The Castle Guard

Keeping up appearances

             “Was my performance adequate father?” Adriana’s words came out oozing sarcasm, her lips were tired from putting up a fake smile all night “honestly how do they do it” she sat on her bed looking tired, she didn’t turn as turn as Count Desderius came in closing the door behind him “why did you save that boy!” he rasped his voice barely louder than a whisper, his kind of oval figure stood in front of Adriana, his face distorted in angry expression “My my grumpy grump!” she said mockingly “I did it because I wanted to and now we are their ‘Honored guests!’ You’re welcome.” The queen had offered them one of the guest rooms at the castle as she claimed “Please stay here be our guest at least for tonight Nickleshton is so far away!” she said to Adriana and the count as the ball ended moments after the king left looking sickly and didn’t  come back for the rest of the event. “it’s the least we can do after you saved our prince” she spoke with a smile, the queen didn’t like them both but one of the things she valued most was appearances, she wanted to seem courteous not that she cared only that she wanted the attention to shift back to her not some backwards noble girl.  “How does she maintain it, I got to give it to her she’s almost good’ Adriana smiled to herself that must be the only compliment she has and would ever give the queen. Adriana loathed Queen Kahlan with every part of her being, more than anything she wanted to strangle that pretty little neck off to watch that pretentious smile turn into shock then horror before her body fell down without a shred of life left in it ‘Where she belongs with the rest of her kind!’ but she had to bide her time defecting from the plan would be reckless, ‘Now’s the time to put on appearances, my time will come.’ She thought imagining Queen Kahlan’s body laying limp dead in her hands ‘Can’t wait…’ she had a wistful expression on her face. “Are you listening to me?” Count Desderius voice had gone up his face contorted in anger “Are you still here?” Adriana asked feeling aggravated it felt like she was six again being scolded by her daddy for some menial unimportant thing, his voice felt more annoying than usual “Are you repeating the plan again father?” she looked bored ‘the plan’ was probably engraved in the deepest parts of her memory what with her father repeating it whenever they got alone or had nothing else to say (which he rarely did), the carriage ride to the castle hadn’t been easy, half the time she imagined if walking to the castle was a more feasible option ‘ I wonder if there’s a way of plugging that mouth hole shut, I hope there’s a spell for that.’ She rolled her eyes in annoyance and suffered on with the ride. Sometimes she wondered if having his revenge was more important to him than her. “I am since you think you can do anything you want, this is my…our revenge against those bastards, they stole Kiernan from me and that is unforgiveable!” he grit his teeth the image of his beautiful late wife sparkling in his mind. “I don’t know how or why but they have something to do with her disappearance and I am going to find out. Just don’t screw anything up and stick to the plan.” With that he left banging the door his body brushing the edges of the door frame as he went out heading to his own room. Adriana didn’t remember her mother to be precise she had died when she was young, she only heard stories about her beauty elegance and what not, yet for some reason she loved her more than her father whom she’d lived with for most of her life no not just him everyone else was irrelevant, looking at the portrait of her mother besides the fact that it was like looking at a mirror, she felt connected to her for some reason  and the fact that these pretentious stuck up royals may have been a part of the reason why she couldn’t meet this strange beautiful woman made her blood boil igniting a flame of hatred in her heart so hot, too hot she wanted revenge one way or another. She sought power by any means possible and she had gotten it “Now it’s your time to pay Queen Kahlan!” her voice resounded inhumanly bass, face up on her bed her eyes glowed deathly green filled with fury.

                      Adriana screamed at the top of her lungs, she had skidded off into the forest without anyone noticing, well at least the maids didn’t and her father barely acknowledged her existence and when he did it felt forced like she was some stranger he was forced to live with, like it wasn’t his own daughter in front of him not that she cared really Adriana lived in her own world in which his existence was as well irrelevant.

          It was a quiet evening as the sun set casting a twilight hue color over their beautiful but averagely large house that is compared to other nobles’ homes. It had silver-ish white colored walls the house was held up on pillars with a similar color that made it more beautiful than it actually was, as light bounced of them. Adriana’s home was a two story building secluded on the edges of  Nickleshton where her father had decided to build to avoid interactions with the locals not wanting to dirty his “Immaculate attire” as he put it “with their muckiness” he didn’t want their constant “Yammering” to disturb his peace. The one’s working at his home were barely tolerable, they were only there because he didn’t  know how to do any house work and even if he did the odds of which were near impossible never do it, so he hired the locals to do it. They hated him but unlike nobles they didn’t have large houses with loads of gold coins just sitting somewhere waiting to be spent, in fact most of them weren’t lucky enough to see gold in their entire life time the common currency for them were bronze coins, silver coins if you were a merchant. They hence had to work to support their families any negative feelings were left aside. Though they thought his daughter was ok, not snobby or stuck up she seemed to exist in the house but didn’t really interact with anyone else unless she needed to. Food would be left for her, baths drawn, bed made she had whatever she needed her interests were limited to studying with her personal tutor and staring at her mother’s portrait for long periods of time. Some of the maids pitied her but never got closer to her they had bigger things to worry about to add nobles’ drama to their lives, they didn’t think she’d notice anyway. To which they weren’t completely wrong Adriana merely saw them as dolls that could occasionally talk, put there to serve her every need so her father wouldn’t have to, she gave no heed to their existence, sometimes she did wonder what happened when they left beyond the gates what kind of lives they led but such thoughts were fleeting. She had never left her home she didn’t really care for it but for some undeniable reason she couldn’t explain that day she wanted to go outside the gates, her father was gone as he always was the servants were busy with their work she never did much to catch attention; sitting mostly quiet in her room reading or staring at her late mother’s portrait. The tutor hadn’t come so she slipped out of the two large dark oak-wood double doors that was the main entrance into and out of the house barely making any noise wearing her usual paisley knee length dress, her hair tied to form a ponytail. She went down the stairs towards the gate where a guard sat beside it wearing the usual garbs with their family’s crest embroidered on his chest. “Miss Adriana !” he exclaimed looking surprised at her sudden appearance “May I be of assistance ?”

“Yes open them for me!” she say blankly pointing towards the gate. “May I ask why?” he asked feeling confused he didn’t remember getting any orders from the count.

“Because I told you to?” she spat glaring daggers at the guard. “But…uh..”

“Yes Ma’am!” he exclaimed then pulled the black bars of the gate open, Adriana walked past the guard gracefully towards the wide path beyond the gate she felt weird leaving it had been years since the last time she’d gone outside. Wind blew her black ponytail as she walked it felt like she was breathing for the first time finally free from her perpetual prison; suddenly the idea of going back to the house was unappealing to her. “Um… Miss Adriana are you ok?” the guard’s bass tone sapped her out of the reverie “I am fine!” she snapped hiding her amazement wanting to keep her blank daughter-of-the-lord authority in front of the guard and walked away. The road had carriage tire marks with marks of horse hooves some old while others were fresh, on either sides it was flanked by trees. Adriana didn’t know where she was going jus that she was going, despite its minor nature everything seemed new and unfamiliar which made them even more interesting to her, it was quiet all around her except for the sound of wind swashing in the leaves  and small scuffles of probably animals moving around in the trees. Along the way she met some peasants at least she assumed they were from their ragged and dirty clothes, passing by whom she paid no heed neither did they to her seemingly engrossed in their own thoughts to care for some noble’s kid.

The evening sun shone just beyond the horizon its yellow rays in Adriana’s line of sight ahead someone else stood on the earthy road whoever it was wore a hood covering her face masking her face the rest of their body also covered. The person stood facing towards Adriana as if waiting for her, from where she stood Adriana could see the stranger’s lips spread into a smile. She walked faster to reach the stranger but by the time she got near the stranger was no longer there “Hey!” Adriana’s voice trailed off, she was used to everyone stopping whatever they were doing and rushed to her summons , this stranger’s abrupt leave without as much as a ‘Yes ma’am’ annoyed her. Out of the corner of her eye she noticed the mysterious figure under the hood. The stranger stood off the road near the woods looking towards her direction with the same smile adorning their face. Adriana turned sprinting towards where the stranger stood “Hey wait!” they were gone again. “Damn it!” she felt for some reason intrigued by this person, she raised her head looking  for them noticing faintly the same smile under a dark silhouette partly hidden behind a tree the person seemed to be peering at her from the woods “Whoever you are I have spotted you!” Adriana spoke loudly then ran at breakneck speed towards the woods going in between shrubs and trees stepping over undergrowth without noticing the rising shadows as the sun set. The stranger too broke into a sprint Adriana tried as she might couldn’t get near them. at some point she lost track of where she was. She stopped looking around her the stranger had disappeared into the woods, the trees looked huge from where she stood especially at her height it finally dawned on her how actually lost and more importantly alone she was. Fear crept in like a large poisonous spider that were probably lurking in the trees around her spinning their intricate webs of terror in her heart. She wondered if she disappeared would her father really notice she was gone, probably by the time he did her bones would have already turned to dust. The sun had almost disappeared allowing darkness to start its assent making the woods feel even more ominous. Adriana’s hands began shaking she felt more scared than she had ever felt in her closed in quiet life, “Hello!” she croaked her voice barely a whisper, she spoke though she was alone “Where am I?!” she whispered trying to find her way back only she couldn’t find the open path she’d come from, wind blew in the silence, small creepy creatures moved about in the dark shades awoken as dusk disappeared with advent of the night, to begin doing whatever they did. Adriana on the verge of tears suddenly noticed something she had seen or most probably was too scared to notice when she arrived, some meters in front of her trees were wider apart than from where she came from. She moved cautiously  not wanting to capture the attention of whatever lurked in those woods, she found herself at the edge of a clearing all around it trees swarmed forming an almost perfect circle that looked unnatural even in the eyes of a young girl such as her.

         At the center of that clearing standing was the stranger having raised the hood their hands spread out on their sides, showing their features still hidden under the cloak’s silhouette except one thing was different whoever they were their eyes shone in an ominous green. “Come” the person’s voice was soothing, welcoming though Adriana didn’t hear it rather the voice came from within her head. “Come” it repeated in the same calm non-threatening tone. Adriana forgetting her initial terror followed its voice…

LATER the following morning they found Adriana sleeping at the edge of the wide path leading to her home, her clothes ragged and dirty; hair untied and unkempt, there seemed to be nothing wrong with her, the count had upon returning dispatched his guards to search for her after finding the maids drenched in sweat looking for the young girl she had slept peacefully with a serene smile on her face.