Chapter 32

When they finally finished, her maid was cleaning the wound on her cheek. One of the pellets must

have hit her there, but it was nothing more than a scratch. Alisen accompanied her to the bed and also covered her with the blanket. Lyana felt a bit like a sick child. Still, it was a nice feeling to be looked after and since she was very exhausted, a short sleep would certainly do her good. But she had only just closed her eyes when there was a knock on the door. Alisen opened it quickly and the princess could hear her whisper. "Her Royal Highness has to rest now! Bring the food to her room, so she can recover better."

"But the king ..." began a voice that Lyana could immediately assign to Baridi, but which was

immediately interrupted. "The king told me to take care of her, and I will! So when I say that she

needs to rest now, I mean it."

"But ...", Baridi tried again, but he had no chance against her maid. "But nothing and now excuse

me." Immediately afterwards the door was closed and Alisen snorted contentedly. The spectacle had

made Lyana smile a little and let her worries be forgotten for a moment. That moment was enough

to let her fall into a deep and peaceful sleep.

As Lyana slowly woke up again, the first thing she felt was a hand stroking her hair. She opened her eyes and looked into the face of her maid. She looked more relaxed again and smiled at her. "I hope you have had a good rest. After you had some rest, you now need to drink and eat something."

Lyana looked past her and saw that the food had actually been brought to her room. "Thank you,

Alisen." She got out of bed and went to all the goodies. Then she discovered a note in the middle of all the dishes. Curiously, she unfolded it and read the first line.

"Alesh is fine."

The princess took her heart out of sheer relief. The wolf had lost a lot of blood, but he would survive.

Overjoyed, she fell around her maid's neck. She had no idea why the princess was suddenly happy, but since she seemed to be better again, she was happy again.

Finally Lyana ate with great appetite and had Baridi called. The valet stood in her chambers shortly

afterwards. "I heard you are feeling better, Your Royal Highness?" He asked politely how she was feeling.

"Much better, thank you." While she was talking to Baridi, Alisen started to fix the princess's hairstyle. "I hope to be able to fulfill my duties today if that is still possible."

Baridi nodded approvingly. "If you wish, I will call everyone together at once. But please do not

feel obliged to do so. It would also be absolutely understandable for the king if you wanted to relax

after all that happened and postpone it until tomorrow."

But Lyana didn't want to postpone it. A little distraction would be good for her. She also realized

that this was her chance for a tour of the rooms that were locked on her first nightly excursion.

Baridi respected her decision and left the room again. It was very quiet for a while, which was unusual as Alisen always had something to say. "Is everything okay? You're so calm," she inquired cautiously.

Her maid stopped braiding her hair for a moment. "It's just ... I wish you could stay."

The princess was very surprised at this admission. "What do you mean?"

Alisen didn't seem sure how to express herself as she thought about it for a long time. Finally she answered her. "I am aware that you are not here voluntarily. But everyone here likes you or is curious to meet you. It feels as if the castle is a lot livelier and not so full of ... " At this point the maid stopped and corrected herself. "It just feels right. I'm also happy to finally have a mistress who I can serve and not always just help out in the kitchen or with cleaning. But you won't stay and you will probably leave us in the near future." Tears welled up in the young woman's eyes and Lyana took her hands comfortingly. She didn't know what to tell her, after all, she was right. Even if she didn't know what exactly the king was up to, she wouldn't stay here forever.

"And what if you accompany me to the sun kingdom?", She tried to appease her maid. But Alisen just shook her head. "That's really kind of you, but I can't leave here. Not that I shouldn't," she quickly assured the princess, "just that I don't want to. We are all deeply indebted to King Ulric. You may not know, but as much as I am afraid of him, I also respect him. He is a good king."