Chapter 49: A Shadow to the Moon
Lyria's POV
By the time I returned to the Queen's chambers, a full hour had passed.
I knew it had been precisely that long because the great clock in the eastern corridor had tolled the hour just as I stepped from the servants' washroom. Its solemn chime still echoed faintly in my memory while I walked.
The scent of soap clung to my skin now.
To anyone else, specifically the Queen, I had scrubbed until my hands were nearly raw, and the water in the basin had gone cold twice over. Every trace of the stables had been chased from my clothes, my hair, even beneath my fingernails. The sharp bite of lye soap still lingered faintly in the air around me.
Though, yes, I had scrubbed myself clean but not to the point that they were raw. I had just stayed in the washroom—my little act of defiance against the Queen.
The guards outside the Queen's door were the same two men as before.
