Before dawn we both are trotting with two horses to the city. Right before we left, I managed to get to Dewey and ask him for another passenger seat. He raised one suspicious eyebrow in response but didn't question me.
When we entered the city gate, Helena hid her face in a cloak even further. No doubt word is already spread, if not soon, that the princess is missing. The guard suspects something but does not show it for one lingering second. My heart beats frantically.
He signs to the bridge man to lower it so we may enter. Helena sets her eyes wandering, never landing on one spot, always cataloging and recording as if she will never get to see this again the moment we enter the lower bays.
Like the princess she is, she's quite sheltered. She was only allowed to see the richest, most lucrative earlier and not that often, so I'm measured in her expression.
I strap both of the horses. Helena keeps looking at me with this relaxed expression, and I seem to enjoy it. I fetch a couple of coppers for the stableman.
When I'm done, I take Helena's warm, soft hand in mine and wrap it in mine. She beams at me triumphantly. I pull her into the barrel's den when we stop, we need to meet Dewey. I opened the door wide for her so she could enter the pub, and she took a few hasty steps before she frowned, wrinkling her nose. "What is that smell?"
"It is the smell of piss, my young friend," I smirk.
She rolls her eyes at me. "Only by two months."
Right when she celebrated her twenty-second birthday, she was offered to Victor, the asshole. I was there at the party when the proposal was made.
He's been courting her for maybe a year or two, but there's not much thrill to it, as he was lusting after any other thing that caught his eye.
He talked to the king at party, when I performed. I was eyeing them with interest when they suddenly stopped talking. Victor approached Helena, bowing his head, saying, "Will you accept my proposal?"
She was flustered and looked to her father as he nodded to her.
That time I didn't really think of it, but I could see it. I could see the amount of disappointment she had with her dad that she would be given to this bastard of a man. She accepted her fate with dignity, but she deserved better.
Although we were almost the same age. She seemed so much younger than me, more innocent. I wanted to believe it was because of her sheltered upbringing, but she hid so much in herself, her knowledge.
We are both sitting in a concealed, very dark corner. I have told Dewey to meet us here, but we have about an hour before, so I ordered from the barkeep.
Her eyes widened when I returned with two pints of beer. I think she never really drank seriously. Even at the events, she only drank one glass of wine before going for the night. And even then, I think she was really pretending only to spill it on the floor later.
I silently smirked when she tried to empty it with one big gulp. She choked, her cheeks flushed. I tried to conceal my chuckling, but when she noticed, she glared at me in silent wreck.
Her seat was very close to mine, our knees were brushing. But I wanted her closer. I pulled her onto my knee. She gulped, her throat moving as her eyes looking up at me with an unreadable expression. She opened her mouth and then closed it as if the words escaped her.
Her long hair, which they usually braided into two braids reaching to her tiptoes, was now bound with pins into a large braid that somehow was pinned directly to her head. I did not know how she managed that.
I was longing to loosen it wild as I toyed my fingers with the strands.
Her voice was weak, trying to gulp something down. "Taj..."
My ears registered loud noise coming from the entry to the bar. Both of our heads snap to the door as we both stare at the two giant-armed knights of the city watch.