“Drop your weapon,” I order the knight, my gaze fixed on him. He drops it gently to the floor, raising both hands in the air.
“I uh… I’m sorry, sir, I didn’t…” he stutters, face flushing crimson.
“You didn’t what?” He looks behind me at the girl before returning his gaze to me.
“I’m sorry, Sir, we were just-”
“Leave.”
“Yes, sir,” he replies, before bending to pick up his weapon and rushing out of the yard. I turn back to look at Elodie, who isn’t looking at me, but stealing glances at the stone archway she came through. I wonder what she’s thinking. Carrying on with my training, I choose to ignore Kael, sensing his presence beside me.
“You want to tell me what that was about?” Kael murmurs.
“The King said she’s a closed topic. I’m just following orders.”
“Right,” he says, drawing out the word unnecessarily. Ignoring him, I cast my attention back to the girl, who is no longer sitting where I left her. I move briskly past Kael, disregarding whatever words he is currently spewing at me, my eyes searching the sea of armour. It doesn’t take me long to spot her fiery red hair, its strands rippling as they catch the soft wind. She stands out like a flame against cold steel. Approaching her slowly, I cross my arms and watch her briefly as she tries to touch the stone.
“It won’t work,” I say, catching her off guard. She jumps, eyes startled, and faces me.
“What do you mean?”
“The gate. It doesn’t work like that,” I say, gesturing at her hands grazing along the broken stone arch.
“I just…I thought that maybe…” she says before pulling her hand away, her fists clenched tightly. “I had to try. I’m sorry,” I hesitate, but something about her expression makes me answer,
“It’s sealed shut and we no longer have the key.”
“The key? What’s the key?” she asks.
Before I can reply, Kael appears behind her. I nod at him as he moves in behind her to push her back to where I left her. “I said no wandering, Hawthorne. You’ll do well to obey.” She doesn’t respond, simply folding her arms and giving me a defeated look.
If she doesn’t know the key, how the hell did she get through?
“Rothwyn, thank you for coming,” the King declares, gesturing his steward out of the room. “I trust our new arrangements with the girl are under control?”
“Yes, sir,” I respond with a nod.
“Good. Unfortunately, I have made no progress with the investigation surrounding the girl,” he says.
I can’t help but notice the dark bags under his eyes, his hair disheveled as if his hands have been tugging at it too much.
“That is unfortunate, sir.” I reply.
I knew he wouldn’t learn much from his investigation.
I spoke to several knights myself. Checked old gate logs for any accounts of prior ‘incidents’. Nothing.
“Have you made the girl talk?” he asks.
“Talking is not an issue, sir,” I say.
“What do you mean?”
“Well, she doesn’t have a problem with talking. She talks a lot.”
“About what?”
