39: A featherless victim

A featherless victim

Exposed and vulnerable, Adela pulled the bed sheets up and covered her naked heart, unprotected by a ribcage and bleeding out.2

"How could you have let this happen? That bird is a part of you!" 

She gazed back at the Archduchess with no expression and struggled to keep her breathing even.

Larissa who stood on the left side of the bed right next to her mother eyed her sister with sympathy, she knew her well enough to guess what seethed beneath her calm surface. 

"Mother is right, Adela… Won't you please give it a second thought?" 

"Just remembering how your father reacted to the news…" Grace shuddered. "I am truly concerned for his health,"

Adela tensed when Larissa nodded.

"I heard the maids talking, father wreaked havoc in his study upon receiving the signeted agreement for Kannen's exchange. He yelled about his stolen pride… And his stolen daughter," 

"Who would have thought that such a thing could occur?! What are you hiding from us? Hm? Adelaide, A mother knows! Allow me to try—to see if I can be of help to you!"

Grace de Lanark had always belonged to the light. A Glamorous life that her husband easily provided her with, a perfect daughter that was both beautiful and behaved.

Adela and her mother shared very little as is, more so as of late. 

Adela's world seemed to have gone darker the day Egon set foot into it, how could she drag those heavy shadows into a world of constant sun? It was a world that she herself struggled to fit into it. 

She kept her head up high.

"Mother, I have told you before, it was my offer for the von Conradies. Half an acre of water secures life for Lanark… I have sent the knights to investigate already,"

"Investigate?"

"Yes…You see, the restoration taking place over there might have somehow contaminated the water,"

The Archduchess looked as if she did not agree with her daughter's assessment, she gave the baroness who stood on the other side of Adela's bed a sharp look.

"Baroness, say something!"

Arkin's mother who had nothing to say continued to dry her tears with her handkerchief.

"This house has turned into a funeral home! I will not stand and watch as they enslave my daughter and take away her precious things!" 

Forced into being the strong one as usual, Adela pushed the sheets away and stood up then placed a reassuring hand on her mother's shoulder. 

"I am nobody's slave. And they are nothing but heartless and vindictive people,"

"But you are working for them!"

"I will be supervising the infirmary there much like I did here with the epidemic. Noblewomen ought to work without fearing the consequences, and it is our responsibility to pave that way for them,"

Surprisingly, the Archduchess said nothing to object to her daughter's controversial words.

"…I will always be with Kannen. Egon von Conradie might have bought him a new location with his endless wealth, but he can never buy his love or his loyalty,"

Those are mine to keep...

"The von Conradies think everything is for sale, but I shall prove them wrong…I shall retrieve every last acre of Lanark from the four of them!"

"…The four of them?" The Archduchess whispered.

"Lady Adelaide!" Egon's roar was followed by an ear-splitting neigh that came through the window. "You must come with me right away! It's Kannen! He needs you!" 

The last thing Adela registered before bolting out of the room was her mother's bewildered expression, barefoot and in her loose sleeping garment, she ran as fast as her feet carried her down the stairs and all the way to the door that should not have been open and unattended to.

She gasped when Egon's horror-stricken eyes met hers. Something grave must have happened to her friend for sure.

She took the stairs that separated them two at a time then took his extended hand and rode behind him.

Her eyes were squeezed shut all the way there with her head pressed against his rock-hard back, she held on to his wide chest, hate and need clashing within her at every leap Xavier took at an impossible speed. 

"Where is he?" She said between short gasps of air as she dismounted in front of Egon's manor.

"My room," he declared. 

The answer was wrong, and so were his eyes when they looked down at her feet.

It happened too fast for her to object.

Egon who had been on horseback a second ago was in her face now, he bent down and carried her in his arms. She was still looking at his pulsing neck when a gush of wind had her closing her eyes protectively. When she opened them again, a lonesome, dim-lit room welcomed her, and how she got there within a short moment was trivial in comparison to what she saw. 

Plucked out of all his feathers and wheezing on the ground, Kannen's chest went up and down at an abnormal speed. A huge golden cage was open behind him, and next to that was Andreas who stood motionless, both of his hands hidden behind his back. 

"Kannen!"

She fell to her knees next to her bird, her head about to explode from the pain of watching him suffer like this.

Her eyes flashed up to Egon's face in terror.

"You... you caged him?"

"…I worried about leaving him outside,"

"Do you always kill that which you worry about?" 

She crawled and held Kannen's head then pressed it to hers, the bird's consciousness continued to drift. He was quiet for a moment, and twitching the next, his eyes flickered between Adela and the two men in the room. Then, abruptly, he let out a loud shriek.

Streams of Adela's tears fell on the falcon's skin as she held him closer. His wheezing stopped, but the potent smell of his featherless skin was making her dizzy, her ears rang.

He smelled like death to her.

Her eyes flickered to Andreas when an ominous click came from his direction, his face was composed, cold, inhumanely even. And his hands, not behind his back anymore, held a grey metallic gadget that was hollow on the inside.

Adela had seen drawings of the weapon before. Far-ranged and loaded with explosive gunpowder, the knights deemed it cowardly, and none wanted to replace their swords with it.

She sprang heavily to her feet and slowly walked to Andreas then reached out for the gun.

"I will do it,"

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