The Lord Son's Travels (22 page)

Elenna gave her room a quick
glance-over, than took her time luxuriating in the anticipation of several
hours alone with its comforts. The bed was huge and covered with soft feather
pillows and a warm comforter; quite a change from another night lying under the
grubby cloak on the bare ground.
 
Even better was the huge metal washtub she could see poking out from
behind a privacy curtain in the corner.
 
She turned to confirm a big pot of water was already positioned in the
lit fireplace, ready for her to treat herself to a hot soak and scrub off the
grime of her travels.
 
Elenna assumed
from Adrien's more than normally dour expression at their arrival that the
meeting at noon was going to be serious and probably unpleasant at points, but
that she would likely learn more about their situation from listening to
Adrien's speech to their host than she had been learned directly from him.
 
But it would be so nice to have some
time to decompress from the traveling first.
 
Her companions were pleasant, and she did enjoy their
company, but Elenna hadn't had more than a few minutes away from the men for
several weeks now and she needed a break.
 
She would treasure this precious time for peace and quiet, to reenergize
herself before the challenges of the upcoming discussion.

Her escort noted her reaction to the
room.
 
“All is well, my Lady?” she confirmed
with pride.
 
At Elenna’s vigorous
assent, she slipped inside the washroom to flitter about, finding towels and
other assorted toiletries my Lady would desire.
 
Elenna peeked inside her backpack, which had been delivered
with the rest of their baggage as they were formally greeted downstairs.
 
Her only other gown was thankfully
still tucked inside.
 
She pulled it
out and shook it briskly, hoping that it was in better condition than she
remembered.
 
She frowned when her
hopes were dashed.

“I shall have a servant bring you a
selection of gowns,” a new voice interrupted her examination.
 
Elenna whirled around, hand reaching
instinctively for a hilt on her left hip.
 
She sighed as she realized how ingrained her training had become then
raised her eyes to her new companion.
 
A petite blonde woman, clothed in a soft silk gown of the house color
with a ribbon around her neck matching the host’s.
 
She smiled in greeting, her blue eyes sparkling with welcome
and good-nature.
 
She was truly
lovely; the sort of beauty that inspired poetry in men and wary dislike in
other women.
 
Elenna’s eyes
narrowed for a moment.
 
The
newcomer responded with a larger, even more enchanting smile.

“I am Rachele,” she offered.
 
Elenna drew a few steps closer and
offered the formal nod Brendan had taught her as the proper greeting between
noble women.
 
Her tall frame
towered over the petite Lady.
 
If
she hadn’t already met a few to contradict the idea, Elenna would have sworn
that this woman had elvish blood in her.
 
Her lithe frame and golden coloring well fit the fairy tales of her
youth.
 
As she grew closer, Elenna
could read the kindness in her eyes, and the gentleness of her expression.
 
Her guard dropped a little in response.

“Elenna,” she offered bluntly to
Rachele, who nodded in confirmation.

“Be welcome in my house, Lady
Elenna.
 
My husband has told me of
your arrival.
 
Please forgive me
for not greeting you then as would have been most proper, but my presence was
needed in the nursery.”
 
She
glanced around Elenna to the servant departing the washroom.
 
“All is ready for the Lady?” she
questioned gently in her soft soothing voice.
 
The servant nodded.
 
“Then be sure my sitting room is prepared for the noon meal.”
 
The servant bowed and departed, leaving
the Ladies alone in the chamber.

The Lady of the House repeated again,
“I will have my servants bring you a choice of gowns for your stay.
 
What is your color?”

Elenna blinked, anxiously trying to
remember the color hair band she had brought in her bag.
 
“Dark blue,” she recalled finally.
 

Rachele beamed.
 
“My sister, the Lady Donna, wears a
shade of dark blue.
 
I’m sure she
keeps a dress in her usual chamber that you may wear today.
 
I would estimate the two of you are
similar enough in size.”
 
She
glanced quickly to the lonely bag lying on the bed.
 
“I’m sure it is most difficult to travel as you do.
 
I don’t doubt your lack of proper
dresses to wear.
 
Men will not
understand how impossible it is for Ladies to live as they do when we must
leave our homes.
 
But I will let you
have your rest before noon meal.
 
We will speak then.
 
My
servant will bring you to my sitting room.”

Elenna spoke up in confusion, “I’m
supposed to join my companions for the meal with your husband.”
 
‘Please don’t stick me in a room full
of gossipy women!’ she prayed silently and fervently.
 

Rachele laughed merrily, “No, my dear,
we would not have you suffer the impropriety of, shall I admit the boring
company of men, when you can join my ladies and me for our meal.
 
It must be so difficult to travel
without the benefit of female companionship!
 
I shall send for you in about an hour, dear, so hurry
yourself to your bath!”
 
Elenna was
left standing alone in the chamber, gaping angrily at the now closed door.

It was over seven hours later before
Elenna managed to meet up again with Brendan and Adrien.
 
When she had finished fuming in her
bath and dried herself off, she had found a new gown and some unusually
engineered undergarments waiting for her on the bed.
 
After some time spent in experimentation on what appeared to
be a type of girdle, a timid knock at the door revealed one of Rachele’s maids
to help her dress.
 
Elenna silently
allowed the girl to help her assemble her ensemble, then lead her across the
sprawling mansion to the Lady of the House’s personal sitting room.
 
Inside five of her Lady companions were
entertaining themselves by either sewing on a large quilt or tinkering with a
flute.
 
The Lady herself lay back
on a silken soft-cushioned couch, languidly observing their giggles and
play.
 

Here Elenna remained essentially
imprisoned for four hours, nibbling at the fruits and cakes of their meal and
trying her best to stay conscious through the endless debates on the
possibilities of Lady Nadine’s marriage to Lord Märten.
 
Finally she was able to escape by
pleading exhaustion from her travels.
 
Rachele, who seemed unable to believe that a woman could ride more than
a mile and suffer no permanent damage, was anxious for her health and urged her
to go rest.
 
Elenna was worn out
from feigning interest, and upon returning to her chamber, fell into a restful
nap until woken by the servant to dress for dinner.
 
During her hours in the sitting room, she had noted the
ladies' curious glances at her hair, so she asked the servant in confidence for
some type of color potion.
 
Her
servant was an older lady long used to serving the needs of visiting nobility.
 
She was able to easily produce a bottle
of effective dye, and would gamely keep the secret.

In Thrush Valley, lords and ladies sat
for dinner together before returning to their separate sitting areas for the
rest of the evening.
 
Elenna
thankfully found herself seated next to Brendan at the extensive dark wood
dining table.
 
She glanced around,
estimating that over twenty people had pulled up their chair to this meal.
 
The table had not been designed for so
many; the guests almost banged elbows when reaching for goblet or fork.
 
Elenna guessed that Lord Vance had
called up the neighborhood to come and meet his foreign guests.
 
The conversations across the room were
polite but uninspired; simple small talk and how’ve-you-beens.
 
A pair of intricate gold hanging
chandeliers lit the room, leaving the corners of the chamber in darkness.
 
Every five guests or so, a footman
stood next to the table, waiting to be of service or to deliver the next course
at the right time.
 
The meal was
fabulous, especially to those used to Berte’s travelers stew.
 
Elenna dug in, uncaring of the peckish
appetite expected of the nobleborn lady.
 
Next to her, Brendan cleaned his plate quickly too, and savored several
glasses of the excellent house wine.
 
Adrien had been seated at the right side of the Lord of the House,
almost half a table away.
 
Elenna
noted the fierce set of his jaw, and wondered how the earlier meeting had
gone.
 
She asked Brendan, but he
only shrugged between mouthfuls.

When the meal had ended, Lord Vance
stood and announced the men’s return to his sitting room.
 
Immediately his wife rose to ask for
the company of Lady Elenna and the other female visitors.
 
In the confusion of the group
departure, Elenna was able to catch up with Adrien and speak with him alone.

“Hey!” she said brightly.
 
He turned her way, brightening a little
when he recognized his fellow traveler.
 
“How’d it go today?”

“Not what I had wished for,” he
sighed, running a hand through his hair.
 
He had hated every moment of the rest of his day, and detested this
return to the sitting chamber.
 
He
so much more wanted to be doing something active, not stroking some minor
noble’s ego.
 
He suddenly wished
violently that he was out on a routine scout in the forests of Allè-dôn, with
the soldiers he knew so well and trusted.
 

Elenna read the look of distaste that
crossed his countenance and grimaced with empathy.
 
“That good, huh?” she offered.
 
He shook his head.
 
“Can we practice tonight?”

Adrien took a step back in surprise,
and focused his full attention on the woman in front of him.
 
“What?”

“I need to get out of here for a
while, and I think you do too,” Elenna continued.
 
Their host and hostess were approaching quickly he noted
with half of his mind, then turned back to Elenna.

“One hour before the halfnight,” he
stated shortly.
 
“The garden.
 
I’ll bring the weapons.”
 
He followed obediently behind their
host from the emptied dining room as a satisfied Elenna was pounced on by their
hostess.

Chapter 22

Adrien
paced back and forth along the path by the bushes of yellowlady flowers.
 
Behind him the few remaining lights of
the House cast a warm lonely glow on the well-tended garden.
 
Most of the residents were in their
beds; the mansion was silent.
 
A
few garden frogs called back and forth to each other over the rustling of the
leaves in the slight evening breeze.
 
He had chosen a spot to wait for his sparring partner near the main
garden door, hidden enough in the shadows to not draw the attention of the
guards.
 
Those he regarded with
complete disdain; he had half a notion to speak to Lord Vance about his weak
security.
 
The few soldiers he had
seen since his arrival that morning were older and sadly out of practice.
 
He told himself firmly that even his
father wouldn’t tolerate such lax protection in Allè-, and they were not as
close to the troubles brewing throughout the land.
 

This
idea sent his mind back to the conversations of the noon meal and evening.
 
What he had learned today did not sit
easily with Adrien; he had more difficult decisions to make.
 
Elenna’s suggestion of practice had
been completely unexpected but very welcome.
 
He missed the routine of his command in the military at
home.
 
Even training the strange
woman was a respite from the pressures of his quest.
 
Training the recruits had always been one of his favorite
duties.
 
He smiled to himself under
the waning light of the moon.
 
The
other commanders he worked with would be in an uproar if they knew the Lord
Son’s newest student was a commoner woman.
 
He couldn’t imagine what his father or brother would think,
and he was sure the nobility wouldn’t approve either.
 
But she learned fast and well, he reminded himself.
 
And if she could defend herself in a
battle, so he or Brendan would not have to worry about protecting her; that
itself was worth the effort of the training.
 
And any man who actually met Elenna might change their ideas
of a woman’s skills.
 
He wasn’t
sure how much was her upbringing, and how much her own way, but she was very
different than any woman he had ever seen or heard of.
 
He wondered what kind of place her
homeland of
 
Bethlehem really was,
and what other kind of surprising differences it might offer.

The
soft swish of cloth rubbing cloth announced Elenna’s arrival.
 
She moved quietly down the path,
seeking her companion in the darkness.
 
She had escaped from the torturous gown into her normal practice wear of
britches and blouse.
 
Her hair had
come down from the elaborate bun into a simple ponytail.
 
Adrien noted the red glints that were
peeping through the dye, and made a mental note to tell her to fix it.
 
He didn’t move, curious if she would be
able to find him in the shadows.
 
She frowned, peering into the bushes on her left and right.

“I
know you’re out here somewhere,” she whispered, bending low to check at ground
level.
 
“I can hear you
breathing.
  
Let’s see…”
 
She whirled around, hopped a few paces,
then she was face to face with Adrien, beaming contentedly at her own
accomplishment.
 
He remained
stone-faced.

“How
did you find me?” he asked.
 
He
used his stern instructor’s tone, meaning to launch into a discussion of
camouflage techniques.
 

She
grinned.
 
“I smelled the booze on
your breath.
 
What were you guys
drinking?
 
Any left?”
 
Elenna was in a riotously good mood,
after the infinite hours spent in the prim and proper ladies’ sitting
room.
 
She never thought she would
be so glad to be in ‘relaxed’ company like Adrien.
 
He was a loose cannon compared to the Ladies of the House.

Adrien
forced himself not to smile.
 
“Our
refreshments are not for Ladies, even pretend ones such as yourself.”

“Ouch,”
Elenna replied, shrugging.
 
“You
would have not been a successful pledge for the Theta Chi fraternity with that
attitude, Lord Son.
 
Where’s my
weapon?
 
I feel like kicking your
butt.”

“That
would not be very likely,” he replied, handing her the sword.
 
I’m pleased that you’re not a terrible
swordsman anymore.
 
My hope is for
you to some day reach adequate.”

“You’re
funny,” she answered as she took a few practice swings.
 
“We should probably move where we’ll
damage less shrubbery.”

He
motioned for her to come after him, then slipped into the bushes taking a less
direct path to the bowling lawn.
 
She kept up easily, following the whispers of his passing through
branches filled with night blooming flowers.
 
The scent from their crushed petals filled the air.
 
Elenna took a deep breath and held it,
treasuring the fragrance and feel of the night air.
 
After so many weeks cursing the need to sleep on the hard
cold ground, she wished they were in their same old camp under the stars that
night.
 
She had grown used to the
company of Adrien and Brendan, forgetting that they were part of a larger
culture she did not yet know or understand.
 
It was difficult pretending to be part of this strange
world, unable to ask a simple question for fear of bringing suspicion on herself
and endangering their mission.
 
Practice was much better than sitting alone in her room feeling the
strong pangs of homesickness.
 

Adrien
drew Arèal as they entered the bowling lawn and made his first attack.
 
Elenna responded and their sparring
began.
 
Here they had more ground
to cover than their usual practice in small clearings in the woods, and both
took advantage of that.
 
Elenna
integrated several moves her father had taught her.
 
Several times, Adrien would note the new action and stop the
sparring, then ask her to repeat the steps several times until he could copy
her.
 
They carried on for over an
hour, with only a few seconds to pant for breath between attempts to disarm
each other.
 
Finally, to Elenna's
great relief, Adrien called for a halt.
 
She collapsed moaning on the ground, and stretched out her aching arms
and legs.
 
He more decorously
settled into a semi-lotus position next to her, breathing only slightly heavier
than normal.

“Did
you make any new friends today?” he asked lightly, thinking of her frown after
dinner discussing her afternoon.

She
lifted her head long enough so he could see her scowl.
 
“What a truly sucky day,” she
declared.
 
“Those women are so
completely pointless.”

“What
do you mean?” he asked.
 
Intrigued,
he left his thoughts of the day behind to focus on her comment.
 
She thought for a moment how to best
word her opinion.

“What
do they do all day that has any purpose at all?” she responded.
 
“Really, what do they offer the
world?
 
All I heard all day was silly
gossip, nothing useful.”

“They
are some of the highest ranked nobles of the land,” he replied.
 
A tinge of amusement crept into his
voice.
 
He remembered as a child
being formally presented to the Ladies in his mother’s sitting room.
 
“Most commoners would give anything to
be allowed in that sitting room with such exalted company.”

“Great,
I’ll trade places with Susy the milkmaid,” Elenna replied languidly.
 
“At least I’d be contributing to the
local economy.
 
How was your
meeting?”

“Much
was said,” he answered dryly.

“And
little was done,” she continued.
 
She sat up to face him.
 
“Have there been any new attacks like the ones we’ve seen?”

He
noted the serious tone emerging in her voice.
 
“Rumors,” he answered.
 
He picked up a twig to fiddle anxiously.
 
“Nothing confirmed by Vance’s men.”

Elenna
urged him on.
 
“What did the rumors
say?”

“The
people in town talk of a city where the people died from a rain of large
boulders falling from the air,” he replied shortly.
 
He hoped that this made some sense to her.
 
He had puzzled over it over all
day.
 

She
shook her head.
 
“Hmm… catapult it
sounds like.
 
Not too technically
advanced.
 
Anything else?”

“Nothing
sensible.
 
Vance told me he
believes my concerns, but doesn’t have enough men in service to patrol the
outer villages and guard against these strangers.
 
He says it is the same across Angor.”
 

Elenna
studied his face for a minute.
 
“But your father does have enough men to send here to help,” she
declared.
 
He nodded as she voiced
his major concern.
 
“Are you going
to contact him?”

“I
don’t believe I have enough factual information to convince him the need is
real,” he admitted.
 
She pursed her
lips in consternation.

“What
else would he need?
 
Adrien, people
are dying here.
 
If Allè-dôn can
help, then its time for you to return there and lead back some troops.”

“I
know that, Elenna,” he answered, his voice harsh and bitter.
 
“But I don’t think the Lord King of
Allè-dôn will agree.”

Elenna
fell silent for a minute.
 
“Adrien,
please don’t take this the wrong way, but I don’t think if he continues to do
nothing in this situation, your father is a very good king.”

“I’ve
thought the same,” he muttered, ashamed of his words and his betrayal.
 
He was raised, as are all children in
Allè-dôn, to obey utterly the words of their father.
 
He had taken this mission in the hopes that his efforts
would change his father’s decision to the correct path.
 
Now, when his work should be ending
with the evidence he had found, he knew he had not succeeded.
 
Elenna waited with a kind expression as
these thoughts fluttered into his mind.
 
Finally he reached a decision.

“I
will send a representative to my father with all the information we have
found,” he announced.
 
“If my
embassy returns with troops, our mission is successful and my father a wise king.”

“And
if your embassy is rejected?” Elenna urged.
 
Adrien frowned.
 
‘The next step of our journey begins.”