章 22: Chapter 20
My head is spinning. Why? Why would Zander do this? He stops struggling and the prince loosens his grip in shock.
"Zander?" The prince asks.
"What?" Zander asks back.
Now that his mask is gone, I can see that his lip is bleeding and you can see the beginning of a nasty black eye. My instincts to help kick in, but I have to hold myself back.
"Why you?" I whisper.
Zander was my first real friend. He made me happy and was nice to me when no one else was.
"You killed my mother," the prince starts. "You killed my mother!"
Then the prince punches him in the jaw, and I wince from the pain of watching it. Zander's head snaps back and I yell out, "Ashton stop!"
"Why should I?" He asks facing me. His eyes are filled with fresh raw anger.
"It's not the right thing to do, and you know it."
Slowly the prince leans back but still holds him down. "Iris, go get some more guards. We'll take him to the dungeon and then decide what happens with him.
I run off as quickly as I can in my tattered dress, and find some more guards. They rush back with me and grab Zander. Zander doesn't struggle, but just hangs loosely in their arms. He meets my gaze and I have to look away as a tear trickles down my face.
Now that the prince and I are left I say, "What do you think will happen with him?"
"Knowing my father, nothing good," the prince says with a blank expression.
I reach out and touch his shoulder instinctively, but he jerks away from my touch. My cheeks burn and I feel slightly hurt. Seeing my expression, the prince softens a little bit and says, "Go change and clean up. Once you're done, meet me in the dining hall."
I head back to my room where I have to hold in my tears. I hate feelings. Zander was a good friend and now I don't have him. My feelings about the prince are all confused.
I change into a white shirt and a green skirt. I tuck in the shirt and wrap a brown leather belt around the waist. Quickly, I pull on my brown boots. I let my wavy hair down and examine myself in the mirror. My hair falls two thirds of the way down my back. My looks have never really concerned me. Then when Juliana came along, I started to worry about being good enough. I have hardly any chest and absolutely no curves like Juliana. Oh well.
I head out of the room and enter the dining room. There the prince is sitting at a table with two cookies and glasses of water. Heading over, I sit down next to him and he hands me a cookie.
"Thanks," I say, stuffing my face.
He laughs at me and says, "You're welcome." He watches me for a few moments. "You don't have any manners, do you?"
I shrug and swallow, "Why would the way I eat offend someone?"
"Good point."
I finish and then proceed to ask, "So what are we going to do with Zander."
"I have no idea. He'll probably spend most of his life in the castle prison and as working as a slave, or we kill him."
"Well I think that the right option is pretty clear."
"Is it?"
I'm dumbfounded. "So you would kill Zander, the man who was your friend for a couple of months?"
"He betrayed us, Iris. Do you really think that he was ever our friend?"
I'm so angry right now. While Zander may have hurt us, that doesn't mean he wasn't our friend. Sometimes people just make mistakes.
"This is sick. You know my vote. If you kill Zander, I don't know if I could ever forgive you."
"I can't make any promises."
Before I lose control of myself, I stalk out of the room.
"Iris!" I hear him call out, but he doesn't come after me.
Instead of heading back to my room, I head out to the archery range. I pass the men training and they stare at me as I go by, but I ignore them and keep walking. When I make it there, I grab a bow and some arrows and just begin shooting. I keep going until I run out of arrows, but even then I keep shooting until I realize that I've used most of the arrows.
Then I walk over to a tree, sit, and lean against it. The tears start falling slowly, but then get faster and faster until I'm sobbing. After awhile, I feel a hand on my back.
"Go away!" I yell, thinking it's the prince.
Then an unfamiliar voice says, "I'm not going anywhere until you tell me what's wrong."
Startled I turn around to see an old lady standing there. She may be old, but she has great posture and muscles. Her long white hair flows majestically in the wind. She looks like she came right out of a painting.
"Who are you?" I ask.
"My name is Isabella. I'm the prince's aunt."
"Why have I never seen you before then?"
"Let's just say I'm not on good terms with the royal family. Now what's troubling you my dear?"
Something tells me that I can trust this woman so I tell her every detail of what has happened since I go here. She listens intently like she actually cares about what I am saying. Repeating everything makes me begin to cry again.
"Shh," Isabella comforts.
By now it's dark outside and people are probably wondering where I am, but I don't care. Instead, I just let the old lady comfort me.
Finally, once I've calmed down, I say, "I should probably go back."
"Yes. If you ever want to find me again, just find the servant named Sonia, and tell her that you're looking for Isabella."
"Thank you so much."
I give her a hug and we go our own ways.
When I reach the dining hall, the prince runs up to me.
"Iris! There you are. You had everyone worried. The men said that they saw you shooting arrows, but when we looked, we couldn't find you. We thought that you might have been taken so we were going to send some men out to search for you."
I just shrug and say, "I'm here now."
"You've been crying, haven't you?"
I just shrug again and sit down. Once the servant delivers my food, I just pick at it with my fork. The prince exhales in frustration.
"Look, I know you're mad about earlier, but I'm going to do what right."
I don't say anything.
"Remember, he killed my mother."
Then I explode. "How do you know he killed your mother? Maybe he had just joined them! What if one of your other loyal friends did it? You're just jealous that I like Zander. Even if I just like him as a friend! You disgust me."
I run out of the room and to my own, leaving everyone is shock. I collapse on my pillow and begin sobbing until there are no tears left. Thankfully, the prince never comes after me.
I'm done here. I grab my bag and stuff some clothing and my few personal items into it. Then I lock the door. Looking back one more time, I climb out the window to begin my journey home.
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