The Desert Pirate, Part 3

Uh-oh. This was leading somewhere...this was going to something I didn't think I was prepared for. Holding my breath, I waited for Sir Meinrad to turn around. But he did not fulfill my expectations, returning the spectacles to his eyes and returning his covered face to my vision.

"Sir Meinrad," I said sternly. "Is there a reason you are always covered in my presence?" Of course there was a reason – I had been told as much. And while I knew his true reason was just a question away from the captain of the guard, I had remained controlled in my ability to pry and withheld myself from asking. I had long ago decided that I would never resort to others to learn about someone else. Such was unfair. The option was kept merely as a threat, and a bargaining tool to work in my favor. And he knew that.

"There is, Princess."

It was hard not to frown, to not let my curiosity turn to frustration. "I demand you reveal your face to me."

"Are you certain of that? I would of course do anything you ask, Princess Aiyanna."

My name. He was using my name! In all the months he had been serving me, he had never been bold enough to speak my name. "Remember your place, Sir Meinrad."

"If I am to remember my place, then I would maintain my respects to you and keep my coverings on. I am a cursed one, Princess. To reveal my true self would be to blight you."

The annoyance was hard to keep in, to keep under control. My jaw clenched, my fists did too; my feet began to twitch and I was almost ready to – mercy! - hit him. But I could not let such an ugly event occur, and yet I could not help myself: I was so bold as to reach my own hand up to his glasses, willing to take them off by force.

Much to my surprise, he took a step back, and  my fingers grasped the open air, though thankfully I remained balanced. My eyes were left to stare at the blank void of sky where his head once was, but I quickly readjusted my vision and scowled.

"You are turning me into a fool."

"I promise you, I was trying no such thing." Sir Meinrad's tone was still calm, and when I realized that, I had to remove myself from the situation: to regain my self-control, to actually be calm and composed, and to not act like such a...brat.

The word was harsh in my mind. I had been called a brat before, far back in my days as a child, and ever since, I had resented and resolved to not be one. I knew, of course, the luxuries offered to me by my position in life, and the words some of the nobles uttered when they thought I wasn't listening – or worse, when they thought I was too young to understand them.

I was not going to behave that way. It was undignified, and more importantly, it was beneath me, both as a princess and in my greater role as a human being.

So I took a breath, to regain my humility. And I spoke words to convey such:

"Forgive me."

Sir Meinrad did not return my utterance with words. Instead, he calmly, and without much pomp and circumstance, removed his glasses, his eyes unwavering as they went from being tinted to my first time seeing them in the natural light.

They were pink. His eyes were pink – well, red, a bit red, but overall pink, with the whites tinged as such and his irises gradating the color. I had no idea what I was expecting – honestly, did I believe his eyes would shoot magical energies? - but I suddenly began to realize the context of his features.

"I don't intend to sound rude, but Sir Meinrad...would you please remove your tagelmust? I find it so dreadfully unsightly that you alone wear one when you do not go into the southern desert."

He nodded, saying not a word, and obliged my request. It took a while longer than removing the  spectacles, but in due time, the cloth was in his hands as opposed to covering his head, and again for the first time, I was able to fully read his features. His hair was as pale as the moon, his skin similar but  only touched lightly with a blush of life.

"Sir Meinrad, you remind me of a pet caouse I had as a child." My speech, it was so callous, so uncaring – I hardly meant it as such!

To my surprise, he smiled (so marvelous was it to see his actual smile, to witness the feeling in his eyes as they twinkled, his lips that curved, creating dimples in his pale cheeks), and folded his arms behind his back. "I imagine your pet and I had much in common. First to be received with such kindness, and second, to be burdened with this appearance."

"You feel you are cursed?"

"The common reaction is to throw stones, Princess. Take that how you will."

Of course I frowned. There were no other reactions but disgust and sadness at such a prospect. "I am sorry you have had to endure that kind of misery in your life, Sir Meinrad. And I am sorry for the discomfort you must go through in order to maintain your duties to my family and myself. I will not ask you to change your ways, or your habits, or your behavior. All I ask of you is to be comfortable around me, although I much appreciate you in your natural appearance."

It of course only perplexed me more to learn of Sir Heddwyn Meinrad's reason for hiding behind a shroud and a pair of spectacles. Originally, I had thought he covered himself for sake of a scar, or perhaps it was a cultural mannerism – and yet him being from the north debunked such a notion. And it never answered his need for the quartz glasses. I had trained myself to ignore his oddities and move on to enjoying his company...and of course, his job of protecting me.

There wasn't much need for protection, though. Not much went on inside the castle or on its grounds, and it certainly helped that at the moment, Father had no enemies. We maintained a peace with our neighbors, although such was easy when barren lands surround you. The Holbeins of the north had no such need to quarrel, while the Idonis were so far south that I had honestly never seen one in person. The only description of them came from books, drawings, and the words of others.

"We have met with the Idonis, yes." My mother had heard of my walks in the evenings with Sir Meinrad, and thought it better she walk with me than him. So I was forced to cancel the ritual for that day, and discovered my steps to be rather heavy.

"But are they not savages, Mother? Wasn't that what you told me?"

"They may do things in a more bizarre manner...and they may have come from savages. That is not to say they aren't people."

"How do you mean?" I asked, my head a bit dizzy at the sudden thought of my mother – my petite, beautiful mother, graceful in her step and nurturing in her manners – having a meal with people she herself had called uncivilized.

"They have changed quite a lot since the time of your great-grandfather. The current Emperor is about the same age as your father, Aiyanna – can you imagine your father meeting with a barbarian? Tell me, do you really think such people could survive in the desert, and live on in such an open world that is their home?"

"Lawless," I corrected, and instantly regretted the word at the look she gave me.

"They are hardly lawless, young lady. Their existence is continued not because of any great military effort, but because the people are civilized enough to not always need the law."

That made no sense. How did that make sense? I wanted to express my confusion, but my mother knew it from my silence.

"The people of the south who are independent of the capitol city never needed protection from one another. They needed protection from the real savages, from the people who chose to ignore the honest ways of living, and turned instead to lives of thievery and violence. Much has changed since the days of your books."

It was...true? Sir Meinrad's earliest words to me, his invisible reluctance on admitting I was right, even his fascination with the idea of such frivolous things as a 'desert pirate' – he had been trying to slip to me knowledge I was ignorant of.

"Why withhold this from me? Why leave me a fool?"

"We never intended for you to be, dear. And although this new information clearly contradicts what you have previously believed, I must insist that the south is still no such place for you, or I, or anyone of this country. It is only for those unfortunate enough to be born there, to be cast out there – it is not a place for a princess."

So what did I really know? I had been taught one thing, read another, heard yet another; what was there to stop everyone from lying? What was there to stop anyone from speaking the truth?

I knew there was a reason I fell in love with the south. I could feel it as I looked out the window and saw where the grass faded to sand, sprawling into the sky as it turned from crisp to a haze. I realized I could no longer ask for others to tell stories, for me to exist on anything but first-hand information. I had to live and experience it myself.