“I’m sorry,” I tell him.
“It’s alright,” he soothes, one more stroke over the bones in my wrist. “You look tired. Go on back to your chambers. I’ll call for you in the morning.”
I frown as he pulls away. “In the morning?” I fish. He doesn’t normally call for me until after the sun has set.
He nods as he starts to turn and walk away. “Yes, King Fulke is leaving tomorrow to return to Ranhold Castle.”
It takes a lot for me not to visibly sigh in relief. I can’t stand King Fulke of Fifth Kingdom. He’s a sleazy, crass old man with the power of duplication. When he uses his power, he can duplicate whatever he touches exactly once. It doesn’t work on people, thank Divine, or I bet he would’ve tried to duplicate me ages ago.
If I never see Fulke again, it would be too soon, but he and my king have been allies for several years now. Since our kingdoms border each other, he comes here a few times each year, usually with wagons full of things for Midas to turn to gold. Once he gets back to his own castle, I’m sure Fulke duplicates it all. He’s gotten very rich off of Midas’s alliance.
I’m not sure what my king gets in return, but I highly doubt he’s making Fulke rich out of the kindness of his heart. Midas isn’t exactly known for being selfless, but hey, when you’re a king, you have to take care of yourself and your kingdom. I don’t fault him for it.
“Oh,” I reply, knowing what this implies. King Fulke will want to see me before he leaves. He has a near obsession with me that he doesn’t try to hide anymore.
Bright side? His enthrallment makes Midas pay more attention to me. It’s like when children are fighting over a single toy. When Fulke is around, Midas hoards me, making sure Fulke doesn’t get a chance to play.
If Midas notices my discomfort, he doesn’t say anything about it. “You’ll come to the breakfast room in the morning while we dine,” he says, and I nod. “Now go to your room and get some rest so you can be fresh. I’ll send for you when it’s time.”
I bow my head. “Yes, my king.”
With another smile, Midas walks out of the atrium with a flap of his robe, and I’m left alone, the atrium suddenly feeling cavernous.
I sigh and look at the expanse of gold bars that curve out into the room, silently hating them. If only I was strong enough to pull the bars apart and slip out. It’s not even that I’d run away, because I wouldn’t. I do know how good I have it here. But to just be allowed to roam on my own within the castle, to follow Midas to his bedroom...that’s all the freedom I long for.
Just for fun, I grip two of the bars and pull with all of my might. “Come on, you little gilded prick sticks,” I mutter as my arms strain.
Admittedly, I don’t have much to boast about in the muscles department. I probably should use some of my free time to exercise. It’s not as if I’m too busy. I could do sprints from one end of the floor to the other, or I could climb up the rungs of the cage and do pull-ups, or I could…
A snort of laughter escapes me, and my hands drop back to my sides. I’m bored, but I’m not that bored. That male saddle with the abs is obviously much more motivated than me.
I look past my bars to the birdcage that’s hanging from a pedestal a few feet away. Inside, there’s a solid gold bird sitting frozen on her perch. She used to be a snow finch, I think. A belly marked to match the white snow she would’ve flown over, wings outstretched to glide through icy swept wind. Now, her soft feather down is all hard metallic lines, her wings forever tucked against her small form, her throat clogged into silence.
“Don’t look at me like that, Coin,” I tell her. She stares unblinkingly back at me.
“I know,” I say with a sigh. “I know it’s important to Midas that I’m kept safe inside my cage, just like you,” I say with a tilt of my head before I glance at all the luxuries I have within reach.
The food, the pillows, the expensive clothing. Some people would kill for these things, and I don’t just mean that as a figure of speech. They would actually kill for it. Poverty is a vicious motivator. I know that all too well.
“It’s not like he hasn’t tried to make me more comfortable. I shouldn’t be so greedy or thankless. Things could be a lot worse, right?”
The bird just continues to stare at me, and I tell myself to stop talking to the thing. It took its last breath a long time ago. I don’t even remember the sound of its song anymore. I imagine it was beautiful, though, before it solidified into a gleaming, silent specter.
Is that going to be me?
Fifty years from now, will my body go completely solid like the bird? Will my organs fuse, my voice silence, tongue weighted? Will the whites of my eyes bleed out, lids stuck forever open, unseeing? Maybe it’ll be me on my perch in here, stuck immobile forever, while people look in, talking to me through the bars when I can’t talk back.
It’s a fear I have, though I’ve never voiced it. Who knows if this power will change? Maybe one day, I really will be a statue.
For now, all I can do is keep singing, keep ruffling my proverbial feathers. Keep breathing with a chest that still rises and falls like the sun. Coin and I aren’t the same. At least not yet.
Turning, I run my hand down the bars before letting my arm drop to my side. Bright
