“Get the door-”
A sound of a weighty slab of oak being slammed and a bar slipped into place followed, shutting out the rumbling of thunder and rattling of rain, and awakening me.
I must have been more worn than I had realized, to fall asleep on a galloping horse. Raphael was bearing me into a room of an unidentifiable construct, with matted walls of marbled gray stone, hung over by woven green grasses.
The lights were warm, and their crystal cases hid whether they were flickering candles or electricity. There were shields hung on the walls, of silver and an unidentifiable rosy copper metal. They were marked with a graven star over waves. Some had a great bird, swan-like, only its heart bled, and was colored by enamel, and the waves were colored blue. I stared at them as we passed, until I woke up enough to realize I ought to be walking myself, and felt guilty for having been so tired.
Raphael, however, didn’t listen when I gently pushed against his shoulder to be set down, and he carried me into another room. There were sofas here, and a bedroom beyond. All the windows were covered by wooden doors, coppered over, and bolted. Raphael deposited me upon the sofa farthest from the windows.
“Poor little one,” he said, seeing that I was only worse off at every lack of explanation. “You’ve had a day. We’ve reached one of our woodland garrisons, Tower Amarta. We’ll spend the night and go on to home tomorrow. Don’t worry, we’ll soon know about your family.”
“Do you think they’re alright?”
He paused, resting his hands on his knees, studying my face.
“They should be, Thérèse. Many strangers wash up on the shores, so we have patrols that run across the coastlands as often as may be.”
Raphael arose as Rolf entered the parlor, the latter shaking water from his hair with his fingers. He cast his cloak on the windowsill to dry.
“Nice job staying dry,” Raphael said lightly.
“Yes, it was an excellent job, considering I had to run across the yard twice. Nice job not waking her up,” and Rolf smiled at me. “Mother’s having dinner sent in. You’ll need to eat, Thérèse.”
I shook my head. I could feel the usual chill setting in, until my stomach felt like I’d swallowed ice.
“I feel sick,” I muttered, looking away. “I don’t think I can try.”
The aforementioned dinner arrived at that moment, brought by one guard, who set down the tray of bread, cheese, dried fruits, and tea, before departing.
Raphael glanced at it and looked back to me.
“Do me a favor. . . please try, at least a little. Your family would want you to, and it will help you more than to skip it. We won’t force you, but I wish you would.”
I half-wished he hadn’t used the same tone my mother used to, which I could never resist. I took the tea and fruit he asked of me.
“You and your being able to convince people,” Rolf laughed, pausing from restlessly drumming on the windowsill. “How do you do it, Raph’?”
“Oh, I don’t know – perhaps to make up for the fact that you’re never particularly persuasive.”
“Hey, watch it,” Rolf said, and smacked Raphael with a pillow from the other sofa. Raphael batted it away, and dodged a second which came flying past, forcing me to duck, and crashed into the wall behind me.
“What terrible aim!” Raphael threw it back onto the sofa.
“If you stood still-” Rolf exclaimed, and threw another.
“Hey, watch the tea-!” Raphael bounced out of the way, redirecting the miscreant pillow that had threatened to dump the tea over us both. “Rolf, you nearly burned Thérèse.”
Mirala appeared that moment, giving the boys a remonstrating glance. Rolf restored the pillows to the sofa.
Mirala was accompanied by a soldier, garbed in the olive, ochre, and russet of the forest, with a branching aspen and star marked on his jerkin.
“The northern road was scouted and gate-marked this morning,” the man was saying. “That should keep any suchides off it for a day or two. Your party will be safe to travel onwards on the morrow, Lady Castellis, providing this storm gives up.”
Mirala waved him to take a seat near the covered window, while she drew the restless Rolf onto the previously de-pillowed sofa.
“You have my thanks, Captain. These storms are sporadic at best, and don’t usually last for too long.” She looked to me, aside, and introduced the man as Captain Almèr.
The captain nodded briefly to me.
“Maybe so, but Typhon grows more mad by the day,” Almèr muttered, flicking his fingers against the barring of the windows. “It’s of good fortune that we strengthened the walls and tower, or the storm might be dealing us great damage.”
At this rate my lack of knowledge would soon exceed anything I actually knew, and might as well have numbered the same as the crashing raindrops outside. The tension was making my head and neck ache. I pressed my hand against my forehead for a minute, until the boys looked my way, and I hastily dropped it.
Well, the questions had to be asked, one at a time.
“What is Typhon?”
One question down, probably in the wrong order. But who ever thought of the right order, when their brain might as well have been a mess of scrambled eggs, for all the sense it made.
Almèr stared at me, perhaps realizing for the first time that I was an outsider. He glanced inquiringly at Mirala, who hesitated while the boys held a strained silence. Sensing that it might be best for him to leave us alone, Almèr quietly took his leave.
“That’s a better question for another time, love,” Mirala said gently.
I looked from her to Raphael, who seemed to sympathize.
“Why aren’t you telling me? I’m so confused I don’t know if there’s something wrong with me, won’t anybody explain anything?”
It was beginning to feel like a high fever, or insanity, and that was hardly pleasant, to say the least.
Raphael looked at me tenderly. “Forgive us for letting you suffer, Thérèse. We were in a haste, and in honesty, some things may be better to know when you’ve rested. Typhon is a. . . creature, who has antagonized our kingdom over the past century. He breeds the suchides, such as the one which tried to harm you this morning.”
And there came more questions, again, why was I not surprised?
“Why?”