I was thoroughly pissed when I found out that the only reason Arianell was there was because she was one of the few that could speak my language. No one treated her badly, they just ignored her as if she wasn’t there. To her credit, she dutifully translated every one of their questions to me and my answers back. Except for my comment on how they treated her. She told me to hush, and that she was only a guard, not a noble and was lucky to be in so exalted a company. That I was in the High Court, the ruling elite of the Elassa.
I did see many beautiful young women, it seemed as if every noble parent had brought their daughter. I turned to Arian and asked, “Are they expecting me to pick one?” I hissed under my breath. “Is this some sort of ball?”
“No,” she laughed somewhat shakily. “It is introducing you to the High Court and the ruling families. They are, after all, your aunts, uncles and cousins.”
“Are my mother’s parents here?”
She hesitated. “Yes,” she admitted reluctantly. She did nothing as crass as point or even turn her head, she merely described them. “The shorter couple in pale blue near Lyr Averon. That is Tioghan and Finella, Lyr and Lyris of Brightwood. Lyr Averon’s grandson and wife–your grandparents.”
“The King is my great-grandfather?” I gawked like a stunned perch and she kicked me. “Ow. Aren’t you supposed to be protecting me?”
“Yes, from your own stupidity. We will go in to eat, I will sit at your side and instruct you on Royal table etiquette.”
“I know which fork to use,” I protested.
“Did your mother teach you? Or a maidservant?”
“My mother. She said it was very important to learn proper culture for a gentleman, even in the new lands.”
“Well, perhaps you are not a totally uncultured heathen.” She laughed under her breath and when the Lords looked at her she said something that made them smile and look on me condescendingly. “Don’t worry, Tobias,” she said quietly. “It was nothing to mock you, I merely said that you were raised as befit a prince and they assumed I meant a Prince of the old world which to them means no more than a hog wearing a jacket to dinner. You are not like that, for your innate decency and honesty comes through in everything you do.”
I took her hand and kissed it to the shock of all present despite her warning and dismay. Stared into her eyes and said, “Then tell them that without your aid and support, their Prince would be twice dead.”
She did so, her hand shaking in mine but she did not pull away. Lyr Averon nodded and spoke, to which everyone inside turned and marched down the aisle to another room where long tables were set with exquisite china, flowers, goblets and vases of wine as beautiful as the rest. We sat in chairs or on benches and I deduced from the proximity to Lyr Averon the importance of the person in society. My…grandparents were a mere two seats down while I was seated five away and had no one on either side of me for several places. Arianell stood behind me, I started to say something and she shook her head in the negative.
“No, Tobias. Not here. It will cause a scandal that will never be tolerated. I am not of the noble houses.”
“You were chosen for the Chosen,” I said harshly and to my astonishment, it came out in a language that was not one of the seven taught to me by my father but something my mother had crooned to me as a baby’s lullaby. Every face in the dining hall froze in astonishment and stared at us. I stood up pushing the chair back so hard that it fell over and Arian lifted it.
“What?” She stuttered and turned to look at the King whose hand had paused in the act of raising a goblet to his lips.
“You will treat this Lyris with respect,” I said in a slow, quiet teeth-grinding way. “Or I will curse you all Beyond the Wall.”
Every face inside but mine looked shocked and…terrified. Where the words came from, I did not know but went with it. “All of you, sit down and eat. I’m hungry.” I sat, knowing that she would not let me fall and indeed, she had the chair under my butt before my knees were bent. I reached over, grabbed the empty chair near me and pulled it closer. “Sit,” I commanded and as an added insult to my hosts, I had her eat a bite of my food first, as if I did not trust them not to poison me. But, in this manner, we both got to eat and I made a double point to these people that I did not know or completely trust.
The feast in my honor passed quickly after that. The servers brought in meat, fruits and vegetables the likes of which I had never before enjoyed. The dessert called Chocolatier almost made me cry it was that good. And the wines–I understood why my mother had declared ‘not bad’ when she sampled our first crop.
The last part of the soirée was the strangest, Lyr Averon accompanied by my grandparents, Arian and I circled the room as I was introduced to every person in there, excluding the servers, servants and Arianell. The young ladies curtsied to me as if I were the Emperor and the young men bowed. None would meet my eyes or speak more than their names. I remembered only a few and after a while, the beautiful male and female faces all blurred into silvery lavender eyes and dark hair. My stomach full, my indignation simmering, I was suddenly exhausted and nearly tripped face first on the carpet as we finally reached the beginning of our circle. Arian’s quick grab kept me upright and there was a look of alarm on the King’s face. He asked her something, she replied and translated for me.
“He asks if you are ill. I said merely tired as this is your first day and night gone from Belgrave’s sick ward. I am to take you…home and see to your welfare.”
“Home? My bed please, Arian. I’m so tired.” I yawned and leaned against her. “We taking those vultures back?”
“No, going up is much easier,” she smiled and led me over to a small door that opened into a tiny room made of the same living tree only the inside of this one looked like willow bark. She bowed to the King and his Court, spoke a word and the trees shivered as the wall closed off the Court’s view. I felt the whole room shift and flow smoothly upwards. Held onto her as my motion sickness faintly tried to warn me but never got to that puking stage.
“The living Tree has veins and arteries like the human body,” she explained. “We can manipulate the growth of the tree to create rooms inside and draw both water and food from the trees. We can use it to dispose of wastes which fertilizes the tree. Using the largest veins, we can transport things such as people or products up the tree’s arteries, inside a capsule made from the tree’s wood. But, not down. We have tried and it always kills the tree. Hence, the Condorlas. They roost and nest in the crowns of the tree and tolerate each other. Caught young, we can train them to accept a rider and fly under commands. They are quite intelligent.”
“Why don’t they fly above the mist and into my world?”
“No animal has ever crossed the Mist or the Border Wall since Tiʄnéræn raised it five thousand years ago.”
I felt the…lift stop and the wall dissolved into my bedroom. I stumbled to the bed and collapsed on it with my clothes still on me. Vaguely felt her pulling off my boots and then, I was asleep dreaming of being home in the Valley racing through the meadows with my mother.
Someone’s cool hand on my mouth woke me and I struggled only to be pinned down and held immobile as sweet lips kissed me. I relaxed, knowing of no one but Arianell that would do so. Saw her silvery eyes in the darkness of my room. “Okay,” I whispered. “I’m awake. What’s up?”
“I’ve come to get you out of here, Tobias,” she breathed and pulled me to my feet. She dressed me in breeches, boots and a plain tunic with my new underwear beneath. And a cloak that was velvet and soft, pulling the hood over my face.
“Ready?”
“My horses? I won’t leave and leave them behind,” I whispered back.
“Waiting for us below. Hurry and be quiet.” She pushed me towards the balcony and I rested my hands on the wall of the living tree.
“Why can’t we use the lift to go down?” I asked and she reminded me that it would kill the tree. Through my palm, I could feel the throb of the tree’s heart and asked of it a way down, a way swift and quiet; before the thought was finished, we were sinking through the floor in a wash of sweet scented sap, carried on a river of pale golden tree blood that dropped slowly through the trunk to the ground, letting us out gently at the junction of the massive giant’s roots.
Arian’s eyes were popping out of her skull and she couldn’t even speak. I grabbed her hand and demanded which way we should go to reach the horses. I had to shake her before she gathered her wits and set off at a stiff walk. I wasn’t up to a run nor could I see as well as she for the paths we were on had no illuminating glowworms or stones. I was afraid I would fall if I moved too fast and wasn’t sure how long my weakened constitution would serve me.
My nose told me we were getting close; I smelled that familiar beloved scent of horse and leather as we found all six of them tied behind a small shed and saddled. Diomed for me and the gelding Beau for her.
We mounted and she whispered something that I felt wash over us with a cool breeze. “I used a confusion spell on us, Tobias,” she spoke normally. “If anyone sees us, they will think us only a pair of guards out patrolling the streets. We’re safe until we reach the Mist.”
“What happens then?” I asked, nudging Diomed into a jog trot. The others followed none the worse for their ordeals.
“If we pass through the Mist and over the Border Wall before we are challenged, nothing. If we are unfortunate enough to meet the guard and the King has learned we have bolted, he can bar us from leaving, punish us or kill us,” she returned.
“He would kill his own lost great-grandson?” I was sarcastic for after all, my own grandfather wanted me and my family dead.
“If you do not obey him and his ideals, he will banish you from the Elassa’s memory.”
I turned fierce eyes on her. “If Tiʄnéræn blood runs through my veins, it is he that should fear my wrath. Did not the Cuamhnόir obey my commands?”
She bowed her head, her eyes still wide in wonder. “Yes, my Lyr. The great Guardian Tree obeyed your wish and brought us down without injury to herself or us.”
Once we were outside the Grove’s perimeter, she took the lead and we galloped, leaving me unable to ask questions of her but she obviously knew I was bursting with them because she began to explain as we ran through the darkness.
“Once you were abed, Tobias, Lyr Averon called me to his throne room and told me that he had great plans for you that did not include a liaison with a lowbred female. I was to be sent away to the Southern Border for the next two years while you would be groomed to fit your new station. It would have been one of the Faet as your bodyguard who would teach you our language. If you did not comply, he would punish you. If that did not work, he would use my continued existence as another means to force you.”
I cursed and it was a palpable thing that rippled through the air and cleaved a hole through the Mist showing us the way forward. I aimed Diomed into the heart of it and we ran.