| Subject:
|
Author:
Jade
|
[
Next Thread |
Previous Thread |
Next Message |
Previous Message
]
Date Posted: 19:25:36 11/19/03 Wed
~Chapter Two~
J'quela, Lord of Genesu, sighed dispiritedly. The cold gray walls of the stone castle seemed to press in on him until he thought he'd scream. No bright tapestries here, no cushioned, soft couches. No lamps spreading their soft, golden light. Only a rough wooden bench for furnishings, a grille in the door for light. He sighed again, trying to get comfortable on the hard black bench. His unkempt brown hair flopped into his eyes over and over. No haircuts in the last six months, either.
The once-grand Lord Genesu, reduced to a shivering heap of messy hair, rags, and dirt on a prison bench. It was all her fault. Why didn't she accept the terms? He had to give her credit for bravery. She knew the traitors would be ousted by the people. He was haunted by the victorious smile on her ugly face as she leaped.
He heard a murmuring in the hallway outside, accompanied by the soft tramp of feet on the stone floors. A spasm of fear crossed his large face, pale from being locked in a dank cell for six months.
A face thrust itself into the little square of light. It was the face of Raccaru, the head conspirator in the last three plots. Sallow, with a dark, drooping head of black hair and a huge, bushy auburn beard, it was a face to inspire terror in the most stouthearted. And J'quela was far from having a stout heart.
He cowered down on the floor and begged, "Oh, Lord, great leader, I have always been your most faithful servant. I desire only life so that I may keep serving you!" he babbled.
"Silence." The word was spoken softly, but with a chill in it that warned of nothing but cold expediency within this man. His tone was flat and emotionless. The next words were spoken equally softly. "I am not going to execute you, for all you let the Queen escape. You know she is alive, in hiding somewhere. She had something there to break her fall, else she would not have leaped. You will find her- if you are capable of being trusted again." Raccaru turned on his heel and left, his footsteps echoing in the silent stone hall. Two guards marched behind him, holding swords like staves in front of them. They were the Queen's own former household guard.
Raccaru called from the spiral stone staircase in the same flat, cold, emotionless tone, "I will have that diadem, J'quela. I will have it!"
J'quela slowly got up off the cold, dirty floor. He did not know whether to feel relief or frustration. A chance! An impossible task!
~~~~~
A few intrepid people were searching among the Black Teeth by night as far as they safely could, hoping to find the Queen's body for an honorable burial. Torches were carried, for light could not penetrate very well into this grotesque maze of death. The flames glinted weirdly off the dully shining obsidian boulders. Their voices were distorted into melancholy ghost voices by the black stones. Every now and then one came upon old blood smeared on the rocks in a macabre parody of writing and art.
The loyal people searched for hours, but they found nothing but moldering old skeletons from years past. There was a chilling lack of even carrion creatures to disturb the bones.
You could well believe in ghosts here.
Everywhere in Sen'narithu people wondered. Where was the Queen?
[
Next Thread |
Previous Thread |
Next Message |
Previous Message
]
| |
Feedback: 
