Luminous

33.5 - [Interlude] The May Queen

The sky over Crosset was painted in the blue of early spring, unblemished by clouds. Music and laughter flavored the wind as it circled the town square once before traveling on. Young maidens in white dresses with flowers crowning their hair danced arm in arm with jolly young lads to the tune of blaring bagpipes.

However, the visiting Baron Hadrian wasn't mingling with the festive folk, enjoying the May Day celebrations. Neither was his counterpart, Lord Crosset. Both remained in the castle on the hilltop, discussing their children's marriage.

A marriage that would end soon with his death.

Coris Hadrian clutched a white handkerchief to his mouth as he coughed, his thin frame shuddering and rocking. Searing pain like a river of hot acid sped from his bowels up his throat. He gagged and gasped for breath, drowned by his own bile.

Coris downed the waterskin at his waist to soothe his blistered throat, slopping the last drops on his tunic. He raised the handkerchief gingerly to his eyes, sighing in relief at the absence of shining crimson patches.

Still, it was piddling compared to the three nights of agony, the fate he'd saved Zier from. He reminded himself he would never regret it. He couldn't

Coris gazed over at Crosset Castle. The imposing stone fortress looming over the town belied its master's powerless state.

Father didn't have to bother getting Simon to masquerade as him to make sure Arinel would marry him. News of his frail condition had probably reached Lord Crosset long since, but Lord Crosset would be too desperate to worry if his daughter would be widowed young.

At least, widowed young by Lord Hadrian might be preferable to diminishing with Lord Crosset, a dying knight the King had forsaken.

Coris should have had no business strolling about this little country town, but Mother had beseeched Father to allow Coris to tag along, so he could breathe the crisp spring breeze and behold the delightful May Day celebrations. Coris welcomed the opportunity; it might be his last to fulfill his dearest quest.

Four years seemed a lifetime past; a life when he was spoiled fat as a pig for slaughter, when a Lady from a powerful family would be honored to be his bride, when the seven manors in Father's demesne were destined to be his, his to take from the moment of his birth.

He thought nothing of his people, his parents, his poor little brother, his servants, his dogs, or any soul apart from himself, a disgusting being who would never entertain drinking poison in place of his brother. Until four years ago, during the closing days of the Crosset Famine.

When Bailiff Johnsy invited Coris to hunt game in the Lord's Forest of Crosset, it had never occurred to Coris that Johnsy was planning to kidnap and ransom him for food. Coris would probably have been dead, or at least tortured, if not for the peasant girl who helped him escape. All she asked in exchange was bread for her starving little brothers and baby sister.

Coris inadvertently exposed the hushed-up Famine. Bailiff Johnsy was executed, Marquess Crosset was demoted to Lord and harshly rebuked by the King for neglecting his duties, and Crosset was added to Father's demesne.

As he recovered, Coris learned all this from Mother, but he never knew what became of the peasant girl. By the time strength returned to him, the girl had disappeared without a trace. Father was too busy feeding the whole of Crosset to spare men to search for a nameless, faceless little girl.

Coris closed his eyes as he paced the winding dirt roads. Try as he might, he couldn't recall the girl's face. His memory had been crystal clear that day, but he woke up a few days later with blurry recollections and shattered, disconnected events.