Maya thanked Hons with a nod and continued, “Healers, once the earth wizards have fixed up appropriate quarters for you, make the wounded comfortable and start unpacking the med kits and other equipment you salvaged from Xarparion. We need to begin setting up for possible action. If we get attacked in the coming days, I do not want to be without a hospital. You’ll find the original infirmary was the white low-roofed building just inside the second curtain wall straight up this main road. I’m not really sure what shape it is in now, but I don’t think it was hit by the siege engines that far inside the walls. Previously, it was well-equipped with clean water, and the entire building was heated by the water from underground, so I would concentrate your efforts there. As for your auxiliaries, the fire, water, and air students assigned to your towers, you can assign them using your discretion, I might suggest some of the more reliable fire wizards be assigned to the guard patrols until we are certain we have full, uncontested control of this fortress.”
Alera nodded eagerly, and Hons looked over from where he was still issuing orders and gave an acknowledging wave. As expected, Alera calmly and efficiently rounded up her second tier supervisors and began making assignments.
This left a large group of confused staff and servants, some of them whole families with children. One of the women whom I recognized as a cook from the school, stepped forward. “Ma’am, what should we do? We have no skills that would help win a war.”
Maya just smiled, “Yes, you do. This place is bigger than it looks and we will need staff to get it up and going again. I ask you just to do the jobs you had when we were still at the academy. If you were a cook, then go down the road behind you and you’ll find the dining hall. I’m not sure what condition it’s in so there may be a lot of work to do there. Be warned that with the earth wizards casting spells all afternoon, they will be hungry. Captain Jarsin will act as supply master and coordinate the functions of those of you who are neither guards nor wizards. If you have any questions, refer to him and he will help you find work.”
Several of them broke off and headed down the road toward the dining hall. Maya gave out jobs to a few others who didn’t seem to fall into a set category, leaving just the Enchanters Hall. Darroth dusted off his hands. “Might as well make myself useful, there’s bound to be a bloody forge around here somewhere! Maybe I can take a look at those fancy ballistae up on the wall and see if I can get a pattern off them. It might be with some new wood and a few repairs, we can get one or two working.”
That was pretty much it, almost everyone heading off to work. I helped Maya down off her rock pedestal and gave her a proud hug. “Well, I guess that leaves…” I started to say, but there was a tug on the cuff of my armor.
“Excuse us, Mister Alex, sir, and Miss Pretty Elf, what about us?” We looked down at two young, slightly scruffy-looking boys who were looking back up at us. The youngest had his arm in a makeshift sling. “We came with our mothers, but we would like to help out if we can; we’re good workers...”
They both looked like they were on the verge of tears. Maya dropped down to a knee and smiled warmly at them. “What were you before coming here then?”
The first one was slightly taller than the other and looked to be a little bit older as well. “We were stable boys, Miss, but with no horses, there is nothing for us to do.”
Smiling even brighter, she wrapped an arm around each of them and turned them around to face the gate area. “I don’t know about you two, but I see two big horses by the gate over there.”
Their eyes widened. “But those are your horses and you are our leaders! We’re just stable boys, that honor is for your squires!”
“Is that so? Well, then look who just got promoted. Take good care of them, they are very special and very smart. Oh, and there are some donkeys around here that will need to be fed and watered, too.” She leaned in and whispered conspiratorially, “Just one thing, though; keep the warhorses and the donkeys apart. See, the horses think they’re better than the donkeys, and we have to humor them.”
Astonished, they both nodded with great gravity as if taking every word she spoke to heart. Finally, they tore themselves away from her laughing green eyes, and the older boy led the younger away to get started. Captain Jarsin followed them quickly and explained where the stables were. I had a feeling they would be alright once the Maya effect wore off.
Maya stood back up to her full height and leaned into my shoulder. “Well, as I was saying, I think we should make a sweep of the keep; we might find something useful.”
“Indeed, from the looks of things, I would say no one ever got past the wall. So it would be safe to say the royal armory should still have some equipment left. There were so few of us left at the end that there was no way we could take all of it, and I doubt the civilians would have touched weapons, either.”
Rosa placed a hand on the twins’ shoulders. “Sounds like a plan; take these two with you. I have to talk to Captain Jarsin about some things, but I’ll join up with you soon.” She smiled brightly and walked off in the opposite direction as the captain, humming as she went.
“I don’t think she could have made it anymore obvious that she is up to something,” said Maya to the nodding approval of the twins and Nia.
“Sometimes, I think she forgets that I can be in her head now.”
Leaping off my shoulder, Nia flew out in front of us with some animation. “Who cares what she is up to? I want to go see what’s inside!” I grinned and seconded that thought; it was good to see Nia returning to a semblance of her normal bubbly personality.
The twins spoke up, their voices mirroring each other as they sometimes did; I found it kind of eerie. “For once, we would have to agree with the pixie. We, too, are very anxious to look around inside. ”
Chapter 6
Maya and I both laughed as we were almost dragged down the road. From the courtyard, the keep was blocked from view by the curtain wall, but once we passed through it, we could finally see the keep in all its splendor. Large, cut-marble steps led up to a ornately arched stone door inset several feet into the walled center of the massive keep. Looking up, we could distinctly see what would have to be the great hall, as well as what looked like a wing on either side. The central wing looked to hold the great hall and must have had at least two floors built over and above even the high ceilings of that large room. As viewed previously, the arched windows skillfully showed off the crafted stained glass in each cove. The other two wings looked exactly alike but only seemed to have two floors. Each of the four corners held a guard tower as well as two very large and very ornate towers at the back of the fortress overlooking the cliffs and the lowlands far down the valley.
“Wow.”
We all stood there for a bit, taking in the sights. Having apparently had enough sightseeing, Dawn grabbed our hands and giggled, much to the dismay of her sister, as she pulled us up the stairs. Once at the top of the steps , Maya and I placed our hands on the door, hoping that it operated like the main gate, and it did so smoothly and with much less noise.
As expected, the door opened majestically into the great hall, but that was about the only thing that we were correct in assuming. Instead of old, rotted tables and spider webs everywhere, the place was sparkling clean! Not only was it clean, but it all looked new. In front of us was a blue carpet that rolled down the center of the hall, flanked on each side by a row of polished marble pillars topped with magic-orbed wall sconces and chandeliers. All that led up to a small landing which split and continued as two serpentine curved flights of stairs. A stained glass window that took up the entire back wall depicted a blue and gold image that was an exact duplicate of the crest on the outside door.
The most prominent feature of the very elegant hall were the two matching thrones that sat on the raised platform between the two stairs. Above the thrones, floated an eight-point spherical object with a lighted core that broadcast a startling star field display onto all the upper walls of the place. The effect
was like walking out and looking up into the night sky when the stars were shining their brightest and experiencing the awe of the universe. The thrones themselves were strange, just like you would expect a royal throne to look, expensively decorated and decadent, except for the back. The back of the chair started off very thick at the base and then narrowed to about four inches wide where your shoulders would rest. My only thought was how uncomfortable they would have to be for normal people; but then I suspected there was very little that was normal about this place.
Silently, we all walked forward taking in the elegance of the structure. At the outer edges of the throne room were polished coats of arms with shields and actual swords attached, as if waiting for some valiant knights to rush up and take them down for a final battle. Filling in the wall space between the armor and weapons were various-sized tapestries. Most of the closest ones depicted celestial events; exploding suns, the creation of moons, and comets roaring through space. As otherworldly and incredible as it was, nothing could have prepared us for what we saw next. As we stumbled forward gawking, there were several different scenes that caught my eyes and held them, my mind steadfastly refusing to accept the images they provided. They were scenes of me, of my life! Each tapestry was a startlingly accurate depiction of significant events in my life - my foster parents holding me as a baby, enchanting the cooking pot, entering the walls of Xarparion for the first time, a amazingly accurate depiction of me kissing Maya at the First Day dance. Strangely, in this view, she was accurately portrayed in her dark elf glory and not the persona that Rosa’s magical dress provided. Maya blushed slightly see the artwork and squeezed my hand slightly as we passed. I’m pretty sure I heard Dawn and Dusk utter soft longing sighs as they watched us. The next scene was of Winya and me fighting the vampire in Maya’s burning room. Maya stopped and gazed at that one for a short while as she had been unconscious when it occurred and was seeing the depiction in graphic form for the first time. Moving along, the next tapestry showed me constructing the very armor that I was wearing, sitting cross-legged and forging the breast plate with just my thoughts; it also showed a very distraught dwarf watching in the background. The seventh and final weaving was a graphic depiction of the fall of Xarparion, complete with skeletons, zombies, falling walls and fear-filled faces…no one lingered long at that tapestry.
We pulled up and stopped for some reason at the base of the short steps that led up to the throne platform. I felt my skin tingling and looked at Maya; she was unconsciously trying to rubs the hairs on her arms through her armor. Abruptly, a door at the back of the chamber swung open and a woman emerged. We all looked at her curiously, but for some reason we were unafraid of the unexpected visitor.
She was a little shorter than me, wearing a sapphire blue gown that any noblewoman would have been jealous of. She had brown, waist-length hair, tied back and styled. I would have placed her as a very well-preserved forty-year-old, and as she came closer, I noted her calm, beautiful features. Her eyes were locked entirely on mine, a shy tentative smile on her lips. Before any of us could say anything, I felt the twins rush past.
“It’s her!” The twins shouted gleefully and ran forward like delighted children. Startled, the woman put her hand over her heart in mock horror.
“Dawn and Dusk! Are you two girls trying to scare me to death?” The two dragons nearly tackled her in their excitement, and each slid under an arm and wrapped themselves around her with their eyes closed in bliss. After returning the hug with obvious genuine affection, she stepped away from the girls and continued to walk slowly up to me, her eyes never leaving my face, searching my eyes. It was as if she needed to be sure it was really me. Finally, she came to a halt in front of me and I could see her deep brown eyes fill with emotion. She raised her hand as if to say something and then dropped it as the dam holding back the tears suddenly burst, and she threw herself into my arms with a small cry.
I had no idea what was going on, but I had a gut feeling I knew this woman. After a second of holding her gently, I could smell her hair and perfume, and it was a smell that triggered a response in my consciousness. “Mother?” She pulled back, still fiercely holding on to my armor, and I could see the tears freely flowing down her face. She affixed me with a gaze that mirrored hope and great sadness at the same time. “You remember me?”
“I think so. I remember how you smelled.” The stream of tears turned into a river as she pressed her face into the chest plate of my armor. I could feel very strong waves of emotion flowing off her, and they seemed to be affecting everyone in the room as well. Soon, we were all blubbering idiots as I cradled her carefully in my arms, trying not to hurt her with the armor.
Finally, she pried herself away from my embrace and stared up at me again with glistening eyes. “It’s been twenty years since I was last able to hold you, Alex, so please forgive my behavior.”
I didn’t have words to say at this point, but Nia chimed in with her own observation. “No need to apologize, Mrs. Alex’s Mom. Lots of people like holding him,” she said, trying to hold back her own pixie tears which were threatening to soak her small dress to the point where it was more wet than dry.
My mother focused on Nia, still sitting emotionally on my shoulder and smiled brightly as she daubed away some of her own tears with a handkerchief that appeared out of nowhere. “Why hello, Neafauliateenix. May I call you Nia?” The pixie nodded eagerly, and my mother carefully wiped the tears from Nia’s face as well. “It’s so good to meet you finally in person. Unlike everyone else here, you are the only one I haven’t visited with in some form before now.”
I think both Nia’s and my mouth dropped open at the same time, what? My mother knows all my friends already? Nia finally leaned over to my ear and whispered in awe, “She knows my real name!”
My mother smiled and, raising her hand, caressed Nia’s wings ever so lightly. Nia, for her part, lit up brightly as if it were the most glorious day of her life. Turning her attention back to the twins, my mother embraced them again, giggled, and looked them over carefully with a measuring look and a soft affectionate smile.
“It's good to see you sisters again; you both seem to have gotten a lot healthier since we last spoke.” Both of the young dragons were blushing profusely and lamely attempting to look away or at the floor. “You didn’t tell them, did you?” Meekly, they both shook their heads. Mother rolled her eyes and turned back to me. “They were extremely malnourished on your birthday. It’s a good thing Merilda Martin is such a good cook; they might not have had the energy to make it back to Xarparion otherwise.”
“Alex and Nia are terrific cooks, too,” Dusk added, “and they are even teaching us to prepare meals on our own.” Dawn chimed in with a throaty, “Mmmm, bacon!” and everyone chuckled. My mother gave them one last caress each and then, as if suddenly remembering someone, whirled around looking for the last member of our party.
Maya was nowhere to be seen, but that didn’t stop my mom. She held up her index finger to tell me silently that I should wait a second and gave me a little wink. Suddenly, she blinked out of sight and we heard a little yelp from behind a pillar at the rear of the room indicating that, despite the stealth armor, Maya had been caught. Defeated and without recourse, she succumbed to being dragged back to the main party. Once there, she was spun around to face my mother.
“Come on now, off with the helmet, young lady,” she commanded. Maya glared at me and even only seeing her eyes, I knew I was in deep trouble later. Reluctantly, she pulled off her helmet and clipped it to the belt of her armor and taking a deep breath, faced her tormentor directly. My mother started the motion to enfold her in a big hug but then pulled up short and made a face.
“No, this absolutely won’t do at all!” She turned to face the stairs and tilted her head. As a small ball of what looked to be pure magical essence appeared in her palm, she whispered something to it and sent it flying off with a flourish. It disappeared through the ceiling and was gone.
We stoo
d there watching her as she impatiently tapped her foot on the marble floor. After about a minute, a large man came walking down the stairs, not large as in fat, but large as in looks like he could lift a mountain. He had a long, braided beard and brown hair that only looked to have the smallest bit of gray in it. He was an imposing figure, but somehow his movements radiated relaxed goodwill.
His voice was deep and grainy, as though he had been working a forge all his life, and the blacksmith clothing he was wearing looked the same, but still it seemed familiar and calming to me. “I hope you didn’t call me down here to take care of another spider, dear…Alex?” He froze in his steps and looked at me and the rest of our group curiously. Suddenly regaining motor coordination, he bounded down the remainder of the steps laughing so deeply that I could feel the walls shake. “Alex, my boy!” His arms stretched out like he was about to squeeze us all in a bear hug.
But Mother flung herself around Maya and me first. “Don’t you dare touch our babies with those filthy work clothes! Clean yourself up and try not to embarrass us.”
He sighed but was still smiling. “Been married this long and she still doesn’t like seeing me get dirty.” Just like with Mother, there was a flash of light and he was suddenly wearing formal wear of the same style and color as Mother’s. She looked at him askance, and it was as if they were communicating like Rosa and I do.
My father mouthed, “I’m sorry,” before a flash of light blinded me momentarily. As the flash faded from my eyes, I could feel that I was no longer in my armor. Looking down at myself, I found that I was in one of the formal outfits Rosa had made for me to wear to a dance. Glancing over at Maya, I found that she, too, was no longer in her normal armor. She was wearing a brand new white sparing armor, with quilted padding and soft leather bits covering some of the vital areas. It was form fitting and actually extremely attractive on her. “Figured you wouldn’t want a dress, so I hope that works well enough,” he said, giving my dark elf a knowing wink.
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