The door rattled in its frame, held at bay by the thick bolt, which luckily Elwin had remembered to put into place.
His stomach dropped through the floor, and he felt like throwing up again. There was no time for that.
The prince and Elwin, turned to look at the blanket wrapped body in the corner of the room, so in tandem that it would have been impossible to tell who had looked away first.
“What are we going to do?” Prin asked.
“I don't know.” Elwin whispered. He went to the cabinet and pulled out a few more things onto the floor hurriedly, but it was clear there wouldn't be room for a whole body on the shelves. He whirled around in a circle of confusion.
Pound, pound, pound, came from the door, and it shook in response to the knocking.
“Under the bed?” Prin suggested. He started to get up and come help.
“No, stay there.” Elwin whispered. Holding out a hand in protest.
He drug the blanket wrapped body over to the bed and started shoving it out of sight under the bed. He made a face at Prin, which he hoped conveyed both, I dont know if this is going to work, and this is taking forever isn't it, do you think whoever it is will go away and come back with reinforcements? At least he sure hoped it wasn't taking as long as it felt like it was taking.
“Hey, what are you doing in there!?” A familiar abrasive voice called out through the door.
“How much do you trust your sister?” Prin asked softly.
“Just don't,” Elwin motioned toward what was hidden in the dark recess under the bed. “Don't say anything about that.” He put his finger to his lips. “Shh.”
The prince nodded in agreement, mimicking Elwin's gesture. “Shh.”
Dolce pounded on the door again. “You have me worried. Open up!”
“I'm coming!” Elwin said. “Keep yourself together, you're waking the dead!” He made a face at Prin over his shoulder, aghast at his own poor choice of words. He wiggled the bolt loose and slid it open. “Happy now?” He asked.
Dolce stood with her arms crossed over her chest. Although the pouty glare she gave Elwin, intended probably to make her look mean, just reminded him of her toddler self when she wanted to go somewhere with him and he wouldn't take her. He almost laughed.
She narrowed her eyes suspiciously at him. “Am I interrupting something, or what?”
“I was taking a bath.” Prin said. He swung his legs casually back and forth.
In Elwin's paranoid mind, he worried the movement of his legs would draw too much attention to under the bed, being as his feet were pointing right at it. He bit his lip.
“Ooooh, I thought maybe you and him.” Dolce smiled slyly, pointing with her thumb from one to the other.
The prince tilted his head to the side. “Hmm?”
Elwin just loved his innocent sweet face. “What do you want, Dolce?”
Dolce ignored her brother. She pounded some mud off her shoes on the door frame and went inside. Immediately her hand shot up to her nose. “Good gods, what's that smell?”
“What smell?” Elwin said quickly, panicked.
“It's all my fault.” Prin said at the same time. “I was very sick yesterday, but I'm okay now.” He continued swinging his legs rhythmically.
“Oh?” Dolce said. “Well, it smells worse than the meat market in here. Better leave the door open and let it air.”
“He's covering for me.” Elwin said. “It was me who was sick all over the place. It was that stupid liquor you gave me, Dolce.” He sat down beside Prin and nudged his knee with his own, hoping he would take the hint and calm the nervous motion of his legs.
Prin's legs stopped moving, and he leaned into Elwin, resting his head on his shoulder.
“You weren't supposed to drink the whole thing at once, idiot!” Dolce said. She looked around the room. Though cleaner, the general sense of disarray made it more than obvious something out of the ordinary was going on.
Many of the items from the storage cabinet were out on the floor, as well as stale food sitting on the table, books out of place, the familiar top cover missing from the bed. Elwin had no doubt that none of these differences were things his sister failed to notice. Even as rare as her visits upstairs had been of late.
However, the place where her eyes finally landed and ceased their wandering was on the prince himself. Dolce stepped over to the bed and looked him up and down. She put her hand on the top of his head, as though taking measurements. Finally she sat down on the other side of him.
“Kid, you look great. What's your secret?” Dolce winked at him. She took his hand and examined it, turning it over to examine the palm likewise.
“Secret?” Prin asked. He never could exactly make heads or tails of Dolce, and had told her brother as much in the past. Though he liked her well enough, even without understanding her one little bit.
“I'm not kidding. You have roses in your cheeks and your eyes seem, I don't even know how to describe it? Sparkly? Lively?” Dolce laughed at herself. “I mean, that three day beauty sleep must have really done you well! I kid, I kid. I know there was an old doctor woman, or whatever she was. Alls I know is they should have kept her on a retainer no matter how much she cost, 'cause she obviously does good work!”
“So she's long gone then, I thought as much.” the prince said. “You didn't see which way she went did you?” He picked at the fibers in the towel he was still wrapped up in.
“Well, by sea I figure.” Dolce said. “The mountain passage is too dangerous, especially for an old woman. What does it matter though?” She was still looking at Prin as though he were a knot to untangle, a broken bowl to piece back together in just the right way. “It's a damn miracle isn't it? I can't even believe it.” She smiled at her brother in congratulations. “I'm sorry for what I said the other day. But you, you understand, what I was trying to – What I meant by it. But I was wrong, and I admit it.”
“I'm not mad at you.” Elwin said. “It was forgotten already.”
“There IS a secret.” Prin said. “The cure has terrible side effects. I can't keep it.” He gave Dolce an earnest look. “I have to find him—her, and make her take it back.”
Dolce narrowed her eyes in concern. “What could it possibly be? How could it be worse than what you were going through already?” She put her hand on his chest. “I know what the big difference is, you're not even wheezing for breath! Every time I saw you before you would be wheezing or coughing or something like that. What could be so bad that it's worse than not being able to breath?”
She was looking so serious and genuine in her concern, that Elwin almost caved and told her the whole thing. It would have been nice to have another solid head to put on the case. If two heads are better than one, three must be still better yet. However, this was his baby sister here, and he didn't want to involve her in something so foul as this. It was one thing for him to try and conceal a murder, which is essentially what he was doing, and quite another thing for some other sane generally right thinking person to have the same reaction.
“I can't say.” Prin said miserably. “I wish I could, but it's too awful to even talk about.”
Dolce leaned away from him, examining the both of them together. Clearly, the gears were turning, and perhaps she was deciding how much to pry and what to use for a crowbar.
She looked Elwin in the eye, who just shook his head. She would get no help from that quarter.
“You two seem awfully cozy, not that you don't always.” She observed. She stood back up and walked around the room, looking things over. “It looks like a natural disaster in here. How long has it been since a maid has been up here?”
Elwin fervently hoped that his feelings were being kept internal, and his face hadn't visibly changed colors when she said that. “We don't need one!” He protested. “I mean . . . It would be better if people don't come up here and look around, and ask too many questions.” Like you're doing right now.
Dolce stopped at the desk and picked up the partial supply list Elwin had written in his signature messy handwriting. “You're really serious about leaving.” She said, in a tone that wasn't a question. “Although I gotta say, the only important thing isn't even on here.” She chuckled.
“Maybe you can help us.” Prin perked up a little. “I've always thought you were a very savvy person.”
“Well thank you.” Dolce said, still holding and looking over the list. “Yaknow, going out into the world is not going to be easy. If you're really just doing this to be together, I don't think you should. You don't need to run away to do that. People will get used to it.” She shrugged. “Mom and dad . . . hey a prince is more high status then some butcher's daughter.” She wrinkled her nose, obviously still thinking about the smell of meat gone sour that clung to the air in the room. “Or, the youngest kid of one of those country noblemen types. As far as his parents . . . They have two other kids to give them grandchildren one day. And I doubt they ever imagined his marriage prospects would be vast anyway. No offense. I know there is the class issue but it has been overcome before by others. I'm just afraid the two of you wouldn't make it very far, before something bad would happen. What if he gets sick again?”
The prince looked from one of the siblings to the other and back again. “Does she think we're running away to elope?” He asked Elwin, eyes wide with the novelty of the concept.
“Clearly.” Elwin said. “The jig is up, we might as well admit it.”
“Oh!” Prin's mouth made the little o of surprise. “I have read about people doing such things.”
“That's where he got the idea. From a book.” Elwin deadpanned to his sister.
“I still say, if you're going to get secretly married and live together, how is that so different from what you're already doing? You don't have to go far away!” Dolce waved the piece of paper in the air. “How will you even get these things? Do you have any idea what you're doing?”
“Not really.” Elwin admitted.
“That's why we need you!” The prince said. “Maybe we are too stupid to manage it after all. But with your help . . . gathering supplies, arranging transport?” He leaned forward, throwing himself on her mercy.
She did always like to be made to feel superior, that one.
“I didn't say that.” Dolce said. She sat back down beside him. “I know you aren't stupid.” She put her arm around the prince. “Now, my brother on the other hand.”
“Hey.” Elwin said.
“He may need all the help he can get.” Dolce continued. “It's just, you're something of a delicate creature, aren't you? Even if halfway better. And now that you're going to be my brother too, and I don't mind it! Really. But anyway, I guess we always have been family you and I. But if we're going to make it official and all I just have to say I'm worried about you. Won't you reconsider running away?” She spoke more sweetly than Elwin had ever heard her speak.
“It's something that I have to do.” Prin said. “My mind is firmly made up on this. Little sister.”
Elwin's heart did a funny little dance in his chest, and his stomach a little flip flop. He was on the verge of forgetting all the bad things that had happened and almost buying into the idea that they were just running away to start a new life together, if only for a moment. Would it be okay to allow himself that moment's fantasy?
“I forget you're older than me. But I feel like that was a little bit of a pointed reminder.” Dolce laughed. “Alright then, if you're determined to go with or without my help, of course I’ll help! I can get ahold of anything, you know. Anything at all if given enough time. Just give me . . . a week or two? And I'll have you outfitted like professional explorers. Oh time, and money of course. I hope you have some money because that was the thing that was missing off your list.” She hugged him. “It'll be no problem at all.”
“We are leaving tomorrow.” Prin said.
Dolce let go of him abruptly. “Okay big brother, now that's a problem.”
The door rattled in its frame, held at bay by the thick bolt, which luckily Elwin had remembered to put into place.
His stomach dropped through the floor, and he felt like throwing up again. There was no time for that.
The prince and Elwin, turned to look at the blanket wrapped body in the corner of the room, so in tandem that it would have been impossible to tell who had looked away first.
“What are we going to do?” Prin asked.
“I don't know.” Elwin whispered. He went to the cabinet and pulled out a few more things onto the floor hurriedly, but it was clear there wouldn't be room for a whole body on the shelves. He whirled around in a circle of confusion.
Pound, pound, pound, came from the door, and it shook in response to the knocking.
“Under the bed?” Prin suggested. He started to get up and come help.
“No, stay there.” Elwin whispered. Holding out a hand in protest.
He drug the blanket wrapped body over to the bed and started shoving it out of sight under the bed. He made a face at Prin, which he hoped conveyed both, I dont know if this is going to work, and this is taking forever isn't it, do you think whoever it is will go away and come back with reinforcements? At least he sure hoped it wasn't taking as long as it felt like it was taking.
“Hey, what are you doing in there!?” A familiar abrasive voice called out through the door.
“How much do you trust your sister?” Prin asked softly.
“Just don't,” Elwin motioned toward what was hidden in the dark recess under the bed. “Don't say anything about that.” He put his finger to his lips. “Shh.”
The prince nodded in agreement, mimicking Elwin's gesture. “Shh.”
Dolce pounded on the door again. “You have me worried. Open up!”
“I'm coming!” Elwin said. “Keep yourself together, you're waking the dead!” He made a face at Prin over his shoulder, aghast at his own poor choice of words. He wiggled the bolt loose and slid it open. “Happy now?” He asked.
Dolce stood with her arms crossed over her chest. Although the pouty glare she gave Elwin, intended probably to make her look mean, just reminded him of her toddler self when she wanted to go somewhere with him and he wouldn't take her. He almost laughed.
She narrowed her eyes suspiciously at him. “Am I interrupting something, or what?”
“I was taking a bath.” Prin said. He swung his legs casually back and forth.
In Elwin's paranoid mind, he worried the movement of his legs would draw too much attention to under the bed, being as his feet were pointing right at it. He bit his lip.
“Ooooh, I thought maybe you and him.” Dolce smiled slyly, pointing with her thumb from one to the other.
The prince tilted his head to the side. “Hmm?”
Elwin just loved his innocent sweet face. “What do you want, Dolce?”
Dolce ignored her brother. She pounded some mud off her shoes on the door frame and went inside. Immediately her hand shot up to her nose. “Good gods, what's that smell?”
“What smell?” Elwin said quickly, panicked.
“It's all my fault.” Prin said at the same time. “I was very sick yesterday, but I'm okay now.” He continued swinging his legs rhythmically.
“Oh?” Dolce said. “Well, it smells worse than the meat market in here. Better leave the door open and let it air.”
“He's covering for me.” Elwin said. “It was me who was sick all over the place. It was that stupid liquor you gave me, Dolce.” He sat down beside Prin and nudged his knee with his own, hoping he would take the hint and calm the nervous motion of his legs.
Prin's legs stopped moving, and he leaned into Elwin, resting his head on his shoulder.
“You weren't supposed to drink the whole thing at once, idiot!” Dolce said. She looked around the room. Though cleaner, the general sense of disarray made it more than obvious something out of the ordinary was going on.
Many of the items from the storage cabinet were out on the floor, as well as stale food sitting on the table, books out of place, the familiar top cover missing from the bed. Elwin had no doubt that none of these differences were things his sister failed to notice. Even as rare as her visits upstairs had been of late.
However, the place where her eyes finally landed and ceased their wandering was on the prince himself. Dolce stepped over to the bed and looked him up and down. She put her hand on the top of his head, as though taking measurements. Finally she sat down on the other side of him.
“Kid, you look great. What's your secret?” Dolce winked at him. She took his hand and examined it, turning it over to examine the palm likewise.
“Secret?” Prin asked. He never could exactly make heads or tails of Dolce, and had told her brother as much in the past. Though he liked her well enough, even without understanding her one little bit.
“I'm not kidding. You have roses in your cheeks and your eyes seem, I don't even know how to describe it? Sparkly? Lively?” Dolce laughed at herself. “I mean, that three day beauty sleep must have really done you well! I kid, I kid. I know there was an old doctor woman, or whatever she was. Alls I know is they should have kept her on a retainer no matter how much she cost, 'cause she obviously does good work!”
“So she's long gone then, I thought as much.” the prince said. “You didn't see which way she went did you?” He picked at the fibers in the towel he was still wrapped up in.
“Well, by sea I figure.” Dolce said. “The mountain passage is too dangerous, especially for an old woman. What does it matter though?” She was still looking at Prin as though he were a knot to untangle, a broken bowl to piece back together in just the right way. “It's a damn miracle isn't it? I can't even believe it.” She smiled at her brother in congratulations. “I'm sorry for what I said the other day. But you, you understand, what I was trying to – What I meant by it. But I was wrong, and I admit it.”
“I'm not mad at you.” Elwin said. “It was forgotten already.”
“There IS a secret.” Prin said. “The cure has terrible side effects. I can't keep it.” He gave Dolce an earnest look. “I have to find him—her, and make her take it back.”
Dolce narrowed her eyes in concern. “What could it possibly be? How could it be worse than what you were going through already?” She put her hand on his chest. “I know what the big difference is, you're not even wheezing for breath! Every time I saw you before you would be wheezing or coughing or something like that. What could be so bad that it's worse than not being able to breath?”
She was looking so serious and genuine in her concern, that Elwin almost caved and told her the whole thing. It would have been nice to have another solid head to put on the case. If two heads are better than one, three must be still better yet. However, this was his baby sister here, and he didn't want to involve her in something so foul as this. It was one thing for him to try and conceal a murder, which is essentially what he was doing, and quite another thing for some other sane generally right thinking person to have the same reaction.
“I can't say.” Prin said miserably. “I wish I could, but it's too awful to even talk about.”
Dolce leaned away from him, examining the both of them together. Clearly, the gears were turning, and perhaps she was deciding how much to pry and what to use for a crowbar.
She looked Elwin in the eye, who just shook his head. She would get no help from that quarter.
“You two seem awfully cozy, not that you don't always.” She observed. She stood back up and walked around the room, looking things over. “It looks like a natural disaster in here. How long has it been since a maid has been up here?”
Elwin fervently hoped that his feelings were being kept internal, and his face hadn't visibly changed colors when she said that. “We don't need one!” He protested. “I mean . . . It would be better if people don't come up here and look around, and ask too many questions.” Like you're doing right now.
Dolce stopped at the desk and picked up the partial supply list Elwin had written in his signature messy handwriting. “You're really serious about leaving.” She said, in a tone that wasn't a question. “Although I gotta say, the only important thing isn't even on here.” She chuckled.
“Maybe you can help us.” Prin perked up a little. “I've always thought you were a very savvy person.”
“Well thank you.” Dolce said, still holding and looking over the list. “Yaknow, going out into the world is not going to be easy. If you're really just doing this to be together, I don't think you should. You don't need to run away to do that. People will get used to it.” She shrugged. “Mom and dad . . . hey a prince is more high status then some butcher's daughter.” She wrinkled her nose, obviously still thinking about the smell of meat gone sour that clung to the air in the room. “Or, the youngest kid of one of those country noblemen types. As far as his parents . . . They have two other kids to give them grandchildren one day. And I doubt they ever imagined his marriage prospects would be vast anyway. No offense. I know there is the class issue but it has been overcome before by others. I'm just afraid the two of you wouldn't make it very far, before something bad would happen. What if he gets sick again?”
The prince looked from one of the siblings to the other and back again. “Does she think we're running away to elope?” He asked Elwin, eyes wide with the novelty of the concept.
“Clearly.” Elwin said. “The jig is up, we might as well admit it.”
“Oh!” Prin's mouth made the little o of surprise. “I have read about people doing such things.”
“That's where he got the idea. From a book.” Elwin deadpanned to his sister.
“I still say, if you're going to get secretly married and live together, how is that so different from what you're already doing? You don't have to go far away!” Dolce waved the piece of paper in the air. “How will you even get these things? Do you have any idea what you're doing?”
“Not really.” Elwin admitted.
“That's why we need you!” The prince said. “Maybe we are too stupid to manage it after all. But with your help . . . gathering supplies, arranging transport?” He leaned forward, throwing himself on her mercy.
She did always like to be made to feel superior, that one.
“I didn't say that.” Dolce said. She sat back down beside him. “I know you aren't stupid.” She put her arm around the prince. “Now, my brother on the other hand.”
“Hey.” Elwin said.
“He may need all the help he can get.” Dolce continued. “It's just, you're something of a delicate creature, aren't you? Even if halfway better. And now that you're going to be my brother too, and I don't mind it! Really. But anyway, I guess we always have been family you and I. But if we're going to make it official and all I just have to say I'm worried about you. Won't you reconsider running away?” She spoke more sweetly than Elwin had ever heard her speak.
“It's something that I have to do.” Prin said. “My mind is firmly made up on this. Little sister.”
Elwin's heart did a funny little dance in his chest, and his stomach a little flip flop. He was on the verge of forgetting all the bad things that had happened and almost buying into the idea that they were just running away to start a new life together, if only for a moment. Would it be okay to allow himself that moment's fantasy?
“I forget you're older than me. But I feel like that was a little bit of a pointed reminder.” Dolce laughed. “Alright then, if you're determined to go with or without my help, of course I’ll help! I can get ahold of anything, you know. Anything at all if given enough time. Just give me . . . a week or two? And I'll have you outfitted like professional explorers. Oh time, and money of course. I hope you have some money because that was the thing that was missing off your list.” She hugged him. “It'll be no problem at all.”
“We are leaving tomorrow.” Prin said.
Dolce let go of him abruptly. “Okay big brother, now that's a problem.”
