“What do you know about him? What is his name? How long have you been seeing him?” A barrage of questions flew from my mouth. I tried to keep an accusatory tone from my voice but feared that I was unsuccessful.
“I met him in the tavern one day when I’d gone in to get lunch with Mrs. Topper. I’d been gathering herbs, hoping to find something that would help her cough. He was sitting at a table alone. He looked so troubled, I couldn’t ignore him. After Mrs. Topper left, I admit that I lingered in the common room.” She paused, and her eyes seemed to become unfocused. “He caught me staring at him and came over and said hello. We sat and talked for an hour, and I agreed to meet again the next day.”
“And how long ago was this?”
“Almost three weeks,” she answered.
“With no chaperone?” I tried not to sound upset, but I clearly was. A single maiden alone with a man was not proper, and I didn’t want anyone gossiping about my sister. It wouldn’t matter if Lizzy had not done anything inappropriate with the man; the implication of what could happen would be enough for people to condemn her. “Did you consider what could happen? You, of all of us, are the one with good sense, Lizzy. Why would you behave in such a manner?”
“I don’t know.” She sighed and leaned back in the chair. Her hair was windblown and dark circles adorned her eyes. “Something about him just makes me forget my surroundings. I get caught up in our time together. He hasn’t been forward with me, and he’s never acted like anything but a gentleman.”
“He should have asked to speak with Father and to have a chaperone. That is what a gentleman who cares about a woman’s virtue does to protect her,” I pointed out. I could tell she was disappointed in herself, and I hated to see her hurting.
“Maybe, but it doesn’t matter now,” she said. “There’s something more important I need to tell you. It’s urgent.”
“What?” I asked, now truly perplexed.
“Something is going to happen, but I can’t tell you about it yet.”
“What are you talking about?” Butterflies were forming in my stomach.
“If I wait to tell you until the last moment, then you can honestly say you knew nothing about it. You won’t be able to be accused.”
“Okay, now you’re beginning to scare me, Liz. What is going on?” There was a prickling sensation running down my spine, and a voice in my mind yelling, ‘Danger!’
“I truly can’t tell you now.”
“What does it involve? Is it dangerous?” There I went with the bombardment of questions again. But I had this desperate need to know that she would be safe.
“It is dangerous, yes, very dangerous. But—” She held up her hand before I could interrupt. “It is also going to solve a lot of our problems, especially for you.” She reached over and grabbed my hand, clutching at it like a lifeline. “Everything is going to be okay, Allete. Please trust me, okay?”
I wanted to trust her. I wanted to believe that what she was saying was absolute truth, and all of our problems would go away. I didn’t want to be stuck with Cathal. I didn’t want to move away. I didn’t want to be away from Torben. I scoffed at myself. Even if I could be near Torben, I could never marry him.
“It is not you that I don’t trust, Lizzy. It’s this man you’ve met. He’s an unknown factor. How do we know he is being truthful? Whatever he’s told you could be a lie.”
“He is telling the truth. I know it,” she said. The certainty in her voice was a little shocking. She truly believed this man would help us. I had no idea how.
“Then please tell me what’s going on.”
“I can’t.” She shook her head violently. “It would be too dangerous for you. I’m asking you, sister to sister, please trust me.”
There was nothing I could do in that moment. I could see in her eyes that she felt she was doing the right thing, not just for me, but for our entire kingdom. Perhaps a couple of days’ consideration would help me decide on how to move forward with the additional information.
“I know you are tired, and I do apologize for interrupting your sleep,” she said as she stood and headed toward the door. “I love you, Allete, and it pains me to see you endure so much agony because of a sense of duty.”
She was gone before I could respond to her words. I knew that she loved me. It wasn’t something we just went around saying all the time, but I knew it. Lizzy wasn’t emotional, and she was rarely affectionate, which made her words tonight even more poignant.
I lay back in my bed and pulled the covers up around me. Sleep would be difficult to come by after what my sister had told me. But I guessed I was more tired than I’d realized, because I managed to drift off after only a few minutes.
My dreams were filled with a hideous monster wearing a bloody crown. Wolves carrying sharp swords and biting axes chased the monster. Suddenly, another monster, stronger and more terrible than the first, appeared. This one wore a black sheep’s skin over his body and a boar’s head on his skull like a helmet. He was quiet as he hunted, ignoring the other monster and the chasing wolves. His narrowed eyes were cunning but also crazed, like a starved beast given a banquet of meat. He was too wary to eat, though his hunger gnawed at him. The chaos suddenly stopped as a glowing light appeared in the middle of the battlefield. At first, it was just a small ball of illumination, but then it began to grow, larger and larger, until finally it was blinding. Then a woman appeared, standing alone. The wolves were bowing to the woman. Both monsters simply watched her, salivating as they stared at her. Then they looked at each other and each had venom in their eyes. Suddenly, with a mighty roar, they lunged at one another, fangs bared and slavering. I didn’t see what happened next. The dream winked out, and I was simply sleeping.
Even in my sleep, with the dream gone, I still wondered at the second monster that slunk around the battlefield. I understood the monster with the crown, of course. That part of the dream was all too clear. But the second monster and the army of wolves was a mystery to me. Why were the wolves chasing Cathal? Whether correct or not, I saw myself as the woman, the light around me representing my healing ability. Both monsters terrified me. The second monster, however, seemed even more terrifying because I didn’t know his identity. Just before I felt myself beginning to wake from the restless sleep, I heard a woman’s voice inside my head.
“I will be coming soon. It is time we talked. It is time you know what fate holds in store for you.”
“Who are you,” I asked the voice.
“I am the Oracle.”
“This is the third day she’s not left her room,” Brant said, as if I was unaware.
I nodded.
“Cathal isn’t going to put up with it again today. Yesterday, he was even more aggressive. If Allete’s father hadn’t stepped in and told Cathal that his counsel was needed, who knows what might have happened?”
“I agree, he is going to be angry. I know that he will have a temper tantrum right here in this corridor. And I know there is nothing I can do so stop him.”