Binding Paths

The lights were all off in Silus’s room, but the moonlight pouring in through the balcony was luminous enough to keep me from stumbling. I methodically scanned the objects on Silus’s dresser. Decorative box. Maps. Wooden comb. Bottle of sandalwood oil. Compass. 

Ah yes. 

The engravings on the copper band glistened in the moon as I held it close enough to read the inscription in the dim light. Carved in the smooth interior of the band was my name. The name that tied me to my serves. Silus was a fool to leave it sitting out. The whole direction of my life and he set it down next to a compass on his dresser while he strolled around the gardens. 

I put pressed the band around the flesh of my right arm. It was taboo to wear both bands at once. But my arm was the safest place to keep the precious band while I made the climb back down the palace wall.

I was just about to hoist myself over the balcony railing when a crack of strong lamplight disrupted the soft beams around the stone balusters. I turned and saw Silus’s silhouetted in the doorway of his camber. He was young for his station and considered quite handsome. But at the moment he wore a dumbfounded expression that I thought made him look ordinary. 

After his soft brown eyes darted from his dresser back to my own softer silhouette, a smirk curled the edge of my lips. 

“A fool and his treasure are soon parted, Silus. And,” I slipped my slender body over to the other side of the banister, “assumptions soon turn to misconceptions.” 

I winked my luscious lashes just before slipping the rest of the way off the balcony. To Silus, it probably looked as though I disappeared. But in reality, I had to quickly maneuver my hand and feet to climb down the wall as fast as possible. Silus’s sight was probably still catching up to his brain, but he might still get the bright idea to send some guards after me. 

Eventually, the idea did come to him. But by the time it did, I was halfway across the grounds of the palace where there were lots of trees and walls to blend my body into. 

Although I knew the trick to avoiding detection was simply to stick to the shadows and stand there like it was where I belonged, my heart still pounded when guards ran by mere feet from my presence. My breath caught on my lungs not because the trick had ever failed me, but because I could hardly believe men could be so blind. All it would take for me to be found is a second glance, but they never glanced twice at something that belonged. If I wanted to, I could find one of the main paths and walk along it like I was just another servant performing her duties and they wouldn’t stop me. 

I undraped my body from the trunk of a date palm and snuck into the long shadow of the outer wall. I walked in the cover of the wall with the confident steps I knew I needed, but inside my guts were swirling. But I took control of my breaths and slowed the tremors starting in my muscles.

By the time my exit gate was in sight, my pace was a meandering stroll. My smirk came back to my bony cheeks. It had been just as simple as I had thought. Silus was a presumptuous mortal like any other. I began to wonder how he ever tricked my father out of the family band.

The gate’s opening broke the shadow of the wall. I could see stars and the full moon giving shape to the low hills on the other side of the gate. I was that close to the other side. That close before a familiar cold wind blew sand into my eyes.

  After I blinked the sand out of my eyes, I knew who’s body shape to look for. But why would he be here interfering? 

“Gandus,” I said

I saw him swinging his legs at the top of the gate. His feet just touched my view of the stars. He began to clap.

“Mirrade, well done. You certainly accomplished that with ease.”

The nerves I had calmed before broke loose across my body leaving chilled goose skin. Why would a high dgjin be here? We lessor dgjin had rules and bindings holding us to order. But the high dgjin had very few and could generally make whatever mischief they wanted without question. There was nothing anyone should fear more than high dgjin like Gandus. 

“What are you doing here? This has nothing to do with you,” I protested. 

Gandus jumped from the top of the gate with a force that should have hurt. Sand spilled into the air from the impact, but Gandus walk toward me as if he had started on the ground.

“Wearing both family bands? That is a little bold for you isn’t it?” 

I gulped and looked down past my shoulder where the copper bands were starting to feel as cold as the river's depths.“So!” I snapped. “Why would it matter to you?”

Gandus clacked his tongue till he was standing right in front of me. “Normally it wouldn’t matter. I of all people am for pushing the boundaries of propriety. But Mirrade, I have plans, and those plans involve you being in the service of Prince Silus for the time being.”

My heart felt sick. I thought I had been able to keep my own path my own. I had been able to use my own power to keep my family’s binding band in the family. But now things could turn far worse than even the binding band being in someone else’s hands.

Gandus made a joking gesture between the bands. “Now which band to give back?” 

He ask it with a smile, like it was supposed to be a joke. I tried to give nothing away with my facial expression even though the sink around my left arm was beginning to itch. I stared straight ahead unblinkingly as Gandus made his selection, sliding the band off my right arm. 

I lost control and breathed out in relief. 

“Now, Mirrade. I am not as mean as you would have me believe.” I squinted at Gandus trying not to make a comment about the logic of that statement. 

Gandus took a few steps towards the moonlight with a bouncy stride. After a few ridiculous steps, he held the band up with the interior facing the brunt of the light. “Now there is that family name, Adrandus.”

My shoulders began to slump as a scowl grew like mold on my face. Some undisclosed amount of time in the service of some stupid prince vying for more power. How would I stand it? 

“Oh, don’t be like that Mirrade.” Gandus looked down from the band and over his shoulder at me. I glared at him. I didn’t say anything, but my thoughts were so clear he could probably hear them anyway. 

Gandus’s green eyes darkened a shade as he formed a close-lipped smile. “ I could always take the other band.” 

My right arm shot up and my fingers curled around the band left on my arm. 

Gandus began to spin the copper band around his pointer finger.

“If you're that worried about it, you could always go out, get married, and change your family name if you want.” Gandus began walking while spinning the band. Then he stop and clutched to band in midair. “But then, those sisters of yours aren’t quite old enough to have the chance to change their name yet, are they?” Gandus was still smiling like it was all a joke, but his message was clear. I was trapped. 

“Come along Mirrade,” Gandus waved for me to follow with the same hand that still help my family’s band in it. 

I slithered behind Gandus all the way back to the palace’s audience hall, where Silus and some of his underlings seemed to be waiting. I slumped against the back wall while Gandus approached Silus. Gandus tossed the band to Silus who caught it without effort, but still looked a bit dazed. 

“I was hoping you could do this on your own with minimal help Silus, so try and act as if this were the last help you will get from me,” Gandus told Silus with noticeable annoyance. 

Silus looked down at the copper band, acknowledging his failure. 

“Now,” Gandus began, “would you read the inscription on the inside.”

“Adrandus.” Silus read then looked up with wide eyes that seemed to wonder if something were going to happen now. 

“Very good.” Gandus clapped his hands together. “That is her family name, but you can call her, Merr.”

My heart almost stopped beating when I thought Gandus was about to reveal my personal name, but I wasn’t too thrilled with the childish variation he had told them to call me. And judging by the glint in Gandus’s eye, he knew that. 

“I will be off now.” Gandus started jaunting towards the exit.

I stiffened my gaze at Gandus. “So glad Ganni.” I stretched the ‘a’ out with a twang. 

Gandus stopped and blinked at me a few times. “Sometimes you are surprisingly bold Adrandus.” It could have been a vailed threat, but I was too peeved to feel the fear. Instead, I just shrugged at him with a joyless smile. 

Gandus chuckled. “Try not to be too obstinate while I am gone.” 

I dropped any trace of a smile or humor. “No.” 

Gandus laughed, looked at Silus, and shrugged, “I tried.” 

Silus looked a little unsteady on his feet but Gandus jovially walked out of the room waving, “Farwell kids. Enjoy the journey.” 

Still slumped against the wall with my arms crossed, Silus looked at me and cleared his throat. What could he possibly want to say to me? I looked at him expectantly. 

He hesitated, then spoke. “Why can’t we be friends for the time being?”

It was even worse than I thought. I expected this man to have at least some amount of brains in his skull. His seconds must cover a lot. 

I hissed out breath, a habit I had thought I had beat years ago. “So. Many. Reasons.”