Chapter Four

Even though I had agreed to educate the duchess’ daughter, I’d still rather die than become a tutor. I felt like my hands were chained together, bound by service like a slave. By signing the contract Cicero, the duchess’ emissary, had given me, I signed my life away. My sanity. The peace I had worked so hard for when I bought this house a year ago.

I refilled my aquaplant’s pot absently, thinking of all the things I could be doing right now. I could be doing something productive. Like writing. Writing a column on how rude the prince was. Although he wasn’t rude to me when we met… No. Titus was a Royal, and all Royals were like Odelia. Prideful and arrogant. The Royals were the ones who fired my mother after eight years of her faithful service. They turned her away like she was trash.

Titus was a Royal. I would have nothing to do with his family.

I sighed. The first tutoring classes with Odelia’s daughter were supposed to start this morning in two hours. If Clarice Faretra was as horrible as her mother, I wouldn’t last one hour in the same room with her.

To prepare, I obeyed Odelia’s instructions in regards to dressing well. My best outfit included a blue blouse, comfortable dark trousers, and boots. The duchess could whine and pout all she wanted. I was not going to force myself to squeeze into a dress or suffocate my waist by wearing hosiery.

My messenger bag was packed with my mother’s reference books and other such needed things. Whenever my mother would come home after a day’s work in the palace, she would set her books on the table and tell me about her day. But she never told me about tutoring Titus. Not once did she speak his name to me.

I almost felt betrayed by my mother. How could she have kept something so important from me?

Knock, knock, knock.

I gripped the strap of my bag hard. Was that a royal messenger or something? I went to unlock the door.

“Hello, Ms. Bury!” I immediately regretted opening the door, but when I went to close it, the foot of an irritating delivery man blocked its progress. “I won’t leave until you open the door, Ms. Bury.”

I considered grabbing the knife from my messenger bag and stabbing his foot, but that would be too sadistic, I realized. I sighed as I opened the door. “What do you want, Delivery Man?”

A short and stout middle-aged man with a crooked grin stood before me. Percy Wentzel ran his hands through disheveled brown hair. “Boy! I’ve only seen you in pictures; you’re much prettier in real life, Ms. Bury. It’s nice to officially meet you. You can call me Percy Wentzel. Or P.W. for—”

“I will stab your foot if you don’t get to the point, Delivery Man.”

“Okay, okay.” He placed his hands in front of him in a cautionary manner. “I was asked to inform you to meet with an escort at the Aria water port near the cathedral in fifteen minutes. Exact words from the royal emissary.”

“Cicero Rauch?”

Percy nodded. “Did you take a job at the castle or something? Because people are whisperin’ all around town. It sounds like it’s mighty important—”

“Thank you for letting me know,” I interrupted. “I have to go now.” I glanced meaningfully at his foot.

“But don’t you have to go out the door?”

Dear God, please help me. “I forgot some things in the house. Move your foot.”

The delivery man pursed his lips, but obeyed. “It was nice to officially meet—”

I closed the door. His habit of repeating things was too much to bear.

Instead of going out the front door where Percy would assail me with meaningless chatter, I climbed out the back window of my stand-alone house (since there was no back door). Landing silently on the pavement outside the window, I trotted along the dank alley to the main streets.

It took me a while to make it to the water port. I weaved deftly through the crowd as I made my way up the hill that led to the cathedral. I wondered briefly why Cicero would want me to meet an escort at the ports. Whatever the reason was, I did not feel good about it.

I rounded a street corner directly across from the cathedral and came to a stop at the Aria water port. The flashy low-rise building was the second largest port in Aria, and it was identified by its open sun porch and obnoxiously bright yellow banner that read: Aria Water Ports: Station 2; Come on in and join us for a ride!

I entered the brownstone building as a distinct smell of lemon and moldy wood assailed my nostrils. Oh my word. I covered my nose protectively. What was that odor? I looked around the lobby, which was square and sparsely populated. There was a very good reason why it was close to empty.

“Ms. Lannie Brackenbury?”

I turned to see a large, muscular guard in a blue uniform. He had dark sideburns and a keenly trimmed mustache. His facial hair reminded me of my father, who absolutely abhorred any hair growth on his face. Or used to abhor it until mother…

The man in front of me bowed swiftly. “My name is Maddox Quill, Captain of the Guard. We’ll be escorting you today, ma’am.” The captain spoke in short, terse sentences, getting right to the point. I immediately liked him. He nodded to two other guards, both of whom wore the same blue Aria military uniform as Maddox. They waved cheerfully, and one even smiled at me. Maddox, however, never changed his expression.

“Okay, then can we go now?” I pointed at the port exit eagerly. Surely this was only a meeting place… Surely I wouldn’t be forced to ride in a…

“We’re taking the ports today.”

No. No, not the ports. “Can’t I just walk? You don’t have to escort me. I’m perfectly capable of making it to the castle myself…”

“Actually,” Maddox said as I inched backward towards the exit, “the prince informed me that you needed assistance in getting to the castle. He said you had trouble getting there last time.”

I stopped inching away. Titus. Of course it was Titus who told them I needed help. “I was just…admiring the scenery.” I thought back to the jungle I had to wander through. “I really don’t need help. I’ll just walk, okay?”

“Ma’am, these are my orders.” Maddox pointed to the looming entrance of the loading dock.

There was no point in making a scene, so I gave up. I already knew that Maddox was an impossible man to argue with. I followed them onto the loading dock where my worst nightmare awaited.

Water horses.

Past the entrance was a large terrace that was fenced in by tall brick walls. A twenty-foot wide empty water channel made its way through the center of the deck, beginning at a water booth and continuing on to exit through a gap in the wall. A massive barn was positioned several yards away from the terrace. Its doors were shut, but I could hear the distinct screeches of water horses within the building.

As Maddox talked with a man inside the booth, I counted several times to eleven to calm myself down. I breathed in deeply, but started coughing when I smelled the air. The scent of molded wood and lemons was stronger than it had been in the lobby, and I realized with horror where the smell was coming from. Directly next to the water channel, a deep crimson liquid stained the planks. A staff member was mopping up the stain with a lemon-scented cleaning agent.

I instantly felt nauseous.

He was mopping up blood.

“—worry.”

I jumped. I had been too focused on the cleaner to realize that one of the guards was talking to me. “Huh?”

“Don’t worry,” he said. “It’s fish blood.”

I shivered. It didn’t matter; it was still revolting to see blood staining the ground. And it was even worse to know you would be in the presence of a creature capable of causing that.

“They’re getting the horses now,” Maddox stated matter-of-factly. “They shouldn’t be too violent.” Despite his comforting words, his face still remained expressionless as he looked at me.

I rubbed my head. Mother had possessed a fascination with water horses, but I could never figure out why. She talked endlessly of their beauty, but when I first come face-to-face with a water horse, it had tried to kill me. Since then, I had never approached another one of those vicious monsters.

The barn door opened to reveal four men leading two wild-looking horses. Another man exited the water booth and drew out a large boat with four seats into the water channel. The horses thrashed, making high-pitched shrieks of rebellion as the men led them to the water channel.

“Sorry, Maddox.” The man who exited the booth scratched his head as he looked at the men strapping the unruly horses to the boat. “They’re mighty unusual today. It might just be the weather that’s causin’ them to act up. Dang creatures are right smart at times, but stupid at others.”

“It’s fine, Clive. We’re in a hurry.” Maddox beckoned me to the boat with the two beastly animals.

No, no, no… I couldn’t panic now. Not now. I needed to focus. If I was quiet and listened to what Maddox told me to do, I would be fine. The horses wouldn’t hurt me. Or eat me, for that matter. I edged forward to the boat hesitantly, carefully placing one foot in front of the other. One of the horses made a blood-curdling wail as they thrashed in the water, soaking the wooden planks. I placed a foot in the boat, but just as I was in the midst of lifting my other foot into the vessel, one of the horses looked at me.

I met its gaze for a brief second, and a veil of silence covered the terrace. Even though its muzzle concealed razor sharp teeth, and even though its slitted yellow eyes struck fear into the hearts of all who met its gaze, I couldn’t deny the beauty of the creature. Magnificent and powerful, dark and magical. It was a creature that possessed terrifying majesty. A beautiful nightmare.

It was over in a moment and I was in the boat. The horses had ceased their thrashing, instead taking to swishing their tails back and forth in the water. Maddox and the two other guards climbed into the boat.

“If I ever ride a boat again, Ms. Lannie,” Maddox said, “remind me to take you. You must be a lucky charm.” He smiled thinly at me.

I realized a bit late that he was trying to make a joke. At least we were getting somewhere. I grimaced as the horses started to tug the boat towards the gap in the wall—to the castle. “I think I’ll pass on that one, Captain.”

                                                ————————

“Here you are, Ms. Lannie.”

Maddox indicated his hand to the castle entrance. The ride had gone smoother and quicker than I had originally anticipated. We had stopped at the water port directly outside the castle walls. Thankfully, the naiads didn’t sing to me as we crossed the main bridge to the castle, although one did poke her head out of the water to grin at me. Frivolous little things.

I nodded to the large man, who had led me to the castle gate. “Thank you, Captain.”

“Anytime. If you’ll excuse me.” He bowed his head and walked off in the other direction.

One of the guards opened the door for me and I entered into the lobby, apprehension clinging to every bone in my body. The rug was plush and crimson over hardwood flooring, just like the rest of the castle. A gleaming chandelier lit with fire hung above the grand room. Gold trim lined the side staircase and decorated the furniture in the sitting area. There were a few people milling about, but many of them seemed to be servants and guards. I took a deep breath and went up the staircase to the left. Clarice’s study room was several floors up, and the instructions I had to get there were precise and orderly.

I went down halls and up various staircases until, finally, I arrived at the study room. I opened the door and peeked in. The curtains were closed and no lanterns were lit. Was this the right room? I closed the door behind me and drew the drapes back to shed light on a small, modest room. It contained a fireplace, corner lounge, and a small table with chairs. How efficient… A decorative rug covered half of the room’s hardwood flooring.

Over the fireplace was a picture of a beautiful woman. Her long dark tresses cascaded over her shoulders, and her ears ended in a fine point. I raised my eyebrows. This woman was a nymph, and looked considerably more human than others of her kind. But why would a picture like this be inside Aria’s castle?

“That’s the Sylph queen.”

I started at the voice, whirling to see a beautiful young woman in a green and white gown. She had brilliant loose red hair and rosy cheeks. Her round face was the same as Odelia’s, and I knew this was Clarice.

“The Sylph queen?” I asked her as she came to stand beside me. “Interesting. They’re the ones of air, aren’t they?”

Clarice nodded. “Yes, the element of which they belong to is air. She looks human, doesn’t she?”

I looked back at the picture. She did look human, although there was something exotic about her features. I glanced at Clarice. Her grey eyes kept flickering between me and the picture, as if she were trying to study me without my notice. Obviously, the secrecy wasn’t working.

“So you’re my new tutor?”

“It seems so.”

“What do you mean ‘seems so’?” she asked. “Are you or are you not?”

I blinked. Great. Another Odelia. I prayed for patience. “Yes, I’m your tutor.”

“How old are you?”

Sighing, I crossed my arms. “Seventeen. Turning eighteen this fall.”

Clarice’s mouth dropped open. “What the heck? You’re only a year older than me and you’re gonna be my tutor?”

I winced inwardly at her informal speech, immediately seeing why Odelia needed my help so desperately. “Looks can be deceiving.” For some reason, I found myself repeating the exact words Titus had said to me.

She threw her hands in the air and plopped down on one of the chairs at the table. “Fine then, Ms. Brackenbury. What do you have to teach me today?”

Dear God,

I wish for the strength to not grab the knife from my bag and do something I would otherwise regret to this blessed child’s face.

Sincerely,

Lannie.

I took a deep breath and situated myself across from her. “You can just call me Lannie, Lady Clarice.”

“Then you can just call me Clarice.”

1, 2… “Okay, Clarice.” I withdrew my mother’s textbooks from the bag. “Today we are going to be covering the basics of language. You probably already know them, but I just want you to get a full understanding of the language itself. Got it?”

“Yeah, I got it. Rinse and repeat, right?”

…3, 4… “First off is language structure.”

                                                ————————

I tried. I really, really tried. I tried to be patient like my mother by ignoring the snark comments. I tried to be generous like my mother by answering kindly to the haughty queries. And I tried to be calm like my mother by persevering through the incessant interruptions.

But I was not my mother.

Clarice groaned. “But I’ve already learned how to structure a sentence!”

…48.

With a gentle, calculated touch, I slowly closed the textbook. Breathe. “Clarice, your mother hired me for a reason. You need to listen to what I say and what I am teaching you, or—”

“I’ve been through the tutors before, Lannie.” She crossed her arms and glared at me with those rebellious grey eyes of hers. “I’m sick and tired of it. They’re know-it-alls! Do you realize how much my mother demands of me? Yeah. Thought so. You don’t. Helena was the one and only tutor in this castle that I ever liked, and she wasn’t even my tutor to begin with! You’re nothing like Helena, so don’t come in here with her books and try to act like her. It isn’t working.”

50.

For a brief moment, all I could do was stare at her. But then the anger took over.

I stood up and slammed my hand on the table, looking the startled Clarice straight in the eye. “One, don’t you ever talk about my mother. A lazy, arrogant brat like you doesn’t have the right to even speak her name. Two, I’m not here because I want to be, Ms. Faretra. If I had a say in it, I would have declined your pompous mother’s demand. You are both childish and possess only selfish goals to raise your social standing. I knew the Royals were like this, but I was really hoping it wasn’t this bad.” I stuffed my things into my bag, my eyes still locked on Clarice. “If a snot like you doesn’t want to learn from someone who is lower—Lord forbid—than you in society, then I won’t waste my precious time on you. I have better things to do with my life than tutor a Royal.”

And with that, I turned and stalked out of the study room.

I walked through halls and up staircases until I was alone in a corridor.

I clasped a hand to my mouth as the realization sunk in.

Oh my gosh.

What had I just done?