“See,” Grange said as he stood up. “This is what I’m talking about,” he complained. “You’ve got my whole life planned out. It’s like being married!”
“Shall I go tell Deana that?” Ariana asked archly. She lifted her hand, and used Grange’s grip to pull herself up, the suddenly threw her arms around his neck and embraced him passionately, her lips next to his ear.
“What do you expect from marriage, Grange? Are there delights you think your bride will offer? Are you hoping to sample pleasure with me?” she breathed in his ear.
“Goodness, no,” he laughed weakly. “That carriage left the palace a long time ago,” he said. His mind said that it was true, completely true, except that feeling her body plastered against the length of his was overcoming his good sense.
“Good,” Ariana said in her low, slow, breathy voice. She pulled away from him. “Because there’s a bride-to-be out there waiting to meet you,” she said. “And if you pick the wrong girl beforehand, there will be a steep bill to pay. Now, let’s go find the boat.”
She turned and climbed up to the top of the breakwater, and led Grange south towards the dock where the large ships of the noble class were all anchored together at three colored docks – blue, red, and green. Under the watchful eye of strolling guards, they walked the length of the green dock then stood at the foot of the plank that led to the deck of Lord Selebe’s luxurious ship. Two nicely uniformed stewards were carrying bottles of wine across the deck, while other crew members were polishing the brass and metal fittings to a gleaming shine.
“You’ll have the prettiest setting you’re ever going to play in,” Ariana said.
“Won’t Deana be jealous when she hears about what we’ll see tomorrow? Too bad she can’t come with us,” Grange replied.
“Why can’t she? You’re a distinguished musician; you should be allowed to bring your own attendants,” Ariana proclaimed. “We’ll all come with you. It’s worth a try.”
Grange grinned in agreement. “Now, let’s find lunch, then baths, then clothes,” Ariana set their agenda.
Lunch was easy – a stop at a vendor selling fish and fried potato slices. The baths were moderately easy; once Grange found out they separated by gender, and he was able to have a small private compartment in which to soak and steam, he was satisfied.
Buying clothes was difficult – for Grange, Ariana found joy in trying on outfits, and showing them to Grange, but Grange found that the tailors in the shop expected him to remove his ratty shirt, and he refused to uncover his arms. The sleeves of his shirt provided the protection that kept the embedded jewels hidden, and Grange was proud that not even Ariana had seen the oddities of his arm even after so long together.
Grange held out, and he won, in a fashion. The shirts that were sold to him ended up with sleeves that were too long, but he rolled the cuffs up without concern, and declared he was satisfied, as he waited for Ariana to finish her purchase. He was beginning to feel edgy about the declining amount of time and money that were available. His participation in the evening’s musical production was drawing close, while his supply of coins was dwindling rapidly.
Dressed in clean new clothes, Grange played his flute at the musical function that night, an indoors dance in a large hall. Ariana was with him, and so were Deana and Garrel, who were willing to leave their honeymoon bower for a few hours.
Grange slept soundly afterwards, until Ariana awoke him the next morning at sunrise.
“Let’s get going,” she told him. She was already up and dressed, after making Grange uncomfortable by sleeping undressed once again. “And take the enchanted sword with you,” she added.
“Why?” Grange asked, surprised by the command.
“You should get used to wearing it; you don’t want to get caught unprepared the next time a demon approaches you,” she told him. “Plus, you’ll look more sophisticated among the nobility today,” she added with a smile.
Their practice with weapons was shortened slightly, as was their swimming lesson, then they rinsed at the baths and walked to the green docks.
The ship that they had seen the day before had grown a festive crop of colorful bunting, banners, and pennants overnight, and a three piece band was already playing music upon the bow of the ship when Grange and Ariana met Garrel and Deana at the foot of the gang plank. Together, they climbed the plank, then spoke to the servant who was greeting all the guests.
“Lord Selebe informed us that he had hired you,” the servant said. “You’ll be playing below deck, in the ladies’ chambers. I’ll have someone lead you there.”
Moments later, another servant led them down two sets of narrow steps and along a dark hallway to the stern of the ship, where a large room with a low ceiling was filled with seats and tables of food. A bank of windows along the rear of the ship gave a wide view of the dock area.
“This is usually for the ladies, but today it will be where the senior guests pass their time,” the servant said officiously. “You’ll be expected to provide, calm, peaceful music for their enjoyment.” With that pronouncement, he started to depart.
“Excuse us,” Ariana spoke up. “We’ve never seen a ship this beautiful before – we’ve never even been on a ship! May we have a tour?”
“Never been on a ship before?” the servant’s attitude changed. “Well, you’ve picked a real beauty for your first. You’ll be spoiled all the rest of your life. I can make a few minutes to show you around while your friend practices his music,” he offered. “Follow me,” he commanded, and left the room with an entourage of three eager tourists.
With a raised eyebrow, Grange pulled his flute out, then walked over to the windows and stared out at the water, wondering if he knew any music that he could play that would be suitably calm and peaceful. His repertoire of dancing tunes hardly seemed likely to meet the objective. He stood at the window and softly played one of the dance tunes in a slower tempo, experimenting to see if he could fake his way through the afternoon. He was counting on receiving the florint payment that Selebe had offered; in his mind he’d already spent that money on the new clothes that he and Ariana wore.
But the dance tune still sounded like a dance tune to him, lively and cheery and unlikely to qualify as calming.
There was a sound behind him, and he turned to see a shabbily-dressed elderly man standing in the doorway, watching him.
“Don’t stop!” the man pleaded, stepping into the room. “That was delightful. It made me want to tap my feet!”
“Well,” Grange grinned at the fellow, “that’s good and bad. I’m glad it’s enjoyable, but it’s bad because I’m trying to find some calm and peaceful music to play – not toe-tapping tunes.”
“Well, I’m sure our guests won’t mind tapping their toes while they’re here,” the man consoled him.
“Are you a guest?” Grange asked, wondering who he was talking to. “An early guest, or another staff person?”
“I’m like you – one of the workers,” the man grinned back.
“Could you help me out? Hum a few tunes that I could listen to and then play – calm tunes?” Grange asked.
The visitor came over to stand next to Grange by the windows. “I’m hardly musical myself,” he protested.
“Give it a try,” Grange urged.
The man looked at him with a bemused expression, then looked out the window, paused, and started softly humming a gentle tune that flowed rhythmically in time to the gentle rocking of the boat. Grange listened with his eyes closed, capturing the tune in his memory, thinking of the timing of the waves; it was a lovely song, one that was peaceful and tranquil.
The man stopped, and Grange opened his eyes to look at his acquaintance.
“That wasn’t very good, I’m afraid,” the servant told Grange.
“Oh no!” Grange protested. “It was very good. The music was beautiful, and you hummed it very well. It sounded just like the water in the harbor.”
“That’s just what it is!” the other
man told him. “It’s one part of a famous set of songs about the harbor. There are three of them – one peaceful, one stormy, and one for when the waters are busy with lots of ships trying to get in and out.”
“Let me try your tune,” Grange said. He raised his flute again, then closed his eyes and let his memory of the music wash over him, as he began to play what he remembered. He repeated the tune the man had hummed, as best he could remember it, then repeated it with subtle variations to draw it out and make it last longer. When he finished, he opened his eyes and lowered the flute, then looked at the man next to him.
There were others in the room as well, he discovered – two servants, a young woman and a young man in immaculate uniforms stood just behind the man, who absently held his hand up behind himself in a gesture to prevent the two from interrupting the music.
“That was lovely,” the man said enthusiastically to Grange.
“Are you ready to go?” the female servant asked the man.
He turned. “I think I’ll stay here with our young musician and enjoy his efforts for a while. You two go about things without me, until it’s time for the celebration,” he said.
The two nodded, then left the room.
“I’m sorry; I hope I’m not keeping you from anything,” Grange apologized.
“Absolutely not! Your music is wonderful,” the man told him.
“Would you hum another tune?” Grange asked. “Maybe I can build up a repertoire before the guests arrive!” he laughed.
“Try this one,” the man suggested, then began to hum another tune that Grange listened to, then re-played on his instrument afterwards.
“Be inventive with it, like you were the first time,” the man urged. “Play with it and see what you can create.”
Grange squinted appraisingly, then looked out the window and began the tune again, improvising as he felt the tune offered opportunities, and looping through it twice, enjoying the delightful flow.
“I hope that wasn’t too much,” he turned to his companion, then discovered that a handful of other people had entered the large compartment and stood listening intently, absentmindedly nibbling on finger food items as they stood near him.
“That was brilliant!” one of the other guests enthusiastically commented.
“See, we want to hear more,” the man with him said.
“But I was just noodling. It wasn’t real music,” Grange protested.
“Don’t you talk back to his highness,” one of the other members of the audience admonished Grange.
“Highness?” Grange was aghast. “But I thought you were just another servant here,” he said.
“My lord,” he added belatedly.
“Oh, pshaw, it just happens that my older brother has had a couple of sons of his own, so I’m simply a superfluous branch on the royal family tree, and I still am called prince at my age – at my age!” the prince cackled. “You probably think of some dashing young rogue when you hear prince, don’t you?
“And what is your name, my young musician?” the nobleman asked.
“I’m called Grange, my lord,” Grange quickly responded.
“And I’m Prince Rupert, but you may call me your muse, if you want,” the old man smiled. “Now, let’s try another one of my tunes, and then you can play one of your tunes.”
They proceeded with the plan, as Grange played the tune that Rupert hummed, then composed a new piece of music around the same template. Afterwards, he once again played a modified, slowed version of one of the mountain dancing tunes he had learned while picking apples, and then another.
Ariana, Garrel and Deana returned to the grand cabin to visit Grange, but had to elbow their way through the crowd that filled the chamber, listening to his music. Grange took a break when they approached.
“You’ve got as big a crowd down here as there is on the whole upper deck,” Garrel told him.
“And we’ve eaten the most marvelous food; we won’t have to buy any dinner at all!” Deana added enthusiastically. “And Garrel’s been offered a job!” she said.
Grange looked at his friend in surprise.
“Count Selebe offered me a job working in his stables,” Garrel confirmed, “after he found out I was your friend. So thanks for the job! It’ll pay enough for us to stay in the apartment for some time to come.”
“We’re going to go back to the apartment now,” Garrel told Grange. “Thank you for bringing us along. We’ve sure come a long way from Fortune, haven’t we?” he smacked his friend on the shoulder, then took Deana’s hand and led her back out of the chamber.
“Are you having fun?” Grange asked Ariana after the other two left.
“I’ve been asked to dance at least a dozen times,” she said. “So far I haven’t, but I might soon, if you don’t come upstairs and dance with me once.”
“I’ll come up at the next break,” he promised. “I better start playing here again,” he concluded, and he resumed his music, as Ariana waved her fingers and disappeared.
Grange played on for another long set of songs, as the crowd slowly began to thin out. He was focusing on his music, with the room less than half full sometime later, when he noticed a pair of men who were walking across the room with peculiar gaits and oddly wooden facial expressions. He watched them carefully as they ambled about and found seats, then sat not far away from him, watching him play, as he watched them.
They both stood up after just two minutes, then separated as they walked in a seemingly random pair of paths that brought them closer to Grange. He dropped his flute and pulled his sword free, giving a shout of fear as he saw at the last second that the feet of a pair of possessing demons were visible, hanging out from the back of the heads of the two men.
For the first time in a long time, the voices of the jewels in his arm awoke and screamed warning.
The two possessed men turned on Grange, pulling knives from their belts as he desperately tried to swing his enchanted sword so that it grazed along the back of the scalp of the first man. He succeeded with his aim, and cut the blue blade through the wispy flesh of the man’s possessor. Grange watched as the cut limbs of the demon dissolved into smoke, while the rest of the little monster abruptly emerged from the man’s head, then also dissolved and vanished.
Liberated from his demonic possession, the man fell to the ground unconscious, while the people in the room started screaming, scrambling, and hollering, and the second demon-driven assassin raised his knife to launch his own attack. After only twenty seconds of battle, Grange maneuvered his blue sword around and sliced through the exposed hind quarters of the demon that possessed the second man as well, causing that man to also fall to the ground unconscious as a result of the demise of the small evil entity.
“He killed them!” a woman exclaimed to a pair of ship’s officers who entered the room in response to the hullabaloo that had erupted.
Grange stood still for a moment, then slowly put his sword away as he watched the two officers approach him cautiously.
“I was afraid they were going to attack me,” he explained. “But they’re not dead, I’m sure.”
“He’s right, they’re alive, and there’s no sign of any harm to them,” one of the officers said, as he bent over the unconscious men. “There’s not a scratch on them.”
Ariana suddenly stood in the doorway, pale faced, looking about the room with a wild light in her eyes. she ran across the room to Grange, then grabbed his arm.
“You’re okay? They didn’t hurt you? What happened?” she asked.
“There were two of them,” he motioned down at the figures on the floor. “But everything’s okay. I’m fine,” he reassured her.
One of the men on the floor opened his eyes, then sat up, in a state of confusion. He looked around at the chamber, then saw his companion also on the floor.
“What are we doing down here? We were out on the dock, waiting to board the ship – that’s the last thing I remember,” he said.
Grange and A
riana stepped away from where the two men were recovering.
“You killed two demons?” she asked.
“It wasn’t hard,” Grange said. “They were hard to see at first. They were almost completely hidden inside the men, but the men were acting strangely, so I was watching them closely when I saw the demons’ feet stick out. I was afraid I might hurt the men trying to cut the demons.”
“There may come a time when you will have to kill the men to drive the demons out,” Ariana said soberly. “There will be demons that will be completely inside their victims, invisible to the outside world. Fortunately, there aren’t many that are so dangerous, and none have come after you yet.
“We’re going to have to increase your training,” she decided forcefully.
“Ariana!” Grange raised his voice, making heads turn, as people looked away from the two confused men who were standing. “Ariana,” he repeated in a lower voice, “when do we have time for more training?”
“We could stop sleeping,” she said thoughtfully, then grinned as she saw the look of horrified incredulity on his face. “Don’t worry, young hero, we’ll find a way.
“Now play some more music and make people forget about all of this. Then we’ll go dance upstairs. But don’t play too long; the party will be over soon,” she told him.
Grange watched her walk away, as one of the ship’s staff members came over to talk to him. “These blokes say they don’t remember a thing. They’ve got nothing against you, and we found these,” he held up the two knives the men had brandished against Grange. “These are the ship’s own knives, and the men say they don’t know how they came to possess them.
“We can have them thrown off the ship, or arrested, if you want us to,” the man explained.
Grange looked over at the still-befuddled men. “I think they just had a fit of some kind. They should be okay to stay, as far as I’m concerned,” he told the officer
“That’s very kind of you, young sir,” the officer said. He turned and went over to the two men, then he and the other staff member escorted the men to the stairs, and up to the deck for fresh air.
The Elemental Jewels (Book 1) Page 20
