Author's note: Forrester is set in the near the spot of Barony Olau in the Alanna books, and Gwenllian is near where Fief Trebond was. I will eventually get around to explaining what happened to the old Fiefs, but it will not be in this chapter. By the way, sorry this chapter is so long, and I know it ends on a cliffhanger. I just kind of blanked on where to go next, and it seemed like a good place to stop. Thanks for reading! Please review!
Prince Jordan of Tortall sat on the back of his horse and looked around at the lush green fields surrounding him. Everywhere he looked he saw orchards teeming with ripe fruit, fields brimming with tall stalks of corn and wheat, and well-fed peasants harvesting crops while their children played in the clear streams. It was a peaceful picture, and calming. To think that the young woman who controlled all of this was the same Lady Vanessa he had met only hours before! I have to admit, he thought to himself, she was a surprise. I was expecting some silly girl, and instead found an independent young woman.
Jordan had been totally taken aback by the charming and self-sufficient Lady Vanessa. Even in the wake of her elder brother's death, Vanessa controlled her holdings well, and her people wanted for nothing. Though all of Forrester mourned the death of their late Lord, they were coming to appreciate the firm but kind hand with which Lady Vanessa governed. Many of the more important townspeople had been worried at the idea of a "green" sixteen year old taking the place of the beloved Lord Cerin, but any qualms were soon silenced when they saw that Lady Vanessa's passion for her brother's people was real.
Cerin had been a good man. Jordan had not known him well, because he had passed the ordeal four years ahead of the prince, but Jordan often heard stories of Cerin. The other knights sometimes called him "Protector of the Small", after Lady Keladry, because he was always watching out for those below him. His sister had been a surprise, though. Cerin had not been good looking, so when King Roald had sent Jordan to extend the Crown's sympathies to Vanessa, Jordan had not been optimistic when it came to her looks. He was, happily, proven wrong upon meeting her.
The Baroness Mildred of Riversedge had asked to accompany him, as she was related to the late Lady Aravis of Gwenllian, Vanessa and Cerin's mother and wished to comfort Vanessa at the loss of her brother. Jordan and the Baroness had been presented to Lady Vanessa immediately upon their arrival at Forrester. His first impression was of a tall, shapely young woman, with hair the color of fire and eyes bluer than sapphires. She had curtsied elegantly, and he dimly remembered being told that she had spent five years studying with the Daughters of the Goddess at the Temple in the City of the Gods.
Jordan looked around once more. After tea with Vanessa and the Baroness, he had gone for a ride through the countryside. Instead of directing his fine blood stallion, he let Windrider wander wherever he wanted. Jordan had been riding for little over an hour, and he was beginning to get hot and sweaty, not to mention thirsty. He pulled gently on the reins when he saw a stream, dismounted, sent Windrider toward the water and drank deeply himself. As he looked around, Jordan saw that he was standing in the shade of a dense forest, one that grew off to the right of the road. He tried to think about which forest it was, but he was never good with geography.
Realizing it was nearing time for the evening meal, he called for Windrider, and the stallion obediently trotted over to his master. Mounting with the easy leap of one who has been in the saddle almost before they could walk, Jordan set off, in the direction where he thought Forrester lay.
Unfortunately for him, Jordan did not know that he was going in the opposite direction from Forrester. But after about ten minutes, Jordan came upon the ruins of what looked to have been a great manor at one time. Dismounting, Jordan walked toward the ruins, and after gently searching through a pile of stone and pieces of glass and pottery, he came to a metal plate with a coat of arms painted on it. He studied it, and stared intently at the trader's staff crossed with a sword before he recognized it. This must be Barony Olau, he thought excitedly. Where Lady Alanna died!
"Prince Jordan," A voice whispered on the wind, making the hair on the back of Jordan's neck stand up. He looked around, but saw no one except Windrider. His hands felt warm, and he looked down to see that his palms were laced with strands of gold fire. Whomever was speaking, they had somehow managed to awaken Jordan's gift, though he had not used it. "Prince Jordan. At last you have come."
"I am here," Jordan said, hoping his words sounded braver than he felt. "I am here, but who is speaking? Where are you? I can't see you." A violet form in the shape of a short woman stepped forward, seemingly out of nowhere.
"Better?" The voice had lost its echoing, ghostly tones and sounded now like a woman. "I have waited nearly four hundred years for you to come." Realization dawned on Jordan's handsome face.
"You.......you're not....you can't be......she's been.....dead.....four hundred years...." He stammered foolishly. "It's not possible....you couldn't be..."
"Lady Alanna?" The woman said, her violet face breaking into a grin. "Well, not exactly, I am the shadow of her gift and former self, sent here by the Goddess to await your arrival. I have a message for you, and I have been waiting for quite a long time..."
"A message for me, from the Goddess?" Jordan sputtered. "Why would the Goddess want to speak to me, I'm no one important, not yet! Why not go to the King, or a black robe, or....." He broke off, because the look on the woman's (Alanna's, he reminded himself) face was one of mingled impatience and amusement.
"I have been sent to tell you that the future of Tortall rests on the shoulders of both you and Lady Vanessa. If I am not mistaken, you have already met her. Treat her well, young prince, because she, for all her independent exterior, desperately needs a friend. Your quest is simple: find the Sceptre of Chivalry, for in that lies the power to unite all of Tortall. But be warned..." At that moment, the wind, which had been no more than a playful breeze only moments before, shrieked in rage, and an orange figure rushed toward Alanna, knocking her down before they both disappeared.