TRAVELLER (Book 1 in the Brass Pendant Trilogy) (7 page)

“I would imagine the courage required to be in personal service to the Queen of Aldiris would be far greater than that required to travel through time,” I said dryly, and Harmony was careful not to respond to this at all, proving to me she was as intelligent as she was talented. I smiled at her. “I love time travel, Harmony. I don’t think of it as something I have to do, but as something I want to do. I’m very much looking forward to joining as many quests as I’m able to once I’ve finished my finals,” I said, and Harmony smiled too before she motioned to some servants who appeared in my doorway with earthenware jugs of water from the well. The servants used the water to fill my bath and one jug was left to the side to be used as a final rinse. 

When my bath water had heated to a temperature Harmony decided was perfect for my complexion, she removed the heating rod. She then allowed me to bath and wash out my hair myself while she saw to the delivery of my evening meal. Aldirites, and Denborites too, considered cleanliness and a satisfying meal to be the cornerstones of good health. A hot bath and good food ended the working day for every member of every household in Aldiris, and no one, no matter their station, would attend the celebration tonight unless these two of our most basic needs had first been met.

The warm water was blissful, but I was still restless and I stood up and removed the stopper from the bottom of the bath. The water drained slowly, and beneath the floors, it flowed along a network of drainage pipes that ended somewhere within the gardens that grew around the Palace walls. I poured the cold water from the jug over my hair to rinse it, and when it drained away too, I wrapped myself in another soft cloth. Right on cue, as was expected of her, Harmony reappeared…….

Night had fallen, and my room was lit dimly now by the wall cylinder above my bed. It was almost set seven and I stood in front of my golden edged mirror and stared at myself in surprise. I was dressed in a jade green dress, the colour of which exactly matched the colour of my eyes. The dress was draped over one shoulder and it was edged with tiny green stones. It was fitted above my waist and it hugged my hips before falling softy to the floor. Harmony had persuaded me to retie the thin leather band around my wrist with jade green leather to match the dress, and I’d done this quickly when Harmony had left the room to ask a maid to remove my meal tray. When it had come to my hair, Harmony had braided it away from my face, starting at my temples, before pinning it and letting the lengths fall loosely down my back. I wore leather sandals tied around my ankles and my pendant lay against my dress in all its splendour. Here, it didn’t have to be hidden, and I touched my fingers to its shiny, brass dials.

“You look beautiful your Highness if you’ll allow me to say so,” said Harmony, and she folded her arms and surveyed her work with a satisfied smile.

“You are a worker of miracles,” I said sincerely, as I smiled at Harmony in the mirror.

“There was no need for any miracles, and I suspect the Queen won’t be pleased,” said Harmony, so quietly that I wondered whether she’d spoken at all. I glanced at her as she gathered her jars and hair combs together hastily, and I smiled again when she wished me ‘good set’.

“Good set Harmony, and I wish your husband well in his quests,” I said, and when Harmony was gone, there was a tap on my door almost immediately. I was surprised when it was Mirren who entered my rooms.

“You have a weapons class scheduled tomorrow………”

Mirren stopped mid-sentence when she turned to face me after closing the door. I glanced down at my dress and fidgeted self-consciously while Mirren looked at me with an unreadable expression.

“…….morning at rise eight and the Queen has organised for us to ride beyond the city at rise ten,” she continued quickly. “And we will be leaving Aldiris for the +2013 marker after the midday meal. We’re scheduled to depart the Palace at set two,” she added, and she hesitated for a moment. “I trust you’ll enjoy the Tournament arising celebration, your Highness,” she said formally.

“Will you be joining me Mirren?” I asked her hopefully. I was encouraged by her last words. They were almost friendly, despite their formal delivery.

“No, I have family to visit and reading to catch up on,” said my tutor firmly, and she didn’t look disappointed, so I didn’t beg her to come with me tonight……..but I would have liked to. It would have been nice to have someone there with me. I barely knew anyone in Aldiris. Children of the Royal House spent their teenage years in quest training and, even those in group training, were moved around often to discourage close friendships. Questers were encouraged to mix with the Community during their home visits, and those visits were deliberately scheduled so that it was almost impossible for questers to mix with each other. I came home so rarely though, that I knew next to no one from the Community either and, although I was no stranger to it, it was always a slightly daunting task for me to be thrown amongst people I didn’t know. I watched Mirren turn and retreat gladly from my presence and her disappearance was followed, almost immediately, by the arrival of a sour faced Palace guard. He accompanied me in silence as we made our way back through the dimly lit passageways towards the Great Hall.

My mother and father were speaking earnestly together as they waited for me at the east entrance to the Hall. My mother wore an elegant blue dress and a delicate diamond and sapphire encrusted crown. Her pendant rested against her dress and the blue crystal needle in the centre of her pendant exactly matched the colour of her dress. My father wore the black clothing of a Tournament Champion, but he wore a blue robe over the top of this and a thick gold crown on his head. It was almost as surreal for all three of us to be together as it was for me to be presenting shields at a Royal House ceremony, and when my parents turned on hearing my approach, the King of Aldiris gazed at me in open mouthed surprise.

“By the circle of time,” said my father slowly. “Livia, I would hardly have known it was you. How time has turned,” he said in astonishment, while he looked at me and shook his head. 

“Father,” I said shyly. I was surprised myself. My father’s beard was streaked with grey now and there were many more age lines across his brow than when I’d seen him last.

“Our Champions will be honoured that such beauty presents them with their shields tonight,” said my Father, and he sounded pleased as he glanced at my mother and offered her his arm. He was obviously eager to begin the presentations, but my mother paused and frowned slightly as she looked me up and down.

“It’s unfortunate, the colour of your hair Livia, but there’s not much we can do to change the way we’re born now, is there?” she asked me pityingly, as she let her gaze drop to the piece of thin leather bound numerous times around my wrist.

“Come Katerin, the girl looks lovely,” said my father impatiently, as he took a step towards the hall and peered out at the waiting crowd. I could hear the voices of many. They crowded into the hall to watch their sons and daughters, nieces, nephews and friends who would all be arising as Tournament Champions tonight.

“You may enter and wait by the shields when we’re seated,” my mother said to me briskly, and she took my father’s arm lightly before they walked together through the open doors. 

Cheers rose from the crowded hall and I stepped into the open doorway and watched my parents as they raised their hands in regal salutes. The hall was bathed in the soft light from many tiny metal cylinders. The tiny, pale yellow glows were concentrated just above these cylinders and it was like hundreds of tiny stars shone among the greenery. Giant banners waved slightly in the cool night breeze which flowed through the open Palace doors. Guards stood watchfully around the edges of the palatial room, and more guards patrolled high above me on catwalks built within and around the heavy rafters. The Hall was filled with people and the atmosphere was magical, and I found myself glancing guiltily at the arising Champions who waited to one side of the thrones. This was their night. It was the culmination of seven turns of hard training and physical challenge, and it wasn’t their fault that I’d rather be anywhere else on the time circle, but here.

When my parents were seated, I walked up the ramp onto the platform at the end of the Hall. The crowd cheered and I stood self-consciously beside the shields while my father nodded to the first of the champions. These young men and women were from the Community, not from the Royal House. They were the sons or daughters of herders, or crystal shapers, or bakers, or scholars, or anyone who didn’t reside or work in the Palace. They would have been identified at an early age as having the physical and mental requirements to be champion fighters with weapons, and without, and on horseback, or on the ground. Their intensive training would have commenced when they were fourteen turns of a marker and many gruelling hours would have followed. Some never made it to the end. Injuries in Tournament training could be fatal, such was the intensity of their weapons exercises and final challenges. These young men and women were the best of the best, and at twenty one turns of a marker they would now, officially, become Champions. They would fight against the Denborites in organised Tournaments for the next five years at least. After this, if they were still alive, they’d be assigned to a position as either a Palace or a travelling guard. Palace guards were the retired Champions who were wed to questers.

My father and mother stood up and a hush came over the crowd. The King took a jewel encrusted silver sword from a waiting guard and he held it by his side. The first of the Champions knelt before him.

“Arise Jared and join the Tournament,” my father said clearly, and he touched the flat side of the sword blade to each shoulder of the kneeling young man. Jared stood up and the crowd murmured its respectful approval. The King passed my mother the sword and Jared walked towards me where I handed him a shiny, Aldirite Tournament shield. He nodded and I looked into bright, blue green eyes. He stood to the side and we both waited for the next Champion to arise. This time, it was my mother who touched the sword to a young man’s shoulders, and she spoke to him regally just as my father had done.

And so the ceremony continued until the pile of shields beside me was down to one.

“Arise Thea, and join the Tournament,” said my mother, and soon after, a young woman took the very last shield from my hand.

This was when the ceremony became no longer a ceremony but a celebration, and music of the kind that was very different from the music on Josh’s cartridge began playing. The music was merry and it was a signal that the time to celebrate had officially begun. The noise level in the Great Hall rose as voices almost drowned out the sounds made by the musical players. Vendors roamed amongst the people and they sold tiny bites of salted food, and tankards of fermented ale. Dancing had begun already around the centre of the hall and the Champions standing to the side of me jumped down from the raised area and congratulated each other heartily.

“Your Highness, may I accompany you from the platform so you may celebrate amongst your people?”

I looked into bright blue green eyes again. Jared had been the first Champion to receive his shield tonight, and because of this, I remembered his name. He was tall and broad as were all the Champions, but Jared carried himself with an extra measure of arrogance, and he spoke with an extra measure of self-assurance as well. His golden hair was tied together at the back of his head and his skin was bronzed from many hours of training outside. I gritted my teeth and forced my mouth into a half smile, while I took his offered arm and left the platform with him to join the celebrating crowd.

“I’m called Jared your Highness,” said Jared formally, as we made our way down the ramp.

“May the gifts of the River Zahar remain among us through time, Jared,” I said, as I was obliged to greet him in the manner of our people.

“And may time never be lost between us, Princess Livia,” said Jared confidently, as he guided me towards the edge of the Hall. “I was privileged to have been trained under your Father’s excellent guidance. I finished first ranked in my class,” he said, and he raised his voice to be heard over the music and the noisy crowd. We headed towards a group of three Champions who called out to Jared and beckoned him towards them.

“I see you have bought the Queen’s daughter to meet her Champions,” said one of the young men in the group as he slapped Jared heartily on the back. This young man then introduced himself to me, as did the young man beside him. The third young man however, didn’t tell me his name. He watched the room around him carefully and his grey blue eyes missed nothing. He did look at me seriously though, when I’d greeted the others in the manner of our people.

“I feel compelled to warn you, your Highness…..” began the young man.

“Not tonight Elijah,” said Jared, as he rolled his eyes and leant towards me. “Elijah is always talking to the guards and listening in to Denborite gossip at the Tournaments. He puts many half-truths and rumours together and he ends up thinking he can spy as well as the Denborites themselves,” said Jared, and he laughed at Elijah, who ignored him and spoke to me earnestly.

“I believe your life is in danger, your Highness. I overheard a whispered conversation when I returned a runaway horse to the Denborite camp at a Tournament last month. The guards spoke of a plot to bring about your death during your final challenges, which I believe are to be held sometime in the coming weeks,” said Elijah, and he ignored the teasing laughter from the rest of his group as he looked at me seriously. Elijah was slightly smaller than the others in this group but he had an intensity about him which I imagined gave him the edge in a fight. I had no doubt as to the sincerity of his warning.