Sorry for not posting for such a long time!!!!!! I had a lot to do, and found no time to type this chapter until tonight. I'll try to crank out the next chapter in a couple of weeks, but there are really no guarantees. Sorry also about the shortness of this and all the other chapters. OK, enough notes, just read it!
Disclaimer: I do not own anyone except Sanar (kinda sorta), Mrs. Cipuce, Eroutte, Matredo, Elixima, and Niala. And I own the sending-chair!!!!!! The rest belongs to the brilliant Garth Nix.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
In Dormitory 263, a small dark-haired girl could be see frantically shoving all of her possessions into a small, beige-colored bag. She pushed a teacup into the jumble of clothes and random trinkets, but hear that she had failed when she threw in a book entitled 'Learning the Book of the Dead: A Guide for the Abhorsen-in-Waiting'. Sanar smiled momentarily at the book. Sabriel had written it, as a birthday gift to Sanar when she had turned eight. She took the broken shards out of the bag, trying carefully not to cut her fingers on the delicate porcelain. When she had removed what she thought was all the shards, her tan bag was nearly splitting at the seams, and her half of the dormitory seemed very bare indeed. She shouldered the bag with a heave and hastily scribbled a note on a scrap of paper that was lying on her bedside table.
Niala—[she wrote]
I've gone to the Old Kingdom with my mother, who has just arrived at Wyverly. I do wish you could have met her, because you've only ever met her when we were very small. However, I do expect that I'll be back soon. Mother won't say when, but I am guessing that I'll be returning at the start of next term, after the summer holidays. I'll write to you, I promise. I suppose I'll be seeing you in a while.
—Sanar
She knew that it was rather lame, and that Niala would want to know everything, but the small bit of parchment got the facts across, however blunt they may seem. She replaced the quill in the inkpot and stood up. Everything was in order. She walked slowly out of the room, taking in every last item, for it was quite probable that she might never see Dormitory 263 again. She stepped out and fumbled with something in her pocket. Sanar took out a sharp key with a small tag attached to it that read "263", and locked the door with a satisfying "click". She raced down the hall and down three flights of stairs until she burst open the doors that lead outside. Lirael was waiting for her. She had on green eye goggles, an oilskin tunic, and a scarf bearing the Wyverly colors, black and silver. She smiled at her only daughter.
"Ready to go?" said Lirael slyly, a smirk creeping across her windswept face, and whose eyes were carelessly drifting towards Sanar's shoulder, which bore a huge bag upon it.
Sanar glared at her mother. "Yes, I'm quite read, thank you," she said briskly, with the air of one in a proper tea party. Lirael did not reply, but merely tossed Sanar some silver lined goggles and a black and silver tunic. They both bore the Wyverly College insignia, a wyvern (a type of dragon) being tamed by a young maiden, although the picture was so small that it was hard to tell which was the girl and which was the beast. Sanar wrapped herself in the layers until she resembled something close to a waddling, mumbling pile of laundry.
"Wenilwibegeddintabalazer?"
Lirael didn't even have to ask what the dark haired girl had meant. "We'll be getting to Belisaere in a couple of hours, Sanar. You don't have to do anything except sit tight."
Sanar was tempted to burst out that she could not sit tight, for she could not even sit down with all the clothing she was wearing, and that she was already feeling very tight. Lirael beckoned for the girl to approach, and she did, cautiously. Her long black hair was blown across her heavily covered face in all different directions, obscuring her already impaired vision. "Haduigeddinissing?"
Lirael didn't seem to hear her, only nudged her daughter in the direction of the aircraft. It was made out of what looked like millions of sheets of paper, all stuck together to make something that resembled a canoe that had mated with a glider. Sanar pulled down her scarf and shouted to Lirael, who was readying the Paperwing, "Are you sure this thing can fly?"
Lirael only nodded to the girl, and climbed inside, situating herself gracefully into a hammock-like fixture. Sanar skeptically followed her into another seat that was placed behind the driver. It was not very comfortable, but she could lean back, and she wouldn't have to look down. She fastened her straps, yelled, "Goodbye, Mrs. Cipuce!" to the headmistress, who was standing outside the door, waving, and then pulled her scarf back up over her face, so only two brown eyes were peering out. She watched Lirael summon the Charter marks with a bit of difficulty, being as they were in Ancelstierre, and then felt the sensation of flying. It was nothing like the racket-inducing, clunky airplanes of Wyverly; it was like they were just hovering, and there came no sound from the aircraft itself. Lirael whispered something to the Paperwing and it immediately took off towards to Old Kingdom. Sanar saw from a height that she could have only dreamed of before. She saw Wyverly and Bain beneath them, and then the Perimeter and the Wall, and she could even see part of the Old Kingdom. Suddenly, a sickening feeling hit her with the force of a stone. As they were flying over the Wall (Lirael had negotiated with the army so they would not shoot), she realized that only a paper wall separated her from instantaneous death. Lirael seemed to acknowledge her daughter's fear, and Charter marks flowed from her hand into the girl as she whispered the mark for "sleep". A relaxing feeling overtook Sanar, and before she knew it, she was asleep.
* * *
The next thing she felt was strong hands unloading her from the hammock. Sanar looked up into the clear, brown eyes of her uncle, King Touchstone I. She gasped. The last time that she had seen Touchstone, he had been strong and healthy, even for his fifties. Now he seemed old…
Touchstone recognized the look on her face. "Not quite the man I used to be, am I? Well, I supposed when you're 260 years old you wear down a bit, don't you?" Sanar didn't know what to say, so she merely stared at her feet. Touchstone smiled knowingly. "Come on," he said merrily. "Have you even met Ellimere's children?"
Sanar shook her head. She knew that Ellimere, the heir to the throne, had a husband and children, whom she had been finding eligible spouses for on her touring, but she had never met any of them, as they had all thought it would be rude to come to Wyverly.
Touchstone looked merrier than ever. "Come on, then! They'll be delighted to finally meet you!"
Sanar quietly followed the king, knowing better than to ask where Lirael was. If her mother was not out Remembering something, then she would be in her chambers, performing some immensely complicated spell.
Touchstone led her through the decorated hallways draped with tapestries of great events, though nothing having to do with Rogir/Kerrigor, into the main hall. Sanar gasped at its beauty and grandeur. It seemed to be inlaid with gold, and jewels were set in every available nook and cranny. There was what looked like a solid gold throne standing at the end of the hall, decorated with a beautiful ruby glaze. Beside it was another throne, almost exactly like it except silver with a sapphire glaze. Sanar understood. This was where the King and Queen sat, and the silver throne was only those colors because, currently, the Queen also happened to be the Abhorsen. Touchstone smiled at her.
"It used to be tradition for every new King and Queen to make a new throne, and then the old throne went into the Throne Room. However, it was destroyed and looted in the Fall of Belisaere. Maybe, if Ellie decides to continue the old traditions, we will have a new Throne Room." He smiled in a fatherly way at Sanar. "But now, you need to meet your cousins. Second cousins," he corrected himself. "Bera!" he called, and a young maid came running in, her dress a little rumpled. She looked very out of breath.
"Yes, your Majesty?" she said.
"Bera, I need you to summon all my grandchildren that are staying at the Palace. Right away, if you please."
Bera nodded briskly. "Yes, your Majesty."
Touchstone nodded courteously to her as she darted out. "Sit down, Sanar." Sanar didn't move. "Please, Sanar," he said. "I insist." Sanar didn't even make like she was going to sit down. Touchstone sighed exasperatedly at her, but couldn't say anything, because three people had just walked into the room. They were all somewhere in their twenties or thirties, and all tall and lean, two with dark hair. One, however, was clearly a blonde. The bearer of the golden locks was a woman, whose honey blonde hair framed her face so it resembled a picture. The woman had pale skin and brown eyes. Her cheeks looked like red apples, and her lips seemed too perfect to be real. She had plucked and darkened eyebrows, so perfect and shapely, a beautiful nose, and extremely long eyelashes. Sanar, with just one glance at her, decided that she had to be the most beautiful woman that she had ever seen. However, once Sanar had just looked at her, she could not look away. It almost burned her eyes to gaze upon the woman. Her entire face stung, and her eyes felt like they had been splashed with acid and set on fire. The woman hurt her eyes; she could not look at the woman…
Almost as quickly as the woman had locked Sanar's eyes, they were released. She rubbed her eyes in pain as the beautiful woman walked to Touchstone, barely even noticing the small dark girl standing at his side. "You wanted me, Grandfather?" she said airily.
Touchstone smiled. "Yes, I wanted you all to meet your cousin, Sanar. He motioned towards Sanar, who was extremely frightened but tried to smile.
The woman smiled flirtatiously, revealing amazingly white teeth under pure red lips, but Sanar sensed that it was also an amazingly fake smile, put on to appease her grandfather, and keep the unspoken title of 'Favorite Grandchild'. "Charmed, I'm sure," she said, but she was not looking at Sanar.
"Sanar," said Touchstone, glancing around the room, "I want you to meet your second cousins. Eroutte—" he motioned to the blond woman, who flipped her hair—"Matredo—" he gestured to a tall dark man who didn't smile at him—"and Elixima." Touchstone waved his hand over to a girl who was nearly the spitting image of an older Sanar. She had short black hair, cut to her chin, and grey-green eyes. Her skin was pale, and she almost looked like a younger Sabriel. All of them were in their late twenties, except for Elixima, who looked to be in her late teens. The youngest, Elixima, stared interestedly at Sanar, while Eroutte fixed her with a slightly open-mouthed stare that made her look even more ditzy and air-headed than she already seemed to be. Matredo just glared at her, his left eye just barely twitching as he gazed into her eyes, and she shut them immediately, fearing that she might be unable to look away, like what had happened with Eroutte. She did not see the sneer playing around his face.
Touchstone smiled cordially at all of them. "Well, that's all. Eroutte and Elixima are Ellie's kids, and Matredo is Sam's son. I just wanted you to meet your youngest cousin. She'll be staying at the castle, if you wish to talk anymore with her." He nodded at each of the cousins in turn, and then looked at Sanar and ushered her out of the room. Once they were out of earshot, he spoke to her. "Lovely, aren't they?" Sanar could not tell if he was being serious or sarcastic, so, again, she merely stared at her feet. Touchstone sensed her uneasiness. "They'll grow on you. Yes, they are a bit interesting, but once you get to know them, they're great people. Simply charming, the lot of them. Well, off to your room."
Sanar was about to say that she had no idea where her room was located when she was whisked off by a couple of sendings, who carried her on something that resembled a sedan chair, but it seemed to be made of the sendings themselves. She sat in the litter, noticing every twist and turn they took at their high speed, until the door in front of them burst open and they were in a chamber flooded with sunlight. Sanar parted herself form the sending-chair and walked over to the bed. It was spread with rich silks and bathed in satins. Sanar lay down on it, and it enveloped her until she sank into a deep stupor, with no room left in her mind to think about her fairly strange cousins, or anything else.
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
Please review this chapter!!! That's the entire author note for now, because I still have much to do. I'll take suggestions on what should happen, because now I personally have no idea where this is headed, except for what I want to happen in the end. Would anyone like to be my beta? It's fine, but I'd really like other people's input. That's all, and if I don't post soon, you all have to right to slap me (OK, when I say slap I really mean bombard me with annoying emails and then I might feel more motivated). That is it!!
Your author,
EowynDernhelm (me)