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.