An update, I am moving forward with posting at least a sample of this work here. The big wrinkle is that it appears the site is no longer recording traffic for my fan fics, so for that and other reasons I'm shifting to the Wattpad platform. If you are really reading this and want to see more, the best thing you can do is leave a review.
King Ajax rose at sunrise, as he always did. He put on his royal robe and emerged onto the balcony as he waited for the servants to come with breakfast. The Palace was close enough to the shore that the sea seemed directly below the balcony. In the near distance, the long, thin shape of the Reed Isle stretched to either side. A knock sounded at the door. Behind him, a soft voice called out, "Yes, m'Lord?"
"Coming," Ajax called out.
A blue-clad Flower Maiden waited at the door. Her only comment was, "Should I bring breakfast for Lady Diantha?"
"No," he said, "this is enough." By the time he turned, the Flower Maiden he had left behind was sitting upright, already clad in what looked like an auburn dress.
He took a seat at his small table, and the Maiden followed. She paused, then said with a quaver, "Is my Lord pleased?" He frowned at that. She quickly amended, "How are you this morning?"
"Better," he said.
The tray held a pitcher of milk and a bag of cereal, an invention he had introduced to the Kingdoms. The milk was a light shade of blue. He poured a bowl for himself and the Maiden. Amid the conversation, the Maid said, "M'Lord, this is the third time you have favored me during your Days of Rest. In fact, you have favored me twice this Moon. I know you did not favor Persephone or Persica during their turns."
He nodded and murmured an affirmative as he finished the last bite of his cereal. He did not move to drink what remained of the milk. He looked up after a prolonged silence. The Maid gazed almost directly into his eyes. "My Lord," she pressed, "is it your will to… make me your Favorite?" When he said nothing, she continued, "Persephone has been upset. You know I already have had trouble with Persica. But I am sure they would be understanding if you favored me…"
"Thank you," Ajax said, "for explaining. Of course, you will continue as my Night Attendant. The rest, I must think about further." The Maid scuttled out through the door to the Night Attendant's quarters, carrying the tray.
He descended to the Palace Garden, where he watered the plants that he instructed the Groundskeeper to leave to him. One of them snapped a set of toothy jaws. Another similar plant straightened and began to sing, "Suddenly Seymour, is standing…" He raised a glass bottle of weed killer. The plant fell silent.
When he returned, his chief Chamberlain Amanito was waiting. He still thought of him as old Morrie's replacement, though more than four Seasons had passed since he took his post. "Good morning, Manny," he said. He nodded to the senior Attendant, a Flower Maiden named Nopalina from the Coral Desert in the south of his Realm. Her dress was orange shading toward red, and her hair was similarly a brassy color halfway between brown and blonde. He had chosen her to return among the seven Maidens who came the previous Season. He had also long since exempted her from Night Attendant duties. "What's on the Royal Schedule today?"
"We are meeting with Lord Hector and Lady Daffodil for lunch," Manny said. "They should arrive by the 10th hour. At evening, we have a request for an audience from Lord Agaric. We also have an invitation to the Court of Lord Xaja tomorrow that has not yet been answered."
"Tell Xaja I accept," Ajax said. "I would rather see him than hear any more about taxes and crops. I suppose it will have to be an overnight trip. Do we have a suitable ship?"
"The Caravel can make the rendezvous if we depart by the 14th hour," Manny said. "You had hoped to take Hector and his Lady on an excursion."
Ajax nodded. "Have the engineers prepare the Clipper," he said. "We will need more room if the children come."
"Very well, I will prepare a message to Xaja at once," Manny said. He took out a parchment, and waved for Nopalina to prepare a Bladderfish from the tank. He looked up without interrupting his writing. "If you will pardon my liberty, what are your intentions toward Lady Diantha? You have favored her twice this Moon..."
Ajax shook his head. "I know," he said. In the corner of his eye, he saw Nopalina retrieve one of the fish with a net. As usual, she showed no reaction. "But it is best that we stop any talk. Give her a week of leave. She will understand." He considered. "Schedule her for lunch. She deserves that much."
"It is done," Manny said. Nopalina brought the Bladderfish, already inflated larger than the tank it came from. The Chamberlain sealed the parchment in a tiny bottle, and tied the bottle to the lips of the Fish. The rear of the Fish began to hiss. The Maiden took it back and hurried outside. "Might I suggest that you see if she would take her leave with Steward Boletus? There is talk that he fancies her." There was a sound like a burst steam valve, followed momentarily by an already distant clap of a sonic boom.
Again, Ajax shook his head. "I have asked her about him," he said. "She doesn't dislike him, but she will never return his interest. See that he spends a little time with Lady Persica; she is the one who would have him."
"That is wise, Ajax," Manny said. He smiled. "I wonder why you were not a King of Boston."
"We do not have kings, not in a long time," Ajax said. "In any case, there are things one learns only by experience. I have meant to ask, is there a Maiden you might choose as your own?"
"I have meant to tell you, I have an understanding with Lady Salixa," Manny answered. "She transferred to Lord Hector's House after last season."
"I see," Ajax said. "If you wish to follow her, I will endorse you."
"We will see, your Majesty," Manny said. He returned to formality as Nopalina returned. Ajax was briefly puzzled by the sight of a bottle in her hands.
"My Lord Chamberlain, your Majesty, we just received an incoming Fish," she said. "It comes from the Realm of the Lindorms. It is addressed to King Ajax, from Empress Pruna."
Ajax took the bottle in his hands. The tag around the neck confirmed what the Maiden said, not that he would have doubted her. He handed it back to her. "Take it to my bedchamber," he said. "No, make it the Royal Cabin of the Clipper. I will read it in private."
As Nopalina departed, he lowered his head. Only then did he become aware that he had clenched his fists. "Ajax," Manny said, softly and calmly, "surely, this is good news. It has been seven years. If she had not forgiven you, she would not have addressed a message in your name. None will know the contents of the message, but if you will not even read it, it will be the talk of every people in the Realms."
"It is not that," Ajax said. "I rescued her twice. Yet every time she tested me, I failed her. I am sure she has forgiven me. I cannot forgive myself." He raised his head. "If we make the trip to Xaja's court, my Attendant will have to come along. Who is scheduled to attend me tonight?"
"Persephone," the Chamberlain said.
"This once, I would rather have Nopalina," Ajax said. "But it would not do to slight Persephone. Give notice, they are both to accompany me." After a moment, he added, "While I am waiting, I will visit the Royal Storehouse. Could I have the key?"
"As you wish, my King," the Chamberlain said. He proffered the key.
The Storehouse was really an attached outbuilding at the end of a south wing that held the Royal Dining Room. The door creaked as he opened it. He almost tripped over a golf bag, which he pushed upright. One half of the Storehouse was a garage for a small racing cart. He passed more artifacts, arrayed in reasonable order: A tennis racket, a doctor's bag, a gold statue of a woman whose wide-bustled dress did not match her slim figure or her curled hair. In the far corner, there was a trapdoor. Beside it was what looked like a perfectly lifelike mannequin of himself, dressed in the pin-striped coveralls and flat-top cap he had carried from his former life. The double's eyes opened at his approach. He held up the key and the Seal on his ring. Its eyes closed again. "They got the mustache wrong," he mused.
Ajax opened the door and descended a stairway to a chamber below, where his most potent artifacts were stored. At the corner landing, he passed under a spiked deadfall that gave a single creak. At the foot of the stairs, he paused before a mask on the wall, one side painted white and frowning, the other black with a ghoulish grin. It began to rattle, until he held up the ring and key again. He paced among the artifacts for several minutes. There were weapons, jewels, scrolls, and a whole case of Mages' Staves. Several times, he passed a stylized statue of a Lindorm with three conjoined faces. Once, its eyes lit up when he lingered at the Staves. They dimmed to a faint flicker as soon as he moved on.
He came to a small alcove beneath the upper stairway. A strange fixture was on the wall that could have been taken for a shield with a very large hemispherical boss in the center. As he stepped over the threshold, the seamless metal split, revealing a purple eye. The King gave it no heed. He went past a glass case that held the armor and twin throwing sickles of a Lindorm Royal Guardsman. Beside it were three shelves behind heavy bars. On the middle shelf were a gem carved in the shape of an eight-pointed star and a phial of faintly glowing amber fluid. Below were a large jar that held a sickly green-spotted mushroom and a cube with the script BOOM. On the top shelf, behind an extra layer of glass, was an ovoid looking glass a Royal Cubit high and 3 Spans in width, turned on its side and carefully and thoroughly covered. A crumbling parchment note read, DO NOT TOUCH. EVER.
He unlocked the bars with the key, then the glass case. There was an ominous metallic sound as the eye became a set of steel jaws. He felt the filigreed frame through the cloth as he took hold. He started to lift it. There was a curiously musical jingle as the Guardian extended, a sphere after all, hovering on the end of a chain. He set it down again. The Guardian drew back. He wiped his brow with a relieved sigh. The Guardian returned to its place. "May I come down, my Lord?" Manny called out from the landing. "Also, may I suggest that we bring out the Eightfold Orb?"
"Yes," Ajax said, finally stepping back, "that will be useful." As he turned, a light flickered behind the wrapping of the glass.
They found the Orb on a stand around the middle of the Storeroom. It was a smooth obsidian sphere, a Span and a Thumb in diameter. On one end of the sphere was a large white inclusion with a carved symbol that looked almost but not quite like a number 8. Ajax picked it up. "Let's make sure it's calibrated," he said. "I, Ajax, King of the Red Realm, ask for the wisdom of the Eightfold Orb. Orb, am I King of the Red Kingdom?" The double loop disappeared as the milky impurity grew clouded, and was replaced by words: Yes.
Ajax smiled. "Orb, is there to be peace between the Mushroom Realms and the Lindorm Empire?" It clouded for a little longer before producing an answer: No change foreseeable.
"Good enough," Manny remarked.
"Let's try something more," the King said. "Eightfold Orb, is there one who should be my Queen now in the Palace?" The answer took only a little longer: Variables unstable. That was its usual answer to a question that extended beyond the present and immediate future. "Good. Orb, should Lady Diantha be my Queen?" The response was all but immediate: Proposition inadvisable.
"Might I ask a question my own question?" Manny asked.
"I permit it," Ajax said.
"I, Amanito of the Reed Isle, ask for the wisdom of the Eightfold Orb," the Chamberlain said. "Is it well that Lady Nopalina should be Queen?" The answer took only a little time: Proposition not unfavorable. Ajax was surprised, all the more that Manny was not.
"It will be a useful tool," Ajax said. "Pack it for my trip."
At half past the 10th hour, Hector's Royal Skyship appeared overhead. Its hull blocked out the sun from the Royal balcony, while its shadow ran the length of the Palace Garden. Three launches set down. Hector still carried his Lady down the ramp that extended from the center launch, though he set her down as soon as they reached the bottom. She was older and certainly heavier, though she clearly still held her husband's eye. Three little girls and a toddling boy all but spilled out behind them. The King tried to embrace all of them at once as they plowed into him. He was only overwhelmed when the Queen followed. That impact bowled over the King and scattered the children. "Sorry," Daffodil said. They all laughed.
Hector helped Ajax up. "It's so good to see you," Ajax said. "You are always welcome. By the way, I have an appointment at the Palace…"
His brother immediately shook his head. "We are only stopping before we travel to Midgard," he said. "I thought I told you…" Ajax belatedly realized he had. At that moment, Daffy made her way back and hugged them both.
"Oh, don't worry!" she said. "We have till after lunch, don't we?"
Ajax and Hector played with the children and Daffodil's bird for an hour before the summons came for lunch. Princess Bell and little Prince Robert rode around the Palace grounds on the bird's back, led by Lily and Sara. When the time for the meal came, Hector and Daffodil took their seats. The children meandered to their own places, including a small table for the youngest pair. Ajax had sat down before he realized there was an extra seat beside him. He saw Nopalina and called out, "Pardon me, is there another joining us?"
"Your pardon, my Lord," Nopalina answered. "Manny said to make an addition to the lunch schedule."
"Yes," Ajax said, "I meant- Never mind." He smiled as Diantha took a seat beside him.