Prologue~Ch. 1~Ch. 2~Ch. 3~Ch. 4~Ch. 5~Ch. 6~Ch. 7~Ch. 8~Ch. 9~Ch. 10~
Ch. 11~Ch. 12~Ch. 13~Ch. 14~Ch. 15~Ch. 16~Ch. 17~Ch. 18~Ch. 19~Ch. 20
Ch. 21~Ch. 22~Ch. 23~Ch. 24~~Ch. 25~Ch. 26~Ch. 27~Ch. 28~Ch. 29~
“One of these days I expect to climb this staircase and find your skeleton draped over that scrying bowl.”
Paran set the tray he was carrying down on a nearby table. Pointing his staff at the bowl he chanted under his breath. The images in the bowl cleared away.
Thackery jerked upwards. “What do you think you’re doing?”
“What I should have done much sooner. You’ve hardly eaten or slept in days. This has got to stop.”
“Restore the image!”
“Not until you eat something!”
Energy crackled through the room. The two men glared at each other. The tension ratcheted up a notch and objects on the shelves began to rattle.
“Enough!” Paran rapped his staff sharply on the floor. The energy dissipated. “You will do your daughter no good if you bring the castle down upon us both. Now eat!”
Grudgingly, Thackery moved over to the table and sat down. As he started to eat, Paran joined him, pouring them each a goblet of wine.
“How fares the child?” Paran asked.
Thackery shook his head. “She is no child, but a woman grown. And every bit as headstrong as her mother was.”
“Has she shown any signs of her power?”
“Aye,” Thackery said with a sigh. “It appears that what you predicted is true, her power appeared in a quite explosive manner.” He went on, between bites of his meal, to explain about the explosion she caused when trying to light a fire.
“This is not good, my friend. This is not good at all.”
“Fortunately she listens to the advice of the young man who helped send her here. And he has advised her not to attempt any more magic for now.”
“So just how impressive was her fire?” Paran asked, trying to appear casual.
“Larger than my first attempt, and more controlled. The blast hit the wood and went straight up instead of in all directions. She did very little damage.”
They shared a smile of pride, then Thackery’s slowly faded. “But that dog Ewan is still sniffing around, whining and dining her. I do not know what he wants from her, but he wants something.”
“Has he made advances on her?”
“No, but that is not surprising. He’s of the old school, who believe a witch’s power is only as strong as her virginity.”
Paran snorted. “Just as well. At least this way he’ll leave her alone.”
* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *
For the first half hour of the ride, Jessica thought she might actually enjoy riding side saddle. But then she developed a cramp in her leg. She tried shifting her bottom, but not only did it not help the cramp, it made the horse shy as well. Surreptitiously, she glanced at the other women in the riding party and was relieved to see a couple of them looked just as uncomfortable. The other three were sitting in their saddles with ease, chatting to the knights riding beside them.
The group consisted of six ladies, including Jessica, Prince Ewan, three lords, whose names she promptly forgot as soon as she was introduced to them, ten knights, six squires, and a bevy of pages. Fortunately, with so large a group they kept to a sedate walk. Jessica’s horse was docile enough that pretty much all she had to worry about was keeping her seat.
Ewan seemed to be in a particularly good mood. He kept up a steady banter with the knights nearest to them and pointed out things of interest to Jessica as they rode. When she admired a low-hanging tree covered in blooms, he used a knife to cut her one. She held it to her nose to breathe in its fragrance.
“This is beautiful,” she said, inhaling again.
“Aye, ‘tis most beauteous indeed,” Ewan agreed. But he was not looking at the flower.
Jessica blushed and ducked her head, missing his small smile of satisfaction. She worked the flower into the braid on her head so she wouldn’t lose it. Disney could have definitely modeled Prince Charming after Ewan.
“Where are we going?” she asked, to distract herself.
“Ah, ‘tis a surprise,” Ewan said.
No matter how much she cajoled, he remained firm in wanting to keep their destination a surprise. They continued riding and eventually Jessica’s cramp eased. The scenery was beautiful and the day was warm without being too hot. Just over the next rise was their destination.
“Oh, it’s beautiful!” Jessica exclaimed.
The woods gave way to a flower-filled meadow with a rippling brook meandering its way nearby. She hadn’t even noticed the pages and squires had gone on ahead and set up a picnic lunch amidst the blossoms. When the pages saw the riders, they abandoned their posts around the food and hurried forward to take the horses reins.
Jessica’s horse stopped when everyone else’s did, for which she was eternally grateful, and Ewan helped her from the saddle. If Ewan’s hands lingered on her waist a trifle longer than was considered polite, then she was not about to complain. She looked up at him and smiled.
“Thank you, your highness.”
“Tis my pleasure, my lady,” he replied, tucking her hand under his arm and leading her towards the pristine white cloths laid out on the ground. There were cushions for the ladies and the lords to sit on. The knights, being in full armor, preferred to stand, while the squires and pages were busy serving.
The meal was every bit as elaborate as she’d come to expect when dining with Ewan. There were multiple courses and way too many choices. Jessica felt stuffed long before they were finished. Fortunately, after everyone was finished it was decided they’d rest before returning to the camp.
“What’s that up there?” Jessica asked, pointing to a rise in the distance. There looked to be some kind of ruins there, or maybe some standing stones, like a miniature Stonehenge.
Ewan gave her an inscrutable look. “That, my lady, is a Well of Power.”
1 comments:
In the last few chapters, you jumped from location to location ... as for my part, I have some problems to get into the story again, to find the connection to what I've read in the previous chapter, e.g. here I had that wonderful saddle problem Jessica had in mind and now I'm confronted with Paran and Thackery. Maybe a little information about location at the beginning of the chapter would be helpful? Btw: Who the hell are those two people ... I'm really god-awful with names! *sigh* (...but maybe that's just a problem of a serial novel?!?)
Ah, here comes the horse ride ... and a picnic. Just a thought, that came into my mind. Did Jessica wear gloves while riding? Did she (and the others as well) have the opportunity to wash at least their hands? I mean, horse stench and eating ... yuck!
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