Chapter 20: Care to Tell?
Hmm....I take absolutely no offence towards constructive (bold this word) critisism. Even the first time I read 'em....which is in fact quite odd. Anyhoo, I love you all (still) and will sum up the other characters...not so many scenes per chapter is what people what, yes? Good.
Thanks to all for keeping me accountable and in check....keep it up!
.: tugs nervously at collar:. About the not updating for nearly a month....sorry! My mathematics teacher is a (insert horrible curse word here) and gives us homework every flaming day! Arg. Ya...moving on:
Cheeky- yaya, I see what your sayin', she's a bit of a Mary Sue...too nice.
Lindy and Cheeky- you basically said the same things about too many scenes...I'll cut most of the scenes....get mad at me if there's more than four separating line things...kk, keep me accountable.
Three new reviewers!!!!!!!!!! hellohello to HeadsUpHorses and MistyQueen.....welcome to my addictive story! Ahahahaha! I've suckered another in! Yay! Enigma!!!!!!!!!! hmmm, that's fun to say. And thankyou for your compliments! Hehehe...
Heads- heheheh pulp...hehehehe .: giggles quietly to herself for a few moments :. 'Update like the wind!' you missed the 'bullseye, part, you know for ToyStory2?!? "Run like the wind, bullseye!" No? Oh well... hehehehe....ah.
Misty- I can't wait either! Oh, wait I'm writing it, oops.
Kaio? Chrischelle? Zagato? LouLou? .: sniffs and looks around :. Where are you? Charming? Malista? LovingLife? Alicia? Helloooooooooooo? Kylie? I put Lady Jeanine in the last chapter...for you...where is you?
Mother Iku stared into the perfectly round emerald in her palm. She narrowed her eyes and pursed her lips before closing her eyes and placing her hand over the emerald.
" Awaken!
From the Ends of the Earth,
to the Salt in the Sea!
To the rise of the Mountains,
Show me that which I seek!"
A cloudy image filled the emerald as Mother Iku opened her eyes to gaze upon it. A rather annoyed face filled it, but the woman's face cleared slightly when she saw the Mother of the Green Coterie looking back at her.
" Well, you took your time. Where is the girl?"
" She is here."
" So what are you waiting for?"
" A reason to carry through with your plan."
" Reason?! She has the power to upset our entire power scale!" Mother Iku snorted and replied,
" She is no threat. Few listen to their servants here, it is much like in Manisanri, save the fact that they are paid." The other woman's face contorted.
" You will deliver her to the hands of the Gods or I shall send a person to deliver her for you!"
" Do as you will. She is no threat. You simply were not convincing enough. Had you done your job properly she would have used the poison in your vial!"
" It was not our fault! She had no right wandering down to the shipyard of all places!"
" Your incompetence disgusts me. She is only as servant, hardly worth our concern."
" She will cause no end of trouble!"
" Trying to be vatic will get you nowhere. Leave this to me and stick with your slaves, my job is hard enough with their accursed Two interfering with everything I do, let alone with some fool of a 'Mother' telling me to run off after a slave she let escape!"
" I have a very good reason for sending such as you after her. One that even you cannot excuse."
" 'Such as me.' This had better be good." The woman looked in the emerald and raised an eyebrow. "Well, do you care to tell?"
Keosha stared after Sir Marcus. 'He's here! In the castle! I can't wait to tell Abb-' Keosha's thoughts stopped dead. It was impossible for her to tell Abby. Of course it was still possible to tell Abby. Whether she heard or not was another matter completely. 'I'll tell her anyway.'
Keosha continued down the corridor, wondering why the nobleman's jaw had practically dropped. He had muttered and stuttered a polite something and left at a pace that Keosha didn't even bother trying to catch up with. He obviously didn't want anything to do with her.
'Wait, would that apply to Abby too?' Keosha's lovely eyes narrowed in anger towards the man that her friend had sighed over the last two weeks. That stone wall blocked him from her gaze mattered not, he was a flirt! 'Men!' she thought vehemently, 'Well, some men,' she amended, thinking of the one who had comforted her throughout this ordeal.
Keosha slipped into Abby's chambers and closed the doors behind her. She stared at the quiet room, clean, though neither of it's occupants had either slept nor stepped foot in it for almost three days. She looked at the door that led to Abby's bedchamber.
' I daren't go in.' she thought. She turned back, unable to continue.
Keosha walked slowly through the gardens. ' Miserable place, really.' she thought as she viewed the half there flowers and bedraggled bushes. She really had no business there. She had wanted to leave the Healing Quarters so Lord Antony suggested a stroll outdoors might help. Privately, Keosha wondered if had meant the gardens and if he did how long had it been since he had seen them? She saw a stone bench and made her way over to it. A set of initials inclosed in a heart had been carved roughly into the stone.
Keosha sat and shivered at the unpleasant coldness that spread from her bottom. Glad that she had grabbed a shawl from her chambers, she pulled it more tightly about her shoulders. She studied the engraving,
MDJD
' MD,' she thought...'Marcus DeBracy! It's not possible! But who's JD?' Her thoughts were inturrupted by a voice,
" Keosha! Miss Jameson! Keosha!" She looked up to find Lord Dewhurst running towards her, blonde hair flying behind him.
" She's aware! Lady Abigail is moving!" He stopped a few paces infront of her and grasped her arms, "She's moving, she may awake at any second! Come, we must hurry!"
They raced out of the former gardens, Lord Antony leading the shocked Keosha by the wrist. Through the corridors and up staircases, until they reached the Healing Quarters. He hammered on the doors and pulled Keosha back before she was hit by the opening sweep.
The tall, snotty Healer stood infront of them, opened his mouth, and- but Lord Antony brushed by him, pulling Keosha behind him.
Keosha burst through the curtains that acted as a door. She batted the white curtain from her and rushed to Abby's bed.
" Abby?" she choked out of her dying lungs. "Abby?" The brunette on the bed stirred and turned her head towards her friend's voice. "Keosha... I'm sorry." Keosha hardly heard her. 'Abby's alive!'
" Huh? Sorry for what, Abby?" Abby managed a small shake of her head,
" For not knowing you better. I'm sorry." Keosha shook her head,
"No, no... it doesn't matter. You're alive!" Abby frowned, obviously confused, she opened her mouth to protest, but Keosha shushed her. "No, don't Abby. Just rest." Keosha smoothed Abby's hair from her face and the noblewoman smiled and closed her eyes, presumably to sleep. But she spoke instead.
" Why am I in the Healing Quarters? I remember pain, so much pain in my leg, but I don't remember why."
" I'll tell you later, Abby, but please sleep now!" The stubborn invalid shook her head slightly and continued speaking.
" I dreamed of you, Keosha. I dreamed that I had died and I hadn't told you how much I love you...you are such a wonderful friend. Even when I pull rank on you, you forgive me. You are so, so selfless, I can't say enough in your praise. You're perfect. You're the sister I never had, the Mother I never had." Here she opened her eyes and looked her friend in the eyes. "You've taken care of me since we met. And I've never made an effort to ask about you. To ask where you came from before you were a slave. I never, bothered-" she paused and sniffed, trying vainly to hold back her tears of remorse. Keosha knelt beside the bed and hugged her friend. It didn't matter that Abby had never asked. Had she asked, Keosha would not have opened up anyhow. It took seeing the Green Coterie again for her to want to talk of it.
" Abby. You sat me down that afternoon after we met Mother Iku. You made me tell you. You're the best friend I've ever had, seeing as I wasn't able to socialize in Manisanri. I can't ever thank you enough for not asking questions. Don't feel badly that you let me alone...it was well that you let me alone, whether as an oversight or with said intent." Abby shook her head again, but she dropped the subject as Keosha had hoped she would.
" Marcus. I dreamed of Marcus. He standing in a garden," Here, Keosha thought of the miserable castle gardens," And there was a circle of hedge. In the hedge, a woman sat on a stone bench."
'A stone bench, like the one with the initials in it?' Keosha wondered as Lady Abby went on, "I stood as if paralyzed and I could only watch as Marcus went towards her, and she held a bundle of flowers, which she threw in the air." Abby sighed. "The flowers turned into butterflies, which flew about them. He welcomed her into his arms and he- he bent to kiss her, but she vanished and he stood on one side of a wall of thorns." She looked out the window at the grey clouds that threatened rain. 'I hadn't even noticed,' Keosha thought.
" What happened next?" The maidservant asked,
" I was on the other side of the thorns. He tried to look through them, and as I watched, he began to tear at them with his hands. He was bleeding, for the thorns were strong. I walked towards him, feeling pity that his hands were marked with scratches. I reached through the thorns and-" she looked up suddenly noticing Lord Antony.
" Forgive me, Countess. I found Miss Jameson and brought her to you when you began to stir, I shall leave presently, I apologize for my intrusion."
" Oh no, Lord Dewhurst, I simply was startled at your presence." she caught Keosha's eye and raised a questioning but amused brow. Keosha flushed in reply and Abigail continued, " Indeed I expect I shall see you oftener than I had though upon first acquaintance." The Lord bowed and replied,
" So I hope, my Lady. But I truly must go, I wish you speedy recovery." I turned to Keosha and kissed her hand and smiled his farewell.
Keosha turned back to resume listening to Abby, but the look of smug amusement stopped her.
" Well...it seems much has happened since whatever happened to me. Care to tell?"
Just so you know, Countess is the title given to an Earl's wife and daughter, and the title of Earl is handed to the daughter's husband or son.
She's awake! I know, incredibly short...blah...sorry, so, so busy!
Now, review!
