Chapter 3
" I think she's waking, hand me that towel please, sire" Shelaya opened her eyes to feel her head pound like a thousand drums and to find a maid leaning over hear and towelling her sweaty head.
"Now child, rest your head easy and you'll soon be fine" A male voice told Shelaya, she turned her eyes toward the voice, there stood an elderly man, he was short and plump with long brown hair streaked with grey and a long shaggy beard, he had a tiny delicate nose, a smiling mouth and large green brown eyes, Shelaya felt at ease as soon as she saw him, he felt as if he had a good nature.
To Shelaya's eleven year old eyes he looked to be very important.
She tried to get up but the maid held her down.
"Nay child, yer sick and yer leg's all stuffed and needs a time t'heal, y'hear me?" the maid sternly told Shelaya.
Shelaya nodded dumbly.
"Good, Sire she's all your's, but she needs the rest so don't go and tire her out sire." The maid was older than the noble standing in the corner of the room and it seemed that she used to be his nursery maid when he was a lad.
"Yes, Golphra" He chuckled to her. She exited the lavishly furnished room with a smile.
Shelaya focused on her surrounding and saw that the room was warm, the bed was soft, the fire was comfortable and her headache was slowly disintegrating.
The watched as the elderly man came closer to the bed and sat himself on a chair near it.
"Welcome child to the Barony of Olua, now if you please, could you tell me what you had done to rile up that gang of Bandits and that Spidren who were likely to kill ye if my students and I were not our for an evening stroll?" he enquired.
Shelaya looked at the man, he seemed kind enough and he deserved an answer, Shelaya tried to dredge up a memory but…. couldn't find one, she frowned, what was happening?
"I.. I…. don't…don't know…..sire, uh, sir, sire" She concluded baffled.
"Come now child I will not hurt you, and I do deserve an explanation for saving your life.." He glared at her. He remembered how his students had shouted when they saw a Spidren attacking a horse and a large group of men standing in a circle, they had gotten rid of them.
She grimaced under his glare and concentrated again to bring up a memory, after three minutes of intense concentration, she still didn't come up with anything.
"i….Sir….i…" she broke down and started to cry.
The man looked at the girl and pondered what he would do with her, he assumed that she was a having a slight case of amnesia, but would soon remember what had happened, for now, he believed her and would wait until her memory came back to her. To comfort her he said: "I cleaned and fed your horse and he is now in the stables, I must say he is a very fine steed"
"Horse?" she said, "I have a horse?"
But by then he had walked out of the room.
Shelaya relaxed on the bed and pondered her thoughts.
She had a horse
She couldn't remember anything except that her name was Shelaya and she was eleven.
She remembered that she was supposed to be somewhere but couldn't remember where.
She felt safe with this man looking after her
She didn't remember anything about Bandits or Spidrens.
She wanted….no needed… to leave this place, her memory couldn't remember what but she had to avenge someone or something.
She thought about the last thought that had entered her mind, she needed to get out of here, and fast.
She raised herself up in her elbows and proceeded to get out of bed.
A flash of agonizing pain stopped her from going any further, her thigh seemed to be on terrible fire and her whole leg pumped with pain.
She tried to move in a more comfortable position, what was she to do?
She sat and considered her current position.
Who was she? What was she? If she was to get out of her, where would she go?
The next couple of weeks saw that Shelaya stayed in that bed, her memory didn't return, but her knowledge of where she was grew.
Eight weeks later.
Shelaya was now fully healed from her leg accident, the healers that had come had said she was lucky that she had not broken the bone near a joint or else she would have pain there for a long time, especially in the cold.
Her bone healed and soon Shelaya was up and about in the Barony of Olua.
After a few weeks in bed, Shelaya had found out that the kind Elderly man was called Sir Miles of Olua, he was a teacher at Corus in the palace and he often came home for festivals or holidays, three weeks after Shelaya had broken her leg, he had left the Barony, but returned two weeks later, other than that Shelaya knew nothing of the man, so she kept to her self.
**
Sir Miles had been preoccupied with Shelaya for the past eight weeks, he thanked the Goddess that it was the summer holidays, for her knew he wouldn't have been able to cope with teaching and finding the poor girl's family.
The past seven weeks he had ventured across the southern end of Tortall trying to find Shelaya's family, he did not even know her last name, for she had forgotten that also.
(The first week was the last week of training for the students that year and they had come to finish their training at his home, that was when they had seen Shelaya.
They left a week later.)
He did not expose himself too much to the girl, because he knew he would get attached to her, she was a fine young sprout with a bright mind and a fine horse, and he, unfortunately did not have time to make more friends of youngsters, he already had his incredible students, Keladry and Neal and his highness prince Roald and his grandchildren, and all the squires, pages and Knights at the palace, he couldn't risk making a close bondage with an unknown child.
The poor girl was bored, he knew, but he daren't tell her stories of what happened in the palace and such, he did not know what sort of parents she had, she might have had parents who hated the very idea of girls becoming knights and he did not want to risk the outcome of the girl wanting to become a lady knight, so he stayed away from the topic of Knighthood and told the girl the history of Tortall and stories of mythical beasts, basic things children should have been taught since they were young, in the hope of her regaining her memory.
And as time flew by, the girl progressed in her learning, she was a quick learner with an equally quick mind, he was pleased, she would have been a great Baroness if she was a noble, or one of the Queen's riders.
But he did not venture into anything about politics.
And he continued to send his network of spies across the country to find this girl's family.
)))))))))))
And the reason why he could not find the Cartwills was because they, and their nomadic ways had packed up and decide to holiday in Galla, not knowing that their child had not reached her destination. And thinking that their child's escorts had returned safely home, for they were far away with no contact from their village.
It had been twelve weeks now since Shelaya had witnessed the forgotten scene of Lord Migeal's death and the breaking of her femur.
A long waited three months of depression had passed; Shelaya was now feeling caged, not unusual since she had wandering blood running through her. She had deliberately stopped herself form getting attached to any of the people in this Barony, she knew she'd be leaving soon and did not want to feel bad when she left.
The sense of urgency grew with every passing day, Shelaya was to leave.
And it was on her unknown twelfth birthday night that she decide to leave the place.
That night Shelaya knew that Sir Miles had drunk himself to sleep, the servants were still rummaging around the castle.
She collected the clothes that she had been given into a leather bag, dressed herself in dark clothing.
She slipped a golden dagger in her belt.
The day Shelaya had woken up after begin rescued Sir Miles had shown her that they had found items in her clothes, she had a glaive (that was what Sir Miles called it) that fit in her back, a golden dagger set with jewels that looked priceless, a belt of daggers with newly replaced daggers in the belt.
Now she strapped the belt of daggers on her soft leather boots, the glaive was placed in her back, it fit perfectly in the small of her back and between her shoulders, it was as if it was made for her, it probably was.
She tied her marone coloured with a black piece of cloth, grabbed a thick dark cloak and softly slid out of the room.
During the weeks of recovery Shelaya had realised that she was quick on her feet, and had continuously climbed trees and jumped on roofs when she could, whenever the maids weren't looking, because she knew they would practically kill her if they found out. She knew she would need this training later on.
And it was now that this came in handy, she walked down the long corridor and came to a room that was for relaxing, a lounge and a bowl of fruit in one corner, a balcony and silk curtain on the other, and a door up ahead which led to the stairwell.
She tiptoed to the balcony, opened quietly and slipped out into the cold night.
The moon was up, so it was good for illumination. There were a few dark clouds in the sky.
Nearly spider like, Shelaya grabbed hold of the jutting stone on the wall, and started to pull herself all the way up to the roofs.
Landing, Shelaya took a deep breath, she was amazed at how well her bone had healed, she felt no pain whatsoever, and she was in perfect health.
She turned around and surveyed the dark Barony and surrounding village.
She breathed the cold crisp night air.
And saw two riders approaching the gates of the Barony. She crouched as she watched them enter galloping with two might horses.
She needed to get out of here fast.
She ran across the flat roof of the great castle, watching for guards.
As she reached a gap in the roof she readied herself and…jumped.
And landed perfectly on the roof of the stables.
She went to the edge of the large building, squatted at the rim, placed her hands on the frame….and went over the edge.
She ended up hanging off the frame of the open doorway of the stables, facing away from the animals inside.
She dropped down and headed towards the horses.
She had ridden her so-called horse, a couple of times; she did not know his name.
She went to him and looked at his handsomeness, he was beautiful, and his hair was the same colour as hers, which was pretty uncanny.
She got the horses saddle, and tack ready to place it on him when she heard the sound of walking horses and talking voices.
She held her breathe, they were definitely coming closer.
She looked to the side, up and down.
She glanced back up to the roof of the stables, the rafter were not that far, there were wooden blocks of wood that stretched across the whole stable from corner to corner.
She leaped and grabbed hold of the rough wood underneath her finger tips, swinging her legs up, she somehow managed to get her whole body up on those wooden bars, she walked to the corner of the stables, careful that she didn't fall of and crouched in the dark, trying to stop her loud heart beating.
She then watched as two very important people entered the dark stables, of course Shelaya did not who they were….
" I think she's waking, hand me that towel please, sire" Shelaya opened her eyes to feel her head pound like a thousand drums and to find a maid leaning over hear and towelling her sweaty head.
"Now child, rest your head easy and you'll soon be fine" A male voice told Shelaya, she turned her eyes toward the voice, there stood an elderly man, he was short and plump with long brown hair streaked with grey and a long shaggy beard, he had a tiny delicate nose, a smiling mouth and large green brown eyes, Shelaya felt at ease as soon as she saw him, he felt as if he had a good nature.
To Shelaya's eleven year old eyes he looked to be very important.
She tried to get up but the maid held her down.
"Nay child, yer sick and yer leg's all stuffed and needs a time t'heal, y'hear me?" the maid sternly told Shelaya.
Shelaya nodded dumbly.
"Good, Sire she's all your's, but she needs the rest so don't go and tire her out sire." The maid was older than the noble standing in the corner of the room and it seemed that she used to be his nursery maid when he was a lad.
"Yes, Golphra" He chuckled to her. She exited the lavishly furnished room with a smile.
Shelaya focused on her surrounding and saw that the room was warm, the bed was soft, the fire was comfortable and her headache was slowly disintegrating.
The watched as the elderly man came closer to the bed and sat himself on a chair near it.
"Welcome child to the Barony of Olua, now if you please, could you tell me what you had done to rile up that gang of Bandits and that Spidren who were likely to kill ye if my students and I were not our for an evening stroll?" he enquired.
Shelaya looked at the man, he seemed kind enough and he deserved an answer, Shelaya tried to dredge up a memory but…. couldn't find one, she frowned, what was happening?
"I.. I…. don't…don't know…..sire, uh, sir, sire" She concluded baffled.
"Come now child I will not hurt you, and I do deserve an explanation for saving your life.." He glared at her. He remembered how his students had shouted when they saw a Spidren attacking a horse and a large group of men standing in a circle, they had gotten rid of them.
She grimaced under his glare and concentrated again to bring up a memory, after three minutes of intense concentration, she still didn't come up with anything.
"i….Sir….i…" she broke down and started to cry.
The man looked at the girl and pondered what he would do with her, he assumed that she was a having a slight case of amnesia, but would soon remember what had happened, for now, he believed her and would wait until her memory came back to her. To comfort her he said: "I cleaned and fed your horse and he is now in the stables, I must say he is a very fine steed"
"Horse?" she said, "I have a horse?"
But by then he had walked out of the room.
Shelaya relaxed on the bed and pondered her thoughts.
She had a horse
She couldn't remember anything except that her name was Shelaya and she was eleven.
She remembered that she was supposed to be somewhere but couldn't remember where.
She felt safe with this man looking after her
She didn't remember anything about Bandits or Spidrens.
She wanted….no needed… to leave this place, her memory couldn't remember what but she had to avenge someone or something.
She thought about the last thought that had entered her mind, she needed to get out of here, and fast.
She raised herself up in her elbows and proceeded to get out of bed.
A flash of agonizing pain stopped her from going any further, her thigh seemed to be on terrible fire and her whole leg pumped with pain.
She tried to move in a more comfortable position, what was she to do?
She sat and considered her current position.
Who was she? What was she? If she was to get out of her, where would she go?
The next couple of weeks saw that Shelaya stayed in that bed, her memory didn't return, but her knowledge of where she was grew.
Eight weeks later.
Shelaya was now fully healed from her leg accident, the healers that had come had said she was lucky that she had not broken the bone near a joint or else she would have pain there for a long time, especially in the cold.
Her bone healed and soon Shelaya was up and about in the Barony of Olua.
After a few weeks in bed, Shelaya had found out that the kind Elderly man was called Sir Miles of Olua, he was a teacher at Corus in the palace and he often came home for festivals or holidays, three weeks after Shelaya had broken her leg, he had left the Barony, but returned two weeks later, other than that Shelaya knew nothing of the man, so she kept to her self.
**
Sir Miles had been preoccupied with Shelaya for the past eight weeks, he thanked the Goddess that it was the summer holidays, for her knew he wouldn't have been able to cope with teaching and finding the poor girl's family.
The past seven weeks he had ventured across the southern end of Tortall trying to find Shelaya's family, he did not even know her last name, for she had forgotten that also.
(The first week was the last week of training for the students that year and they had come to finish their training at his home, that was when they had seen Shelaya.
They left a week later.)
He did not expose himself too much to the girl, because he knew he would get attached to her, she was a fine young sprout with a bright mind and a fine horse, and he, unfortunately did not have time to make more friends of youngsters, he already had his incredible students, Keladry and Neal and his highness prince Roald and his grandchildren, and all the squires, pages and Knights at the palace, he couldn't risk making a close bondage with an unknown child.
The poor girl was bored, he knew, but he daren't tell her stories of what happened in the palace and such, he did not know what sort of parents she had, she might have had parents who hated the very idea of girls becoming knights and he did not want to risk the outcome of the girl wanting to become a lady knight, so he stayed away from the topic of Knighthood and told the girl the history of Tortall and stories of mythical beasts, basic things children should have been taught since they were young, in the hope of her regaining her memory.
And as time flew by, the girl progressed in her learning, she was a quick learner with an equally quick mind, he was pleased, she would have been a great Baroness if she was a noble, or one of the Queen's riders.
But he did not venture into anything about politics.
And he continued to send his network of spies across the country to find this girl's family.
)))))))))))
And the reason why he could not find the Cartwills was because they, and their nomadic ways had packed up and decide to holiday in Galla, not knowing that their child had not reached her destination. And thinking that their child's escorts had returned safely home, for they were far away with no contact from their village.
It had been twelve weeks now since Shelaya had witnessed the forgotten scene of Lord Migeal's death and the breaking of her femur.
A long waited three months of depression had passed; Shelaya was now feeling caged, not unusual since she had wandering blood running through her. She had deliberately stopped herself form getting attached to any of the people in this Barony, she knew she'd be leaving soon and did not want to feel bad when she left.
The sense of urgency grew with every passing day, Shelaya was to leave.
And it was on her unknown twelfth birthday night that she decide to leave the place.
That night Shelaya knew that Sir Miles had drunk himself to sleep, the servants were still rummaging around the castle.
She collected the clothes that she had been given into a leather bag, dressed herself in dark clothing.
She slipped a golden dagger in her belt.
The day Shelaya had woken up after begin rescued Sir Miles had shown her that they had found items in her clothes, she had a glaive (that was what Sir Miles called it) that fit in her back, a golden dagger set with jewels that looked priceless, a belt of daggers with newly replaced daggers in the belt.
Now she strapped the belt of daggers on her soft leather boots, the glaive was placed in her back, it fit perfectly in the small of her back and between her shoulders, it was as if it was made for her, it probably was.
She tied her marone coloured with a black piece of cloth, grabbed a thick dark cloak and softly slid out of the room.
During the weeks of recovery Shelaya had realised that she was quick on her feet, and had continuously climbed trees and jumped on roofs when she could, whenever the maids weren't looking, because she knew they would practically kill her if they found out. She knew she would need this training later on.
And it was now that this came in handy, she walked down the long corridor and came to a room that was for relaxing, a lounge and a bowl of fruit in one corner, a balcony and silk curtain on the other, and a door up ahead which led to the stairwell.
She tiptoed to the balcony, opened quietly and slipped out into the cold night.
The moon was up, so it was good for illumination. There were a few dark clouds in the sky.
Nearly spider like, Shelaya grabbed hold of the jutting stone on the wall, and started to pull herself all the way up to the roofs.
Landing, Shelaya took a deep breath, she was amazed at how well her bone had healed, she felt no pain whatsoever, and she was in perfect health.
She turned around and surveyed the dark Barony and surrounding village.
She breathed the cold crisp night air.
And saw two riders approaching the gates of the Barony. She crouched as she watched them enter galloping with two might horses.
She needed to get out of here fast.
She ran across the flat roof of the great castle, watching for guards.
As she reached a gap in the roof she readied herself and…jumped.
And landed perfectly on the roof of the stables.
She went to the edge of the large building, squatted at the rim, placed her hands on the frame….and went over the edge.
She ended up hanging off the frame of the open doorway of the stables, facing away from the animals inside.
She dropped down and headed towards the horses.
She had ridden her so-called horse, a couple of times; she did not know his name.
She went to him and looked at his handsomeness, he was beautiful, and his hair was the same colour as hers, which was pretty uncanny.
She got the horses saddle, and tack ready to place it on him when she heard the sound of walking horses and talking voices.
She held her breathe, they were definitely coming closer.
She looked to the side, up and down.
She glanced back up to the roof of the stables, the rafter were not that far, there were wooden blocks of wood that stretched across the whole stable from corner to corner.
She leaped and grabbed hold of the rough wood underneath her finger tips, swinging her legs up, she somehow managed to get her whole body up on those wooden bars, she walked to the corner of the stables, careful that she didn't fall of and crouched in the dark, trying to stop her loud heart beating.
She then watched as two very important people entered the dark stables, of course Shelaya did not who they were….