In that moment, she could feel from his mind that he cared about her, cared for her. She could feel that he wanted to protect her, and that he was worried about Minndi—and what she, Jaklyn—was hiding. He was curious, it was clear, but he was also scared of what it could mean. She could feel that he knew she had never asked to get involved in any of this... He knew that Minndi was having him keep an eye on her because she, too, felt some sort of wariness about what the future would hold for all of them. And somewhere, somewhere she had not checked, he hoped that, even after whatever was meant to play out would play out, he could grow closer to his charge, and that he could keep her away from the life she had lived before.
She felt it all through him, and the experience was jarring. Never before had someone expressed such care for her—even he was merely thinking it—and in a way, it was reassuring. Something about it, perhaps that he was hoping to gain her trust, perhaps that he was thinking further ahead than she had ever allowed herself to, was intriguing and alluring.
Above all, however, it frightened her.
Minndi was less than pleased when Alikos and Jaklyn showed up in her throne room mid-afternoon the following day. Jaklyn felt that she was walking on shaky ground with the number of things she was doing to upset people lately.
"I told you I would send your instructions to you, Phoenix," she proclaimed after he stated he had simply come to ask about his responsibilities.
"I am aware, Minndi. You stated that you'd send them to me over a week ago, and you hadn't responded to any of my notes..."
"So that's why your bird kept flying around incessantly. I see." She sighed. "Well, fine. I suppose I can accommodate you. Meet me in my garden."
"Thank you." Alikos bowed, and Jaklyn followed suit with a curtsy. He strode out, and she followed.
"Clearly, our empress has punctuality problems," he murmured.
Jaklyn nodded. "She was much more accommodating when I first met her," she offered.
"Maybe she's just busy?" He didn’t sound convinced.
"Maybe."
He walked through double doors of glass and down the path into the royal garden.
Jaklyn blinked. The garden had transformed since she had been here last, she thought, or perhaps she missed it considering the event of meeting the empress.
The garden was breathtaking. The afternoon light accentuated the colors. There were many colors, oranges and blues and purples and yellows and reds among green vines and leaves. There were many plants Jaklyn had never seen, from the tiny blue-violet flowers that grew low to the ground to the large orange and black, pointy flowers in trees above her head. She could hear water flowing not too far away, and with a bit of peeking she could see that it was a large white, marble fountain of the fertility goddess. To top it all off, it smelled wonderful; the air was clean, and the plants smelled like dirt and perfumes. Jaklyn was certain she'd never been here before.
From Alikos's expression, he hadn't ever been here before either.
"So you like it, then? I thought it might be too much." Minndi had shown up while they'd been taking in the sight. "Please, I ask that you sit down. I fear I will have to be very businesslike as my time is limited and I have a lot to take care of." They hurried to comply with a glance at one another. The empress was making inconsistency a habit.
"Jaklyn, you are to stay with Alikos until further notice."
"Yes, Minndi." She nodded. "May I ask why?"
"Because I, as empress, have decided such."
Silence.
"Yes, Your Highness." Jaklyn knew she was using the title to antagonize her.
It worked. Minndi's rage was evident as she began. "Alikos is to be your permanent guard until the end of the war. Am I clear?"
"Yes, Your Highness."
"This means, first, that you will be watched constantly to ensure that no harm comes to you. Once things heat up, you may become a target. Of course, we're going to do everything we can to keep you out of the line of fire. We're simply not confident in our ability to do that without a bodyguard."
This was getting ridiculous. Jaklyn weighed the ethics of finding out for sure.
"Second, you are not to return to school until the end of the war. You are also not to return to your home until the end of the war."
Jaklyn was now resolved. She pushed some of her magic toward the empress.
She's too important to the prophecy.
Prophecies. Jaklyn tried to remember what she'd been told about them. She remembered only that there were a lot of them kept in a building somewhere, not all of them were important, and that some of them were vague. She poked further into Minndi's mind. She flowed easily into the related memories in Minndi's mind. They were accessible, close to the forefront of her thoughts.
"What is that building?" a younger Minndi asked a middle-aged guard as they walked through bustling streets. She nodded toward a pale turquoise building.
The guard glared at her, stomping as he walked. "That would be the Records of the Foretold." Minndi tried to look like she knew what he was talking about. She didn't fool him. "They keep written records of prophecies. You can read them and so forth."
"Prophecies aren't always important though, right?"
"They usually aren't. The Records of the Foretold keeps papers on the prophecies that haven't happened yet, and then they get sent to the Records of the Past when they've been fulfilled.
"So let's go." She headed towards it without waiting for approval. He rolled his eyes and followed her into the building. She stared at the shelves surrounding her, trying to decide where to start looking, but she saw no order to the papers that dominated the room.
"We don't have time to look through these now, Minndi."
"I'm just going to look at a few.”
"How many is 'a few'?"
"Make yourself comfortable,” Minndi rolled her eyes in a way that was entirely familiar to Jak.
"This place is unorganized for a reason."
Minndi was already browsing through the shelves and pulling out papers at random. "Other than laziness?"
"Prophecies are rarely useful."
"That is the dumbest thing I've heard in a long time."
"Your parents didn't care about this place because prophecies are pointless. Just look at the ones you pulled."
"'On the seventh day after the commencement, a man will go swimming...' Is there more to this?" she asked, flipping the paper and expecting the answer the guard gave her.
"Probably not. Most of these are about mundane occurrences and, if not, are too vague to make anything out of them."
"Then why don't they separate the important ones?"
"We do," a woman's voice said. She looked out from a stack of papers on a desk Minndi hadn't noticed. "We separate he prophecies based on specifics as much as we can, and the ones that seem more important are on that shelf." She pointed.
The guard rolled his eyes. "You can't know that they're important until after they’re fulfilled, and you don't even know that you know when they've been fulfilled. It's all too vague."
"Do you not put faith in the prophecies?" The woman seemed indignant.
"I put total faith in the prophecies. I don't put faith in people's interpretation of the prophecies."
"So do you suggest we ignore the Great Enlightenment for fear of inadequacy in our interpretation?"
"I suggest the focus be on things we can actually utilize and be sure of instead of wasting time on indistinguishable statements that might not even be important."
"I would like to read them and their interpretations," Minndi interjected, turning towards the woman. "I believe they may be of help." He glared at her, scratched his head, and looked away.
The woman smiled, her face aglow with the interest of the youth. "Anything in particular you'd like to read prophecies about? Love, death... war? I'm guessing you in particular would like something about the battles to come?"
"That sounds good," Minndi replied, raising an eyebrow as the woman grabbed fo
lders off the shelves with a determined expression.
She was muttering to herself. "War... royalty... battles..."
"Ma'am, may I ask your name?" Minndi inquired.
The woman froze and spun around. "Tynna. Tynna, Your Majesty."
"You believe I am the Empress, Tynna?"
"Are you not? I don't believe I'm mistaken. You... I see the resemblance you have to the late rulers."
"Minndi is supposed to be deceased as well."
"This... this prophecy says that the daughter of the rulers will live despite common disbelief. I've been waiting for the evidence of it. You are the evidence, aren't you? I am correct, right?"
Minndi pulled half of her mouth into a side smile. "Yes. You are absolutely correct."
At this, Tynna dropped the entire stack of papers she was holding to get on her knees and bow to Minndi. Minndi went after the papers, stacking them to give back to the Keeper of the Prophecies.
"No, no. I'll get them, it's fine..." Tynna objected. Minndi ignored her and continued, separating them into stacks of interest. She saw that Tynna looked flustered from the corner of her eye, so she shot a smile at her before scanning the papers where she was-on the floor.
"Your Highness, if you'd prefer, I can arrange other accommodations..."
"I'm fine. thank you though."
"Are you sure, Your Majesty? May I find a chair for you, please?"
"No, this is perfect," Minndi muttered, absorbed.
"I would really like to-"
"I am fine, Tynna," she hissed.
"Oh... ok... I'll just leave you then..."
"That would be appreciated. Thank you." The harshness hadn't left her voice. Tynna looked afraid as she walked away, bumping into a bookshelf on the path back to her desk.
"Ergh," Minndi grumbled, submerging herself back into the prophecies.
"Aha!" she exclaimed over her stack after some time. "This is it."
The guard glared at her again, his arms crossed. “What ridiculous interpretation have you found now?"
"This one: '…and the life of they who have been slighted by the new leader will rise to change the course of the conflict."
"That is incredibly ambiguous."
"But don't you see? It makes perfect sense. Look at it. 'The new leader,' 'the conflict'... it's this situation. I will be the new leader, and this war is the conflict..." Minndi’s excitement flowed through the scene, jolting Jak as she watched it.
"And the one you offend will be the one who affects the course of the fight. Because they will be one of the key people involved in the fight. Why are we even having this discussion?" The guard raised his eyebrows as he spoke, never uncrossing his arms.
"Because this prophecy could be my key to learning how to win the war."
"You are delusional."
"But it makes sense!"
"So does 'Two people have an argument, and one of them changes the way it's resolved.'"
"This wouldn't be the first time someone disregarded a prophecy that turned out to be important,” Minndi retorted.
He clearly wasn’t having it. “This also wouldn't be the first time someone got really excited over a prophecy that turned out to mean nothing.”
The conversation continued on. It grew quieter, though they did not whisper... quieter as if they were further and further away...
And then the scene faded out, and Jaklyn once again sat at a garden table, surrounded by colors and scents, and being watched by a Tyikian soldier and a red-haired empress.
Chapter 7
"Jaklyn?" Minndi was the first to speak. "Did you hear any of that at all?"
Jaklyn blinked. "No, I didn't... I blanked out for awhile there. I'm sorry."
Minndi rolled her eyes. "It's really too much to ask that you people pay attention, isn't it?"
"I'm sorry."
"Of course you are. Look, I don't have time to rehash it all for you, because I've actually got shit to do today. I can't afford to just 'blank out.' Have your guard fill you in. You can stay here for awhile if you want. I trust my servants will attend to you if you have need. Good day." She stood and glided out of the garden, leaving Jaklyn to watch after her in surprise.
"Jaklyn, your mouth's hanging open," Alikos mentioned. She moved to shut it, soliciting a chuckle from the soldier.
"Sorry, Alikos. I should've tried to pay more attention."
"Nah, it's fine. She wasn't very interesting to begin with. She was also being bitchy through a good portion of it. You didn't miss anything worth seeing."
She smiled in thanks. "So, what should I know?"
"At what point did you lose interest?"
"When she told me that school and my home are forbidden..."
"Ah. Well, she also wants you not to tell anyone anything you’re told about the war, assuming you are ever told anything. And, then, um..." His expression filled with silent laughter. "You're to have no romantic relations with your guard."
Jaklyn's initial reaction was to burst into laughter. Her attempts to stifle it failed, and a few giggles escaped through her nose.
"If you break any of the rules, it's treason."
"Think I can manage?"
"I think so. You're very talented."
"If you say so." She frowned. "What's that?" Alikos was picking up a scroll and standing to leave.
"It's just the specific terms of the agreement," he said dismissively. Jaklyn pushed just enough of her magic toward him to know that he was hiding something from her.
"What else is there to do, then?"
"Wait out the war, I guess."
She sighed. "Fantastic."
"Hey, Lyn?"
"Yes, Alikos?"
"You know everything's going to be okay, right?"
"Yeah, I know." No, no I don't.
Eventually, Alikos received a message from the center of the city.
Opening it, a blank look spread over his face. "Minndi wants us to go to the palace."
"Does she?" Jaklyn sighed. The less she had to talk to Minndi the better.
"Yes. So we're going to go in a few minutes.
"Just for a small meeting with her, right? So I don't need to wear anything special."
"No, you don't." Though that green dress would look fantastic on you...
She raised an eyebrow. Alikos just looked confused.
"Any idea what this meeting is about?"
"Something about a rebellion, I think. She wasn't explicit in her letter."
"Oh."
The conversation was painful. Jaklyn finished her food and wiped her plate before taking her leave to her room. She needed to be alone so that she could think without the temptation of someone else's thoughts. She was battling a part of her mind that was doing its best to convince her that Alikos had an interest that was not only further than the guardianship they had assigned him, but, according to Minndi's guidelines surrounding this relationship, downright traitorous.
A knock on the door brought her back to reality.
"Jaklyn, time to go,” Alikos prompted her.
She shook her head at her thoughts. "Alright. Coming."
Alikos tried to maintain his usual composure on the journey to the center of the city. Jaklyn wasn't sure whether he was doing a superb job or even whether it was a ploy at all; her own reaction to the recent events very well may have been coloring her interpretation of Alikos's actions more than anything. She was unwilling to intrude on his thoughts again to find out. She was afraid of what else she might hear if she did so.
All she heard on the way to the palace were her own thoughts. She kept her magic firmly in place, and between concentrating on that and her reverie, she couldn't even notice the noise other people made-much less the noise their own footsteps made-until they were within the palace gates and were being escorted to Her Highness.
"What's going on?" Alikos asked, the first words Jaklyn actually heard since leaving the Phoenix estate that day.
Minndi narrowed her eyes at him, somehow re
flecting the sky even while they were indoors. She shifted her attention to Jaklyn. "Sit down, both of you. One of my sources has informed me that the rebellion is planning an attack against the palace, probably within the next week. I do not believe you will be targeted quite yet." With this last statement, she nodded to Jaklyn. “I’m stationing at least a couple more soldiers near the Phoenix estate during the battle in precaution.
Alikos nodded. Jaklyn stared.
"Could someone please, please explain to me what's going on? I realize you're both doing your best to keep me as in the dark as possible, but I'm confused."
Alikos gaped, then grinned in approval. Minndi appeared as if she wanted to throw a fit but was too stressed to spare the time. As if speaking to a child, she began.
"A long time ago, a man named Diveldo started rebellions in the name of 'democracy.' It basically means that the people in the country get to decide who rules over that country and help to form new laws and stuff. The issue is that Diveldo didn't actually want a democracy, but was using the message to get himself on the throne so that he could steal the power from my parents. He threatened them, took me captive... all kinds of horrible things. My parents became worried for my safety and sent me away. During that time minor rebellions began taking place. Most were easily stopped, but then my parents were murdered. They found three bodies and assumed the third one was me.
"Arro, a friend of my parents', knew where they had sent me and came to get me. Not everyone believed me when I told them who I was and I had to prove my identity." She fingered her necklace, lost in a memory. "I got enough people to believe me that I got back into the palace, but I had to release and replace almost all the servants because I didn't know who had killed my parents. Diveldo is now dead, but he left enough of an imprint on the populace that they've continued the rebellion that he started."
Jaklyn noticed the abundance of holes in the story. Minndi hadn't mentioned the shabby room with weird objects in it that came up in her mind, nor had she mentioned how she had had to steal from people when first reaching the city. Jaklyn pondered these images.
"Where did your parents send you to hide?" she asked.
The Traitor of Tyiku Page 6