The Hidden Child
1149 Words
I didn't want to consider it.
Well, that's what I said to myself.
However, the words continued to recur.
No one is allowed to see a child.
It was not in any place I knew Lucian's territory.
And that's what kept it in my mind.
On the following morning, I walked down the hall close to the kitchen, as if going there to fetch water. I had begun to slowly learn the layout of the stronghold. Not because I was allowed but because nobody said anything to me except if I overstepped the limits.
A young servant came by and folded the linens.
I gently brushed her aside.
“Wait,” I said.
She was seized with fear and she lowered her face slightly.
“Yes, my lady,” she said hurriedly.
I stopped at the name but I didn't correct her.
“May I have a few questions?” I said.
She hesitated.
Yes she said slowly.
I stared at her face for a while.
She looked nervous. Can't calm down to ask a simple question.
“There’s a kid here,” I said quietly. “Inside the closet.”
As soon as the words came out of my mouth, her face changed.
Not confusion.
Fear.
“What?” she asked sharply. “I…I don't understand you!”
I narrowed my eyes just a bit.
“You don’t know?” I repeated.
She shook her head rapidly.
No, my lady, I don't know anything about that," he said.
Her fingers clenched tightly on the linens.
It was a lie.
A very obvious one.
I didn't ask any more questions.
“Alright,” I said slowly.
She knelt down again, bowing swiftly.
“Excuse me,” she said, almost running me down.
I see her going out.
Her speed was too swift.
Her shoulders were so tight.
That wasn’t ignorance.
That was avoidance.
I slowly and quietly breathed out and walked on.
Not only warriors then.
The servants were also told not to talk about it.
That made it worse.
Later that day, I discovered Lucian in one of the training courtyards talking with two of his commanders.
When he spotted me, he paused.
One of the commanders started to leave right away and came up to us.
Lucian looked at me.
“You're getting better,” he told him.
I didn't pay attention to that.
“Let me ask you,” I said straight to him.
He didn't change his expression.
“Go on.”
He was a man whom I studied in detail.
A child, I said.A little kid, I said.
A flash, a flicker, a change came into his eyes for a moment.
Not anger.
Not surprise.
Control.
Then it was gone.
He asked, "What child?“What child?” he asked.
I clenched my jaw a little.
The one in your heart and soul, I said.
Silence.
It was too long.
Lucian's eyes were unreadable and glued to me.
Then he spoke.
“It's not your business,” he replied with a sense of coolness.
My eyes narrowed.
I replied, “All the people give me this answer.”
Lucian moved slightly closer so as to alter the air pressure.
“This is not something that's up for discussion,” he said again.
I didn’t look away.
“Why?” I asked.
He lowered his voice a bit.
“As it's not your problem.”
That wasn’t an explanation.
It was a boundary.
I thoroughly examined him.
For the first time, I noticed something different!
He would vary his posture every time this subject was mentioned.
More alert.
More guarded.
As if he were getting ready for impact.
“How much you're protecting it,” I whispered.
Lucian didn’t answer.
This was enough of a silence.
My heart started leaping up and down and my chest got tight.
So it was not a lack of transparency.
It was protection.
What from, I didn't know.
But it mattered.
I could feel it.
“What is it you're hiding in your territory?” I asked softly, “Lucian?”
His eyes narrowed a bit.
There are many things in my territory,” he said back.
I responded, "That's not an answer.
He stared me a moment longer.
Then he slightly turned away.
“Concentrate on the important stuff,” he went on.
I frowned.
“What matters?” I repeated.
He said, "You're going to live.
This put the conversation to a close.
Not because it's been solved.
However, as he determined it was.
I watched him then, as he was making his way from the courtyard, my frustration increasing a little.
He was closing it down each time.
Which didn't mean it wasn't important.
It was important.
Very important.
The further he steered clear of it the more I wanted to know.
It was an evening after training when I was walking alone in one of the less busy halls.
My body still hurt a little from Kaela's session, but I was feeling at ease now.
I was turning a corner when I heard voices up ahead.
Two guards.
I did a slowdown and kept to the wall instinctively.
“…he was brought in back inside,” one of them whispered.
“It’s not safe for him out here,” the other replied.
My steps dragged along even more.
Him.
My heart was thumping a bit.
Carefully I approached, behind a pillar.
One of the guards sighed.
“Unless no one sees him again, the King will lose control,” he said with a dismal tremour in his voice.
The other guard nodded in response.
“Which is why they’re trying to keep moving him,” he said. “No one can stare him in the eye for a long time.”
I frowned slightly.
It didn’t seem like a sensible thing to do.
Before I could move closer, there were other footsteps again that echoed down the corridor.
The guards froze.
One of them whispered to him urgently, “Move him.”
Afterwards, they part ways.
Fast.
Too fast.
I cannot believe I managed to move fast enough and time my reaction to see movement at the end of the hall.
A nanny carrying a baby in her arms.
Two armored warriors were helping her along rapidly.
My breath caught.
Then one of the warriors placed a hand on her shoulder.
Firmly, the warrior said, “No looking around.”
The nanny was hurried down the corridor.
My heart beat faster and faster.
I was having trouble understanding what I had just witnessed.
The nanny disappeared through a side door almost instantly.
The guards were close behind.
And then, once more the hall was empty.
As if they were no victims of their past.
I stood paralyzed for another few seconds.
The thoughts in my mind trying to make sense of what I had witnessed.
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