Disclaimer: See Chapter 1
Chapter 2
This really was very interesting, and the permutations for it were endless. When Godric had said he'd love a moving floorplan and could she possibly think something up, pretty please with stone circles on top? she'd been rather sceptical about the whole thing. It would be hard enough getting round the huge castle he'd designed without making it so maps were completely useless. But she'd patted his hand and told him she'd see what she could do anyway.
As always Salazar's library had proved fruitful as had her letter back home to her father. Thing was, now she was completely overwhelmed with information, she'd been at this problem for nearly a week now and while she had made some progress in other areas, she'd not found one single reference to moving floors.
This new book looked promising though, it was one of her own ones, well her father's, that she'd brought up from home. She just wished she'd brushed up on her Ogham before coming here, granted it was easier to decipher than that blasted Greek Salazar used, but it would have been better if it was in good old Latin. And what was that noise? She'd specifically asked to have quiet.
"Oh darlingest one, thou's eyes are liketh as to stars in the nighteth's sky."
Oh, it was Godric again.
"Shalt one compareth thee to the beauty of Eostre at dawn? Or liken thy's cleverty to that of the heathen's Athene?"
"You're doing it wrong." She hoped that would stop him, his mangling of language really was quite painful. Last week he'd tried Latin, she never wanted to hear another tagged on –us ending again.
"Am I? Ah well. How are you getting on?"
See, that was his problem, he never bothered to try after he'd failed the once. After all, why bother to learn something if it's hard? Rowena thought wryly, not bothering to even look up from her book.
"Not much luck yet. However, if you don't want the commoners finding the castle, or stop it being put on any sort of map, then I've got everything you need."
She didn't bother to hide a smile as Godric's face lit up over these possibilities. "Where are they?" She pointed to the stack of parchments and he literally bounded over to them. "This is great Rowena! I've got to go show them to the others, see what they think." Get them to tell you what they mean too, no doubt. As brilliant as Godric was with his ideas and such, in Rowena's mind it still didn't quite make up for the fact that he couldn't read or write very well; especially not her flowing script.
Just as he was leaving, he spotted what she was reading and looked intrigued. For someone nearly twice her age, he really did retain an almost childlike curiosity, she thought.
"What are those strange markings you're looking at."
"They're Ogham."
"Oh." She started the countdown in her head, three, two, one... "What's Ogham?"
"The language of my ancestors."
"So what does that say?" He pointed to one of the lines of runes.
"Tinne, it means holly. That bit's mostly about the making of magical conduits. Wands and staves and the like. You wouldn't be very interested, after all you've got your sword, haven't you?"
He beamed and nodded, "That I have, and really, who needs wands? Tiny, little, swishy things. Hardly any use in battle at all. Bah. Anyway, keep up the good work my girl, I know you'll get there eventually." Finally having lost interest, he wandered out, probably going to show off what 'he' found to Salazar who wouldn't have it for a minute.
Or, as she listen to the enraged bellows of a rather fierce Viking woman, he'd go brag about how swords were the best weapon ever and anything else wasn't really worth bothering about. To Helga, who's axe really was a beautiful piece of craftsmanship... until you saw the chips in the blade. Still it was better this way, at least Godric would learn to keep quiet once in a while and Helga would be able to keep in practice. It's not like she'd be able to attack the students once they arrived.
Speaking of students, she really needed to get this floorplan sorted out, else they'd never be coming...
