Kapitel 8: The Mysterious Woman
"Purple eyes?" Arlan repeated only to make sure.
Drayce nodded lightly, still immersed in deep thoughts. "Such mysterious eyes."
Something came to Arlan's mind as he had heard something about it before. He then looked at Drayce and noticed how serious he looked. His friend definitely had something more going on in his mind.
Arlan decided not to pursue the topic. He understood Drayce—if he thought to go after something, he would never give up chasing. However, what his friend was searching for at the moment was not something good.
After a minute of silence, Arlan could not help himself, "You must have made a mistake. No normal human can have purple irises."
"I am not a normal human either, so I do not think that's abnormal," Drayce countered.
"I keep forgetting who my friend is," Arlan commented. "You should rest. You didn't rest after the previous night's battle."
"Who was the one who insisted for me to be here?"
"I only wanted you to visit the side of the continent you have never been to," said Arlan.
"Or you wanted your friend here so you won't get bored on your own."
"My bad. Now rest."
Drayce removed his outer cloak and threw it towards the bed. He was ready to strip, but raised an eyebrow seeing his friend remained idle inside his room.
"Leave, then. Don't stay here to stare at my handsome face."
"I prefer pretty faces," Arlan scoffed before he left the room.
After fixing himself, Drayce lay on the bed with scattered thoughts. He did not know how long he had stared at the ceiling.
He was sure, what he saw was not an illusion but reality.
"Who is she?" he continued to ask himself before he finally closed his eyes.
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The previous night, when Drayce was busy fighting suspicious men disguised as Abethan soldiers, he suddenly heard a woman's voice out of nowhere.
'Who are you?'
Startled, he ceased his attacks and turned to look at the source of the voice. All he could see was a face with its lower half-covered with a veil and a pair of purple eyes, and the image vanished in the air the moment he blinked.
He felt like it was an illusion and must be because he was tired and didn't get enough sleep. At that time, he didn't have much time to think about what happened because he had to get rid of the enemies.
Once that small battle was over, he and his men rode straight towards the Kingdom of Abetha. However, the distance towards the capital could not be covered within a few hours. It was a long overnight journey, so they had to halt somewhere, not to mention, some of his soldiers had been injured, and they needed rest.
At dawn, his men set up camp in the wilderness along a river bordering the capital of Abetha. From where they stopped, they could see the sight of the city, as well as the Royal Palace of Abetha. The main palace shone under the moonlight, and there were torches ignited everywhere on the castle walls.
Just as the mild sun rays touched the sky, Drayce thought that it would seem unruly to enter the capital looking travel-worn. Besides, the river looked inviting; thus, he decided to go for a morning swim in the cold freshwater. However, just as he went deeper into the river, he saw something floating in the water.
'What's that?'
As the sun had not completely risen yet, his vision was not good underwater.
He swam towards it and pulled it to him. To his surprise, what he held was actually a maiden's hand. He realized that the figure underwater was a woman who seemed unconscious. He could only look at her in shock when she opened her eyes.
In the dim light, he could see nothing but her glittering purple eyes.
'It's her.'
He could forget anything but those pair of purple eyes as well as the veil covering half of her face.
The woman panicked and moved her hand towards her face, but he held it and stared into those enchanting eyes.
She stared back at him, not looking scared at all. The initial anxiety in her eyes turned into curiosity as she continued to stare at him without a tinge of fear.
'Amusing,' he thought, but the next moment, she disappeared again.
"What was that? Where did she go?" He looked around, but there was nothing around him underwater.
"Is it an illusion again?" he wondered and then looked at his hands. He could still feel the warmth of her skin in his palms. "No. It was not an illusion this time." He was sure.
He swam to the surface and came out of the river fully drenched. He could not help but look towards the Royal Palace of Abetha in the distance.
"Your Majesty, if we leave now, we can reach there on time," one of his knights said as he approached his King, who was staring at the castle in a daze.
After not getting a reply from his King, the knight asked again, "Is there something that's bothering you, Your Majesty?"
"Something is strange about this place," Drayce replied, his eyes still not leaving the sight of the palace.
"Is it about the previous night's incident?" the knight asked.
"Hmm," Drayce nodded subconsciously.
"We will enquire about those attackers," said the knight.
Drayce sighed but did not correct the knight. He was not referring to those attackers but to that mysterious woman; he kept seeing the moment he entered the boundaries of the Kingdom of Abetha. Moreover, there was always some unknown force that kept pulling him somewhere which he could understand. His sight fixed on the Royal Palace; he felt it coming from something within those castle walls.
When he arrived at the main gates of the Royal Palace with his soldiers, his friend Arlan was there to welcome him; after all, it was this man who was responsible for calling him there.
The moment Drayce stepped inside the palace walls, he felt that unknown force grow even stronger, and it only kept going stronger the closer he got to the main palace.
"What happened? Why do you look so serious?" Arlan asked.
"Nothing." Drayce had nothing to say as he himself was not sure what it was.
What happened after he arrived at the ceremony hall pulled his interest into one more thing, that bold and confident young woman.
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After the small nap, Drayce was ready to go out and roam around the palace. However, instead of enjoying the scenery, he was more eager to know if he could find the reason for the strange unknown pull he could feel coming from this place.
"Where do you want to go?" Arlan asked, playing host to guide his friend as he was very familiar with the palace grounds. Their own knights accompanied them as they walked.
"Anywhere," came his cold reply.
"Don't blame me later," Arlan said with a chuckle and they left to go out.
Kapitel 9: Sneaking Out
I remained inside the tower, in my bedchamber, since my return from that engagement ceremony, where my presence was visibly unwelcomed and undesired. Not that I wanted to stay.
Still, it wasn't my wish to be holed up in my tower once more, where I could do nothing but look outside of the window of my room. Under the bright afternoon sunlight, birds could be seen flying in the sky freely.
"Wouldn't it be nice to be a bird and fly wherever I want to go?" I mumbled, envying these little animals.
"And then be killed by a slingshot or an arrow, only to be hung on a fire and then go into someone's stomach?" Martha idly commented as she busied herself tidying my gown and arranging the jewelry I removed after returning.
I glared at her. 'This old lady never forgets to break my happy bubble. Always so bitter.'
"Can we go out today?" I asked, looking at the busy Martha with hope in my eyes.
"His Majesty had ordered us to stay here till all the guests leave the palace," Martha informed me.
"Can't we... sneak out like always?" I asked, my voice low and my face sad. On some days, Martha and I secretly leave the Royal Palace in disguise, and those were the best days of my life.
"Today is not a good day," Martha countered, dashing my hopes once more.
I huffed. "I have been in this tower for the past seventeen years. At most, I could only go tend my small garden. When girls of my age go out and have fun, I can only see the outside world through this window. Still, I never complained. Today, I really want to go out," I pleaded.
Martha didn't reply.
"If only I were successful in running away a few years back, I wouldn't have to bear with this prison life," I frowned.
When I was seven, I tried to run away by fooling Martha and the guards. No one had thought a kid would even think, much less dare, to do so. Back then, I succeeded in leaving the tower's premises and even managed to escape the palace grounds. It was midnight, and as I was small, I could sneak past the patrolling guards.
Everything beyond the castle walls was surrounded by scary silence.
Deciding not to be scared of anything, I continued walking as fast as possible, hoping to put as much distance as I could between me and the palace. When I was in the city proper, I did my best to avoid the main streets where establishments were still open and a few night owls could be seen walking.
The alleys and the side paths looked as if so many eyes stared at me through the darkness. My will of not feeling scared started to shatter with the slightest sound made by the dry leaves and pebbles under my feet.
I remembered, just as I consoled myself that it was nothing, a scary figure in a black cloak who had its face entirely covered appeared in front of me. A long bony hand, with long nails, tried to grab me. I screamed out of reflex and ran back, but another figure in a black cloak came out of the alley to stop me from going back towards the palace.
I screamed once more, calling out for help, but none of the commoners nor the patrolling guards seemed to have heard me. All I knew, those scary figures in black cloaks came to be floating in the air.
I remembered my young self shedding tears, sitting on the ground, curling myself like a ball, and covering my face with my palm to not see those scary things.
A miracle did happen. Suddenly, everything turned silent, and the figures in black cloaks were nowhere to be seen. I lifted my face to look up, and I saw Martha standing at a distance, looking at me with a gentle expression.
Not delaying even for a moment, I ran towards Martha and hugged her tightly, crying my eyes out in fear.
Martha kneeled and hugged me back to calm me. We returned to the palace, and no one knew I tried to run away. Since that day, I never dared to step out of the palace on my own again.
Ten years had passed, yet the memory still brought fear to my heart.
Martha sighed as she went towards the wardrobe and pulled one set of plain clothes for me.
"Get ready," she instructed.
My eyes shone brightly, and I got the clothes from her. These were the clothes we used whenever we sneaked out of the palace. I hurried to get ready.
After wearing them and putting on boots, I looked at myself in the mirror as a cheerful smile painted my lips. I wore a simple yet elegant pink-colored, floor-length silk dress. Although these clothes looked too luxurious for the working class, the daughters of rich merchants and women from noble families outside of the palace wore such clothes; they were different from what royals wore. These kinds of clothes would easily let me blend in outside as this was the capital city of Abetha, and people generally wear silk clothes here.
Martha stood behind me as she held my hair. She braided my hair to make it look simple and tied one gold ribbon to fix the end of the long braid.
Martha also put on one circular hat on my head, which had delicate pink cloth surrounding it, long enough to cover my face.
It was normal for young women of the capital to put on a hat with a veil to cover their faces. In my case, this was necessary not to let anyone see my purple eyes, or else it would be a dead giveaway of my true identity. These rare purple eyes were known in the whole kingdom as the color of the witch's eyes. Martha could hide anything with her magic but not the color of my eyes.
Daily, Martha had always worn the dress that servants in the palace wore. However, most of the important servants serving respective royals had something different in their uniforms to distinguish them from the normal servants. Over the off-white dress, Martha had to put on a light purple thin fabric, a short cardigan that showed her identity of being my servant. Purple indicated the color of the witch's eyes, my eyes.
As we were heading out today, she took off that purple cardigan and put on one black robe to cover the dress and hide her identity as a royal servant.
"Shall we leave?" I asked with excitement, dying to go out.
Martha nodded and led my way out of my bedchamber. We walked till the end of the corridor, which later took a circular turn down by stairs. There, Martha worked her magic spell, and one rock in the wall was pushed back, only to open a secret door for us.
That door was the entrance to a tunnel that leads beyond the palace walls, towards the large river that wound outside the palace.
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