Tag: fantasy blog

Summer 37: Amb?

Matthew ELeave a comment

Dear Zann,

The portal, or gate, or whatever it was that I had jumped into, looked dangerous, but jumping into it wasn’t quite as reckless as it seemed. What I figured was, where would a couple of resistance wizards want to open a door to? Either back into the real world or, maybe, into the palace. Either of those would be fine with me. And the harp music did suggest the palace to me. They certainly wouldn’t be opening a door to any demonic realms, not with Acea in charge.

So I wasn’t surprised when I tumbled onto a stone floor in some kind of large dim space. It smelled like the palace. It was quiet, though, and there was nobody around, and I didn’t quite recognize the room I was in. It was too big to be anything but a ballroom, but it didn’t look like a ballroom. I got up and wandered to the far end, and found a little corridor leading away, with a staircase leading up. Up was good; I ascended.

I could hear some sounds in the distance, now. Nothing alarming. Just normal noises that meant there were people around the place. That was reassuring, because the last time I had come to the palace, there had been nobody there. Of course, that time, I had come here by a regular road, and this time I came by magic. The greenkind, I wondered, might be able to live in the magic palace without having to live in the physical palace.

I tried some more corridors, and found a door that looked like it ought to lead to another staircase. I opened it. No staircase. It was a small bower with a greenkind man drowsing in a chair. He had a poetry book on his lap. He opened his eyes, and said, “What is it?” I know this fellow, I said to myself.

“Oh. Nothing, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to wake you; I took a wrong turn. But… I think I know you from somewhere.”

“It’s possible,” he said, rubbing his eyes. “I have been somewhere.”

I searched my memory. “You’re… I think I helped load some boxes onto your boat. Swings and swings ago. You weren’t paying much attention to me, but… you threw this coin overboard,” I said, and showed him the coin from around my neck.

“Shit!” he said, and scrambled to his feet, knocking the chair over. He quickly got behind it. “Keep that thing away from me!”

I stepped back, politely, and said, “Why? What does it do?”

“Nothing!”

“Then what’s so terrible about it?”

“It’s not… You know what? I don’t want to talk about it. Take it away from me. I don’t ever want to see it again, and if you have any decency, you’ll keep as far from me as you can yourself. I’m sorry for everything but go.”

“I’ll go. But if there’s anything you could tell me about…” But he was covering his eyes so he didn’t have to look at me, and drinking brandy right from the bottle. “I’ll just go, then. Sorry to disturb you.”

I left him, turned two more corners, and found myself in the good old Strawberry Gallery. From there I stepped out into the grassy inner bailey of the palace. Sunshine! Late morning, it looked like. I wondered what there was to eat around here.

There was a fresh breeze off the river. I stepped up a little hill to catch more of it. Why did I miss the palace? I really didn’t belong here. What pleasant memories could I have of the place? But I did like it here and wished I could stay, maybe even live here, somehow.

There were other greenkind around, but nobody close. Ambe’s lair was right over there, though. Could she possibly be inside? I doubted it. But I could check.

I opened the little door and stuck my head in. “Amb? Are you here?”

A patch of moss on the gnarled wall formed itself into a mouth and said, “Amb? Are you here?”

“I guess not,” I said, and went to leave, but the mat below said, “I guess not,” jumped up, and grabbed my hands.

“Ow!” I said, and tried to break free.

“Ow! Are you here?” said the coatrack as it reached out to grab my head and pull me inside.

“Piss off!” I said, fighting against all of this.

“Amb? Piss off,” said the wall, opening up to accept my body into a dark crevice. “I guess not. Ow!” agreed the coatrack, pushing me in.

All my love,

Ybel

Summer 33: bumbers

Matthew ELeave a comment

Most precious Zann,

I suppose there could have been some other prisoner who ate dried bumbers, but I assumed immediately that Wande and Jhusdhe were behind the door I was guarding. But why? They never did anything; what could the point possibly be of locking them up?

It must be about me, I decided, incorrectly. After all, Lord Clear hated me for ruining his plan with the Great Beast of Crideon. And… learned that I had escaped? And found out that Wande and I were partners, and captured them to… take some kind of revenge on me? It sounded weak, but what other reason could there be?

Usually, I hope, I’m not so self-centered that I can’t think past it, at least a little bit. But that time I was stuck on one idea.

One thing was explained, anyway; if Clear had them locked up in here, it made sense that the wizards wouldn’t be able to find them for me. Cas Crid may have been protected from magical searching even without Clear.

I knocked on the door, not too loud. I was nervous! Why was I nervous?

A moment passed, and I heard Wande say, “I’m here.”

I unlocked and opened the door. And there she was: she looked good. Not hurt. Clean. She stepped back, shocked. Then forward to hug me.

“Ybel! Where–No, never mind! I’m glad you’re all right.”

“I’m glad you’re all right. Have you been here all this time?”

“I–oh. I can’t talk to you about this now.” She let me go. “Ybel, it’s a curst situation, but I’m a prisoner and you’re a guard, and I’m not going to talk about it like that.”

“I don’t care about that,” I told her. “I’ve been looking for you all over the place. I can’t believe you’re here. Come on, let’s go, let’s get out of here. Wake Jhus and we’ll go.”

“Go where?”

“Away! Out of the castle, out of the city. I’m not leaving you two locked up in this musty old pisspot. Once you’re gone, Clear won’t have anything to hold over my head, and–“

“Over your head? Look, Ybel, how do you plan on getting out of the castle?”

She had a point. I didn’t really know where the castle was, exactly. Not really in the world, not in the laur. What other choices were there? “I don’t know. Maybe we can find Ambe and she can help. But we shouldn’t waste time!”

“Wait. My turn now. Well?”

“Well.”

She sighed. “I don’t know if escaping is the right thing to do. And there are complications. For one… I don’t think you and I are together anymore, are we?”

We could be. But… I remembered my time with Ellewen. “Maybe not. I suppose not. But we can still–“

Wande nodded. “And there’s something else. Jhus wants to stay.”

Spoiled brat kid. “Jhus wants a lot of things. If you tell her–“

“She wants to stay here because her father is here.” And she waited for me to understand that.

I understood it. “Her father? Wait. Is it Clear? Were you and Lord Clear…”

She nodded again, and said, “Can we close the door now? I don’t want to answer any more questions. From you or,” she signaled around with her eyes, “anybody else.” And stepped back.

I gave her a pat on the arm, closed the door, and locked it.

Now what do I do, I thought.

All my love,

Ybel

Summer 32: closed door

Matthew ELeave a comment

Most precious Zann,

“Day,” I said cautiously.

“Ybel,” Trall said, surprised. “How did you get here?” Carsaduam stepped over to help me up.

“Hard to explain. Are we all here? All the guards?”

“We are now,” Carsaduam said. “You were the only one missing.”

“Oh.” I started for the door, not wanting to be trapped anywhere. They let me, and we left the room. “And… why are we here? Is Lord Clear here?”

The corridors of Cas Crid were much smaller than those of the Palace. Shorter and narrower, and made of brick. “Mmm,” Carsaduam said. “He holds our oaths. He’s trying to conquer Crideon for himself, not for the rest of the laurans. He’s got us and some townspeople that he’s lured in here. But the castle’s not safe because some rebel townspeople were using Cas Crid as a lair before we got here, and they’re holding out in some places. And they don’t like us anyway.”

“Truly?”

“Ay. We need you. We need everyone. Are you ready to start now? I mean right now. Candur will be glad that you’ve turned up. We can get you a uniform at the guardpost just up here. No more blue pajazuse! Back to the old grey-and-whites.”

“Well,” I said, and followed them. “So there’s fighting in the castle? Now?”

“They’re dug in pretty well,” Trall said. “They have some kind of magic. Lord Clear could probably handle them all by himself, but the laurans in the palace are fighting him magically. He’s, uh. We try not to talk to him or attract his attention.”

“He’s a pisshearted murderer is what he is,” I told them.

Carsaduam turned a corner and we entered a guardpost at the base of a tower. He tossed me a bundle of equipment and I started changing clothes. “He could be ten times a murderer for all I care, if he’d only keep his murdering to our enemies. But he doesn’t care about us any more than he does the rebels. I think he wants the rebels and us to kill each other off until it’s just him.”

“Sounds like we’re talking about the same man.”

Trall handed me some bread wrapped around a bit of cheese and said, “Come on. You can start your first shift. We’ve had Old Aldo on this door for almost two shifts now and he needs a rest.”

“Well. I can guard a door. What’s behind it?” I ate as he showed me the way upstairs.

“Lord Clear has someone in an upper room here. Somebody important, I don’t know. Nobody goes in, nobody comes out. Just food twice a day. Simple as that.”

“Greenkind or human?”

“Piss in my pockets if I know. We guard the door, that’s all. Oh, but you always did ask too many questions.” He frowned at me. “Maybe that’s why Candur likes you. But that’s his business.”

We were in a different tower now. I couldn’t be sure which one, but it was a wide circle in shape. The guard platform was a half moon at the top of the stairs, and Aldo clapped me on the back as I took his place. Aldo leaned on Trall a bit going downstairs.

I was alone, and back on guard.

I had a closed door to protect. I had a lamp and a jug of water on an upturned barrel nearby. I had a cheap sword that I didn’t want. And there was a tray near the stairs with what was left of the previous meal for whoever was in the rooms, waiting to be taken back down. I glanced at it.

On one of the plates, there were some uneaten vegetables, sprinkled with dried bumblebees. Just like Wande makes for Jhusdhe.

All my love,

Ybel