Page 36 of Mushy Stuff
Chapter 28
Ispendthenextfew hours in bed. When I wake up again, it’s growing dark outside. One of the servants comes into the room and offers me some water and more bread. She asks if I would like to try to eat anything else. I groan and shake my head.
“Are you certain? It would be good for you to keep up your strength,” she explains. She looks more nervous and on edge than she normally does.
“No, I don’t think I could keep it down.”
“Ah, well okay. Let’s get you up so you can relieve yourself. Then we will get you dressed.” She puts her hand on my upper back to gently guide me out of bed.
Once I use the bathroom, I choke down another mushroom. I honestly can’t even remember when I ate my lastone, and I don’t even know if I kept it down. Then I go out into my room where the servant is quickly laying out clothes for me.
What she’s picked out is not very elegant. It’s still a dress, but it’s not very fancy. I would even call it plain.
“I thought I wasn’t going to dinner with Lord Varik tonight. Did something change?” I ask. I’m completely confused as to why she’s getting me dressed.
“Oh no, you aren’t. This is just so you are properly dressed…just in case…” She trails off at the end and doesn’t explain why. I watch her for a few minutes. She’s acting really strange. This servant is usually nicer and a little more casual than the other one, but there’s something about the way she is doing things that almost feels frantic. It feels like something is going on and I just don’t know about it.
Maybe I can figure out what’s happening if I ask her a few questions.
“I feel bad, no one ever told me your name,” I say.
She seems a bit surprised and stops in the middle of what she’s doing so she can look at me. “Oh, it’s Faylen. Lord Varik rarely uses our names. He probably doesn’t really even know them. I guess we didn’t think to introduce ourselves.” She’s folding some clothing, and she looks so sad as she does it. She lowers her voice to just above a whisperand says, “Lydia…I am very sorry for how you have been treated. Please know that it wasn’t what I wanted.”
Seriously, what is going on? I finally look down at what she’s doing. She’s folding some clothing and stuffing it into some sort of a bag. Some of the clothing she wraps around a few trinkets before she tucks it into the bag.
“Faylen…are we going somewhere?”
She presses her lips together, so they form a line, then she looks towards the door. She reaches into the pocket of her apron, takes something out, and hands it to me. When I open my hand, it’s a couple of Wold’s mushrooms! I gasp.
She presses her finger over her lips to remind me to stay quiet. Then she says, “Let’s get you dressed.” I nod enthusiastically.
As she is helping me into the dress, she quietly whispers to me that he is coming for me tonight.
As soon as the dress is on, I rush into the bathroom and grab my stash of mushrooms. I hand one to Faylen. “He won’t be able to glamour you if you eat this,” I explain. She quickly eats it.
She goes back to folding clothes, and I anxiously pace the room. Every sound sets me on edge, and I look out all of the windows hoping for a glimpse of Wold.
After about an hour, we hear quick footsteps coming down the hall. The other servant slips into the room. Shelooks frazzled and worried, which is strange because she’s the one that always seemed so stoic and put together. She rushes over to Faylen.
“I think something is wrong. I can’t find Haemir anywhere. The other guards said that Lord Varik requested a meeting with him. They haven’t seen him since. He must still be with Lord Varik,” she says with desperation in her voice. I can see the tears welling up in her eyes.
Faylen hugs her and comforts her. As she’s rubbing her hand up and down the other servant’s back, she says to me, “Haemir is Osonia’s lover. He’s one of the guards here.”
Osonia must be the other servant’s name. I’m so ashamed that I hadn’t asked them their names before. I was just so angry with everything and everyone. I didn’t want to know them so I couldn’t sympathize with them.
Osonia is openly weeping now. “Haemir is no one important to Lord Varik. There is no reason that he should have been called in for a meeting. What if Lord Varik has glamoured him?”
The horror of what these poor people deal with on a daily basis starts to sink in. I get out another one of the mushrooms and quietly hand it to Osonia. “He won’t be able to glamour you if you eat this.” Osonia quickly eats it and thanks me.
As she swallows and goes back to quietly weeping, we hear the loud stomp of men’s boots coming down the hall. Oh no, that can’t be good.
Chapter 29
Thethreeofushuddle together as far away from the door as we can get.
Lord Varik flings the door open and immediately storms into my room with three guards behind him. The guard standing closest to Lord Varik looks like he has been beaten. His face is a swollen bloody mess, and it looks like he’s missing an ear, but he still stands with Lord Varik.
Osonia lets out a choked sob when she sees him. “Oh gods, Haemir! What did he do to you?”
