by Lisa Daniels
The young woman began her regular chores as the people around her talked. She soon realized that she had missed some excitement during her absence, so Noely listened as several of the kitchen staff began talking about the news from the night before, their disappointment in her dull story already forgotten.
“I heard that they caught the bastard and killed him on the spot,” Jasper murmured.
Keisha slapped his arm. “Don’t be stupid. They wouldn’t kill a spy on sight. They would bring him back so that we could all watch the bastard get what he deserves. Oh, I hope that they did catch him and that we get to watch him get a public execution. That would be the best possible way to resolve the terrible string of luck we’ve had in the war.”
There were murmurs of agreement to the last statement. Noely tried not to listen to the talk because most of the time it devolved into rather unsavory conversation that didn’t amount to anything. She did have a few polite conversations with some of the older kitchen staff. They were generally kind and had interesting information to discuss, but she had to be careful not to get too close otherwise they would try to play matchmaker with her.
The rest of the morning was uneventful as she finished up preparing a late breakfast for the late risers of the royal family. It was only after the head of the kitchen told her to go on break that Noely realized that she had completely forgotten to eat that morning.
A cheerful voice hailed her as she moved to the staff’s dining area. “If it isn’t my little Noely, back from a night romping about in the woods.”
The young woman turned and could not fight the wide grin that passed over her face as her friend Jaylon caught up with her. The young man was handsome, as always, in his servant’s attire. His grayish hair flowed and waved around his face, accenting his almost lavender colored eyes. Jaylon was her height and thinner than Noely, and she also knew that he was much prettier than her, which may have been why she preferred his company when she had to go into town. Compared to him, she looked rather plain in her kitchen garb. He threw his arms around her and lifted her off the floor in a tight hug before she could protest. Laughing, Noely tried to push him away so that he would drop her. As soon as her feet were on the ground, the young woman put her hands on her hips. “I thought you weren’t talking to me.”
“Once I heard you had gone off to die in the woods, I realized how unbelievably silly I was being. After a full night of trying to imagine a life without you in it, I saw the errors of my ways.” He put an arm around her shoulders and steered her towards the food. “Now all I want to do is take care of my darling little girl to make it up to her.” He led her over to a seat and forced her to sit down. Her stomach growled as her friend stopped talking. With a hearty laugh, he got up. “It looks like I should start by making sure you get something to eat. I swear I don’t know what you would do without me.”
Noely smiled up at him. “I am certain I would be even more of a wreck than I am now if I didn’t have you to keep me on the straight and narrow.”
The pair chatted as they usually did while she ate the food he gave her. Jaylon sat back down and put his chin on his hands as he watched her. “I want to hear all about your excursion outside the walls. How I envy you that you can think of doing that without any fear. But for now, I think that I probably have the more interesting story to tell.” He gave her a grin as she tilted her head to the side. A bit of food dribbled down her mouth as she was about to ask him why. Looking at her, Jaylon reached out with a napkin and wiped it away. “Salivating to hear the story. Well, it is a good one. I was waiting on Lord Grimsly last night when one of those fine men in uniform came bustling into the room.”
Noely smiled, “I don’t think that I would describe soldiers as bustling.”
“Hush, love. You are going to make me lose my place. Anyway, it was that fine, strapping young man, Captain Hisa. He’s moving up the ranks very quickly, and from what I can tell, it’s all because of his skill. Not three years in the military and yet he’s really got it down. Apparently, his unit had tracked a spy near the outskirts of Siccenna last week.”
“Siccenna!” Noely nearly dropped her food. “That’s only a couple of days from here. I thought that Hisa was still out near the front lines.”
“I know. That’s why I was so pleased when he came dashing in. But the news was grim. They lost the man when he took off a few nights ago. They chased him into a swamp, but they lost him – and this is the terrifying part – when they were attacked by some large serpent. The monster badly injured a couple of the men, but fortunately it didn’t manage to kill anyone. To hear Captain Hisa talk about it, I feel certain that he downplayed the size and ferocity of the creature. Surely it was his own prowess that got his men through such an impossible ordeal.” The man sat back and watched his friend, whose eyes were open wide. “You will never guess where that happened.”
Noely knew better than to try to guess. Shaking her head, the young woman waited for him to finish.
“On the other side of the woods where you were last night. So once I learned that you still hadn’t come back this morning, I was certain that you had met with an untimely end, and I’ve been devastated ever since. Promise me,” he leaned forward and took her hands in his, “that you won’t do anything like that again.” The smile was gone as he looked at her in earnest.
Noely pulled her hands away from him. “You know that I cannot make that promise.”
The man threw his hands up and rolled his eyes at the ceiling. “And who is going to benefit from you getting killed out there? I know you want to save anyone and everyone you meet, but you can’t do that if you are dead. Try to have some sense of self-preservation.”
“There was no point where I was in any danger yesterday.”
“You wouldn’t admit it even if you had been.” Jaylon narrowed his eyes at her. “I swear the next time you go dashing off into the woods on your own, I’m going to follow you. And that will mean I get killed, and then you will have to live with the knowledge that you caused my death. You will have to live with that knowledge for the rest of your life.”
“Jaylon,” Noely rested her hands in front of her, “we both know that is a hollow threat.”
“No, it isn’t.” It was one of the few times she had seen the man be serious. “You know how I feel about you. I’ve lost my entire family, so you are the closest thing I have now.”
Noely gave him a look. “You have a lot of friends and some day you are going to find someone who will accept you for who you are.”
“Now don’t you go making it sound like I’m one of your charity cases. I know that you care about me, too. I am as much your brother as you are my sister, and trying to deny that makes about as much sense as running off into the woods knowing that there is a horde of chimera out there waiting for you. No. I will not let you downplay this, Noely. Not this.”
“Are you still upset that I won’t even consider dating the latest guy you found for me?”
Jaylon shook his head, “That is not what this is about.” He took her hand and held it so that she could not pull away. The young man’s voice was low as he looked into her eyes, “I really care about you, and the thought of something happening to you kills me. Something is going to happen, and I need to know that you will be protected. Promise me.” A couple of years ago Noely would have been unable to speak looking into Jaylon’s eyes. They were the color of the first lilies in spring and they nearly glowed in his tanned skin. Up until recently, they had been the prettiest eyes she had ever seen.
Noely squeezed his hands, “You know that I am not going to do that.”
“You always say that, but you will never tell me why.” Jaylon looked hurt for the millionth time as he tried to make her feel guilty about keeping her secrets.
“Jaylon, if you really want to know, I will tell you later tonight. But right now,” she pulled away quickly as she stood up, “we are at work and I need to get back to it. I can’t imagine that Gaige is too happy about his serv
ant running off either.”
Jaylon waved a hand as he stood up. “As I said, I’ve been helping Lord Grimsly, so Gaige won’t even notice my absence.”
Noely started to leave the room as his voice caught her attention, “And don’t think that I’m going to forget your promise.”
Noely turned to look at her friend. “Name the time and the place and we can talk. Although,” she bit her lip, “I would prefer to be somewhere private when we talk.”
The man nodded, “I will come get you from the kitchens as soon as your shift is over.”
“Don’t be absurd. I can’t go out in public straight from the kitchens. I’ll need to at least go home and get cleaned up after work.”
“I know, and your place will be plenty private enough.”
Noely smiled as she tried not to laugh. “Alright, but I may need to relax a little before I get too far into my story.”
“Then we will plan to return to your place after I take you out on the town. No, you aren’t allowed to deny me this. You turned down a great guy and then worried me nearly to death. I insist on taking you out and having some fun, if for no other reason than to give you a proper apology for getting so upset with you.”
Knowing that she was beat, Noely finally acquiesced. “Alright, I will go out with you tonight, and then we can talk back at my place. We can pick up some of your belongings and you can have my spare bed if you like.”
The man raised an eyebrow at her. “You think it will take that long?”
“It’s time I tell you about Augustin and how he came to be my guardian.”
Jaylon playfully stomped his foot. “You did that on purpose, you little minx.” With a dramatic sigh, he walked over to her. “I swear you do these things just to make it difficult for me to get any of my own work done. You are going to be the death of me if I’m not careful.”
Noely patted her friend on the shoulder. “I would die first. You know that.”
“I do know that you would try to make sure it happened that way. And that is precisely what worries me.” Jaylon rumpled her hair and took off in the opposite direction.
With a whimsical smile, Noely watched her friend leave. He was the only person in her life that actually cared about her. If things had only been a little different, if their heritages had not been so similar, Noely felt that she may have even found that she could have loved Jaylon. Not that he had ever taken an interest in her himself, so it had never been an issue. Of course she was concerned that once he learned about her past, the young man would be upset, not because of what she was, but because she had never told him. Jaylon was already incredibly protective of her in his own way, and she was afraid of what would happen once he had the full story. Most people would shun her, but Jaylon would probably try to become a permanent fixture at her side. He was incredibly sweet, and he deserved so much better than life had given him, yet the young man never complained in earnest about his own life.
As soon as Jaylon was gone, Noely’s mind went back to Cyprian. The memory stung, and as she returned to work, the young woman wondered if she should tell her friend about the encounter. It was hard to tell if he would be elated or upset by the story. One thing was certain – he would take it as a sign that she was now ready to have someone in her life. She pondered this for a while as she began kneading dough, but her mind soon forgot everything except for a pair of brilliant blue eyes.
Chapter 5
Words of Wisdom from a Passing Stranger
The day passed by much faster than usual as Noely began to look at her world in a different light. Except for Jaylon, everything appeared different when she looked at the world with a more critical eye. Things that she had not noticed before now seemed blatantly obvious when she spent less time talking without thinking.
The first thing that she noticed was how much time they spent worrying about things that didn’t matter. By the end of the day, it was all she could do to keep quiet, to not point out that there was a war happening, a plague taking hundreds of lives every day in the country to their south, and strange reports trickling in from port cities about a monster ravaging the small continent of Tepee Sialk. Even here in the city, there was a mysterious illness that was affecting children. Thankfully, a few tonics were working to counteract the problem in many cases, but no one knew what was causing the illness. All of these were real threats, things that mattered, yet the people around the young woman focused on small things of no consequence.
As a result of this revelation, Noely felt a greater obligation to do more. A single encounter had given her an entirely new outlook on her life, and though she had heard shifters express similar feelings as Cyprian had – a near complete cynicism of humanity – Noely found that she could understand why. Humans had the shortest lifespans of all the humanoids. Instead of making the most of it, they seemed to act only slightly better than the beasts that they tried to tame. When they could band together, humans chose to divide themselves, and the worst of them tried to use the misfortunes of others to their advantage. It was entirely counterproductive. The more she noticed, the less Noely talked. A couple of people noticed that she was a bit quieter than usual, but with a quick lie about being tired after being out in the woods the day before, they began to talk about all of the little things that bothered them.
Whenever she felt like butting into conversations and pointing out how fortunate people were, Noely would take a deep breath and immediately a pair of startling blue eyes made her feel better. If someone like Cyprian could work through his repugnance of humans enough to spare them, surely she could put up with their idle chatter and try to help them rethink life a little at a time. She knew enough about the people in the city to know that trying to change their perspective all at once would only backfire.
Noely was finishing the last bit of work as her mind proceeded through her conversation with Cyprian for the 100th time that day. Her eyes were on the fire as she thoughtlessly asked the question on her mind, “But how do you create a strategic avalanche?”
A noise behind her startled the young woman, and she turned to see Captain Hisa choking on a small pastry.
“Captain!” She rushed over, whisking a small glass of wine from the table. She handed it to him and he drank.
As soon as he caught his breath, the man looked at her. His eyes reddish and watery, he managed to ask, “What did you say?”
“Oh, um,” Noely’s mind raced through what she had been thinking about, trying to figure out what thought she had spoken out loud. Silently cursing herself for having allowed talking without thinking, Noely tried to determine just what to say. Praying that she had figured it out, she took the wine from him, hoping that she could distract him from the question. “Are you all better?”
“I’m fine, thank you, Noely. But what did you say?” His black eyes were very focused as he looked at her expectantly.
“I just heard the strangest rumor today. It was beyond ridiculous, really. You know how people are, trying to explain away mistakes and losses by claiming something impossible happened.”
His eyes looked down at her, and the young woman felt very uncomfortable under his gaze. There were some deep bags under his eyes, which she may not have noticed under most circumstances. But since he had recently been choking, she was more attentive to his appearance. She pulled out a handkerchief. He took it with a nod, then pressed her again, “From the way you asked, it did not sound like you thought it was impossible. It sounded more like you were trying to figure something out. Won’t you please tell me?” The last sentence was asked with almost a pleading tone. The way his short midnight black hair moved as he finished wiping his eyes to look at her was similar to the way her guardian had moved. There were more than a few things about the captain that reminded Noely of Augustin, but she had never discussed her guardian with anyone in the palace besides Jaylon. She didn’t want to let anyone know of her history or try to take advantage of her desire to find him.
Hisa held out the handkerchief
to the young woman. Pushing his hand back, she responded with a sigh, “I heard this crazy theory that the avalanche was a strategic move. It was designed-” she coughed realizing that she shouldn’t say anymore. Hisa may have been kind, but he was part of the military, and she knew exactly what they were capable of. Even the best people could be persuaded to do the worst things. Those in the military were much more likely to take a terrible order and execute it than to question it. If Hisa had been at the front lines, he may know more about what had happened, which meant it was risky to say anything else.
The man’s eyes flicked around the empty kitchen before he took a step closer to her. “What exactly did you hear?”
Jaylon burst through the door at that moment. “Nice try, Noely, but I have not forgot-Oh, Captain Hisa.” A huge grin spread across her friend’s face as he realized that Noely was not alone. “I hope you don’t mind if I steal her. We have a dinner date.”
The captain raised an eyebrow as he looked back at Noely.
Turning a sigh of relief into one of annoyance, she gave Hisa an apologetic look. “I hope you will excuse me. You know how he is once work is over.”
“No, I don’t.” The captain looked at the servant. “But I am glad to see that you have finally decided to quit this nonsense about being single. You are a lucky man, Jaylon.” The officer looked a little confused as he spoke.
Jaylon laughed, “Not that kind of lucky. She’s still available if you are interested. Perhaps if you check back again tomorrow I will finally have gotten her to come around. I would be willing to give her up to someone like you if you want a fine woman who likes running off into the woods.”
Noely froze. Her eyes instinctively went to the captain who was eyeing her after this new bit of information. For a moment it looked like he was going to say something, but his eyes flicked to Jaylon and the captain shut his mouth. Clearing his throat, he looked between the pair. “I would be honored if you would talk with me for bit tomorrow, Noely.”