The Drifting (47 page)

“Lily, you have to help me.” I watch her closely and
I’m
surprise
d
to see her on the brink of tears. 

Alarmed
,
I grab at her hands forgetting about the oath and the Seating.  “Jules, what’s wrong?”

“I have to leave, I can’t be here anymore.  Please, please help me,” she begs
,
the tears threatening to fall.
 

“Okay, okay…it’ll be okay, just tell me what’s happened
.
”

She looks around at the people standing to serve us with anything we want or need.  She looks back at me, “Can we go back to the suites?”

“Yeah, of course,” I reply as I remove my napkin from my lap and get up. 

We make our way to the queen’s suites using the back way so familiar to us now.  As we approach the door that opens to the hidden stairwell we run into…Kalis.  My heart jumps from my chest to my throat and I duck behind Julia, keeping my
head down.  I pulled the hood low
, but I had taken it off earlier to let my hair down.  Now, the hood is over my head, but my hair is still exposed.  I try to tuck it under
,
but Julia grabs my hand and squeezes it trying to keep me calm. 

“Julia,” greets Kalis.  “We’ve missed you at the morning workouts,” she says as she glances behind Julia at me.  I lower my head as she does, but I can’t help but try to get a peek at Kalis.  Big mistake, it only
confirms
how beautiful she looks up close.

“Tharin has decided that I do my workouts with Alorn in the mornings.  He says that he wants to keep a closer eye on me now that I will be going home soon.  He’s afraid I might take off before he’s able to get me
back
to Pathen.”

I lift my head high enough to notice that Kalis isn’t listening to Julia anymore, but
she does have her
eyes lock
ed
on me.  She takes in my hair, my height and the rest of my body, assessing me as if
I’m
someone she knows but can’t place.  My heart beats a little fast when she addresses me.  “You, what’s your name?”

“It
’s
Hilda, a new friend I made,” jumps in Julia pulling me behind her.

“I asked her for her name,”
demands
Kalis tensely.

“And I told you,” answers Julia just as tensely, “her name is Hilda.”

I can feel the tension growing between the two and I remember how Julia spoke of her.  It sounded like she didn’t like her then and it sounds like she doesn’t like her now.

“Kalis,” calls a man’s voice from behind us.  I move as Julia turns to face Alorn.  “Julia is bringing her to me.”

“Who is she?”
demands
Kalis boldly.  “Why is her face hidden
,
and why is she sneaking around here with her,” she says indicating Julia with a nod of her head.

“Who she is, is none of your business. You forget your place.”

I peek to the side of Julia’s shoulder at Kalis and see her turn red.  She stiffly nods at Alorn and turns to leave, but not before she throws a dirty look my way. 

As soon as she rounds the corner, Julia and I let out sigh
s
of relief.  Alorn moves toward
us and grabs me by the hand.  He pulls me through the door to the stairwell with Julia following close behind.  As soon as the door closes, he turns on us.  “Why are you out in the hallway before your meal is over?  You know you need to be escorted to avoid this kind of confrontation.”

“It was my fault,” steps up Julia.  “I needed to speak with
Lily
on a personal matter.  I pulled her away from the others.  I’m sorry.”

Julia’s face is so sincere and tinged with sadness that all Alorn could do is sigh and nod at her.  “Come on,” he says.  “I’ll take you to the suite in case you run into anyone else.”

We
both rush in
to hug
him to show our appreciation.  He awkwardly pats our shoulder
,
not comfortable at all with the whole hugging thing.  Julia and I look at each other laughing at his discomfort.  He grabs each of us by the arm and pushes us toward the stairs and we take it running. 

Alorn stands outside until he hears us move the level to the side of the door down, sliding the large wooden bolts in place, locking us in the suites.  We can’t tell if he’s out there, so we head for the
master
bedroom and the shower lagoon.  Julia’s in the shower first as I read the oath
out loud for the millionth time
and my stomach continues to do somersaults.  Giving up, I look around the room, wondering again if Tharin and I would have to stay in separate rooms.  It doesn’t make sense to me, but I wonder if that’s how it would be.  It feels weird not having Milina and Glynnis here, but we were told that they were called back to the clearing.  When I
asked why they were
called back, Sema was evasive again
–
something she’s very good at.

My mind drifts to Kalis.  Did she recognize me?  She’s never met me, but I’m sure I’ve been describe to her many times before.  How many five-o
ne elves with jet-
black hair are there in Velesi?  Maybe I’m just overreacting and I’m the last person she would think of.  I mean, I’m supposed to be dead, right?  Ugh, I wish I could speak with Tharin.  I’ll go into the
drift
state tonight and visit him in his room.  We can talk then.  I miss him terribly and the last two nights I was so exhausted from Hurricane Sema that the only thing I did when I came to bed was sleep.  Besides, Mellis told me that Tharin found out about my visit with Jarhan and that he wasn’t happy about it.  I’m sure he’s calmed down by now and
he’s
missing me just as much. 

When Julia appears from the shower area she’s fully dressed with her old clothes.  Black jeans, shirt and torn sneakers and ready for traveling.  On her arm is the coat Tolan gave her when they first met.  I look at her puzzled, asking
,
“Why are you dressed like that
?
”

Julia moves toward the bed and sits, again her face anxious as if about to cry, “Lily, I need to leave.  Now…but I need your help.”

I look at her confused, “What do you mean you have to leave now.  To go where?”

“Home.”

“Home?”

Julia nods, lowering her head.  I move closer to her trying to get her to look at me.  “What’s happened, Jules?  Why the sudden need to go home?”

“Tolan is getting married.  He’s
leaving for the
Willow Clan with Ziri
tonight
and they’re planning his wedding to be held there so as not to…not to have to deal with me being here.” 

“What are you talking about?” I ask, shocked that Tolan would marry out of the blue.  “Jules, who told you this?”

She turns to me, shaking her head, “It doesn’t
matter.
  He’s getting married Lily, which means all that crap he was doing with me was nothing but lies.  And don’t think I didn’t miss the fact that when I said ‘I love you’ to him back at the shelter
he didn’t say it back.  What an idiot I am.”  She gets off the bed and stomps across the room only to turn back at me with her finger pointing accusingly at no one in particular.  “I know I don’t know crap about guys, but did he have to play me?  It’s not like he didn’t know.”

“Jules, there’s got to be some explanation.  I’ll talk to Tharin tonight and find out what’s going
–
”
but
she
interrupts me, not letting
me finish.

“What’s going on?  Are you serious
,
Lily?  It’s too late to find out what’s going on.  The creep is
leaving for
another city
to get
ready for his wedding!  Are you deaf?”

I get off the bed and walk over to her, but she backs away with her hands up.  “No, Lily, I don’t want to hear excuses for him.”  She looks at me with angry unshed tears and rushes to take my hands, pleading, “Please, please Lily.  I thought I could handle it, but I can’t.  I seriously can’t.  I just want to go home, please.”

I look at her anxiously because I don’t want her to leave.  I try one last time, one last effort.  “What about the wedding
?  Y
ou’re
my maid of honor.
”

“Seriously, Lily?  Do you really think I would be able to go through it knowing somewhere in this realm, probably on the same day, Tolan is marrying some elf queen?  I can’t do it.”

“But you seriously can’t go back to Frank and Chris
.
  No, I won’t let you go back to them, I just won’t do…I’m sorry.”

“Then don’t.  Just send me back…I don’t know…just anywhere…you know that if you ask Sema she’d do it for you.  And we both know she can make it happen.  Please…”
She
looks at me, desperately pleading.

I give in.  “Okay, okay.  I’ll ask Sema, but you’re not going back to those pigs.”

She nods quickly and then crushes me with a bear hug.  I hold her tightly, a
fraid to let her go, but know
that she will.  I move back and say, “Marilyn.  She’s in
Australia
.  I’ll ask Sema to somehow get a
message to her that you’ve run
away and don’t have anywhere else to go.  I know she’ll take you in and she can’t say anything about sending you back, you’re already eighteen.”

Julia hugs me again and we make our way back to the bed to work on the letter to Marilyn.  Once that was done
,
we
are
about to call for Sema when she comes through our bedroom door.  A look of control
led
patience is on her face as she says, “Why are you two not downstairs going over your lessons?  You only have this one night to get it right.”

We both rush her, each taking an arm and leading her to the bed.  Julia looks at me as Sema protests against our handling of her.  “Ladies
,
do not grab an old woman by the arms and drag her like a sack of potatoes!”

“We’re sorry, Sema,” I start, “but we have sort of an emergency.”  She straightens herself and gives us both a hard stare…if looks could smack both of us on the head, Julia and I would be lying at her feet right about now.

She looks at me then at Julia and then back at me, “Well, are you going to tell me
,
or do
I
have to torture it out of you?”

“Sema, we need your help,” I glance at Julia who sits back, biting her lower lip.  “We need to send Julia to
Australia
to be with Marilyn.”

Sema
is immediately
concern
and demands
, “Is something wrong with Marilyn?”

Surprised, we look at each
other
and then stare back at Sema, “You know Marilyn?” I ask curiously.

“Well, we have made acquaintances when I use
d
to stop by to see how you were doing,” she replies, still looking concern
ed
.