| Subtopic | Posts | Updated |
|
By Sarah (Sarah) on Thursday, March 21, 2002 - 02:36 pm
Queen Linnea stood on the snow covered balcony just outside her private chambers and scanned the road that cut through the low hills to the south. The air was crisp and the day sunny; the cloak she wore was heavy and she pulled it close. She was growing cold, and though she could have waited inside, she preferred physical discomfort to the discomfort that waited in her chambers. Her husband was away in the north, and she missed him greatly. Almost two moons had passed since Branner had first set out with a quarter of the Royal Guard with the intent to investigate the rumors of a traitorous faction believed to be hidden somewhere in the Kahill Mountains. The alleged enemy forces were thought to be gathering up mercenaries from the foreign lands to the north and the west of the Kahills in preparation for a post-winter attack. A fortnight ago Linnea had received an encoded messagefrom her husband. They had finally found the enemy's location. In the message, Branner had relayed his own position and also that of the enemy band. The traitors were holed up deep in the Kir Canyon. It was a place known to have but one outlet. The King planned to hold them there and to force a surrender. Linnea had acted quickly, dispatching the bulk of the remaining guardsmen to go meet their king. Within days of sending out the army, Linnea had discovered that her private chambers were under surveillance and that likely they had been for quite some time. Bad enough was the natural revulsion accompanying this knowledge, but worse yet was the dreadful realization that the information passing between her and the King was probably going into enemy hands. The thought infuriated her. It took all of her control to keep from seeking out and destroying the magic eyes that robbed her of her privacy and conveyed her actions to the enemy's spy. She knew who it was who watched her. She could just imagine him down in his cluttered workroom, surrounded by charts and herbs and obscenely carved stones. Yigg, the Royal Mage who had once served her father, had long been obsessed with numbers and potions and the shape of the female form. She suppressed a shudder. How many of her recent bathings and dressings had Yigg observed in his precious crystalline egg? She was brooding on this thought when the sound of children�s laughter broke like brittle bells along the stone walls of the castle. Linnea peered down and watched as three bundled figures, her two sons and her daughter, heading through the deep snow toward the center of the field to where their teacher waited as still as a stone. At the edge of the field, the young princess and princes paused and bowed in the traditional fashion before quickly taking their positions several feet in front of the Master. Master Shoren signaled and Jarrod, her eldest son, ran headlong at him. The next moment the boy was down by the little man�s feet. Jarrod leapt up and returned to his position, just as the next signal came and it was Kealy�s turn to be dropped to the snow. Kealy was back in position and brushing the snow from his side when it came Mira�s turn. She, too, was quickly tossed down. Through it all, the Master�s footing had not changed. Linnea smiled, and recalled how frustrating it had been to be Master Shoren�s pupil. It was not his way to explain or instruct. He had told her that true learning only truly came from within. Linnea supposed it would be a while yet before any of her children figured out the secret. It had taken her a long time, too, to realize that the Master turned his attacker�s energy to his own favor It had taken her longer yet to gain that same skill herself. Linnea was caught up in watching the lesson and would have missed the Krarg�s dramatic descent had his sharp cry not first alerted her. But as it was, she looked out in time to see the raven fold back his bluish black wings, veer to the left and shoot straight down toward the earth at an incredible speed. The moment before it was too late to savehimself, Krarg angled himself back upward, looped once, then once again before levelling out and heading straight at her. Her husband�s bird was definitely a show-off. She bent down briefly to retrieve the leather gauntlet from by her feet. It felt stiff and cold over her woolen glove. When the bird came close, she lifted up her arm. Krarg dropped neatly onto her wrist, and bobbed lightly to keep his balance. He turned his head to the side and looked in her eye then shifted his weight to one leg and lifted up the other. Wrapped around the leg was the message for which she�d been waiting. Linnea murmured her thanks to the creature and released the cloth-bound piece of parchment. She breathed a sigh of relief. That Branner had attached the parchment above Krarg�s right talon instead of above the traditional left, signaled to Linnea that her last message had reached the King safely and in time. It meant that Branner and the men she that had dispatched were now on their return to the castle. It meant that the encoded message she now held in her hand contained false information, false postions and false orders. It meant the time of reckoning was soon at hand. |
|
By KateC (Katec) on Wednesday, March 27, 2002 - 08:43 am
Nice story about different kinds of watching. I especially liked the part about Krarg. I love "Laughter broke like brittle bells." I want to read more about Yigg (great name) getting a nasty surprise when he looks into his precious crystalline egg. |
|
By Eithne (Eithne) on Wednesday, March 27, 2002 - 09:36 am
I want to read more too! Very nice and intriguing. I like all the focus on little details like her putting on the leather guantlet before the bird lands on her. I didn't notice the repeated word, but I like the repeated watching and your use of the syntax. |
|
Administrator's Control Panel -- Board Moderators
Only Administer Page |