The Answers

Chapter Eight The Answers After the tables are set with the finest linens, silver utensils and crystals goblets, and fine china plates. I set off for the kitchen again. I had left a young maiden in charge of turning the spit and turning the vegetables. After some time the food getting ready to serve. I sent the young maiden to the Baroness and let her know it was nearing time to eat. Then came in the baron to the kitchen, looking over the eve's supper. Stealing a taste of the vegetables. "Hmm, this is quite tasty" he said to me. "You are ready to venture out and teach another your craft" I said "gramercy your Excellency, but I think I still have much more to learn". He just smiled. "Nonsense child, you are ready, you just need to take that first step," he said. "Well if you think I am ready, then I guess I am" But your Excellency, I need to speak with you and the baroness about a pressing issue. May I have some of your time after supper? I said to him "Yes of course you can." He responded. "We are here for you, Arganteilin" "Gramercy your Excellency" I said, and bowed to him. After the supper was served, the dishes were cleared from the great hall. I went to the kitchen to finish the cleaning there and make ready for the next days meal. I went back to the great hall.  The Baron and Baroness were sitting in front of the fire; they were talking in low voices as not to echo through the hall. I approached them and bowed. The baroness took my hand and sat me next to her. The Baron asked," what is so urgent that you need both of us."  "Well your Excellency, this matter of the king demanding emerald to join him in battle. Is there nothing that can be done to make him forget I have a dragon?" The baron laughed out loud, "Child any king would kill to have their own dragon to fly into battle with" "But your Excellency, emerald is not a bad dragon, he is kind and gentle. That would bring such bad karma upon all of us for letting this happen." I said to him. "Your right it would, so what can we do to deter the king for a bit?" The baroness piped in and said "I think emerald is coming down sick." The baron and I both looked at her, "what emerald is sick!" I almost started to cry, when she said, "No, but the king does not know that".  If you send word to the king the dragon is ill and may be dying, he will want nothing to do with that. Then he will forget. You and emerald then can live in peace. "Will that work your Excellency?" I asked. He thought for a bit and rubbed his beard, like he always does when he ponders a deep thought. "It might just work, I will send word to him that the dragon is ill and maybe dying" "I will send it off in the morrow" he said. There maybe another problem, Baron Thomas wants the dragon gone from our lands. You and Emerald will have to hide everywhere you go. Baron Thomas will stop at nothing to rid us of him. Giving your location to the king will ensure the dragons demise in battle. Then his problem is solved and the king is happy he has a dragon and such a good baron to point to his locale. I was so grateful to him for sending the letter to the king, I just knew in my heart and the sight I have been gifted by the Goddess, that emerald would be hurt or even killed in battle. Emerald is my friend; he is always free to leave. No one should ever be owned by another. "You are right child," said the Baroness. But now we have to send word to all about the dying dragon, especially Baron Thomas." She said. "Now may we speak on another matter?" I asked the Baron. "Yes, we can. What is it?" he said. "Well about leaving the barony to travel to Caid to live with the baron and baroness there" "Do I have to leave soon or will it be a while before I go?" The baron looked a bit puzzled, he got up and started pacing around the great hall. The Baroness and I just watched him and wondered what he was thinking.  With his hands behind him and cupped. He is walking the great hall in a circle. He said" I will speak to you in the morrow on this matter" "The Baron of Calafia is a good friend and I have the up most respect for him, I need time to think on this" Thank you your excellencies, for everything this eve. I will let emerald know he is to play sick for a bit and just relax in the fields. Good night to you then", I bowed as I left their presence. I ran like the wind to the barn to let emerald know he was safe and the baron made it so. I entered the barn and emerald was sleeping, he was all sprawled out in the huge barn. He has gotten so much bigger than when I first saw him so many years ago. He was just a tiny thing compared to how large he is now. He was 8 feet tall when my father measured him in Cornwall. His wingspan was 15 feet spread out. Now he is all of 20' feet tall and a wingspan of much great length. He was dreaming, his foot was twitching as he slept. I snuggled under his wing and drifted off to a deep slumber. I dreamt of all that has happen to me since Emerald came in to my life, how when I was a young girl standing on the cliffs watching the sea twist and roll, he came to me from the sky. Everything changed from that point. I still can recall the beautiful dress I was wearing of blues and my favorite boots of blue bull skin. We have traveled to so many places and all the friends we have made. I love Wales and wish to return to it someday, Rome was very pretty with all the great buildings and statues.  Ireland is so green and lush. The forests in Ireland are beautiful and the woods are deep in colour and richness. Then on to the deserts where, I met the Baron and Baroness. Being here has been a dream come true. I have cooked for many a noble person of noble birth. I am not of noble birth, but my mother would tell me of the lives we live after the Goddess takes us home. The lessons not yet learned in this life follow you to the next, till you learn them all. Then she takes you home with her to live there forever. You in turn help others that are still living, learn what they need to. So they can return home to the Goddess. Mother always would say it was a "circle of life", days turn to night that turns back to day, spring, then summer, and then autumn and winter then spring again. Everything is a circle of life. I miss my mother and father greatly, but so much time has passed and the distance is great. It would take emerald and I many full moons to return to Cornwall.  I have learned so much being with my Master Jamal. I am a master cook in his eyes, I can teach another to cook because of him. Baroness Eowyn has been teaching to read and do some illuminating. It is not as easy as it would seem. I am having great difficulty holding the quill. I enjoy every second I get to spend with her. She is so patient with me, like my mother is when she is teaching me a new lesson. I am awaken to the sound of Master Jamal calling me. I had hoped he had an answer for me on leaving. I ran to him and greeted him with a bow and a smile. Have you made a decision? I asked. "Yes, you are not leaving till your 22nd year of your birth. I need you here to help with the tournaments coming up and many more lessons for you on running a household" He said. I have people coming to the barony to teach you. (I cannot believe I slept all night snuggled under emeralds wing.)  He has a visitor he wants me to meet. I rush to ready myself for the visit. There is a small woman standing in the library, she has a large book with her. She has lots of questions for me, "where do I come from? How did I get here? How long have a I been an apprentice to my Master?" She has so many questions. My head is just spinning with all her questions. I look at Master Jamal he is just smiling. All this confuses me. He introduces me to her, Aliskye MacKven Raizel, (anglesized to Aliskye Rosell, is the third child of an English Tax collector gentryman of England and his wife. The family is secretly Jewish but they have managed to conceal this information extremely well. Aliskye and her brother and sister are all well educated for the time. Aliskye has studied embroidery, calligraphy, painting and dance.  She was married briefly, but her husband died in a hunting accident barely a week after their wedding (though some suspected he was poisoned.)  She has inherited a third of his estate including the small manor of Buckingham House in London.  She also had as her patroness Elizabeth Brooke nee Cecil, Countess of Salisbury and spent much time at their court. Documenting their lineage, working as a limner and dealing with many of the court entertainments before eventually moving to the New World and the Kingdom of Caid.) Was she here to document my lineage? I did not think I had a lineage. But her questions kept flowing like a waterfall. I answered all of them to the best I could. I liked her she was a nice woman, with gentle eyes. She was soft spoken and she was a good friend to the Baron. He had asked her to come and take my information, for there was a special day coming soon. He needed everything written down for that day. I did not know what they were talking about. When the questions were done, he sent me off to finish my chores. I thanked the woman for coming and I left. She and the Baron sat and talked for a great deal of time. The Baroness soon joined them, I served them tea, and sweet cakes for an afternoon teatime. The Baron, Baroness, and Lady Aliskye came out of the library and she left the manor with lots of hugs. The Baron came to me and asked if I like music? Yes, why do you ask? I have a woman coming to the manor 2 days from now; she is one of my friend's daughters from my spice trading days. She will be coming to visit. She is very knowledgeable in the fine art of illuminations and reading and writing and spinning. Not only do you need to know how to cook, but also you need to know everything about running a household. This includes all the arts. Needlework, spinning, calligraphy, looming, singing, dance and so on. There is a lot to running a household I thought. Her name is Eilidh Swan. She is from Stralachlan, a village area of Scotland on Loch Fyne where the Mac Lachlan clan lives. She spent her "early adult" years working in the English court, serving the Queen and doing all those things that nice young courtly women do (embroidery, music, poetry, managing accounts and castles and households). She was briefly married to a swordsman who made his living teaching in small sword master schools. Unfortunately, her husband passed away and now she's a widow. But through her court contacts, there are still many royal courts that have sought out her graces and courtly skills, enabling her to travel to the Continent and be amongst the royal courts. Recently, she's been on the Spanish coast, in residence in a Villa with musicians, ladies, and swordsmen with the di Cellini family, the Crew of the White Star, and the Inn of the Crimson Spade down the road. She's taken a liking to the youths in their new business enterprise, and is working on being one of the business patrons of the Inn. It seems a reasonable business investment, and is entertaining to say the least. And it seems a reasonable location to use some of her connections with some spice merchants, who have been shipping a roasted bean north, which makes an excellent hot drink (a new drink called "coffee". She still serves various royal courts with her music, poetry, scribe/calligraphy work, fine spinning, and embroidery, and continues to write home to family as often as she can. Her father was a friend with the Baron when they were youths. I spent many a long hour with Eilidh and got to know her well, she is a happy woman. She always has a smile on her face and a song in her heart. But it is the mischievous twinkle in her eye that makes you wonder what she is up to. She has taken the time to teach me so many different skills. I am learning to spin my wool and make yarn and sometimes thread. I will need this when I start looming.