Chapter 14: Fade To Black...
Sorry all, I had a HUGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! problem with my computer, we had to get it fixed but the person didn't fix it right the first time AND the second time, so it took like fie days to get it started and on top of that, almost all my files were ALMOST deleted so we had to put them on disk, go on a fried's comp to re-format them, then replace the files on our comp....very annoying.
HAH!!!!!! Ohhhhh......! I win! Who wins? 'Vende does! Oh yes.....aha! New reviewers come my way! Yes, yes, yes!
I'm done. My apologies. A-hem.
Malista! (who deserves a capital letter for her name...which I like very much...and an exclamation mark....because I'm hyper): :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :). I know! (It'll be our secret that you're just a smilin' sweetie!) If you don't care for that...I apologise...hmmmm, that's twice already... I seem to do that a lot when I'm hyper....ooooooookay. Heh, heh, he- a-hem. I'm done now.
Chrischelle! (who's just so cool...and sweet and nice and pretty and loverly and beeeeeeautiful! So she deserves an exclamation mark aswell! Ahahahahhahahaha. Stopping maniacle laughter now. NNNNNNNnnnow. Aaaand now. Yona scares you. Well. I'm not sure if that's a good thing. By young love...do you mean Hershel & Hinda....Abby & Marcus DeBracey (who happens to be MIA)...Keosha & Antony Dewhurst? I'll assume Keosha...yes. Young love...very sweet! And if it is long enough....i'll find you all (even if we live on different sides of the world...different sides of the solar system...different galaxies! Sorry.) and give you a free copy (hardback!) of it! All of you....yes, YOU! My kitty and I are very pleased to see you again...and by the way: kitty meows disdainfully and thinks 'Of course I've grown....hhhmmmf.' she then turns and swishes her plumey tail under your nose....you rub your nose....her goal is filled. Double Chocolate!!!!!! Can I just say that I love you? Ok. I LOVE YOU!
Hello, hello, Manny! (oh dear...another exclamation mark...hehehehehehehe! Sorry)
I'm glad to know your reading...s'all I ask that you tell me....and you did more...many, many thanks (for both reading and for your complements). I hate being predictable.... sucks... like a monkey with a lollipop. AhahahahahahaOh dear...When the heck did I say that he said/thought we was her Father...I'm checking as I type...kinda...hold on. Found it! Ahem.
'But thinking of the Earl only made this young man think of his daughter'
That's it...right? I'll re-word it, kk? See, what I meant was the young man was thinking of the Earl's daughter. But I'll fix it none-the-less. Thanks for wondering to me....see any other mistakes that need fixing? I'll be glad to give a free batch of cookies (freshly baked) to those who tell me of my mistakes in other chapters...again, thanks. Yah, but it wasn't Gorison who wondered at the Earl's intentions...it was the dude whose name we don't' know...not the traveller...the guy who greeted them in Chapter 6. The Earls's an $$...I know. As long as you think he's stupid and rather evil...I'm good. My job here is done... or at least being done... hehehe. You know, I try to update....but I'm just crappy at when I've got all ze time in the world....heck, it summer....and I'm too bored to do a decent job for you guys.
Sleuthed: To track or follow. It can also mean to act as a detective or spy.
Kaio: Oui, oui...VERY evil....mwahahahaha!
Anyhoo, I love you all and for those who are reading but haven't said anything yet, I still love you all, but please just send out a holla to tell me your there...and now to write.
Gorison watched the young man walk down the corridor. He was one of the few nobles who took the time to chat in a friendly way. Except for... that new noblewoman. 'If my memory serves me, she was quite kind. And polite. What was her servant's name... Kara, Kiera, Keora? No,no... Keosha! She's quite lovely aswell.' Gorison smiled at the memory of the protective maid-servant. They were quite obviously friends. Must have been friends for a while. Shaking his head, the servant scratched at the oaken door of his master's anti-chamber.
The kind voice entreated him to enter and the servant obeyed.
The man sitting behind the table looked up and pulled his green robe over his thin shoulders. He smiled and nodded towards the velvet upholstered chair infront of the table. Gorison sat, sending a quick prayer of appreciation and thankfulness to Solaro and Remaneen that his employer looked on his as an equal. The man with the greying hair bent down over his papers again and dipped his stylus (A/N: little star thing...it won't let me do one here) in the ink well.
Gorison relaxed in his chair, waiting for his master to speak. Though they were on friendly term, his master and he, Gorison still held to his training: the noble initiates any conversation. Not that the man had anything much to say, really. There really wasn't anything off the top of his head that he though may interest the noble.
The man in the green robe sighed and set the stylus on the glass holder. Putting his bony elbows on the table infront of him he lowered his face into his hands. He stayed as though fixed for a minute or so, during which Gorison shifted slightly, and then set his rather weak chin in one hand and said in a perplexed voice,
"I have come to the conclusion that there is no (good) reason why the King insists upon staying here. He is, without doubt, wealthy enough to move the court to another, better maintained castle.
Or, which is less imposing on the coins, simply maintain this one. In his father's time it was a grand castle, full and bursting with gardens and life. Now, fewer and fewer nobles bother coming to court. The majesty and grandeur of Court Life is wearing thin, on all those who think of the adventure. The only people who still enjoy it are the young folk. But I remember a time, Gorison, when older people liked Court Life just as much as the youths. But it is not so, not anymore." The man shook his head sadly.
"Your calculations are complete, sir?"
"Oh yes. Yes, quite complete. There is no reason why his Majesty cannot improve the state of this castle, the army, and the defence systems around the castle." The noble shook his head in disgust. "But he won't. Our king blatantly refuses to spend his coins. Miserly old fool. He doesn't see that he is ruining his kingdom along with his court. For, as I have realised, if the court disintegrates, the nobles become unhappy without social intrigues, and many take it out on their servants and those who work their land or businesses. Ah, we nobles are a sad case, Gorison." The man smiled in a self- mocking way before continuing, "I would advise you to thank Solaro and Remaneen that your lot is not to handle the endless job of nobility. The tedium of servitude may well be preferred to wealth." The two men looked at each other before chuckling. Gorison shook his head slowly and said quietly,
"Have you any questions, milord?"
"Aye, who was that you greeted just now, in the corridor?"
"You know him well, Count. Your son has returned from his business in the provinces."
"Good. He was away longer than he is usually wont to. His mother and I hadn't known the date of his return." The man frowned. "He might have come in himself." Gorison reined his impulse to raise an eyebrow at the reproach in the noble's voice.
"If I may speak freely, milord...?" At the Count's nod of assent, the servant continued, "He is man of twenty winters, milord and is well able to keep himself out of the troubles of boyhood." The Count looked in surprise at his servant and friend of ten years. Gorison had known been the Count's close companion for over fifteen years, he had been another's manservant before the Count had employed him. It was rare, even through so long a friendship, that the man had questioned or reproached him, and the Count never dismissed his opinion. He was a valued friend, for all that Gorison was the age of his son, aswell as he was a priceless servant.
Gorison let himself out, leaving the Count to his considerations.
The Count leaned back on his chair and pursed his lips in thought. After a few minutes there was footsteps in the corridor outside and Gorison went out to greet the arrivals. While the servant did so, the Count mused on his son, whose interest in horseflesh and silver mines had already accumulated him a large fortune...one that, with one more year at this pace, would exceed the income that had would be his upon the Count's death. The income and his entrepreneurial skills already made his an attractive target for the young gentleladies who already flocked to him in light of his handsome appearance.
'Gorison is right...I need to relax my hold on him. Ah, my son is grown. And I am old.' The man smiled at the obvious statement as Gorison scratched on the door, discretely telling his master of the arrival of new people. The Count cleared his throat,
"Come in!"
The door opened for the Earl of Mattensworth.
(A/N: corresponding little star thing) A stylus (as I recently found out) is a glass spun writing utensil. It is like the quills you all know (not the feather kind) but of that shape. The 'nib' part is spiralled to a point and when you dip it in ink, the ink flows down to the point where it flows evenly onto the paper your writing on. Stylus were originally made my the famous Venetian glass blowers in like the 1400s (around there..I didn't really research , no?
Keosha had been searching the Servant's Quarters for Gorison. Of all people, she decided, he would know where Natalia was.
' She and I have some talking to do, 'bout that Bram fellow.' Keosha thought as she bumped and squeezed through the confined halls. She swatted off roving male hands and picked up her pace. She ducked into a small room just off the main servant's quarters hallway and sighed with relief to find if unoccupied. She looked at the series of small boxes built into the large bookshelf, the servant' mailboxes. She gazed at the small markings on the egdes of the boxes.
Because few servants were literate, marking one's name usually had no effect on the accuracy of the sorted mail. Each box had small tokens and a symbol to let the people know what job each servant held. Stableboys had a roughly carved horse with a rake across the animal. Scullery maids had a bucket and a frilly maid's cap. Personal servants, like Keosha and her cousin Natalia, had their master or mistress's emblem according to rank with a small 'p' in the corner of the picture. On Keosha's, a carriage (the symbol for Earldom and the close family of an Earl) was shown with the small 'p' in the corner.
She sniffed at the crude invitations of some foolhardy and arrogant male servants and continued on her search.
The young woman searched for Natalia's. If Keosha remembered correctly, because her cousin was the Queen's personal maid, it would show a small crown and a 'p'. She glanced up and down the rows of boxes, some crammed and spilling out, some empty save the remnants of their former eight-legged tenants.
When she finally came to a few such marked boxes, she smirked at the obvious decorations of her cousin's. Small sewing and embroidery needles were pasted to the rim, with a small card written in a crude but legible hand,
' This be the box of Natalia Jameson, Perzonal Made to her Royal Highnes, Qween Moraynne.'
As Keosha viewed the cards she felt a certain pride that she had secured such a position that allowed her to be literate, and to be able to smirk slightly at the atrocious spelling of her favourite cousin.
She dug into her deep pocket for one of the spare pieces of paper the kept there along with the tiny nib of pencil. She quickly scribbled out a note of her arrival and of her time without duties. She suggested they meet sometime convenient for them both before scanning it over. After a small hesitation, she added her Lady's rooms and the adjoining room she currently lived. Keosha signed her name and re-read the note.
She decided to keep the sentence of her arrival unmarred by a scribble. Though the castle's gossip chains seemed to be in perfect working order, somehow it seem polite to assume she hadn't heard.
The maid-servant slipped the note into her cousin's waiting box and deposited her pencil back into her pocket.
As Abby's friend crossed the main hallway, she glanced down one of the joint corridors. A nobleman was walking away from her, his broad shoulders slightly stooped, though he was a young man, if his waved brown hair was any indication. A twinge of recognition caused Keosha to pause. There was something about that stride...something familiar. She shrugged. She wasn't about to chase a nobleman down and ask him if he happened to know her.
She put the man and his annoyingly unknown identity from her mind as she made her way back to her rooms.
Nobles and their gaits could wait...she had only gone to find Natalia, and she was sure Abby would need her for something.
' Just as long as she doesn't tell me I can't come with her to visit Lord Dewhurst... and his sister' Keosha quickly added the other they were to call on. She smiled to herself as she thought of the young noble...the handsome young noble...very handsome young noble....
Abby's scream turned into a screech as the metal spikes retracted from her leg. Her eyes were wide with terror at the fact that the spikes were moving on their own. Moving jerkily, the spikes retracted from their exposed place, dripping her blood, and disappeared under the bed. She stared at the place where the spikes had been. Vague thoughts were drifting around in her mind, but they were foggy behind the pain and she hardly comprehended any of the thoughts.
The last she recalled was staring at her leg, and watching the long rips in her leg seal themselves completely. Her vision faded into a foggy land, before it disintegrated into total black.
Aha! Cliffhanger....is she DEAD? Or merely unconscious? Was the main character actually Keosha all along?!?
sticks tongue out at people who thought they knew her writing style I'm NOT predictable!
Ohoh, I have an question, or two. What is an 'OC' (not like the show) and a 'Mary Sue'? I can only guess that a Mary Sue is a character based on the author of the story, but I've no idea....please help me. I would be good to know the terms others use in their Author's Notes. And any other terms u know would be most appreciated.
OHOHOh! And does anyone know how to do italics and bold and indenting and centring and stuff? Thankyouthankyouthankyou, if you know! oh, and please review. Thanks.
