Chapter 50

My phantom pains were severely acting up. I couldn’t ride into the city like I wanted. More than that, when I looked down at my fingers, I kept seeing them as human fingers; lastly, I couldn’t get that memory of holding Hannah in my arms as she died out of my head. The very thought caused a horrible feeling of melancholy to seethe in my head.

Instead of riding, I told Paul and Terry, “let’s just walk there. It’s a lovely day.”

It truly was. It was just the right temperature; neither hot nor cold, with a gentle breeze in the air. As we walked I asked Paul casually, “why do you like lilies so much?”

Paul was quiet as we walked away from the front of the castle and headed down the cobblestone path to the city. He answered with a smile, “because my daughter loved them.”

I asked him lightly, “is she kind?”

“She’s dead.” He replied flatly with a frown.

“I’m sorry…” I answered sincerely.

“Don’t be; I like when people ask about her. It keeps her memory alive. She and my son both died from the same disease.” Paul explained. “Physicians didn’t know what it was.”

Ah, so the rumors at court about his wife drowning his children were just that; rumors. That made me a little happier.

I thought very deeply about how to make Paul loyal to me—how to make him a friend. If I could just amp up my innocence, and be more like a daughter figure… Perhaps it could work.

I clapped my hands together excitedly and said to Paul and Terry, “let’s make today about Paul! What would you like to do!”

“Oh no, My Lady. I m perfectly content doing what you like to do. Why should you ever want to spend a day trying to make me happy?” Paul asked sincerely.

“Because I want to be friends with you, of course! If you’re to be my guard, I want you to like me!” I said cheerfully. “What do you think of me, Paul? Am I doing a poor job as queen? Am I too noticeably a moth?”

Paul shook his head. “No, My Lady. Paris loves you, and if he loves you, I do too. Paris is the closest thing I have left to a son, and the only thing he talks about other than business related to the kingdom is you. I thought he would never shut up about how much he liked your fur the other day. Before you came, he was such a sad man. You wouldn’t believe some of the things he told me. He purposefully shut himself away from others, and I couldn’t stand it because I knew how kind-hearted he really was. I know that any woman who could drag such happiness out of such a miserable man must be doing a good job as queen. And I never minded moths so much to begin with, so of course I don’t care that you’re one.”

I squealed cheerfully. “You really think so? Then I must return such a kind compliment by spending the day on you as planned! Tell me what it is you want!”

Terry was listening to me intently. He knew my game, of course. He knew I was trying to befriend him so he would eventually let me speak to the moth slaves.

Paul looked very thoughtful. “I don’t know, My Lady. I haven’t thought about anything I wanted to do since my children died. I do miss playing hide and seek with them, but…”

“Hide and seek!” I interrupted elatedly. “I love hide and seek! Me and Terry will hide and you can come and try to find us in the city!”

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“That’s much too dangerous, My Lady. If we separate someone could attack you!” Paul said with a sigh. “Please, let’s just do what you want to do, although I appreciate your thinking of me.”

My thoughts were in a whirl; what would be the thing to win his loyalty? What would make me most like a daughter figure to him?

What was the thing that made Daddy love me most? It was my sweetness and innocence which everyone liked to comment on, but there was something else, too.

Protectiveness. Daddy was very protective of his family.

“Come on, Terry! Let’s run on ahead and hide!” I called to him and winked as I dashed ahead of the both of them.

“My Lady, it’s dangerous!” Paul called as I made my legs go as fast as they could muster. Phantom pain made my vision bleary, but I managed to hold up.

Terry didn’t know what I was planning, but he obeyed and dashed ahead with me. Paul went as fast as he could—which was fast—he was gaining on us quickly, but not quickly enough.

Luckily, since we had gotten a head start, we were out of his reach in no time and were entering the city where we merged with a crowd and Paul lost track of us.

__

Terry and I hid in an alleyway in the city and I was panting profusely while he hadn’t broken a sweat.

Terry chuckled. “You’re so out of shape for one so thin!”

I made a face. “Quiet!”

“So, what’s your plan here?” Terry asked, leaning against the wall. “How is this going to convince him to want to join you in setting moths free?”

“Because I will be his surrogate daughter who he always wants to protect, especially since I’m married to his surrogate son.” I explained. “If he thinks I’m in grave danger, I think that will bring out his fatherly, protective side and he will begin to view me as his daughter! And you can be another surrogate son to him! We should split up to make it as authentic as possible!”

Terry looked very annoyed. “I’ve had enough of fathers, but I see what you mean… I would be worried to leave you alone as well, truth be told, however. Someone could seriously want to hurt you in this city.”

“I’ve got a sword, you can trust me! In order for this to work, all the pieces have to be in place!” I told him plainly.

Terry looked deadly worried, but he managed to nod slowly. “If you run into trouble, yell as loudly as you can.”

“Of course!” I said and we went our separate ways when we left the alleyway.

I looked around in the city square for a good place to hide. It couldn’t be too good, of course, I didn’t want to worry Paul that much.

Many of the humans milling about the square glanced at me and wondered what I was doing out by myself. I thought they might find it charming if I told them. “I’m playing hide and seek with my guard! Nobody tell him where I’m hiding!”

Many of them laughed and nodded as I ran past them and then found a rather nice tree to climb and hide in that was planted just outside the city square.

It was very comfortable in that tree. I thought it was a nice enough tree to live in, in fact. It reminded me of home.

I looked down and saw Paul asking some of the residents of Nui where I was hiding, and they shrugged with clueless faces. I giggled and remembered just how fun hide and seek could be.

I saw Paul looking thoroughly around the square before he began heading my way.

I wanted to jump on his shoulders and scare him.

I was ready to jump just as Paul passed underneath me. As I did so, Paul and I both heard Terry scream in the distance. Paul had jumped in surprise when I landed on his shoulder, but he easily and gently lifted me off of them and examined me worriedly. “My Lady, you nearly gave me a heart attack! You could have been hurt!”

“We have to find Terry now!” I said and dashed off in the direction we had heard the scream coming from. It had certainly come from our left. We saw a furless, silken green moth disappearing around the corner of a row of businesses. She was very tall, especially for a female moth, and was forcibly floating him through the air with her magic.

Paul told me to stay put, but I ignored him and followed after him as the silken moth girl dashed to the west and out of the city. Paul stopped at the edge of the city and said to me, “I need you to go back and tell Paris we need a few more guards. I’ll keep chasing her.”

I made a face. “I can help! Come on! We’re losing her!”

I continued running and Paul had no choice but to chase after me, yelling at me to slow down. We were out of the city now and running through the long grass surrounding Nui, following the moth woman who we were closing the gap on.

We chased the woman until it felt like we were miles away from Nui and finally, she was close enough for the surprisingly fit—albeit old—Paul to grab. He grabbed her hood and pulled her back. “You’ll be thrown in the dungeon for this!”

Suddenly, other moths popped out of the long grass with arrows trained on me and Paul.

I fearfully clung to Paul as the green moth woman smirked.

I will write again later.