Purpleland: Chapter 3

Those times, as good as they were could not last. In the fall of my sixteenth year I received word that my father was ill and needed me. I persuaded Lord Stephan that Marcus must come with me and the two of us set off on what seemed to us at the time as a grand adventure. I had not been back since I was eight and the large capital city, not to mention the palace, seemed to me irresistible romantic. Marcus, though glad to go with me, was, as in everything, more restrained in his excitement.

The Palace was a disappointment. It was bigger than Lord Stephan’s home and there were more servants and it did have a ball room that was often used by many sparkling people. But I could see no real improvement to Lord Stephan’s tidy keep and the sparkling people gave me no real pleasure for Lord Stephan had warned me before I left that all of them would want something from me and I found that to be only too true.

The City on the other hand did not disappoint. Many days Marcus and I would but on the clothes of the sons of wealthy merchants and wander the streets. It seemed to me that every tale I had ever heard came alive there and anything could be bought for the right price, spices, tea, drink, women. The last Marcus would not touch but I am ashamed to say I had my share, they were all around and I was curious lad in my sixteenth year with all the passions of a hot blooded family.

 Of course Marcus was not completely free of dalliance. We had not been there a year when he began to court a young girl of our age. She was a noble woman from the south and he found her pretty and lively and I had to admit than she did not lack beauty. Her auburn hair was cut fairly short and her green eyes held youth and vigor. Her father was not particularly wealthy or particularly powerful but he was secure in his holdings and hoped to become more secure by marrying his two daughters above their station. Her family encouraged Marcus as his father was no minor lord and as she was a noble woman Marcus felt no apprehension that she would be ill received by his father.

But I had not come to court girls or to wander the market place. I had come because my father had called. He had grown older, had shrunk with a disease that was eating him from the inside out, but I only vaguely realized this as before I left my father was essentially a stranger to me. The years had only widened that gap. I had left a spoiled child, I returned a high spirited youth. He seemed to repent of his earlier neglect of me but it came too late. I would visit him daily and speak to him on whatever subject he chose but my mind was all the time looking forward to the moment when he would dismiss me with a wave of his liver spotted hand. I regret not knowing him, and though the fault was for the most part his, I wish that then I had really learned to love him. I missed out on knowing both my father and my son and that I regret with everything in me.

Taken By the Wind: Chapter 2

                Jehu awoke with a start. Looking around, he saw he was in a clearing surrounded by luscious orange trees. He noticed his friends Emily, Charles, David, and Wallace were already awake and helping themselves to a breakfast of stale bread and oranges. He wondered what they were all doing, then it struck him: He was kidnapped.

            Wallace, noticing Jehu was awake, handed him an orange and a piece of bread. The look on Wallace's face was as somber as he'd ever seen the jocular fellow. Wallace was a good-natured lad from the highlands of Greenland. Wallace was massively built with arms that were like tree trunks. His broad shoulders and sturdy legs were complemented by a mop of flaming red hair atop his brow and a slight beard across his chin.

            "Eat up" said Wallace, "You are going to need it"

       

Once Jehu devoured his breakfast he took stock of his surroundings. He noticed eight hooded men on the outskirts of the clearing. A scouting party had returned and the eight men were joined by two more. They ran into the clearing and gruffly got everyone moving. They were joined by five more men, the men totaled at fifteen. They marched for days, keeping a quick pace, the hooded men were getting anxious. Jehu knew they were headed for Velquins Bridge that spans Bortroses rift. The only passage into Talmesh from this forest for three hundred leagues. Bortroses rift was a natural border between Talmesh and Orange land. Once they get past that bridge there was no hope of ever returning safely.

Jehu saw the bridge and his heart sank. There was nothing that could be done. They were lost to the Talmeshese.

Thwack!

Three orange feathered arrows sprung into three of the warrior’s chests as they crumpled to the forest floor. Jehu acted quickly, he grabbed a knife from the nearest fallen warrior and began to cut away at his restraints. The other warriors were soon in combat with a border patrol of Orangelandese infantry. Jehu hastily cut away his restraints and set to work on Wallace's. The Patrol soon became overwhelmed, although they outnumbered the warriors these hooded figures were incredible warriors. Soon of the 18 Orangelandese soldiers only 2 remained. Jehu and Wallace now free from their restraints, ran. They didn't make it far before they were chased down by the hooded figures on horseback. The warriors retied their restraints and added the other two soldiers, five of the warriors had died and they threw their bodies into the abyss. They left the rest of the Patrol to be fed on by Carrion.

Jehu began his forced march across the small bridge and into captivity. They had passed into Talmesh.

Elgaboth, the Kidnapping: Chapter 5

The procession of prisoners stopped in the late afternoon. They had crossed the Greyland border during the night and driven the prisoners west all day. Lucy’s legs ached and her knee was agony. She could ride, and ride well, for an hour or even more but she was not nearly strong enough for this.

When the man called a halt she felt near fainting. She nearly did faint when the man chivalrous helped her down from her horse and her foot hit the ground. The pain that snaked its way up her leg and agonized her knee. The man, without comment, without so much as looking at her picked up Lucy, and carried her like a child to the base of a large tree. After a few sharp commands she was brought water which she drank gladly. She could see the other girls drinking as well. Most were crying, some were almost asleep already but none seemed to be suffering from more than the long day of forced marching. The place they had stopped would have been pleasant had it not been for the lack of any color on the long barren plains land. Tree sprung up every few feet and would have been inviting if they had not been so exactly spaced. The whole country had the feel of something not quite right.

        “Tell me about your attacks.” The man’s voice broke into Lucy’s reverie.

“What?”

“Your attacks of pain, how often they occur, when you last had one, what you do to ease the pain.”

          She continued to stare at him blankly.

          “I need to have this information in case you fall ill on the road.”

          Finally she seemed to understand. “They come about twenty times a year, though not evenly, usually clustered with a few spaced out. They can last anywhere from a few hours to two days. They used to be longer. Sometimes applying heat and cold alternatively can relive some of the pain.” She stopped.

          “And your last one?”

          “Two weeks ago and it lasted six hours.”

          He nodded. “Can you tell when they are coming?”

          “No,” Her pale blue eyes were hard.

          “Why were you there?”

          Lucy took a breath. “I would prefer not to speak of it.” She had no idea where Judy had been that May morning when the cursed sickness first took shape, but more lies would only trap her later.

          He laughed in a distant hollow way. “Sleep then and dream of kinder days.” He walked off toward the cages where some tall men with grey hair and stiff uniforms had appeared. Lucy guessed that they were Greyland troops and her heart leapt. Greyland was, at least in theory, allied with Mixupland. But it sunk again when she saw the greeting was cordial. The guards inspected the prisoners and left with three boys and two girls. They kept pointing at other of the female prisoners but the man shook his head. Lucy knew one of the girls vaguely as a Greyland Earl’s daughter and surmised that they were handing over the Greylandese prisoners in exchange for safe passage. By then she was asleep; dreaming of color and of cold.

Elgaboth, the Kidnapping: Chapter 4

Alexander had never ridden so hard in his life. There had never been such a need. His daughters, the ones he had protected all their short lives, the twins he had sworn to love and protect on his wedding day and the daughter who, ever since her big blue eyes had met his, had held his heart in the palm of her hand.

He and his wife had been alone together in the garden of his summer home when the first messenger arrived. The next had appeared while the first was still speaking. They both reported a loss of communication with outposts and Alexander realized with a growing sickness that they were the two closest to Elgaboth. There was only to gather as many men as he could spare without compromising the security of the remainder of his family and then to ride. They had come to the first outpost late in the evening and found it burned to the ground with several soldiers dead around it. They had rested the horses for an hour and covered the bodies then rode on through the night.

Orion rode beside Alexander. They had been friends since childhood and had ridden together often. Orion’s dark face mirrored the crown prince’s scowl. He had no blood relatives at the school, had no close relatives at all , but his wife’s sister and brother were there and having no family of his own they were doubly important to him.

As the light of day began to creep across the wooded path they traveled the mist seemed to cling to trees around them. For Alexander and Orion their personal fears were not the only thing tormenting them. The political consequences of an attack on Elgaboth were likely to be war.

Suddenly two figures appeared on the road waving frantically. It took about a minute until recognition dawned and Alexander pulled his horse up short, dismounted and gathered Judy into his arms. Beside her, pale and stone faced was John.

Judy sobbed out disjointed sentences into her father’s shoulder. Orion called a halt and the men began taking wat rest they could while Alexander and Orion questioned the two escapees.

“Are you alright?”

She nodded quickly, “But they took everyone else and Lucy and Cassie were taken and who knows what he is doing to them and Kurt and Anna were behind the wall.”

Orion cut off the flow of words. “Kurt? What happened to him?”

John stepped forward for the first time, “Kurt was with us when we escaped but he was injured and couldn’t get over the wall. Anna wouldn’t leave him.” John’s voice betrayed his shame.

Orion sighed heavily.

“Anna?” Alexander looked at his daughter again. “Your maid?”

She nodded. “Cassie and Lucy were taken first. We locked our door and they hadn’t been able to break it down yet when John and Kurt came to get us out.”

“So Cassie was taken?”

Judy nodded again.

“Did you see Elwin and Lianna?”

Judy shook her head.

Alexander nodded then looked straight at his daughter. “It will be alright.”

“It can’t be. He took everyone…”

“It will be alright.” They looked at each other for a few moments. When they had finished Alexander picked up his daughter and placed her on his horse.

“Your mother is west from here.” He motioned to a lieutenant. “Take your company and see my daughter safely home. Then follow me to Elgaboth.”

He returned a little later and focused on John. “Now I need you to tell me exactly what happened.”

John told him all about the attack on the school, and the escape, sparing no detail he remembered.

“How did you find us?” put in Orion after he had finished.

“I knew there was an outpost down this road so we traveled in the woods along the side of the road and prayed that they hadn’t taken the outpost before Elgaboth.”

Orion nodded.

“Who is your father?” Asked Alexander.

 “Lord Falion of Purpleland.”

“I will arrange for an escort to his estate.”

“Your majesty, I want to ride with you.”

“Your father will be worried.”

“He will not be.”

“And your other family?”

“There is only a sister and she will not have heard.”

“How old are you?”

“Sixteen.”

Alexander looked at Orion. “When I was sixteen…”

“When you were sixteen the world might have been destroyed and you wouldn’t have noticed but you can’t judge everyone by that.”

“Sir, I had to leave friends behind at Elgaboth.”

“Alright,” Alexander looked at John again. “You can ride in the back.”

John bowed. “Thank you sir.”

After he had left Alexander turned to Orion. “I wish Kurt had gotten out with them.”

Orion nodded. “I’m more concerned about Cassie, you know what they are.”

Alexander’s face was hard as flint.

Orion realized his mistake and apologized. “Sander I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking about them.”

“We’ll get them back, all of them, or this country will be caught in a war we will never see the end of.”

Selena, Princess of Greyland

Angela of Greyland

Elgaboth, the Kidnapping: Chapter 3

Once she knew Judy and John were gone Anna grabbed Kurt’s arms and began to drag him farther into the woods. She could not see any likely hiding places but she kept on dragging her friend with the determination of one whose hope will stubbornly live on without reason. This time, however, Anna’s unreasoning hope did not betray her. As she stepped backward there came a sinking under her. Anna had discovered one of the many secrets of Elgaboth, though this one was an accident.

Long ago in Greyland there lived a weaver. He was not poor nor was he rich. He lived alone because his wife had died but his children and grandchildren visited often and he did not long for more company.

Now in Greyland there was a law that all redheads belonged to the king. Every time a redhead was born they were officially recorded and every year their parents received a visit on the child’s birthday. If the child’s hair was still red the child was taken.

This particular weaver had a granddaughter who was so condemned. As her first birthday approached everyone prayed and hoped that her hair would change, but day after day each strand of her beautiful rose-colored hair remained.

A month before her birthday her grandfather began the tunnel which Anna had just discovered and two days before the young girl’s birthday she and her grandfather were absorbed by the ruin that was Elgaboth. Just as forty years later the authoritarian country of Greyland absorbed two refugees of the burning fortress, Elgaboth.

Anna was able to pull Kurt’s inert form through the tunnel and cover it again with branches. Long after the soldiers had combed the woods, after they had bound the instructors, and after they had marched a caravan full of princes, lordlings, and the loved daughters of half the kings on the continent. After all these things Anna again found the courage to move. She did not, could not, know that the dark men she so feared had no intention of staying more than a moment longer then he had to in Elgaboth. She did not, could not, know that this was not an invasion but a hostage exchange. So as it was the idea of going back held to much terror for her to contemplate.

In History lectures they had learned a little of the history of Greyland. When the founders had come to the continent a thousand and some years ago it had been the only country that would not take one of that race for king and hence the demons were not bound there. The kings of that country set out to stamp out the demons and their spawn. With great and terrible magic their sorcerers banished color from the grass, the sky, even the dirt was grey in that land. Somehow this did manage to hold the demons at bay but not their children. Demonspawn wreaked havoc in the lad even centuries after color was banished. This led to the kings taking even more drastic actions. It began with the twins. Everyone knows that the children of demons are always twins down to the fifth or sixth generation and they decided that the only way to ensure peace in the land was to keep all twins under guard. This also solved the problem of Labor in to build the great cities they had planned. The people were too terrified of the demons and the violence of their descendants to protest when a small fraction of their children were taken to do the king’s work.

This policy seemed to work for a period of about fifty years. The capital city of Greyland was built, people enjoyed more peace than they had known before. But because of that peace mothers began to question why it was that they had to give up their children to a king who really had no business making slaves out of his own people. People stopped reporting their twins. They would hide one for a year and say they were nine months apart. Some would be sent off to relatives and passed as another’s child. It was one of these who changed Greyland forever.

Al Keder was a twin sent to live with his great aunt. She was old and senile but many said she had been a witch. Whether that is true or not under her lackluster car Al Keder grew up to be a man known for his cruelty. He was known to torture animals and no one in the town had ever heard him utter one word of kindness or even civility. When he was seventeen they drove him out of town with curses and blows. That seemed to put the final touch on his madness. He used the dark powers inside him to destroy the village. If you go there today there is only a scorch mark about a mile wide where the town once was. But he was not finished.

He traveled to the king’s summer home where the king’s favorite daughter was residing while she waited to be married to one of the Lords. There he smashed his way through the guards, took the princess and murdered her in cold blood.

He was finally caught, laughing to himself in a pool of her blood. The king was devastated. He had Al Kader slowly tortured to death and he himself struck the death blow. Then he did something extreme. Al Kadar had been a redhead, so had several well-known demonspawn and it was known that the demons of that area when they appeared to men had flames on their heads. The king ordered all redheads rounded up and put in work camps. Those who could not work were to be killed.

Now to issue a decree that applies only to future children is on thing but to actually round up, neighbors, friends, and relatives of your citizens is another. Most were too horrified by recent events to protest but a group of rebels fought the king’s troops.  They fought bravely but were badly defeated. The remnant of that army fled into the mountains with their families.

After the rebellion the king grew even more bitter. He issued more decrees banning anyone from owning anything of color. Over time people began regarding color itself as the enemy. Children with green or blue eyes were looked on as suspicious and women were forced to cover their hair and sometimes their faces to avoid showing color.

So when Anna, a twin, found herself lying on grey grass in a country suspicious of everything she was in no little danger. Fortunately she was wearing her white nightgown and nothing colorful. Neither was Kurt as his clothing of choice that night had been black.

There was nothing she felt she could do. Dragging Kurt farther would be extremely difficult and she had no idea where they would go. She decided to wait until he woke up and fell into an exhausted sleep with her hand on his arm so she would wake if he did. Many hours passed in that colorless land before either stirred.