The Lady at the River's Edge

17 - Dancing Shades

Time passed for Erzsebet in a pleasant haze, dozing beside Mihaly beneath the cypress. The first hint of dusk brought with it claws of terror.

Her mother had spoken so surely that the attack would come this night, and that surety had sunk deep within her. Suddenly her time in the garden was a foolish dalliance, the carefree pastime of an ignorant girl whom she could no longer afford to be. She rose in haste, bid the young knight farewell and sped off, Sir Zsigmond near behind.

She went first to her bedroom, leaving her escort at the door, and gathered all that she might need for the night into a small trunk. The towers were meagerly furnished, favoring protection over comfort. If she was meant to spend the night crammed close with other castle women, and particularly their children, she would need some cushions and a scented kerchief, else the grubby smelly beastlings would soon need protection from her.

She rang the bell to call a servant, then ordered the young woman to take the chest to the eastern tower. Once the servant door was shut, Erzsebet looked around her room, struck suddenly by the silly fear that she might never see it again. She knew well the voice of her anxiety when it spoke through her, but she had never quite learned how to silence it; knowing she was being ridiculous was not enough to bring relief. Thus she gazed about, engraved into her memories the image of her sanctum, all the while mocking herself for her melodrama.

As she turned to leave, her gaze crossed the standing silver mirror by her armoire. Therein was the image of a skittish bedraggled wide-eyed creature, shocking for its unfamiliarity. She took time to smooth down her hair, used some powder from her cosmetics box to hide the darkness under her eyes, but no matter how she primped she could not give the portrait in the mirror the confidence she wanted.

Where went that ardent sound she had heard in the garden, the surety that all would be well in the end? With a wry grin she thought to herself, I woke up.

Sir Zsigmond awaited her just as she had left him, and together they made for the eastern tower. She considered checking in at Janos' quarters one last time, but elected not to–the hour was already late, and she could not even say why she wanted to visit with him. If she couldn't justify it to herself, how would she justify it to her mother, who was surely already waiting for her with Antal and–

Ilona! Erzsebet hadn't told her sister anything. Was the girl still sleeping in her room, or had her mother snatched her up and dragged her to the tower? It was a ways back to Ilona's room, but it would be much worse to arrive at the tower alone.

Erzsebet stopped and swiveled, and was met with a look of comic surprise on the knight's usually stoic face. She hesitated for a moment, trying to find her words, but in the end she decided she owed him no explanation–he was only her escort, after all. She marched quickly back the way she'd come and then turned off towards Ilona's room.

There was no guard at the door, but Erzsebet went and knocked anyway, then called out for her sister a few times, and at last opened the door. No trace of the girl, nor anyone else. She pulled the door shut and left, passing a distinctly more sober-faced Zsigmond, and back they went to the eastern tower.

The hall outside was a thronging tangle, servants and castle folk mixing and babbling, shouts risen on updrafts of terror and murmurs smothered beneath a fog of the same. It took her escort's bellowing command for them to clear a path through the crowd into the tower's anteroom, though from there the way was simple into the first chamber.

While still crowded, at least those within were largely settled and seated, making navigation and search far easier. Erzsebet looked about for her mother and her siblings, to no avail. She approached the first familiar face she saw, a castle woman around her age with whom she may have played in youth, and asked of the countess. The woman blushed at being singled out, stammered around her answer, trying Erzsebet's patience, but finally got the words out that her mother was on the third floor.