Chapter 17: A Find... Or Two


Heyhey! OK, let's aim for the big five oh! In reviews! Yay! That's 50! Please, please? I'm wondering how you people are gonna do that....seeing as so far I've got one review for last chapter and that was actually just someone commenting (cheering actually) that I had reviewed.

I still love you Malista! But you were a leeeeeeeeeeeeeetle brief. Yes! I updated! Thrilling, I know.


The Count knocked on the Lady Abigail's chamber doors. No answer. He knocked again, suddenly worried. . It was doubtful that the lady was sleeping, twas only nine in the evening. A third time he knocked, louder and more insistent than the previous two.

Still no answer. The Count frowned and fumbled for his master key to all the noble residences in the castle. Too many times a noble had forgotten their key in their rooms, having a key to them all was merely a way to ease the Count's life slightly.

As the key was turned in the lock, the man heard a satisfying 'clink!' and withdrew the key. He entered, calling softly,

"Lady Abigail? My Lady? Are you in? I have need to speak with you. Lady Abigail?" The man made his way through the sitting room and towards the bedchamber. The door was closed, with no sound behind it. A tug of urgency made the Count discard any apprehensions about invading the lady's privacy and he swung open the door.

It had still been daylight when Abby had fallen and the metal spikes had plunged into her, before retreating under the bed again, so there was no lights in the room. The Count fumbled at the tabled near the door, looking for the flint and candle. Finding it, he quickly lit a few candles before turning to find the prone body of the Lady Abigail on the floor.

"Lady Abigail!"


The Count rushed to the maiden's side, and bent his head to her mouth to hear her breath. It was a shallow, quick sound. 'Still alive, thank the Two!' The Count stared at the pool of blood that had soaked into the thick rug on the floor. The cut on her leg was still bleeding heavily. 'The loss of blood was what made her unconscious.' Quickly, the Count rushed out to the sitting room where a set of bell pulls hung, hidden by a tapestry.

The silver plates upon which the corresponding receiver of the summons was engraved was dirty, full of grime. The Count rubbed them vigorously with his coat-sleeve before trying to decipher the writing.

He read the plates, 'Kitchens, Maids, Scullery, Stables, Where on Earth is the Healing Quarters?' The Count glared at the four bell pulls in anger. He leaned further in, and spotted a fifth cord. He scrubbed at it with his sleeve and read with hurried satisfaction, ' Healers'.

The Head Healer jumped at the sound of the bells, spilling hot tea on himself. 'Damn those nobles!' he thought, hurrying to find the bell responsible for his spill. It rang again, and longer this time. Quickly memorizing the room, the Healer grabbed a passing Healer, and told her,

"Bring my healing bag and meet me at the North Wing, Top floor, Second Room to the left from the Grand Staircase, hurry!" As the other Healer ran off, the man ran in the opposite direction and towards Lady Abigail's rooms.

Meanwhile, the Count had rung the bell several more times before returning to Abby's side. He stared in horror at the amount of blood on the rug. Running out into the hall, the noble spotted a young scullery maid,

"You there! Yes, you, come here at once!" The maid came at a run, seeing the urgency etched upon the Count's face. He led the girl into the bedchamber and steadied her as she swayed at the sight of the noblewoman. She shook her head and said in a faint but sure voice,

"You'll be needin' to bind the wound, Your Lordship." She walked carefully around Abby and to the bed, where she preceded to rip off a strip off the sheets. She knelt at the noble's feet and preceded to wrap the strips about Abby's still bleeding calf. The blood soaked through the make-shift bandage and the maid reached up to rip more.

The Count handed her already ripped pieces of sheet. She took them and wrapped Abigail's calf again and again.

Suddenly, they heard voices in the hall, getting close and closer. They looked up when the two healers entered, cloth healer's bag in hand. The two wasted no time in examining the noblewoman.

"We'll have to get her to the Healing Quarters, quick- time." The woman Healer reached into the bag and pulled out a vial full of a glowing substance. She opened it and stuck a finger it. With the covered finger, she touched her coworker and their patient on the forehead. She turned back to where the other two were watching.

"Who bound her calf?" The Count pointed to the scullery maid. The Healer nodded, saying, "You just may've save her life. If she'd bled any more, it's a good chance she'd be dead by now."

"Then she'll be al- alright?" The Count's hesitation mirrored his worry and the other Healer looked up and said irritably,

"We don't know. She's lost too much blood for an easy answer. Now can we transport her or are you going to keep talking?" The Count looked baffled as the first healer shrugged and muttered sharply,

"Transport!" The substance she had dabbed on their foreheads glowed and in a moment they were gone.

The maid and the Count stared at where they had been for a moment, before the maid turned to the Count and dropped a curtsey, saying,

"I'll get someone to clean that up for you, Your Lordship, sir." The Count nodded, still shocked at what he had seen. The maid left, leaving him alone, staring at the pool of blood.


Keosha opened the door of hers and Abby's rooms. Strangely enough, it wasn't locked. ' I could have sworn I'd locked it,' Shrugging, she entered the sitting room. She looked about for a candle and flint, none. She turned in the dark, looking for a table.

Suddenly she noticed that there was a light filing through Abby's door, which was open slightly. She walked over to the door and knocked,

"Abby, I'm back. I've left a note for-" she broke off with a gasp as Count John opened the door. She stared at him in surprise before asking with a slightly accusatory tone,

"What are you doing in my lady's bedchamber, your Lordship?" The Count frowned and said in a gentle voice,

"Lady Abigail has had a bit of an accident while you were out, Keosha. She is in the Healer's Quarters now." Keosha turned pale and suddenly she wove around the Count, who had been blocking the view of the room, and so the blood stain.

The woman gasped as she took in the scene. A sheet off the bed, torn. The pool of dried and drying blood staining the thick rug on the floor. Her mouth opened, but no sound emerged. The Count braced himself to catch her, but the handmaid was made of sterner ingredients than that.

Keosha closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "Were you the one who found her, Sir?" The Count, who was surprised by her slightly shaky, but otherwise calm voice, replied,

"Yes, yes I was." Keosha turned to him, her brown eyes wide. "I must go see her at once, Sir, if you would excuse me." The Count nodded,

"Of course, of course, child. In fact I shall escort you there myself, seeing as you a fairly new to the castle." Keosha looked at him sharply before saying in a hurried tone,

"Nay, 'tis alright. I know my way to the Healing Quarters." The Count nodded and said,

"None the less, my dear, I would feel better if I escorted you myself, and I was ready to visit your mistress anyway." The handmaiden nodded her assent and they left together.

There was no conversation between the two. Keosha was too overcome with worry for her friend to think of making small talk, besides, a servant never initiated conversations with nobles; it wasn't done. The Count was also worried for Abby, but he was also worried about the Earl. 'Should I even bother him? He would hardly welcome an interruption in the night, never mind that his only child may be mortally wounded!' Because the Count was occupied with wrestling with his conscience, talking wasn't a priority.

So silence reigned while the maidservant and the Count walked to the Healing Quarters.


Yona had heard the bells. The spy had been ready to leave when the person had heard them. 'The castle-folk gave up using them years ago...too many didn't work. Why're they using them now?' Yona mentally shrugged. Finding out what happened at the castle was Yona's job, and the spy intended to do it...whether the person had to blackmail their employer or not.

Yona quietly jumped from the oak tree to the Earl's window sill. A quick inspection of the interior handle was all the Darkspy needed to figure which of the tools in their belt that they needed. A quick rub of a special oil and a few pries with a special utensil and the window opened.

Yona glanced at the Earl's sleeping form before stepping quickly and gracefully into the dark room. The spy closed the window behind them. Having the Earl wake up cold and suspecting something was not on Yona's 'to-do list'.

The spy walked along the wooden beams that supported the ceiling of the corridors in the castle. Somehow, walking on the deserted corridors using the floor was just to easy for the spy. 'Anyway,' the person reasoned, ' People are hardly doing to see me here, are they?' Satisfied with their reasoning, the darkly-clad figure continued their leaps from beam to beam, watching beneath them for any people who may have some interesting information.

One such person came along, hauling a soapy bucket and a scrubbing brush. The scullery maid turned a corner a head of Yona. The spy jumped beams quicker to catch and keep up with her. She was muttering to herself,

"These nobles! Always getting themselves hurt or killed or whatnot! Then that Count, standing about staring like a ten-eyed dog! Ah well. At least the Count's a decent sort." The spy knew that the maid spoke of the Count DeBracey, 'But who got themselves hut or killed, I wonder?'. The girl was still speaking,

"Blood! All over that carpet! It'll take hours to scrub it properly and days to dry it! Honestly, don't these folk realise that someone cleans the messes they make?!" She stopped and put down the bucket. The spy above her, not expecting a sudden stop over balanced on a beam tripped slightly. The scullery maid rolled her shoulders before continuing her walk down the corridor. Yona, hanging from one of the beams, strained to pull themself back up. 'She could at least mutter something about her shoulder aching so I know when to stop!' the spy thought unreasonably as they began leaping from beam to beam again. The maid was still talking,

"...an that poor woman, wonder what she got jabbed with? Those were deep cuts! Hope those Healers can save her, but then, they are Healers after all's said and done!" The scullery maid placed the bucket and scrub brush on the floor infront of a door and fished out a ring of keys.

The spy waited until she had opened the door and turned to pick up her things before slipping stelthily into the room. A candle still burnt in the bed chamber, and the spy guessed that therein lay the 'mess' the maid had muttered about. The scullery maid entered the room, Yona following closely behind. The spy stopped just inside the door, beside a small table. The maid began to light other candles, gradually illuminating the room. Yona glared at the maid. 'Stupid little bugger, making it harder.'

The Darkspy quickly and without undue notice, exited the room, and peered around the door to view the room. The spy raised an eyebrow at the vast stain that the maid was beginning to scrub. It stretched from the edge of the bed to about two and a half feet from the edge. The original 'Hmmm....I'm surprised the noblewoman was alive enough to take to the Healing Quarters with that amount of blood gone!'

Yona didn't bother to find out who it was that had soaked the carpet with their blood. Whoever it was, they would be in the Healing Quarters, which was where Yona was headed.


Natalia smiled as she read her cousin's note. 'Well. I shall just have to visit he', then, won't I?' the Queen's handmaiden smiled as she headed towards the castle's pathetic excuse for gardens.

Just as the actual castle was in disrepair, so were the Royal Grounds aswell. The famed rose gardens of old were gnarled, unkept masses of thorns now. The patterns and designs made of bedding plants were now patches of dirt, with the occasional leafy bunch here and there. The hedges were overgrown and the white fences needed repainting.

Nevertheless, Natalia hurried into the former gardens. The woman glanced around, hoping she was unobserved as she reached the tall, bulky hedges. She plunged her hand into the bush and felt around. Nothing. 'Curse them! They had better' have put it here' She dug her other hand into one of her deep and bulging pockets and pulled out a small glass ball. Natalia muttered the trigger-word and it began to glow a steady light. She plunged her whole upper half of her body in to the hedge, searching.

"Hah!" She grinned and plucked the small package from the bush. "Gotcha!" she muttered, very pleased. She shook and brushed herself off, ridding herself of the hedge's small leaves. She glanced around again, and, seeing that she was alone, she pulled out a small, sheathed knife the size of her middle finger.

Natalia cut the cords binding the rough cloth and exposed the package's contents.

She gasped as the cloth fell away to reveal a handful of diamonds; each of the stones were clear and exquisitely cut. Natalia's mouth fell open in shock before her instinct took over. She wrapped the stones again before shoving them back in her pocket. ' What could the Queen be wanting with diamonds?'

The Handmaiden entered the Queen's sitting room and held up Keosha's note,

"Well, she's he'e!" The Queen smiled and beckoned her closest friend to the small sideroom where she sat, her face revealing nothing other than welcome. Natalia entered the room and closed the room behind her. The Queen turned, her calm demeanor gone. She grasped Natalia by the shoulders, her normally tranquil face gone.

"Do you have them?!" she hissed.


Posted on the 2nd of September, 2oo4....nevermind, the 3rd...damn, so close.

author's note: I'm dropping Natalia's accent when she thinks...it's a bit annoying as it is.

Please review, i'm going for 50 (don't laugh, it could happen if you people who just read would actually click that little button once in a while...don't mind me, i've got problems)