Amongst Thieves

16.

Of all the people she expected in the gardens in the middle of the night, Laris was not one of them.

She didn't realize it was him until she was upon him, and if she had seen him sooner she may have avoided him completely. True, yes, she didn't want to be alone, but she also didn't expect it to be Laris to fill that void.

He had seen her though- maybe, by the look he gave her, he had sensed her arrival before she even saw him. In the torchlight, his eyes almost glowed as they focused on her, but that was the only part of him that seemed to exude any light.

Much like her, Laris looked as if he was roused from a terrible night's sleep. His hair was tousled and his clothes wrinkled as if he had slept in them. He held his head in his hands, and in the silence of the evening, she thought she heard him whispering to himself, not unlike what she heard when she first came across him in the library.

And just as in the library, he knew she was there even when she wished he hadn't. She stepped into the small garden clearing, an alcove surrounded by rose bushes on three sides, with a low stone bench along each. Laris sat in the one directly across from her his face shadowed and haunted.

She was certain she looked the same.

"I wasn't expecting someone to be out this late," he said by way of greeting, almost echoing her exact thoughts. His voice didn't have the jovial intonation as it did during the ball. It sounded hoarse and strained.

"Do you mind if I join you?" It sounded more pleasant than 'pretend you didn't see me' and walking away.

In answer, he moved aside on his bench, and Maize silently approached and sat next to him.

"I used to come here when I was a child," he said without prompting. "I would have nightmares and end up falling asleep on the benches. I remember my mother stopped trying to lock me in my room and instead left a pillow and a blanket out for me."

"What brought you out here tonight then?"

"Still nightmares, though without the blanket or pillow any longer."

"That seems to be a common occurrence these days," Maize admitted, letting out a sigh.

"Sleep doesn't seem to come easy any longer," Laris confessed. "Not since my mother died."

"I'm sorry," she said softly. "I lost my parents too. As well as sleeping easy, it seems."

"My condolences then." Laris gave her a glance. "Is that what brought you to Dreduor?"

"In essence, more or less." She looked at him. "Is that what caused you to leave Dreduor?"

He huffed a laugh, a small smile cracking. Everyone who knew the history of the royal family's drama knew that Laris was sent away after Lusciana died because King Silas blamed him for her death. Details of her passing, however, were never disclosed to the people of Dreduor, and Maize felt she was tiptoeing along a treasonous line just for asking. But there in the gardens, with only the two of them at their most vulnerable, Maize dared to that line.

"My mother's death was... unexpected. And because of that, my father needed someone to blame other than himself. My mother and I always had a closer relationship than I had with my father, and often I felt he resented it. Once I was born, my mother's time was devoted to someone other than him, and I suppose that explains why they only had one child before her passing."

"So you believe he sent you away because he couldn't handle raising you on his own?"

"He sent me away because he blamed me for her death. And because if I remained, he'd be constantly reminded of what he had that he lost. And I was happy to leave- remaining only reminded me of what I had lost as well."