Smoke and Mirrors (41)

Forty-One

The Duke’s House

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We left the little elf village pretty soon after discussing our plans. Part of me wanted to stay there longer and see what village life was like for these people, but I knew we needed to get Adrian back.

The forest floor had soaked up most of the rain water already, which surprised me. Sterling didn’t seemed phased by it, so I guessed it was perfectly normal for the water to disappear quickly here. Maybe the huge trees had something to do with it.

As we walked, I noticed that a couple of trees here and there glowed like bioluminescent creatures from the ocean. These trees acted as our only source of light outside of my fist, which I kept blazing with fire.

“What are these trees called?” I asked Sterling. “I saw one of them back at the elven village.”

“Oh, these are whisper trees, like the ones in Soryn. These are. . . elf versions.”

I laughed. “Elf versions?”

He rolled his lips into his mouth. “Yeah. Whisper trees. . . can turn other creatures into whisper trees during the sap seasons.”

My smile faded. “What do you mean?”

He walked ahead and paused. “My father had an old. . . friend that touched the whisper tree sap. There isn’t a cure, so once someone touches it, they slowly turn into another whisper tree. It takes months sometimes, and all everyone can do is watch.” His voice sounded pained. “That was why my father killed so many of the whisper trees.”

“Oh—I didn’t know. That’s horrible!”

“Life is horrible. Come on, we need to keep walking. We’re almost there.”

We sped up our pace and before long, we were walking into a cleared out part of the forest where a giant tree house was fixed in the large branches above us.

“Hello!” Sterling called up.

A bird nearby fluttered out of its perch from the sound of Sterling’s voice.

“Hello?” returned a voice from above. “Who lies there?!”

“Sterling and Tanwen, King and Queen of Soryn! We have a formal invitation from the duke!” Sterling answered. Their voices echoed throughout the woods, which was scary to me after seeing that rabbit.

There was a pause that lasted for a minute or two. I thought they didn’t hear Sterling, but suddenly the voice said, “Enter!”

Suddenly part of the giant tree cleared out like mist rolling away. There was a giant curved door in the center of the tree, but I didn’t see it until just then.

“Let’s go. Don’t do anything suspicious and follow my act,” Sterling said, grabbing my wrist and pulling me forward.

I hurried to catch up with him. The warmth of his hand felt wonderful in contrast to my chilled skin. I felt my body pulling that heat in, as if it was using it to nurture a fire deep inside me.

Inside the tree was a spiraling wood staircase that circled upwards. We made our way up and stopped at a door, which was opened by one of the guards. The guard looked different from the elven children in the village. His skin was a dark, midnight blue, and his hair was stark white. His ears weren’t as large either, and his face was speckled with silver freckles that looked like stars in a night sky. I couldn’t stop staring at him.

Sterling subtly tugged my wrist, which snapped me out of my daze. “Here is my invitation,” he said, withdrawing a letter from the inside of his jacket and handing it to the guard.

He wordlessly took it and read through it before placing it in a locked metal bin with a slit in the top. He bowed to us. “Right this way, your Majesties.”

We followed the guard through a tunnel in the tree, which opened up into a wide sitting room with lovely silk chairs, some kind of stringed, cello-like instrument, and windows which looked out over sunny, grass meadows. Obviously this was an illusion, because there weren’t any sunny, grass meadows near us. The room smelled warm, like cloves and wisteria.

“Please make yourself at home. The duke will be here in a moment,” said the guard.

I wanted desperately to sit on the plush, fancy sofa, but refrained. My muddy clothes would ruin them, and the sweat and dampness of my clothes would ruin the lovely fragrance in the room.

Sterling and I stood side-by-side, waiting. I pulled my wrist out of his hand and tucked it behind my back.

“Remember, follow my lead,” Sterling whispered quietly.

I narrowed my eyes at him, then returned my gaze to the grand door at the end of the room.

The door opened and a person I assumed to be the duke walked out. He looked just like the guard, but with a narrower nose and less star freckles. He wore some kind of a silk robe that looked too nice to be a bathrobe, but looked an awful lot like one nevertheless. His dark eyes flicked to me, then to Sterling, and he smiled. “Ah, Sterling! How nice to see you. I regret that I could not attend your wedding. Things came up here.” He looked at me again and bowed. “This must be your lovely wife, yes?”

I laughed. “Not so lovely at the moment, I’m afraid. We got caught in a storm.”

Sterling patted my head. “You’re always lovely, darling.” He turned to the duke to avoid my glare. “But we could use your baths. Would that be okay with you?”

He nodded quickly. “Of course, friend! I’ll have my servants take you. Then we can catch up, yes?”

I smiled. “That would be wonderful, thank you.”

We were led down a hallway made of pale, lovely wood. The servants opened the door and showed us the bathroom, which was more like one giant bathtub with a small sink and toilet nearby. Most of the floor was a bath though.

“Thank you,” Sterling said as they closed the door and left us alone. He turned to me and lowered his voice. “Listen, here it’s common for married couples to bathe together. They don’t know any better.”

I stared at him with wide eyes as realisation dawned on me. “No way! I am not bathing with you!”

He lifted his hands in defense. “I know, I know, okay?! I know. And I don’t want you to, believe me. So here’s what we’re going to do. Right over there is a closet full of clothes. We’ll use it like a waiting room, okay? Just let me know when you’re done and I’ll let you know when I’m done. No problem.”

My face felt hot. “No way! They’ll understand that we just married. There’s no way they’d think anything of it if we—”

“To Wystilorians, a strong marriage means a strong ruler. It would be bad for both of our images if we look distant. Just—just trust me, okay? I promise nothing will happen.”

I swallowed. “Fine. You go first, I’ll stay in the closet, and when you finish, leave the bathroom and I’ll bathe. Sounds good?”

He gave me a look that roughly translated to, “Are you serious?” and shook his head. “I told you, that won’t look right. Just do what I say.”

I huffed, then sucked in a breath and wordlessly closed myself in the closet. It was fairly small, but was filled with wraparound robes of different colors that looked similar to the one the duke wore. A very pretty rose-pink one hung at the end.

I heard the water splash outside as Sterling bathed. After a while, he said, “I forgot to grab a robe. Don’t open the door yet, but turn around and face the wall.”

I groaned and obeyed. I heard the door open and felt the warm steam billow into the closet. I saw his arm reach over my shoulder and grab one of the grey hanging robes, then the door closed again.

“Okay, I’m dressed,” he said a moment later.

Breathing a sigh of relief, I opened the door and turned to grab the pink robe.

“Do not peek at me or I swear to you, I will boil every molecule of water on your body,” I warned darkly.

He raised his eyebrows and smirked. “You forget. I would have to want to look before I actually did.” I clenched my fist and the steam in the room began to grow hotter. He hissed between his teeth and raised his hands. “Okay, okay! I promise I won’t. Cool down!”

I smiled innocently and closed the closet door.

When I finished bathing, I quickly wrapped myself up in the robe and tried squeezing the water out of my hair over the bath.

“You done?” he asked.

I glanced over at the closet door. “Yeah, it’s all good now.”

The door slowly creaked open and he walked out. “See? Not so bad.”

I rolled my eyes at his back as he opened the door from the bathroom that led back into the hall.

***

Later that evening, we sat around the duke’s office desk and stared down at a map of Wystilor.

“So you see,” Sterling concluded, “if we want to stop the world from getting destroyed by a bunch of kids with too much talent for their own good, we need to rescue prince Adrian and get that unicorn horn back.”

The duke seemed to think through Sterling’s words. “I have heard rumors of rebellion in the deep woods. A community of some kind has been said to have gathered there, but they haven’t caused any trouble so far and I never knew much about them.”

Sterling and I glanced at each other. I asked, “Who are they?”

“From the sounds of it, mostly spoiled young aristocrats and old royals who never got the position of power they wanted. But again, I’ve never seen it personally.”

I grimaced. That sounded exactly like my. . . my mother. She never got to be queen and now she was making Seraphina pay for it with her son’s life.

“Can you give us an army to take us there?” Sterling asked.

“Me? Give you an army? I have a small group of men who hope to join the king’s army some day, but not enough to brag about.” He scratched his chin. “I suppose I could, but. . . I can’t promise they’ll be of much assistance.”

I shook my head. “Anything helps right now. We need Adrian and that horn back as soon as possible.”

He pursed his midnight-blue lips. “Stay the night and I’ll give you my answer in the morning, if that’s okay with you two?”

I nodded before even asking Sterling. My muscles ached and after the vine bridge, a real bed sounded amazing.

“We’d love to, if that’s not too much to ask of you,” Sterling replied cordially.

“You didn’t ask, I did.” The duke grinned, flashing his pale teeth. “I’ll have your clothes washed and set out for your trip tomorrow.”

I breathed a sigh of relief and returned his grin. “Thank you so much!”

I never would have been so cheerful if I’d only known what lied in store for us.

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Hey guys, Daisy here! Sorry I haven't updated in like two weeks. I'm kinda suffering writer's block right now and have been hesitant to share my pre-done chapters until I'd written more, but oh well, I suppose I'll run out of back-up chapters eventually anyway. Thanks for sticking with this story this long, I really appreciate y'all!

Maybe you can help me out? Drop in the comments something you'd like to see happen in this story. Maybe it'll jog my brain XD