheets and turned around. “If you require nothing else of me, then I need to return downstairs. There’s m
uch to be done. Good night, my L
ady.” She kep
t her back to Lian as she spoke
and left without a single glance behind her. 

That’s s
trange. She never calls me ‘my L
ady’ when it’s
only
the two of us. Maybe it’s the stress of everything that’s happened lately. She’d tell me if something
was
wrong.

Once again,
she
found herself alone and suddenly very tired. She nestled deeper into the soft sheets and closed her eyes. The weight of the crystal on her chest
coaxed a small smile from her
, reminding her she was never alone, and her confusion over Ursa’s somewhat cold exit faded. 

Nothing mattered anymore. It was all nothing but a dream; the beautiful visi
tor, Orris, Gabriel, her sister – all of it.

She caught tiny points of blue flicking in and out of the shadows from the corner of her eye. Then she drifted off to sleep
with a smile on her lips
and dreamed of dancing in a field of blue flowers.

Red

FOR THE NEXT TWO
days
,
the court buzz
ed
with excitement, both fo
r the impending Engagement Ball
and the mysterious countess.

Servants and staff flitted about with such anxious looks on their faces that Lian was unsure how they managed to accomplish anything at all. 

As she mended, she was able to leave her
chambers
for longer periods of time before feeling faint, and what she saw amazed her.