Snow

"What a sweet thing you are," his sister said. "It's almost a shame to see you leave." And then they both smiled at him, broad satisfied smiles that David wasn't sure he liked. But they'd arranged a trip for him and they'd noticed him and that was enough; that was amazing. David smiled back and they both blinked at him and then looked at each other.

"He might not have to go just yet," his brother said and placed one hand on his sister's shoulder, sliding his fingers under the robes she was wearing to trace over the gilt trim that framed her collarbone.

"That's what I was thinking," she said, a tone too rich and satisfied to be surprise filling her voice. She looked around the room, eyes darkening as she took in its small size, the lack of furniture, the pile of David's nurse's belongings still stacked neatly folded, as if she might be coming back to claim them at any time.

"You must be so lonely," she breathed, and took a step towards him. "We should have come to see you long before this." She took one of his hands in hers, brought it up so it was cradled between their bodies. Behind her his brother watched them both.

"You wouldn't mind waiting a bit before you go, would you?" he asked, his voice gone low and hinting at things David didn't know. He crossed towards them, stopping when he was by David's side, both him and his sister in his sight.

"I--" David said, and his brother took his other hand, rubbing his thumb across David's knuckles.

David stared at him, then looked at his sister again. He felt very strange, something hot and shivery and dark stretching inside him. His sister tugged on his hand, placed it where his brother had touched moments ago, draping his fingers to rest along the edge of her dress, nudging them a little so they scraped over trim and onto skin. David let his fingers drift and heard his brother draw in a breath. His sister smiled. It was the most unpleasantly beautiful thing David had ever seen.

The servant coughed delicately, and his sister's smile faded.

"I've packed the shawl, just as you asked," the servant said.

"I don't remember--" his brother said, and his sister finished, "giving you leave to speak," a sharp wild heat in her voice. "Leave us."

"I'll tell the…guide you hired to return another day, then?"

Between him, his brother and sister locked glances, looking at each other as if he wasn't even there.

"The guide. He's--"

"All heart."

His sister dropped his hand. "It has to be today then. Too bad," she said with a little sigh. "And you," she told the servant, turning towards him in a swirl of glorious silks and furs, a shining star in the small dim cavern of the room. "I'm going to want to talk to you later." Her voice was like a song, light and sweet, but the melody behind it made David's skin crawl. The servant paled, but nodded.

As they walked through the castle to meet the guide David listened to the servant breathing behind him. He sounded winded, his breath coming in quick sharp pants like he was in pain. His brother and sister were in front of him, walking arm in arm and somehow not with him at all, moving as if they were in their own world. Their footsteps sounded unusually loud and the air around them somehow shimmered, as if with every step they took they somehow changed the world around them, shifted it into something different, brighter. Everyone they passed bowed to them; bending so low their foreheads touched the floor.

David looked at everyone curiously but no one seemed to notice him. When they reached the end of the last hall and passed through its doors his brother and sister stopped, paused at the top of the steep stairs that led down to the courtyard. His sister snapped her fingers. A blast of air hit David in the face and as the doors closed behind them he could hear a voice saying, "Was someone with their Highnesses? I thought I saw--." Behind him he could hear the servant moving carefully, his breathing still irregular, coming in great jagged gasps.

"They wanted to spend time with me," he said and turned, took his bag out of the servant's hands.

It wasn't heavy. He didn't own much. "For the first time ever I could have talked to them, really talked to them." He could hear the hurt in his voice, couldn't help it. He could feel snow begin to fall, hear it as a whisper filling the sky, felt it drifting cold and dry down over him.

The servant looked directly at him and David had to fight not to turn away from the empty white of his gaze.

"They once spent time with me," he said quietly. "They were the last things I ever saw."