The Master's Chair (The Chronicles of Terah)

by Morgan, Mackenzie

  “Well, yes. Chris has agreed to be my assistant. Why?”

  “We have bedrooms set up for all of you, but the rooms are in pairs. I wanted to know whom we should put in the room next to yours.”

  “You mean we will all have our own bedroom? Great,” Kevin said with a sigh. “I figured we would be in some type of barracks.”

  “Barracks? What is a barracks?” Blalick asked.

  “It’s one big room with a long row of beds, and no, I do not want to stay in a barracks. It’s just what I was expecting. Thank you for preparing individual rooms,” Kevin said quickly before Blalick decided to rearrange things.

  “Of course, sir,” Blalick said. Then he got the torches from the holders beside the main passageway and began removing the glowstones from their pouches. Kevin helped him, and by the time they finished, the dishes were done, and everyone was ready to continue exploring their new living quarters.

  Blalick led the Tellurians through the arch and out of the sitting room. After they had walked about forty feet down a twisting walkway, a smaller hall led off to the left. Blalick turned into that hall and continued walking until they came to a fork. Blalick led them down the left fork to a heavy wooden door that completely blocked the passageway. “Joan, Karl, this is your room,” Blalick said as he swung the door open.

  Joan led everyone through the door and then stopped dead in her tracks. Her jaw dropped as her gaze wandered over her new living quarters. The room consisted of two distinct areas. The main area was the bedroom and was larger than her whole apartment back in Omaha. The other area was an alcove to the immediate right of the door that had been made into a sitting area. There were two large easy chairs angled towards each other with a table between them and an ottoman in front of them. The table had a couple of shelves under it, and a glowstone lamp and serving tray on top. A deep yellow circular rug covered most of the floor in the alcove.

  Along the wall to the left of the doorway was a large double bed covered with a quilted bedspread with a design of interlocking circles. A pale yellow blanket was folded across the foot of the bed, and two nightshirts were folded on the pillows. On each side of the bed, there was a night table with a glowstone lamp, and an oval rug made of the same deep yellow material as the one in the alcove. The end wall had pegs for cloaks and there was a shelf about a foot off the floor for boots. In the corner was a small table with a wash basin on top and a pot with a lid underneath. Two large chests of drawers stood against the wall directly opposite the bed, and next to the chests there was a large wooden desk with a straight back chair. On top of the desk, an inkbottle and quill stood ready for use beside a small stack of notepaper. A glowstone lamp was attached to the wall directly above the center of the desk.

  Joan walked slowly around the room, touching the furniture as if to make sure that it was really there. When she turned back towards Blalick, she quickly swiped her eyes to catch the tears that threatened to spill over. “It’s absolutely beautiful! It’s the loveliest room I’ve ever had. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate this. It’s really wonderful.”

  At Joan’s gushing praise, a hint of pink crept up Blalick’s cheeks under his dark skin. “Ashni prepared this room for you. We hope you will enjoy it.” Then he backed out of the door and suggested that they move on to Theresa’s room.

  They went back down the short hall that had led to Joan and Karl’s room and took the right-hand fork. A couple of minutes later, they came to a second door. When Blalick opened that door, Theresa led the way. Her room was not quite as large as the one that Karl and Joan were in, but it was still spacious. It was furnished very much like Joan’s except that the bed was a little smaller, there was only one chest of drawers, and there was only one chair in her sitting area. Her bedspread was also quilted, but the designs were floral and the blanket folded at the foot of the bed was light blue, to complement the dark blue rugs on the floor.

  Theresa‘s room had a second door. After she walked around her bedroom for a moment, she stepped over to the door, put her hand on the door knob, looked back at Blalick, and raised her eyebrows.

  Blalick nodded and said, “That door leads to another room. We thought you might need a workroom for you herbs.”

  Theresa opened the door and everyone followed her down the short hall into the second room. Blalick, Karl, and Steve opened the glowstone boxes that lined the walls and soon the workroom was flooded with light.

  The room was almost square and had a small stream running along the far wall where six troughs had been set up for cultivating herbs. In the center of the room, there was a long worktable. Along the left-hand wall was a large storage cabinet and a big sink. Extra shelving had been attached to the right-hand wall, and sitting to the right of the door was a wheeled cart.

  As Theresa looked around, Blalick said, “I hope this workroom is satisfactory. Sari knew that a sister was coming to stay for a while and insisted on preparing this room herself.”

  “It’s perfect. And I love the herb beds. We can set them outside for the growing season and then store the seeds and bulbs in here when the frost begins,” Theresa said as she wandered around the room, inspecting everything. “I can’t wait to meet Sari and thank her for all of this.”

  “You will meet Sari and Macin tomorrow morning. They plan to help you unload your wagons. But Theresa, I do need to warn you. Sari has always been interested in healing and the medicinal herbs, so she will probably ask if she can assist you while you are here.”

  “I’d love to have her help, Blalick, for as long as it lasts, but most of the work is just plain backbreaking and no fun at all, so don’t be surprised if she starts losing interest before long,” Theresa said with a smile.

  After they left Theresa’s rooms, Blalick led them back down the hall past the fork and on to the walkway they had taken from the sitting room. When they reached the main walkway, he turned left, and led them farther away from the sitting room. After another fifty feet or so, a second corridor led off to the left. As they turned down that hall, Blalick announced that the next bedrooms belonged to Chris and Kevin.

  The doors to both of the bedrooms were at what appeared to be the end of the hallway. Chris’s room was off to the left and Kevin’s room was straight ahead. Both of the rooms were large and almost square. The furniture was the same as Theresa’s, but their bedspreads and rugs were done in earth colors. The only difference between the two rooms was that Kevin’s room had a second door on the opposite wall, just like Theresa’s.

  When Kevin asked about it, Blalick replied, “The tunnel continues through that door, and eventually leads to our house at Wildcat Pass, and then on to the peak of the mountain. Later I will show you which tunnels to take to reach our house, but for now, it would be best if you do not venture out on your own. There are a lot of side tunnels that wind around inside the mountain going nowhere, but there are also deep shafts that drop hundreds of feet into rock pits or underground pools of water.”

  Blalick then changed the subject by using Kevin’s door to illustrate how to latch their doors once they were inside their rooms. “This latch will not really stop anyone who is determined to get in, but it will slow them down a bit, and they will make enough noise trying to break through that you will definitely be awake by the time they get in.”

  “Do you really think we might be attacked here?” Darrell asked.

  “No, I do not. However, I believe in preparation. I feel certain that all of you plan to keep your swords handy, even though you are tucked away inside a mountain. That is the same reason we put latches on your doors. Now, shall we move on to Darrell’s and Steve’s rooms?” Blalick asked as he motioned them back out of Kevin’s room.

  Once they had returned to the main walkway, they once again turned left, away from the sitting room. This time they only had to go a short ways before they came to a corridor that went off to the right. Before they headed down that hall, Blalick pointed to a small alcove at the end of the main walkway. “You might want
to use that area for some extra storage. We can put a door across it if you wish. It is not very big, but it might be useful.”

  Then Blalick led them down the hall to a fork. He pointed to the right and said, “Darrell, your room is that way. The door is only a few feet down the hall, but the hall curves so you cannot really see it from here. And Steve, this is your room.” Blalick pointed to a door that was down the left fork.

  Steve opened his door and walked into his room at about the same time that Darrell opened his. The rest of the Tellurians split up, half following Darrell and half following Steve. Their rooms were not quite as square as Chris’s and Kevin’s, but they were just as large.

  After everyone had looked around the rooms for a few minutes, Blalick said, “Shall we go back to the sitting room? I imagine you would like another mug of scog before turning in for the night, and I feel sure that Ashni has prepared a snack.”

  The walk back to the sitting room seemed quite short now that they knew where they were going.

  Ashni had already set a tray with a large pitcher of scog and seven mugs on the coffee table, and was taking oatmeal cookies out of the oven just as the Tellurians walked in.

  When Ashni brought in the tray of cookies, Joan said, “Ashni, those rooms are lovely. Did you make those quilts? They’re gorgeous!”

  “Thank you. I am pleased that you like them,” Ashni said. “Sari and I made them.”

  “I love those patterns, and the stitching is so delicate. Do you think you could teach me how to make quilts like that while we’re here?” Joan asked. “And where did you get those rugs?”

  “I would be happy to show you. It will not take you long to pick it up. As for the rugs, I have a loom on which I made them. If you like, I will have Blalick make one for you,” Ashni said. “I set the coffee pot and coffee on the table beside the stove ready for the morning. I will come down around 8:00 and help you fix breakfast, if that is all right. The children will come down a little later to help you unload the wagons and store your things.” Ashni put her hand on Blalick’s arm. “We will say good night now, if there is nothing else that we can do for you tonight.”

  “Thanks again for everything,” Steve said as Blalick and Ashni started towards the passage. “We really do appreciate all the trouble you went to.”

  After the giants left, Joan poured scog into the mugs and handed them out while Theresa passed the tray of cookies around.

  Once everyone was settled, Joan asked, “Do you believe those rooms? Who would have thought that life in a cave could be so luxurious?”

  Chris nodded and said, “Once you get past the chamber pot and the wash basin, our rooms rival any four star hotel I’ve ever stayed in.”

  Joan frowned and asked, “Why not a five star hotel?”

  “Can’t say,” Chris said with a shrug. “I never stayed in one.”

  After the chuckles died down, everyone drank their scog and ate cookies in relaxed silence. Finally Steve stood up and said that unless someone knew of something that absolutely had to be done that night, he was going to head for his room and stretch out on a real bed for a change. When no one said anything, he picked up his mug and started to take it out to the kitchen.

  “Leave your mug on the tray, Steve,” Kevin said. “Chris and I’ll clear up tonight.”

  “Hold on a minute, Steve,” Darrell said as he finished his last swallow of scog. “I’ll walk down with you.”

  ~ ~ ~ ~

  After everyone else had left the sitting room, Kevin and Chris straightened up the area. As they carried the mugs out to the kitchen, Kevin asked, “What do you think about the fact that I have a room with a second door in it? Is it just a coincidence?”

  “No. I don’t think anything connected with Blalick is coincidence. He’s far too organized and careful for that. He had a reason for putting you in that room,” Chris said thoughtfully. “Why give you a room with an extra door to defend?” Then after a minute he added, “Unless it’s an escape route.”

  “But if it’s an escape route, wouldn’t he have shown me which way to go to get out of the caves, or at least told us that that’s what it was?”

  “It doesn’t make a lot of sense, does it?”

  “I got suspicious when he tried to scare us out of exploring it. Do you think it might lead to Glendymere?”

  “I hadn’t thought of that.”

  “Guess we’ll find out soon enough,” Kevin said as they finished washing up the mugs. “Let’s get some sleep. I have a feeling you and I are going to need all the rest we can get.”

  Chapter 29

  Settling In

  By the time everyone woke up the next morning, got dressed, and showed up in the kitchen for coffee, it was nearly 8:00. Darrell was the last one to saunter in.

  “Good morning,” Steve said as he handed Darrell a mug filled with hot coffee. “Did you sleep as well as the rest of us?”

  “I slept like the proverbial log,” Darrell said with a sheepish grin. “I can’t believe I slept nearly ten hours without waking up once. I’ve never done that before. I must have been more tired than I realized.”

  “We’re all worn out,” Theresa said. “We’ve been on the road for seven weeks.” Then she sighed and added, “I’m so glad we’re finally here, and do you believe we actually made it on time? Today’s the first of June.”

  Karl nodded. “When we left Drisden, I wasn’t sure that we’d make it at all, much less on time. I wish there were some way we could let Kalen know.”

  “I have a feeling that he’ll know soon, if he doesn’t already. I bet Blalick sent him a message last night,” Kevin said. The conversation paused as Joan used the last of the coffee in the pot to top off everyone’s cup.

  “What did you think of your nightshirts?” Theresa asked. “Mine was so soft and warm I hated to pull it off to get dressed this morning.”

  Darrell nodded. “I hope Ashni meant it when she said we could have them. I’d love to have a couple more of those.”

  “They were probably so soft because they’re been worn a lot,” Joan said as she put a fresh pot of coffee on the stove to perk. “Those nightshirts were tunics that her children had outgrown. There’s no telling how old they are.”

  “I never got anything that comfortable when I was wearing my brothers and sisters old clothes at home,” Chris said. “She can feel free to offer me hand-me-downs like that any time.”

  Ashni walked into the kitchen with a basket on her arm in time to hear Chris’s comment. As she began to unload the groceries, she said, “I may be able to find a few more old tunics if you really are interested, Chris.”

  “You bet I am.”

  “They were made out of llama’s wool. I was afraid that they might be too warm.”

  “Llama’s wool?” Karl asked in surprised. “You have llamas around here?”

  Ashni nodded. “In the valley on the other side of Wildcat Mountain. We have llamas, big horn sheep, and a few goats. I spin the wool into thread or yarn, and then either weave it into cloth, use it for knitting, or use it to make rugs. We also have about ten dairy cows and a couple of dozen hens.”

  “I don’t suppose you’d be willing to teach me how to do all of that, would you?” Joan asked, a little embarrassed. “I hate to seem so ignorant, but we bought our cloth pre-made where we came from.”

  “Of course. I will be happy to show you how to do it. It really is not hard; it just takes time. Blalick can make you a spinning wheel after he makes you a loom. Now, shall we get breakfast ready so you can start unpacking? Blalick and the children will be here in about an hour.”

  ~ ~ ~ ~

  Blalick walked in with his son and daughter right as the Tellurians were clearing the table. Macin was about ten feet tall, and looked and moved like a teenager in the midst of a growth spurt: his feet seemed to be too big for the rest of his body and his movements were a little awkward. His squarish face looked young, about thirteen or fourteen, but they knew that he was twenty-four years old. His
eyebrows were thick and bushy, like Blalick’s, and his eyes were the same deep jade. The belt that he wore around his tunic was a replica of his father’s, and although the sword he wore at his side was a full four feet long, it looked small when compared to Blalick’s. When Macin said hello, his voice cracked, which increased his general discomfort and embarrassment.

  Sari wasn’t quite as tall as Macin, only about eight and a half feet tall, and she favored her mother. Her thick black hair hung loose to her waist and was held out of her face by a headband like Blalick’s. Her face was oval with delicate features, and her eyes were the same shade of green as her mother’s, not as dark as her father’s and Macin’s. She had the same regal stature as her mother, although she was not yet as willowy and graceful. Her dress was similar to Ashni’s and, like Ashni, she wore a dagger at her side. Sari looked and acted like a shy young girl eleven or twelve years old, even though she was twenty. She kept her eyes either on her parents or on the floor, not risking even a glance at any of the Tellurians.

  After Blalick introduced everyone to his children, he asked, “Shall we get started?”

  “I’d like to take the horses out to the pasture first,” Karl said.

  Blalick nodded. “Come along, Macin. You can help with the horses.”

  After the men left, Joan said, “Theresa, why don’t you and Sari get started on your wagon?”

  “Okay. Sari, let’s go get the cart from the workroom. It’ll make unloading all my stuff a lot easier,” Theresa said. Then as she started walking towards the hallway to her room she added, “I understand you’re the one I have to thank for my workroom. You really did a great job in there.”

  “Thank you, miss,” Sari said in a quiet voice, but her eyes sparkled with pleasure as she turned to follow Theresa.

  By the time Joan and Ashni finished washing the dishes and putting everything away, Theresa and Sari had returned with the cart, so all four of the women headed for the wagons to start unpacking.