Chapter 6

  The moment that he could, Hektor scurried out the room like a rat deserting a sinking ship. Heads turned at his frantic haste, but Hektor didn’t care beyond taking the shortest route to freedom. He all but sprinted, propriety be damned.

  In quick time he was outdoors under the noon sky and marching straight as an arrow for the gates.

  He didn’t even call for a mount. Not that he had the awareness to reign in a horse. His mind was abuzz of so many thoughts that it numbed his senses. He couldn’t focus and everything went the way of ignorance. His eyes swept through people without committing their faces. The surroundings blurred of color in his periphery. Sounds came muted to him.

  It could have rained and Hektor wouldn’t have noticed. A circus could have followed behind and he wouldn’t have known.

  Only his feet kept to their purpose, carrying him away from where he didn’t want to be.

  What would have taken a few minutes on horseback, took thrice as long, but Hektor finally escaped by the castle gates. He took to the city streets like a burrowing prey hiding from a hawk.

  Only after he had scrambled for another half an hour, did Hektor break out of his trance. Inhaling his first full breath since his getaway, his chest heaved in relief even as he stumbled with dizziness. Bent with hands on knees, he took long gasps as his overworking heart simmered down.

  With returning clarity, Hektor looked around to ascertain that he was close by the eastern side of Prilly Park. He was but a lane away from the park’s perimeter, amongst the marketplace of small shops that catered the area.

  Friday being a half day for some of the city’s northern districts, the place was bustling with people visiting for a jaunt. The crowds would only grow into the afternoon as shadows grew and made it more pleasant for families to picnic with children.

  Drawing a few stares at his behavior, it was almost by habit that Hektor subdued his presence and joined the fellow pedestrians in their march. Turning a corner, he surreptitiously untucked his shirt, loosened a few lower buttons of his jacket and rolled up his sleeves unevenly. Disheveled, he slumped his posture and slackened his stride. He tussled his hair while keeping his head down, missing his cap which he had forgotten at the castle. He loosened his jaw of its tension and donned what he hoped to be a relaxed expression.

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  Adhering to what Nazeer had taught him, Hektor became another face in a sea of faces. He shared a polite nod when some stranger met his gaze by chance. Smiled lightly as a child brushed past his legs. Stepped aside for the lady running after her escaped daughter. Uttered a friendly ‘excuse me’, ‘sorry’, ‘pardon’ when he bumped shoulders or got in the way.

  None were the wiser that one of their beloved Duchess’ children was in their midst. No fuss, for no one recognized him. Even as Hektor walked up to a small stall and bought a confectionary iced lemonade, the seller looked him straight in the face and dismissed him as just another customer.

  Taking to a conveniently placed bench nearby, Hektor rested his stiff legs and quenched his thirst. He would have preferred to keep walking, but he had to return his glass to the stall and he didn’t feel like wasting his drink by chugging it.

  In the small moment of peace afforded to him as he enjoyed his beverage, Hektor watched.

  He saw people. Some alone. Some with company. But numerous altogether.

  Lean rickshaw drivers searched for shade while waiting on fares. Laborers hurried to with sweating faces and stained clothes. Sweepers cleaned the streets and picked up filth barehand. Shopkeepers manned their shops with plastered smiles. Street vendors hollered and harped. Mothers governed unruly children. Layabouts loitered.

  The poor struggled, as those better off met their needs, while the affluent few enjoyed excess. Most wore common habits, where some preened formal dresses.

  There were so many of them, so many people. All of them with their own lives, their own past and futures as they waded through the present. Persevering. Even limited to what he could see by his own eyes, Hektor witnessed so much ‘muchness’. That it all came together to become a bigger whole where a single person would be indistinguishable in the grand scheme of things.

  Munching on crushed ice, Hektor pondered. His entire world had been turned upside down, yet the world was very much the same. The sky was up. The ground beneath. And people were people.

  Hektor found it humbling. Liberating. Comforting that the world didn’t revolve around him or change to his whims. Nor were the people somehow different all of sudden and looking to him, aware of his presence.

  His place in the world might have changed, but the world hadn’t. Hektor took solace in the thought. He didn’t want such power, nor the responsibility that came with it.

  Eyes closed, he hung his head loosely behind the bench. He had barely thought about it, but now that he was calm, he had to. That was just who he was.

  “What am I going to do?” he thought, rubbing the emptied glass to chill the back of his hot neck.

  He had a lot of thinking to do. And since his mind worked best on his feet, that meant he had a lot of walking to do. Fortunately, there was a park nearby.

  Hektor deposited his glass at the stall and made for the closest park entry. Two sets of eyes followed after him, with Hektor none the wiser.