Behind The Wooden Door (4 page)

“I think we should continue this later!” Tristan yelled over the clash of steel. “We could be at this for hours, and I’d hate to disappoint my guest.”

Hawk laughed and lowered his sword. “Whatever you say.”

The crowd parted and moved away from the scene and back to their tents.

“Hello, Princess.”

Tristan’s eyes bore into me as if trying to discover why I had willingly come on my own to see him, but for once his voice lacked the sarcasm it normally held.

“Aissur, may I ask a favor of you?”

Tristan took a step back and looked at me as if I had asked him to dismember his own body.

“What is it?” he demanded.

“Yesterday, when I was attacked in the forest, I was on my way to see someone. Obviously, I never got there and…and I’m asking you to come with me this time.”

He stared at me with an unreadable expression on his face but didn’t speak a word. Indistinct chatter of the men around the tents was the only noise in the air.

“Who are you going to see?” he finally asked.

“A fortune teller named Madame Cornelia. I wish to ask her about the outcome of the war,” I replied.

“Princess, I can tell you the outcome of this war. There’s going be a lot of blood and a lot of widows and orphans, but in the end your kingdom will be safe.” The harshness in his voice had returned. “I have never lost a battle, and I don’t intend to this time.”

“Aissur, I’m going with or without you,” I said. I hoped he didn’t realize how big of a lie that was. “But I’d feel much better about it if you would accompany me.”

“Where is this fortune teller?” he questioned.

“On the outskirts of Artair’s kingdom.”

He grabbed my arm. “Do you have a death wish, Lanie?” he yelled.

Every soldier in the camp stopped what he was doing to stare at the two of us.

“If I had a death wish, would I be asking you to come with me? Aissur…please. I have to see her.” My voice trembled as I tried to restrain the tears that were welling up in my eyes.

Crying wouldn’t help anything, but I knew if I went alone, I would not survive another run-in with Artair’s soldiers.

He sighed deeply and shook his head. “Lead the way,” he replied and motioned to the other side of the river.

The woods were silent as Tristan and I made our way to Madame Cornelia’s. There were no birds singing, no crickets chirping, and not even the croaking of frogs. Just silence. I checked behind me every few minutes to make sure Tristan hadn’t abandoned me. He was acting different. More reserved. I would have taken any insult just for him to be the one to break the silence.

“How did you know to come after me yesterday?” I asked.

I watched his face for any trace of something that might give him away, but he remained emotionless.

“Intuition,” he said.

He never took his eyes off the path ahead of him.

I crossed my arms. “If you don’t want to talk me, fine. We’ll just carry on in silence.”

We trudged on in unbearable muteness. Minutes felt like hours.

I couldn’t take it.

“Aissur, who do you think will start the attack first?” I asked.

“I thought we were carrying on in silence,” he said.

He tried to hide the smile that threatened to creep onto his face, but he failed. After a moment, his smile faded and he was back to being the serious soldier from before.

“I think Artair will, but if he doesn’t soon, I will. I came to fight a war, not to be a bodyguard for a spoiled princess.”

I stopped in my tracks. “Just because I asked you to come out here with me didn’t mean you had to. You had a choice.”

“No, I didn’t,” he said heatedly. ”Your father put me in charge of keeping you safe. He thinks you’re stupid enough to get yourself killed and he’ll be heirless. Obviously he was right.”

“I don’t need you to protect me,” I reply.

“Then why am I here, Princess?” he asked.

I pushed past him and his mocking face and scanned the forest. We should have been there by now.

The large carriage was almost unable to be seen. It was hidden amongst the shadows of a large sycamore tree. Lanterns hung from the branches lighting the fortune teller’s cart. Crude pink words read: Madame Cornelia’s Forebodings. As I moved closer to the sign, I saw the black wings of death painted on it as well. The butterfly’s painted eyes looked almost lifelike as they stared into me as if it too could see my fate.

“This is it,” I said.

I stopped and waited for Tristan to join me.

“I figured that one out on my own, Princess.” The sarcasm was back as well.

I took a heavy breath and knocked on the door. The scrape of a chair followed by heavy footsteps sounded from the other side. Tristan’s hand went to the hilt of his sword, ready for any attack from the psychic woman.

A woman clad in purple robes and bulky, silver jewelry opened the door. Her graying black hair fell past her waist, and her hands looked like they had claws for fingernails. She scanned us with her eyes before she bent down in a low bow.

“Ah, Princess Lanium, welcome. How are things on the other side of the forest?” she asked. She smiled a toothless grin.

“If you’re such a great psychic, you should know,” Tristan said. He placed his hand on my shoulder and pulled me closer to him and farther away from Cornelia.

She looked up at him with burning eyes before she walked back into her carriage.

“What is it I can do for you two?” she asked.

She motioned to two chairs from across the table she now sat at. The distrust in Tristan’s eyes was evident as he stared at the woman. I moved to step into the carriage, but Tristan held me back.

“Lanie, let’s get out of here. I have a bad feeling about this.”

Was he actually scared of the old lady?

“Aissur, I don’t care what your ‘intuition’ is telling you. We can’t leave now. We’ve already come this far,” I replied.

I ripped my arm from his grasp, walked into the dim carriage, and sat down at the rectangular table across from Cornelia as she mixed a pink powder and yellow liquid together in a cracked wooden bowl. She looked away from her concoction and up at me. She smiled her toothless grin and pulled a knife out from under the table.

Tristan unsheathed his sword and aimed the blade right at the woman’s throat.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” he asked.

“I require some of her hair to clear the way to her future,” she said before she handed the knife to me.

I took the knife and watched Tristan as I cut a small lock of my hair. He lowered his sword but didn’t return it to its sheath. I gave her the black strands and the knife and watched as she placed it in the bowl with her syrupy potion.

The witch-like woman took a candle from its holder and lit the hair lying amongst the watered powders. It burned away quickly, and thick, black smoke filled the carriage. Cornelia leaned into the smoke and inhaled deeply.

Her body slammed back into her chair
, and she grabbed hold of the arm rests. Her eyes rolled back into her head, and her voice came out in a raspy sound.

“A room full of metal will bring you great agony along with the slamming of a door. Your heart will break and nothing will matter to you. Not until you realize you have something to live for. There will be continuous bloodshed in your kingdom brought not by the soldiers, but by your own hand.”

We’re going to lose the war,
I thought as I stared at the woman. Why else would I fall into depression? If we lost the war, everyone in my kingdom would die, and I would have nothing to live for. I wouldn’t have anyone. And I wouldn’t be a princess. But something she said made no sense. I was not a murderer.

“Madame Cornelia, I’m sorry but what you have said can’t be true,” I told her as I stood up from the wooden chair. I suddenly wished I had listened to Tristan after all.

“It is! I have seen it! It is to happen,” she replied.

Her fingernails dug deep into my arm as I tried to pull away from her grasp. She was strong to look so frail.

“Then explain it to her,” Tristan said.

He pushed the woman away from me.

Madame Cornelia smiled at Tristan and moved closer to him. He didn’t retreat from her, but I could see his chest rising and falling quicker than earlier. Before Tristan had time to react, the woman had reached up and snatched a few strands of hair from his head.

“What the hell!” he yelled angrily as he placed his hand on his head where Cornelia had stolen the hairs. “Why the fuck did you do that?”

“I’m curious to see how your story ends, young man. With that attitude of yours, it probably won’t end well,” she said.

She threw the hairs into the bowl and lit them.

She leaned into the smoke again and grabbed onto the edge of the table. When she spoke, her voice had the same croaky sound as before.

“You are a great warrior and can foresee everything on the battlefield but not the things that happen elsewhere. You will find yourself changing into more than just a soldier. There will be great agony for you as you die for the greater good.”

Death. That was Tristan’s future. I looked over to where he stood. He was silent and still as he stared at Madame Cornelia.

“Do you just tell everyone that comes to you that they’re going to die?” Tristan asked.

“I do not lie about what I see. Parts of the two of you will die sooner than you think,” she replied and pointed at us.

Tristan curled his nose and looked down on the woman. “Not only do you look mad, you are mad! Lanie, let’s go!” he said.

He forcefully grabbed my arm and pulled me out of the carriage. I looked over my shoulder at Madame Cornelia as I followed Tristan through the trees. Maybe she was just a crazy lady or maybe…

“Aissur, are you not at all afraid about what she said?” I asked.

I tried to keep up with his pace, but his long strides made it nearly impossible.

“Why should I be?” he replied.

“She just predicted your death.”

His laugh echoed throughout the forest making the birds in the nearby trees fly away from where they were perched.

“Her predicting my death is like me predicting that you are going to sleep tonight. Everyone dies,” he said.

“But–”

“Lanie, nothing is going to happen. Life is going to continue on, and if I do die–”

Tristan stopped suddenly and stood frozen as if petrified.

“Is there any way for you to get back to the castle other than the way we came?” he asked.

“No, why?”

“Then you do exactly as I say. If I tell you to lie on the ground, you lie down. If I tell you to climb a tree, you get your ass up that tree. Do you understand?” His voice had a more demanding tone than I had ever heard before.

“Yes. But why? What is going on?” I asked.

“The war has started.”

CHAPTER 6

Screams and clashing metal consumed the air as Tristan and I neared the ongoing battle. The smell of blood filled my nostrils, and I felt like I was going to be sick. I had no weapon, only Tristan.

“We’re going to go around the field and away from the fighting. I don’t know if you’ll be able to get back to the castle though. I think the safest place for you would be off the ground. Can you climb?” Tristan asked.

“Yes,” I replied.

The screams grew louder, and I knew the battle had to be only a few hundred yards away. Tristan would join in the fighting, and I would be left alone. Alone in the forest and vulnerable for any attack.

The other soldiers needed Tristan, though. My kingdom needed Tristan. Even if that meant I was going to be stuck alone in a tree.

“This is the farthest you need to go,” he said.

He pulled his sword out of its sheath and cut a piece of his shirt off. He tied the black strip of material to the tree closest to us. Part of his stomach show
ed from where the missing material had been. His skin had a darkness to it from being in the sun for too long. He probably spent countless hours shirtless in the sun working in his village when he wasn’t hired to slaughter men. The muscles of his abdomen stretched as he lifted his arms to tie the material tighter around the tree limb, and to my utmost horror, he saw me staring.

“See something you like, Princess?” he jeered.

I looked away instantly and cleared my throat. “Shouldn’t you be joining in the battle?”

He gave an arrogant smile before saying, “Stay here until I come get you. Don’t make a sound while you’re up there, understood?”

“I understand,” I told him.

He frowned at me like he didn’t believe I’d stay put. If Tristan had been with me this whole time, who had been in control? Had it been Tommy or Hawk? Or maybe even Cormac? Deep down I hoped it was Hawk who led the soldiers into the battle. His fighting skills were almost as good as Tristan’s, if not equal.

Tristan pointed at the tree. “I mean it, Princess.” He held his sword tightly in his hand and ran off toward the sounds of the battle.