Chapter 8-1
2020 Words
“Language,” Astrina admonished her. “You would prefer I give this assignment to someone else?”
“Yes!”
“Who would you trust to see through any subterfuge? Whose word would you take that they are sincere? Is there someone you believe to be more fitted to this task than you?”
That gave Neelu pause. “No,” she scowled. “You’re right.”
For a moment, I was trying to figure out if Astrina had been “right” because she was the queen or because she was Neelu’s mother. A chuckle slipped out and everyone looked at me. Astrina smiled at my explanation. Neelu continued to scowl.
“I have not agreed to anything with Grangor,” Astrina told Neelu. “We are to continue our discussions with him tomorrow. You will need to participate in all stages of planning.”
Neelu nodded at this.
“I also think,” Astrina went on, “that these meetings will be much more fruitful if they are not conducted over knife-point.”
Neelu looked embarrassed. “Yes. Sorry about that.”
“If what Grangor says about these outcasts is true, then we will need to redefine our understanding of the Urgaban.” Astrina touched Neelu’s arm. “I share your abhorrence, daughter, but we must be open to the possibility that it is only one group of Urgaban that deserve it. And that there are good and bad in every species.”
UrgabanUrgaban I could see Neelu struggling to accept this. Finally, she nodded. “I will try.”
“Are you going to make that another geas?” Veeluthun asked with a wry smile.
Neelu straightened and began to speak, “I accept—”
“No,” Astrina stopped her, giving Veeluthun a look. “No oath. No geas. Just saying you will try is enough. I trust you. As to your most recent geas—” she glanced at me “—I think we can assist you. We can send Mira to morning classes with the children to learn the Ralahin. You will be busy with your other duties now. However, that means you will be without the aid of her diplomacy spell in your meetings with Grangor.”
Ralahin“That will be fine,” Neelu nodded. “I am skeptical, but I am beginning to believe what Grangor has said. His comments reveal too much ignorance to be an effective deception.”
“Good.” Astrina stood. “Take Mira to join the class at the end of the breakfast hour, then join us in the central conference room. You will also need to arrange quarters for her. Sleep well, you two. You will both be very busy tomorrow.”
Astrina left, and we went in search of someone to assign me a room. We located her near the kitchens.
“Arané-li,” Neelu got the woman’s attention. “This is Mira. She will be staying with us for a bit. She’s a new member of my mother’s advisory staff, so we’d like her rooms to be fairly close to us. As close to mine as convenient. Is there anything like that available?”
“Of course!” she answered. “Come with me!”
“Arané-li is our chamberlain,” Neelu told me as we went. “As you can imagine, she’s the one that really runs this place.”
“Someone has to keep you Ulané in line,” Arané-li said over her shoulder with a wink.
UlanéShe led us up a few flights of stairs and down a corridor. There were tapestries and wall hangings everywhere I looked. By the second turn, I was hopelessly lost. We entered another corridor with two very staunch-looking guards standing to either side.
“I don’t suppose you have a map of this place?” I asked. “I don’t know how I will get from one place to another.”
Neelu laughed, but Arané-li spoke up, “You needn’t worry about that. You can always summon someone to guide you, or if you become lost, you can ask any household staff and they will help you. You will learn your way soon enough.”
“That sounds good,” I was relieved.
“We have an active spell throughout the palace,” Arané-li said. “Wherever you are, you can simply say ‘assistance please’ and remain there. Someone will be along shortly. If you change your mind, I ask that you just say ‘assistance dismissed.’ That way, we won’t have staff running around looking for you if you don’t need it.”
“How do they know where I am?”
“The spell notifies staff of the location in which it was invoked.”
“Wow! That’s a pretty smart spell!”
“Thank you.” She smiled. “We do try to find ways to be as efficient as we can.”
“Don’t let her downplay it,” Neelu told me. “She came up with the concept, and then plagued our mages until they put it in place and made it work perfectly. It took them months to get it right to her satisfaction.”
“Just because something has never been done before is no reason we can’t do it now,” Arané-li said, a bit of steel creeping into her voice. I had no doubt that if she wanted something done, she would get it to happen.
“And whatever you do,” Neelu said, “don’t get on her bad side or you might find your hot water going chilly after the first minute of your showers for a month.”
“Neelu’u,” Arané-li chided, “don’t exaggerate. You make things sound much worse than they were. As I recall, that was only for a week.”
“It sure felt like it went on for longer than a week.”
“Shall we try again and see?”
“No!” Neelu shook her head. “I’m sure I misremembered. It must have only been a week.”
“Isn’t it funny how some lessons stay with us?” Arané-li asked wryly.
We arrived in front of a door on our right and stopped. Arané-li turned to me.
“These will be your rooms while you are in residence,” she said. “They will be permanently assigned to you, whether you are here or not, until the queen says otherwise. Anything you leave here will still be here upon your return, whether it is days or years later. Bedding and towels have already been freshened. Do you remember what to say if you need anything?”
“Yes, thank you, I do.”
“Is there anything else you need for now?”
“Well.” I glanced at Neelu. “We haven’t had any dinner yet. Could I maybe get something to eat?”
“I’m hungry as well,” Neelu chimed in. “Could you please have something sent to us in Mira’s rooms?”
“Of course.” Arané-li nodded. “Go on in and you’ll have something shortly.” She turned to me again. “Do you have any particular dietary restrictions or preferences?”
“Um…” I shrugged. “I don’t like pickles?”
She laughed. “Very well.”
Before we went into the room, Neelu pointed. “My room is two doors down this way and across the hall on the left.”
We stepped into the room. It was dark for a moment, and then the room lit up to reveal a sitting room with couches, a table, and chairs. I saw more bright carpets and tapestries. I looked around, but couldn’t identify a light source.
“Where’s the light coming from?” I asked.
“From the ceiling,” she answered.
I looked up. The ceiling in the room wasn’t as high as it had been in the corridors, but it was still fairly high. I could tell that light was coming from above me, but I couldn’t see exactly where it was coming from.
“It’s another enchantment,” she explained. “It’s based on movement. Hold your hand like this.”
She held her right hand in front of her body, with her palm flat and vertical. I copied her position.
“Good,” she said. “Now lower your hand about six inches.”
I tried it and the room was plunged in darkness.
“Now do it again,” she told me.
I did and it was light once more.
“That’s incredible!”
“You don’t have lighting on your world?”
“We do,” I told her. “But we have to flip a switch on a wall or a lamp.”
“But what if it is dark and you are not near a switch?”
I laughed. “You kind of have to fumble around for it.”
“Not very advanced,” she said, shaking her head.
“Well, some people have lights that you can clap your hands to turn them on or off.”
“Hmph. That must be wonderful if you are trying not to wake someone. Use one hand as I have shown you to turn lights on or off in the room you are in. Both hands together will control all the lights in your suite.”
“That’s brilliant!”
“This is a common enchantment throughout the Daoine realm. I suppose I should introduce you to some other aspects of civilization.” She went to a round white stone embedded in the wall. It was about six inches in diameter and had a vertical line through the center. “This allows you to control the temperature of the room. Low to high. Simply place your palm on the stone and twist left to make it cooler and twist right to make it warmer. Each room has its own stone and can be controlled independently.”
I nodded.
“You have this on your world?”
“Similar,” I said. “We have electric heaters and air-conditioners to keep things cool.”
“Electric?”
“It’s a non-magical form of power.”
“Interesting.”
She was clearly being polite and had no interest in it at all. She led me across the thickly carpeted floor to another door and opened it. Inside, I could see a chair with a hole in the seat, like a toilet.
“This is where you can relieve yourself,” she said. “When you are finished, make two circles in the air with your index finger like so—” she showed me “—and all traces will be removed from you and from the pot.”
“No leaves?”
“No,” she laughed. “That was just for camping in the forest. This is also common in this realm.”
She led me to another door. On the other side was a tiled room with a tub that could probably fit three people and what looked like some kind of shower. There was also a wooden slatted bench along one wall. I could see that both the tub and the shower had embedded stones similar to the one that controlled room temperature. They each had a blue stone as well as a four-inch version of the white stone in the front room. Every room so far had been rich with colors, from the carpeting to the fabric on the furniture. This room was no different; the tiles were glazed with bright blues, yellows, and reds.
“Let me guess,” I said. “The blue stone turns the water on and off, and the other stone controls the temperature.”
She nodded with a smile. “You got it. And this room has an additional control.” She pointed to a dark grey stone embedded in the wall near the door. “This one controls the amount of moisture in the air.”
- Writer
