The guard ran down the halls of Duke Henry's estate, leaving mud prints wherever he went. The maids could have stopped him; they wanted to stop him; they would have stopped him—if it weren't for the fact that he was heading toward his grace's office.Henry was not expecting visitors. When the knock came, he barely looked up from his papers.
The guard entered without waiting for a response, and Henry was too startled to reprimand him.The guard fell to one knee, head bowed to the ground."My lord, it's your sister—"Henry stood, the chair scraping against the stone floor. "Does she want her place as Duchess back?" His voice was eerily low.
Viola had never wanted the title. She had never wanted anything but her sword and the road."No, my lord." The guard paused, choosing his next words carefully. "She is on the brink of death."Henry sat back down. He stared at the guard with a complicated look—disbelief, then dread, then something that looked almost like anger. His hand gripped the armrest until his knuckles went white.
The guard's words hung in the air: brink of death."Brink of death," Henry repeated, voice flat. "My sister, my sister Viola…that's preposterous, impossible, what happ… take me there now!"But even as he said it, his legs moving before his mind could catch up. He crossed the room in three strides."Where is she?""My lord, her body is in a carriage outside the gates. The driver has requested entry.""What?" Henry's composure cracked—just a hair. "Who dares bring her here? Let me see her. Now!"
He didn't remember crossing the courtyard. He didn't remember the guards scrambling to clear a path. One moment he was in his office; the next, he was standing in the evening light in front of a carriage that reeked of rust and iron. The metallic scent hit him so hard he almost staggered.He peeked inside, too afraid to fully look, and saw her.
Viola's azure hair was splattered with crimson blood that was dangerously turning darker hues as it oozed across her mangled face. Her hands—those hands that had held him when they were children, that had killed monsters and men alike—were barely held together by their tendons. Her chest rose and fell in shallow, uneven gasps.
He had never seen her like this. Not in decades. Not ever.Henry reached in and took her hand. Her grip—even unconscious, even dying—was so heavy it nearly crushed his fingers.How are you still this strong? he wanted to whisper. How are you still fighting?Instead, he just held on.
At the same time, a girl with bright sky-blue eyes and long brunette hair that shimmered in the soft glow of the setting sun ran down the halls in a frenzy, eager to see what all the ruckus was about.By the time Sapphire arrived at the parked carriage, all she saw was red. She didn't know whose blood it was, but one thing was certain: it felt oddly familiar.
So spooked was she that she didn't register the coachman sitting on the driver's seat—a man whose right arm ended in a bloody stump wrapped in a soaked cloth. The tied fabric dripped steadily onto the cobblestones. He was hanging on by a thread, yet for some unknown reason, nobody quite cared. They walked past him like he was invisible. Like the blood wasn't there.
Then Sapphire heard a splatter sound. Instinctively, she looked up at the clear sky. Failing to see any rain clouds, she turned weary.I couldn't have misheard that, could I?She walked around to the front of the carriage, looking for the mysterious source of the sound. That's when she saw the coachman properly: a gruff-faced man, his features twisting periodically in response to some stimulus she couldn't see. He had tucked his decapitated arm into his coat, which was now stained a deep, wet red.
"Are you in pain?" Sapphire asked, staring at the purple patch on his coat.
Her expression softened—eyebrows raised, lower lip slightly quivering.The man turned his gaze on her. His red eyes weren't fully present; they looked through her more than at her."What does it look like to you?"
"Do you recognize me from somewhere?" Sapphire asked, unsettled by his stare.He was quiet for a moment, studying her face with unnerving intensity. "No. You're just a bit familiar." He paused, his crimson eyes narrowing. "How is the commander doing? She was taken into that house a long time ago."
"It was aunt Viola inside there?" Sapphire's eyes widened. Her breathing hitched. She almost fell backward in the light gust of wind.
Not once in his life has Viola ceased complaining about her bratty neice yet this one didn't quite fit the mould he wondered whether this nice girl was trully the rumored neice, he would have dismissed her but Sapphire was too peculiar.
"Yes." Another pause. He seemed to realize he'd given away too much, but he didn't correct himself. "... Yes, Sapphire?" He said as if asking not quite sure "It was."
Sapphire took a deep breath, steadying herself against the news. Then she looked at him—really looked, at the stump where his arm should be, at the blood that had pooled on the seat beside him.
"How? What in the world?" Sapphire said the color slowly draining from her eyes.
"It's a long story," the man said the stoic look briefly fading as his head went down seemingly unable to look at this little girl straight in her azure eyes "and I'm neither drunk enough nor sober enough to retell."The man smiled yet it didn't quite reach his eyes, neither could he keep eye contact.
Sapphire suddenly felt a clump growing in her chest 'Is he guilty now he feels bad, doesn't he? I caused this, didn't I?' She thought as her gaze softened looking at the bleeding man
"Let's get your arm fixed. I know a great healer in town."
The man's crimson eyes shrank back in fear and confusion. For a moment, he looked almost alarmed.
Sapphire climbed up beside him, settling onto the driver's seat. "You don't mind if I sit shotgun, do you?" She flashed an ivory-white smile.
"Lady Sapphire," he was now sure "this is highly inappropriate. They'd have my head if I agreed to this."
"If you came back looking like this, and my aunt lost that much blood, I doubt anyone here could do anything to you." She paused, her voice dropping to a whisper. "I also want to know why you lied about recognizing me—and who you truly are. I'm sure the duke will be very curious when he finds out I left with you, don't you think?"
She looked at him with a small, knowing smile.He stared at her for a long moment. Then, to her surprise, he chuckled—a low, rough sound that seemed to cost him effort.
The first crack in his hollow expression."Clever girl," he said. "Fine, my lady. Whatever you have planned, I'll be there to witness it." He flicked the reins. The carriage lurched forward.Neigh, neigh, the horses complied, and the estate began to shrink behind them.Behind them, muffled by the carriage walls, Sapphire heard the help's voice looking for her. It made her grip the carriage seat harder.
"It seems as though they are looking for you are you sure it's fine?" the man asked
"It's probably not too important plus I doubt they even know I left I'm sure they are all looking at Viola," she didn't notice the hitch in the man's expression "It's just a bit of blood, nothing serious."
'If only you knew.' the man thought.