037 – Morning Chores, Meet The Queen Prepare For Dinner

The next morning, Linell, the page-girl, was in for some practice. Roxanne had acquired an old target dummy from the guards and after going through its straw for broken arrowheads used it for hitting practice. Today she was teaching Linell to properly throw a punch into an object, not just the air. The Sorceress had already had breakfast, and was puttering in her work room prior to attending court when the guard at the doors of the wing announced Her Majesty The Queen.

Rox and Linell both quickly went to the door of Roxanne’s room and stood at attention. A platoon of guards with pikes filed in and took up station along the hallway, and turned to face each other, backs to the wall. One stood beside where Rox and Linell stood. The Queen strode through the double doors that demarked this wing from the adjoining ones. By the time she had reached where Rox and Linell stood The Sorceress had exited her work room and stood at its door.

Rox watched impassively, looking over the woman who was Queen. She stood about the average height of the grown women Rox had hitherto met on this planet, being most of a foot shorter than Rox, coming up just past her shoulders. Roxanne had gathered that this particular set of monarchs did not set much store on ostentatious costuming, or putting on airs. The woman strode along, rather than paraded. She wore a simple local style gown, with a gold sash tied around her waist. Rox had learned that instead of head gear, this kingdom’s trappings were in neckwear; The Queen wore a large necklace of gold squares with precious stones set into centers. A gold and silver linked chain accented the necklace. Her black hair had the front combed back and tied at the back, holding the rest down and behind her shoulders, where it fell in waves to her mid-back. She had some powder applied to her face to even her skin tone; her features were softer than The Sorceress, but with a few more pronounced age and worry lines.

The Queen’s brown eyes looked Rox over as she walked past, taking in her light blue translucent dress and gold chains from her neck to her legs and arms, and briefly took in Linell in her proper page costume. She then put all her attention on The Sorceress. As she stepped past, Rox realized that The Queen’s hair was actually a bit of salt-and-pepper, rather than all black.

She watched as the two old friends greeted, and hugged each other. They went into the work room, and Linell took Rox’s hand and led her back to practice.

“Once she is in a room, those lining the halls are free to return to what they were doing.” Linell lined herself back up to the dummy and began to practice hitting it, making her hands red. Rox continued to teach Linell to throw a punch with either hand, and to toughen her hands. Twice during each practice session, they would pause to pick up and replace the escaped straw, and fluff the rest. Rox was pleased with Linell’s progress, and was starting to teach her to block. Shortly the time for the lesson was done and Linell returned to her Page duties.

Roxanne begun her routine for this time of the day, and went to The Sorceress’s bed chamber and began to tidy it. The Sorceress was an innately neat and orderly woman, so there was little for Rox to do, beyond air it out, sweep the floors, and chase about with a duster. Once a week the curtains on the windows and in the doorways were taken down by a staff and beaten for dust. The suites layout was a mirror for the one Roxanne inhabited.

Next door to The Sorceress’s suite was the dining room for the wing. This single room had a table in the center of the end nearest to the doors with eight chairs around it. This sat lonely in the middle of the room, with serving tables lining the walls on either side. The high ceiling of the bedrooms carried on through this room, here supported by a gothic arch with the clerestory windows above. The outer half of the room was arranged as a sitting area, with a side door into the Sorceress’s suite, and opposite a stairwell with a dumbwaiter down to the floor below.

Rox swept this room, and dusted the decorative furnishings. Various busts, two large paintings of scenes she only identified as a battle and a landscape of somewhere, and other decor. The Sorceress had promised to teach Rox how to dust and sweep by magic; this lesson scheduled for this afternoon.

Once done in here, Roxanne was to proceed into the workroom, and clean it. If it was laundry day, she was to take all the clothing to be washed, and either help or retrieve it when done. Once done with these and whatever other incidental chores, she had the rest of the morning to herself.

The Sorceress had begun putting out prepared bits of spells for Rox to memorize in her work room. During their afternoon lessons these would be explained. Rox had been learning fundamentals, how to recognize what she sensed, and what it meant. She learned how to do some basic spells, like igniting fires, or flaring them. She had also learned about using assorted languages to better control meaning, and thereby to better control the power. Then the Sorceress had introduced the ‘bits of stuff’ and the idea of things having links and resonance. The bits were used in representation of larger amounts of the same, and to help shape the spell. Drawing on her concentration skills from her martial discipline, Rox was learning these fundamentals quickly. What she was not learning was many actual full spells.

The evening would be etiquette with the stewards that brought dinner.

So far Rox had not gone into the room opposite the dinning room and next to her suite. The Sorceress never talked of it specifically. Generally she said it was storage, and not to worry about it. The door into it from her suite was locked from the other side.

Rox left the dining room, having finished her chores there. The guards still lined the hall, and muffled voices still carried from the work room, its doors still open, but the internal curtains drawn across the doorway.

Having nothing better to do, Rox went back to her suite to wait for further instructions. She left her own doors open and closed the inner curtains, and then began to pummel the dummy. She had quite literally knocked half the stuffing out of it when the curtain at her door was drawn back. She wondered after why she had not heard any movement, as opposed to most other times when the halls echoed everything.

Roxanne drew herself to attention, turning to face The Queen and The Sorceress. For the first time she actually felt the chains constrict her movement, and correct her posture to slightly more erect. She had been warned that the gold slave chains she wore, starting at a choker and going down to each of her limbs were magic, and that this sort of thing would happen in royal company, and only briefly resisted it.

The Sorceress spoke. “This, Your Majesty, is my current assistant. Her name is Roxanne. She is here until she buys herself free or her husband show up to retrieve her.”

Roxanne felt the chains move her to kneel and did so as the two women approached. Two guards from the hall moved to stand in the doorway, facing the room. The Queen was slightly shorter than The Sorceress, but both looked the same general type, full dark hair, slim figure, and a glance that missed nothing. The room was spotless except for the spilled straw.

The Queen took it all in. “Why is the dummy here?”

The Sorceress almost smirked. “Roxanne is a master hand fighter. She is using it to maintain her skills, and to teach the Page who was here earlier.”

The Queen looked impassively on Rox. “The square of the long side of a right triangle?”

Rox felt the choker at her neck stop tingling, and realized that it had started when she had first stood to attention. She answered almost immediately. “Is equal to the sum of the squares of the other sides, Your Majesty.”

“Where do you come from?”

Roxanne had to think briefly how to answer this. “Ah. . . Another world.”

The Queen waited.

Roxanne continued. “I was born in the city of San Jose; State of California, on the planet I understand is locally called Terra. Your Majesty.”

The Queen turned to The Sorceress. “Why is she here?”

The Sorceress looked at The Queen. “I do not know, nor does she. She and her children were kidnapped by agents from this world, and brought here. They sold her to a slaver, who paid her as tax to cross our boarders. Beyond this we do not yet have any more meaningful information. I do not dare scan her memory with magic, and there are no talents around to do so. She is certain from a dream she had that her husband is following after her, in company of another.”

The Queen turned back to Roxanne. “You are certain she is not a threat?”

The Sorceress answered this quickly. “I am certain she is not a threat to us. To those who took and separated her from her children, she most definitely will be.”

The Queen looked Roxanne over again, and then turned. “Carry on. I will see you in court.”

The Queen walked out, the guards falling in step with her. They turned and went out of the main doors.

The Sorceress watched her leave. Roxanne felt the magic on the chains release, and stood up and approached The Sorceress.

“My Lady, what am I to understand of this?”

The Sorceress turned briefly to Rox. “Understand that she is still worried about this treaty that is being developed and the reasons for it. Your being here is unexpected, and so she must judge whether you are a threat or innocent interloper. To that end, a tailor is going to be sent for, and you will attend the state dinner this evening.”

Roxanne nodded. “Yes, My Lady.”

The Sorceress started to leave. But Roxanne stopped her.

“My Lady, what do you mean by ‘a talent’?”

“One who has the ability to read a persons mind and memories. Their individual abilities are varied, so no other specific title can be applied. The closest community is several weeks travel to the north east. They keep to themselves, mostly. The previous King had one as a retainer, but the man left when that King died.”

The Sorceress’s tone ended that conversation, and she left to get her necklaces for wearing in court.

The Tailor showed up shortly and Rox spent the rest of the day standing on or by the dressing pedestal as a formal dress was built around her. To her mild surprise, the slave chains were to continue as part of her formal costume.

Roxanne finished with the tailor as two formally uniformed guards came to retrieve her and The Sorceress. The Sorceress had returned to her suite in the late afternoon, and several Pages accompanied her.

Roxanne’s costume for this dinner had a translucent strapless shift under all, with a petticoat around her waist. There was no collar to anything she wore with this costume. The flounce was worked over several times to get it right. Then another petticoat was put on. Due to her comparative height new pieces had to be cut and sewn, instead of adjusting existing pieces. One thing Roxanne noticed was that the sides were slit up just short of her waist. A corset was constructed; this required that several seamstresses be sent for to accomplish the required sewing. Padding was added to the bust to fill out what Rox lacked naturally.

In a spare moment, two stewards washed Roxanne’s now completely platinum hair, and quickly set her mohawk up and tied the sides into two braids that went behind her shoulders. By now Rox’s mohawk stood up, mostly on its own, a hands span tall from her bangs around the back of her head. The sides hung past her shoulders. Roxanne had considered shaving the sides, but had not yet come to a conclusion. Gold squares about an inch to a side were attached into the bottom of the braids on each side. Another steward quickly and expertly applied a layer of light colored powder to her face and left that as all the makeup she got.

The dress was of a deep blue color, and feltto Rox like silk. Roxanne was not much of one for dances or formals, so she lacked the vocabulary to really describe the cut and style of the dress. Its top settled around her chest with close cut sleeves over just her shoulders, and a sash around her waist, and some pleats in the skirt. A translucent vest billowed as she walked.

038 – Formally On Display

The Sorceress joined the procession as it started out of the suite. She wore a dark green gown with her full set of regalia, demarking her station. Rox had seen her wearing this necklace and collar set once, but had been forbidden to do anything about helping with it. They marched to a formal dining room, flanked by a quad of guards.

The walls of the room were the same color white to light grey as the rest of the stone that the palace was either carved or constructed from. The columns rose up to vaulted arches supporting the roof, four stories up. Every third column all the way around the perimeter had a medium sized fireplace within, half with fires in tonight. From the entrance, the room was longer than it was wide; with stained glass windows on the three sides the doors were not on. The room had several straight tables at the far end, and the same number of round tables at the close end. Stewards’ tables lined the outer edge, with stair wells going down between the walls and the tables.

Several people were already sitting at several tables with the stewards bringing up food from below. Roxanne was escorted to a round table and instructed to sit. The Sorceress was escorted to a seat at one of the straight tables. The Court began to arrive. As The King and Queen arrived, everyone stood. They were shortly followed by the Ambassadors from each of the southern countries. As the various ministers and guests arrived they were announced, and shown to seats, but otherwise the conversations continued. Assorted Traders and Merchants from the local communities and other countries were seated at the table where Roxanne was.

As the dinner progressed Roxanne felt herself under scrutiny. These merchants were interested in her origin and antecedents, in a polite manor, but once they realized that she was a slave in the palace, and of no real possibility of selling or buying large quantities, they dismissed her from the conversation. Roxanne listened carefully; most of the conversation was about buying and selling. A third of the guests were local. The other two thirds were divided between the two southern kingdoms. They mostly talked of trafficking in the local silks, foodstuffs, and salt.

Roxanne would later be told that she was watched by the guards to see if she recognized any of the people there, or if they recognize her. The conclusion reached after consideration what that Roxanne only knows those she has met, and none of those here appear to recognize her. Either she was a very good spy, unknown to any of those here, or totally honest in being from elsewhere and not involved.

Once the dinner was done, Roxanne was approached by a steward and quietly told that she was dismissed and to return to her suite. Rox glanced briefly at where the Sorceress sat in conversation, and then stood and excused herself, and was escorted down the closest stairwell. Linell waited down in this kitchen area, and guided Roxanne back to her suite. Linell then helped Rox undress from the formal gown and hang it on a dummy that had been left by the tailor. Roxanne then got to wait. Linell departed to go off duty.

The Sorceress came back late and simply sent Rox to bed.

*          *          *

The second day out of the native village Abey felt good enough to remove the sling. The Healer’s magic had repaired her broken bone and torn up muscle, generally, but she had to be careful to get it back to full strength, and not over stress her shoulder too quickly. She would keep the scars on her left collar and shoulder from the mauling she took, as well as the light scratches on her back. But with the salve the healer had given, she was healing quickly. She applied it apparently at need, and had a little bag of it that she drew from.

As they tracked across the highlands to the mountains, Abey and Steven decided that hunting and keeping the pelts might be a good way to earn some keep. At their insistence, Caspian went with them off the main road Abey had brought then along, and back onto the game trails. In this instance, these were a bit out of the way, where prior Caspian had been following them as the shortest path. Abey soon proved as good with her sling as Steven did with his crossbow. Abey drew the main duty of tanning the hides, as Caspian had no knowledge of how and Steven was ages out of practice. Their little bundle of hides soon began to grow. The ghillie suits were abandoned incomplete, as they were deemed too impractical.

*          *          *

The next morning, Linell woke Rox with instruction to help her bathe and dress. Rox was to attend court, as The Sorceress’s assistant. The Tailors returned while Rox bathed in the cold water and quickly made a set of formal outfits for Rox to wear. These were essentially the same as the Sorceress’s costumes, but in a light blue color instead of the green the Sorceress wore. Roxanne sat in a chair off the side of the dais behind the Sorceress. Mostly she just got to sit and watch.

One thing that Rox watched with some interest was the interaction of The King and Queen, and The Sorceress. Mostly The Sorceress sat aside and watched herself, speaking only when spoken to. The King plowed through issues quickly, passing some things to The Queen to handle and pass a decision, and plowing through others himself. The ministers came and went according to the business they had to do. Rox noticed that there was a pair of guards who sat and watched her, and only her. The King quickly moved through the other mostly domestic business, and then called in the Ambassadors to discuss the trade treaty. Roxanne listened, grasping only the general principles, but was quickly out of her depth for particulars. After a few moments, she only paid polite attention. They stopped the discussion for lunch; one of the guards who watched Rox spoke briefly to The Queen, who in turn spoke briefly to the Sorceress. Just before lunch was brought in Roxanne was dismissed from Court, and escorted from the office wing, then left to get back to her suite on her own.

Roxanne returned to her suite, changed clothes, and set about her chores. Just before dinner a procession arrived. The Queen and The Sorceress were escorted by eight guards. Once the women were within the suite, two guards turned aside to stand in the corners of the hall and the rest departed, closing the doors to the suite.

Roxanne stood at attention in the doorway of her room. The Sorceress looked at her, smiled, spoke a word and waved her hand. Rox felt the magic in the chains and their bands on her arms and legs dissipate.

The Queen relaxed. “You have leave to speak and act freely.”

Rox looked at the women. “Are you joining us for dinner?”

The three women sat at the table chattering as friends do. The guards stood at the corners of the room, flanking the doors. The stewards came up the stairway and served the women, and also gave some to the guards. Roxanne sat and watched old friends talk as only old friends do. Roxanne had again explained and told her story, this time to The Queen.

“Did you see their livery or symbols?” The Queen had a keen interest in the kidnappers.

Roxanne had to shake her head. “No. If I did, I do not remember. I spent most of my time with them half awake, or less.”

“I am left to wonder who it was. That circle has attracted travelers of all kinds. The Kings of the kingdoms around it have long since stopped trying to manage what there is of that.” The Queen evidently knew more about that circle than Roxanne would have guessed.

Roxanne paused, letting The Queen control the conversation.

“I suppose I have to apologize. My husband included your arrival in his correspondence to me while I was out of the palace. He was concerned by the timing of your arrival that you might be a spy. It was easy enough to leave you in the charge of The Sorceress until I could return. We needed to see if you knew or were known by any of our . . . neighbors. We brought you to the dinner last night and to court this morning to test their reaction to you and your reaction to them. Had you recognized them, or they reacted to you, there might have been more reason to be concerned. Now, we see that you are most likely not known, or a good actor. Besides you were dismissed before we got to the real meat of the issues.”

Rox considered this. “I accept your apology.”

The dinner the rest of the evening drifted to other conversation topics. The one Rox wanted to ask about was never brought up.

Several days later The Sorceress shared breakfast with Roxanne. The treaty had been signed the night before. As the conversation continued, Rox looked for an opening to ask about the one issue that did interest her.

The Sorceress was quietly amused and slightly embarrassed. “The Queen has been home for about a week. In that time, The King granted a dismissal to his last harem-girl. The Queen has insisted on his time, and his bed. I have not mentioned it to you, but I wrote to The Queen once I had the church lined up.”

The Sorceress looked around conspiratorially. “I have realized she had been going into The King on her own over the years, and she was gratified at the idea of having him all to herself again, if even for a little while, as he might think for now.”

That afternoon The Sorceress took Rox into the city. They went shopping and on other personal errands. Rox learned that her gold slave chains actually had a significant social status, as she was from the Palace complex. As they went, the Sorceress mentioned for the first time that Roxanne had a bit of funds at her disposal. This surprised Roxanne, but she did not have much need to spend just now. Rather to save it to buy her own freedom.