Death-Bound

Princess

Chapter Five

“We are not here to take your child, trader. We just want to look at your trade.” The man said. I couldn’t believe it, he spoke our dialect with not a single flaw. The trader show himself once again guilt obviously peaking in his eyes. The man whom I am with then threw a bag of money at him, which he easily caught. The trader’s hand trembled at the sight of the things inside of it—gold coins. And judging from the way his hand carried it, it is a hefty amount as well. “we want only the best of this trade.” He spoke once again pointing to the garments of our people, garment in which long ago I took a liking of. The trader spoke not a single word, he just obeyed what the death-bound wanted him to do. He went at the back of the tent and took from there a chest with elaborate carvings and designs, showing its importance.

“This one is of the highest priced garment in our land—the rose silk, it was said that to make a single strand, one must find hundreds of desert roses." The trader's eyes shined with pride. True enough, rose silk can only be afforded by royals and wealthy people.  He then proceeded to show the patterns of each silk, boasting the way it would feel on ones' skin. Unlike other silk, Rose silk is cooling to the one wearing it. It is designed to resist the harsh heat of our land. When the man I am with chose one of the pattern the trader suddenly asked, "Is this woman your wife, my lord?” Dressing a woman is depending on her status. Modesty is something our people takes seriously. But once a woman is married she can show off a bit of her skin. She is after all owned by her husband already  “I have one design that’ll fit her best.” The man whom I was with never spoke to answer the trader, but it was his silence that gave the trader the capacity to order up his child, to dress me into one of his highest priced garment. She pulled my hand gently and asked me to obey her orders, garment from our land is not that easy to wear. And to think that I was as if a child that obeyed her every orders. She adorned me like a bride with jewels and precious stones. She painted my face with such delicateness, I couldn’t even feel her hands touching my skin. Then she handed me a mirror, I couldn’t recognize myself…it was as if I’m a whole new being—Hyacinth, she was looking back at me, mocking me for keeping her inside far too long. I felt my emotions flooding in me as if the magic that I had uttered to keep her safe had now been broken.

The scent of million roses enveloped me as I walked in once again the trade-maker’s tent. I felt that I belong to this place, and right that moment I felt like I'm home. For the first time that day, I smiled truly from my heart showing that I am whole once again. The two men were surprised to see me. “Is there a problem?” I asked them both perfectly in the language that the trader spoke in. The trader trembled at the sight of me. He knelt and the bowed his head as if kissing the ground, pulling his daughter to bow and not look at my face, showing their respect to their land's royals.

“My Princess!” he exclaimed pressing his forehead harder on the ground as if my mere presence is godsend.. “I am your servant.” The way he acted, it was as if he recognized who I am!

“A princess is not who I am. Raise now trader, and be proud of your trade.” I said denying reality once again.

“But I know you! I am but a servant who delivered goods into your castle’s grounds. I saw you! You were but a child then but I know who you are. You are our Princess, the heir of the Gem of the Desert. Our Queen! The Emperor took you, twelve years ago, from our land. I was one of those who bid you farewell. You looked at us not minding that we see your face back then. Your face was forever engraved in my mind your highness.” I heard hope in his voice. Hope that he saw his beloved Princess. In our land the people look up to the King as the father to their kingdom, a nurturer and the hope, that is how they treated authority. And me being their Princess they looked at me as their own child. My people will protect me from any harm…but then, here I am a death-bound. “You are the Lady Hyacinth, the Princess of the Gem of the Desert!”

I snapped, “Can’t you see this?!” I was holding my bell. Though he is not uttering any sound my message was clear. “A death-bound can never be a princess, trader. And what you are saying is entirely impossible.” I said and walked out of that tent. I didn’t bother to even look at the man whom I am with. I know that he will follow me if he is a stranger in my master’s land. I walked fast, further from that trader—a part of my past, a part of her—Hyacinth, who's laughter sound in the deepest part of my memory.

I stopped when I realized I am almost out of the town. And when I took a look around me, I have reached a park. Many nobles would visit this area, I myself am wondering how I entered in such when in fact it is off limits for commoners. "Oh," I suddenly remembered, 'the garment I’m wearing must have fooled the guards of this place.' I thought to myself. I sat down on one of the park bench and tried to calm my breathing. I was anxious in a sort of way.

“You must never run off like that,” a man said sitting next to me. I looked at him, he was the same man whom I was with, in the trader’s tent. “I almost forgot to buy myself things in that shop, you know.” He lend me a drinking bottle made of tinted glass—one that most noble use in their walks. “Drink, you needed it. You walked almost five miles.” Five miles? “I’ve never seen such a woman who can be such as yourself. Indeed you are a death-bound.” He almost hissed on his last statement.

“Speak of yourself when you and I are the same…cursed!” I said in an argumentative yet modest way. I drunk from his drinking bottle in a lady like manner, I was thirsty after all the walking. Then we heard it both. The sound I almost wanted to suppress forever—the sound of my stomach grumbling. I almost died there and then with embarrassment! “Erm-I realized I haven’t eaten all day.” I said as an excuse, but suddenly he started laughing so loud that even the passersby looked at the two of us. I wanted to kill him that instant however, I remembered…I used to laugh like that at my master when we were still children. He must have felt the same way then as I do now. i***t! I chastised myself as I realized what I am doing—remembering a myth!

“Come, I know a place around here which serve desert delicacies.” He said standing and pulling my hand with him. Who is this man? “Do I have to carry you for spacing out like that?” he smiled, though I saw the emptiness behind it. It was like looking at my own reflection. Perhaps he knows how it might feel to be a death-bound, for he is one as well. I just followed him. People started looking at the two of us. They would smile at us, perhaps thinking that we are a couple out together. Nobles usually, hardly even, get to choose whom they would marry. But in the end the two would eventually fall in love with each other. Since no parents wouldn’t want a mischievous son or daughter in law, they would do background checking.