It's Phobos sixteenth birthday. His mother planned a great celebration with many gifts and extravagant decoration and, as usual, Phobos declined it all, forbade anyone from entering the castle, and sat up in his room. It had always worked on him… but not this time. Cedric has a genius present for him, and no amounts of decrees are stopping him!
Note: I own none of the names of the places or people, but the personalities are mine!
And so are
Salazar, Cedric's Father
Miss Puget, The Cook
Bluebells, The Whisperer
Ivy, The Whisperer
Lilly of the Valley, The Whisperer
And Every Other Nameless Servant or Brainless Guard.
Chapter 1
Klick!
That was the sound of the garden gate around the house of the queen's current adviser, Salazar, closing. The figure just outside and most likely the one who had closed the garden gate, jumped. He honestly had never noticed how loud it was until he tried sneaking out it. True he had done it many times before, but never, ever, EVER had it been so loud. He looked around. The boulevard outside his house was deserted and the house was still quite. He sighed with relief and smiled and the roughly wrapped package in his hands and started away from his house. When it had dropped from even his sight, there was a green flash and Cedric laughed. He ran as fast as he could toward the great jewel of a castle. He dodged around market venders and carts and peasants and pack animals and almost trampled a small cat in his haste. Cedric called back his apologies and… BAM! Ran right into a castle guard. Cedric bounced off the guard and hit the cobblestones hard. The first thing he did was glare and size him up. One sweep was all it took to determine that a confrontation would not be fruitful.
"And where do you think you're going in such a hurry?" The big blue guard asked bluntly.
Cedric picked himself up off the ground, "You're not usually standing there at this time."
The guard looked down and smiled, "Uh hunh. And you time me?"
Cedric bit his lip and looked up, "And I'm usually right."
The Guard nodded, "Wrong today," He said, and then adopted a parental tone, "and before you even ask, no, you can't go into the palace today. It's the Prince's birthday after all and… HEY!"
Chapter 2Yes, Cedric thought as jumped on the guard's head and then onto a statue and then scrambled up the wall to the next statue, I'm always right. The guard was scrambling around under him, shouting up profanities and curses that would have landed him in the nearest dungeon if any other of the Court heard him. Cedric made a note of them. It was always fun to watch Phobos' face when he said them. He gripped the top of the wall and pulled himself over. He did not bother looking down. He hated heights, looking down would be his undoing. However, this did put him in a really interesting situation. There were no statues or conveniently jutting out rocks to jump on to get down into the palace gardens.
"Hmm," His violet eyes scanned the top of the wall, and he saw it. The gardeners had been complaining about that tree being just over the wall. If Phobos did not kill him after he got this present to him, he would have to see about getting them to leave that tree alone. He sprinted crossed the wall and was half way across when the hairs on the back of his neck prickled. He suddenly had an overwhelming feeling of being watched and he whipped his head around to find the source. He saw no one, but suddenly he realized that his balance was off and he felt like he could fall. He put his arms out to steady himself and looked down. The color drained from his face as he understood exactly how high up he was. He bit his lip and forced himself to move. His legs felt like jelly and every step he took made him more and more certain he would fall. The tree became invisible as he concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other. He almost passed the tree and only realized his mistake when the wind caused a twig to whip crossed his face. Cedric grabbed the branches of the tree and noted how small they were. He would have to move quickly, because these branches would not support his weight very long. He took a breath and swung down to the first one. He felt it bend and leapt quickly to the next branch. He dropped three feet to the next limb, but it was too much force. He heard a cracking noise and searched for a stronger branch. He did not find one in time and felt the branch give way. Then he was falling. He felt the other branches whip his face, arms, and back as he fell past them. Instinct saved him. He reached out and grabbed a branch. He sighed as the branch bent, but held. He looked down and was relived to see how close to the ground he was. Cedric looked up and the branch with a smug smile on his face. "Thanks." He told it gratefully and finished his drop to the ground. He landed on his feet, but they gave out and he landed on his butt instead, nevertheless he was down and his package was still in one piece. He stood up gingerly and checked himself for bruises. He found a few, but they were not that pressing. He got up and strode importantly down the path.
Chapter 3
Unbeknownst to Cedric, his progress was being watched. His watcher was not pleased that he was here and was going to do all in his power to get him caught.
"Bluebells, alert the gardeners. Ivy, get a guard to the entrance of this castle. Lilly of the Valley, throw that stupid gate guard into the nearest dungeon. I can't believe his impertinence."
Chapter 4
Cedric was rather pleased, but tried not to smile too much. He had to look like he was here for a good and important reason. Well, getting his present to Phobos was important, but he seemed to be the only one who thought so. He passed a few gardeners, but they were so intent on their work that they did not see him or did not care. Cedric did not like to be ignored, but it was best in his case. He peeped over a tall hedge to get a look at the castle entrance. There was a guard there and one of those Whisperers. The guard would have been easy, but the Whisperer was a lot smarter than the guard. He stared at the guard and the Whisperer for a long time, but then he had an idea
-----&-----
"Ahh no little Lord!"
The big, blue Miss Puget said. The poor thing was in obvious distress, running her pudgy blue fingers through her stringy gray hair.
"Miss Puget, this is an urgent matter!" Cedric said, crossing his arms and regarding her with a cold glare worthy of his father Salazar.
"Lose my job, I would!" She wailed.
"Oh, not so loud!" Cedric snapped and stamped his foot on the ground with childish impatience. "You can keep a secret and I can keep a secret. If any one asks, just say that I bewitched you!"
She stared down at him in terror, "Ye'h… Ye'h can do that?"
Cedric nodded. He was not quite sure that he could, but she did not need to know that.
"Alrigh than, little Lord."
-----&-----
Well, this was not exactly what he had in mind. His hunch had been, as was usual, right. Phobos, no matter how much he wanted to be alone, still had to eat. The lunch trolleys were huge, at least to him. It was an easy matter to get inside one, but it was an uncomfortable fit. He also had forgotten how long it was from the kitchen to the top of one of the great big towers where Phobos took up residence. And not to forget the stairs. He did not even know that trolleys could go up stairs.
"Owch!"
"Shish, my Lord." The green lizard-like maid hissed.
"But …"
"Shish!"
Cedric humphed and frowned, but no one could see him inside the trolley. The maid whistled a bland boring tune and continued on her merry way, hitting every bump in the stairs with her trolley on the way up.
Epilogue
Phobos sat on his window seat, scowling at the day and everyone outside his window. Turning sixteen did not mean that much to him, but it only served to feed a gnawing, nameless feeling deep inside his chest. He had been seeking to discover the feeling's identity since it had began three years ago, but it still eluded him. This angered the young prince to no end. He was Phobos, the only child of the Queen Weira; he should know everything about himself. But he did not, and it was driving him mad. A knock on the door interrupted his thoughts.
"Dinner, my prince!"
He waved his hand and the door opened, letting in the maid. She went about the business of setting his table, but he did not pay her any attention. Presently she left. When he turned around he saw that the trolley was still sitting there. He glowered at it. The nerve of that maid. He was about to do the first nasty thing he could think of, but then the trolley rattled.
-----&-----
Cedric fell out of the trolley and looked up into the glaring eyes of the other boy. For a second he wished that had never dreamed up this scheme, but he had come this far and it would be impossible to turn back when this scheme had … worked. He stood and dusted himself off. Phobos' glare had been replaced by the aristocratic haughty look of a prince and Cedric found that all his thoughts of cheerfully giving the prince his present drain away. Cedric could feel the gloom in here and he let it seep in. His face was calm when he pulled out the roughly wrapped package that he had been carrying this whole adventure and held it out to the prince.
"Happy Birthday, Prince Phobos."
Phobos took the package from Cedric and returned to his window seat. He sat on one end and Cedric sat on the other. Phobos untied the string and slowly unwrapped the brown paper. When he was done he held up the gift. It was a silver band about an inch and a half high and half a millimeter thick that looked like it would be the perfect fit. In the fading light of the setting sun, the polished surface acted as a mirror, reflecting back everything in its reach. He turned the band over and over in his hands. Cedric looked over with an odd mixture of sadness and pride in his expression.
"It's fit for a King, my Lord."
The clawing feeling in his chest increased a dozen fold and he suddenly knew it for what it was. It hit him so hard that he knew he would never be the same and when he was done, neither would Metamoor.
"Aye, Cedric," He agreed, voice firm and determined and a light of hope in his voice. "Fit for a King."