The Illyrian Series: The Oracle Of Rosedale

Ten minutes later, Marisol comes back with a big smile. "I have good news, the governor has invited you to dinner. He was quite taken with your gift."

"Delightful, lead the way." She leads us through the door she came in and down a carpeted hall. At the end is a set of double doors, she opens them to reveal a grande dining room.

At the centre of the ceiling is a big chandelier, I'm not sure if the diamonds are real or fake. A big table in the middle of the room seat about twenty people. At the head is the governor. A middle aged man with silver hair, black eyes and bronze skin.

On either side of him is a young man with curly brown hair, black eyes and the same bronze skin. At the other end of the table is a woman in a big tiara and a georgous purple dress.

I courtesy politely.

"You must be the mysterious guest." The governor says in a loud and commanding voice. "Marisol didn't mention your name."

I offer them a charming smile. "Edrei." My middle name. "Edrei Dantor." Mother's maiden name.

The governor nods. "Wonderful, and your acquaintance?" He gestures at Violet. She doesn't speak. "Can she hear me? She isn't deaf, is she?" The governor jokes, laughter fills the table.

"Pardon me." Then to Violet. "You may speak."

I see her visibly trying to surpress her rage. "My name is Violet." She quickly stares back at the floor.

"She needs your permission to speak? Do you own her?" The governor asks.

I laugh. "Oh no, not exactly. Maybe, a little bit." I laugh again. "She was a gift from daddy for my birthday, he made sure to get me the best mage he could."

The governor's eyes light up. "She's a mage?"

"Yes, father bought her services for five years. We're on our second, aren't we Violet." She's silent. "Aren't we?" I repeat.

"Yes, my lady." She forces out.

I turn back to them with a beam.

"Interesting, please take a seat." The governor gestures to his left.

The man beside me helps me with my chair. "Thank you." I match his smile and take my seat.

"That is my son, Eric." The governor introduces. "My other son, Marcus." The man on his right doesn't smile. "My beautiful wife, Margareta." The lady at the other end. "And my only daughter, Penelope." He signals to the plump teenager beside her mother, she offers me a tiny, insincere smile. "My deputy, Sherman and his family. And other members of our council."

I remove my napkin from my plate, fold it and place it on my lap. Then I pick up my wine glass and sip tentatively. They watch me closely. "Thank you so much for inviting me into your home." I catch the governor's wife eye. "And might I say, that is such a gorgeous piece."

Her hand instinctively goes up to her head. "Thank you. Yours is breathtaking as well."

"Oh, this silly thing. I couldn't travel with any important pieces."

"Travel," the governor says. "Where are you coming from?"

"Caledonia." The table looks impressed.

"You live there?" The Governor asks.

"I do, with my family."

"So why are you travelling?"

"I'm meeting relatives in Tarron, I was passing by your town."

His lips are pursed and his tone is brisk. "We're fortunate you decided to give us a visit."

"I have an uncle, he visited here, I think six years ago. He suggested I stop by Durnam, he's in love with your city."

"Oh really, what does he like?" The governor asks, slowly regaining his interest in our conversation.

I try to remember what Ollie told me. "The forest, it's whimsical. He mentioned a lake not too far from here, said the water had healing abilities. The bell tower, never stops talking about the sound. He loves it."

"How come we never met him?" Marcus speaks for the first time, his tone isn't hospitable. "He never paid us a visit while we were here."

"My uncle isn't like that, he travels strangely. Hangs around the lower areas, doesn't talk to the ruling class, never understood him."

The governor smiles at being called ruling class. "Well, it's lovely to have you here. Where are you staying?"

"The Sunshine inn." I shudder.

"You don't like your accomodations?" He asks.

"I don't like a lot of places, it's hard to find anywhere with decent fur carpets and silk linens this day. That place expects me to place my head on a cotton pillow." I grimace. "Just cut my head and be done with it." There's light laughter. "But it's alright, it's rare to find somewhere with good standards."

"Really." The governor narrows his eyes. "Then why don't you stay here for the night?"

"What?" I force my eyes not to drift off to Violet's, she's seated at the other end of the table. "I wouldn't want to inconvenience you. It's alright, really." This isn't part of the plan.

"No, you should stay." He insists. "Let us know if our manor is up to Caledonia's standards."

I force a laugh. I can't reject his offer, that'll be considered rude. "Thank you for the offer, that is so generous of you." I try to mask my somber mood.

I look up from my plate of roasted veal and find Marcus looking at me with piercing black eyes. "Miss Edrei." I take half a second too long to reply, no ones called me by my middle name in years. "Where's the rest of your travelling party?"

"I'm traveling light, wouldn't want to draw attention to myself."

"So just you and Miss Violet?" He asks.

I take a deep breath, is it too early. "Not exactly." He raises his brow. "I'm travelling with a soldier."

"And where is he?" Marcus asks. "Or do the terms of his agreement forbid him from social functions?" There's some uncomfortable laughter.

I go right in. "He's in prison, actually."

"Excuse me?" The governor asks. "Prison?"

I nod. "I sent him out to get hooves for my horses and his weapons sharpened and he got into a fight." I shake my head. "It is so hard to get good service these days." Some guests nod. I can't believe I just said that about my favourite person.

"And you're just going to leave him there?" Marcus asks disbelievingly.

I shrug. "He's a good soldier, been able to ward off some bandits." I cut myself a piece of veal. "But is he really worth 120 gold coins?"

"120?" Margareta exclaims. "That's ridiculous, no servant is worth that."

"That can't be right." The Deputy governor says. "No bail is that high."

I raise my fork to my mouth and let it hover there. "Not just bail, reparations for things he broke in the blacksmith's shop, my conduct at the prison. It's a hefty bill."

"Is it Marty the blacksmith's shop?" Marcus asks. I nod. He sighs. "I'll take care of it."

"You will?" I'm shocked. I thought he didn't like me. "That's so kind of you. How would I go around paying the fee?"

"Free of charge, consider it a gift."

Eric laughs beside me. "Gift? I thought you didn't believe in those."

He ignores him and focuses on his wine.

I take a relaxing breath, it worked. Malin is free.

The night could have ended here, but fate has other plans.

"I enjoyed your company tonight, Miss Edrei." The governor says when we finish our dessert. "How about in exchange for releasing your guard, you have dinner with us tomorrow?"

I want to refuse, I really do. "Of course, I'll love to."

The guests clear off the table and Margareta leads me to my room, it's so grande. "This is just luxurious." The room has a red four poster bed with a spacious seating area opposite it complete with two armchairs and a sofa. A roaring fireplace warms up the room and makes everywhere feel cosy.

"You like it?" Margareta asks.

"I do, maybe even better than the rooms in the Caledonian castle. And I would know, I've spent so many nights there." Not a lie. "Goodnight, and thank you again for your hospitality."

"Goodnight." She leaves.

I wait almost an hour for Violet, she dumps a bag on the floor with a very big scowl on her face. "I take back every nice thing I've ever said about you. You are a terrible stuck up princess."

I look through the bag. "Did you do what I asked?" She doesn't reply. "I'm sorry, but I had to. For Malin."

"You looked like you were having the time of your life, laughing and dining with those awful people."

"It's fake, who cares? I just need to get through tomorrow. I'll ask the governor if you can visit Malin, you can tell him he'll be out soon."

"I'm going back to the inn." She walks out.

"Violet." I go after her into the hall. Numerous sconces light the place up and make the red walls appear golden. "I'm sorry, I just needed to get him out." I whisper.

She doesn't say anything for a long time. After a while, she uses her nose to point behind me. I turn back and see Marcus walking up to us.

"Goodnight Violet, don't leave the room." I say, shooing her away. She takes her leave silently. I focus on Marcus with a wide smile.

"I instructed the soldiers to realease your guard at noon tomorrow." He says.

"Thank you so much, you've been a really big help."

He frowns. "Don't thank me. I didn't do it for you."

He walks off in the same direction he came from, I follow him. "What do you mean?"

He stops walking and circles back on me with so much fury in his eyes. "You know what, I have a question for you. Who do you think you are?"

I'm taken back. "Excuse me?"

"You have no respect for people. For Violet, who you `basically own.' And with your guard, he's just another replecable person to you. Isn't he?" He scoffs. "Is he really worth 120 good coins?" He repeats incredulously.

"You don't know what you're talking about."

"Oh really. We're not in the same position, I don't even know why I'm talking to you." I shut my eyes briefly. "The guard you were rude to, his name's Simon. He's one of my closest friends, he felt so bad after talking to you. No one has ever disrespected him like that."

My eyes are slowly getting red. "I'm sorry." I manage to choke out.

His voice is low now. "You're as bad as everyone here. It sickens me that you're in a position to hurt others. Just get the people you, maybe, a little bit own and leave my provence." He stalks off, I don't stop him this time.

I rush back to my room and fall on the bed, I try my best and hardest to keep the tears back. But they keep coming. I was horrid today. To Violet, complete strangers, even Malin, and I was trying to save him. I'm a bad person.

I dry my eyes and look through my things. Eveything is here, Violet paid attention to everything I told her right after dinner and got it all done. And I was terrible to her.

I hold up the dress I got at the boutique today, I convinved Violet that it might be useful in an emergency. I really just wanted to get it cause I thought it was pretty.

There's a knock on my door, Marisol walks in. "I'm here to help you get ready for tonight."

"No thank you, I'm alright."

She chuckles softly. "Probably for the best, I'm not as good as those Caledonian women anyway."

"No, it's not that. I just..." I don't know what to say. "I don't want to bother you, I'm quite alright."

"Are you sure?" She asks.

I nod. "Good night, thank you."

She leaves.

I take off all my jewelry but pause at my snowflake necklace, it's as it always is, hanging securely on my neck.

I pack my sapphires into a pouch.

The pouch makes me remember the one I gave away today, in it was one of the most important things I own. My dagger. The one given to me by my mother, it was the best gift I could think off. I remove the tiny tiara from my head and sigh. It seems fitting I lost it, I deserved that after what I did today.

I'll miss it though. It reminded me of her, and also father. Even though, he wasn't too fond of it.

"What's the point of a weapon if you can't pierce someone with it?" He asked once when we were training.

"It's a symbol, meant to be passed down from generation to generation. It should be hung, displayed, admired. Not used for brute force, we can't always be savages." I did my best impression of mother.

He couldn't stop laughing. "You're getting better." He commented. That was the last time we trained together.

I strip off my coat, then my dress, then put on a white loose nightdress. I crawl into bed and start crying again, though for a completely different reason.

I bury my face in my pillow and face the canopy of the bed as I drift off to sleep. I can't stop thinking of Marcus. He was so angry, as he should have been.

Ollie mentioned he's the only one the soldiers respect. I can see why, he seems to care about people. It's an admirable trait in a leader, I hope I can be half as good as him if I take back my kingdom.