He knew it had worked because the castle was in an uproar. Everyone, from lords to servant maids, was cowering under the wrath of the Demon King. The castle seemed to tremble with the force of his anger.
“Find her!” was the roar that came from the throne room.
Lark winced and tried to slink into the mayhem, using the chaos to remain undetected. No one seemed to be looking for him, and he breathed a sigh of relief when he entered his room and pulled the doors closed behind him.
He saw no harm in lying low for a little while. Maybe even a long while, and most likely literally, he thought as he slunk into his bed, exhausted, sore, and sick.
Run, he prayed with everything he was.
A million visions played through his dreams that night, but when he woke, he could not remember any of them. He thought it was probably for the best, judging from the cold sweat on his body and the way his sheets were knotted around him.
~*~*~*~
He was summoned to breakfast with his father again, and knew better than to try to slink away twice. He wasn’t sure that he wasn’t a suspect anyway, and so dressed in his best tunic, trying to wipe the thoughts of yesterday from his mind.
His father was silent throughout the meal. He sat at one end, separated by the entire table’s length from his son, but the intensity of his gaze did not lessen with the distance. It took everything Lark had to still his shaking hands and keep from wolfing down his meal.
“I know you were not well yesterday, and probably slept most of the day,” Damir said when Lark was sipping his drink. “But you must have heard the commotion.”
Lark raised his eyes and an eyebrow, hoping he mimicked an expression of genuine surprise, but he knew better than to bet on it.
“That girl managed to escape.”
Lark knew that his attempt at shock was feeble, and so was glad when his father rose and, for a moment, turned his focus away from his son as he reached a hand into his cloak.
“Quite an attempt. She made it pretty far too, but of course, the attempt was doomed from the start. She was caught just after dawn.”
The blood ran from Lark’s face, but Damir was still occupied with his cloak.
“You wouldn’t have known anything about it, of course, seeing as you were ill and bed ridden, but it is interesting that the man who captured her was carrying this.”
Damir pulled his mother’s pendant from his cloak and slid it toward him.
Lark choked on his food. For a while, he coughed, unable to catch his breath, and even several seconds after he composed himself, the two were silent. “How’d he get that?” he asked weakly.
“Enough, Lark. Don’t play coy with me. I know you hired that slave trader to sneak her out.”
Lark had no rebuttal.
“You foolish boy!” Damir shrieked. Lark only just managed to leap out of the way as his father overturned the table, tableware shattering with a clamor. “Do you have any idea what you’ve done?”
Lark raised his arm to shield his face as his father threw everything his frenzied hands could find at him. He just managed to deflect a saucer, several rolls, and the flowers that had been the centerpiece, and scampered on his knees out of the way of a hurled chair.
“Lord Ganondorf can only perform the ceremony when the goddesses’ stars are in alignment. The next time that happens is in a year!”
Lark cringed, heart clenched in panic. I failed, he thought over and over, only half hearing his father’s crazed rants. Darkstar is back…father knows it was me…I failed.
He was jolted from his stupor as his father grabbed his collar and jerked him into the air. He was so close to his father that he could see the fire of madness in his eyes and smell his hot, rancid breath.
“I hope you learned your lesson. That whelp has a year to pay for your mistake, and then she will die. If you hoped to save her, you picked the wrong way to do it.”
He let Lark drop to the ground. His entire body was numb, he couldn’t see straight, and his ears were ringing. He had not even imagined this. He had not let himself consider defeat, and now it was staring him in the face.
“So she is facing justice,” Damir concluded. “And that leaves the question of you.
“As useless and foolish as you are, you are my only son.” Damir left his side in a flurry of robes, pacing a few lengths away. “I took that pendant from Syke. Ganondorf ordered him brought back alive but there was…an accident. At least as far as he is concerned. The filthy man blurted out your name before he died, but I paid those guards enough to keep quiet.”
Lark blinked. Syke had been killed? He could not say he felt sorry, but he took no consolation. The thought was dry, bland against his numbed mind.
“So Ganondorf thinks Syke wanted her to resell as a slave. He doesn’t know about you. But consider this your last warning. I will not defy the Dark King twice.”
He was safe, while Darkstar was imprisoned two floors below. The thought was a lance of anguish through the numbness.
“You are forbidden to see her. I am sickened that you could have been attracted to such a vile creature. I will not allow you to make the same mistake twice.”
His father threw his mother’s pendant on the ground at his face.
Damir left, but Lark made no attempt to move. He laid on the floor, head touching the stone.
For those first few moments, he was glad he could not see Darkstar. He didn’t know what he would have said, how he would have apologized. He had ruined her chance.
Nothing had ever weighed heavier on his mind.
~*~*~*~
No comments:
Post a Comment