Chapter-7 The Voices in the Dark should remain in the dark

The sky is light grey; the clouds are gathering it might rain soon. A girl ran really fast carrying a box in her head. She hoped to make it to home as quickly as she can. ‘Why did I not bring Khan with me?’ She thought of the horse. She made it with only a few seconds to spare. As soon as she reached the porch the thunder called and it started to pour down. She quickly ran in the house. Khan was nowhere to be seen. ‘Justin must be out.’ Justin works as the exporter of goods to the capital from Kanfe. Kanfe is a neutral village not under any of the kingdoms command and being further away from the empire the village ensures its safety from the other nations with the trading of weapons and armors. The most dominating profession of the village is blacksmith. Some of the expert blacksmiths are recruited by other nations from the village. The village chief himself is a retired famous blacksmith from the Great War times. It is said that when nations were battling it out day and night in the Great War the emperor bought his armors to battle with its endurance they crushed their opponents with enduring blades. Kanfe decided to keep itself neutral when the war ended. The price was to give back something to ensure security. To do that Kanfe created this smithy village trading weapons and armors in return of security. This of course created a hard problem there are bargains and auctions which creates more fights among customers. This is sometimes handled by the reminder of contracts. Justin fears that some day they might be attacked for this reason. They are only kept safe due to the fact they can create better armory than any other.

Rosa untied her hair to dry it. She climbed up the stairs and opened the door to her room to change her dress. She put on a white blouse and brown skirt. The thunder made a really big sound. She quickly made her way to close the window so that it does not wet the floor in the room. He eyes fell on the necklace she had on her neck. Marias words came in her head, “Princess, never reveal who you are.”She quickly tucked it in her blouse making it invisible to the people around her. She almost made a mistake of revealing her name the first time it was good that she stopped on time. Now everyone knows her as Rosa the adopted daughter of Justin. She is branded as someone who lost all her memories while escaping from human trafficking group, but in reality she remembers everything. She would move around the town trying to catch news of Rante and anyone she knows. All she could hear was it was closed off due to a big tragedy. She soon let it go for a while as it might troublesome if anyone suspected her. Twelve years passed since the incident, but the images are still fresh in her memories. Sloan’s lifeless body in front of her, lying with his eyes open a look of fear in it, yet dead on the grass wet with blood. Everyone dead around her only she survived cause she was hiding behind the rose bush. She blames herself for his death. If she hadn’t suggested that they go to the garden. This wouldn’t happen. She frowned at herself.

Rosa quickly moved away, removing the tears that almost fell from her eyes with the back of her hand. She tied the white apron on her hips. Rolling up her sleeves she decides to make dinner before Justin arrives. She thought of how Olivia makes the food. Olivia is happy this year her son is coming back from the militia service for holiday. He is young but he excelled on physical training which caught the eye of a captain in the army of Argenti. Olivia worries about him. Eugene is her only son. She did not wish for him to be lost as well. She cries for a long time whenever he leaves after the holidays. The thunder still clapped, the rain is getting heavier. She put the bread to bake the stove is not getting hot enough due to the cold weather from the rain. She put in some more twigs hoping to increase the heat. She put the pot of soup on the side stove stirring it once or twice and covering it with a lid.

She turned around her eyes fell on the obituary kept on the table it was under the sugar pot. She gave a glance to it and moved away. Another thing she hid from the people that she is literate. A slave would not know how to read. She rubbed her hands to stand in front of the door watching the rain. It felt more peaceful than anything else right now. She went silent from her previous state. Her life on the castle was different from what she is having now. At first it was hard to get into the regular life style here. Slowly Olivia helped her to get used to it. Her mistakes were numerous but her clueless look in the face helped to escape the situation. Olivia has been patient with her while teaching her the ways of the village. She remembers Eugene losing his cool with her as she did not act like the other girls in the village. Cooking was one of the tough things to learn. She would burn the pot. Once she was ask to boil eggs in water. Rosa forgot to turn the stove down and went out to help clean the yard. She totally forgot the eggs on the pot. The result was Justin quickly running into the kitchen to get rid of the fire only to find black charcoaled eggs emitting a bottom holed pot, which resulted in Rosa crying and apologizing any way she can. She cried a lot which was dismissed with the fact she was just a confused child. There were more incidents of burned bread, charcoaled crusted biscuits. There were Khans scream bought her back from thoughts, she could see Justin riding back on khan. She quickly went inside the house to bring a dry towel for him. Justin finally reached the stable and let Khan go in his stable. The horse shook itself close to a dog to get rid of the water on his body. His master quickly took the long cloth beside the stable and patted him dry after removing the leathers off. He discarded the large cloth and took another one to cover it. The horse obediently sat beside the hay stack and slowly munched on the hay. Justin smiled and patted his horse. “Good job boy.” He slowly entered the room and looked at the kitchen stove first. It is a habit he gained after the burned egg incident. Rosa did improve in the cooking but he was still afraid of the burning pots and pans. He saw her climbing down the stairs and held the dry cloth in front of him. “I have warm bath ready for you upstairs Uncle.” Rosa could not call him father so he settled for uncle. It was nice to hear her say uncle he took the cloth and climbed upstairs as she informed. “Sorry for the wet floor.”

Justin quickly freshens up and climbed down the stairs his stomach turned to the smell of the soup, the ride must have made him hungry. He took the chair in front of his bowl and took a piece of bread. Rosa already sat in front of her bowl and started eating. “How was the town today Uncle?” He took a bite of the bread. ‘Did she bake the bread today?’ “Today was a good deal but there was a rift between the parties. We left before things could go rough.” Rosa looked at him for a while thinking if she missed any injury he sustained, she could not find any. She nodded in agreement, “I heard Babak will live tomorrow. He is going for the front.” Justin looked at her for a bit. Babak was one of the Blacksmiths who caught her curiosity. He lost one of his legs in a workstation accident when he was an assistant at his young age which earned him a steel leg. Now he stumbles a bit when he walks with his bulk size huge body and sports a big beard. While making up stories of how he lost his leg to the kids. Sometimes it is monsters in the forest; other days it is trolls who came at night to steal socks.

Rosa followed him for the first few days like a duckling following her mother and sat in front of the workstation watching him work. When she got older she would run errands for him. One time Babak asked her to take a bag of tools to the chief who was waiting at the gate. He thought it is going to take her sometime but she returned with the money before he could finish striking the new heated up metal. When she called out to him Babak almost dropped his hammer and looked at her. At first he thought she was not telling the truth, he decided to check for himself and saw that it was true she returned faster than anyone else. “Kid where you learned to run that fast?” he laughed slapping his head. Rosa just shook her head and looked at his face confused why he was laughing at her. Justin smiled thinking of the time when Babak boasted about this to all in the town. For once he thought she might be someone who came from a foreign country but her features matched that of the empire. Where does she come from is still a mystery. “You can come with me tomorrow in town to meet with him in the gates.” Rosa smiled at this and nodded. The rain finally stopped pouring leaving small puddles on the yard around the house. The sky cleared quickly revealing itself to be clear light blue. Some of the grasses have drops of water sticking on it. There was a slight cold wind blowing around them. Rosa walked on the grass she took a bowl of clothes to put on the lines to dry. Someone was calling her while walking towards the house. It was Olivia she had a neighbors daughter with her. She carried a basket of fresh vegetables and held it out to Rosa. “Keep these I bought them in the morning.” “Thank You Aunty, Uncle arrived an hour earlier.” Rosa took the basket from her. Her Aunt went in to talk to her brother. Emma the girl who came together with her aunt held out her hand, “Rosa want to come with me to the east gate? I want to pick out some accessories.” She nodded in agreement and asked her to wait for a bit so that she can finish her chores first.

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The road side from the east gate is filled with temporary stalls set up to sell. Jewelry, household items, wooden items and toys are spread out on the street. People are looking around bargaining the price of the goods. Kids run around the in front of the toys where the sellers are trying to entertain them to buy the toys while their parents watch in delight. Emma stopped in front of the shoe cart and looked at the colorful shoes. “Rosa you should buy one.” Rosa shook her head, “I don’t need one you buy anyone you like.” She stood their looking at the stalls. The candy stall caught her eye. She excused herself and went close to buy some. “Young lady would you like to try some?” The seller was an old lady with grey hair she held out a basket full of assorted candies in front of her. They sparkled in front of her. She took the light brown and a white color one it was sweet. “Caramel and cream.” she recognized while taking a bite of each. They were soft and light melting on the tip as soon as she took a bite of them. “Young lady rightfully recognized the flavors would you like to buy some?” Rosa decided to buy a portion of both flavors mixed. She moved forward to check the next stall. It was a ribbon stall the colors attracted her. There were some small silver and gold pins on the side trays. Some had designs embedded into them with little colorful crystals in the middle. “The peacock would look good on you.” Emma came behind her taking one of the pin and putting it close to her head. Rosa shook her head, “It looks better on you.” Emma frowned at her reply. “You should change you look it looks boring.” Rosa smiled looking at her, “I was just looking at the ribbons. But you should buy it maybe it will take the notice of you know who.” She winked at her. Emma blushed at her words. They giggled at the thought; Emma was engaged to be married soon with the chief’s son. Everyone was looking forward to the grand wedding. Emma ended up buying some of the hair pins for her she even bought a blue peacock pin for Rosa after streaming down her denial.

The sky was getting golden it will be evening soon. “We should get back Aunt must be waiting for us.” Rosa looked at the sky. “You are no fun Rosa there will be performance by the bard this evening let’s stay for today.” She pulled on her hand to urge her to stay Rosa decided to stay after her whining it might be interesting to watch the performance today. Soon the sun set and people started to gather the bard bought out his mandolin and started playing in the middle of the crowd. He wore half a mask hiding his eyes. The mask was a simple wooden mask the whole crew wore such wooden mask hiding a part of full of their faces. They enacted the story of ‘The traveler who met the foolish king.’ Rosa always felt strange at this behavior ‘why hide the face when you have such great talent?’ The singer had long sunset color hair, he moved around moving in between the crowds. The females were giggling and screaming in cheer. They were seven in number two of them. Two of them were girls most of their face features were hidden with white face paint and mask. They smiled with the crowd pleasing dances. The bard continued to please the crowd with his song. Rosa was looking at him with interest he seemed different from the people in the village. ‘He was trying too hard is it part of the play or is it just him being professional?’ The song ended with flower petal raining on the crowd. The colorful petal created a sweet smell which impressed the crowd they cheered throwing coins and gifts to the performers. Rosa took out some coin was hesitating should she throw the coin but Emma took it from her hand and threw it towards them. Rosa smiled at her excited friend. “Emma here Emma!” they looked back and left the crowd to see it was her fiancé he must have noticed them when the crowd started to move away. Emma quickly went over to greet him, she looked shy while talking. Rosa thought it was better to leave them for a while she took a few steps back and stood at a close by tent set up by the traders. The sky will get dark soon. ‘I should have bought a lantern with me.’ She thought yawning ‘It is so boring to stand alone.’ She looked at the couple they seem to discuss something really happy. Emma was blushing too much he was holding her hand. ‘Sigh how long do I have to stand here?’ A cat call made her search for the sound maybe she was feeling bored thus she searched for the cat. Finally she found it. It was a grey cat with black stripes looking at her standing a few feet away behind her curling its tail. It looked straight towards her. Rosa went close to it slowly thinking of patting it. It started walking away slowly looking back at her once or twice going meow. Emma was taking a long time to finish. Rosa decided to follow it they walked for some time. She did not notice how far away she walked. Finally it stopped and sat down rubbing its head with its front paw. Rosa slowly approached it in fear it will run away and sat down to pat it but it ran. ‘Was it scared of me?’ she sighed and gave up this time. The cat ran away to far it would be a waste of time to follow it more. She turned to look around where she was. It was back of the two checkered tents. ‘How do I get back to the main square? I do not recognize this part of the town.’ She looked around for a bit and started walking if there is a main road to follow. She heard a few voices. ‘Maybe I can ask for directions.’ She slowly approached the voice which made it clear; at first she could only see a few shadows. “We should do it tonight. Do you think it will be of any use?” a female voice answered the question. “Are you sure it is this town? If the Emperor hears this he will be mad.” Rosa took a few steps back. ‘What are they talking about?’

“My lady are you lost?” this sentence made her jump on her feet. Rosa turned around quickly to come face to face with the masked singer from the play. She was lost for words only surprised to see him in front of her. “What are you doing here?” Rosa stammered for a bit “A cat I was looking for a cat … it got lost.” “A cat?” he slowly walked close to her which made her take two steps back he does not look like someone who is safe. She nodded in agreement. “I am just looking for a cat I got lost chasing after her.” to her surprise the cat appeared and started brushing itself close to the bard’s feet. “That one I was following it.” “Ah I see you bought her here what a naughty cat.” He said lifting it up to his shoulders, the cat also settled itself on his neck yawned and went for a nap. Rosa was not able to make any sense of what was going on. She was looking around to find a way out. “You will get lost in the maze if you do not mark your way from the beginning.” His words felt heavy and mesmerizing. She could not understand why he was acting as such. It did not make sense why she was standing in this place listening to him right now. Her head is asking her to run from his place but her body felt as if she was under a spell she could not find the strength. Her breath felt heavy it was slowly getting harder to breath. It is as if someone took her strength and held her rooted in the place. She feared what might happen next if she did not move right now. She struggled to put out some words and to break through from the stuck position. ‘Why am I not moving did he put a spell on me?’ she started sweating but struggled within her finally she could feel her breath back she quickly spoke out. “I should get back my friend is waiting for me.” The bard in front of her smiled, “Yes my lady is lost after all please allow me to escort you.” At first she hesitated and tried to replay. “Do not worry I mean no harm.” She could not find it within herself to trust the person in this situation but decided to follow him for a bit. They took a turn and true to his words he leads her to an opening. Rosa saw that it was close to the shoe stalls. She stopped to thank him. “It is my pleasure my lady but please remember voices in the dark should stay in the dark.” He slowly bowed down to her and walked away mixing into the shadow behind the tents. Rosa stood in her spot thinking ‘what was all that about? What did he mean about voices and who were those people?’ she took a few steps forward thinking, ‘should she inform this to someone? Even if she did will anyone believe her?’ Emma quickly ran towards. “Rosa there you are I have been looking all over for you.” She looked up to see her. “I am sorry I was just looking around I think I missed you.” “Rosa you can be so clueless at times.” Emma shook her head and pulled her to walk back home. The sky had a light blue color of the evening it will be dark soon. Rosa just nodded deep in her thoughts, ‘should she inform someone or not?’