This love is like a curse (52)
Longboat, who was handing the priest a bundle of parchments on which the data of the dead was written, turned his head and looked at her. Talia quickly lowered her gaze.
Under the bright summer sun, her appearance, revealed in all its nakedness, seemed especially pitiful to her, and she could not raise her head proudly.
“Her Highness, the second princess, needs urgent treatment,” the magician from the Talen house said politely, stopping in front of Longkas. - Please, omit the formalities when entering the palace.
When there was no answer, Thalia raised her eyes and began to peer into his expression.
With a slight wrinkle between his eyebrows, Barkas looked at her carefully.
Maybe he was surprised why the one who usually raises a scandal even at the touch of someone else is now behaving so calmly?
He studied her pale face, as if dissecting it with his gaze, then slowly lowered his cold eyes, sliding over the hands that held her behind her back and under her knees, then stopped at her lifelessly hanging leg. Noticing the dark red stain on the bandages, Barkas frowned deeper.
A look full of silent question turned to the magicians of the Talen house.
Ignoring this, the magician softly added:
“His Majesty will certainly understand if the princess immediately goes to her chambers.”
“Yes, take her as soon as possible,” a clear female voice suddenly responded instead.
Thalia turned her head and saw Ayla crossing the square, accompanied by her maids. Thalia's face hardened.
The girl came up and stood next to Longboat, casting a glance at Thalia full of feigned sympathy.
“After such a difficult journey in her condition, it is better to begin treatment and rest as soon as possible.”
Thalia clenched her teeth. Her face turned red from humiliation.
If only she could lift a finger, she would scratch out those feignedly sympathetic eyes.
Ayla, as if not noticing the rage raging in Talia, smiled softly and put her hand on Longboat’s forearm.
“I’ll explain it to His Majesty myself,” she said, and then gracefully turned around, as if hurrying Longboat. “Come on, let’s not keep His Majesty waiting.”
Only then did the man, who had never moved before, slowly move from his place.
Thalia stared after him until his figure disappeared from sight, and only then closed her eyelids.
The magicians passed the main building of the palace and entered a spacious garden covered in flowers.
They were soon swallowed up by a majestic, ornate building.
Thalia felt as if she was being sucked into the womb of a giant monster.
The magicians crossed the marble hall and climbed the stairs to the second floor, then entered the Senevier library.
Passing through a secret door between bookshelves and rushing down a narrow, dark corridor, they finally reached her laboratory.
Thalia frowned at the thick, dizzying scent of essential oils and medicinal herbs.
“Put it here,” commanded the magician, who quickly crossed the laboratory and opened the door to the cabinet.
She had been here many times, but had never entered this room. The man holding her walked in and laid Thalia on the bed in the center of the room.
The girl looked around with alarm.
The room, immaculately clean and tidy, was filled with oddly shaped instruments that she had never seen before.
She turned her gaze to two magicians who were laying out strange instruments on the table.
This is probably how a calf brought to the slaughter feels. Cold sweat soaked the back of my head.
If she hadn't been under the spell, she would have screamed already.
“First, let’s examine the wound,” said one of the magicians, crouching at her feet.
When the hem of her skirt began to ride up, Thalia became all tense.
The magician busily unwound the bandages and clicked his tongue.
“The condition is much more serious than we thought,” he said, carefully probing her knee with icy fingers. — The bone has not healed well, and this can cause serious consequences. If left as is, the nerve could die and she would no longer be able to walk.
“Really... Clumsy hands of human magicians,” the second one grumbled, picking up a small knife from the table.
- Nothing can be done. We'll have to set everything right again.
В тот же миг из сдавленного горла вырвался резкий всхлип. Only then did the magician, seeing her pale face, lower the cloth bandage from the lower part of her face and stretch her mouth into something like a smile.
“Don’t worry so much,” he said.
It looked like he wanted to calm her down, but Thalia felt her blood run cold. It was not a human smile - rather, as if a fish was trying to copy the expression of a person's face.
He continued to mumble:
“It will be difficult to completely restore your previous condition, but at least you will be able to walk.”
With great effort she moved her lips.
Stop it.
If I don’t become the same, then why endure all this?
She wanted to scream, but only a muffled cry came out of her mouth.
The magician pulled the bandage back on and gave the order:
“It’s better to light some sleeping herbs.”
One of the magicians who was examining the tools on the table brought a small brazier to the head of the room and threw in dried herbs.
Thalia immediately held her breath. But I couldn’t stand it for long. The suffocation took over, and as soon as the smoke entered the lungs, my vision became blurred.
She tried her best to maintain consciousness, to drive away the veil from her eyes - but soon fell into an unconscious sleep.
* * *
На поверхность озера начали падать капли дождя.
She realized that this was a dream. A landscape from an old memory unfolded before her.
Fourteen-year-old Thalia sat huddled under a huge tree, looking with hatred at the gray, rain-drenched surface of the water, as if she were facing a sworn enemy.
A thoroughly wet Longboat approached her.
— Is hide and seek over?
She shot him an angry look.
He seemed to have searched the entire palace - his usually impeccable clothes and hair were in complete disarray. But this did not cheer Thalia up at all.
She grabbed a handful of sticky mud and threw it at him.
- Get out! I can't see you!
There was a dirty stain on the embroidered gold velvet uniform, but Barkas didn’t even blink.
Seeing his calm face, Talia became even more angry and continued throwing dirt:
- Disappear! Go to your Ayla!
“I would love to,” with a short sigh, Barkas dropped to one knee next to him and added. “But I am chained to you until your sixteenth birthday.”
Thalia stared at him, her face twisted with anger.
She felt so hurt that she wanted to cry. To hide it, she forced her lips into a nasty smile.
- Terrible. Two more years of seeing your face? The thought alone makes me sick.
-...
“You are the most disgusting person in the world.” You make me cringe. Be sick. You make me sick.
— Are you finished?
- Not yet. You smell like a horse.
His eyebrow barely rose.
Talia became embarrassed and lowered her eyes. Having spent his childhood in the temple, Barkas was obsessed with cleanliness.
He always smelled of soap and freshness. He probably knew this himself and understood perfectly well that her words were just nit-picking.
But instead of convicting her of this, he silently took off his cloak, carefully threw it over her shoulders and stood up.
“I will listen to the rest of the insults in the palace.” Get up. Your lips have turned blue.