The corridor was stuffy and dark. Eggy walked, barely noticing the smooth marble slabs sliding beneath his feet. The Prince's voice still echoed in his head but his thoughts were already drifting elsewhere: to the escaped omega, to his former master, the Queen, to the very person for whose return the entire castle would wake up again tomorrow and put on a show.
"I'll have to lie," he thought, clutching the folder with papers in his fingers. "Lie that he's here for the first time."
Tomorrow these walls would once again be filled with cries and moans begging for freedom. Tomorrow the corridors would smell of blood and fear, not just dust and wax. The mere thought of it made Eggy's stomach churn. He was very nervous and afraid of falling out of favour with His Majesty if something went wrong or he missed something.
All day long his thoughts were occupied only with this and with the preparations he was making with the servants. They cleaned the Queen's dusty bedroom: removed the bedspreads, beat the pillows, changed the sheets, and washed the windows until they sparkled. They washed the halls and the long dining table which had been empty all this time, as if offended by the absence of its owner. The silver sparkled like new again and the smell of old wood, soap and dampness mingled into one heavy, strangely homely aroma.
When it got dark and the last buckets of dirty water were carried away, the exhausted Eggy walked through the dark, empty corridors. His body was falling apart, his neck was aching, and his temples were throbbing. All he could think about was his small but always neatly starched bed.
Opening the door to his bedroom, he immediately smelled the familiar scent of dampness and old stone and, to his own surprise, felt blissful.
Without lighting the candles, the man pulled off his shirt, fumbled with the laces, and almost blindly made his way to the small bathroom adjoining his room. The water was cool, but his skin was burning, and it was an incredible relief after a long day.
As he was His Majesty's personal secretary and, one might say, his only true friend, even though he was ten years younger than him, Eggie had amenities that other people living in this castle could not even dream of. A separate bathroom, clean towels, his own jug of water, a private balcony, a double bed. All this sometimes seemed to him a luxury he did not deserve.
After washing his body and face until it tingled slightly, he pulled on his patchwork pyjamas and still flushed from the hot water went into the bedroom. The wide collar of his shirt fell onto his collarbone, and the cool air pleasantly caressed his damp skin.
For a second, his thoughts returned to the crown prince. This incredible child, who was only ten years old, seemed smarter than some adults. After all, it was him, not Eggy, whom His Highness had left in charge of the country in his absence.
And for the past couple of months, Prince Olly had been doing perfectly, with almost no tantrums. He got up before everyone else, went out to the castle door and personally greeted the birds delivering the mail, removing the rings and ribbons from their feet himself. Then he would say a private prayer and go to meetings that could last from morning until night. And not once did he express his discomfort aloud, not once did he complain of fatigue. And all this was done by a ten-year-old child.
Eggiy smiled involuntarily and said aloud, sinking down on the edge of the bed:
"He will make a worthy ruler."
"Who?" came the immediate reply from around the corner.
Eggy jumped so hard that the mattress beneath him creaked. His heart leapt into his throat, and his breath caught. He spun around and saw the prince sitting on the balcony railing. His thin legs dangled down, his bare feet dangling over the stone for some reason.
After catching his breath, Eggy clicked his tongue quietly.
Tsk, of course.
Showing his audacity, he did not greet the prince or bow but silently walked over to the jug of cold water. He poured a full glass, his hand trembling slightly, and drank it in one gulp, feeling the coldness flow down his throat into his heated body.
All this time the crown prince stood motionless on the balcony, watching him.
"I have been informed that you, Prince, have been travelling for at least several hours," Eggy broke the silence first, carefully placing the empty glass on the table.
"I'm travelling," Olly replied indifferently. "I sleep in the carriage."
Eggy closed his eyes for a second. Magic. Of course.
"Do your nannies know about this?" he asked cautiously.
"Of course not," Olly ran his hand along the stone railing of the balcony and leaned forward slightly. "You don't take me seriously."
"How could I not take you seriously?" Eggy said sincerely, even straightening up as if he were sitting before the Emperor himself, not a child.
"Then you must wait for me!" the Prince declared.
Such strong words, spoken in a child's voice, were painfully funny and frightening at the same time. But Eggy just smiled warmly. For him, the prince was several people at once: the honourable little Prince, the son of his best friend and the child whose nappies he had once changed every day in the absence of his parents.
"Where would I go?" he replied softly. It was true. Eggy had sworn to serve as secretary until the end of his days.
"They might marry you off to one of the concubines!" Olly blurted out.
Eggy blinked in surprise. Such strong words from a child's mouth made him lose his voice for a moment. He had read books on dealing with children, but he couldn't figure out how to act in such a situation. Nowhere was it written how to behave with the King's child whose feelings were nothing like those of an ordinary child, and how to refuse without losing his head.
"And what's wrong with your Father marrying me to one of his concubines?" he said calmly. "It is a great honour, one that is impossible to dream of."
Eggy spoke sincerely. Such a vivid phrase struck him right in the heart. Olly's confident stance immediately turned into a slouch. Tears welled up in the Prince's eyes.
"Oh no, I didn't mean to..." Only now, realising that he had almost lost his head with one sentence, did Eggy beg for mercy, almost mechanically pressing his palms to his chest.
"Is one of those worn-out sluts really better than the crown Prince?!" Olly snapped.
Eggy's heart ached with pain. He really couldn't understand the Prince. Where was the child in him where was the cold-blooded killer and where was the wounded animal who didn't know how to ask for love?
"Prince, it's time," he said softly but firmly. "Everyone must be worried about your disappearance."
Eggiy took a step towards the balcony. The Prince flinched as if from a blow.
'Your Grace,' Eggy continued as politely as possible, "you are being sent away for your past actions. His Majesty fears that you will harm your Mother and brothers again. He... has lost his memory."
Silence.
"Mother has lost his memory?" Olly's voice broke. "What has he done?" he whispered, more to himself than to anyone else.
"Mother..." The Prince swayed slightly, clutching the edge of the parapet.
Eggy decided to dot the i's and cross the t's before the Prince came up with even more terrible explanations.
"That's why His Majesty Serak wants to start his life over," he said calmly, almost dryly. "Without children. Or having new ones. I think so," he added more quietly at the end. "So we're unlikely to see each other again. Let's keep warm memories of each other."
"But what about my other brothers and sisters?! It's not fair!" cried the Prince.
"Since they are not yet six years old, they will all be kept in the castle until that age," Eggy explained patiently, "but in time you will all live together and then rule over different lands."
Silence fell over the room again. A cold wind blew in from the balcony, sending shivers down both their spines.
"Come with me," Olly said quietly, almost pleadingly.
"No," came the reply, flat and without pause.
"Marry me!"
"No. You're still a child! Go away," Eggy blushed with embarrassment.
"I'm a child..."
He knelt and bowed his head as etiquette demanded and as his heart demanded.
"Have a good journey. Be happy," Eggy added, barely audibly.
The room seemed to grow heavier. The air thickened, the curtains froze for a moment, and his breath caught in his throat. Eggy's heart was beating so loudly that it seemed as if it could be seen in his chest. He thought that in the next second his head would fly off his shoulders in anger or rather in a fit of caprice.
He waited.
But instead of a blow or a shout something else was heard:
"Sniff... sniff... ha-a-a..."
A terrible child's cry echoed through the room, hit the walls and escaped into the night. Street dogs howled, alarmed, sleeping birds fluttered from the cornices - everything around stirred. The prince sobbed uncontrollably, his face reddened and became horribly wet, tears running down his chin and dripping onto the stone.
"I won't forgive you! I won't forgive you!" he cried through his sobs. "I won't let you marry anyone! I hate you! I hate you! You will beg me for forgiveness! So what if I'm a child! You simply don't know what loyalty is! You don't know how to wait!" Incoherent phrases poured out of the Prince.
Slam.
Either the balcony door slammed shut or the thin thread of the spell broke but in a second the room was filled with silence.
Eggy remained kneeling not immediately understanding what had happened. His ears were ringing, his heart was still pounding. The whole scene seemed like a delirious dream: a ten-year-old child, heir to the throne, future conqueror of lands, talking about marriage...
He slowly got up feeling his legs buckle. The world around him seemed to fade: the same jug of water, the same small bed, the same darkened canopy. "It's all a dream... it must be a dream," he thought.
Without undressing completely, Eggiy collapsed onto his large starched bed, pulled his knees up to his chest and closed his eyes. He deliberately did not want to think about anything: neither about the master's return tomorrow, nor about the Prince's words.
He was afraid to imagine what his life would be like in a couple of years if the little Prince did not forget him.
He had nightmares all night long. Little hands reached out to him from the darkness, clinging to his clothes, to his throat. Rivers of tears flowed down the marble stairs, flooding all the halls of the castle, approaching his own bed. Eggiy drowned in these tears and heard a child's voice: "You will beg me for forgiveness!" and he could not wake up.
And he already knew that these little hands and these rivers of tears would haunt him for many years to come.
End of the preview excerpt from the side story.