Purpleland: Chapter 23

John woke me. Shook me out of what I had thought was death. Death comes quickly though, probably tonight, and this visit from John is the last one. I end my confession here. This has been the story of a lover not a hero, of a foolish man, not a king. Do not think this is all I was, but know that I told this only to you. The rest of my story you can read about in any record book. How I ended the Westeroth rebellion, how I avoided war on more than on occasion. But I give this part of me to you because it is the only thing I can give only to you. Do with it what you will. It is the last an only thing I have been able to give you.

The End                

Purpleland: Chapter 22

She comes in; the shadows cling to her like dead leaves.

“Do you honor me now? Now that I have taken your kingdom from you? Now that everything that was yours is mine?” She stands triumphantly, like a warrior after a long campaign.

I look at her through my hollow eyes. There is nothing to say, nothing even to beg for.

“I have made you pay for preferring Alena, haven’t I? You and Marcus both, shells of what you could have been. Alena’s daughter a virtual prisoner and her son… Oh I have plans for her son.”

There is still nothing to do or to say.

She smiles now. “It is so funny to remember that you thought I would be content to play second fiddle to a dead woman.”

Still I do not move or speak.

She seems annoyed by my lack of reaction. “I killed her you know. It was easy, like blowing out a candle.”

I still do not respond. This something I had guessed long ago when the terrors of the night first began to show their faces as that of my wife.

“You are not surprised by that.” She says. “You knew I hated her. But this will surprise you. I killed your first wife.”

This does shock me. I had never connected Aria’s death with Shay.

She smiles again. “I’ve waited so long to tell you. You see it was quite clever really. When she visited Marcus and Alena I knew right away who she was. I knew that if I wanted to be your queen I would have to get rid of her somehow or other. So I gave her a bottle of wine. I knew you wouldn’t touch anything from Marcus but I thought that she perhaps would. The Wench took her sweet time about tasting it but when she did it worked like a charm.”

I remember the wine and pray that she truly does not know why Aria waited so many months to take it.

She is getting ready to leave. “Die then, knowing what I have done to you, knowing everything you have worked for is meaningless, knowing that your line ends.” That sentence gives me more hope than anything. “Know that I played you from the beginning. That no matter how beautiful or kind Alena was, no matter how strong and good you and Marcus were.” She leans forward until her face is inches away from mine. For some reason I think of that night we spend together so many ages ago. “I have won. I convinced Marcus not to tell you that he and Alena were engaged. I ripped up the letter telling them you were coming. I convinced you to continue your feud with Marcus after Alena’s death. I killed my husband so I would be free to be queen. I killed Alena because she outshone me from childhood and because it was the only way I could get you to marry me. I convinced you I was pregnant by you when the child I later killed was mine by one of my servants.  I killed every child you planted in me because I do not share power. I killed your wife because she was in my way and I am killing you for the very same reason. I have won and you and Marcus and Alena have lost.” She smiles again. “I could not send you to your grave without you ever knowing that Shay, who you avoided, disregarded and finally took as a consolation prize is better than any of you.” She moves her hand to cover my eyes almost gently. “Sleep now Kail. Die childless and heirless and utterly defeated.”

I close my eyes and feel myself slipping away.

Purpleland: Chapter 21

It was during one of my rest bits that I saw you. You will doubtless remember your family’s visit to court in midsummer. Probably you remember seeing me as well. What you could not have realized was that of the hundreds of great men and women present I cared only to see you.

I could not let your family leave the court without speaking to you. Fortunately Shay was away at the time and I invited your family to a private dinner, ostensibly to thank your father for his service in the Westeroth rebellion.  You know what I saw at that dinner. A scene, which, I am sure, was only a small taste of what you suffered at the hands of your aunt. When I gave you away I thought it was for the best. I thought… I imagined… Well, none of that matters now. What I saw of your aunt that night shattered all my illusions about the situation I had left you in.

At the same time I was proud of you. You never argued or repaid your aunt’s treatment in kind but I saw the fire in your eyes and knew that she had not broken you. The little you were allowed to say was full of good sense and I was certain that you were a son I would never need to be ashamed of.

I called for your Uncle the next day, furious that he had allowed his wife to treat you with such contempt. I met with a guilt-ridden and overwhelmed man, who, despite his kindness and battle-field valor, was no match for his overbearing wife. From the very beginning she had resented you and, having never liked Aria and assuming that you were illegitimate, she let all of her anger and frustrations out on you. Your uncle begged me to take you, but at that point it was impossible. Shay had gained so much power already and my health was failing fast.

               Perhaps I should have brought you to court as a squire or arranged for some family in the capital to foster you. We could have had at least had some kind of relationship. But I feared even that proximity to Shay and, in the end, I paid for you to attend school far away from both your Aunt and my wife. At Elgaboth I hoped you would find safety, happiness, and training worthy of a king. And, from what John tells me, I believe you did.   

It was not long after that, not long at all, when I became bedridden. I finally opened my eyes, far too late, to what my wife was, and what she was doing to me. I tried, far too late, to exert my authority so that she would never rule. I called, far too late, on every alliance, in the hope that someone could stop her. No one could even get through to talk to me.

Finally when I felt death approaching, when desperation seized hold of me, when there was nothing else left, I had Roland take a secret message to Marcus. And Marcus, who I had not spoken to in almost twenty years, sent his only son. I hear him pacing as I write this. He says he can visit only once more. It will not be long now. Shay has enough support to be queen in her own right. She does not need me and whatever poison she has been using for all these years has left very little of me to kill. 

Purpleland: Chapter 20

Shay miscarried around the sixth month. Had it been earlier I might have wondered if she had played me, but it was clear that she had truly been with child. There was little said between us about the matter. Shay had made is clear from the first that she wanted no emotional closeness in our marriage.

About a year after Shay and I were married my father died quietly in his sleep. After so many years of agony his last few months were oddly peaceful; a quiet slipping away. I ordered a funeral that was as stately as that of any who came before. My father’s death disturbed me only a little. I could not grieve much for a man who had ignored me for most of my childhood and sent me away for the rest of it, but I gave him in death what honor I could for he had been a better king than father. I was crowned and took up his duties.

At first everything seemed to go well. Shay and I did not have a typically happy marriage. We rarely spoke except when required by public occasions. Of course I had never witnessed first-hand a really happy marriage. Lord Stephen and my father had both been widowers and my marriage to Aria had been so short and so marred by my guilt that I could not look on it as a model. I felt somehow that Shay pulled away from me as soon as we were wed. Like a glass wall sprung up the moment the vows were said. There were no more talks about our sorrows or anything besides the most necessary topics. She dutifully shared my bed once every month in the hope of producing an heir, but she never again bore a live child. I found our partnership worked. She could be a charming and engaging queen. My barons liked her even if the people did not. From the beginning they called her the spider. I thought it was because she had not produced a healthy heir and at first was angry for her sake. She simply laughed and said they could not hurt her.

She would stay in the capital to take care of things while I was away and I always found no fault in her management. We lived like this for ten years. I king and she queen and it became hard for me to believe it had ever been otherwise. Oh I still loved Alena, still dreamed of her, still longed for her, but I found my life as a king, serving my people, fulfilling in a way I had never known as an aimless young man. And I found Shay to be quite satisfactory as a queen.

I could at any time gone to claim you, but two things held me back. First the stranger’s warning had stuck in my mind in a way I can’t explain and second something about Shay’s eyes whenever I brought up the subject of an heir scared me. At first I attributed this reluctance to not wanting to hurt Shay by implying that she was deficient for not giving me an heir, but as the years went on I realized that I feared my wife and most of all I feared what she would do if she knew there was a legitimate heir to my throne. I closed my eyes to the future imagining that I had many more years on the throne and that I had not been raise in the palace and it had not done me any harm.

The periods of sickness began around the eleventh year of my reign. The doctors were completely baffled by my array of symptoms. They prescribed and consulted and I would get better for a time before the sickness would return, stronger than before. By this time Shay held great sway in the court and even I feared her political power.

Purpleland: Chapter 19

I want to recount one odd thing that happened during that time as it may have saved your life. The night after I introduced Shay at court I was walking, alone, in the royal gardens. The stillness felt good after all of the bustle at court and I was still grieving over Alena. I had just reached the royal orchards when a beggar approached me. This was odd since the castle is surrounded by a fifteen foot wall, which guards patrolled constantly. I was about to summon my guards to throw him out when suddenly he collapsed and fell soundlessly to the ground. Perhaps I should have been more wary, assassins come in many forms, but I hurried over to him so see if he lived. As I knelt by his side he jerked upright and looked into my eyes. I cannot remember anything about his face or even the color of his eyes but I will never forget the power in that gaze.

“I have come to give you a warning.”

I was shaken by his eyes, but not cowed. “Sir, you seem ill. Let me take you to the guard house. They will have food and wine to revive you.”

I began to help him up but he arrested my wrist. “You have a son in his second year.”

That caught and held my attention. “What poisonous gossip told you that?”

               He shook his head. “You have hid your first marriage well, perhaps too well. But never mind what I know and do not know. I am here to give you a warning.”

               “Speak, then.” I said savagely, expecting some exorbitant blackmail request.

               “Your second wife, do not tell her of the child. No matter what she says, no matter how things seem do not give her the shadow of a reason to suspect the existence of the child.” If I had thought his gaze was powerful before it was nothing compared to the raw intensity his eyes as he spoke these words.

               Finally I broke his gaze and looked away. He stood, surprisingly nimble, and began to walk away. I had half a mind to go after him and demand how he knew about my son, but my legs felt shaky as I stood and I did not know if I could face that gaze again. Also I could hear a group of people coming out to the gardens and did not want any chance of their overhearing anything the man said.

I asked the next day but no one had seen the man enter or leave. Perhaps he was a dream, but his warning stayed with me and I never told Shay that I had a son.

Purpleland: Chapter 18

               It is hard for me to write what comes next. I will not pretend that the choices I made in the thrall of that all-consuming grief where my worst sins, but had I the power to rewrite one second of my past I would choose this one. I would shed this frail body and reach into the past with phantom hands. I would take that moment, uproot it and squeeze all life from root and branch. But it is not given to man to change the paths he has taken, no matter how he may wish it.

               The night after the funeral Shay came to me. And instead of sympathetic words she offered me love making and I took it. I suppose that somehow I was trying to make love to Alena through her sister, but you cannot find the dead among the living nor the living among the dead. She left me to my shame and grief twenty minutes after I first heard her soft step at my doorway. There was no farewell.

               I returned to my old life as heir-apparent, broken, listless, and utterly crushed. I let it get about that I was ill and did not leave my room for three weeks. And when I emerged, no better, I found new troubles. Shay was pregnant and she demanded that I marry her or she would invoke Ru-amor. I think you must know this, but perhaps growing up in the south even Ru-amor was not known to you. Our country has an ancient law: when an unmarried woman becomes pregnant she can invoke Ru-amor. Once she does that the man she accuses has three choices. First he can make her an offer of marriage; if she refuses he has still acknowledged the child as his and is expected to send support for the child. Second he can deny the charge and in that case he and the woman are brought before a court of law for the matter to be determined by evidence. Lastly, if the man does not wish to marry, members of both families can negotiate a settlement for both the woman and the child.

               The invoking of Ru-armor is very public spectacle. When a commoner accuses a nobleman no one thinks much of it, there might be a settlement, there might be a trial, no one is much bothered. But when a noble woman makes an accusation people take notice, and for me the stakes were higher. If I acknowledged Shay’s child it would have a very real claim to the throne. I could not bring myself to face my father and the court if Shay followed through with her threat, which I was sure she would, and I felt that all love was over for me now that Alena was dead. So I wrote to Shay and offered to marry her at once.

               We did. And one week later I introduced Shay to my father as my wife. He really was fading then and said little about the matter. People talked, of course, but generally they found the secret elopement thrilling and romantic. 

Purpleland: Chapter 17

When I woke I could only wish it had been death that took me. Body and soul the pain felt bottomless and endless. I grieved for Alena as a friend and as one who I loved for her own sake but at the same time there had been some small remnant of hope that Marcus would leave her a widow. After all his father had not been very old when he died, and that perhaps I could then make Alena my wife. I had even thought of abdicating in favor of you so she would not have to be queen.

I vacillated but finally decided to attend the funeral. I had Roland find peasant’s clothes for me and followed the crush of people going to see their Lady for the last time. It seemed to take an age to reach the gates of the castle square where the public funeral was to take place. As we entered the gates I saw Marcus before anything else. His face was white and his eyes hollow. His mouth had that pinched look I had seen only once before, when he had been thrown from a horse and his leg had been broken in three places. For a moment I wanted to run to him and throw my arms around the only brother I had ever know. I wished to forgive everything, to tell everything, to let our mutual grief bridge the cavern between us. Then I remembered Shay’s words “Marcus would not send you word” and all of the bitterness of the last five year enveloped me again.

Beside Marcus stood his small son, looking lost and valiantly holding back tears. Over the sounds of the crowd I could hear the wail of Alena’s tiny daughter, ensconced in some nursemaid’s arms. It took longer to pick out Shay. She was standing with her Brother’s family and she alone was crying freely. We stood as the words of departure were spoken over her cold, white body, stood as the wooden coffin was closed for the last time, and stood as Marcus placed his hand on the box that held his wife in the traditional gesture of farewell. That gesture was a sign to us that it was our turn. We sang the songs of departure as I have never heard them sung before or since. Perhaps you have not heard the songs, they are rarely sung in the south these days, cold ancient tunes for one purpose, they were made before the founders. I could wish that they be sung for me.

I felt at one with these people grieving their Lady and finally let the tears that had been building like a tidal wave flow. It was at the beginning of the third verse, when the song changes and builds in intensity, that Shay’s eyes met mine. I knew that she recognized me, but she made no sign. 

Purpleland: Chapter 16

It was exactly six months from the day they left that I received a message from Shay. I almost tore it up unread and I had done with the last three before she left the capital. But the fact that she had not tried to contact me in the six months intervening made me curious. The note read as follows:

Kail,

My sister is ill and not expected to live. She gave birth to a daughter two days ago and has been failing since. I thought you should know and Marcus would not send you word.

Shay

Everything reeled about me and I had to read the note four or five times before it sunk in. Alena was dying. In the same way Aria had. I felt as though I was punished for what I had done to Aria. That losing Alena in the same way was somehow justice and that I was cursed.

That same day I rode out to the north, taking one of the court physicians with me. I did not tell him all of what was happening only that I had a friend who was sick. Ever since my father’s long illness it had not been very hard to find physicians hanging about the court in various states of favor. This one was a young man who was no longer allowed to treat my father because he did not look sufficiently venerable, but I never-the-less trusted his judgement as he had cured several minor ailments of mine.

I pushed us harder than I ever had before. It was usually four days journey to Marcus’s castle. We did it in two and a half. As soon as I reached the castle town I knew that I was too late. Everyone in sight was wearing black, all the shops windows were draped in black and further up I could see that the castle flew a black flag. I still had a vague hope that perhaps it was Alena’s new daughter they were mourning for so I ask a tradesman why they were all wearing mourning.

“Do yee not know? The lady of the castle took sick and died yesterday and the lord is almost mad with grief.”

I felt hot tears flowing down my face as I dismissed him and turned to the physician. “Return home. My friend is dead. I will pay for your trouble.”

He nodded and turned to ride away. 

I motioned to my servants, I had only brought two and one guard but their number seemed impossibly large now. “Go with him, all of you, go now.”

The two servant boys turned and followed the doctor, but the guard demurred. “My lord I cannot leave you.”

“I am your lord and I command you go.”

“My lord is your father and he has commanded me stay with you.”

“Stay with me then,” I said, angry. “But say one word and I will cut out your tough.”

I sat there on my horse in the center of the square. Tears were pouring down my face and I did not care who saw them. Roland, the guard, took matters into his own hands and without saying a word, led both our horses to a nearby inn. None of what was happening seemed real. I had the feeling of being underwater and even the simplest motions took all my strength. It was as though my body was physically rejecting the news as it would a toxin. I collapsed into the bed and fell into a death-like sleep.

Purpleland: Chapter 15

I returned to my father’s court. The next day and threw myself into anything that could distract me. Fortunately for the country some of these distractions were useful and I learned much about politics, warfare, and administration during that year.       

               Just when I began to feel something like my old self Marcus came to court. It should not have been a surprise, Marcus had not been to court since his father’s death and politically a man as powerful as he was needed to spend at least some time in the capital to ensure that the interests of the Northern lords were not ignored. When I first heard them announced at a ball everything seemed to take on a nightmarish quality and I left as soon as I could. They did not avoid me. I avoided them. It was incredibly painful to see them looking so happy together and everyone spoke well of them. It is, I suppose, a rather sad thing for the state of marriage when the fact that a couple actually seems attached to each other is a subject of gossip, but so it was.

               I hated seeing them, I hated hearing about them, but I realized what it was to drink the dregs when I saw them with their son. He was about a year older than you and somehow I blamed on Marcus the fact that I was deprived of both wife and child. In my mind it should have been me with Alena raising you instead of John. Perhaps I need to accept that even if I had married Alena our children would not be you, that I could never have had both you and Alena. But I am a dying man and I will not shatter my dream world where you are my son and Alena my queen.

Shay came to court too; the gossips, at least, said it was to find another husband. She tried to see me and sent me messages, but I responded simply, saying it hurt too much to be reminded of Alena. That was true but at the same time something about Shay made me uneasy and I decided it was best to forget as much of my childhood as I could. But forget I could not and I spent the nights writhing in my bed, torturing myself with visions of Alena. This state of affairs could have gone on indefinitely but mercifully for me Marcus and Alena returned home after only a few months. According to the gossips this was due to Alena’s “delicate condition”. I hated Marcus with all the fires of the under and over worlds.

Now that everything has ended for me I wonder if I could have made my peace with Marcus and Alena. If perhaps I did not have to lose Alena totally, if I could have had her for a friend. Perhaps seeing her change from the sixteen year old I had loved to a wife and mother would have softened my love to the point that I could let it go. Or perhaps I would have simply spent my days and nights burning with passion for another man’s wife, causing all three of us unendurable pain. 

Purpleland: Chapter 14

I cannot describe to you what I felt. I recognized that I had loved her, not as I loved Alena, but she was my friend, my partner, the mother of my son. I felt intense grief and pain at her loss but that was not all. In the early days of our marriage I had recognized that I had been wrong to marry her, to use her, to violate in every way the trust she had in me. I had comforted myself that at least she had not been unduly harmed and would enjoy the benefits of marriage to a King’s son. Perhaps I had prevented her from finding another husband who would love her better, but who knew if such a husband existed. Her death brought all the ugliness of my crime to the open. I had drawn her away from friends and family, brought her to a remote section off the country, and planted in her a child for which she had died. All of this I had done for petty spite. Whenever Grief let go guilt would surge up and submerge me again in despair.

               When I knew that she was gone I felt that I could not be in that place where we had lived together, where I had lied to her again and again, where she had died. I wandered aimlessly. My thoughts were wild; I cried out for death and wondered if Alena would grieve my passing. I do not know how long I wandered, it could have been one day perhaps it was longer. When I returned the servants, under the instruction of a very industrious housekeeper, had constructed a coffin and laid your mother in it. The customary wailing was going on at full force with various servants taking turns so that the full twenty hours would be fulfilled. The sound grated on me like a thousand accusations. The housekeeper informed me that she had sent word to Aria’s family what had happened and I contemplated running again. To face the people I had so wronged would be like drowning myself in boiling oil. However, as the housekeeper pointed out, something had to be done about you.

               I did not want to be parted from you; it tore at my soul to think of you gone from me. But I also felt that in my state of grief I could not face the anger of my father, the gossip of the court, and most of all Alena knowing what I had done. So when Aria’s brother, a tall kind man with red hair like his sister, obviously grief-stricken by her death, appeared, I approached the subject of you with him. He seemed to understand my situation and said that since his wife had lost a baby several weeks ago it would be easy to pass this child off as his own. He already had a son so if he were to die suddenly the problem of inheritance would not arise. 

               I should have gone back with him. I should have met his wife. I should have faced anything rather than let you go. The should-haves pound in my head daily, but do not change what I did. I said my goodbyes when you were one month old and handed you, small, helpless, my son, to a wet-nurse and sent you on your way. I sent my body-guard to ensure your journey was a safe one, but did not even think to do anything to ensure that your childhood was a happy one. I now know it was not. For that I beg on my knees, if I could still kneel, for your forgiveness.

Purpleland: Chapter 13

I apologized to Aria the next day. I told her that I had known Marcus and that he had wronged me in some way. That she was to have nothing to do with them. She was much subdued. That night had shaken her and afterwards her pregnancy was harder on her. A few days later I was told that a lady had come to see me. For a second my heart skipped a beat thinking it might be Alena. It was not. Shay stood in my sitting room wearing a long elegant dress of black, though her time of mourning must have been long over. She embraced me as a brother and asked after my family. I told her briefly that I was married but some reserve stopped me from mentioning the child.

Shay had changed. I always remembered her as reserved and shy. But the Shay I met that day was confident and assertive. It was nothing she said to me exactly but it was written in her movements and he tones. Perhaps as a rich widow she had found in herself more scope for independence.

I stopped her when she tried to tell me about Alena and Marcus. I did not want to hear about their son or their happiness. The look of compassion she gave me said it all. I was glad to see her mostly because no one else could sympathize with my anger against Marcus. Their party left a week or so later and my relief at not having to face Marcus was palpable.

My relationship with your mother began to mend as the time for your birth drew near. It was not quite the same, but we were both eagerly anticipating your arrival. I remember how she sewed your clothes with her own hand, and sang as she did it. I remember how we danced on the roof at midnight and talked of your future. I remember the dreams we had of a life together.

You were born early in the morning. The birth was hard but not harder, I was told, that was usual for a first child. When I first held you I felt that for once I had found one person I could call my own. Someone I could start fresh with, no secrets, as with your mother, no memories of pain, as with my father and Marcus, and no lack of love as with Alena. The week after you were born was happy. I will not say it was happier than my time with Alena. Loves that different cannot always be compared and the heady draft of youthful passion is not the rich and grounding fatherhood I was then experiencing. Your mother’s joy was even greater for it was not tempered by memories of an unhappy childhood. She would sing to you with a clear voice that reached up to the clouds.

Your mother fell ill nine days after you were born. She had begun to be up and about again but that day she stayed in her bed. We did not think much of it but tried to let her rest. The next day she was worse. She could eat nothing, a fever burned her from the inside and I watched as she wasted away. Every doctor remotely near was sent for but all shook their heads and said vague things about the dangers of childbirth. I got down on my knees and begged them to save her, one cried with me and said he too had lost his wife, but none could do anything to revive her. When you were thirteen days old she died. 

Guide to OrangeLandese people

There are three major people groups in Orangeland. The Sundese of the Axe who live in the central desert. The Naomi of the Bow who live in the eastern desert. And the Panthis of the Horse who live in the western desert.

The Sundese of the Axe

The Sundese of the Axe live in the central desert and are a warlike people. The monarchy of Orangeland is descended from this tribe.

History

The Sundese were a small low level tribe until the warlord Dashga became their leader. Dashga revolutionized ancient Orangelandese war. The Sundese took control of the entire central desert but were blocked from expanding beyond by the Panthis of the Horse. After the founders Blueland took control of all of Orangeland. Blueland had a treaty with the Sundese and a Bluelandese princess was married to their chief. Time passed and soon the chief and the princess had a child named Alvin. Much later Alvin took control of the Sundese and led them in a rebellion. After many battles and raids Alvin finally united Orangeland under one banner. From him on the kings of Orangeland were descended.

Men

The Sundese men are some of the most fearsome warriors in Orangeland. Men start training for battle at the age of five. Those who become weapon smiths, history keeper, or some other trade are chosen at a young age that they may start training in that craft early. Despite Sundese warrior’s reputation for being unbeatable their weakness is cavalry. The Panthis of the horse plagued the Sundese for many years.

Women

While the men hunt, train, and fight Sundese women do all the farming and household work. There are a great variety of Sundese women due to the men capturing many from different tribes. Daughters hold a treasured place in society. Having a daughter is considered great fortune for a Sundese man because a beautiful daughter can bring great honor to a man. A daughter however, can bring great shame if she is captured because that is shown as a failure to protect her.

Weapons and crafts

The Sundese weapon of choice is a massive double headed battle axe but they will use anything from a slingshot to a scimitar if necessary. The most available metal to the Sundese is bronze so almost all of their metal crafts use bronze. The Sundese also use glass and wood for crafts. The Sundese were master sculptors but also practice music and even invented glass flutes and an early form of the violin.

Agriculture and Animals

Sundese agriculture is mostly handled by the women. The Sundese grow Oranges, and wheat while they herd sheep and a type of desert bull called a Cumba. Cumbas are also used as pack animals but can be very unruly and pack a big punch.

The Naomi of the Bow

The Naomi live in the eastern desert and the surrounding area. They are great architects and are even said to have built Artarian, the Orangelandese capital.

History

The history of the Naomi starts with the dwarves and the town that would become Artarian. The dwarves built a city for themselves ruled by a king named Artorious. Several stories that have nothing to do with the Naomi took place there but in the end the dwarven civilization was brought down in an epic battle against the demons. Eventually the Naomi migrated into the area and learned from surviving dwarves the art of architecture. Naomi were never known as much as the Sundese or the Panthis but to quote Emily Eernor who wrote a complete history of Orangeland “On the backs of the Naomi were the buildings of Orangeland built”.

Men

The Naomi men are taught from an early age to shoot a bow but they do not devote their lives to war the way the Sundese do. Instead they spend more time on building and crafting. Naomi men also spend much of their time hunting and farming.

Women

Naomi women have much time to spend so they spend time on many different arts. Many even embrace martial arts. The women gather together in the market square to discuss matters of society while the men build and hunt.

Weapons and Crafts

The Naomi did not use many metals except gold which they had an abundance of, instead they embraced stone and wood to make their bows and buildings. The long bow is the Naomi weapon of choice but they will use staffs at close range and slings or other ranged weapons if they do not have their bow. The Naomi loved the security of a solid stone building therefore solid stone was one of their most precious materials.

Agriculture and Animals

The Naomi raise sheep, camels, and deer while they grow wheat, oranges, and dates.

The Panthis of the Horse

The Panthis live in the western desert and are the closest tribe to Greenland therefore they have inherited many Greenlandese customs. The Panthis were the most cultured and organized of the Orangelandese tribes.

History

The Panthis were started when a group of outcasts from other tribes caught horses and used them as their secret weapon against the other tribes until they were the uncontested rulers of the western desert. The Panthis’s only longstanding enemies are the Sundese and the Verandi’s. The Panthis wars with the Sundese were interrupted when Blueland took control of Orangeland. The Panthis finally joined the Sundese to defeat Blueland. The Panthis war against the Verandi’s was more complicated but was brought to an end when the Panthis defeated the Verandi’s at the battle of Ticheb. The Panthis beheaded the chief of the Verandi’s and his son, then they took all five of the chiefs daughters back to Orangeland forever humiliating the Verandi’s.

Men

The Panthis men like those of Greenland follow a strict code of chivalry. Panthis men are trained from birth to ride a horse and shoot a bow but only the best boys join battle school at fifteen and become a Deshant, the Panthis form of a knight. Boys who do not achieve this form a middle class of skilled workers who will be called upon in time of war to make the legendary Panthis mobile archer units. The farming is done by a collection of slaves taken from other tribes.

Women

While Sundese women are known for farming and Naomi women are known for martial arts Panthis women are known for nothing but being beautiful. Of all the tribes the Panthis prize beauty the most. Panthis women take on the Greenlandese tradition of the damsel in distress. Panthis women are often belittled by other Orangelandese women for being weak.

Weapons and Crafts

The Panthis were the only tribe to embrace iron until the unification of Orangeland. The Panthis use recurve bows which can be easily maneuvered from horseback, the Panthis also use ten foot lances and broadswords. The Panthis embrace painting and have made several massive paintings on cliff faces.

Agriculture and Animals

The Panthis grow many rare fruits and grain in the western desert. The Panthis use horses as a pack animal and eat deer.

Purpleland: Chapter 12

We took a small hunting lodge in the southwest and lived together as man and wife. I choose your mother for a single misguided reason, but during those days I began to see that there was so much more to her. She was impulsive, but I think the years could have cooled her blood and accentuated the qualities already strongly marked in her. She was generous, kind, and there was a sort of nobility about her that I was never able to quite describe. The beginning was hard. When two people who do not know each other try to make their lives one there will always be conflicts and my love for her was certainly not what it should have been. But I set to the task of marriage. Marcus and Alena were far away and my rage was now only small embers in the deep recesses of my heart. Her generosity carried us through.  So that when she told me she was with child I began to think that I could be happy with her. I did not forget Alena and there was not a day when I did not long for her but a fondness for Aria was growing in me and I knew that I loved her child. I dared hope that I could sooth my father’s anger and that someday we could rule together, companions if not lovers.

               I thought it best to wait until after the birth of the child to face my father. If it was an heir that might sooth him, and it would be easier to travel once she was recovered. Aria was relieved that I was finally making plans to present her at court as my many delays had pained her. Those were good days. We walked together every day and sometime rode. We would read to each other and talk about the child we both already loved. My tenderness for the child translated to Aria and I treated her as I should have all along.

               In the 5^th month of her pregnancy Aria heard that a lord and his wife had taken a lodge only a few miles from where we were. She was beginning to feel the loneliness of our extended honeymoon and so she determined on visiting them. I had a cold that day so I sent her off with two of my men servants and went to bed. She returned full of happiness and news about the young couple and their new baby. I was only half listening as the cold had given me a fierce headache when I heard the name I had for years been holding closer than anything else.

               “Who is Alena?” I said sharply.

               “The wife. Haven’t you been listening?”

               “And her husband’s name is?”

               “Marcus and their son is John.” She saw the anger in my eyes. “What is it Kail?”

               I did not lay a hand on her but I came close. She left sobbing. I almost smashed the bottle of wine she had brought back but in the end I had a servant take it away. The rage I had been holding back was unleased that night on everyone I saw and it was a terrible thing to behold.

Purpleland: Chapter 11

I held on to my anger as a drowning man will clutch at a piece of sail cloth. I was determined to revenge myself on Marcus and immediately my mind was occupied with how best to do that. I was the son of the king so you would think that I could take away his lands or throw him in a dungeon. But as prince I had very little direct power and Marcus was one of the most powerful of the northern lords. In fact he was descended from It was then that fate took a hand in my affairs. By merest chance at one of the countless formal functions I had to attend I met the woman who had rejected Marcus years ago. Her name was Aria el Jamus. She was very beautiful and very different from Alena. She had grown up in the southern country and was impulsive, robust, and with long red hair very beautiful. The outdoors was her love and I have never known a better rider.

It is hard for me to write this next part for, of everything I have done, I believe this to be the worst. You will already have realized that this Aria was your mother. How she became such was my worst folly and blackest sin.

At the time when I met her I was like a man imprisoned deep within his anger. I thought only of my hatred for Marcus and was blind to everything else.  And so the idea came to me that if Marcus had taken my first love from me I should take his first love from him. I did not stop to think that he had clearly moved on. I did not think how cruel it would be to marry for revenge. I did not think at all.

Aria was, as I have said, Impulsive. I convinced her that I loved her and I think she fell for me in earnest. I knew my father would not approve a marriage to her as she had no connections to any of the major lords, who I needed on my side once I became king. I convinced her to marry me secretly and two weeks after we met again we were married.

As I came to myself I began to see what a fool I had been. It was doubtful that my marriage to Aria would have any effect on Marcus other than an admission of weakness. I was desperately ashamed and terrified that either my father or Alena would find out. I decided to take Aria somewhere we would not be known or recognized to make what I could of our ill started marriage.

Taken By The Wind, Chapter 3

Jehu winced as David cleaned the wound caused by a stone thrown by the local children. A guard had shooed them away but Jehu took a stone to the head and was bleeding. The next day Jehu slogged through the great ebony forest which ran along the border for three hundred leagues. After that, what? Nobody knew where they were going or if they would survive the journey. Jehu remembered some of the history of Talmesh. Talmesh used to be part of orange land, but soon broke off under Yamdra the valiant who single handedly defended the Velquins bridge from 100 invaders and yet still survived. He founded the order of the Yamdors, the nobility and warrior class that held Talmesh together. They were highly trained and well-armed and bound by a strict code of honor. The Yamdors also had a retinue of warriors called Madrons, who were slaves trained to fight. After five years of service the slaves could swear fealty to the order of the Yamdors and become a Yamdor. Talmesh also requires two years of military service from each of its male citizens. The Yamdors are the only practitioners of a martial art called coldora. Coldora requires that users never be unarmed, thus the Yamdors always have a weapon with them and it is considered a great offense to steal a Yamdor’s weapon. Their weapon of choice is usually an Ebony staff.

            While Jehu was pondering the Yamdor order the group came to a quick stop. Jehu walked right into the person in front of him. He lost his balance and fell over a precipitous slope that was blanketed by sharp rocks. He heard a scream and saw two guards dive after him. He crashed into the ground beneath with a thud. Jehu only smashed his arm into the rocks but was alive. The other two were not so lucky. Jehu grabbed one of their knives and began to cut away his bonds. Another guard ran down the slope and at Jehu. Jehu prepared for the attack with his uninjured arm, the dagger clasped firmly. He stabbed, the guard crumpled to the ground. Jehu was still, he had never before taken a man’s life. The Man’s eyes were still open, a blank look of shock stood across his face. Jehu wondered who the man was, who his family was and where he was from. He ran, the preceding events in Jehu’s mind took ages, but to the prisoners it took 20 seconds. The rest of the guards were still climbing down the slope. Jehu saw a black and blue bird soaring towards him. It was a talmeshese blosa falcon, a large and fierce bird which could be used to hunt the largest of foxes. They could also be trained to follow a man or animal till it was dead or caught. Rolling into a deep pond he suddenly remembered something from brown land. He swam and found what he was looking for. A beaver dam still stood, abandoned for year. It was now Jehu’s shelter. Even the Falcon with its confident arc stopped and halted like it could not find its target. The guards fanned out in search of him. After many hours Jehu emerged from the dam. He started walking back to orange land when he heard voices behind him. He saw two girls walking along. The girls looked well dressed, they wore a burnt orange scarves which were a sign of the Yamdors order. Jehu then saw a large log get loosed by the beaver he stayed with. The log began to roll down the hill straight for the girls, Jehu ran to stop it before they were hurt. He dove and jammed his injured hand under the log, stopping it. The girls didn’t notice and kept walking. His wrist pulsed with an intense pain. He saw a hooded figure out of the corner of his eye then blacked out.

Purpleland: Chapter 10

When we were out of sight of the house he grabbed my arm. I turned to him and yelled. “You knew I loved her. You knew I was coming back.” He tried to say something then but I cut him off. “You didn’t ever tell me. You said you were my friend and you lied to me again and again.” I then leapt on him and tried to punch him. He sidestepped and twisted the arm he already held behind me and pushed me to the ground.

 “Are you going to listen now?” His voice was very cool.  I did not say anything, seething with rage. “Alright, I have loved her… loved her, Kail, just as long as you have. And I know I never told you, but it tore me up to watch you two together. I did nothing then. Nothing. I was going to let you have her. You left and I was going to let you wait for her but she didn’t want to wait for you. Listen to me Kail. She doesn’t love you. And she never wants to be queen. When you left she didn’t say she would wait for you. She made no promises and neither did I. I was wrong not to tell you. I should have told you that she wasn’t waiting for you. I should have told you that I loved her. I should have told you that I was going to ask for her hand.” He paused. “I suppose that I hoped you would forget her. As for Alena she thought I would have told you.”  He let me up then and stood before me his hands open, palms facing me. “Now do to me what you want your majesty.”

The fury inside me had turned to a kind of cold fire. I grabbed the front of his shirt and pulled him toward me. “You said you were my friend, you were the closest thing I had to a brother, I trusted you above anyone. And the second my back was turned you took the one thing in the world I wanted. I will hate you until I die. You are a snake and not welcome near me. Go now, find the girl and marry her, but from this day you have lost my friendship.”

He bowed and said. “I wish it could be otherwise.” Then turned and left me, covered in mud, panting and almost crying.

I rode after my servants and waylaid them on the way to Marcus’ castle. We took lodging in an inn nearby and made plans to leave on the morrow. I retired to my room. It was then that Alena came to me. She told me she was sorry. She told me that she loved me as a brother and hoped she would not lose me. She said no word in defense of what she had done but I read it in her eyes. She loved Marcus, not me. She did not want to be queen. She had thought Marcus had told me.

I told her that I would never cease to love her but as she was to be a bride I would not speak of it again. I told her while I could not forgive the man who would marry her she was free of all blame in my mind. She begged that I would forgive Marcus but I told her that her pleas were useless and that was the only thing I would not do at her request. We bid each other farewell and she went back, back to her parents, back to her lover, back to Marcus. I suppose I knew that by refusing to be reconciled with Marcus I was giving up any friendship I might have had with his future wife. At the time friendship seemed a meager thing to give up when compared to the ocean of my anger.

 Alena had only gone a few minutes when Shay came. That was a surprise, but she looked at me with compassion, not pity and told me how truly sorry she was. I saw tears in her eyes and asked, haltingly if she had loved Marcus. She looked surprised then nodded slowly and somehow her grey eyes had never looked less like her sister’s. We stood there in our mutual grief and eventually I broke the silence to congratulate her on her recent marriage. She smiled sadly.

“He’s ill you know. I’ll be a widow before the year is out most likely.”

I expressed my deepest condolences but she shook her head.

“He never loved me, was never even kind to me. I was pretty bedroom ornament and a part of an assembly line for his heir.”

I looked up quickly. “You are with child”

She smiled softly. “Yes, the child will come in the spring.”

I congratulated her and she smiled again. Then shyly took her leave and returned to her failing husband. But first she put her arms around me quickly, which was almost scandalous, and whispered, “They had no right to hurt you so.”

Purpleland: Chapter 9

It was three years before I was able to visit Marcus again. I had received occasional letters from my friend and, as it would have been most improper to keep up a correspondence with an unmarried girl, I had to depend on this for all new of Alena. He told me she was well and so was her family, but said little else about the girl who was constantly haunting me in my dreams. When I returned to Marcus’ domain it was in high hopes. I was then twenty-one; Alena would be nineteen. It seemed to me that some of the obstacles to our engagement were removed by the three years since my first proposal.

I sent off a letter detailing my visit two days before I left, but set out towards Alena’s home first. I could not restrain myself from seeing her as soon as possible and her father’s holding was actually to some extent on my way to Marcus’ castle.

I sent my attendants on and rode up to Alena’s home alone. I knocked on the door and was received by an elderly servant who seemed a little awed by my titles and announced me to the family, all of whom seemed to be in the sitting room. I was so overwhelmed by Alena’s beauty that, for a moment, I did not notice the other occupants of the room. The three years had only made her more beautiful. Golden hair cascaded down her shoulders and her grey eyes sparkled with health and happiness. As I entered I heard her laughter and I felt something frozen inside me melt. Smiling like a fool, I made a deep bow. I looked up and noticed that sitting beside her, his hand on her arm, was Marcus. The hand disturbed me slightly, but I was too glad to see both of them to let myself think on it over much.

I embraced Marcus and knelt to kiss Alena’s hand she blushed and I heard her murmur something to Marcus. That bothered me more than the hand, but I stood and made my polite enquires to Alena’s parents. I asked them how they had been. Well. I asked after Shay. It seemed that she had been lately married to a minor lord who I remembered vaguely as much older.

“But that is old news,” Said Alena’s mother smiling widely. “Our second daughter is engaged as well.”

I felt like I had been kicked. I refused to look at Alena. “Really?”

“Yes.” She smiled wider. “Marcus asked for her hand a week ago.”

In books sometimes they say the light became dark before his eyes and that’s the only way I can describe what happened. I sort of stumbled through the rest of the conversation with Alena’s parents and made some excuse to leave. I finally turned to Marcus and Alena. Marcus was biting his lip and Alena was staring at me with something like infinite pity. That made everything worse. I left their house and Marcus followed me but I was passed listening to anything he had to say.

Purpleland: Chapter 8

I did not see her until I left the next day. She stood between Marcus and Shay. They were all wearing black and I could not help but think of the day of Lord Stephan’s funeral when I had fallen in love with Alena. Marcus stepped forward. I had told him all about Alena’s rejection the night before and he, with uncharacteristic emotion, told me how he had received a similar rejection from the red head he had courted. Now he grasped my shoulder and said, “If you ever need a friend”. I clasped his shoulder and replied, “You will be the first to know.” I looked back only once as we rode off and saw that only Alena and her sister were left on the parapet Alena’s Golden hair blew out behind her like a banner in the wind.

I rode for two days before we reached the capital. Britt said not two words to me the whole way, nor I to him as I was brooding on Alena. When we reached the capital and my father’s castle it seemed nothing was changed. The glittering lords and ladies still had balls and played at lunch parties and morning parties and washing parties and parties for seemingly no reason at all. I had not changed either. I hated all of them.

My father had not change in appearance, he was still feeble and too thin and his hair was still prematurely gray, however he had change his views about how I should deport myself. He had formerly been content to see me once a day for perhaps a quarter of an hour and had not bothered himself with what I did with the other twenty three and three fourths hours. Now I had tutors in war making, tutors in courtly manners, and lessons on economics, politics, and dancing. On top of that I was expected to spend two hours every day attending the courts in the city so as to see how justice was to be dispensed. I also had to attend balls almost every night and was expected to make myself agreeable to everyone there.

I was so much depressed by my thoughts of Alena that constantly being busy was a relief to me and I threw myself into my studies with more vigor that I had yet spared for anything, aside from my love for Alena. My father was pleased with this and called me into his room for about an hour every day for lessons of his own.  I learned from him how he managed his vassals, how he arranged the finances of the country, who he trusted and who he did not. I minded these longer visits less than the former shorter ones as he seemed to have realized that he could not expect me to treat him as a father and had begun to treat me as nothing more than an heir.