Layla Read online

  Chapter 2

  "Layla!" Father called. He didn't do that very often, not on his own. It meant only one thing: Brye was here! I rushed to the window, and sure enough, there was his carriage crossing over the moat.

  I had my baby blue gown on. Baby Blue! "What an odd name for a color," I thought. I could just imagine me, curtsying to Brye and saying, "Do you like my new Baby Blue gown? I had Father name the gown after Rishard!"

  Rishard was the scullery maid's wimpy son whom I had borrowed the breaches all those years ago.

  "Why, yes, but I daresay it would look a mite better on him!" He would say. I chuckled to myself. We would both crumple to the ground in laughter, causing grief to all those who strived each and everyday to help me become a lady.

  I bounced hurriedly down the spiral staircase, jolting myself from my thoughts. I ran out to greet him, happy as anything. But as he emerged from the carriage, I immediately grew shy.

  "Is this the Brye I knew last year?" I thought to myself. He was at least six inches taller and brawnier.

  He strolled over to where I was, me with my eyes squinted and my mouth half opened, trying to recognize him.

  "Princess?" he said, as he extended his arm for me to take.

  This was our normal exercise! So why did it seem so foreign? Normally I would reply, "Prince," and we would link arms and stroll inside, mocking a formal greeting.

  "Prince?" I asked, suddenly unsure of myself. We linked arms, but despite my natural grace, I tripped and nearly brought us both to the ground.

  "What poise," he teased. I managed a smile. "My, Layla, you seem rather shy. If my parents had known you had stopped talking, they would have sent me elsewhere!" His eyes sparkled.

  "That's a shame!" I joked back, "For I have taken on a vow of silence." I clapped my hand over my mouth, as if I weren't supposed to have said anything. He laughed.

  After we were inside, he bowed, and I clumsily curtsied. He laughed again.

  Smiling, he said, "For a second there, I was afraid you had forgotten me."

  I just shook my head, although in earnest, I felt I had. "Did you bring Rebel?" I asked. Rebel was his horse, a black stallion, with a perfect moon on the exact center of his forehead.

  He nodded.

  "Well, then, can I braid his mane? You know I love his moon," I paused. "On his forehead!" Yet again, he laughed.

  "Of course you may," he said.

  He had led me to the dining hall, where he pulled out a chair, motioning for me to sit.

  "Thank you," I said meekly. I was warming up to him now, this perfect stranger. Fortunately, I was sure I would be capable of asking him for help. After all, I hadn't completely forgotten him.

  After dinner, he asked about my embroidery. When I shrugged, he knew it hadn't improved. I took him to the room where I did the torturous task everyday, where tangles of strings that were supposed to be beautiful scenes or objects hung from the walls.

  LaShebah fluttered behind him while he observed my handiwork.

  "If you ignore the red tint, sire, it is actually quite lovely!" LaShebah offered. Actually, it wasn't lovely at all; it looked more like a knotted yarn ball than an embroidered flower.

  Brye winked at me and said, "Oh, I always thought the redness gave it a certain special something."

  I was afraid I nearly blushed. As if a perfect stranger were criticising my work. Surely I wasn't offended, but it just felt so? I wasn't sure how I felt.

  Brye must have sensed something the matter. "Is anything wrong Layla?" He asked anxiously.

  I just shook my head.

  "But you have been acting strangely quiet. You usually don't shut up, especially on my first day here." he said curiously.

  I stared at him like a dumb horse. "You've changed a lot," I blurted out. This was one of my faults: I rarely thought before I spoke. I turned towards him, expecting him to be upset by my accusation, but he was smiling. Like I had just complimented him. His shoulders shrugged a little, like he was chuckling.

  "I've got something for you, Layla," he said excitedly.

  He led me to his sleeping quarters and closed the door, shutting out nosy LaShebah.

  He rummaged through a trunk and pulled out a beautiful silver scabbard decked in diamonds. When he handed it to me, I gasped. He meant for me to have it! My heart jostled around in my chest; I felt like running in circles from excitement.

  "I thought you would like this," he said warmly.

  I took the sword out and ran my fingers along the blade. Not for long, though. I jerked them back, finding the blade very sharp. I scolded myself for my stupidity.

  "Oh! Careful!" he warned me. Brye took my hand and examined the cut.

  "I'm fine," I assured him, as I drew it away.

  Then he pulled out a silver necklace, bedecked in as many precious jewels as the scabbard.

  "You probably won't like this one as much," he admitted, as I slipped it over my head. Yet as he watched me, he smiled.

  I stood up, pulled out the sword, and started to pierce the air. "Shall we hunt down a dragon tomorrow? But, I have heard that Colies are better for beginners." I felt I was talking to myself, even though Brye was listening intently.

  "But, am I just a beginner?" I asked. I stopped and turned to the prince sitting on the bed. "Of course I am!" He grinned as he watched me sword fight an invisible beast. But LaShebah interrupted my wonderful brawl. The door creaked open, and the annoying, impatient, always-in-others'- business LaShebah walked in.

  "My goodness!" she gasped. My nanny rambled, blathering on about how improper I was. I didn't, wouldn't listen. When she tried to take the sword from me, I held it over her head. I was already taller than she was.

  "Ladies?don't?play?ugh!.. with?such?"

  "I am not playing with it! You don't play with things like this?.and I know!" LaShebah, who was practically climbing on me, stopped trying to retrieve the sword.

  This was what I couldn't stand! I couldn't do anything without being completely rebuked!

  "Are you going to tell your father?" LaShebah asked irritably.

  "No! And neither shall YOU!" I said firmly.

  She gave up and left the room. "I can't stand this!" I protested. "I have to do something! Don't you see, Brye?" I flailed my arms helplessly.

  The prince nodded slowly and sympathetically. He didn't seem to mind being the victim on whom I thrusted all of my complaints.

  I left Brye and I walked into my bedchamber. LaShebah was there. She scowled disapprovingly when she saw that I still had the sword.

  "Don't say anything!" I said between clenched teeth. I didn't even look at her while I talked. I felt her nod solemnly. Then I left, satisfied with her consent, and went to find Brye.

  I had to ask him to help me run away.

  A childish notion, to be sure. But I was certain it was the only way. A quick, foolhearty decision, one that could either end in total triumph, embarrassment...or death. But there was, however, only one way to find out.

  We both sat down on his bed with a loud plop. "Brye?"

  "Yeah?"

  He had always seemed to be a good person to confide in before. Why was it so hard to talk to him now, when I needed to the most?

  "Can I tell you a secret, such a secret, that if you were to tell anybody I would die of grief and devastation?"

  Brye got down on his left knee and crossed his heart with his pointer finger. "I swear."

  My vocal cords froze. I tried to look at him and remember our old times, but all I could see was this new prince. I had to tell him, though. I knew that out of everyone in the world he was the only one who would even come close to understanding.

  "I am thinking about running away, to Medalia. I have to escape...all of this." I waved my hand in the air, generalizing. "They just don't realize that some things aren't possible for me. Not ever princess is born to primp and preen." I gazed out the window. "Tell me you understand," I begged.

  He nodded gravely. The
second he nodded, it all poured out, like my life bucket had been turned upside down. All the way from adjusting to eating less, to riding Jedni.

  After I was done pouring out my whole plan Brye said, "That would make you so happy? and change everything, everything that is hard for you. But in a good way. It would give you your freedom." He stretched the word 'freedom' longingly.

  I nodded vigorously.

  "All right," he said slowly. "I'll help you." He didn't seem to like the idea, yet he was willing to help. I felt guilty when I told him I wanted to leave the next night. He said that wasn't practical, that we needed more time to prepare. So we settled on three days hence as my departure date.

  "Don't worry, I am sure Rishard will be glad to talk your ears off," I said in an attempt to make him laugh. But in return, he only gave me a broken smile.

  The next day we started to collect items that would be necessary for my trip. I had gotten reacquainted with Brye, although he was pretty much a different person. I didn't look at him much, and I avoided his devoted looks. His eyes looked too confused, and his confusion puzzled me. I didn't understand the strange new look about him, and I didn't ask. I just went on as normally as I could. Wanting more than ever to cheer him up by presenting a problem, hoping it would have a humorous solution, I asked him how I was supposed to get over the palace walls.

  "Well, I imagine you will have to climb over them like some criminal." His own joke brought a brief, faint grin to his lips.

  The only one who noticed a difference in our behavior was LaShebah. The others didn't give a care either way; much less notice any dramatic changes in us.

  "What is wrong with you, my sweet? Why have you suddenly lost your appetite?"

  The truth was my stomach felt as if it were eating itself. When it growled where everybody could hear it (and frown at it), an extra heap of tomato-fish was added onto my plate. I grimaced at the sight of all the extra food. I nearly refused to eat it; the defiant words on the tip of my tongue trying to escape.

  But I held them in. Instead, I pushed my plate away, shoved my chair into the table, and left the room. I hadn't said anything disrespectful. But I could still hear what LaShebah would say to me tonight, and the scornful scowl she would have on her face.

  "Ladies eat what is placed in front of them. Ladies don't leave a meal without being excused." Ladies don't do anything. Ladies don't live. That is what she might as well have said. It was the truth, and "Ladies don't lie."

 

  My time to take leave came too suddenly. There were no tearful good-byes, and I felt out of place. But what else was I to do?

  Brye simply said, "Bye. And, oh yeah? write me only if you are coming back." He climbed back into his window where I began my escape, without another word and without a second look.

  His words stung like a hornet, piercing down into the depths of my soul. And the feeling stayed there, as I scurried over the wall, then rode off. I almost turned back, knowing that I should. Knowing that it would make everybody happy. Knowing that I would have to grow up positively miserable. That's what kept me going, my own wants. Thinking of myself way too highly. Selfish, greedy, arrogant me.