Chapter 14

Chapter 14

Syneral Rigs and Kollie were in a heated discussion regarding what to do because they couldn’t get in to see the high council, or even past the regiments of guards guarding the place without causing a disturbance, which would only make things worse not better in their particular situation.

Yet what really caught there eye as a plan started to form was the barmaid. She was quite stunning. Long dark brown hair, kept tightly in a ponytail wrapped into a bun with fresh daisy and a hint of jasmine as it was clip short blowing soft sent of perfume into the air.

She was the innkeeper’s daughter meaning she was no fool when it came to men when it came to their games of what was allowed and what was not, as many found the door quickly either by her or those that knew her from the time she played with little straw dolls and wooden swords.

Or could toss a knife in a blink of an eye without so much as taking a breath or from a draw of a mug of a stiff ale while in middle of a drinking contest. And could outwit and out drink the best sailor that ever came to port of call, not from the high sea of Quratsa and the Four Kings from the far north of here. She could arm wrestle with any sailor or best them at a game of cards.

Yet the one quality she has that can never be beaten is her singing voice. People would come miles around just to her sing. They say the moment she begins to sing it’s like a magical journey. Yet everyone knows…. Wizards don’t and magic doesn’t exist anymore, or hasn’t for centuries,….

Not since the last wizard war over 200 centuries when The Cross Bone Prison was built and they placed all those bad wizards and people in them… but if the rumors or to believed some say the Dark Prince has risen from the grave and the stars and the winds and rumors from the from the far and wide say that White Solon to has fallen from the very heavens themselves and the lands are waking with new life everywhere he has walked according to the rumors.

Taverns are filled with rumors of talk of the White Solon and the Dark Prince as Nell listens and smiles, passing as she walked from table to table on short, but very beautiful slender legs. She was modestly dressed in a very pretty blue gown that had seen better days made out of sturdy cotton and heavy wool that was cut just enough to say hands off I am not that kind of girl wearing nice comfortable flat brown leather shoes which were also locally made here, considering there isn’t a Pay-less or Wal-Mart anywhere near here, well least not in this realm or world.

Being very careful not to slush her filled mugs and of cheap grog or ale to the paying customers listening carefully to the rumors. Some she knew was more than just rumor, because of her Uncle who lives high up in the mountains above the town who likes his privacy, so she would spy for him and bring him things from the town like the news and things, secretly of course.

Her mother says she gets some her gifts from him yet she never exactly explained clearly what those gifts were exactly, lately she been having these strange visions of flying in the air, but not as herself, but as a huge beast like a dragon, she had seen in books from her uncles Berlin’s books, and she was hunting.

The room was filled with the smells of roasting pig on the fire as it turns in the nearby hearth cross the room, and every time she looked at the roasting pig her nostrils flared she felt, she thought the smoke was coming out of them… her eyes widened a little more or change color or became sharper as her stomach growled hungrily wanting to rip that pig apart with her bare hands and eat it like a wild animal like she had in her dreams of late. Yet when she woke she found herself covered in blood and the remnants of the animal she was eating nearby.

She could feel the warm wonderful blood dripping down her chin and the meat tearing from her teeth. It….Some… thing pulled on her dress and she turned and looked down nearly jumped seeing long claw sticking out of her hand and scales on her arm as her heart pound hard in her chest...

Something or someone pulled on her dress again, someone yells; “gives us a song Neil.” She turns and smiles, shaking her earlier thoughts and smiles softly with those soft ruby red lips that remind an old sailor of the day when the last time they held a pretty young lass in their arms for the very first time and that very first kiss, that perfect magical kiss. Neil smiles as her pretty brown eyes light up the room, lifting her soft cheeks that have the soft glow of a rose color. Her thin brow line and nose and chin were perfectly chiseled as she handed off the last of her items on her tray and placing the tray near the wall.

It wasn’t uncommon to have a Bard a Glee-man of sorts, a person who provided entertainment, from music to storytelling that traveled the countryside from tavern to tavern to large parties or whoever paid them the most for a meal and nice soft cot for the night and some coin in their pocket. The room became hushed to the point all you could hear was the crackling of the fire as the dripping of the roasting pig simmered over the fire. Everyone’s eyes were fixed upon hers the music seemed strange as the words started to fill the room.

She sang lifting her voice to the rhythm;

“Over the hills and through the green valleys of the Glen Dale where the fields of whispering pine’s and old maple trees that are two-hundred feet tall. Over the built mountains, and the glacier fields and streams swimming through warm waters of lakes of Four Kings stretching towards of blue coral ocean of Quartz where some say the king of living water still lives and through mountains to the south where his daughter and the queen of Living Water Lives. Down to the southern Rockies where King Tardyon once ruled now lay in shadows and blood upon the mountain where dragons have claimed it as there own; down to the west where the west the place of the wind where the boat people live.

“The prophecy is upon us that 4 new kings will rise from the ashes. The white Solon will rise and has risen, what was old will become new. All the seals will be remade and the people will see before them a new dawn of a new age."

She kept singing as the Bard played on striking each cord to the perfect rhythm watching the patrons sway to the music almost into a harmonic state. It was if time had stood still for that brief moment to listen as Neil slowly picked up her tray from the hearth and began placing empty mugs and plates onto the try before anyone realized she had finished the song. Dropping invitation as she had been told by her grandfather to meet them in two hours as his guests, Neil will bring them around the back of the tavern......

Reviews

[Miles W.]

A shorter chapter, but feels like more summary than anything else. The song this time was a welcome addition as it added something vibrant compared to the explanation of the story. But again, this feels like this is just a chapter explaining things rather than having the story unfold naturally. Two chapters to go (unless this book isn't done quite yet). I really hope you stick the landing.