Once Boniface showed the group where they would lay their heads for the night, it didn't take long for everyone to disperse. Lilah was given a room to herself, which she greatly appreciated after the confrontation at dinner. Her room was not a bedchamber, none of them were, but it did have a daybed and a desk, stacked full of books and papers. Although there was nothing burning, the entire room smelled like sweet oil and incense. Boniface explained that the room was his office and that he kept the daybed for long nights of work when he had no time to go home. It wasn't orderly, but it also wasn't dirty. Stacks of papers were crammed in every corner, while statues of gods that Lilah didn't recognize sat perched on shelves and in corners. Mama Ra left two light blankets on the corner of the bed, along with a glass of water and a hunk of bread for the night. Lilah could tell that the elderly couple must have hosted plenty of weary travelers or runaways before. Neither of them had received any forewarning that their group was coming, yet both of them had moved swiftly around the church and prepared their places with ease.
Lilah tugged off her boots and discarded her scarf onto the daybed, feeling the pull of sleep on her limbs. She took down her hair and rubbed her scalp for a moment, and felt a stress headache already working it's way into the center of her eyes. She let go of a long, heavy sigh that she felt as if she were holding in for decades, and then headed out the door to find a place to wash her face. As she walked through the doorway and stepped into the hallway, she found Leon, walking towards her. She rolled her eyes before turning the other direction and biting her cheek to keep her anger in check, her head throbbed just thinking about having to exert the energy to fight with him again.
"Wait, Queen Lilah" Leon said, his footsteps loud in the quiet hallway. Lilah stopped but didn't turn around. "I've been looking for your room for fifteen minutes." He huffed, as if it were she who caused him this inconvenience.
"What is it? I'm very tired."
"I've changed my mind."
Although he was a very lean man, there was something about him that seemed to fill the hallway. He was not as tall as Bleu, yet there was a way about him that made one feel as though he was permanently looking down his nose at you. Lilah found herself grinding her heel into the floor beneath her to ensure she did not cower away from him.
"What do you mean?"
"I want to hear what you have to say, face to face, so I can decide if you're lying." He said and crossed his arms in a way that Lilah supposed was meant to show he wasn't budging. She would have gathered as much without the body language, as she was already learning how to gauge him. She nearly smirked at the thought, knowing fully well that it would bother him.
"Perhaps I do not want to explain myself." She lifted her chin.
He laughed a short laugh that changed his sharp face from something other than somber for the first time since they met. "Of course you do, I could see it in your eyes at supper."
Lilah gritted her teeth. "I have nothing to say to you." She turned to walk away but his words stopped her short.
"You claim you are different from other people dwelling in that snake pit you call a palace. I want to know why anyone should believe you when you were fed their venom from the day you were born."
An old anger ignited in Lilah's belly and threated to climb up her throat and suffocate her. How dare this man who knew nothing of her life judge her. He did not know that those men treated her as low as street filth. It was not her fault that they let the kingdom fall to ruins, and if anyone should speak of their cruelty, it was her. She took a step closer to Leon and pointed her finger directly at his face.
Her voice was deadly low when she said, "You think your misery is the only kind on this earth. I do not pretend I know anything of the struggles you and your people have endured, so I would appreciate it if you stopped speaking of things you know nothing of." Her heart was steady and her breathing was even, the anger that surfaced was a lethal calm that washed over her like a welcome tide.
She continued, "You may hate my father and those selfish cabinet members, but I assure you that I hate them more. I see very clearly how much your father loves you, but I have never experienced anything of the sort.
Something in the air sparked. The already darkened hallways seemed to crowd around Lilah until it felt as though the corners of her vision were also going black. Perhaps they were. An unnatural silence fell around them, like when a large storm gathers and all the animals in the woods stop their chatter and go find shelter. Lilah found herself wishing that she had not traipsed out into the hallway without one of her knives.
"You are so stupid that you cannot comprehend the hardships we face. You whine as though you are the only daughter to have a bad father, the only person with pressure on their shoulders. Do not you think that we all suffer those same injustices? Do not you think that there are hundreds of girls in the streets who do not have fathers or jobs or people to help them?"
Leon stepped closer to Lilah and his finger jabbed in her face with every word. "We all have hardships and yet you believe yourself to be special. The only thing that makes you special is that your stomach is full and your bed is warm at the end of your hard days, where ours are not."
Lilah opened her mouth to object, but Leon took another step and cut her off. "And do not get me started on your crusade to help Noduv people. We do not need a savior. We are more powerful than you and your cabinet and all your filthy laws. As far as I can tell, this is just a passing fancy for you. A cause to get behind in hopes of turning people's attention away from the fact that you are nothing more than an usurper."
Another step forward, and suddenly Lilah could feel the cool brass door handle of Boniface's office digging into her back. "I am putting up with your farce because my father and I have people who are depending on us and need us to return safely home to them. That is it. Do not mistake my acquiescence for approval."
Before anything more could be said, Leon promptly turned on his heel and walked away.