"THEY'RE TRYING TO INVADE MY KINGDOM AGAIN!"
Tacey let out a faint Gach! Of surprise at the piercing shriek behind him, quickly followed by a hiss of pain as a narrow body collided with his shoulder and forced him onto his bad leg.
"Lord Tacey? Why are you leaning against the wall like that?" Dark eyes underscored with a tan stripe surveyed him disapprovingly. "Look at this! They're at it AGAIN!"
Her victim groaned faintly, discreetly glancing down the palace's rich corridors in hope of rescue. Amory whipped a small rod of metal past his face to draw his attention back, levelling its strange flattened end at his nose.
"ARE YOU LISTENING TO ME? MY PEOPLE ARE FINDING THEIR WEAPONS AGAIN!"
Gulping, Tacey gave her a wide-eyed nod, warily watching the lean courtier through the drilled holes on the flat piece of metal threatening his face.
"Forest Lady." Another squeak escaped Tacey as he was suddenly released at the deep voice and slid an inch or two downward.
"Merton! What do you think it is, my Lord?"
The richly dressed man kept moving unhurriedly forward towards them, shifting his attention from the gleaming metal to the flustered woman with a raised eyebrow.
"It could perhaps be an odd sort of club, Lady Amory, judging by the flattened end..." He reconsidered the strange pockmarked look of the flat steel. "However, I can't see that it would do much damage even if it were a weapon-"
"Fool! Made out of metal like that, it has to have some conductive purpose. Why else make a club so small? What is it?"
Tacey finally managed to right himself against the sun-warmed stone, silently cursing both his poor leg and the forest queen's never-ending paranoia.
"Your majesty, with all due respect..." The underlined eyes snapped back to him with the speed and sharpness of a rapier.
"If you're about to tell me that there are no invaders, no enemies and I am making this up in my own head, Tacey-"
"I – I..."
"Lady Amory."
"And don't you start, Merton! I know full well that someone is stirring trouble in my eastern borders-"
"Lady Amory." The queen ground to a halt, Merton's large hand closing over both her own and the haft of the weapon she held.
"All Lord Tacey is attempting to say is that a mere unknown 'weapon' alone does not constitute an invasion."
"No, no – but!"
"Nor have the last three attempted 'invasions' of your land had any substantiation. Lady Amory, what would you say if another queen had brought these accusations to you?"
The woman in front of him gave a huff, a puff, and a faint growl for luck in finishing, although the slight blush in her cheeks gave her away before she quickly turned and marched down the hall with her nose in the air rather in the manner of a child defeated by logic.
Merton and Tacey let out a faint sigh of relief at the same time, catching each other's eye. After a moments pause, the rueful grin threatening both of them broke out and was shared between them.
"I think she's getting worse." Lord Merton murmured amusedly. Tacey glanced back at him, momentarily surprised by the taciturn lords open sharing of his thoughts.
"I think you're right, my lord... It does make any council meeting interesting though." The elder noble gave a faint grin of humour and the pair stood for a moment in companionable silence, enjoying the warm morning sunlight misting through the great open windows onto the carved pale sandstone of the palace's winding corridors.
The moment was broken by a familiar feminine voice further up the passageway.
"Mmm. Here comes the order of chaos."
Startled, both men's heads whipped around to look further up the corridor, and Tacey felt his cheeks flush as he realised that Queen Amory had not disappeared very far away at all. Feeling an apology leap to his tongue, he paused as he realised the woman leaning against a cream-coloured windowsill, dark eyes intent on the courtyard beyond, did not appear to have paid any attention at all to her sometime companions' conversation.
The pause allowed a very faint thunder riding on the wind drift to his ears, rolling over the brickwork of the castle like a distant drum.
An eerie chill trickling down his spine, Tacey stepped forward with his slight limp, Lord Merton doing the same beside him. The soles of their boots pressed warmly into the deep carmine covering of the stone floor, pacing across the slowly narrowing distance between themselves and the lady standing rigid by the window. Her hands were thrust against the sill to hold herself slightly outward – long, slender jawline elegantly outreached to gaze warily into the courtyard quite far below. The rod of metal she held lay forgotten in her grasp.
The drumming was louder now. Tacey felt passages of warm morning light pass over his face, interspersed with quick bursts of coolness as he passed below and between the soaring windows towards the forest queen, the rhythm beginning to pulse through his blood. Merton paused at the window before him, leaning on one elbow with a dark frown on his lined face as he also looked out into the courtyard searching for what had drawn Amory's attention.
Trepidation increasing, Tacey rested a hand against the frame of the window and leant past the queen's narrow shoulder to look out into the empty courtyard. Towering trees shaded the clean stonework below, overlooking the small canals diverted from the main moat, and as he looked a large hunting dog resting in the early morning sunshine woke from its pleasant dreams, head turning towards the main gates. The creature was quickly afoot, tail tucking between its legs and hurriedly moving out of the courtyard.
Turning back towards the great iron gate, Tacey realised a high-pitched shriek or giggle could be heard inside the thunder now echoing unmistakeably through the cobbles.
Vibrations shook deep golden dust from the ground into the air. It spun over the gates form like a golden storm, and a dark figure exploded through the mist beyond its reach.
The dark grey horse continued at a gallop, the black form of its rider crouched over its neck. Equally dark forms scattered across the earth below the horse's hooves, holding the intense pace easily, their mobbed group forming and reforming as they moved. The great horse gave a scream of something like fury as it was reigned in, head tossing back on a powerful neck and raging eyes gleaming as the earth resettled beneath its restless hooves. A lizard-like creature that was also mounted drew to a halt beside it, hissing at the larger animal while its smaller rider waved a pennant in the air.
The rodent-like plague of small creatures moving around the huge animal's hooves continued to mill, their high-pitched shrieks and giggles rending the air like blades shredding silk. Their gleaming red eyes surveyed the elegant courtyard with pandemonium held in their gaze.
Tacey remembered to draw breath.
"Goblins," he exhaled. "That would mean..."
His attention turned back to the rider astride the powerful horse.
The leather reins were transferred to one small gloved hand as he watched, the other raised to the grotesque face and catching under the chin. The hand pulled up the leering smirk, revealing it as the crafted helmet it was, and pulling it away from a thin face, darkly rimmed eyes coldly watching the castle of Avalon's soaring walls. The ovaline eyes met Tacey's briefly in her survey, passing across and on indifferently before she tensed her arms against the saddle and easily threw herself off the massive horse to stand on the ground.
The goblins parted before her, chittering excitedly, and the woman strode forward, uncaring about the attention she had drawn from many windows.
The early sunlight gleamed on a plated armour breastplate, the knee-length skirt of her tunic trailing behind her slim form while her gloved hand rested comfortably on the pommel of her sword. Dark braids looped behind her head, pulling her hair away from her face in a no-nonsense manner. The goblins whooped excitedly and ran around her long stride with waving arms and weapons. The woman turned from her path only as an angry cry rang through the mutterings to meet her.
"Sarah! Do you call that an entry fitting for a queen? How barbarian!"
A cold smile curved the woman's mouth, looking towards the indignantly quivering noble lady with a tilted head.
"I'm not a queen, though. I'm a king. Barbarian is right in the vocabulary." And with a poisonously sweet smile, the woman continued walking, riding boots creating a firm click as she began to ascend the yawning staircase to the main entry of Avalon. The noble-lady she left behind gave a faint shriek of disgusted fear as the woman-king's creatures gave enthusiastic chase to their sovereign, passing under any skirts in their way.
The massive entrance to the castle creaked slowly open as the dark rider reached it and for a moment, as the doors reached fully inward, there was complete silence. The woman-king's figure stood proud, straight and alone before the portal that dwarfed her, her unnatural subjects clustered behind her. Tacey finally leant back from the window, feeling a new spark of fear as he watched their movements.
"Are they really going to be able to enter the castle?"
Queen Amory jerked, startled by his voice.
"Given that they followed her here, I don't see how they'll be stopped. Why do you..." Merton's unsettled blue eyes gave away his understanding. As one, the group turned back to the windows just as the malevolently grinning things drew themselves together and entered the castle at a run on all claws.
Tacey met the other's eyes.
"RUN!"
Screams broke out in the castle even as they broke into action and ran in their own directions. Tacey fell behind very quickly, the spasms of his leg protesting against his manoeuvring around screeching maids. He quickly grasped the cane he had abandoned earlier, and managed to hit aside one small creature menacing a hysterical maid in passing, forcing himself to run as fast as he could physically manage.
Up the stairs, across the foyer, towards the door.
He had to reach that door, there was no other escape.
Get to the door. Ignore the leg.
Get. To. The. Door.
HOLD THAT DOOR-
SLAM!
The bulbous eyes of a knee-high goblin stared up at him in utter disappointment. Tacey desperately tried to catch his breath, his cane planted firmly against the creature's neck and holding it back from the heavy wooden door he had just slammed in front of its nose.
"It's a... closed door – you can't go... in there..." He finally managed to gasp out. The thing narrowed its gaze at him, blew a raspberry and some form of curse word at him that sounded vaguely like "Iguanadon!", whatever that was supposed to mean, and turned its pointy tail on him to go elsewhere.
Tacey let out a great pant of relief and slid exhaustedly down the door to rest on the floor against its wooden finish. The shrieks and scurrying feet of fae securing precious items continued around him as he relaxed in front of his quarters. There was no way those things were getting into his room today. He'd had to clear up after them before.
The firm click of unhurried riding boots near to him struck his consciousness in contrast to the pandemonium, and he looked up to see the Woman-king striding down the corridor, a slight mirthless smirk curling her mouth.
Her eyes were as ice-cold as ever.
Tacey couldn't help the shiver of revulsion that curled his shoulders at the sight of the well-known murderess, repulsed by her complete lack of care towards the people around her.
What would you expect of the assassin? He wondered silently.
Even as he watched, the castle's head chamberlain appeared before her, shrieking in a high-pitched tone that made him wince.
"What was this for? Can you not control your subjects when you bring them to the capitol?"
The woman-king's expression didn't alter at all. If anything, her smirk increased.
"I did message ahead regarding exactly how many goblins were coming with me. Although I think one or two more might have crept into my baggage that I didn't account for. I can't help it if you can't goblin-proof a castle..."
Her voice trailed away. Caught, Tacey followed the line of her gaze.
A man stood tall and aloof from the chaos, arms folded and pitch-dark hair cascading over his shoulders. For a moment, he stood there, eyes piercing and filled with hatred. Then, a shrieking maid passed in front of him and he was gone.
The High King...
Tacey's eyes slid back to the woman-king, finding her standing rigid in the middle of the corridor still, oblivious to the continuing shrieks of the chamberlain.
There was a sudden almighty CRASH! from further down the passageway. The smirk returned to the woman's face and she interrupted her accuser's list of wrongdoings almost pleasantly.
"Excuse me – I think you just lost the chandelier from the secondary ballroom. Is this the way to my chambers? Thankyou."
The chamberlain was left gaping.
Tacey looked after the strange woman, wondering what he had just seen.
A bird-like squawking drew him back to the chamberlain to find a strange feathered goblin-like thing jabbing at the man's high forehead while he hopped around awkwardly. Finally managing to push it away he took the folded paper it carried and unfolded it with a furious sound.
There was a pause as he read it. Tacey blinked, watching something that looked almost like steam rising from the other man's forehead before he exploded.
"NOW I get notification there are goblins coming?"
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.oOo.
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Ok, the rest of this story is at least a month in coming – I still can't believe I'm attempting Nanowrimo on top of everything else!
So, here's a taster to see if anyone's interested. If so, I'd love to hear your opinions, because I might need all the encouragement I can get to finish it!
…
Alright *sigh*. I'll give away something. Yes, this story is JarethxSarah. And no, I'm hopeless at writing tragedy. Did I put this story in the tragedy section? XD