Tamora Pierce owns the entire universe of this story, all the characters,
the world they live on and the very air they use to sustain life. Only the
vague plot and dialog I have attributed to TP's characters in this tale
belongs to me. I freely give my permission for anyone to use any or all of
the plot/story/dialog/concept if they are so inclined.
Blame all lousy spelling and grammar on the California Education System.
Chapter 28
"A long, long time ago and in a galaxy far, far away. I read that somewhere and I thought it was better than 'Once upon a Time' to start a story."
"I was born in Irod, my parents must not have wanted a deformed child because I was found as a baby, abandoned on the steps of the Living Circle temple of NotreDom. The Dedicates of a temple are not really equipped to raise very young children. Since they could not find a family willing to take me, so I stayed and was cared for by temple, mostly by the novices of the temple."
"I was named Igor Quasimodo by the Dedicate who found me. Because of my deformities I was not a very mobile child, so I was left alone quite a bit. By the time I was five and could get around on my own I was just another temple possession, ignored by most and teased and tormented for being different, by the children brought to the temple for education."
"To a child, being different is the worst thing in the world. In every group of children there is a leader and the outcast, he may be the reader, the non-athletic, overweight, the only one wearing glasses, the weak or only non-noble. Some how he is different and his life becomes one of torment."
The four exchanged glances, Sandry, the noble who was kept from the children of the families visited by her parents because she was different and orphaned at age 10. Daja, who was the sole survivor of Third Ship Kisubo and declared tangshi by the trader clans, forced to life among strangers at age 10. Tris who was thought to be possessed because of her ambient weather magic, effectively discarded by her family at age 10 and Briar, orphaned at 4, street rat and thief, convicted for the third time and sentenced to life on the docks at 10. They all know exactly what it means to be different.
Igor continued his story, "Once I was old enough, and was somewhat mobile, I became useful to some, 'Igor, take this to so-and-so, Igor do this, do that.' Living in that temple crater I must have went up and down thousands of miles of stairs running errands. Lakik the Trickster I hate stairs."
Sandry, Daja and Briar grinned at Tris who was nodding her head in agreement.
"I was taught to read, write and do basic calculations by the temple but then I was expected to earn my keep. Over the years I worked in every workshop and temple industry at NorteDom."
"My free time I spent in the library where I was welcomed by the Dedicate in charge, I would help him with the books and the cleaning and he helped me learn. I loved that old man. Then in my Twentieth year I came to the library one day to find that he had died in his sleep that night. I continued to maintain the library for several months. But nothing lasts forever, one day a new Dedicate was appointed to care for the library. He was young arrogant and one of those who does not like the different. This south end of a north bound horse told me that I was no longer welcome in the library."
Igor finished his juice and the Duke asked, "Would you like some wine?"
"No thanks your Grace," he said with a smile, "I have enough trouble moving in a straight line when I'm sober, wine just makes it harder."
Evvy, who had spent the time replacing the candles in the room with her light sticks, brought him some more juice.
"Thank you, young lady."
She gave him one of her gap toothed grins and went to set by Briar.
"I went to the head of the temple to complain about being forbidden the use of the library and he told me that I was now an adult and it was time I left the temple to make my way in the world." Igor sadly shook his head and gave a weary sigh, "Different and discarded."
"I left the temple and spent the next ten years wandering. I could find no place that would accept me, I could get enough work to live but sooner or later I had to go."
"My last place was with a traveling carnival, my time in the temple stables gave me a skill with the animals that was useful. Then ten yeas ago, while approaching Summersea, the carnival was attacked by pirates. I have no weapon skills so I grabbed my pack and fled into the woods where I proceeded to get lost. I stumbled around for the rest of that day in the woods, later that night I finally found the road again because I smelled something burning and followed the smell to the road. The smell was the smoldering remains of a wagon from a merchant caravan, the road was full of bodies and the burnt wagon was all that remained."
"I was about to leave when I heard, in the woods, a child crying. I tracked down the sound and found the body of a woman with a arrow in her back, and Moglee, he shaking the body, trying to wake her up, as near as I could tell he was about four. He was old enough to tell me his name, Moglee Chandler of house Chandler. I later found that this was a merchant house that did wide spread business thought the Namorn Empire."
"I could hear the sounds of battle in the distance so I took Moglee and went back into the woods. It was a couple of weeks before I worked up the courage to go to Summersea."
"I could not find a house Chandler connection so I found work helping to repair the battle damage and we built up a small fund to live on."
"When rumors of a plague started spreading in the fall, and I knew that I could glean vegetables from the farms, I purchased supplies and with Moglee started west, toward Anderran, I was going to find some of the Candlers so Moglee could be with his family."
Moglee reached over and grabbed Igor's arm, "I am with my family."
"So there we were walking along one foggy morning when I heard the sounds of a horse coming up behind us. We got off the road and concealed ourselves behind some bushes. A noble in green and gold passed our hiding place, paused, checked the area and then turned off the road and into the wood."
"It was our first day on the road and the exercise had tired us, and I was curious as to why he was sneaking about, so we followed the noble into the woods."
"We followed him a couple of hundred yards up the slope and into a dense thicket of large and small trees and thick brush. Then he and his horse vanished into a cave."
"We hid and watched the cave, Mog was a young active boy and I had a little trouble keeping him quiet for the hour we waited it so became apparent that the noble was not coming out of the cave. Very carefully I approached the mouth of the cave and listened for some indication of what was going on, and heard nothing. So we went in, we found the horse, unsaddled and stabled with feed and water. The noble was gone and since he didn't come out he must have gone deeper into the cave."
"I left Mog with the horse and taking a torch I went looking for him. I went through the cave carefully and he was not there. It was not a large cave system, just the main front cave and a couple of small branch caves but somehow the noble had disappeared completely."
"I went back to the front cave and found that Mog had gone to sleep in the hay. It had been a long morning so I sat down to rest and let him sleep. I fell asleep myself. I woke up with a sword aimed at me with the noble holding it."
"'Why should I not kill you?' he asked me."
"I told him the only thing I could think of."
"I said, 'If you do it will leave you with a body to dispose of and a boy to raise.'"
"That struck him as funny. After an intensive interrogation I ended up with a job. I got to keep my life, a wage and food. For that I would maintain the cave stable for him. Since I wanted to live and care for Mog I agreed to the service, and went to work for Baron Frantson."
"That was nine years ago. We spent the fall in the cave taking care of the Baron's horse and gear, one day the Baron dropped a sack of feed at my feet and told me to follow him. He took me to the back of the cave handed me a torch and showed me the entrance to the tunnel leading to the manor's cellar. He brought me to the cellar and told me, 'Move yourself and the boy down here for the winter, do your best not to be seen.'"
"He showed me to the south wing of the cellar, on the way the Baron explained that the ladders led to hidden compartments in the first floor of the manor and they could only be opened from above. I was taken to the area under the kitchen, where you found us, and the Baron showed me the ladder up to the back of the kitchen storage area and told me that he had unlocked the panel so I could get food from storage and use whatever I found in the cellar."
"So the Baron brought his horse back to the manor stables for the winter and Mog and I moved into the cellar and I became the Ghost of Green Acres. We found Frantson livery in some of the trunks and fitted Mog out in it, he could go anywhere on the estate, all he needed was something to carry and no one noticed him. We also found the drapes that we hung and boxes of broken toys from the staff's children. We got pretty good at repairing them, boxes of books, we made as good a life as we could."
"It went on for years, spring, summer and fall in the cave caring for the horses, winter in the cellar. Over the years we put together the place you found us in."
"Then about two years ago Frantson changed, he stopped using the cave and brought in that mage. I think he forgot about us. He started selling off everything, people left, and the estate started to run down."
"Then we heard that Frantson was dead, the rest of the staff packed up and left. Then the Dukes guards showed up and took over, later you arrived with the new people and we had to find new livery for Mog."
"Everything was going fine, then you opened the curtain and here we are."
The Duke said, "It's getting late, let's pick this up in the morning."
"Come, we will show you to a room." Said Daja.
"If you don't mind," said Igor, "I would rather go down to the beds in the cellar."
"Why?" asked Daja.
"The bed down there has been rebuilt to fit me and my physical form."
"I stay with him." Said Moglee.
"Fine with us but we want you back up here for breakfast, the staff if Green Acres is going to get to meet the Ghost."
"I don't think I will fit in very well."
"I think you will be surprised, but you are welcome here, anyone who does not like that can leave." Briar told him.
As Igor and Moglee headed down to the cellar Evvy handed each of them a light stick and lampshade. "Better than candles." She told them.
The door closed behind them and the Duke remarked "Interesting."
"I'm for bed, see you in the morning." Said Tris.
A chorus of goodnights circled the room and all headed toward the door and bed.
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
A/N
My brain aches, it is painful to create a 40 year life in five page
Blame all lousy spelling and grammar on the California Education System.
Chapter 28
"A long, long time ago and in a galaxy far, far away. I read that somewhere and I thought it was better than 'Once upon a Time' to start a story."
"I was born in Irod, my parents must not have wanted a deformed child because I was found as a baby, abandoned on the steps of the Living Circle temple of NotreDom. The Dedicates of a temple are not really equipped to raise very young children. Since they could not find a family willing to take me, so I stayed and was cared for by temple, mostly by the novices of the temple."
"I was named Igor Quasimodo by the Dedicate who found me. Because of my deformities I was not a very mobile child, so I was left alone quite a bit. By the time I was five and could get around on my own I was just another temple possession, ignored by most and teased and tormented for being different, by the children brought to the temple for education."
"To a child, being different is the worst thing in the world. In every group of children there is a leader and the outcast, he may be the reader, the non-athletic, overweight, the only one wearing glasses, the weak or only non-noble. Some how he is different and his life becomes one of torment."
The four exchanged glances, Sandry, the noble who was kept from the children of the families visited by her parents because she was different and orphaned at age 10. Daja, who was the sole survivor of Third Ship Kisubo and declared tangshi by the trader clans, forced to life among strangers at age 10. Tris who was thought to be possessed because of her ambient weather magic, effectively discarded by her family at age 10 and Briar, orphaned at 4, street rat and thief, convicted for the third time and sentenced to life on the docks at 10. They all know exactly what it means to be different.
Igor continued his story, "Once I was old enough, and was somewhat mobile, I became useful to some, 'Igor, take this to so-and-so, Igor do this, do that.' Living in that temple crater I must have went up and down thousands of miles of stairs running errands. Lakik the Trickster I hate stairs."
Sandry, Daja and Briar grinned at Tris who was nodding her head in agreement.
"I was taught to read, write and do basic calculations by the temple but then I was expected to earn my keep. Over the years I worked in every workshop and temple industry at NorteDom."
"My free time I spent in the library where I was welcomed by the Dedicate in charge, I would help him with the books and the cleaning and he helped me learn. I loved that old man. Then in my Twentieth year I came to the library one day to find that he had died in his sleep that night. I continued to maintain the library for several months. But nothing lasts forever, one day a new Dedicate was appointed to care for the library. He was young arrogant and one of those who does not like the different. This south end of a north bound horse told me that I was no longer welcome in the library."
Igor finished his juice and the Duke asked, "Would you like some wine?"
"No thanks your Grace," he said with a smile, "I have enough trouble moving in a straight line when I'm sober, wine just makes it harder."
Evvy, who had spent the time replacing the candles in the room with her light sticks, brought him some more juice.
"Thank you, young lady."
She gave him one of her gap toothed grins and went to set by Briar.
"I went to the head of the temple to complain about being forbidden the use of the library and he told me that I was now an adult and it was time I left the temple to make my way in the world." Igor sadly shook his head and gave a weary sigh, "Different and discarded."
"I left the temple and spent the next ten years wandering. I could find no place that would accept me, I could get enough work to live but sooner or later I had to go."
"My last place was with a traveling carnival, my time in the temple stables gave me a skill with the animals that was useful. Then ten yeas ago, while approaching Summersea, the carnival was attacked by pirates. I have no weapon skills so I grabbed my pack and fled into the woods where I proceeded to get lost. I stumbled around for the rest of that day in the woods, later that night I finally found the road again because I smelled something burning and followed the smell to the road. The smell was the smoldering remains of a wagon from a merchant caravan, the road was full of bodies and the burnt wagon was all that remained."
"I was about to leave when I heard, in the woods, a child crying. I tracked down the sound and found the body of a woman with a arrow in her back, and Moglee, he shaking the body, trying to wake her up, as near as I could tell he was about four. He was old enough to tell me his name, Moglee Chandler of house Chandler. I later found that this was a merchant house that did wide spread business thought the Namorn Empire."
"I could hear the sounds of battle in the distance so I took Moglee and went back into the woods. It was a couple of weeks before I worked up the courage to go to Summersea."
"I could not find a house Chandler connection so I found work helping to repair the battle damage and we built up a small fund to live on."
"When rumors of a plague started spreading in the fall, and I knew that I could glean vegetables from the farms, I purchased supplies and with Moglee started west, toward Anderran, I was going to find some of the Candlers so Moglee could be with his family."
Moglee reached over and grabbed Igor's arm, "I am with my family."
"So there we were walking along one foggy morning when I heard the sounds of a horse coming up behind us. We got off the road and concealed ourselves behind some bushes. A noble in green and gold passed our hiding place, paused, checked the area and then turned off the road and into the wood."
"It was our first day on the road and the exercise had tired us, and I was curious as to why he was sneaking about, so we followed the noble into the woods."
"We followed him a couple of hundred yards up the slope and into a dense thicket of large and small trees and thick brush. Then he and his horse vanished into a cave."
"We hid and watched the cave, Mog was a young active boy and I had a little trouble keeping him quiet for the hour we waited it so became apparent that the noble was not coming out of the cave. Very carefully I approached the mouth of the cave and listened for some indication of what was going on, and heard nothing. So we went in, we found the horse, unsaddled and stabled with feed and water. The noble was gone and since he didn't come out he must have gone deeper into the cave."
"I left Mog with the horse and taking a torch I went looking for him. I went through the cave carefully and he was not there. It was not a large cave system, just the main front cave and a couple of small branch caves but somehow the noble had disappeared completely."
"I went back to the front cave and found that Mog had gone to sleep in the hay. It had been a long morning so I sat down to rest and let him sleep. I fell asleep myself. I woke up with a sword aimed at me with the noble holding it."
"'Why should I not kill you?' he asked me."
"I told him the only thing I could think of."
"I said, 'If you do it will leave you with a body to dispose of and a boy to raise.'"
"That struck him as funny. After an intensive interrogation I ended up with a job. I got to keep my life, a wage and food. For that I would maintain the cave stable for him. Since I wanted to live and care for Mog I agreed to the service, and went to work for Baron Frantson."
"That was nine years ago. We spent the fall in the cave taking care of the Baron's horse and gear, one day the Baron dropped a sack of feed at my feet and told me to follow him. He took me to the back of the cave handed me a torch and showed me the entrance to the tunnel leading to the manor's cellar. He brought me to the cellar and told me, 'Move yourself and the boy down here for the winter, do your best not to be seen.'"
"He showed me to the south wing of the cellar, on the way the Baron explained that the ladders led to hidden compartments in the first floor of the manor and they could only be opened from above. I was taken to the area under the kitchen, where you found us, and the Baron showed me the ladder up to the back of the kitchen storage area and told me that he had unlocked the panel so I could get food from storage and use whatever I found in the cellar."
"So the Baron brought his horse back to the manor stables for the winter and Mog and I moved into the cellar and I became the Ghost of Green Acres. We found Frantson livery in some of the trunks and fitted Mog out in it, he could go anywhere on the estate, all he needed was something to carry and no one noticed him. We also found the drapes that we hung and boxes of broken toys from the staff's children. We got pretty good at repairing them, boxes of books, we made as good a life as we could."
"It went on for years, spring, summer and fall in the cave caring for the horses, winter in the cellar. Over the years we put together the place you found us in."
"Then about two years ago Frantson changed, he stopped using the cave and brought in that mage. I think he forgot about us. He started selling off everything, people left, and the estate started to run down."
"Then we heard that Frantson was dead, the rest of the staff packed up and left. Then the Dukes guards showed up and took over, later you arrived with the new people and we had to find new livery for Mog."
"Everything was going fine, then you opened the curtain and here we are."
The Duke said, "It's getting late, let's pick this up in the morning."
"Come, we will show you to a room." Said Daja.
"If you don't mind," said Igor, "I would rather go down to the beds in the cellar."
"Why?" asked Daja.
"The bed down there has been rebuilt to fit me and my physical form."
"I stay with him." Said Moglee.
"Fine with us but we want you back up here for breakfast, the staff if Green Acres is going to get to meet the Ghost."
"I don't think I will fit in very well."
"I think you will be surprised, but you are welcome here, anyone who does not like that can leave." Briar told him.
As Igor and Moglee headed down to the cellar Evvy handed each of them a light stick and lampshade. "Better than candles." She told them.
The door closed behind them and the Duke remarked "Interesting."
"I'm for bed, see you in the morning." Said Tris.
A chorus of goodnights circled the room and all headed toward the door and bed.
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
A/N
My brain aches, it is painful to create a 40 year life in five page