Sigrid was startled, her eyes moved to the partially closed doors, she wondered where Roland was hiding. She tapped her fingers nervously against her thigh as she wondered how she was going to handle the situation.
Her grandfather was talking but she could not hear what he was saying, blood was rushing to her ears. Roland had most likely heard everything that they had just talked about, maybe even witnessed her mother killing two people.
What was going through his mind? Was he hiding so that he could see what else they were up to? If that was the case then perhaps it was best to lay everything out in the open.
"Cosmos, why don’t you invite our guest in?"
If he was hiding, there was no way Cosmos had not figured it out, she was just miffed that he did not give her a heads up.
He strode towards the doors and moved one of them slightly away from the wall, looking at the corner.
"Your highness, please."
Where nothing had been, Roland appeared, he grinned at Cosmos and followed the burly knight into the drawing room. The doors were closed from outside and Cosmos stood guard with Sigrid’s other knights, keeping Roland’s knights outside.
Roland walked all the way to Sigrid and he sat down before acknowledging the people in the room.
"My love." he started with Sigrid. "Your graces and everyone." he nodded stiffly.
Every Thorin was more than surprised to hear him address Sigrid affectionately. Their burning eyes almost drilled holes into Sigrid as they sent her unvoiced questions about what had changed in her relationship with Roland. But, nobody was more surprised than her because she too did not think that he would keep up the ruse, not in front of her family that was already aware of his initial dislike of her.
"Your highness," One after the other, the Thorin’s curtsied or bowed as they responded to Roland’s greeting.
After the greetings, silence swept through the room, all previous conversation was at a halt as nobody knew what to discuss or where to begin.
"I couldn’t help but overhear your discussion and I was ntioned I believe." he began, taking the bull by the horns because their was a lot he needed to know.
Before he could say more, Sigrid snorted, "So you were spying on us, my love." she said, sarcastically.
"How can one spy in his own house?" he returned a question to her and smiled.
Beneath their words and smiles was a layer of tension, which everyone could feel. Roland glanced around the room, making eye contact with each family mber.
"I might have heard sothing about dying, does anyone care to explain what that ans? I don’t think that I need to explain to you all how much I value my own life and I am sure you value yours. If there is a hidden enemy after both of our families this is information that I need to know," he paused, "the king needs to know."
A mont of silence followed, as the family mbers exchanged thoughtful glances. Roland could not take the secret conversations that they were having while excluding him and he slamd his fist down.
"What is it that you are hiding? You just executed two people coldly and I heard that they were Valenford’s but still, that does not give you the right to execute them. There offices in charge of that departnt, you are all hiding a secret, out with it." he commanded.
His words were t with more silence, the Thorin’s looked at Sigrid, it was her secret to tell after all so it was her decision to make.
As far as the duke could tell, even if Roland heard the truth, there was no guarantee that he would believe them.
In the mont of hesitation, Iryne suddenly pulled out her husband’s sword, frightening everyone as they had no idea what she ant to do with it. Sigrid’s jaw dropped, as expected of the family of a villain, they would do anything to protect that main villain.
It was the reason why the families of all villains died in novels, because they were loyal to each other in committing evil.
"This is interesting." Roland said, amused.
He was confident that in a sword fight, he could slaughter everyone in the room easily, except for Sigrid.
"Do you intend to kill ?" he asked.
The duchess laughed nervously. "Of course not your highness, how could we dare to kill the crown prince?" She looked sharply at Iryne. "First of all, we would be committing treason and secondly, we would be dooming Sigrid to death. Everyone knows the fate of a childless wife of a king or prince, they are buried with him."
Her words echoed a reminder to everyone that was having any funny thoughts.
Iryne put the sword on the table and said calmly, "I was just checking to see if the sword need sharpening. I was about to send it to you and ask for your opinion, your highness."
Roland arched his eyebrows, "Right." he said, skeptically. Did she take him for a fool? Who sharpened a sword at such a mont? "I will be thrilled to take a look at my father-in-law’s sword at any other ti but for now I think that we all have more urgent matters to discuss."
He turned his head to Sigrid and looked at her intensely after all, she was the one that seed to be in charge of this eting. "My love, do you have sothing to say to ?" He tilted his head and added, "One boat, captain, co-captain. I hope you rember and understand that if the captain jumps overboard because he cannot trust his crew, the ship sinks." He bared his teeth in a threatening grin, "Everyone that remains on that ship sinks."
While everyone was confused, Sigrid got the ssage loud an clear.
"Even if I tell you, there is no guarantee that you will believe . You will think mad and consider my words no better than lies." she replied.
"Try ." He said confidently.
The duke gestured at Sigrid to tell Roland her dream, he still offered a word of advice to the presence before Sigrid delved into her tale of sothing that was unheard of. "Prince Roland, I hope that you handle what you are about to hear with maturity. You may find it unbelievable but that does not an you should dismiss it because it concerns our family, the royal family and the entire kingdom at large."
Roland could taste the seriousness in the duke’s words and he nodded. "I will keep an open mind your grace, but I make no promises because I do not want to break my word."
"Fair enough." Duke Thorin nodded.
Sigrid took a deep breath and she started the made up story about the prophetic dream that she had on the night her magic awakened, this ti she added a few details that had been missing from the first story, making it sound even more mysterious than it originally was.
"It all started when I got a fever in the middle of the night."
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