CHAPTER FOUR:

The palace was a huge and rather daunting place for a girl who had spent most of her life on a ship. Rue's eyes were wide and frightened but her steps did not falter. In fact, she thought she was giving off a very brave appearance and no one would have told her otherwise had she asked, but the fact that she was sidling closer to Myles with every couple steps gave her away. Myles walked quickly and obviously knew where he was going. Down they went different hallways and climbed more than a few stairways. Going through a long wide corridor, Myles stopped in front of a large painting.

 "That" he said pointed to a dignified man with a twinkle in his eyes "Is King Jon. The woman next to him is Queen Thayet." Rue whistled. If the painter had only drew a fraction of what the queen really looked like, it was understandable why even she had heard of Queen's beauty. "The painter has actually made her less beautiful then she is. If he drew her, as she really is, later generations would believe the painting was fixed to make the Queen happy. The children next to her are the heir apparent Prince Roald and Princess Kalasin and the ones next to Jon are Prince Jasson, Princess Lianne and Prince Liam. You'll see all the royal children at point or another. Be respectful if you see anyone of the royal family."

 Myles hurried on and at last! The pair arrived at a set of doors that seemed to be as unremarkable as every other door in that foyer. Myles took a key from his money pouch and opened the door. Rue walked in and blinked. Looking up at Myles (because even a short man like Lord Myles was larger then she was), Rue demanded to know if this was a joke. "No. This will be your room while you stay here with me." Correctly guessing that Rue needed to be left alone for a minute, Myles made up some excuse about having to "contact a chambermaid to clean the room" and quietly left.

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Rue walked into the room, her footsteps not making any noise on the thickly carpeted floor. She knew Myles thought she was thrilled about the room and when one was used to a tiny converted pantry as a bedroom, it was pretty incredible. However, the whole room was yellow. Bright yellow carpet, bright yellow walls, yellow bed sheets, bright yellow curtains; there was little stuffed bunnies with yellow dresses and bonnets on, for love of Mithros! And naturally there were large bay windows that let in the waning yellow sunlight. Her eyes were beginning to smart. She quickly walked to a door on one of the walls, opened it and stepped inside. It was a bathroom and it too, was done up all in yellow. "Oh, you gotta be kidding me" Rue muttered as she looked at the yellow tiled bathtub. Finding an escape for her suffering eyeballs was obviously going to be harder then she thought. Leaving the bathroom, Rue spotted another door. Mumbling a prayer, she went in and it was dark and peaceful. Sighing with relieve, she sat down and leaned back into mound of something that enveloped her, stealing her air. Choking back a scream, Rue fought her way out and bolted out her supposed haven. After catching her breath, she eased the door open to let the sunlight in. Peering in, she groaned. Reaching in she pulled out a pile of bright yellow dresses whose (oh this is just ridiculous, she thought in disgust) pale yellow petticoats had frightened her so badly. Staring at the yellow dresses in the yellow room that had a yellow bathroom, Rue decided that the previous occupant of this room had probably gone insane or poked out their eyes to spare themselves. Dropping the dresses, Rue marched toward the door that led to the hallway – there was no way that she was going to stay in this room. "I'll find Lord Chubby and demand a room switch." She said to herself as she walked out. Which way? Rue stopped and listened hard for voices and sure enough, in a minute or two, she heard someone speaking.

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"MYLES!! How could you do something so stupid?" Jon ranted. At this, a gasp was heard from Thayet. "Jon!" she hissed, rather surprised at this rudeness. "Myles", she said turning to the knight, "I'm sorry for the king's childish outburst." Myles chuckled and said "Wait until you meet the girl before you apologize. She's a….I suppose you could say she's a challenge."

"Well, I'm not so sure mother and you are able to handle a challenge, Myles." Said George. His mother looked at him, eyebrows raised but George avoided looking at her. "I'm quite serious." He said, his words stopping at odd points. "Don't you want to be left alone, in your more advanced age? You know, relaxed and all, with no new children to take of." He finished heatedly and out of breath. The occupants of the room looked at George, with slightly disturbed expressions on their faces, except for Alanna whose face was buried in her face. "Oh gods….." moaned Alanna. "I don't believe this…George, sweetling, its not like she's really your mother's. Your still your mommy's favorite and only child." She rolled her eyes as everyone else laughed and George blushed. He muttered that was not what he had meant but everyone just laughed again. Getting back to the business again, "But what are you going to do with her?" Jon asked. "Well", said Myles, sharing a look with Eleni, "we were both hoping that she wouldn't actually stay with us. As you said, we are older and her father is going to be gone for quite some time so rather, we were hoping she would become a page." The adults in the room looked at each other and Jon was about to bring up a pertinent point that seemed to have skipped Myles mind when a small figure stepped into the room. "I won't do it." Rue announced. "You must be Rue." Eleni said, bending down to be eye level with Rue, "I'm Eleni, Myles wife." Looking at Eleni suspiciously, Rue nodded her head once as reply. Pushing past Eleni, Rue spoke angrily to Myles. "You didn't say the Captain would be away for a long time! I thought he would be back soon! You didn't say!" Myles shook his finger at her "Ah, I never said anything about how long he would be gone. You never asked- you assumed he'd be back soon. Never assume anything." Instead of reacting violently (as Myles thought she would), Rue's eyes filled with tears. Turning she ran out of the room, leaving behind a room filled with confused people.

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Rue ran back to the bright yellow room and closed the shades. The room was dark, gloomy and cool. Burying her head under her pillow, Rue sat there and fought the urge to cry. "Sailors don't blubber sailors don't blubber sailors don't blubber." She repeated under her breath. It was one of the first things she remembered learning. Before the infamous Widow's knot, before reading charts, she remembered her father telling her this when she had been little- sailor's don't cry. Time passed and Rue was just about to get back under control when a knock came at her door. Getting up slowly, she walked to the door and opened it sullenly. "What?" she muttered. "Rue are you all right?" asked Myles. Rue decided to not answer. Everyone came into the room and a voice said, "Rue. Please tell us how we can make you happier." She looked up and then looked again, shocked. "Hey! You're the king!" she exclaimed. Jon nodded solemnly.  Rue glared, anger filling her up until there was nothing left in her except that anger. "Well, I have a bone to pick with you! Why'd you send my papa out to somewhere? I'll have you know he's a very important man!" Jon looked helplessly at his wife; he had no idea how to handle a furious nine-year old, but a mother would. Thayet said gently "well, we all know that. It's just that no one can do what needs to be done quite as well as your papa. Tortall needed the best." Alanna nodded and added, "Besides, your father was confident that if anything went wrong in Corus, you'd be able to take care of yourself." Rue looked up and asked hesitantly "He really did?" All the adults nodded quickly. Chewing her lip, Rue considered. "Well, if I'm gonna stay here, I want a couple things." Myles and Jon stared at each other and by some signal, agreed to something. Leaning back, George took charge. "Well, it depends that the requests are not too outrageous." Nodding thoughtfully, Rue paced and after a couple of minutes she spoke. "I want to get an allowance. Nothing extreme…just something every week." She looked up and Jon gestured for her to continue. "I'll also want to be kept up with my father's whereabouts. Just to know that he's ok. If there's anyway that I can talk or write to him, I want to." "Completely reasonable." Jon said. "If I remember right, Pages have the summer off?" "True" said alanna. "Well then I want to spend my summers when I'm a page by the ocean." George smiled. "You can stay with Alanna and me at our barony." "You'll feel right at home." Myles said dryly. "Its name is Pirates Swoop." Rue giggled. (By the looks of everyone else's confused faces, Myles had neglected to tell them about her papa's real line of work.) "Wait a minute." Thayet said. "Pages can only be noble born. We cannot change something that important.  Not for anyone." Jon waved a hand carelessly. "No fears, my lady. Rue is quite noble born." Rue stared at him incredulously. "Say what?" Jon looked at her in surprise. "You mean you didn't know?" "If I did I wouldn't be surprised right now."she told him as if talking to a child in diapers. "True." Jon said. Turning to Thayet, and Alanna, he challenged "Well. What noble does she resemble? Her family is still a presence in court. A hint- her hair." After a few puzzled stares, Alanna gasped. "Jon! You're joking!" Shaking his head, Jon began to grin. Thayet began to giggle. "Its not possible. Are you sure?" "Look at her hair." Myles said, laughingly. Alanna burst out laughing. Rue looked about, terribly confused. "Who am I related to?" Eleni leaned down and said "The strictest conservatives in court-the Stone Mountain clan." "Don't you all remember?" Jon said eagerly. "There was a huge scandal in the family about a son who married below him and the family decided to disown him? Well, with the beginning of the appearances of the immortals, the family forgot to follow through with their request." Staring, Alanna asked, "So it never got filed and sealed?" Laughing Jon said "No!" All the adults laughed and laughed. Rue was astounded (and didn't like it at all. She had been surprised way too much lately.) "Well, when do I start being a page?" Alanna began to quiz her on her abilities and soon was satisfied. "She'll be fine." Alanna said. "Wonderful." Myles replied "Then today you'll begin. You'll be in time for introduction and supper. All your things your father gave us are waiting to be placed so we'll find out where you go and put it all away." Going toward the door, Myles gestured toward Rue. "Come on. I'll introduce you to Lord Padraich. He's your training master." Rue shrugged and followed. Whatever she was going toward had to be better then the bright yellow room.