The World of Rhune

Kari tilted her head to the side for a second in acknowledgement of Trei’s response and said nothing else, even as he left. She hardly knew him, and it seemed to her he needed nothing more to do with her, so she let him have his way. Kari looked at her eggs again, and just couldn’t do it. She picked up a now cooler roll and pulled it apart carefully as she’d seen Trei peel his. She put a layer in her mouth, and was surprised how soft and buttery it was, despite the first, steaming roll she’d had only minutes earlier. Kari finished the roll within seconds. She looked at her nearly cleared plate. The eggs remained. Hope it’s not eggs for the rest of the week, Kari suppressed the urge to sigh at the depressing thought. More taunting from the eggs, not what she would have liked. Kari pushed her chair back as quietly as she could, but the chair still squeaked against the hard floor. She looked at the chefs and waiters for a second, before just overcoming her sense of oddness, “Thank, um, you for the meal. It was great,” Kari shied her eyes from the looks of the servants and entered into the hall. She could hear running water and assumed Trei was getting ready for his big day. Probably putting pants on, since the princess would just love to see him in boxers. So would the rest of the ladies of the court, Kari couldn’t help but snicker at the thought, but it was interrupted by a huge yawn she covered quickly with a hand; her eyes watered slightly. She turned to her quarters at the end of the hall and looked to Zay on the cold tile with his head propped up slightly by a rolled towel, opposite from where she’d left him under the covers in his bedroom, the door shut. Kari walked straight into the tough wooden doorframe, and then shouted out in a quick gasp of pain, and rubbed her now sore forehead mournfully. Why me? She asked, and stayed clear of the door as she entered the room again. Kari looked to her brother sleeping like a baby, all signs of last night’s wave of sickness gone from his paler face, a much better improvement from last night’s ghastly complexion. She looked and went to the window, and caught a glimpse of a garden down below, alluring to her sight, making her want to just sit in the peaceful buzz of birds and bees. Kari looked to her brother on the floor, comfortable in sleep. Wish I were sleeping Kari looked at her brother wistfully before slouching onto the soft couch. She looked once more at her brother on the floor, and then tipped over on the couch, asleep and passed out from two straight days of exhaustion.

Zayde woke up with the sun streaming in his eyes way more than he would have appreciated, and flipped his head into his makeshift pillow, which caught his eye. He slowly rose, aware of the dry ache in his throat and how lightheaded he felt. He looked to Kari nearly dead on the couch, had it not been for her shallow breathing, he wouldn’t have been able to distinguish sleep from death. He gripped the small table next to his head, his knuckles becoming paler. He hoisted himself up and staggered around for a couple seconds before grabbing for the smooth wall and almost collapsing to the floor away. Zay sucked in a painful breath, drying out his throat further. He felt like he’d been in the desert for weeks without water, and his throat was as itchy as sandpaper. He stumbled clumsily into the bathroom, thankful it wasn’t for him to puke, and downed all the water he could from the spigot. He didn’t care at all. Zay lifted his head and breathed in heavily, wiping his wet mouth on a fluffy white towel. He squinted from the light that streamed in a window headed in the eastern direction. He guessed it was about ten o’clock, his stomach told him so anyways. Zayde walked clumsily back out to the living area and grabbed the sheet of scratchy but fine parchment he’d used last night. The Crown Prince walked to the desk with the paper and pulled out an ink well and a cut plume. He started scratching all he could remember in the coded phrase he’d used last night and wished Kari was up to help him remember. He blinked as he recalled the temple and the announcement. He wrote about the Cavalli Voltani and then the Phantu bite. No one could forget that. But when Zay reread his paper, he realized he lacked detail. He couldn’t exactly remember Kari’s reaction, nor Aei’s true coloring’s. He tried to remember the color of the great doors that lead to the small room, to no avail. He bit down on his lip in frustration. He should have wrote this down yesterday, or the day before. He continued to get the main details down, the pain and views of the ride to Andato, the army after them, and when Andato came in sight. He rested his sore fingers and wrist, and let the quill rest in the bottle of dark blue ink. He looked at the seal of Andato, formally blown into the small glass canister, and thought of Caryi’s plain brown shades of a serpent or perhaps the desert on the far east of Caryi. Zayde sighed and continued, writing of what he could, not being able to recall Trei’s first appearance only the pain of landing, and riding to the small home they’d stayed in. Cabin or house? He wondered, and just put home. He scratched a little more about his slight conversation, the Howlers, and them having to leave. Zay recalled an argument between himself and Kari, but ceased to pull up the details. He sighed, finished up to the point of last night, and blew to dry the ink to it wouldn’t smudge. He’d already smudged it around the edges and if he wasn’t careful he wouldn’t be able to read it. Zay folded the paper’s crisp edges and tucked it into his notebook where he kept a small stash of paper for instances like this. He rolled his shoulders and took a step back, only to trip and knock noisily onto the floor, making things spill from their packs. Kari jolted up, her head swerving to where he lay sprawled on the floor. She looked annoyed at her brother, looking more normal than when she’d last seen him. “Really? I didn’t know I wasn’t allowed to sleep,” Kari snottily flipped her now short hair and pulled herself up off the couch grouchily. Zay ignored her, “You up for food? It’s really good, found out a new way to eat rolls from Prince Trei,” Kari remarked, stretching and accidentally cracking her back. Her twin’s eyebrows rose in shock. “You and Trei? Amazing,” Kari glared at her brother, and walked to a mirror. She twisted her body as she looked at herself, “Yeah, amazing. I talked to Trei, whatever, you hungry or what?” She pulled a strand of mousy brown hair back, hating the color. “No, I don’t want to puke again,” He plopped onto the couch again, still tired from his late-night fits. “Amen to that, Trei suggested a garden this morning, and I say we go,” her eyes looked at him from the mirror, he rolled his eyes. She didn’t say, she commanded. “Yeah, sure. I need to get a whiff of fresh air once in a while,” Zay walked to their things again and pulled on a new pair of trousers and a linen shirt. Kari visibly shivered, “You got plenty of it last night, and so did I,” she walked away from the mirror and laced her leather boots tighter. Zay stepped into the bedroom, changed, and found Kari waiting impatiently on the couch, half about to fall asleep. He pulled on his own black boots, and squirmed his toes in the boot. They were uncomfortable compared to the sandals he was accustomed to, and they were too small. They seemed to pinch his toes. He stood up, squashing the pain, and they walked out of the room without a word inbetween them, they knew each other too well to need anything else. Kari stepped into the hall way first and went up to a maid, “Which way to Prince Trei del Sol’s personal gardens? If they exist…” Zay walked with a limp, his leg aching and slightly burning still, not that he couldn’t hide that fact, it was merely the limp that caught all the servant’s eyes. They walked down a small earthen path with occasional stepping stones in muddy parts. They simply walked, much to Zay’s annoyance, but to Kari’s benefit. They came to a part with more trees and thicker shrubs than flowers, and Kari collapsed happily under a thinner trunked tree. Zay leaned thankfully against a tree next to her’s. Zay and Kari sat in silence, until the prince finally realized his twin was out cold, again. He looked to her shallow breathing, just to make sure. Talk about De-ja-vu Zay slid down the tree onto the soft grass that surrounded it, thankful for it’s dryness instead of the wet grass he’d been stepping on before.