Sorry for the long wait, I've been so busy and haven't had time to do much of anything. And then, once I got it finished last night, the internet wasn't working again, so now it's up for you all. Anyway, here's the new chapter, chapter 10, for Life on the Run. It's pretty important since the "life on the run" part of the story get's put into action (if that makes any sense). Well, enjoy the chapter.
Chapter 10: The Mysterious Eletian
Lady Selima walked down one of the many halls of the mending wing, with her destination being close by. That destination was guarded by two green riders with their swords drawn and in front of them, point downward. The lady had just come from a tea visit with King Zachary himself, and had conversed with him privately. And he had told her of his increasingly intimate relationship with the Green Rider who lay in the room behind the rider guards. And because of his worry over her, Lady Selima decided that she should go and watch over her in his stead while he was in a meeting.
The lady approached the guards and said to them, "May I watch over her?"
"In the room with her?" one of them asked.
"Of course, besides I would like to meet Sacoridia's knight," Lady Selima said. And then she added, "You can even search me if you worry that I might harm her if you like."
The Green Rider guards glanced at each other and then one nodded, "No need, go on in my lady."
Lady Selima inclined her head, "Thank you." The guards let her pass and the lord governor's daughter quietly opened the door to the rider's room. Once inside, she closed the door and turned to gaze at the woman who the king was in love with. She looked almost peaceful in the way that she slept. The blankets went up to her chest and she lay unmoving underneath them. Her arms were lying on her sides on top of the sheets. Beside the small bed, there was a chair that looked like it had been occupied by someone soon before she came, since there was a coat hanging on the back of it. In the hearth, a small fire was consuming the few logs that were offered to it. Above the hearth, there was a small window that let in some sun to light the room.
The lord governor's daughter quietly stepped forward and went to the chair and sat inside it, quietly sighing as she settled into it, lightly smoothing out the skirt of her gown. And then, as if someone else controlled her, Selima lightly grasped the woman's hand. "If you can hear me," she said, "I'm sure that you know, or expect, that the king worries about you very much. He wishes that you'd wake soon. He confided to me that he wants so much to come down here. But every minute of every day, he's trapped by his job as king. I really wish that you'd wake, so that you could ease his worries and fears yourself."
There was no response from the slumbering woman for quite a while, and then, Rider Sir G'ladheon slowly opened her mouth to take in a deep and shuddering breath. Selima jumped up from her chair and called, "Guards! Get in here!"
The two Green Rider guards burst into the room and said, "What's wrong my lady?"
Pointing to the woman in the bed, "I think she's waking up!"
The three people in the room turned their attention to Karigan, who had by this time, began to shiver furiously. One of the guards came to the bed and gently felt her forehead and then turned sharply to her comrade. She said, "Fever." The other guard immediately turned and ran out of the room, most likely in search of the master mender.
"Could the wounds be festering?" Selima asked.
"It's a definite possibility, but pray to the Gods that they aren't," the guard replied. "Wait for the mender to get here, and then go and notify the king of what has happened. The king needs to know," he added.
At that moment, the door opened again and the master mender strode into the room with a bag of supplies. He shooed the guard away from the shivering, yet feverish body on the bed and began to work without a word. The guard glanced at her and then silently left the room again to return to his post outside the door, and Selima simply sat down in a nearby chair and began to wring her hands. She sat down, and she waited, watched him work.
After a few minutes of examining her, the mender turned around and faced her eye-to-eye. Selima stood from the chair and asked, "Well? What's happening? Is she going to be alright?"
Her heart beat 10 times faster when she saw a saddened look come down upon the mender's features, he said quietly, "Someone will need to tell the king that . . ."
"What? Tell him what?" Selima coaxed.
The master mender took a deep breath and told her.
This was it, it was finally time for the beginning of many meetings between himself and the other lord governors. At this meeting, King Zachary would make the proposal of a marriage between himself and Karigan. He had done some 'research' before the meeting. Before today, he had called each lord governor into his study for a small talk, just so that King Zachary could possibly figure out who may be with him and who may be against his proposal. The lords that he thought would be with him were Lady Estora especially, Hillander, L'Petrie, D'Yer, and Adolind. The odds didn't look good, having the support of 5 out of the 13* lords that sat here today.
Now he sat, waiting for all of the lords to arrive to the meeting room. His hands were beginning to get clammy and his temple was starting to twitch with his anxiety. He was on edge, at least, as much as a king could be in front of all of his lords. And he frequently found himself looking out the nearest window to look out onto the castle grounds and beyond, hoping that that would help ease him. After a while, the door opened and Lady Estora walked in. She was dressed in a fine gown of satin that was the colors of Coutre province and that had a beautiful square neckline. She glanced at him and then approached where he sat.
King Zachary stood and greeted the lady, his ex-wife, with a firm handshake, "How was your night my lady?"
"It could have been better. My sleep was constantly plagued by worries for Rider Sir G'ladheon," Lady Estora confided quietly to him.
He nodded, "You weren't the only one." They separated and the king sat back down as the lady took her seat down the table a ways.
After another ten minutes, all of the lords were gathered around the meeting table. The door was closed and the hot air was thick, even with the windows wide open to let in fresh air. King Zachary cleared his throat and that made each and every one of the lords go silent. "My lords, we gather here this afternoon for one reason. And that is to unify Sacoridia by . . ." he paused anxiously, "by marriage."
"Who will we be unifying?" Lord Mirwell asked, leaning back arrogantly in his chair.
All of the lords looked back at King Zachary, who took a deep breath before answering, "The nobility and the common people."
That's when things erupted. The room was suddenly filled with noise as the lord governors suddenly began shouting at him and shouting at each other. In the mayhem, no one noticed one of the lords slip out of the room. While, at the same time, the only thing that the king wanted was to have peace in the room; a headache was starting to form in between his eyes. As the mayhem continued with the king sitting in his seat rubbing at his temples, the door to the meeting room opened and in walked one of his trustworthy Weapons. He approached the king and whispered into his ear, "Eletians outside the city walls your majesty."
King Zachary sighed, "Let them in. I'll be down in the throne room in a moment."
Bowing, the Weapon replied, "Yes your majesty." And then he walked back out of the room. Closing his eyes, the king thought, The Eletians couldn't have come at a worse time.
Standing from his chair, effectively shutting everyone up, King Zachary said to them, "This meeting shall be postponed until the marrow. As other things have come up that I must attend to." And then, without another word, he strode out of the meeting room and began to head down the hall towards his throne room, where he'll be meeting the Eletians.
On his way down to the throne room, King Zachary came upon Lady Selima coming down from the opposite direction. Upon spotting the king, the lady stopped and then waited for him to come to her. She said, "Your majesty, there's something that you might need to know."
King Zachary stopped in front of her and asked, "What? I need to get to the throne room as soon as possible."
Lady Selima swallowed anxiously and wrung her hands, "It's Rider Sir G'ladheon your majesty. Her . . . her wounds are starting to," she looked up at him to say into his eyes, "they're starting to fester your majesty."
What did he just hear? Please he didn't just hear what he thought he heard. "What?" he asked.
"Infection is starting to set in your majesty. The menders don't know how it happened, but she . . . she's started to fever," Selima replied quietly.
All King Zachary could do was just stare at the lady in front of him. This couldn't be happening! Fever? He couldn't lose Karigan, not after all they've been through together! He refused to believe it, and yet, he knew that it was true. King Zachary could see the fear in the lady's eyes. He looked down at his feet, closed his eyes then, and leaned against the stone wall. "I have to tend to something Lady Selima, if you don't mind, would you stay with her until I can go and see her?" he asked.
"Of course your majesty," the lady replied.
"No, call me Zachary, when we're alone," King Zachary said before she could turn away. Lady Selima nodded and then turned back the way that she came from. King Zachary gathered himself up and then stood upright again before continuing on down toward the throne room.
When he arrived, he immediately went to the throne and sat down upon it. As soon as he got settled into it, the doors to the throne room opened and 2 Eletians strode into the room. King Zachary raised his king's mask and sat up regally in his throne. "Greetings," he said to the Eletians.
"Greetings Firebrand," one of them said, the most odd of the pair. This Eletian had brown hair instead of gold or silver colored hair that he was used to. And then the same Eletian said, "We understand that you have a Green Rider in your healing quarters."
King Zachary wiggled were he sat, how did they know that Karigan was in the mending wing, "You are correct."
"If you would King Zachary, would you clear the room?" the brown haired Eletian asked.
King Zachary looked around the empty room, "There's no one here."
"Then your guards at the door, no one should hear what I have to say other than you," the Eletian said.
King Zachary sighed and then nodded to the guards posted at the door and most of the weapons that were posted in their shadowy caverns of the room. After they had gone and the door was shut, Zachary asked, "What is it that you need to tell me?"
"You're Knight and Rider, Rider Sir G'ladheon, is potentially close to death. Well our Prince has foretold a fate for that rider if she is not out of the area by the time your clock strikes midnight. One of your plans her death right at this moment," the brown haired Eletian said, his companion remaining silent and merely an observer to the conversation.
"How do I know that you're telling me the truth? And why would the Eletians care about Rider Sir G'ladheon? Why should I trust you?" King Zachary asked.
The Eletian glanced at his companion, who nodded silently, and then said, "I have been watching over Rider Sir G'ladheon since she was born. We share a connection that you cannot even begin to describe." At that moment, King Zachary noticed that the Eletian started showing a Sacoridian accent; his brows furrowed. The Eletian smiled, "Of course you've noticed my accent. Yes, I am one of your kind, but because of my mother, the Eletians took me as one of their own and trained me to be one of their many guards that protect their borders."
King Zachary's eyes narrowed, "Who are you?"
"That, I will reveal in my own time," the Eletian said. "Right now, you have more things to worry about. My compatriot and I can take Rider Sir G'ladheon to a safe place where we can have our own healers heal her. The next time that you see her, she will be healed, or extremely close to it," he said, walking up the dais to stand in front of the king and his throne.
"If I let her go with you, what will happen once she's healed?" King Zachary asked.
The Eletian sighed, "Not even our Prince knows for sure. His power of telling the future does not go that far."
King Zachary studied the Eletian before him, not even minding how close they were to each other. He knew that it had to be Mirwell that was trying to kill her, and with Karigan's wounds festering, it would be a much easier task to finish the job. And he couldn't let that happen, if there was someone there to help her, then he would have to take it. Standing and taking his crown off and setting it on the throne, King Zachary finally said, "Fine. As long as Rider Sir G'ladheon is safe."
Again, I'm so sorry for the two month lack of updates. School has been terrible and I barely have time to breathe. But I hope that you all like the chapter. Thanks.