Darkness of Magic (Soul of Magic Book 2)

TWELVE

Politics, politics, and more politics. That coupled with a whole lot of meetings had been the order of Lorraine's life since Richard embarked on his quest alongside Kyra and Lucian and left her in charge of Cyrian. Actually, the princess knew very well beforehand that the politics and constant meetings were what had kept the great kingdom up and running since it came into existence; but that didn’t mean she loved or wanted them to be any more part of her life than was absolutely necessary. To her, they were boring and monotonous, an overly repeated routine that even though created great and lasting results was no beauty in itself; at least that was her take on it.

And so, in a bid to retain at least a portion of her former life before losing it to her new one, Lorraine sat down at the balcony of her room under the silvery rays of the full moon; a good storybook in her hand to be enjoyed. Of course, the princess could be doing something very different that night, a number of scrolls of reports and requests literally littered her table begging for her attention. But for that one night, Lorraine wasn’t the regent of the great kingdom of Cyrian, she was just a girl who wanted time to herself.

Just as the princess settled down to get into her book, something suddenly caught her eyes from below. It was actually an indescribable shadow she saw initially but as she concentrated, she realized that it was someone moving through the maze which her room directly overlooked. Judging from the outfit, she deduced that it was a servant but who exactly it was, she had no idea.

Lorraine could have left it there and then and returned back to her book; it was definitely none of her business. But the princess couldn’t help but wonder what a servant could be doing out walking through the maze in the middle of the night. Of course, it could be that he just needed to take a stroll or needed somewhere quiet to think; she herself always chose to walk down the maze whenever she felt somewhat overwhelmed or in need of privacy. But it could also be that he was meeting a secret lover; there were definitely lot of gossip going around the castle about that sort of thing happening among the commoners and even among the members of the great families.

Anyway, Lorraine finally decided to settle back into her book and leave the wandering servant alone to his fate. "It's none of your business, Lorraine," she said to herself as she began to read. "You have your own issues to think about and do not need to add him, whoever he is, to the list."

Unfortunately, the princess’ mind didn’t seem to understand her words and soon enough, it returned back to the servant in the maze. Truth be told, it wasn’t the servant or the fact that he was even taking a nightly stroll through the maze that had her thinking. In actuality, her mind just needed something to focus on that wasn’t her usual regent or princess routine. "Well, how bad can it be?" she said, finally giving in and dropping her book on her chair.

Looking down again, Lorraine saw that the servant hadn’t moved very far from the last position she spotted him, which could either mean that he didn't know the layout of the maze very well or he was a really slow walker. It could also be that he was trying really hard not to be detected on what was considered private grounds but Lorraine didn't bother to ponder over any of that as she grabbed her cloak and raced out of her room after him.

She avoided the night patrols as she went; a task which proved very easy as she knew the entire castle both in and out, including its secret passages. She kept to the shadows because she didn’t want to meet anyone, especially the lords whom she would have to explain to what was so urgent that she was lurking outside her room in the middle of the night. No matter how good her lies, it would implicate the poor soul just taking an innocent night stroll outside in the maze and that was the last thing she wanted.

Lorraine easily caught up with the servant whom she was able to confirm was a man when she saw him up close. She kept her distance though, making sure he didn't spot her following him and spook him. Fortunately, she had enough practice to know how to be stealthy; that was one of her favourite pastimes with Richard.

Sending out a quick prayer of thanks for her brother, the princess followed her quarry. She reminded herself times without number that she was just following the servant out of idle curiosity. It wasn’t like she wanted to uncover some big secret; except maybe it had something to do with a love affair between the said servant and a lady of noble birth, which in itself wasn't also a big deal to her. Anybody could do anything with anybody they wanted and however they wanted, the realm would still keep on living after that. And if the realm kept on living, then there was reason for her to be involved in whatever or however anybody did anything with anybody.

Just then, the servant arrived in the centre of the maze where a large stone statue of King Nicolas the Vanquisher was erected.

Even as a statue, Lorraine found out that her father still scared her as much as he did in his lifetime. To be clear, he wasn't a bad man, at least he had never been bad to her. But she had always been good at reading people and whenever she looked into the eyes of her father, a man who was supposed to be the one on whom she built her ideas of menfolk upon, all she saw was hate and darkness; and that scared her to no ends.

Of course, the princess had asked her mother about him plenty of times but all she heard from her were only good things, which she believed had to be true or the latter wouldn't have agreed to spend the rest of her life with him in the first place.

But whenever Lorraine saw Nicolas, the darkness was always there, lurking just beneath as if waiting for a chance moment to spring forth. It led her to start considering that maybe there were actually two souls residing inside of him and after a long while, it was all she could see when she looked at him; a man with two ever-battling souls.

Anyway, she broke out of her thoughts as she saw the servant walk up to the statue and kneel before it. "Is he planning to pray to him?" she whispered to herself in puzzlement.

But her thought was soon proven wrong when he touched a part of the stone and the statue began to slide across the ground.

For a stone statue of the size of a very small stable to slide across the cobbled ground without anything to help it along, Lorraine would have expected it to make so much noise that it would wake up the entire kingdom. But surprisingly, there wasn't even anything to indicate that the statue was in contact with the ground at all. It was as if it just upped and began to float as it went.

The statue came to a stop as soundlessly as it had moved and the princess realized it actually hid a flight of stairs. Quick and quiet as a spectre, the servant descended down the stairs and out of the princess’ view.

Still confounded by what she’d just seen, Lorraine contemplated over whether she should go after the servant or return to call other people to come see her discovery. What was going on was still a mystery to her; but if there was something that the princess was sure of then, it was that what she was witnessing was no secret lovers' meet.

Eventually choosing not to lose sight of her quarry, Lorraine ran out of her hiding place and down the stairs after the servant.

"By the Creator!" she gasped as she reached the bottom step and fully realised what she had just stumbled upon; a siege tunnel.

As the princess was soon to learn, the innocent night stroll wasn't so innocent after all.