Chương 88: 23 – Interlude: The Lass of Estermont - Part Three

"Don't rightly know why he bought the place, my lady. Just know that he goes, every now and then," the boy said. Atrinaska rubbed her chin in thought. She'd almost let it go. She'd almost forgotten her suspicions until a few days later, when she went to the kitchens and heard the head cook gossiping about Amanda. She'd disappeared. No note. No notice of leave. She was just… gone. Atrinaska questioned the cook, and she was happy to spill out all her irritation.

Amanda had always been wonderful at her job, but all of a sudden, a few months prior, she'd started arriving late. Tired. Bags under her eyes. She'd lose focus mid-conversation and drop things constantly. Then, she'd just vanished, leaving the cooking staff scrambling to find a replacement for her. The day after, Atrinaska had bumped into her. The sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach began to weigh on her. The girl had seemed afraid of Lundryth.

Not worried he might scold her, or the general fear of a commoner when faced with a powerful knight. The girl had looked terrified. Lundryth hadn't even acted like he'd noticed… but that, too, was suspicious. She'd dropped food. The bowls on the tray had shattered. Loudly. He should've been alert and wary of a threat to his charge, but the man had actively ignored the kitchen girl. She'd seen him react more strongly for less reason in the past. He'd been actively trying to avoid looking at the girl.

He hadn't wanted Atrinaska to pay attention to her. Added to her disappearance, things started getting suspicious.

"Alright. Thank you, sir," she replied. The boy was about her age. Tanned, where her skin was nearly chalk white from a life spent in the palace library. He looked… nice. Her sister would say his body was sculpted by masons.

"What… was your name again?"

"Joenal, m'lady! Joenal Stablehand," The boy said with a blush.

"But everyone just calls me Joe."

"Well, thank you for your help. Joenal," she said.

"No problem, ma'am."

"Uh. Atrinaska. My friends just… call me Naska. Or they would if I had any," she said.

"I'll call you Naska, if you like?" he replied with a silly grin. She smiled, "Well, I'm not going to call you Joe. I'm not just anyone."

"You're certainly not," he said. She blushed, "Well… it was… uhm. Nice to meet you."

"It was a lot better than nice to meet you!" Something about his cocky confidence cast away her embarrassment. The challenge intrigued her. She laughed.

"Well, perhaps we'll meet again someday." She turned and began to walk away. She was the daughter of the duke, and he was a stablehand. The chances of them meeting again were less likely than Rechin declaring peace. Still, she could dream. The guardsman had property outside the castle. That wasn't unheard of but the guardsmen typically stayed within the barracks in the castle. Lundryth was high-ranked enough to have his own room, and he was favored by the Duke besides.

She had no idea why he would own property in the city, but perhaps he had family there.

"My lady?" Joenal called. She turned back to him, secretly pleased that he had. She really needed to go, but a large part of her wanted to ignore the mystery of her guardsman's relationship with the kitchen girl and keep talking to this boy.

"Yes?" she asked, hoping she wasn't coming across eagerly.

"You're… going to visit the Guard?" he asked. She cocked her head, confused by the question.

"Is that a problem?"

"Well, no, of course not. Y-you're Lady Estermont!" he said, his confidence evaporating at the challenge. She grinned, feeling she had the upper hand all of a sudden.

"We just discussed this. I'm Atrinaska." He perked back up and repeated her name.

"Naska. Would… you like an escort maybe? You're not usually seen without a bodyguard." She smiled.

"I've business with the Guard. I appreciate your concern, though. Have you considered becoming a guard yourself?" He beamed.

"Me? A guard? Not on your life."

"Oh."

"I… uh…. I've just got… well. I plan to be a farmer someday! I want to grow things! Ma always said I had a green thumb!" he said.

"Ah," Atrinaska replied. Somehow the easy conversation had turned stilted and awkward.

"I've never met a farmer before." He blinked.

"Never met a–?"

"It was nice to meet you!" she said, panicking. The conversation wasn't going the way she'd hoped and she decided to flee rather than make it any worse.

"I must be going, though."

"S-sure. My Lady," he replied. She turned and began to walk toward Lundryth's house, cheeks burning with shame. She arrived quickly feeling bitter about the interaction. She'd thought implying he could be her guard would be enticing but… It was for the best. Why under the heavens would she be interested in a farmer? It would never work out anyway. Besides, she had a mystery to solve! Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

This whole experience had been quite thrilling so far. She rarely went into town unaccompanied, and sneaking out of the palace had been exhilarating. She wasn't quite sure what she was going to do. She certainly didn't want to accuse Lundryth of anything without at least some proof of wrongdoing. Sneaking out and following the guard to his home felt like a plot straight out of one of her books! Disappointing conversation with the cute boy aside, at least she still had the mystery. The house looked perfectly normal.

Wooden. Small for the town, but that made sense. The guard surely didn't need much extra space considering his quarters in the palace. She considered going up and knocking on the door. That would probably be the smart thing to do. In her heart, she still couldn't fathom that Lundryth could've done anything wrong. Still… just in case, she decided to sneak around to the back end of the house. There were quite a few windows with shutters, but the back wall faced into another house with a very small alley between them.

A large man would likely struggle to fit, but it was easy to slip between the houses for a slim girl like her. Fortunately, the shutters were closed on both houses. She walked past the first window and pressed her hand against it, ever so gently. There was no give. The window was locked. Well, so much for her successful spying. If the next one was locked, she'd have come here for nothing. She might as well have just knocked on the door!

Unfortunately, she did find something at the second window, but she noticed it before she even reached it. There was… a smell. Rancid and awful. The man must've gone hunting and left a carcass in one of the rooms. Perhaps that was why he had this place? That made sense. He probably enjoyed hunting and needed a place for his kills! She entertained the idea that the smell was coming from the house behind her, but holding her nose to that window eased the scent. It was definitely coming from her guard's property.

She pressed just as gently on the next shutter, and the cover opened just a crack on its hinges. Success! She peeked into the crack and froze. All levity fled in an instant. She began to shake. There was a dead body in the room. It was clearly dead. The body was beginning to decompose, and flies were surrounding the corpse. The eyes were still open. It was lying on the floor, mouth open in an eternal scream. Hair splayed out behind her. The girl was naked.

Atrinaska almost screamed, but silenced herself at the last moment, covering her mouth in horror. She turned and ducked beneath the window. Breathing became a struggle, and she gasped. Terrified and desperately trying to stay quiet, she stood back up. Somehow, she couldn't resist another look. She had to know. On the second look, she was a little calmer. Analysis took over from horror, and she took in the hair, the body type, the eyes, and the teeth.

The girl had died lying on her back, head tilted back, staring at the window. Dried blood pooled down her stomach from a wound that had been opened there. A dagger or a sword, that had been removed after it had killed her. She gagged. She couldn't help it. Inside the house, the door between the two rooms opened. Terrified, but still with enough sense to know that she had to get out of there, she turned and fled just as she saw a pair of blue eyes meet her own.

She ran, but she immediately heard the heavy footsteps inside the house. The front door opened, even as she tried to squeeze her way out of the alley. She screamed, cutting herself on a stray piece of wood sticking out from the other house, but barely noticed. Ahead of her, Lundryth was already blocking the alley.

"What are you doing here, my lady?" he asked coldly. No trace of the cheerful guard she knew remained. Instead, he just looked irritated.

"N-nothing!" she said.

"I j-just…. Wanted to visit you!" The man smirked.

"Is that so? Wanted to visit your guard, hmm?"

"I-is that a problem!? I d-discovered you had a home outside the palace a-and–!"

"Cut the bullshit, princess," he said darkly.

"Gods damn it all. I liked you, you know?"

"Wh-what?" she asked.

"You! You're one of the good ones! Why couldn't it have been your bitch of a sister? I would've relished this if it were her."

"Elvenasha? Wh-what did you do to her!?" He scowled.

"Come now. Where is that wit of yours, little duchess? I've done nothing to your sister. More's the pity." He took a step into the alley. He suddenly looked ten times larger than he ever had before. Her brother had beaten him in a hundred sparring matches, and he looked so much smaller after those defeats. She took a step back. Part of her mind was jibbering in absolute panic. She'd told no one she was here!

"I t-told my brother I'd be back for dinner! If… if anything happens to me, he'll come looking!" The murderer grinned.

"No, you didn't." Of course, she hadn't. He'd been her shadow for years. He knew her. He took another step forward. Huh. A huge man could fit into the alley. She had no idea why she suddenly focused on something so ridiculous, but she could only handle so much panic. From a distant corner of her mind, the word mania echoed.

"Wh-what… what are you going to–!" He darted forward before she could finish another word. His hand moved like lightning and clasped around her throat as tightly as a snake. She choked, immediately grasping the hand and desperately trying to tear it away from her. It was no use. His grip was steel, and her fingers were less effective than a kitten's scratches. She desperately tried anyway. Her feet left the ground, even as the man pressed the shutter of the first window.

The wooden latch snapped, and the window swung open. The man had to back up a step, almost out of the alley entirely, before he tried to throw the girl bodily through the thin window, headfirst. It was barely bigger than even her small body, and she kicked her legs out, screaming as he pressed her head into the room.

"Get in there, princess!" She tried to scream, but his hand around her throat tightened even further, cutting off any sound before it could escape the alley. Her arms scraped against the rough wood, her legs caught on the window's bottom, desperately trying to keep herself outside the death house. Even as she did, her breath was fading. She was losing consciousness! She didn't see what happened, but all of a sudden, the grip around her throat fell slack.

SHe panicked, tumbling backward, even as Lundryth fell facedown in front of the window. She barely caught herself from falling all the way into the room, hands catching the sides of the window, leaving her sitting on the tiny windowsill, coughing.

"Run, my lady!" came a shout. Her voice returned. She couldn't stop coughing. Her throat burned, but her lungs were blessedly filling.

"Help!" She screamed as loud as she could.

"Help me! Please!" She screamed, but she also didn't stop, dragging herself out of the tiny window, heedless of the frame scraping bloody gouges into her arms and hips. She pulled herself out of the window, only to smash into the neighboring wall. Lundryth was on the ground, face down, but he was already getting back to his feet. The back of his head had a large bloody wound on it, and there was a rock beside him. He groaned. He'd be back up in moments. Atrinaska didn't have any time to spare.

Adrenaline coursing through her, certain running back down the alley was too small for even her to get through, she leaped and smashed her foot onto the fallen guard's back, slamming his face back into the mud before dashing out into the street. She thought she glanced a boy running right behind her, but she didn't dare stop. She ran, screaming all the way back to the palace.