Aaron then also stood up and stood beside his mother.
The queen glanced at Aaron's father and said, "Lady Pesna, aren't you going to invite Earl Pesna to go home with you this time? The earl has been looking forward to it for a long time."
Lady Pesna was slightly stunned. She looked at Aaron's father, and he also looked back at her. Their eyes met. After a pause, Lady Pesna said, "If he's willing, of course I hope so too." As she spoke, her voice choked up. "I've been crying every night these days and couldn't fall asleep at all. We've been husband and wife for so many years. I never expected that we would end up like this..."
Earl Pesna quickly stepped forward, gently comforted her, and patted her on the shoulder gently. The two looked at each other again, and Lady Pesna's eyes were full of tenderness and emotion.
Annabelle walked up to them and said sweetly, "Mother, why don't we go home with Father now?"
Lady Pesna nodded with tears in her eyes.
So, the whole family walked out of the magnificent golden gate of the Golden Hall harmoniously. Earl Pesna and Lady Pesna walked side by side with the king and the queen, while Aaron, Annabelle, and the charming female elf followed behind.
I and several maids in waiting dragged our long skirts and walked slowly at the end.
It was evening. The setting sun shone with a bright orange-red glow among the flaming clouds all over the sky. The carriages were already waiting outside. Earl Pesna and Lady Pesna took their leave from the king and the queen. They bowed halfway down to pay their respects to them. Aaron and the other two women did the same, and we quickly followed suit.
After the group bowed to the king and the queen, they got on the carriages in order. When I got on the last carriage, I couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. Today's task was finally completed, and I could go back to my small attic and have a good sleep.
Inside the carriage, several fair and delicate maids with red lips and white teeth were whispering gossip.
"Finally, Lady Pesna and the earl have made up. It's really not easy. If the king and the queen hadn't stepped in, I'm afraid it wouldn't have been so smooth."
"Sister, did Lady Pesna have a conflict with the earl because of Lady Oxuna?" A timid voice asked. That was an eleven-year-old little maid who had just entered the mansion a few days ago. It was said that she was the little daughter of a distant relative of a distant relative of Maggie.
One of the maids glanced at me and then whispered in her ear. The voice was so low that I could barely hear some vague words like "childbirth", "Oxuna", and "truth". I was too lazy to pay attention to their gossip, so I leaned against a corner and closed my eyes to rest.
The carriage drove quickly along a flat road in the middle of the garden and soon reached the big iron gate of the castle. After the guards checked the paper certificates for entering and leaving the castle, the carriage started moving again. After passing through the iron gate, it sped all the way.
While I was resting with my eyes slightly closed, just as I had changed to a more comfortable position, suddenly a powerful air current like a hurricane blew outside the carriage. With the screams of the maids, I was stunned for a moment. In the next moment, before I could even blink, I was thrown out violently by the air current and fell heavily to the ground, and I let out a painful cry. The other maids also fell from mid-air one after another, crying out in pain and screaming in horror. The carriage was completely lifted up and then fell to one side, overturned.
I was in so much pain that tears streamed down my face. It felt like all the bones in my body were almost broken. Oh my god, why was it so painful? What on earth had happened?
Another gust of wind blew by, and my vision blurred for a moment. A large group of masked iron-armored knights on tall black horses appeared in front of us. I managed to prop myself up half of my body and stared in horror with my eyes wide open.
Good heavens! Those huge black horses seemed to come from hell. They were as tall as three people, with two sharp long horns on their heads. Their whole bodies glowed with a purplish-black halo. Thick black smoke was billowing out of their large nostrils. Their hooves kept scratching the ground, and sometimes their front hooves were raised high, as if they were going to trample everyone underfoot.
The iron-armored knights on the black horses were wearing black iron armor, black masks, and helmets with feathers. Their eyes were shining with cold and ruthless green light.
I was so frightened that I forgot the pain on my body. A few seconds later, I suddenly remembered something and quickly scrambled up from the ground, propped myself up, and rushed towards the overturned carriage like the wind, hiding behind it. The other maids saw this and followed suit one after another, all swarming towards this side.
The carriage of Earl Pesna and his family was also overturned on the ground. The disheveled Lady Pesna helped the earl who was sitting on the ground to stand up and hide aside. The screaming Oxuna got up from the ground and ran over to stand with them. Annabelle was so frightened that she was still sitting on the ground. Lady Pesna quickly helped her up too, and several of them huddled together, trembling. Only Aaron was the calmest. He held a long sword and stood in the front, confronting the black-masked knights.
A certain tense atmosphere seemed to be on the verge of breaking out. We hid behind the overturned carriage, too scared to breathe loudly.