Chapter Ten

The Queen is Very Generous

~*~

 

 

The tower and the two houses on either side of it comprised the Alchemists' headquarters. Tamyn led Kazia to her apartment on the third floor of the East wing, in a corner of the farthest end of the building.

"This area of the house is very quiet," he informed her. "Mostly used for storerooms these days, so you shouldn't have any bother from anyone."

He opened a door at the end of the hall and handed Kazia the keys. The door led into a well-appointed office with a large desk and walls lined with empty bookcases.

Kazia's luggage, little though it was, had been brought ahead and the smaller pieces lay neatly inside the door. The large clothing trunk would have been carried further into the apartment.

"You have three rooms," Tamyn said, "office, sitting room, bedroom. There is a bathroom and small dressing room there through the bedroom. Any furnishings may be changed if they are not adequate, or if you're sending for anything from home then things can be removed. Just let the Steward know. You'll meet him later."

"There should be no need," Kazia said. "This should all suit me, and I have nothing more of my own. The Queen is very generous. I'm grateful."

The furnishings and effects of Kazia's rooms were more than generous. Many Alchemists were the younger children of nobility, and it seemed that Queen Inaissa had anticipated that they would prefer a certain level of comfort.

All of the wood furniture was beautifully wrought, and there were brocade cushions, damask draperies on the windows and about the bed, fine linens edged in lace on the little table in the sitting room next to the fireplace, a dressing table with a large silver mirror and little porcelain containers for a lady's toiletries in the bedroom.

Kazia would trade it all to be back in her little cottage in Essyl. She would keep that to herself, though.

"You have a wood stove here, and a kettle," Tamyn was saying as Kazia took it all in. "Mistress Amelys has instructed your meals to be brought to you here, but you are always welcome to join us in the hall if you're feeling up to it. And now, if you'll follow me..."

He led Kazia back through the office to another door behind the desk.

"I'll apologize for the state of it-"

"Oh!" Kazia gasped as she entered the laboratory.

It was twice the size of her whole apartment and was packed with tables and bookcases, every surface of them overflowing with various machinery and equipment. There barely seemed room to move about. The room was stuffed with microscopes, a gyroscope, scales, barometers, a small orrery, boxes of gears, bolts and the like, shelves filled with beakers and flasks, a glass-fronted cabinet containing what looked to be a full apothecary, shelves and shelves of books and rolled parchments.

"That door there goes out into the hallway," Tamyn said, pointing to the wall to their right, "and this one over here-"

He began to wend his way quite gracefully through a narrow path among the tables, moving a few large boxes with a strength unexpected from his willowy appearance, and Kazia followed.

"As I said, these were storerooms. I tried to sort through what you might need, but I couldn't be certain of it all, so I thought I'd best leave it to you to arrange things as you wish. I'll send a couple of my apprentices around tomorrow to help move things about. You can have them remove anything you don't need. They will know where to take things. And you can request anything you do need from me at any time. What do you think?"

"It's amazing," Kazia answered, a bit breathless. For the first time maybe she didn't regret leaving the farm.

"Just wait," Tamyn said, raising his eyebrows cheerfully. He reached the door on the opposite end of the room and opened it, standing aside to allow Kazia through. "Here are your Artifacts."

This room was also overcrowded, far more neatly organized but still filled to its brim with curious inventions waiting to be brought to life. There were rows and rows of standing shelves holding smaller items, and larger objects resting on the floor at each end.

"Every Artifact has its documentation packet attached," Tamyn said. "Maker's name, goal of the experiment, materials, methodology. If you come across one with no documentation just bring it to my attention and I'll try to track it down."

Kazia perused the shelves, taking brief peeks at the documentation on a few items. The cover of each documentation packet was a drawing of the item, labeled with identifying information. She recognized no names, but then she had never really gotten out into society to meet many people. She may not be eager to do so now, either, but she couldn't wait to become acquainted with their work.

As she continued a meandering pace along the shelves, though, a feeling of familiarity began to tug at her from further down the row. She stepped quickly to the end of the aisle and peered around the corner, fully expecting to see Kelvaran there, probably glowering at her.

There was no one else but Master Ilianus.

That now familiar sense of Lord Meratha lingered, though, just to her right, and she turned back to the shelf. It was an Artifact, and yes, there was the name of Lord Kelvaran Meratha at the top of the documentation.

His writing hand was lovely, Kazia noted - neither too simple nor too ornate, and clearly legible. That shouldn't surprise her. He did seem something of a perfectionist.

The Artifact was supposed to be a long-distance sound transmitter. She examined the device where it sat on the shelf. It was in two parts: one appeared to be a pocket watch, the part which could be carried about, and the other was made from a wax cylinder recorder, and should receive sound from wherever the watch was carried.

According to the date on the documentation, this was a very recent endeavor, only just having been placed here in storage. Hesitantly, Kazia picked up the watch and tried to feel into its inner workings.

Its aura certainly felt like its owner's, that melancholy overlaid with resentment. But there was something else here as well. Love... but love turned sour. She opened the watch and saw that there was an inscription inside the cover: Forever, Yilina.

"So, what do you think?" Tamyn said, suddenly behind her. "Are you ready to make a go of this?"

Kazia quickly replaced the watch on the shelf and shook off the reverie she'd fallen into.

"Yes, I would say so," she answered, following as Tamyn began to move back the way they had come. "If nothing else this should be very interesting work."

Reaching the door back into the hallway, Tamyn turned to Kazia and that unsettling sense of hesitation arose in him again.

He seemed to want to say something that he then thought better of.

"Welcome again," he finally said. "We are truly delighted to have you here."

He graced her again with that gentle smile before leaving with some haste.

What could that be about? Kazia wondered.

She knew that Amelys was firm in defending Kazia's secrets, so she wouldn't have divulged them to Master Ilianus. Still, between Kelvaran and Tamyn both feeling secretive toward her, Kazia couldn't help but feel a bit uneasy.

Unpacking took no time at all. Kazia found that her clothing trunk had already been unpacked into the dressing room, and her best dress, a dinner dress perhaps a few years behind fashion, readied for this evening.

She arranged her books into the shelves in the office. A box containing a few pieces of jewelry that had been her mother's went onto the dressing table. She placed a small framed painting of her mother on the mantel in the sitting room, then hesitated at the remaining items in the parcel at her feet.

A doll and a framed pencil sketch of a horse in a farm setting were all that remained. They had been gifts from her brother, Abrizhen, when she was a child.

She placed these on a small table in a far corner of the sitting room, then began to ready herself for court.

~~~*~~~

Late in the afternoon, Kazia stood with Amelys and Kelvaran in the vestibule of the castle's Great Hall, along with others who had business with the Queen.

They had been waiting the better part of two hours as each member of the small crowd was called into the hall one at a time. As each was called, the door would be opened and a herald would announce their names, and the door would be closed again.

It was a lengthy process, and Kazia wondered that Amelys could stand for so long. Amelys had rebuffed Kelvaran's repeated insistence that she sit, but she did take his arm and lean against him from time to time.

They were the last to be called into the Hall, but finally the doors were opened and the herald beckoned to them.

The Hall was filled with people sitting in rows on either side of a center aisle. There were many Alchemists present, as well as government officials, all of the Queen's advisers and ladies, as well as a few visitors to the castle.

A sudden nervousness gripped Kazia, and Amelys took her hand briefly.

"Lady Kazia Devratha, daughter of Prince Gorvan Devratha of Valesk!"

The Herald's voice boomed to be heard down the length of the room and Kazia's heart and stomach seemed to flip inside her.

"Presented by Lady Amelys Thanelin, formerly of Loranar, Mistress of Alchemists to Her Most Royal Majesty Queen Inaissa, and Lord Kelvaran Meratha, son of Princess Kirena and Prince Daryan Meratha of Valesk!"

Kazia felt a sharp pain well up in Kelvaran, and she glanced at him, wondering if it was the announcement of his parents' names. If so, he didn't show it outwardly, but stood stone-faced and proud.

Amelys took Kazia's arm now, and they proceeded slowly down the aisle to where the Queen sat on her throne at the other end of the Hall.

"Did we really have to make such a public display?" Kazia murmured to Amelys as they went, the eyes of the entire court weighing heavily on her.

"We want everyone far and wide to know that you are here," Amelys answered. "Wasn't that the whole point?"

They looked at the floor as they neared the throne. Kelvaran knelt, Amelys managed a shallow bow over her cane, and Kazia sank into a deep curtsy.

"Please rise," came the Queen's sonorous and melodic voice.

Kazia stood again and looked at her. Queen Inaissa was younger than Kazia expected, since the people of Caedra elected their monarch to a lifetime position. She'd have thought that given the choice, people would have more confidence in an older leader, but from all she'd heard Queen Inaissa was very well-loved by her people, and had brought an era of great prosperity to the country.

The Queen was dazzlingly beautiful, with radiant bronze skin, soft gray eyes, and rust colored hair arranged in a thousand tiny braids that were coiled high about her head, with a large braid woven through with gold emerging from the pile to fall over one shoulder.

She wore a simple golden tiara and adornments on her ears that hugged the length of the cartilage in swirling golden spirals. Her eyes were lined in metallic gold paint, and she wore a loose gown of blue silk embroidered all over with gold medallions.

"Lady Kazia, welcome to Caedra, "the Queen said.

She indicated in turn each of the smaller thrones either side of hers, occupied by a handsome golden haired man and a girl about Neiphi's age who seemed a tiny version of the Queen but with a sunny kiss of gold in her long curls.

"My husband, The Most Exalted Prince Emsan, and my daughter, Princess Nyssith."

Kazia curtsied to each of them in turn, and they nodded to her in polite acknowledgment.

"Lady Kazia, I understand that you have come to join my Alchemists?" the Queen said.

"I have, Your Majesty," Kazia answered.

"You come highly recommended by my Mistress of Alchemists," the Queen continued. "Perhaps not by Lord Meratha though."

Kazia felt a self-righteous smugness from Kelvaran's direction at that.

"Still, Mistress Amelys tells me that your skills with Alchemical Artifacts will prove most useful should the winds continue blowing their current direction. Have you no reservations about using those skills against your own country?"

"I do not, Your Majesty," Kazia answered resolutely. "They are in the wrong. I would see things righted there again."

"Then I would trust the wisdom of Mistress Amelys, and ask that Lord Meratha try to do the same."

"Yes, Your Majesty," Kelvaran answered, outwardly humbled, but maintaining a certain defiance at his core.

"And you have brought with you a young Apprentice, Miss Neiphi Gewalt? A Caedran of Derician descent, judging by her name. My daughter tells me that she is a delight, and she is most welcome among us as well."

"Your Majesty is very generous," Kazia said. "I can't thank you enough for the hospitality you and your country have shown to me since I've been here in Caedra."

"Very well," said Queen Inaissa. She rose from her throne, and everyone in the Hall stood as well. "Let us be adjourned."

"Court is adjourned!" called the herald from the back of the Hall as the Queen and her family proceeded to a door behind their thrones, surrounded by their retinue.

Amelys took Kazia's arm again, but as they turned to leave the Hall found that the crowd had spilled out into the aisle. It took almost an hour again to reach the door as all of the court seemed determined to give her a personal greeting, some sincerely welcoming... others less so.

 

~~~*~~~

Queen Inaissa