Sight Read online

  She stared at the paper, unsure what to draw.

  Her mind drifted until it grew hazy with another vision. In her mind, she saw Darissa sitting at her desk, writing in a small book by candlelight. A slight smile graced her face as she twirled a strand of her auburn hair in a twist behind her ear.

  Darissa’s room changed into Marisol’s. Vivilyn had yet to see the woman with her hair down, but it was lovely. It made Vivilyn think of a waterfall, as the dark and silky curls cascaded halfway down Marisol’s back. She was curled up next to an image of flickering flames on a screen with a book in her hands.

  After a quick blink, the room shifted again into one with both Jolene and Louise. Jolene sat in the corner with fabric on her lap. She moved a needle through it as she worked on her embroidery. Louise sat idly by the window. Although she had material to work on her own embroidery design, the needle was stuck halfway through the cloth as she stared out the window.

  Once again, Vivilyn’s mind shifted. This time she saw Brayleigh and Entra in their room. Entra played a soft lullaby on her violin while Brayleigh sharpened a small dagger.

  “I really wish you wouldn’t do that in our room,” Entra said, as she lowered her instrument.

  “I never sleep without a sharpened blade at hand,” Brayleigh said. “You should be thankful. With all of this talk of spies, you can count on being safe here with me.”

  As Brayleigh mentioned spies, Vivilyn’s vision changed again. A face flashed in her mind, giving way to her memory from the dinner before the Choosing Ceremony. Everything blurred again.

  The twitchy-eyed man formed in front of her. Around him, stone walls echoed his steps. The white in his dark hair reflected in the moving light of flames.

  “No one suspects you,” he said. “Keep it that way.”

  Behind the man, carved into the wall was a dragon, wings spread, with a broken chain around its leg. His eyes gleamed darkly in the fire.

  Just as suddenly as the vision appeared, Vivilyn was staring at the blank paper in front of her once more. Immediately she began drawing the man in front of the dragon’s silhouette.

  She didn’t stop until her candle began sputtering out. Carefully, Vivilyn opened the drawer next to her bed and set the drawing inside, but facedown. Something about the picture made her uneasy, but she wasn’t sure if it was the man or the background that made her so uncomfortable.

  She blew out what remained of the candle and tried to sleep.

  Through the wall, Vivilyn listened to Darissa’s snoring. Despite it being such an annoying sound the first few nights prior to meeting the joyful woman, now it had a soothing effect. She wondered when her friend had finished writing and gone to bed. She hadn’t thought she’d been sketching that long. Then again, she knew sometimes time seemed to move differently as she worked on her artwork.

  Vivilyn breathed in and out, slowly and within the same rhythm of Darissa’s snores. In and out. In and out. It was the last thing Vivilyn heard before she dozed off.

  A slight rustling sound brought Vivilyn awake. When she opened her eyes, darkness surrounded her. Even though her window was open, neither the moon nor the stars shined through the it.

  The rustling continued.

  “Hello?” Vivilyn asked into the darkness. It stopped and someone took a few steps on the other side of the room. Whoever it was cleared their throat before speaking.

  “Are you awake?” Tia asked. Her tall form filled the darkness near Vivilyn’s bed. Had she remembered to close the door? All the visions right before bed made her memory a little hazy.

  “What are you doing?” Vivilyn asked. She hadn’t even heard the woman enter her room.

  “I’m...” Tia began, then coughed a little. “I wanted to be sure all is well in here. With everything that’s happened, I was worried. There’s rumors that you know what the spy looks like and I just was worried he was coming after you.”

  “What are you talking about?” Vivilyn asked, rubbing her eyes.

  I’ve already told her that I didn’t remember what he looked like, she thought as she listened to Tia move closer. I could have sworn that I’ve told everyone that.

  “The spy,” Tia said. “You know what he looks like. Everyone is saying you saw and spoke with him.”

  “I didn’t get a close look at him,” Vivilyn said before remembering the picture of him in her drawer. As Tia moved closer to her and the drawer, Vivilyn sat up. “Would you mind leaving me to sleep?” she asked. “I can’t sleep with you moving around like that.”

  “Oh,” Tia was right beside her. “Of… of course,” she said. “I just wanted to be sure you were safe. Now that I know you are, I can leave with my heart calm.”

  She watched the darkness until a small sliver of light appeared when Tia left the room.

  As soon as Vivilyn was alone again, she moved the picture from the drawer into the middle of the stack of blank pages.

  Then she went to sleep.

  Chapter 3

  “Vivilyn,” Darissa whispered. Vivilyn blinked rapidly as she struggled to comprehend who was in front of her.

  “Vivilyn,” Darissa whispered again, this time with a slight shake of Vivilyn’s shoulder. “Wake up.”

  “Hmm?” She opened her eyes completely and saw seafoam-green eyes looking directly at her. The red camera light blinked behind the other woman and she could vaguely make out Malcolm, Andrea, Fiona and Nell behind the camera.

  “If we hurry, we can be the first at breakfast.” Darissa was so close to her that she could see different shades of lighter greens in the other woman’s eyes. Vivilyn let her own eyes fall back shut. Her eyelids were heavy, and all she wanted was to go back to sleep.

  “Why do we wanna be first to breakfast?” Vivilyn asked as she curled up even more under her blankets. “I’m not even hungry.”

  “Come on, Viv,” Darissa said, laughter in her voice. “Get up! Let’s go!” Darissa grabbed the edge of Vivilyn’s blankets and pulled. Vivilyn tried to pull the blankets back and with a hard tug pulled Darissa off her feet onto the bed.

  “Vivilyn,” Malcolm said as he walked to the back of the room. Vivilyn heard each of his loud steps toward her armoire. “Stop playing around, we need to get you ready.”

  “Nothing too fancy,” Andrea’s voice came from around where Malcolm was. Vivilyn hadn’t heard her move at all. “We can’t have it obvious we know where she’s actually going.”

  “Where is she actually going?” Vivilyn asked, still more than half asleep, as she lightly pushed a laughing Darissa off her.

  “We are going to see the sunrise from the ballroom where breakfast is held,” Darissa said with a mischievous grin. “Or if we time it right, we are going to get invited to the morning coffee that the royal family all attend.”

  “How are we going to do that?” Vivilyn asked. She stretched her arms above her head and her back popped slightly. Vivilyn wondered for a moment at how the movement hadn’t hurt at all. Maybe her back was finished healing.

  “First step, you need to get dressed.” Malcolm grabbed the clothing Andrea pulled out and lifted it up in front of him. He wrinkled his nose slightly. “Are you sure this is going to be okay?” He asked Andrea.

  “Of course it is,” Andrea said. “We can’t have her look like she anticipates being invited. Look at Darissa’s outfit: casual and classy. We’re following that.”

  Darissa stood back up to show off her white pants and green tank top, with a darker green cardigan over it. Her shoes were the same shade of green as her shirt with a hint of sparkles.

  “What difference does it make?” Vivilyn asked. She stretched again as she sat up and moved her legs off the bed. Everyone looked at her like she’d spoken in a foreign language. “This is all being recorded.” She gestured toward Maxwell and his camera with one hand, while she scratched behind her right ear with the other. “Everyone will know it was planned.”

  Andrea and Fiona lifted hands to their mouths to hide their laughter at Malcolm’s look o
f incredulity.

  Vivilyn shook her head, unsure if she was about to be lectured about her statement or if maybe everyone had actually forgotten about the cameras. Even half asleep, there was no way she could forget about them. Perhaps as time goes on I’ll grow more accustomed to them, Vivilyn thought as she stood up. I’ll never be here long enough to really worry about that.

  “I’ll go wash my teeth and brush my face,” she sleepily said. She covered another yawn as she moved into the bathroom.

  “Did she mean to switch those?” Vivilyn heard Malcolm ask as she closed the door.

  It opened again almost immediately as the women of her team—sans Tia, who hadn’t shown up yet—followed her into the room. Quickly she washed her face and brushed her teeth.

  Vivilyn changed into a pair of gray slacks and salmon colored blouse. Andrea pulled Vivilyn’s hair half up with a twist while Fiona worked a base layer of make-up.

  “Where is Tia?” Nell pondered out loud, taking over the makeup from Fiona as Andrea finished her hair.

  “Probably still searching for spies,” Vivilyn said.

  “What are you talking about?” Andrea asked.

  Nell looked closely at Vivilyn’s face and nodded in approval at Fiona’s work, before brushing blush onto Vivilyn’s cheeks.

  “Last night Tia woke me up searching around my room for the spy since she thinks I know what he looks like.” Vivilyn shrugged her shoulders. “I almost thought she came in through the secret passages in the wall here.”

  “Passages in the wall?” Nell said, “We’ve searched all over the accessible areas in this castle and there aren’t any passages in the wall.”

  Vivilyn covered a yawn, trying to figure out how to keep from blurting anything else out.

  Why did I say that? What if no one is supposed to know about those?

  “I mean, it’s an old palace. I just assumed old buildings all have secret passages.”

  “Are you ready yet?” Malcolm’s voice raised from the other room.

  Vivilyn didn’t wait to answer. She stood up, slightly worried she would say something else she shouldn’t.

  “Perfect,” Malcolm said, as he handed Vivilyn a pair of black flats. After Vivilyn slipped them on, Darissa linked arms with her and the two left the room with one cameraman in front of them and one behind them.

  Vivilyn was still trying to wake up completely as they entered the main hallway in the palace and took a right.

  “You will love the view from the ballroom,” Darissa said. They crossed to the other side, going the same general direction Vivilyn and Malcolm had gone for the brunch.

  Rather than going down at the third staircase, though, they went up.

  Vivilyn wished they had been given a map or something to help stay oriented while moving through the palace. Although, perhaps she’d be the only one who needed it since most of the other women were used to large buildings such as this. Thankfully, Darissa seemed to notice that Vivilyn had no idea where they were.

  “If you go down that staircase four flights,” Darissa said pointing to a staircase so wide both Vivilyn and her brother could have laid down flat on a step and not touched each other or the banisters, “you’ll reach the staircase we were lined up on for the first Choosing Ceremony.”

  At the reminder of the ceremony, Vivilyn could almost smell the smoke from the explosion.

  “It’s crazy how quickly everything down there has been rebuilt already,” another voice entered the conversation. Vivilyn turned to see two women, obviously related, in pastel sundresses approaching from another hallway. “It’s almost like nothing even happened.”

  “Hello,” the other woman said. “I’m Rose.” She reached a hand out for Vivilyn to shake. Vivilyn did. “This is my little sister Daisy.” Vivilyn shook Daisy’s hand lightly. “I am on Queen Boudica’s team and my sister is on Princess Elissa’s.”

  Together the group of four approached a pair of large doors.

  “I’ve heard the sunrise from this room is absolutely stunning,” Rose said as Daisy nodded enthusiastically beside her.

  “That is not acceptable,” a man’s voice echoed through the hall before the women entered the room. They could hear him walking— or rather, stomping— in the distance. Darissa smiled even larger as Prince Bryton rounded the corner. “If they do that pani—” Prince Bryton looked up to see the small group. He gestured for the small man to leave him, which he did instantaneously.

  All the women curtseyed.

  “Ladies,” he said with a nod of his head. “Breakfast isn’t for another, what? Two hours?”

  “We’ve heard the sunrise is beautiful from the windows in the ballroom,” Rose said. “A sight that no one who graces the palace should miss.”

  “It’s true,” Prince Bryton said. Before he could say anything further, an infant’s screeching filled the hallway. “Ah, it seems the princess beat me…” He looked over at the women before asking, “Would you like to join my family and me for our morning coffee? It’s in a room next to the ballroom this morning.”

  “We would be honored,” Darissa said.

  As Prince Bryton approached, two guards opened the doors from the inside of the room. How they knew the prince had arrived, Vivilyn had no idea. Prince Bryton walked through and the women followed.

  The room was large, but not as big as the room they’d been in prior to the first Ceremony. The wall on the opposite side of the room was just one large pane of glass. Vivilyn could see the sun peeking through the forest.

  They walked through the room as people dressed in all black flitted back and forth, working on setting up tables around the room for breakfast. Perpendicular to the window-wall, a much smaller door stood open and the screeching continued from beyond.

  As everyone entered the side room, the strong scent of coffee followed them.

  “Uncle Bryton,” Princess Elissa said as soon as they entered. “Henry has been waiting for you.” As the princess stood up, her hair ruffled and her eyes puffy from what Vivilyn assumed was a lack of sleep, she noticed it wasn’t only Prince Bryton entering. “Oh, welcome.” The princess nodded acknowledgement to the women and the four women curtseyed to her.

  Prince Bryton moved forward and lifted his screaming great nephew out of his niece’s arms. The baby stopped yelling instantaneously but continued to sniffle.

  “Oh, there’s more,” Brayleigh said from the other side of the room. On a couch next to another wall of glass windows sat Ladies Brayleigh, Freya, Entra, and Macy. Entra and Macy both smiled and nodded at the newcomers, while Freya continued to stare out the window as though she hadn’t noticed any movement. Brayleigh rolled her eyes.

  The rest of the royal family stood around a table of pastries with mugs of coffee in their hands.

  “Welcome, Ladies,” Queen Boudica said with a nod of her head. She acted as though women always intruded on their family time. Vivilyn hoped that wasn’t the case, but perhaps during the Trials it was a common occurrence.

  “It is an honor to join you this morning,” Rose said. Daisy’s mouth had moved at the same time Rose spoke, but Vivilyn hadn’t heard the other woman’s voice.

  “Ladies,” Prince Aiden said.

  After everyone finished their greetings, they all began to mingle.

  “He’s so handsome,” Macy said a little while later with a sigh into her cup of coffee. The princes walked by while talking with their father in hushed voices.

  “Undeniably. Prince Aiden is like the perfect man,” Rose said, with Daisy nodding next to her. Vivilyn wondered for a brief moment if Daisy ever actually spoke. People called Vivilyn quiet, but Daisy was something else entirely.

  “Oh, yeah. Prince Aiden.” Macy said, her eyes still following the brothers. “Definitely perfection.”

  The room in front of her vanished as Vivilyn was thrown into another vision. Lady Macy sat outside on a bench, her ankles crossed beneath her regally. Riding by slowly, Princes Aiden and Ethan practically glistened in the sunlight.
Thunder sounded loudly above.

  Macy stood up in one graceful movement as Princess Elissa’s husband, Colin, approached from the other side on a horse as well. Prince Ethan glanced over to Macy, his silver eyes drawn by her movement. She gave a small curtsey when he did a double take. He smiled widely and nodded his head, just as rain started to sprinkle. Macy blushed heavily.

  In the distance, Darissa’s voice called out, “But you’ll get sick!”

  The men raced off on their horses.

  As soon as the rain began to fall harder and Macy went to run inside, Vivilyn was thrown somewhere she didn’t recognize. It was an average-sized room. All the walls were covered with maps of places Vivilyn couldn’t determine.

  “They’ve found a way into the palace,” a voice she didn’t recognize said to someone in a chair hidden by shadows. “Soon, I’ll find my way in as well. Everything is going according to plan.”

  “The barriers will continue to weaken,” a voice Vivilyn had heard before said. “Hopefully, they’ll weaken enough that I will be able to join you for the prince’s first ceremony. It’s sure to be an explosively exciting occasion.”

  A candle flickered, revealing the man’s face for a brief instance. It was all Vivilyn needed to be able to place him. It was the man she’d drawn in front of the dragon’s silhouette. It was the spy in the sketch she had hidden in her room.

  Baby Henry shrieked again for a few seconds. The noise pulled Vivilyn back to the present.

  As she watched everyone walking around and talking, she couldn’t help but think about the men in her vision.

  He said they, Vivilyn thought. That implies there were at least two here or almost here. If both of those men are now here, then there were at least four spies here when the explosion happened.

  Does that mean they left already or that there are more here now? And what barrier did he mean? What is weakening?

  She had more questions than answers.

  With that, Vivilyn came to a decision. As the sun rose, she found a blank sheet of paper and something to sketch with. Hastily, she tried to recreate the picture of the man from her vision without the dragon behind him. It was rushed, but it gave enough detail. When she was as done as she could be in her limited time, Vivilyn stood up.