A Decision.
A week had passed by and there was no reply from the monarch. 'Surely,' Verity thought, 'it was not so hard a decision to be taken. Why would he take so long to decide on her offer?'
She had not got the chance to even talk to her friends or to enquire as to what was going with His Majesty. She was certainly very tired of sitting in the same room and doing nothing all day long. So one evening she peeped out into the corridor and waited. She wanted some maid to come along in order to put her plan in action. After sometime a woman of Verity's height entered the corridor. She wore clothes like a nun. Her hair covered with a pale blue bonnet. Her ankle-length dress was of the same color. She wore glasses over her slightly wrinkled thin face.
Verity picked up a metal plate and positioned herself at the door. When the woman walked by, Verity immediately pounced on her. The sudden attack took the woman by surprise and she did not even scream for help when Verity hit the plate on her head. The woman fell unconscious at Verity's feet.
The starlet dragged the woman back into her room and shut the door. A few minutes later, the starlet opened the door and stepped out into the corridor. Shutting the door back, she began walking in the corridor. The blue bonnet hid her silver hair perfectly. The dress too fitted her well. It proved to be a good disguise. She kept walking until she came to a junction where the passage separated into three ways.
The left hand side passage she knew went to the court room. The centre corridor was too sunny and lighted. The right hand side passage was much darker and ended up at a staircase. She decided to explore the right hand side corridor. It was a passage filled with dying candles and landscape paintings. The paintings mostly captured deserts with various types of cacti or snow-covered peaks and lands. There did not seem to be any greenery like Narnia and Archenland. It made Verity feel homesick again. But she shoved the thoughts away and began climbing the staircase very cautiously.
Many maids and servants passed her, without even taking notice of her. The staircase was a wooden one and it creaked under her feet. She kept climbing until she came to a landing. It was a wide but length wise a short corridor. It was filled with various stone statues and glass sculptures. The place even smelled of some strong kind of paint. That was something new for the young star, who had spent all her life up till now in a forest.
She stared at the beautifully sculpted statues of young maidens and of strange looking men. The sculptures also included a replica of a castle and some kind of cactus. She really admired the art works of the artists in this mysterious place. But then again she reminded herself that she had to find out what was going on in the palace.
She was about to turn back and head downstairs when her sharp eyes caught something. Behind one of the glass sculptures and the other end of corridor was something like a stone panel. It was slightly ajar. Her curiosity won over her fear. She walked over to the glass sculpture and moving it aside, stepped near the panel and using her full strength slid it aside. The stone panel groaned a little but gave away. She peered inside.
It was an extremely dark place with no windows and no sign of light penetrating in. It had a musty smell about it like it had not been opened in many years. She stepped in, her eyes which were made for the dark automatically adjusted and she felt immediately surprised at the sight she saw.
It was a bedroom full of cobwebs and spider webs hanging from the ceiling. It might have once been a beautiful place with oil lamps and a four poster bed. In fact the oil lamps still hung from the ceiling but they were dusty and seemed to be untouched for a long time. The four poster bed in the middle of the room had its curtains with holes from the dust mites.
The room which Verity had thought had no windows actually had windows but they were for some reason blackened up. Verity's gaze swept the room and stopped at a trunk. It was a metal trunk with brightly colored designs of flowers and leaves painted on its lid. The lock on it was rusty and quickly gave away when Verity shoved it. She carefully opened the lid so as to make the least noise. In it were clothes like the ones Verity used to wear back home, silver gown with white cloak. There were some empty photo frames, jewelry with mostly silver as the main background, slippers and even a lovely diamond tiara. At the very bottom of the trunk she found a small case, the size of her palm, which she picked up. The case was made of gold and on its lid a name was etched. It was the only item so far that was not made of silver.
Verity read: 'Fable'. That was the name written. She frowned. 'Wait. That was a name heard before. But where?' Verity thought.
She opened the case. In it were locks of silver hair, just like Verity's.
"Does it look familiar? The hair I mean." A familiar voice jolted her into reality. Her head snapped up and she turned to look behind. His Majesty stood there with his hands folded and a strange look on his face. Verity got up, unable to say anything; her eyes darting from the gold case to the monarch's face.
"It does look familiar but whom do these locks of hair belong to?" Verity finally said. His Majesty sighed. He dusted off some cobwebs from his robes which Verity noticed now were different from the ones he had worn at court.
"It is a good question. I will answer it but not now. Now we need to talk and this isn't the right place." He said. "Come with me. Take the gold case with you and yes shut the trunk."
Verity did as she was bid. His Majesty led the way out and one of his guards standing outside shut the door behind Verity and then replaced the glass sculpture. They descended the steps and now when they came to the junction, His Majesty took the passage that passed by Verity's room and then up another staircase. This was followed by many other corridors, staircases and even halls. Whereupon Verity began feeling giddy.
Finally they stopped in front of a set of double-doors, intricately carved with gold and studded with oddly cut pieces of glass. It was pretty and well-done. One of the guards, with orange beard and a brown bushy moustache threw open the doors and they stepped in a large chamber which made Verity feel even more giddy but amazed. It had a high dome-shaped roof with studded glass pieces. A long table stood at the centre of the room with many high and luxurious chairs on its either sides. There was a refreshing fragrance in the air. But the only drawback of the room was that it had two large windows on both its ends and bright sunlight flooded the room. Verity winced.
His Majesty ordered his guards to close the windows and pull the drapery over it. They did so and then returned to their position outside the doors, closing the doors behind them.
"Sit down. This a meeting room where generally my council meets but since I could not find a more secretive and smaller place than this, I brought you here." His Majesty began offering a chair to Verity which she politely refused. "You put forth a proposal to me some days ago. I considered it and I have decided that I accept your request. I shall grant you your wish but….. only after you complete the task. Do you agree to it?"
Verity beamed and said, "Yes sir, I do agree. Thank you for considering my proposal. What is the task?"
"The task is in some way related to that gold case in your hand, Ramandu's daughter. Can you guess?" His Majesty said with a small smile. Verity's smile vanished to be replaced by a look of shock. Many thoughts swirled in her mind. But the only thing she said when she opened her mouth to speak was "How do you know my father?"
"It seems you have a lot to learn, Starlet Verity. This is just the beginning." The monarch said with a sigh.
