TRAVELLER (Book 1 in the Brass Pendant Trilogy) (6 page)

“The Tournament Champion’s Arising Ceremony is tonight and you are of an appropriate age now to present the shields. I suggest you retire to your room until the ceremony, and I’ll send my girl to see what she can do with you in the short time we have until you’re required,” continued my mother as she walked beside me through the great hall.

She followed her words with a dissatisfied sigh as if, to be burdened with my short comings, was something she was forced to attend to daily, rather than twice a turn at the most.

Our footsteps echoed on the stone floors and we’d entered a great hall where servants were hanging colourful banners from the rafters in preparation for the ceremony tonight. There was a round, stone table in the centre of the room and it had been covered in garlands of evergreen leaves. Tiny metal cylinders waited to be lit and they sat at regular intervals amongst the leaves. At the end of the room, a raised area was covered in woven, blue woollen rugs, and more greenery was arranged here in tall, golden vases beside a neat stack of polished shields. Two plush blue thrones sat side by side behind those shields, and they sat in front of a stitched wall hanging. The wall hanging depicted the ancient gold tower which had once been home to the precious Book of Markers.

As we turned out of the great hall and into a stone passageway, my mother glanced at me and frowned again.

“I suggest you take this opportunity to meet some of the Champions tonight, Livia, as tradition will require you to choose one as your partner before your twentieth turn,” she said briskly, and I ground my teeth together.

“Tradition doesn’t require me to choose a Tournament Champion, mother. I agree, tradition does require me to choose a partner from the Community, but I can choose a kitchen hand if it pleases me to do so, and I don’t believe there are any age constraints either,” I said quietly, and I glanced at my mother with a frown of my own.

“Livia, you have your father’s stubborn nature, but I won’t be arguing with you today. It will only disturb my digestion. You can choose to wed the kitchen hand’s brother who shines boots in the street for all I care, but that doesn’t mean your choice will be approved; and tonight, you
will
do what is expected of you. You
will
mix with the Tournament Champions after the ceremony because the people will expect it, and you
will not
cause any heart ache for your father. He looks forward to this particular ceremony above all others every turn and it will be spoilt for him if you are seen to have no time for those he himself holds in the highest regard. Some of those who will be present tonight were supervised personally by your father throughout their entire training,” she said, and she finished her speech by turning to me with a smug smile on her lips.

She was smiling because she knew she’d won. I saw my father so rarely, I’d never do anything to deliberately upset him and my mother knew this. I hitched my travelling bag a little further up on my shoulder and clamped my teeth together so hard, my jaw hurt. My mother’s smile widened when I didn’t respond to her and she left me to walk ahead then while she spoke to Mirren about changing my schedule. Even though I had only two weeks until my finals began, I heard my mother tell my tutor she was to make sure I slept for an extra clock turn every night; and I also heard her demand that I was to be served extra food because she’d decided I was looking much too thin as well. Poor Mirren stammered nervous replies to my mother’s strict demands and my mother went on to ask her further questions about my current training schedule. Mirren answered these questions just as nervously.

Evangeline and Jonah left us when they followed a set of stone steps up to the nobleman’s quarters. I watched them go a little wistfully as they climbed the stairs together, but I was obliged to turn to my right where I followed another set of stone steps towards my own rooms which were in the west wing of the Palace.

Both Mirren and my mother followed me up the wide, winding stairs, and we passed narrow windows made of coloured glass blocks that threw long, coloured patches of light across the worn, stone steps. There was a wide, glass block window at the very top of the stairs and I turned into a wide passageway before heading up another flight of narrower stairs to my left. When I reached the top of these stairs, my mother turned in the opposite direction to Mirren and myself, but not before she reminded me to remain in my rooms until her servant arrived to make sure I’d be presentable in time for the ceremony. I didn’t reply, but I nodded wearily, and I followed the passageway gratefully away from my mother as I hurried with Mirren in the opposite direction.

Mirren and I passed more coloured, glass block windows, and we passed mosaic art set into the stones on the walls too, and beneath our feet, woods of different colours were laid together to make patterns on the polished floors. There were stitched, wall hangings on the walls, and gold ornaments sat in alcoves, and we walked past glossy, broad leaved plants which grew in heavy, earthenware pots. When I reached my rooms, I stopped at the adjoining door and showed Mirren the entrance to the tutor’s room. She looked as grateful to be entering her room as I was to be entering mine, and we both closed our doors behind us at almost exactly the same time.

I walked into my rooms slowly and placed my travelling bag on my bed before wandering over to my window. The clear, glass blocks were angled to catch the warmth of the afternoon sun, but the promise of a cool night had already crept into the air. I gazed down at the community square below my rooms. The people of Aldiris were packing up their street stalls and heading home to prepare their evening meals. The streets were quieter, and the sun was preparing to make its way towards the horizon. It would sink behind the rolling hills I could see in the distance. The closely packed city buildings gave way to a patchwork pattern of fields dotted with trees, and I knew our lands stretched far beyond the hills I could see.

A child laughed suddenly in the square below me and his voice carried up to where I stood. I turned around, and my beautiful rooms mocked me with their silence and their emptiness. I sat on my bed and took Josh’s music cartridge from the bottom of my bag; and I slipped it carefully beneath the corner of the wool packed mattress on my bed before I reached down and pulled off my leather boots. A thin mural was painted on my walls and it depicted brightly coloured, painted fish swimming through a sparkling blue ribbon of water. It was painted at head height around the room. The scales on the fish glistened with sparkling minerals which were inlaid into the paint, and the fish had brightly coloured fins and flickering tails. I’d always loved this mural.

My furniture was simple. There was fine, wooden bed frame with the sun rising above the hills carved into the bed head. This dominated the room, and a plain, wooden robe stood against the wall beside the window. A carved wooden chest sat at the end of my bed and a golden edged mirror leant against the opposite wall. A light cylinder was mounted on the wall above my bed too, and when night fell, it would light my room with the softest of lights. I smoothed my hand across the woven blanket which was folded neatly across the bed.

Not surprisingly, I was feeling restless already and I stood up and wandered aimlessly into my other rooms. My bare feet trod upon woven mats. There was a study adjoining my bedroom and an archway in the wall beside my mirror led me through to it. This room had originally been my playroom, but now, the toys were gone and it held just a fine, wooden desk set and a cushioned wicker chair for reading. The same mural continued on the walls in here, but the window in this room was filled with coloured glass blocks which had always delighted me. As the afternoon sun sunk lower in the sky, it bathed the room with colourful light, but today, the beautiful pattern didn’t calm my spirits, or my restless legs. I turned around and walked into my bathroom. It was a small room patterned with tiny green and blue tiles. The sunken bath was small as well and soon servants would fill it with water carried from the well, and a heating rod would heat the water until it was very warm.

“Pardon, your Highness, but I was sent to prepare you.”

I jumped and put my hand over my heart.

“So…so sorry…..your Highness. I had thought you heard me arrive,” stammered the girl. I smiled quickly and assured her it was of no consequence that she’d startled me.

The girl looked to be only a few turns older than myself. She had light brown hair braided loosely down her back and plump, rosy cheeks. Her wide, blue eyes were fringed by long lashes and her apron was tied loosely over her dark blue servant’s dress.

“Are you a quester?” I asked her straight away. She was certainly good at sneaking up on people, and all those who lived or worked in the Royal house were either questers or wed to one.

“No your Highness. My Aaron is the quester. He works in the Palace stables when he’s not on the Quest……..I’m called Harmony, your Highness,” she stammered nervously. I nodded. This girl must be from the Community and she would have joined the Royal House when she’d been wed to a quester. Questers were required to take partners from the Community and Royalty was no exception in this as my mother had so recently reminded me.

“May the gifts of the River Zahar remain among us through time, Harmony,” I said to the girl, and she looked surprised when I greeted her in the manner of our people.

“And may time never be lost between us Princess Livia,” she said, when she recovered her composure. “I’m to make sure you’re ready by set seven,” she added carefully, and I smiled.

“Well Harmony, I guess you should tell me what you’d like me to do first,” I said resignedly. I had no desire to put this girl in any danger of suffering my mother’s verbal wrath. My cooperation would ensure she’d finish her working day safely and it would also ensure that she was able to retire unscathed.

It wasn’t long before I was wrapped in a soft cloth and, although I was a reluctant subject, I could see Harmony was, indeed, very good at her job. Although she’d only recently been employed by the House, I wasn’t surprised she’d already been promoted to my mother’s private staff. She asked me to lie still while she smoothed a sweet smelling salve beneath my eyes and I even managed to relax a little as she massaged my neck and shoulders with scented oils. I closed my eyes…….but I couldn’t relax completely, even under Harmony’s expert hands. In an effort to tame the remains of my restlessness, and because I was always interested in news from the Quest, I asked Harmony to tell me about herself before I asked her about her husband and his recent quests.

Harmony told me her parents were fruit growers and herd owners, and she told me their farm was just over the hills we could see on the horizon. She said, a turn ago, she’d been selling fruit in the streets outside the Tournament arena when Aaron had walked a Tournament horse past her stall. She told me he’d stopped at her stall on the way back from the Tournament and he’d persuaded her to join him at the Tournament celebration. It seemed their romance had progressed very swiftly from there.

Aaron’s father was head groom in the Palace stables, so tradition had required him to spend his teenage years training for the Quest, but Harmony said his true passion was for the horses. Once he’d finished his quest training, he’d been able to return to the Palace stables and was employed as a groom now himself. As a quester though, he was called upon often to make quests into the past and he’d recently returned from the Nomadic Era. He’d joined a team who’d been required to challenge the warriors of a roaming desert tribe in order to acquire from them a breeding mare of a particularly rare and much sought after variety. Harmony told me the mare had been brought back to Aldiris successfully and her beloved Aaron, to her relief, had also returned unscathed.

“Before that, he’d made three short quests into the ancient past to gather textile seeds to be sewn in the spring,” said Harmony conversationally. Unlike me, she’d relaxed completely now. “And, at the beginning of last winter, he was part of a discovery quest. He was sent to a marker which had just moved out of the Black Era and was scheduled to be explored,” she added. I sat up a little straighter as my interest peaked. Now that, was my kind of quest. I hoped to be included in as many discovery quests as possible once my finals were complete.

“What did they find?” I asked her eagerly.

“Thick jungle,” she said, as she took the braids out of my hair. “And illness,” she added quietly, as she shuddered slightly. “My Aaron returned with a dreadful fever, as did the rest of the team. They were so ill when they arrived at the city marker, we were surprised they had so many vegetation samples with them in their packs. It had only been a four day quest. The healers tried for three full days to break their fevers, but to no avail, and a quester from the group was lost to the illness on the third night. The healers were trying everything, but all our usual fever remedies seemed only to make it worse. The fever was so severe, Aaron was not himself in its grip and, through the worst of it, he called out to names unknown in a voice not his own,” she said quietly, and she shuddered again. “It was as a last resort that the healers warmed them. It went against all known wisdom in treating a fever, but it worked almost immediately. Despite the fever, the illness had to be poured out through the skin and recovery was swift once a simple heating remedy was applied. After Aaron returned to himself, he and the others told the healers they’d not felt the effects of the illness at all until they’d made the drop to come home. Aaron thinks the time travel itself was what activated the affliction,” said Harmony, and she shuddered once more. “I don’t know how you do it your Highness. Aaron has told me of the darkness, and of the pain. You must be very brave to time travel as you do,” she said, as she spread a freshly ground paste through my hair to cleanse it.