Chapter 32 Bridge

Isla
LYSIA'S BLUE EYES ARE PIERCING from across the table. Apparently, we were late for breakfast and the rest of the royal family had had theirs an hour ago.
She is expertly stoic and her features are blank. I try not to let my eyes linger on her face for too long and busy myself with chewing my food.
Before us are platters ofboiled fish, brown rice, salad made up of dices of carrots and slices of lettuce, baskets of bread rolls, jugs of milk and mead. The array of food overwhelms me. I try not to seem greedy and limit my plate to two bread rolls, pieces of spicy fish and the salad.
I bite into the soft warm bread and my taste buds sing out in delight. The bread is sweetened with honey and contains resins and thin slices of coconut in them. I gobble them down and gulp a cup of milk to accompany it.
I eat up the peppered fish but pick at the salad. The princess still hasn't said a word. Rosa's request comes to mind. I know that I'll have to initiate conversation. So bracing myself, I open my mouth and let the first thing that comes to mind roll out.
"Where is everybody?" I am not expecting an answer from her so I'm very surprised when she replies.
She sighs and without looking at me she says,"you will get used to not seeing anyone around."
I quickly recover from shock and form words. "How do you cope with it?"
Her eyes are still on the plate in front of her but she has barely touched her breakfast. "I'm used to it. I spend most of my time in my bedroom anyway."
"That is so sad," I blurt out and clamp my hand over my mouth but it's too late.
The Princess raises her captivating eyes and I can feel myself squirm under her stare. "My life is sad."
"I-I didn't mean it... Like that, Princess," I say quickly. I don't want her to get the wrong idea.
Her laugh is forced and pained. She doesn't take her eyes off me. "I'm not offended, Isla. And please, call me Lyza."
I nod. She forces a fork of fish into her mouth and chews. It's the first time I've seen her chew since I came down for breakfast.
"How was the dance yesterday?" I ask carefully, watching her reaction.
She paused, freezes for a slight moment and resumes chewing. Something flashes across her features so fast it seems like I imagined it. "Fine," her reply is vague, a faint whisper that I wouldn't have caught if I wasn't straining my ears to listen.
"How did you like it?" Her question catches me off guard and I stutter as I try to come up with an answer.
"It was interesting," I say. "But I didn't stay after you left because I was really sleepy."
"And how did you sleep?" She raises her cup of milk and takes a dainty sip.
"The soft pillows did justice to my aching back," I say lightly and I'm rewarded with her pained smile.
I want to ask how she slept but I know better than to do that. From the dark circles around her eyes and the heavy bags, it is obvious she barely had any sleep. Rosa was right. But what troubles her? I imagine her to be carefree and filled with joy always, the privileges of royal life should overshadow worries. But she is as human as I am. There can never be a life void of pain.
So instead of asking how she slept, I ask why I can't find anyone in sight.
"My father is probably having a meeting with the members of his Royal Court, mother can be doing anything from having breakfast with prestigious ladies or sitting beside my father in his meetings. Kyan can be out of the four walls of the Kingdom for all I know." She puts another forkful of fish into her mouth and chews with a grimace.
I nod, taking in all the information. "So, what do you do to burn daylight?"
My question seems to startle her. She paused with her fork in mid-air and looks at me. "You want to do something with me?"
"I'll be honoured." I nod at her.
She drops the fork back on the plate and her lip twitches slightly, a ghost of a smile appears on it. "I'll love to hear about your home, Kintil."
I blink. "You can ask me what you'll like to know, Princess."
She remains silent for a while then asks. "Who were you back at Kintil?"
"A farmer and hunter's daughter," I say stoically.
"Really?" She seems genuinely surprised. "Do you have any siblings?"
My heart lunges. Mavli. I've been so caught up in what is going on that I had almost forgotten about her. I wonder where she is and what she is doing at the moment. I hope she's safe wherever she is.
I feel awful for letting her out of my mind. The image of her fading back can never leave my mind. I hope she isn't suffering in the hands of gruesome slavemasters. I need to escape from this palace and fast. I need to be reunited with Mavli.
"Mavli." It's a pained sigh from my lips.
"That's her name, your sister?" Lyza asks leaning on the dinning table and staring like I'm the most interesting thing in the world.
"Yes," I say. "She's my little sister. She was captured too and sold."
The pain and pity in Lysia's eyes are unmistakable. She bites her lips and her eyes are downcast. "I feel awful to know that my father is the cause of your suffering, Isla."
My breath is stuck in my throat. Silence settles over us and I let it reign, it is comfortable. The silence is comfortable, consoling in a way.
I don't want to tell her how much I hate her father, her whole family in general and how much I think she is a spoilt, arrogant princess. I dreamt of slaughtering her father and escape to free my people last night.
"It's all right, Lyza." My words have broken the thin shell that held us in silence. "I believe I'll see my sister again, someday."
"You're strong, Isla", Lyza says quietly. She looks at me, "if I was in your shoes, I won't have survived through it. Tell me, is it true what the soldiers reported to my father?"
I give a slow nod and she gasps, "you can control the weather?"
I chuckle. "Not quite."
"You won't mind showing me, will you?" She presses.
I don't want to disappoint her but I'm highly fatigued and won't be able to cause a ripple if I wanted to. "The tornado drained me. I get weak when I use my powers and it takes me a while to fully recover."
Her face droops but quickly recovers. "All right."
"I'm surprised you aren't whiny like I imagined princesses to be." I smirk at her teasingly.
She giggles, "I've learnt the hard way that I can't always get what I want so no use whining."
There is something hard in how she says this despite the giggle.
The small breeze billows Lysia's dress. Although we are in the Floral Season, I can still taste the gritty dust of the Torrid on my lips.
We are surrounded by several fruit trees majority of which are bearing fruits. The air is pungent with the stench of decaying and riping fruits and the ground is moist.
Just a few feet away is a small white bridge. Lyza does a small run towards it and I follow.
Beneath us, crystal clear water roars as it flows downstream. Lyza sighs and stares longingly at the water.
"When I was a toddler," she begins, "my father used to bring me here and let me play in the water." She purses her lips and watches the water flow. "One day, he told me a secret," she turns to look at me with her compelling jewels of eyes and I pine to know the secret.
"What was it?" My voice is a whisper. I'm whispering so I won't break the beautiful spell the water has spun on us.
"He told me that I can't step into the same water twice," she says this slowly and I absorb every sound that comes from her mouth. She is the sage and I'm the apprentice.
The water continues to rush, clashing against rocks and flowing off to join the sea.
"It means," Lyza says. "We don't get an opportunity twice in life. We don't get to live a day twice, every moment is special, a gift given only once."
"That's true."The spell of her enchanted voice is still tightly woven into my mind.
"That's what I live by, Isla. I take every day as I see it. We only live life once," she hisses out a breath.
I sense something is wrong, her brows are pinched and furrowed and the corners of her lips are down turned.
"What's wrong?" My hands rests upon hers which is gripping the rail of the bridge tightly.
Tears wall up her eyes and she turns away from me. "It's nothing, Isla."
"No." Nothing doesn't make a girl who was once telling me a secret revealed to her in her childhood with starry eyes cry, nothing doesn't turn you from happy to weepy in no time at all. "Tell me."
But she begins to walk down the bridge, crossing to the other side of the orchard. Something about her compels me to follow her.
"Lyza?" She doesn't twirl to face me or even stop in her steps. She continues to walk and I follow. Then she stops at a tree and sits under it, burying her face in her palms. "Please, tell me why you are sad, Lyza."
"You won't understand, Isla." Her sobs are choking her and making her gasp for breath. She wipes her tears unto the skirt of her sky-blue dress. "I fell in love with a man but I can't be with him." And before I can open my mouth to utter a word she is on her feet and begins to walk away.
"Don't ask, Isla. You won't understand." I think I hear her mutter but I can't be sure.