CORA

CHAPTER 8

CORA'S POV

It was getting dark and it was so late when I finished from the palace, Aunt Thea would be so worried. I had to come up with a good excuse why I was coming home very late.

My legs hurt from all the running around and chores I had been doing. I arranged the King's chambers and some other rooms that seemed like they had not been cleaned in ages. They were so dusty and the linens were so dirty, I had to wash and dry them too.

After that i also assisted Maia in the kitchen. Gaia prepared the meals effortlessly, I just help her bring anything that was not within reach. I enjoyed every bit of my stay there. Maia made it fun for me.

Maia told me of several tales, but the one that interested me more was how they had come to live and work in the palace and how the king had become so mean.

Gaia was brought in as a slave after a war took place between her village and Winslow. The city of Winslow was victorious and so they took all the surviving villagers as slaves and Gaia was one of them. She lost her husband during the war and she also was pregnant during the war. Gaia was brought to Winslow with other slaves. Queen Yuka saw Gaia and took her in immediately, she took care of her till she delivered Maia. Gaia did not think of a better way to repay her for her kindness and so she opted to serve the queen.

Gaia was so close to the Queen, she assisted her all through her pregnancy period, the king who was still a kind and considerate man appreciated Gaia for all she did for his wife. One of Queen Yuka's wish was for the King to let Gaia handle the affairs of the kitchen. Unfortunately. Queen Yuka died after the delivery of her son Prince Leonidas and the king believed the midwife who was a sorcerer had a hand in her death and started killing all witches and sorcerers.

Maia said other stories and i listened while we assisted Gaia in preparing the food, some other cooks were backing bread while the other maids were busy doing there allocated chores.

It time for me to leave and I was already prepared, I had taken off my apron, brushed my hair into a low ponytail when Maia came to me with a tray of food in her hands.

"Cora I am yet to serve the King's meal and they are already at the dinning, I need your assistance" she pleaded.

"But I have to leave now" I protested

Maia didn't wait for me to say anything else, she dropped the tray of food in my hands and rushed back into the kitchen to get other trays.

I walked towards the dining room, and I paused for a moment. I heard loud voices, it was the prince and his father and they were arguing with each other. I was scared to walk in on their conversation but in a second thought it was getting late and so I stepped into the dining hall with the tray of food. The first person I saw was the prince and he was looking at me too.

I saw the surprised look he had in his face. He kept looking at me, I was careful to watch where I was going to avoid spilling the contents of the tray on the floor and incur the wrath of the king. And each time I looked in his direction he had his eyes on me. I tried to avoid his eyes and i am sure he noticed it. I gently placed the tray on the table and turned to leave. But I still felt his eyes on me watching my every move. I met with Maia half way out of the dinning.

"I'm leaving" I said not so loudly but I was sure she heard me because she mouthed a goodnight with a smile and then I left.

When I stepped out of the palace, it was so dark and quiet, all I heard was the hooting sound of owls and chirping of crickets.

The market path home would be a lonely one i thought.

I walked a distance into the market, every where was deserted. I kept walking until I heard a cry of a child, didn't know where it was coming from, so I continued walking . And then the cry came again and this time it was louder and then I followed it and found a baby out by itself.

Who could have left a child here at this hour all alone I thought

I went closer to pick the baby up and then there was a huge snake by the baby and then I picked up a stick and tried to kill it but it ran away before I could do anything, then I carried the baby up and I could see visible snake bites on the child's leg hence the cry. I had to do something before the venom of the snake spread all over the child.

The only thing I could possibly do was to say a spell, but I was scared of someone seeing me. The tears of the baby got louder and so I placed my hands on the baby and did some spells.

"Bin dim bay arisam ban ri bi tah de fang ja" I muttered.

The child kept crying and then I repeated the spell a little louder this time.

"Bin dim bay arisam ban ri bi tah de fang ja" and then the child started laughing and suddenly the mother of the child came out.

"What did you just do?" She asked curiously

She had seen me perform the spell, I had to do something quickly so she does not remember. I quickly said a forgetting spell

"Repaire memoriae" I said quietly

"Oh my baby, I have searched every where for her and I couldn't find her" the woman said.

I was relieved she had forgotten what she saw "I saw her by herself here and I was only trying to find her parents" i said.

"Thank you. I am grateful" she said as i handed the child over to her mother. She carried the child and walked away.

I took a deep breath. "What a relief" I said to myself

I continued my journey till I got to the house. Aunt Thea was just outside the door with a fire torch, I saw her pacing about the corridor she was worried. I stood for a while wondering what I would tell her. She was going to be so mad at me. While I was still thinking of what to say, I mistakenly stepped on a stick and the sound of it breaking drew Aunt Thea's attention to me.

"Cora. Cora is that you?" She asked coming closer

"Yes Aunt Thea it is me" I answered.

"Cora you kept me worried and the worst part is that I did not know where to start looking for you from" she said.

"I'm so sorry aunt Thea" I said.

"It's okay tell me all about it when we get inside" she said as she held me by my hands and took me inside.

Uncle Evan was seated in the living room waiting of us too.

"Where have you been Cora" he asked a he stood up to give me a hug. At this point I felt so sorry that I had kept them so worried. But I couldn't tell them the truth yet.

"I am sorry that I kept you both worried, I just needed to find a job for myself so I could help you both"i said.

"Come on Cora we don't need you to do anything if such, we can take care of you" Aunt Thea said.

"I just want to work" i answered.

"So where you able to find a new job?" Uncle Evan asked.

"Yes I found a new job" I said.

"Where did you find a job?" She asked.

"In the neighboring town as a cleaner and that was why it took me so long to come home"

Aunt Thea didn't look happy about it but she did not say anything about it. I waited for either of them to say something but none of them did.

"I can see you both are not happy for me?" I asked.

"No we are, I just want you to be careful Cora" She said softly.

"And I promise, I will" i smiled at her.

"Come and have your dinner it is getting cold" Aunt Thea said.

I had dinner and we all retiree to bed but I couldn't sleep, I had to find out how mama and papa were. I quickly pulled out the book of spells . I sat down and started the communication spell. Papa thought me how to use it and he said I could use it to summon him at any point in time. He also told me hat the only time when it won't work will be when he or whomever I wanted to someone was no longer alive.

I sat down on the floor and took of my bracelet and started enchantments.

"Papa u mama do ra pi appear mo mi, his lele helm kee bib el shu do Mo " I enchanted.

I repeated the spells a couple of times and papa appeared. And the portal of communication opened, I was so excited to see them, I had not spoken to papa or mama since I got here.

"Papa" I called out.

"My dear child" papa said.

"Where is mama?" I asked.

"I'm right here" mama said as she came to stand beside papa.

"How are you two?" I asked.

"We are both fine, what about you" mama asked.

"I am great just missing you both" I said and I was getting teary.

"Do not cry my child, we miss you too. How about Thea and Evan" mama asked.

"Aunt Thea and Uncle Evan are okay, they retired to bed some minutes ago" I said.

"Take care of yourself Cora and stay out of trouble" papa said.

"Yes papa I promise"

"We have to go now, there is a meeting at the witches vine and I have to be there" he said.

"Take care of yourself Cora we love you" they both said.

"I love you both so very much" I replied as the portable began to close and they began to vanish gradually till I could not see either of them again.

I really missed my mama and papa so much, but then Aunt Thea and Uncle Evan treated me like there own child and that made me so comfortable.

I thought of the events of the past few hours, I would have been burnt alive if that woman had raised an alarm. And the prince, my mama told me that when a man starts looking at you in a certain way he was either in love with you or in lust with you.

I couldn't tell which the Prince's was but I was enjoying it. Even though it made me feel uncomfortableness first, I loved how his full concentration was on me, but I know it's something I will never admit to. The King would kill me if he ever found out I had anything to do with his Son. In as much as I wanted to see where this thing with the prince was headed to I wanted to stay out of any sort of trouble with the royal home. I didn't want Uncle Evan and Aunt Thea's fears to come to pass and I also did not want to disappoint Gaia and Maia. I would keep this secret of working in the palace from Aunt Thea and her husband for as long as I could.

I would be having a long day at work the next day and so I closed my eyes and slept off.