Shadow Weaver (Back on Wattpad 2020!)

Chapter 21

The great hall's carnelian red curtains and patterned stone floor swim in my vision. Nerves crush my ability to think. The mental abyss in my head is worse than the first time Pa left me in Blackfoot Forest to fend for Ma and Kel. Then, I barely ate for two weeks. I dreaded bounty hunters finding us, Ma's sickness worsening before Pa returned with medicine, Pa never coming back at all.

Now I'm seized with the irrational fear that the Duke of Rathesyde will take one look at me, and realize I am no lady. One conversation with Jakut, and he will sense the man before him is not Prince Jakut of Caruca, but somehow an impersonator. Because without his memories, the Prince is pretending to be himself when really he has no idea who he is. In less than an hour, Kel could be taken from the fort and lying in a grave.

The Prince says something. I concentrate on the sunlight dancing through the windows, warm on my face.

You've come further than you ever imagined. And you will keep going. I am not a twelve-year-old girl left in a forest to care for an infant and a bedridden mother. Be the girl in the mirror, a voice deep inside whispers. Be strong and unfathomable.

Beyond the grand hall's far door, eight minds swoop towards us. The Duke and his entourage approach.

I straighten my spine and hold my head high, eyes fixed ahead. Tug and Brin stand somewhere behind the Prince and I, but I barely notice their presence. The fear I once harboured for them has vanished like a cloud of warm breath on cold air. They should fear me. I am the Uru Ana girl who will soon know her enemy. The Carucans believe if you are of royal bloodline, you have been chosen by their Gods, and will be protected above all others.

But their Gods are not mine. I will carve my own destiny.

Jakut is suddenly standing too close again. Mouth, eyes, lips filling my view. I try to ignore him, guarding my attention on the mind-world and the descending threat I will somehow defy. For Kel, for myself, for all Uru Ana.

"Mirra," he says, squeezing my arms until I look at him. "You did not choose to be here. I meant it when I said I was sorry for that." His stance shifts. "I wish to confess something."

My eyes dart between the doorway and the Prince. A confession? The Duke is seconds from arriving. What is Jakut trying to do?

"When I saw you in the forest with Tug—" He swallows, stress lines appearing on his forehead.

I narrow my eyes. Tug must be right. Jakut is trying to play with my emotions, pretend he's like the outcast who has no friends so that I'm more malleable to his needs. I'm an idiot for worrying his skills of deception would not get him through this. With the Duke to show him how, the Prince will learn to command a room within minutes. He will soak up his uncle's sense of entitlement and eminence and no one will see the difference.

Urgency ripples from the Prince as though what he wishes to say cannot wait.

"Stop," I press my hand to his chest. "Whatever you're doing, stop."

His jaw twitches and twists. "I was jealous." He smiles unhappily. "Tug has hurt you in unforgivable ways and yet somehow it's as though you've forgiven him. You forgive him, but not me."

Jealous of my relationship with Tug? Does he think me so gullible and needy I will fall for this? My jaw clenches and I am about to say what I think of him, when servants throw open the far doors.

"Prince Roarhil, the Duke of Rathesyde and Elise, the Duchess of Rathesyde." The announcement carries to every corner of the immense hall. The Duke and Duchess parade in, escorted by the Commander, three soldiers and two ladies-in-waiting.