Warnings: remember to duck the flying vegetables. They're a little squishy…

Chapter Ten: Before the Council

"Not good…" I muttered as Lord Raven helped me to my feet.

"Your Majesty, Princess," Lord Raven nodded politely to each of us. "The Council is waiting to see you." He motioned to the guard standing at his side. "Larne, if you would?"

"Milady, forgive me." He turned me around and locked my wrists behind my back.

"Is this really necessary?" I asked plaintively.

"Yes," Lord Raven responded firmly. He deigned to glance at me. "If I were you, I would try and look as compliant as possible."

Adrian cleared his throat, "Lord Raven, Sir Larne, please, do not mention what you have seen to anyone." He flushed. "That goes for you as well, Elensar."

"As you wish, my King." Raven bowed. "Please, come this way." He led us up winding stone stairways until we came to a small, unassuming door. He held up a hand. "Elensar, my last words of advice to you: do not speak unless it is to answer yay or nay."

I glared at his back as he pushed open the door.

"It would be smart to listen to his advice," Adrian grinned as he slipped past me and out the door. I rolled my eyes in exasperation.

"Fine." I muttered under my breath.

"Come, milady, it is time for us to go." Larne put his hand on my shoulder and pulled me out through the doorway.

"Do I have to?" I whined softly. Larne just chuckled.

"Princess Elensar of Meridian, do you know why you have been brought before the Council of Delran?" Adrian stood on a dais, with the nobles sitting behind him.

"Yes." I looked up at him sullenly.

"You have been brought here for sentencing. You disturbed the Council as the petitioners were brought in, which merits some form of punishment. The Council has discussed this at length, and have decided upon your fate." Adrian sat down and Lord Raven stood up.

"We have decided, Princess of Meridian, that you are to be sentenced to a week in the stocks."

I could have laughed. In fact, I did.

"What exactly do you find so funny, Lady?" Lady Elena asked icily.

"I'm very sorry!" I smothered giggles. "It's just…I was expecting something horrible. This seems like nothing compared to what my imagination had spawned." I grinned, giddy from the relief washing through me. "I'm sorry if I offended you."

"Oh." Lady Elena looked a little less than mollified.

I looked over at Adrian. He refused to meet my eyes, instead choosing to hold his head in his hands. I giggled.

"Sir Larne!" Lord Raven clapped his hands. "Escort Princess Elensar to her new residence, please."

"Yes, milord." Larne pushed me out of the Council through the passage from whence we had emerged. "Milady, please, if you would hold your wrists a bit away from your person, I would be happy to readjust those shackles."

"Thank you, Larne." I shook my wrists. The metal of the bonds hadn't been close to me for long, but there were red marks where they had pressed tightly against my skin.

"Milady, I must exchange metal for hemp. Hold out your wrists in front of you, if you would." Larne wrapped the rope gently around my wrists, and tied it securely. I tested it, and found that it was quite a strong knot he had tied.

"I feel so…helpless." I sighed and tried to pull my wrists apart again.

Larne saw what I was doing and allowed himself a small smile. "You won't get that undone without help, milady. This way, if you please." He led me out into the cooler outside air, and I took a deep breath in, savoring the crispness of it.

"Are the stocks uncomfortable?" I asked him suddenly.

"I wouldn't know, milady," he sounded amused.

"Are you laughing at me?" I accused him.

"No, truly, milady, I am not." The bemused tone was still there.

"I know it! You are laughing at me!" I glared at him.

"Just agree with her, Sir Larne, it will make things go a lot easier." I jumped as Adrian walked up beside me.

"Adrian!" I berated him, irritated.

"It's true, my dear, and you know it." He touched my shoulder gently. "Good luck. I really hope you don't like vegetables."

"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked in confusion, but he was gone. "Adrian! Come back here! Damn it!" I glared at Larne, who was openly laughing. "I knew you were laughing at me."

"Yes, I am." He choked out. I sulked for the rest of the short walk to the town courtyard.

"I'm supposed to kneel here for seven days?" I shrieked. "No! Damn! Way!"

"You'll be released for hygiene and other natural needs, so no, you won't be here for seven days." The town's proprietor smiled nervously. "I'll try and make your, um, stay as enjoyable as possible, Princess."

"I don't believe this," I grumbled as I knelt in front of the wooden apparatus. My hands rested in the scoops allotted for them, and my neck was in the basin allotted for it. The block that would lock me in descended slowly, and I heard a flat click, as it was locked shut.

"Look, Mumma! It's a Lady in the stocks this time!" I looked up. A boy, maybe twelve, pointed to me.

"Now there, Kent, it's not nice to stare." The mother hurried her son along.

Throughout the day, more and more people casually happened to wander by, all of them staring as they got closer. At first, I tried yelling at them, but in my position, it was rather hard to yell, and plus I couldn't do anything to enforce my threats.

I resolved to ignore them, and for a time, I pretended that they didn't exist.

Soon, however, that became impossible. There were numerous catcalls and leers that were not appreciated by any means. My temper almost always got the better of me, and I began cursing them the best I knew how.

Finally, they seemed to get the idea that I wasn't one for laughing at. I smiled cynically as every last person managed to find their way into a pub or some other sort of shelter. This abnormal behavior should have made me suspicious, but in light of my "victory," it didn't register.

It made perfect sense, however, when the first splat of rain landed on my nose. "You've got to be kidding me!" I growled at the dirt. "It is not raining." With a rather mocking plop, the raindrops came down in torrents, soaking me thoroughly in a matter of moments. "Damn it."

The downpour passed as sudden storms do, and left me soaking wet in a crowd of dry passersby. I received pitying glances and mocking stares, both of which were returned with an angry glower.

I knew that sooner or later I would dry out, and that I would greatly prefer sooner to later. For the time being, I was stuck with my sodden clothes plastered all over me.

At least one member of the court just 'happened' to stroll by once a day, talking to me as if for all the world we were sitting in a solar sipping fine tea. I despised these meetings in general.

The court ladies were either simpering or putting on an act that a professional would be proud of, scorning me for my lack of foresight and my dreadful misfortune to be out here in all sorts of weather.

The lords were a bit different, although not by much. In general, their performances were briefer and involved more cloak flourishing and wild hand gestures. At first these were entertainment for me, and as unwanted things viewed often usually become rankling, it was no different for these.

By the fifth day of my imprisonment, I was wholly sick of hearing the slop filling the square about poor me and my appalling lack or discretion.

By the sixth day, I was very ready to be free. My knees were bruised and my neck and arms ached from lying in the same position day after day. It was that day that Lord Raven chose to stop by.

I had been trying to nap, and failing after Lady Ilea had visited her condolences upon me when I felt a touch on my head.

"Go away," I mumbled.

"Princess Elensar, I really must speak with you though." Lord Raven leaned heavily on a highly decorative cane.

"I was trying to sleep," I informed him tersely. My temper had not been helped at all by my stay in the stocks.

"Milady, please, just as few words." This intrigued me; Lord Raven was not giving a declamation for the entire populace to hear as his predecessors had done. Instead, he was speaking to me, and only to me.

"Fine," I sighed dramatically. "Speak."

He smiled falsely. "Thank you. As you know, tomorrow, at the hour of last light, you will be released from you bondage. At that time, you will be escorted back to your room where you are to stay until I or one of the King's other advisors comes to visit you. If you do not," he paused for effect, "You will most likely be shredded by the very courtiers who have presented you so very recently with their sympathies."

"Please. Lord Raven, my mind is not capable of such flowering speech. Say it plainly." I waited for him.

"If you do not wait for I or one of the King's advisors to visit you in your rooms, then you will lose your reputation and you dignity in front of the entire court." He sighed long-sufferingly. "I don't think that I could put it in plainer terms, Princess."

"Since when have I cared about my reputation in this court?" I practically shrieked. "If I had cared about my 'reputation,' I would never have stormed into the petitioner's court as I did, nor would I have insulted Adr-the King so publicly." I glared at him. "Why should I even listen to you?"

He smiled charmingly. "There, milady is a good question." He lost the smile. "I am the only one who could possibly fix your reputation with these courtiers, as it has been thoroughly soiled by your latest escapade." He held up a finger to silence me when I would have spoken. "And as for your reputation, it is not only here that it hangs in a very delicate limbo. At your home in Meridian, they will get word of what you have done and it won't be presented in a way that is flattering to you. You will be ridiculed and mocked should you ever return home. Do as I say, and you will be able to return to your family eventually."

"Do you know how much I want to hurt you right now?" I smiled and used the most sugary tone I had.

"Yes," he replied bluntly. "You would like to see me killed. Unfortunately, as you are in the stocks, you can do no such thing. Enjoy your stay, Princess." He chucked me under the chin like a child and walked off, looking quite satisfied with himself.

I glared at his retreating back. "Only until tomorrow."

Everything seemed to happen on the sixth day. Well, at least, everything bad seemed to happen on the sixth day, and things just kept getting worse.

"Hello, pretty," a man walked up to me, his face bearing a sultry grin. "You're that trouble-making Princess from Meridian, aren't you?"

I pasted an innocent expression on my face. "And if I am?" I smiled.

"Well, let's just say that we aren't very happy with all the disturbances you've caused us here. We've been put aside so that your pretty little face doesn't have to fret about a thing. We aren't very happy about that." He stroked my head and I tried to flinch away, only succeeding at cracking my head on the wooden stocks. He laughed.

"Ouch." I shook my head gently. "Who's 'we'?" I asked him.

"The people of this town, of course." He gave me that smile again. "We think you should pay for all the inconveniences you've caused us."

"Like what?" I growled. "What have I done?"

"Well, you've cost the king money searching for you that would otherwise been put to use to bettering Delran. You interrupted the Council of Petition and ended it efficiently before it really even began. You have been nothing but a troublemaker from the start." He backed away, yelling out his list of grievances.

Suddenly, something soft and wet hit me in the back. I shivered as its juices ran down my back. Then, an orange flying object smacked me squarely on the forehead. As it dropped, I saw that I was a carrot.

I understood what Adrian had said about not liking vegetables.

I braced myself, then, closing my eyes and tightly sealing my mouth shut. All sorts of thunks and smacks echoed through the wood near my head, and some echoed through my head as rotten vegetables assailed me. Apparently, the townspeople didn't have nearly as good of aim as they would have liked, for a scant few of the foodstuffs actually hit me, thankfully.

However, my back presented a broader target, and I could feel the slimy innards of things squishing and slipping down my back and under my shirt.

I was sticky and smelling of spoiled food very quickly.

After a bit of chortling amongst themselves, the guards that had been posted to keep me from harm broke up the target practice. Being of the town themselves, they generally shared the same views and policies as those chucking vegetables.

By the time that they stepped in, I was covered from head to toe in slippery juices and bits and pieces of putrid food.

"Move away from the Princess!" They ordered, their stentorian voices fanning out over the gathered crowd. The crowd dispersed; they had had their fun.

From the moment that the food stopped sailing toward me, I prayed for another downpour. I wanted to be rid of the smell that surrounded me like a cloud and look mildly presentable.

I waited all night for my rain to come, but by morning I was still bathed by fruit and vegetables.

Last light couldn't come quickly enough. I waited for hours on end, still hoping for that rain shower, trying to fall asleep and wondering if I could skip a few hours.

Finally, I heard the tolling of the Vesper Bells and smiled.

"My dear Princess." Adrian stood in front of me, his black boots polished impeccably.

"My darling King." I smiled at his shoes.

"This hour, you will be released from your imprisonment which has lasted seven days. You were imprisoned for interrupting the Council. Please, do not repeat this offense." He knelt down so that he could look me square in the eyes. "Do you understand?" His tone was not loud, but intense, as were his eyes.

"Yes." I stared right back, no emotion whatsoever on my face.

He stood. "Release the Princess," he commanded.

The wooden block that had held me in place was lifted, and I slipped my hands and head out. When I stood, a wave of lightheadedness over took me; I wavered, not sure if I was spinning or if the earth had decided to spin a little faster just for me.

Adrian took my arm as if it were a fragile piece of china and supported me. "Are you alright?" he asked cordially.

"Fine, thank you." I breathed in shakily and stepped forward. That proved to be a drastic mistake. The combined effects of having been kneeling for almost seven straight days and the fact that I hadn't eaten very much in that time span hit me right then. My knees gave way and Adrian only just caught me in time.

"Elensar?" He lifted me easily, one arm hooked under my knees, the other supporting my back.

"No, I take that back. I'm not fine." I smiled weakly at him. I became aware of all the people watching us, and me in particular, when one of the guardsmen cleared his throat. "Thank you," I said, blushing faintly.

"Of course, milady." Adrian said, not even hinting at his emotions. "Sir Edmond!" he called, "Come, please carry the Princess up to her chambers where she is to me bathed and put to bed at once. Inform her maids of this."

"Yes, your Highness." A tall knight came over and took me from Adrian's arms. As much as I disliked the King of Delran at times, I was faintly disappointed that he would not be carrying me to my rooms. Then, I brushed that aside with a frown and closed my eyes, hoping that I could sleep at last.

Author's Note: A quick update! Whee! And vegetables…haha. Poor Elensar.

Ok, important announcement: I have a short story that I wrote, and it is in need of a Beta reader! It's a Cinderella retelling, with the lovely main character of Favrielle. Favrielle is left at home when her sisters go to the ball, and she doesn't like it one bit. So she gets all dressed up and assumes a new name and personality. She meets the Prince, and they dance with only each other. The rest you'll have to read for yourself!

If you're interested, leave a review with your email address or email me at shardsofsong (at) aol (dot) com. I'll send you the story as an attached Microsoft Word document, or in the body of the email, whichever you prefer. Please, Favrielle would like a beta!

To the lovelies:

LindyLou78: Another update, is this soon enough for you? :o) Thanks for reviewing!

MapleRose: Since I didn't get your review in time for the last chapter…Welcome back! I hope your jetlag gets better soon; 12 hours is a BIG difference! Was China fun? Europe was…glad you're back! :o)