Candlelight (part 1)

by Marcella Haddad


Prologue


It seemed to Medu that all she had been doing lately was washing blood off her hands. She sighed. This woman had been a close friend, too.

Behind her lay the body, motionless in sheets drenched with red. Beside the bed where their mother lay were the triplets--tiny bodies barely hanging onto life.

Medu dried her hands, shaking. She was an old woman. Surely the gods would not make her see much more suffering in her lifetime--it was too cruel.

She turned around and went to the little basket, picking up the first child and cradling it in her arms. It stared up at her with wide, deep blue eyes.

"What a pretty thing," Medu murmured. She looked into the basket. "All of you." then she sighed.

"But it will be to different homes with the lot of ya," she said, bending down to place the child back in the basket before scooping the whole thing up into her arms. "This small village is no place for the daughters of the king's mistress." She looked regretfully back at the dead woman on the bed, before turning to walk out the door.

"Might get ideas of taking the throne," she muttered to herself. "Stir up trouble in this already troubled world."

Lomonalri


"Wait up!"

I laughed. "Never! It's a race, silly!"

I kept running down the bank and Trogen kept after me. I could hear him panting, and I put on a burst of speed, determined to beat him there.

"It's no fair! You're faster!"

"You should have thought about that before you bragged!" I sang. I turned around to say something else to him, but I ran right into something with a crash.

"Peasant," The man on the horse I had hit snarled as I rubbed my head. Ouch. "Which way to the castle?"

I stared up at the pudgy man with a raised eyebrow.

He sighed and reached into his purse, pulling out a silver coin. He tossed it to me.

"I don't want your coin!" I said, batting it out of the air. "Well, actually I do." I said, picking it up and putting in the pocket of my dress.

"Which way?!" The man seethed. He was old, probably some dusty dignitary from the north.

I made a square with my hands, looking through them and turning in a circle in the clearing, as if to observe all the forest around me. He tapped his fingers impatiently.

"Lo!" Trogen burst out of the trees, startling the horse. It whinnied and nearly bucked off its rider. I turned to him and made a shhing motion with my finger. Then I looked at the man again.

"I'm afraid, sir, due to serious malfunctioning and error on the part of my scientific instruments, I am unable to direct you to the correct path to the castle." I bowed low, sweeping my arm in front of me.

"Why-"

Laughter rang out from behind the man. I stood on my toes to see the new rider coming out of the trees.

He was a nobleman, all right-down to his shiny black boots and his shiny black horse and his shiny black hair. I stared at him, intrigued--he looked about my age.

"What a curious child," He said bemusedly, looking at me.

"What a rude man," I said, pointing to his companion on the horse.

He laughed again, and it sounded genuine. He looked at his friend.

"Have we not learned the proper respect for commoners, Jensing?"

"We have, milord." the man hung his head in 'shame'. I snorted.

The man in black looked at me again, still smiling. "Jensing," he said without moving his eyes. "Has my sister found a replacement for her last ladies maid?"

"No, sir, I don't believe so." Jensing replied, eyeing me with distaste.

He smiled wider. "I believe I have."